Premise 1: Innocent people die in war. If there was a way for innocent people not to die in wars, that would be dandy, but so far—despite constant development in precision weaponry and recognition technology designed specifically to minimize civilian casualties—mankind has yet to figure out a way for innocent people to never die in wars. Hence we arrive at the paradox of innocent civilian deaths in war being unacceptable, yet we have to accept it. We must accept it because if we were unwilling to go to war due to the inevitability of civilian casualties, maniacs, psychopaths, and dictators would rule the earth. Evil has to be fought. Evil has to be stopped. And since we are not G-d and since the Time of Judgement is not yet upon us, we cannot defeat evil once and for all, but must continually cut evil down again and again like a weed.
Premise 2: Nobody likes dead children. Nobody derives joy from children dying. Nobody gets their rocks off seeing a child’s mangled lifeless bloodied body in the dirt or in a pile of rubble. Not unless they have a sick sadistic psychological disorder, but among humans that’s extraordinarily rare. 99% of all humans are biologically hardwired to protect children in danger and not want to see them harmed or killed. This is an evolution thing. If human beings did not have an instinctual urge to protect children, we would be extinct. So… if you are going to allege that an entire nation’s military consisting of hundreds-of-thousands of people has invaded a place for the sole purpose of wanting to kill kids… you better have some compelling evidence. You can’t just say it. You can’t just point to the pictures of kids who died as proof. Nor can you selectively choose the outliers within the army, who may have said despicable things or committed war crimes, and claim they represent the entire army and its mission. Or you could, I guess, but then you wouldn’t be a serious person would you?
With these two premises in place, the time has come for me to set my napkin down, roll up my sleeves, spit on my palms, and knock a few belligerents through the saloon door.
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There’s a strategy endemic to modern, social media-driven, optics-oriented, narrative-focused politics, where an agitating element (be it a country, group, or individual) will stealthily land hit after hit after hit on their opponent, and then, as soon as they get hit back, very loudly play the wounded bird. The opponent then, being suddenly thrust into an unflattering spotlight they didn’t expect, will begin making their case that despite appearances, they were merely responding in defense of themselves. At which point some authority or spectator will insist—with no skin in the game of their own—that in a dispute, the more powerful of the two parties should quietly tolerate the jabs of the weaker aggressor because “they have more power” and are therefore obligated to act with total restraint. Or, if the more powerful of the two parties will not act with total restraint, they should at least respond “proportionately”. (We see this dynamic play out in various forms not only in culture, politics, and foreign policy, but also in relationships, friend groups, the workplace, and family reunions. Consequence-free provocation initiated by the “small bean” who—used to being seen and treated as such—takes too many liberties with someone’s patience, and does so under the assumption that they’ll always be protected by “compassionate” onlookers.) And, back to the modern political climate, this is why our discourse is so often framed as “Big ___” versus “the scrappy underdog activists”; even when “the scrappy underdog activists” are completely unhinged moronic bullies.
This is yet another reason (among many) why the world after October 7th has become so contemptuous of the Jewish people: we don’t forget, and we don’t forgive, and we do retaliate regardless of how loudly anyone protests we shouldn’t. We don’t love our enemies. We don’t turn the other cheek. As Tzlil Berko recently wrote, we come in peace until you touch us.
But even with all this talk of provocation and fighting back and not turning the other cheek, it’s worth noting that out of Gaza’s population of 2.1 million people, the highest estimate of the number of innocent civilians killed is 67,000. Which means that in the two years Israel has fought its defensive war against an entrenched terrorist regime who have blended into the general public, the country has managed a civilian casualty percentage of just 3.35%.
If any other country—fighting a defensive war against an enemy wearing civilian clothing—had a civilian casualty percentage of only 3.35%, it would be hailed as a humanitarian triumph. A Nobel Peace Prize would be presented to the leader of that country on top of a red pillow while he was fanned by palm leaves. Oprah would shit a brick. The spirits of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis, and Desmond Tutu would manifest in the clouds like Mufasa to offer personal congratulations.
But because the country is Israel, the world has chosen to call a 3.35% civilian casualty percentage a “genocide”. (Even though Israel has a massive stockpile of chemical and nuclear weapons; so if they really wanted to commit an actual genocide, and wipe out every single Palestinian man, woman, and child in Gaza, they could have done so ten times faster and without having to send a single soldier to invade.)
For the past two years there has been a massive organized global campaign to delegitimize the only Jewish state in the Middle East. This delegitimization campaign has been funded by numerous Islamist regimes and organizations, but the biggest funder is Qatar (with $21 billion dispersed to universities, social media campaigns and influencers, various institutes, and news outlets). I don’t want to talk about that here, except to say that this global delegitimization campaign has been extremely effective in shifting the conversation about Israel nearly everywhere, and changing formerly neutral and respectable Middle East policy circles to circles that are now blatantly hostile. Qatar’s motive for spending so much money to delegitimize Israel is no mystery. With their religion being founded by a wicked warlord, and with the very meaning of “Islam” being “submission”, the existence of a Jewish state in a land that Muslims formerly conquered is an insult the rulers of Muslim countries can’t ignore. (Which explains why Islamists feel this way not only about Jews in the Middle East, but about the Druze, the Kurds, the Mandaeans, the Zoroastrians, and the Christians in their societies; who they hunt, rape, torture, and brutally murder.)
It comes as some surprise then that the harshest words spoken against the State of Israel since October 7th have not been from Islamist heads of state, or from leftists, or even from jihadists. No, instead the harshest words spoken against the State of Israel since October 7th have been from certain leaders of the country’s Christian community; ostensibly independent of any money being spent by the gulf state, and without the agreement of all (or even most) of their flock.
“Okay but can we really be so confident that the vitriol directed by Christian leaders in the region toward Israel isn’t valid? Can we really be so sure that they’re wrong or acting with bad motives?”
Well yes. Yes, quite frankly we can. There are fourteen Muslim countries in the Middle East. In every single one, Christians are executed. There is one Jewish country in the Middle East. In this one Jewish country, not only are Christians not executed, but they have freedom to worship and enjoy the same exact rights that Jews enjoy as full Israeli citizens.
Again, to make it ridiculously simple: in this part of the world, in fourteen countries Christians get killed. And in this same part of the world, in one country, they don’t.
One more time:
14 countries in the area = Christians die
1 country in the area = Christians live
Therefore any leader of Christians arguing that it would be better if the one Jewish country in the Middle East disappeared and made way for a fifteenth Muslim country, is either a) a Muslim infiltrator posing as a Christian, or b) just really really astoundingly fucking stupid. And by “really really astoundingly fucking stupid” I don’t mean “doesn’t know the difference between there, their, and they’re” stupid, I mean cranial lobotomy eat-your-own-shit stupid.
Needless to say I don’t believe it’s Option B.
And sure, maybe it’s not always Option A either. Maybe there’s some third reason I haven’t thought of. But regardless, I can’t help but suspect that a lot of the “Christian leaders” in and around Israel who have been vocal against Israel since October 7th have been operating from a place of deliberate dishonesty. And I’m tired of virtually no one calling them out on it.
The most recent example was in late October when Ilias Giannopoulos, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, penned an appallingly biased open letter to Vice President J.D. Vance ahead of Vance’s visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during a diplomatic trip:
“I will address you in the language of love, faith, and humanity. Not in the language of politics and interests that you will hear from the Israeli politicians you will meet.”
You heard the man, folks. No politics at all. Just “love, faith, and humanity”. Unlike those Israelis. Uh huh.
“There are rulers in this world who have been blinded to the injustice that our Palestinian people [have] been exposed to and continue to face. In front of them the American President and you boast about your Christianity, but whoever hears your statements and attitudes discover and notice that you are far from Christianity and you are in a place that has nothing to do with Christian values, [which] always urge us to win against the oppressed and the tortured.”
Tortured. Tortured he says.
Not long before the Orthodox Patriarchate was alleging Israeli torture of innocent Palestinians to the American Vice President, groups like Hamas and PIJ were busy actually torturing Israeli hostages inside tunnels and in the homes of civilian supporters (some of whom worked for the UN). But the Patriarchate never mentions those hostages in his letter. Not once. To the Orthodox Patriarchate—who lives and works in Israel’s capital—the Israeli hostages in Gaza did not exist.
“How can a Christian ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people? Especially what happened during the two years in Gaza which was a War of Holocaust?”
Holocaust? Even assuming the highest estimate of civilian casualties, the population of Gaza has grown since October 7th.
“In the Church of Resurrection there will be a number of leaders, fathers, monks who will tell you frankly that Jerusalem is hungry for peace, and our holy country is also hungry for peace. But the peace we are calling for is peace based on justice and respect for human rights.”
OH REALLY? Oh-ho-ho really?! Is that so? Hm… well… again, I find no mention—Mr. “Justice and Human Rights”—of Hamas in your letter. I find no mention of the event that kicked this war off in the first place; an invasion by thousands of Palestinian terrorist militants into the sovereign territory of Israel who purposely shot and raped and mutilated and bludgeoned and burned Israeli citizens in kibbutzes, in towns, and at a music festival. And again, I find no mention of any of the Israeli hostages who were kidnapped on that day and held in Gaza for two years inside tunnels being beaten and starved.
“You come to these Holy Lands for an unholy purpose and that is to adhere to the occupation, and its oppressive policies and practices against the Palestinian people. You fed us with speeches about peace, but you did not do anything for the sake of peace. No, you ignored Palestinian rights and proofs, and when the Palestinians lived their new burden during the two years of conquered and affected Gaza, you supported their oppressors; who with your weapons killed many Palestinians, making you partners in this crime committed against our people. […] I invite you to radically change your policies in our region. The peace that we all want cannot be by supporting Israel and supporting its wars and its criminal policies against the Palestinian people. Peace is based on justice, respect, and protection of human rights. Peace cannot be built on the ruins of the Palestinian people.”
Behold, the ridiculous spectacle of an Orthodox bishop who—while writing from the safety of Israel—condemns Israel and tacitly provides cover to jihadists who massacre his Orthodox brethren in countries like Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and even inside Gaza itself. I mean if that man were more full of shit, he’d either be a colostomy bag or the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, is another one of these “Christian leaders” who I’ve addressed before in my 2024 pamphlet Israel Has The Right To Exist & Defend Itself.
At that time, I ridiculed Cardinal Pizzaballa mainly for his naivety and attention-seeking behavior when it came to the public statements he’d released to the international press in the immediate aftermath of October 7th. But since then, Cardinal Pizzaballa’s remarks have taken a turn from naive and attention-seeking to absurd and slanderous.
In July he labeled Israel’s presence in Gaza “morally unjustifiable”, and went on to say in August that Israel’s war effort was representative of “Satan’s grip on the Holy Land”; blaming the violence in Gaza on “years of dehumanizing rhetoric” by Israel. Not due to Islamic terrorism, mind you. Not due to Israelis being kidnapped from their homes. Nope. The violence in Gaza is Israel’s fault despite Gaza having started the violence on October 7th. (Because, again, think “wounded bird”. Think “small bean”. “Scrappy underdog”.) Cardinal Pizzaballa has further voiced his belief (repeatedly over the last twelve months) that Israel is deliberately targeting Gazan Catholics, despite offering no evidence for this, and offering no possible motive for why Israel would do this (especially knowing how badly it would impact their image).
And here I just wanna pause and give a hypothetical scenario to fellow American readers who are not Jewish, to convey how gross this form of theological gaslighting is:
When Al-Qaeda (aided by the Taliban) attacked the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon on 9/11 (intentionally murdering over 3,000 innocent civilians), and we responded by going to war with Al-Qaeda and began the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, our response certainly wasn’t perfect. The Iraq War was a disaster. George Bush was not a great president. The fact that it took ten years to kill Bin Laden when he was living in a house in Pakistan was embarrassing. And after 20 years of America maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan and trying our damnedest to prop up its fledgling government, only for us to withdraw suddenly and for the Taliban to retake the country, was nothing short of a humiliation and a disgrace. But tell me, despite all this, when you think back on 9/11 and you think back on the pain and the shock and the anger that we as Americans felt in the weeks and months thereafter, would any of us—ANY OF US—at that time have tolerated a bishop living in New York City saying that the global hunt for Al-Qaeda was “morally unjustifiable” and that our country’s attempts to break the stranglehold of Islamic theocracy on the Middle East were evidence of “Satan’s grip on America”? Even in hindsight, taking into account all the blunders and idiotic decisions that happened during the War on Terror, I think we still would recognize (or at least I hope we would) that a bishop who said anything like this would be completely out of line.
Lest you believe Cardinal Pizzaballa of Jerusalem is some random Catholic cardinal I plucked from obscurity to pick on, you should know that he was a strong candidate for the papacy several months ago after Pope Francis died. The Vatican holds this man in extremely high regard, and it’s fair to say that within Catholic circles—especially in Italian and Italian-American Catholic circles—he’s somewhat of a rockstar. Which means that what he says about Israel and Gaza is very likely to shape the opinions of a solid chunk of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
But truth be told, neither the Greek Patriarch Giannopoulos nor the Latin Patriarch Pizzaballa are my main targets for ridicule. Yes, both are extremely foolish and dishonest old men who have never engaged with the world beyond the narrow prism of their church roles (both began pursuing their respective priesthoods when they were just 18 and 19; they have no experience at all in any secular profession), and both seem to have an extraordinary lack of understanding about the threat to the civilized world posed by Islamism and jihadism. But all the same, they’re not my main targets for this essay.
No, the main target I had in mind when I decided to write this (long overdue) piece, and came up with the title “Islam’s Pet Christians”, is the youngest, loudest, and most obnoxious of the bunch: Lutheran Reverend Munther Isaac.
Munther Isaac can best be described as a ventriloquist’s dummy for the very terrorists who would stop his mouth from moving if he ever dislodged their forearms from his asshole. He’s the clerical sock puppet of Yahya Sinwar even after that man’s death. Munther Isaac plays the role of the jihadists’ “concerned Christian conscience”; a role so grotesquely inverted it could only appeal to someone who is not actually acting in good faith (pun intended). Essentially functioning as a whitewasher of Islamist violence in the region, Reverend Munther Isaac manages to condemn everyone in the Gaza conflict except the members of Hamas who deliberately kill innocent men, women, and children. “Israel is at fault for Palestinian deaths”, “the world is at fault for not stopping Israel”, “Christians around the world are at fault for ignoring Palestinian suffering”, but Hamas is never ever at fault for anything.
Munther Isaac has a lot to say about Israel’s unintentional killing of Palestinians during combat. A lot to say. A lot to say to Tucker Carlson. A lot to say to any leftwing journalist who will listen. A lot to say (I shit you not) to Islam Channel TV when he’s lecturing about “the historic relationship between Palestinian Christians and Muslims”. And a lot to say on his social media where he’s racked up about 50,000 followers.
Yes, Munther Isaac has a lot to say about Israel’s unintentional killing of Palestinians during combat. He thinks Israel should be dismantled. He thinks Jews should pay reparations to the Palestinians who constantly try to murder them. He thinks Hamas is a “liberation movement” not a terrorist organization.
“If only churches in America knew how the Israeli government treats Christians, they would never support Israel” he’s fond of saying about the only Middle Eastern country that doesn’t murder Christians.
Yes, Munther Isaac has a lot to say about Israel’s unintentional killing of Palestinians during combat, but Munther Isaac hasn’t managed to say a single goddamn word about the 12,000 Christians who have been very intentionally slaughtered in Nigeria since 2023 by militant Islamic terror groups like Boko Haram and ISIS. The rapper Nicki Minaj has said more about the Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria than the Reverend Munther Isaac. I wonder why.
“Well, because he doesn’t minister to Christians in Nigeria. He ministers to Christians in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Okay great. Then I’m sure he condemned Hamas after Israel agreed to a ceasefire, and Hamas used that ceasefire to begin summarily mass-executing Palestinian civilians (including Christian Palestinians) in the street for being “collaborators”. Right? I’m sure he issued a condemnation when—a few weeks ago—Austrian authorities seized a Hamas-linked weapons cache that was part of a plot to murder Jews in Vienna. Did he do that? No he didn’t. There’s not one word from Munther Isaac about Hamas’s execution of over 35 Palestinians after Israel’s ceasefire. There’s not one word from Munther Isaac about Hamas’s plan to massacre non-Israeli Jews in a major European city. Isn’t that strange? I think that’s strange.
“But he never said he supports Hamas. All he’s doing is grieving the loss of innocent Palestinian civilians. That’s not being ‘pro-Palestine’ or ‘anti-Israel’. That’s just being a good human.”
Nope, sorry, nope. You are not allowed to be this obtuse.
If somebody in the 1940s kept going on and on and on and on about how awful the civilian death toll was in Dresden, and how awful the civilian death toll was in Berlin, and how awful the civilian death toll was in Hamburg - and the only time this person ever briefly acknowledged the civilian death toll in London or the unjust suffering of victims in concentration camps was when they were pushed to do so - would you assume that person was “just being a good human”? No, you would take their heavy emphasis on Axis suffering and near-nonexistent acknowledgment of Allied suffering as an indicator that they were a German sympathizer.
If somebody today were to go on and on and on and on about the death toll of Russian civilians in Belgorod, Kursk, or Bryansk Oblast - and the only time this person ever briefly acknowledged the death toll of Ukrainian civilians in Kharkiv or Pokrovsk was when they were pushed to do so - would you assume they were “just being a good human”? No, you fucking wouldn’t. You would catch on pretty fucking quick that that person was a scummy little scumbag slimeball snake whose attempt at tugging at people’s heartstrings was a manipulative ploy intended to obscure the fact that Russia was the aggressor and Ukraine was aggressed-upon.
Likewise, any Middle Eastern Christian leader who goes on and on and on about the wrongdoings of a Jewish government, but never once acknowledges the role militant Islam plays—and has played historically—in conquering and subjugating the “infidels” around them, is not to be trusted.
“Christ would be born under the rubble and Israeli shelling” but he wouldn’t be born in a tunnel where the hostages were kept for 738 days? “Christ would be born under the rubble and Israeli shelling” but he wouldn’t be born under the 8,500 rockets that were launched by Hamas at Israeli men, women, and children in a span of just ten days after the October 7th massacre? “Christ would be born under the rubble and Israeli shelling” but he wouldn’t be born next to the women at the Nova Music Festival who were gang raped by laughing terrorists before having their breasts cut off and being shot in the head in front of their screaming boyfriends, husbands, and siblings?
You know what, go fuck yourself dude.
Go fucking fuck yourself and your fake-grieving fucking face you fucking dirtbag. Your clergy collar doesn’t fucking fool me. You and all your other Hamas buddies in cassocks traveling around the world to go on podcasts and TV (including podcasts hosted by imams) to talk about how “Israel persecutes Christians” like you’re totally not the leashed bottom-boy gimps of the Muslim emirs and princes.
What’s you guys’s secret to crying-on-command by the way?
I mean you don’t have to answer, but I just gotta know.
Do you sneak a rub of Tabasco on the corners of your eyes, or do you summon a bad memory (like the time you read the New Testament and found out Jesus was a Jew)?
Because you sure as shit are not actually sad about dead Palestinian kids. Dead Palestinian kids are the best thing that have ever happened to the Islamist cause you pretend you’re not a champion of.
You don’t fucking fool me and it’s a goddamn shame that your c-level acting somehow manages to fool others.
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I’m gonna end this very bluntly. The government of Israel would be perfectly within its rights to permanently expel two out of the three clergymen discussed: Giannopoulos and Pizzaballa. If I were the Prime Minister, I wouldn’t think twice about telling the Vatican and the Orthodox Synods that if they’re going to appoint leading priests to reside in Jerusalem, those leaders are not going to be pompom-wavers for “Palestine”. And if the Vatican and Orthodox Synods didn’t listen, I would seize all of their property and give it to the IDF. I think Israel is being far too nice by allowing high-ranking clergymen to dwell in their capital, when those clergymen spend their time preaching Islamist propaganda. It’s probably a good (and providential) thing that I’m just a loudmouth American writer and not a successful Israeli politician, because if I were Prime Minister of Israel, I fucking promise these men’s asses would be dragged through Ben Gurion Airport by the scruff of their collars and literally thrown on a plane so goddamn quick their heads would spin.
As for Munther Isaac—who resides in the West Bank—he should receive a lifetime ban from ever entering Israel, and pro-Zionist evangelicals in the U.S. and in other countries should direct the full force of their influence in the Christian world to exposing the fraud that he is. That guy doesn’t get to just walk around saying whatever the fuck he wants. Nuh-uh. He should be confronted everywhere he goes.
