Is the Mask of Christ at the Checkpoint Slipping?
Sunday, March 06, 2016 | Ariel Rudolph ISRAEL TODAY
At the Christ at the Checkpoint (CATC) conference in 2014 an invitation was extended to Rami Hamdallah, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and president of An-Najah University in Nablus, to give the opening address. It was under Hamdallah's presidency that a grotesque Hamas-sponsored recreation of the Sbarro Pizzeria terror attack was celebrated. In this attack, 15 civilians were murdered, including children and a pregnant woman, and another 130 wounded.
If the invitation extended to Hamdallah was not enough to warn of the affiliations and heartfelt allegiances of the CATC conference organizers, then this year's speaker lineup should remove all doubt.
This year's speakers, almost without exception, are an impressive lineup of hard-core ecumenical supporters and supercessionists. They will no doubt clamour to take the limelight in denigrating Israel for her "humanitarian abuses" and the "illegal occupation of the Land of Israel", the right of which has long passed from the natural offspring of Abraham to the "spiritual" offspring of Abraham.
Despite the fact that all the speakers claim to be "peacemakers" and protagonists of "reconciliation" based on "biblical principles of peace, justice, and love", this year we have a new face making an appearance at CATC.
There is an old Aesop adage that says "you are known by the company you keep". This adage is based on Proverbs 13:20 "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm." (NIV)
The new face at CATC this year is in the personage of Mustafa Abu Sway. A Muslim scholar, Islamic apologist and theologian. His association, activities with, and support of Hamas institutions are well known and documented. He is an overt Islamist. His activities on and around the Temple Mount are also well known.
This year the noticeable absence of any notable Israeli Messianic leadership as speakers, with the exception of Lisa Loden, is not a coincidence either. Loden serves as an advisor to Musalaha, whose founder has sympathized with and downplayed the uses of, and reasons for, Hamas terror tunnels.
Loden authored a 2007 article "Reconciliation - against the wall in Israel / Palestine", in which she states:
"As the wall continues to be built, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the believers who live on opposite sides of the wall to meet one another."
And in another statement:
"The situation in Israel/Palestine today is one of separation, animosity, hostility and destructive conflict and imbalance of power. Walls will not aid the situation."
The fact is that acts of mass terrorism, initiated from the areas of Judea & Samaria, have effectively been reduced to a trickle since the highs of the second Intifada by the erection of the security barrier.
It seems as if the Messianic Jewish community have understood the primary purposes of CATC, despite previous attempts at presenting the biblical rights of the Jewish people to inherit and inhabit the Land of Israel, and have decided to heed King Solomon's admonition.
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