World “Vision”

One of the areas of research I’ve been involved in for 20 years is how the Church responds to Israel and Jews.

It is a complicated and often tragic story. As I’ve documented for years, Christian support for Israel is waning. And a Jerusalem Post report spells out troubling links between terrorists and a Christian relief organization.

“Hamas spied on and interrogated staff from the NGO World Vision, disrupting attempts by whistleblowers to obstruct a trial against the charity’s former Gaza director, Hamas internal documents captured by the IDF during the war revealed.

“World Vision’s former Gaza director, Mohammed al-Halabi, who was convicted in Israel in 2022 six years after he was arrested for diverting aid to Hamas, worked for Hamas while holding a senior position in the NGO, according to the Hamas documents reviewed by The Jerusalem Post.”

I’m not surprised Hamas was intimidating World Vision. Evidently, some staffers with the relief organization were troubled by what they saw from the criminal gang controlling the Gaza Strip. But potential whistleblowers were threatened just like Gaza citizens were threatened. That’s unfortunate of course, but it’s also true that many of these professing Christian organizations have a less-than-biblical worldview when it comes to Israel and Jews. Many of my columns over the years deal with this. Paul Smith’s invaluable book, New Evangelicalism, put the puzzle together by gathering source documents about Fuller Seminary, Wheaton, and the Church Growth Movement. These sources are anti-Israel, and training new generations of pastors and ministry workers. World Vision has contributed to the narrative that the IDF abuses Gazans.

Several years ago, Steve Haas of World Vision lauded a man who had involved himself in the conflict in Israel and “Palestine.”

“I’m delighted to hear of the appointment of Adam Estle to the position of Executive Director at EMEU. Adam continues a long tradition of leadership excellence combined with creative energy, deep spiritual conviction and a sincere desire to serve.

“With a significant educational and experiential background, Adam stands to take this ever-evolving fellowship into a new era with strong outreach potential, especially amongst younger leaders desirous of global peace and justice. With EMEU so appropriately positioned, I dare say the best years of this encouraging fellowship are before it.”

Estle also has experience with immigration reform:

“Adam Estle brings a wealth of experience in the immigration world to his role as Senior Vice President of Field and Constituencies for the National Immigration Forum. Adam coordinates efforts for the Forum’s Bibles, Badges and Business for Immigration Reform network and serves as the liaison between field mobilizers, various constituency groups and Forum staff.

“Before joining the Forum in 2015, Adam served as the executive director for Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, directed a federally funded program providing housing and care for unaccompanied immigrant children and taught high school Spanish. He also served as a Bibles, Badges and Business mobilizer for the Mountain West. Adam has been an accredited representative of the Board of Immigration Appeals through the Department of Justice. In 2015, the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Arizona honored him with their Hero Award for his multifaith peacemaking efforts in Phoenix.

“Originally from Peoria, Arizona, where he currently resides, Adam graduated from Olivet Nazarene University and earned his master’s in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.”

The interfaith award from Islamists is especially troubling but underscores the networking between terrorist groups and center-left professing Christians.

In a 2013 article for The Washington Post, Estle revealed some interesting things about his perspective on Israel.

“Before the summer of 2008, I was what could best be described as a ‘default Zionist.’ As an evangelical Christian, I knew that the Bible said some things about supporting Israel and didn’t give the situation much more thought than that. Then, I spent a summer in Lebanon learning Arabic and working with Palestinian refugees, and my entire perspective changed. As I listened to story after story from the Lebanese and Palestinians, I gained a greater understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The problem was that I only understood one side.

“Returning home, I became active in different organizations that dealt with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I felt like I was being faithful to my Lebanese and Palestinian friends, but noticed that my one-sidedness didn’t build any bridges with my evangelical friends. At first, I thought this was due to their ignorance of ‘how it really is over there,’ but then I realized that I really didn’t have a complete picture either. I began to realize that this unbalanced view would not help me participate in the resolution of the conflict, but would instead keep me stuck perpetuating it. By taking sides, I had become part of the problem instead of being part of a solution. I realized that, not only did I not understand the Israeli narrative, I didn’t really want to. So I sought another trip to the Middle East that would help me understand the ‘other’ side, which I found through the Just Peacemaking Institute at Fuller Seminary.”

Notice that Estle identified in some way as a “default Zionist,” but it’s clear he has never really understood what Zionism is, especially biblical Zionism. His role with the EMEU, a leftist group purporting to be a balanced source, is telling. Mr. Estle might be very sincere, but he’s sincerely deluded if he relies at all on Arab propaganda. While World Vision has had some sincere individuals that genuinely want to alleviate suffering among the Arabs, its organization is compromised in this area. Controlled by Hamas—even parroting some Hamas propaganda that slanders Israel—World Vision has done more harm than good in Gaza, and especially in the propaganda it carries back to the United States.

From threatening whistle blowers to defaming the IDF, Hamas is a devilish organization. And that has impaired the vision of World Vision.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com

www.patreon.com/TheGodThatAnswers

 

 

 

(My own counterweight to the Jew haters can be found in my two new books: Zechariah 2, and The God That Answers by Fire. I hope you’ll order copies for yourself and for those in your circle. My aim is to provide powerful proof that the Bible is true and that God not only exists but is in complete control! In these books, you’ll find information not presented anywhere else.)

 

“Unexpected Targets”

In a bitterly negative turn of events, the Trump administration is relying on a couple lightweights to “negotiate” with Iran over the terror state’s nuclear ambitions. Beginning last summer, when Trump forced Israel to stop just short of toppling the Tehran leadership, Iran must have been in disbelief over its good fortune. Think of it this way:

Imagine that right after the death of FDR, new President Harry Truman had sent envoys to Berlin to negotiate a ceasefire with the Nazis. In his delusional state at the time, Hitler did actually believe that some act of providence would turn the tide at the last minute, even as the Americans from the West and Soviets from the East were weeks from linking up. Of course that scenario is absurd. Specifically, why? Because The Allies demanded unconditional surrender. That meant the Nazis and the Empire of Japan were to lay down their arms and be occupied for a number of years, to ensure their warlike ways and crimes against humanity were never repeated.

That worked.

Iran though is another problem. For 47 years, since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has posed a threat to the whole world. Its global terror proxies have murdered thousands of people, and a decade-long war with Iraq killed many more. Iran is ruled by the mullahs and the Ayatollah, religious clerics that are deadly serious about their version of eschatology. This drives their foreign policy!

But when national leaders do not have a biblical worldview—and sadly, America’s do not—flawed models come to dominate. Mistakes are made, obvious mistakes, and the innocent suffer. The truth is, there is no fundamental difference between the policies of the Clinton administration, Obama administration, and Bush administration…and Trump. Back when weaklings like Warren Christopher ran the State Department, tremendous pressure was placed on Israel in standing virtually alone against Iran. Very obvious mistakes were made, so obvious that one has trouble being convinced they weren’t intentional.

We now know that many of our leaders these last decades have been bought off by evil, or blackmailed. The result is that the United States has looked weak. Remember when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright literally chased Yasser Arafat down a hallway because the killer dwarf left “negotiations”? How weak!

Plus, we know that the State Department has been pro-Arab forever.

Now, the heirs to those clowns are Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Two real estate developers from New York City. We now know that Witkoff’s disastrous financial deal a few years ago was covered by friends in Qatar. Kushner’s claim to fame is cobbling together the Abraham Accords. The pair either is clueless about the Middle East, or complicit in maintaining the status quo. I think of this as telling a friend not to run headlong into a train tunnel, even as we see lights fast approaching. The friend briefly stares at you, then sprints into the tunnel and in a few seconds is hamburger meat.

That’s what the West is doing with Iran. The Ayatollah should have been dead last June. And don’t doubt: the Iranians are terrified that the West will wake up and live in reality.

But as it stands now, Trump has sent Witless and Klueless to Oman to “negotiate.” Israel understands what the rest of the West does not: Iran is playing for time. If/when the next U.S. election is stolen, openly friendly administration operatives will be back in charge.

And people will die.

This week, Witkoff met for three hours with Benjamin Netanyahu. And as you might imagine, the adult in the room, the parent, had to level with Witkoff.

“The Iranian regime cannot be trusted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified in a high-level meeting with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, as he visited Israel ahead of negotiations between the Islamic Republic and Washington that are set to commence in Oman on Friday.

“In statements released after the meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office said, ‘Ahead of Envoy Witkoff’s departure to meet with a representative of Iran, the Prime Minister clarified his position that Iran has proven time and again that its promises cannot be relied upon.’

“The meeting, which lasted over three hours, was described as ‘positive and productive,’ according to i24 News, which added it was also attended by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Mossad chief David Barnea, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, IDF Intelligence Chief Shlomi Binder, and Air Force Commander Tomer Bar.

“According to the report, Zamir presented Witkoff with an extensive briefing and an in-depth intelligence overview, conveying Israel’s assessment that the regime is stalling for time and has no intention of giving up its nuclear project as part of the negotiations.

“He also noted that, should the regime attack Israel, the IDF would launch an immediate response of ‘extraordinary magnitude’ with strikes on ‘unexpected targets.’ Israeli officials also told Witkoff that there couldn’t be concessions on the issue of the regime’s ballistic missiles, which are also a risk to regional stability, i24 News reported.”

So, as usual, it comes down to Israel dealing with the problem. People often talk about the alleged “3D chess” that Trump plays. Maybe. But if he is, one wonders why he’s playing this chessboard if he could have solved the problem from a position of strength long ago.

I believe the answer is that subversives in our government have long been in place to reign-in any president that might choose to attempt the right thing. Trump has two weaknesses: his own gargantuan ego, and his tendency to trust bad people. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Last summer, we were on the verge of a New Middle East. Today, we are mired in another round of Iran running out the clock. So predictable.

All of it just might force Israel to hit Iran’s “unexpected targets.”

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com

www.patreon.com/TheGodThatAnswers