Recently, there have been several instances of denominations either issuing resolutions condemning Israel or considering the notion. For example, the PCUSA labeled Israel an apartheid state while the Episcopal Church has deferred its considerations until 2024. Apostates will tend to gravitate towards the apartheid aspect of Israel to condemn it to which many evangelicals, like Michael Brown and Scott Phillips, will label such attacks on the nation-state of Israel as antisemitic. Truth be told, one can criticize Israel, for legitimate or illegitimate reasons, without being labeled antisemitic. No Christian should be citing the ADL, which is basically the SPLC for Jews.
Yet equally as bad is those who are vehemently Zionist and believe we as Americans and Christians must support and defend Israel as a moral or biblical imperative. Within American politics, entire political lobbying organizations exist for the sole purpose of ginning up support for either Israel or Palestine, with those in the former camp more successful than their opponents. Naturally, they and their friends in media seek to curry favor of Americans for Israel by touting them as a beacon of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. Countless “ministries” exist and advertise to evangelical audiences touting Christians helping poor Jews in third world squalor with little emphasis on the gospel.
Included in this movement is Prager U, who through Ami Horowitz decided to take up street reporting to Own the Libs on the Israeli-Palestine debate. In a thirteen-minute documentary, entitled Israelis or Palestinians: Who’s More Tolerant? Horowitz begins by interviewing several homosexuals in America to gage their thoughts on the conflict. As expected, they skew heavily towards the cause of the Palestinians, citing the normal apartheid labels that are typical liberal talking points.
Ami Horowitz then proceeds to show clips of his interviews within the Palestinian West Bank, where he interviews both an imam and young adult men on the streets of the West Bank on their thoughts on homosexuality. He explains that in Palestine and Gaza, homosexuality is condemned and criminalized by the society, whether from the police or even through honor killings. As an aside, more hardcore Islamic cultures tend to have honor killings for a variety of reasons including those of disgrace or for those who betray the faith (convert to Christianity). Naturally, the imam is “orthodox” within the Islamic sense in that he upholds the Islamic belief system for homosexuality, equating it to murder and stating casually that homosexuals should be put to death. By sitting down for the interview, it is evident that the imam was very transparent in his beliefs and did not fear public reprisal.
Out on the streets, Horowitz interviewed several random Palestinian men, who echoed similar sentiments to the imam. Based on the presentation, the questions are being asked and then answered in presumably Arabic, so it is unclear whether there was a translation error or journalistic manipulation in between the jump-cuts. Some of the interviewees did speak English. Regardless, the males were favorable to incarceration and staunchly believed that homosexuality was degenerating to society. They were even shown as favorable (or at least understanding) of honor killings.
The video then shows an interview with a homosexual Palestinian who recounts tales of abuse and mistreatment of homosexuals within the Islamic culture. Tales include honor killings, being disowned by family, abuse by the police, and general lack of legal protections. On the police abuse element, it was implied that some of the abuse was sexual in nature, meaning that the police punished a homosexual through physical/sexual abuse, like sodomy—because that does not make one gay…
All of this is not without proclaiming the tolerance of Israel and its celebration of pride. As a point of order, the thoughts of average Israeli’s are not recorded in this video but there is B-roll footage of parades and flags.
Upon showing the interviews to the Americans, Horowitz gets the American homosexuals he confronted at the beginning of the video to reconsider their views because unsurprisingly, they were ignorant on the issue and general cultural disdain Islamic cultures have for certain sexual preferences.
Prager U Zionism
The great irony of this video is that we are supposed be more sympathetic of Israel because they are tolerant and even promoting of homosexuality versus Palestine, so therefore we should be all the more supportive of Israel. Own the Libs by proclaiming that the Israelis are allies! Meanwhile, Prager U is content lamenting the sexualization of children in public schools and child grooming in other videos they produce, but degeneracy is good if it has the blue Star of David on white field.
While many Americans would be baffled at how brazen the Palestinians were about murdering or incarcerating gays, the streetside Palestinians were correct as to the damage that homosexuality causes to a society. In America, drag queen story hours are a national movement that happens even in red states. America has lived the slippery slope from normalization to “marriage” to forced embrace, all while further deconstructing gender and sex to the point where it is expected that pedophilia will become mainstreamed in the next couple years. These Palestinians are not wrong in their assessment, even if it is based on an Islamic worldview. Unsurprisingly, they blamed Israel for attempting to export it into their culture. This is reminiscent of sentiments the Taliban employed to regain power in Afghanistan as American occupation accomplished nothing in twenty years except to promote secular democracy and liberalism which was diametrically opposed to the underlying culture.
Therein lies the blindness of America’s love-affair for Israel. Even when Israel promotes sexual degeneracy, imposes vaccine passports, or other tyrannical and nefarious actions, there is this asinine notion that America must stand by and protect them even when their actions are morally reprehensible. No one is going around bragging about Palestine’s prohibition of abortion and comparing that to Israel, where being unmarried counts as a justifiable circumstance, as a means to garner support for Palestinians on the right, but it is not that much different than what Ami Horowitz was doing for the left.
We should not celebrate America when she actively participates in her cultural decline. Our nation has several days which either honor the freedoms for which America stands or those who fought for its freedoms. Yet we do not praise pride parades or drag queen story hour as the price of freedom or the blessings of liberty. That was not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Prager U will go on to platform standard conservative talking points while having conflated folly with freedom because it is Israel.
Admittedly, Prager U is somewhat low-IQ and entry level in its content. Nevertheless, its latest video speaks to how Israel is a hot topic in our greater socio-political discourse and how tribalistic things have become over a foreign nation. It is obsessive and devoid of reason. Foreign policy is nuanced. It is three dimensional with many moving parts. Each country is different in its culture and people, which is why foreign policy must be conducted in the interests of one’s nation first—not the benefit of a foreign party.
Who’s More Tolerant?
On the issue of homosexuality, who is more tolerant: God or Allah?
Neither. Both indisputably condemn homosexuality.
The difference lies in the Justice of God over that of Allah. The Law of Moses calls for a man to be put to death by the society (stoning) on the testimony of multiple witnesses. Meanwhile, the Islamic world is content killing someone on insinuation without actual proof of sexual misdeed. Moreover, the hardcore Islamic culture is content committing sin to punish sin. Honor killings were seen as normal and justifiable to the Palestinians. Physical and sexual abuse against an undesirable is socially acceptable. In Romans 3:8, Paul condemns this mindset of doing evil so that good may come.
Through Christ, there is forgiveness and redemption over sin. Whereas Islam seeks to eliminate that which is perceived to be a blight, Christianity seeks to transform and regenerate through the saving power of Christ and sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
There is only One Way, One Savior, and One People of God.
