Lack of Vision
One of my favorite topics, in a very sad way, is the absolutely vicious enemy that Israel has…from the Christian community. I have written about it extensively recently.
This week came word that an employee for World Vision was convicted by an Israeli court of being a terrorist and aiding terror organizations, namely, Hamas. Before commenting further, I want to post two quotes from entities I consider to be anti-Israel: Christianity Today and World Vision. First, CT’s statement:
“An Israeli court convicted Mohammad el-Halabi, former Gaza director for World Vision International, on terrorism charges Wednesday. The Beersheba District Court ruled that he is guilty of being a member of a terror organization, providing information to a terror group, taking part in forbidden military exercises, and carrying a weapon.
“Halabi has not yet been sentenced. He is expected to appeal the ruling.
“Israeli state prosecutors accused Halabi of aiding Hamas terrorists by diverting millions of dollars from World Vision International to arm militants in Gaza. Halabi and his supporters adamantly denied these charges and claim the Israeli authorities were merely looking for a way to disrupt humanitarian aid that was going to Palestinian children.”
Now, World Vision:
“World Vision acknowledges with disappointment the decision issued by the Beersheva District Court convicting Mr. Mohammad El Halabi.
“We have previously expressed our significant concerns about this case, as noted in our prior statements (see below). In our view there have been irregularities in the trial process and a lack of substantive, publicly available evidence. We support Mohammad’s intent to appeal the decision, and call for a fair and transparent appeal process based on the facts of the case.
“As followers of Jesus Christ, World Vision is accountable to the children and families we serve, to our donors, and most of all to God to be faithful stewards. We strongly condemn any act of terrorism or support for such activities, and reject any attempt to divert humanitarian resources or exploit the work of humanitarian organisations operating anywhere.
“We are saddened that our work helping Gaza’s most vulnerable children has been disrupted for so long, and we hope to return to Gaza. We remain committed to improving the lives of vulnerable children in the region, and hope we will be able to advance our humanitarian work in the context of our longstanding cooperation with the relevant Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
“World Vision is a global Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.”
Notice both storied Christian organizations in essence accuse Israel of lying. World Vision has a long history of working with Palestinian terror groups, under the guise of course of helping children.
El Halabi was convicted mainly by evidence gathered by the intelligence communities, including the Shin Beit. But of course CT and World Vision reject that, because of course they know, right? Haha.
I was on to World Vision years ago and what I hear most often is, “But they are such a wonderful humanitarian organization!” I’m not quibbling about what else they do. My issue is that they should not be working with Hamas, Murder, Inc.
World Vision is headed by people that have a problem with Israel. Center-leftists that either are duped by the Palestinians, or are complicit in their hatred of Jews.
Frontpage noted World Vision’s flirtation with terror entities:
“The Obama administration’s decision to provide funding to ISRA [Islamic Relief Agency] in the face of such evidence of terrorist links was not the product of some inadvertent bureaucratic blunder. It turns out, according to the National Review report, that ‘government officials specifically authorized the release of at least $115,000 of this grant even after learning that it was a designated terror organization.’ World Vision Inc. notified USAID in November 2014 of its belief that ISRA had been designated as a terrorist organization, which the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) confirmed. However, World Vision still wanted to continue working with ISRA because of its ‘excellent’ performance. After OFAC denied World Vision a license to engage in transactions with ISRA because of the terrorist designation, World Vision appealed directly to the Obama administration’s director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance for help with OFAC. It wanted a new license to pay ISRA what ISRA claimed to be owed for work performed. OFAC relented, authorizing a one-time transfer of $115,000 ‘for services performed under the sub-award with USAID.’ According to the National Review article, an unnamed World Vision official described OFAC’s decision as a ‘great relief as ISRA had become restive and had threatened legal action, which would have damaged our reputation and standing in Sudan.’”
Several years ago, then-World Vision employee Mae Cannon was instrumental in bringing pro-PLO speakers into American churches. Much of this kind of activity occurred during the tenure of Rich Stearns as head of World Vision. Several World Vision reports white-washed Hamas activities in Gaza.
Pay close attention to how Christian media treat this story. They are as anti-Semitic as anyone.