Gaza: the truth. (Oh and me going to town on the ‘amos trust’.)

– Hi. This is my first blog in a while I know, but read it all the same! Cheers –

Through investigating something totally different to this topic, I found myself on the page of Greenbelt, and then onto the ‘amos trust’s website. They organise events and trips to the Middle East and South Africa, amongst other things. While having a look at what I could do on a trip to “Palestine and Israel”, I accidently found this statement – (which you can read for yourself here: http://www.amostrust.org/projects/index.php?pageNo=48). This paragraph read: “In the Gaza Strip, Amos Trust supports the work of the Al-Ahli Hospital. it was set up by the local Anglican church and treats 41,000 outpatients and 4,700 inpatients every year. Care is provided regardless of faith or background. Restrictions on movement and imports to the Gaza Strip mean that the hospital is often without basic medicines, medical supplies or electricity.” And pardon their inability to realise the need for capital letters at the start of some sentences – see start of second sentence if you didn’t notice it – but I read that and had to read it again. I thought “you what?” – as any UK student often says when they hear something they’re not a fan of!

According to the ‘amos trust’, who are clearly all about being more peaceful than Rachel Corrie, “Restrictions on movement and imports to the Gaza Strip mean that the hospital is often without basic medicines, medical supplies or electricity” – WRONG! This is total, utter rubbish. On Twitter, on Thursday the 1st of November, the @IDFSpokesperson (the official Twitter account for the Israel Defense Force) stated this: “Ystrday, #IDF facilitated the transfer of 8,564 tons of goods&gas into #Gaza incl. 3,290 tons of construction materials & 240 tons of fruit.” Something which happens on a regular basis! Sorry ‘amos trust’, it appears that your lies have been abolished by the official Israel Defense Force’s Twitter account.

How is it that these people (‘amos trust’) get away with such shocking lies and propaganda, and what is worse, how is it people believe what they are saying?!

On top of this, the ‘amos trust’ claim to: “….seek to raise awareness of the impact on the lives of ordinary Palestinian people caused by the occupation, the restrictions on people’s freedom, the horror of illegal home demolitions and the building of the separation wall.” – FOR THE RECORD, I AM NOT SAYING ISRAEL IS A PERFECT COUNTRY, DEFINITELY NOT – however, the ‘amos trust’ clearly failed to see that “in 2012, over 600 rockets have already been fired from Gaza with no end in sight” (stolen from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/arsen-ostrovsky/palestine-bombs-israel_b_2011785.html) And also, on the IDF blog it states this: “In 2011 alone, 630 rockets from Gaza hit Israeli towns. That’s an even higher number than in 2010, when 231 rockets hit Israel. Since 2001, more than 12,800 rockets and mortars, an average of 3 attacks every single day, have landed in Israel”. Chris Rose (a writer for the ‘amos trust’) writes: “Our question to our brothers and sisters in the churches today is – are you able to help us get our freedom back?” My question is “why do these people living in a land they like to call ‘Palestine’ not have any freedom?” The freedom to fire rockets, or the freedom to spend the money British taxpayers spend on the people in Gaza? You see, not only is so-called ‘President’ Abbas, a multi-millionaire, and not only do Britain fund the Palestinian ‘government’, but we also help pay for Palestinian terrorists, yes terrorists to be in prison. Check this out if you don’t believe me: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224621/Palestinian-prisoners-handed-millions-British-aid-paid-average-UK-worker.html

So people at the ‘amos trust’, do you still think the poor Palestinian’s are without freedom? I think not. And here’s why Israel isn’t an ‘apartheid state’, if you want to try and argue that one with me – see the photo below and this website: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/haaretz-gideon-levy-and-the-israel-apartheid- canard/)

What good is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul?

I been thinking a lot recently about what people’s perception on the whole ‘life after death’ situation is… You know, the title of this piece is also something I’ve been thinking a lot about too. It’s taken from Mark 8:36, the second book of the New Testament, and the best translation I’ve come across states this: “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” It’s basically saying, you can have all the riches and possessions in the world, but when you die, what will all those worldly things have to benefit you in the next life?

Presuming you believe in an afterlife, as I do, what good therefore would it be to you, to have four billion pounds to your name in the bank, when you die? Okay, wealth can be passed down to family and friends in wills, but what good will it serve you in your next life?

On the other hand, having a faith can have enormous benefit on ‘the other side’ of this life as it were. Now, as evolution, amongst other things, has crept into schools, and eventually pushed creationism and God out, baring the odd R.E lesson, having a faith has almost become ‘un-cool’ among the younger generation. This is moreso in the case of those who believe in God and would class themselves as Christians and even say they go to church, and this can lead to bullying and torment in school environments. However, you don’t often hear of Muslim or Hindu children being teased for having a faith in the same way, do you? Maybe I’m wrong, but the ‘bullying’ that may fall on those students may be based more on racial or cultural difference that children pick up on, and the fact that these folks who have different coloured skin and fashion senses actually have a faith (in something else, other than the one true God I believe in, nontheless, they do have a faith), just goes hand in hand with what we have become accustomed to.

That was a long way of getting to what I want to say, but I felt it necessary to show and give just one reason as to why many people lose their faith, and put their trust into other things, such as riches and worldly possessions: bullying. Bullying makes these people think “God doesn’t love me, and if he did, he wouldn’t let this happen to me” and therefore they look to success in business and other things to make them happy. However, have you ever though about what happens when you die?

Maybe afterall, having a faith won’t prove so un-cool when you come face to face with your maker, and when he just so happens to ask you “Why didn’t you believe in me?” and you say, “Well, actually, I’d like to change my mind on that one, maybe you do exist!” you’ll realise then that whilst looking to gain worldly riches and possession, as I’ve kept wittering on about throughout this text, you missed out on the best gift you could’ve recieved: salvation. A relationship with God. This sums it up quite well to finish with… It says this in Romans:

“^6-8 –  Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.” – The Message.

Cheers,

God bless.