Denying THE TRUTH for MY Truth is a Descent into Hell

People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe. ~ Andy Rooney

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I am tired of the lies, the hate, the twisting of reality. There is an obvious good and an obvious evil in this war in the Middle East. In fact, I can think of few other times in history when it has been so obvious. It wasn’t that long ago that the war against the Nazis was obvious, yet people are even confused about that now.

Those who fall for these lies are heading into their own personal hell that they are creating for themselves, and they are insisting that the rest of us follow them.

Still, I have some hope. When I get letters like this, I know I can keep going:

Thank you for your writing. I find it difficult to put into words how much your writing means to me. Over this past year or so, you have challenged my thoughts, beliefs, asked me to dig deeper, given me a kick in the butt when I've needed courage, brought me to tears, inspired me.

I am so glad I had the courage to confront you about your first Stand with Israel article and that I listened to your response. I don't agree with everything you say (and don't need to), but your writing comes from the soul and has moved me beyond belief.

I grew up atheist but am Jewish by matrilineal descent (my great great grandmother died at Theresienstadt). My way into faith has been through Judaism, although I now also attempt to follow and understand the teachings of Jesus.

In September 2023 I bought my first Magen David pendant. It arrived on October 7th. Flooded by the pro-Palestinian propaganda I nearly didn't wear it. In the end I did put in on and have worn it daily since then.

When I read your recent article about the Oxford Union debate, I was so glad I stuck to my decision. That "debate" is shocking and eye-opening.

However I may disagree with Israeli politics and policies, I would rather live in the country of Sacerdoti and Haddad than that of the hecklers. I am proud of my Jewish heritage and I believe standing up and saying "I am Jewish" is still an act of courage however my religious practices play out.

Again this email is longer than I wished it to be! My apologies. I wish I could have you over at my kitchen table for a long long discussion over coffee!

You have my unfailing support and prayers.

This letter moved me to tears. I wish I could have coffee with so many people I have come to know through this writing.

This letter really gave me the energy to write this essay.

I want to share my thoughts on this interview Jonathan Sacerdoti did with Mosab Hassan Yusef shortly after the Oxford debate. Sacerdoti said it is the most interesting interviews he has ever done.

Mosab says that this type of thinking, this “Palestinianism” or Islamism, is a form of mental illness. It is a victim mentality that isn’t exclusive to Palestinians, it is universal, this idea that you can never be compensated enough for the “crimes” others have committed against you and it is a kind of black hole that once you fall into it you can never get out again. It just sucks you further and further into envy and hatred.

Do people think if they take over Israel that will be enough? No. There are Jews everywhere that have too much, when they have not enough. All those Jews in New York. The killing would not end.

These are thought-provoking concepts and very different from the Mosab we saw in the Oxford debate. Many people call Mosab crazy because of his intensity. Clearly, they’ve never lived in an Arab country. If they had, they’d understand this is how Arabs talk when they feel strongly about something. I encountered this style of speaking while living in Luxor, Egypt. It took a bit of getting used to, in fact, I had to learn to talk like this, I had to be a “Moudira,” loud and arrogant, if I wanted to get anything accomplished. I think Mosab purposely acts like this when he confronts antagonistic crowds.

Here’s what I am talking about. This is called “debating” for Arabs. You have to click and watch it on Youtube because they are hitting each other and screaming insults, but it’s hilarious. I can tell you, having lived in the region, I have seldom laughed so hard:

Mosab should look absolutely serene after all of that. And in fact, in one-on-one interviews like the one I have below, he is quite mellow.

But it isn’t really Mosab’s demeanor that people hate so much, it’s the harsh truths that people don’t want to hear. I didn’t want to hear those truths when I went to Luxor in 2019. I was raised on the dangers of Islam, and even though I experienced hatred of Jews and Christians when I was in Cairo as a child, I put it behind me as I grew up. I thought, as so many people do, that surely that hatred wasn’t universal. It was exaggerated. It had faded away over time. And if it still existed, it was a fringe thing that most Muslims didn’t believe in. I didn’t understand that there is nothing fringe about hatred of Jews. Such hatred cannot be extracted from Islam because it is at the very core. Without this hatred, Islam loses the lifeblood of what drives it forward. It loses all the impetus to strive for paradise.

For Muslims, the culmination of all they are taught is the End Times when Allah comes to reign supreme. It is their job to create the Caliphate. To learn more, I encourage you to read The Coming Caliphate. Those who are “moderate” Muslims might not actively participate in creating that Caliphate, but they will do nothing to stop it. The Caliphate is central to Islam ushering in the end times. It cannot happen until every Jew is killed. Muslims are commanded to kill Jews. For this reason, Muslims are raised on a diet of hatred toward Jews.

Those who continue to deny these basic truths should ask themselves why they deny it when the mullahs and the jihadists tell them over and over that this is what they are going to do. Why do they side so vigorously with those who have vowed to murder every Jew on the planet, and who want to murder them, too. Logically, it doesn’t make sense.

After I published Is Israel a Genocidal Apartheid State, an in depth look at the Oxford Debate, I received some interesting responses that illustrate what I’m talking about.

Someone suggested my readers are better off referring to Ilan Pappe’s: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

Someone else said, “Hurty words. Who gives a shit.”

I was chided for being so “laser-focused, you miss the obvious.”

And surely one of the best comments, which came to my inbox yesterday in response to See It for Yourself:

Whatever the Palestinians may or could have done is minute in comparison to the savagery, depravity, or inhumanity that Israelis had shown over 100 years. In fact, in medicine, we call Palestinians behavior is the result of a PTSD inflicted by savage Israelies….they will be excused. Israelis however are sadists and criminals defying all humanity’s norms…..the world finally sees you for who you are!!

Whatever. Don’t they realize they are aligning themselves with people like this:

Can people not see that how these mullahs talk, the things they say, the acts they commit, are evil?

I know what I have experienced for myself while living in Egypt and no one can deny it’s true. Yet people who have never lived there will tell me I’m wrong. They will laugh and say, “Sharia Law?” nobody lives under that in Egypt. Quite a few people have had the audacity to insist I don’t know what I’m talking about it.

When I listened to those who spoke at Oxford in defense of Israel, I recognized the truth of what they were saying. And while there was some truth in what the others were saying, it was not THE TRUTH.

But we are not allowed anymore to acknowledge that there is The Truth above our individual truths. And this is where we get into so much trouble. This is where we lose our way.

Ilan Pappe has been called a “post-modernist” historian by those critical of him, such as Israeli historian Benny Morris. Morris contends that Pappe believes “there is no such thing as historical truth, only a collection of narratives as numerous as the participants in any given event or process; and each narrative, each perspective, is as valid and legitimate, as true, as the next.”

And of course, there is an element of truth in this. The best fantasies, even the best lies, always have an element of truth. It is impossible for us as finite beings to give a perfect account of anything, to interpret any event, past, present or future, as completely separate from ourselves and all the prejudices that we carry along with us through life. But if there is no higher truth, if there is no absolute for us to aspire to, then we might as well say anything, and it won’t matter one way or the other. In fact, there can be no winner or loser of any debate. Nothing anyone says has to be true because nothing is true, or everything is, and that’s the same thing, isn’t it.

In fact, I am not sure why Pappe would argue so vigorously for the Palestinians when the argument on the other side would be just as meaningful, or not meaningful at all, which, again, is the same thing.

Pappe says he is concerned about “moral issues not the natural human follies of professional historians”. But if everyone has their own truth, then they are entitled to their own morals, or no morals at all and there is no basis upon which he or anyone else can decide what is moral and what isn’t.

This is how academics, the most “intelligent” among us, have managed to twist their brains into justifying terrorists as “freedom fighters” who can be cheered on when they rape, torture and murder innocent women and children, dragging them into Gaza, and down into tunnels, the depths of hell. This is how the most “intelligent” among us are able to turn around to the impressionable youth who look up to them and twist their young minds into the same hellish hole.

And then, of course, the hypocrisy starts. Because although everyone has their own truth, Jews are not allowed to have theirs.

This is what happens when we reject THE ABSOLUTE: our Creator. When we become so full of ourselves that we believe we are our own little gods, that if we look inside, we will find the answers based on how we feel about it, and nobody better try and tell us otherwise. It’s okay to make up our own rules that appeal to our own desires. The further we go down this road, the darker and more perverse those desires become. Before long, we have descended so far into darkness, that we can no longer judge up from down, left from right, good from evil. We become slaves to a whole new set of absolutes in complete contrast to the absolutes of love and peace instilled by our Creator.

We become slaves to the absolutes of violence and hate.

In this conversation, Sacerdoti returns to the debate and the moment when Mosab asks the room, if they had known about Oct 7th and the terrorist attack ahead of time, would they have reported it?

Less than 5% raises their hands.

Sacerdoti asks Mosab how we got “to that stage where in campuses even at Oxford University people whether they're Muslim whether they're Western, no matter who they are, why won't they have the moral backbone to do really the simplest of things; to report on terrorism; to prevent it.”

Mosab’s answer is so simple and yet so brilliant and wise. He says, “I can see just one side at the time because this is a paradox. But the least to say is that this people surrendered to hate, and they see reality in black and white. There's a victim and there is a perpetrator. There are the oppressed and there are the oppressors. The colonizers have been occupying the land. All this is based on the victim narrative or the false allegations, accusations, serious accusations of genocide, even though it's not supported by any court or judge, but they still repeat it like parrots because it is serving their agendas.”

In their confused minds, there is no greater absolute than to say there are no absolutes, therefore, I have the right to hate “the other” because it is "MY TRUTH”, they are wounding me, they are giving me anxiety, they are offending me.

Nobody was killing those people in the room at Oxford that day. Nobody was torturing, raping, or kidnapping them. Quite the contrary. They had the freedom to be as obnoxious as they wanted. It was their right.

But only towards Jews and Israel. Because, what none of them acknowledge is that they are embracing an absolute that would kill anyone who spoke the same about Isam. They will never see this paradox. That it is precisely because they are in a free country that they can spit on their freedom, whereas the religion they are defending would kill anyone who stood for the freedoms they take so much for granted.

Mosab exposed the horror of this mentality. He stripped away the facade of those professors and their highly intelligent students from prestigious families who will no doubt go on to become some of the top CEOs, scientists, lawyers, and politicians in the world, and showed how they would have been Nazis in Germany, informing on their Jewish neighbors. And they would have done it proudly, celebrating the death of the Jews just as they sat in that room cheering on terrorism.

In this interview with Sacerdoti, Mosab talks about his father and how he had to make the choice to turn against everything that his father stood for, even though it meant losing him, because he knew that his father was wrong. It’s hard enough to turn against an ordinary father. But Mosab’s father was anything but ordinary. The pressure to conform to Hamas, as his son must have been overpowering.

I have thought that I should write more about my own father because he was such an iconic figure in the Christian world, and I loved him so much and for a long time, he turned his back on me, and it was terribly painful. Thankfully, we found a place at last where we could reconcile. I don’t think this can happen for Mosab and his father. You could say Hamas prevents it. But really, again, at the core, it is Islam that prevents it.

At the end, Mosab shocks you with his thinking. He is writing a book about Mohammed, it’s a novel. Others have written novels about the life of Jesus, I’m not a big fan of that. He says he respects Mohammed as a person from his own time, but anyone following him can only end up being a fake. I don’t have respect for Mohammed. Mosab says Mohammed did a lot for women’s rights, but I would strongly disagree. This really disappointed me about him. It is very dangerous to tell women this and it is even more dangerous to tell it to men because it then justifies their bad behavior. All I hear from Western women who have reverted to Islam, is that is has made them “free”. The hijab, the niqab, has freed them. Again, this is an example of the twisting of absolutes. Islam enslaves women. It does not free them. I’ve written about that elsewhere so; I won’t go into it here.

You can hear some disdain in Mosab’s voice when he says people feel the need to follow someone. I suppose, whereas at some point, he might have followed Jesus, he doesn’t say that anymore. Perhaps he feels he is now too elevated within his own consciousness. It takes humility to admit we need such guidance. If you go on his X account, he has over 200,000 followers but he doesn’t follow anyone. I can’t stand the term “follower". On the other hand, where would he be without all his followers. So, it is hypocritical to make the point that he won’t follow anyone, but people must follow him. I admit, I almost “unfollowed” him at that point.

He said he respects Sufis because they live what they believe rather than talking about it. He says they have ordinary jobs, like driving a taxi and they are content. I can agree with that. Words are meaningless without actions. Have you ever met a Christian who really follows Jesus? Who gave up everything? I have met a few. Most people are too weak.

We are all on a journey of discovery—but not self-discovery, which seems to be where Mosab is headed in this stage of his journey. He talks now about self-knowledge and that he has limitless potential, he can create whatever he wants of himself. I think he turned this way because he has been studying eastern mysticism. But what he doesn’t see is that he is being influenced, just like anybody else, first by Islam, then Christianity and now mystics. And that’s fine because who am I to say that he isn’t exactly on the path he should be, heading where he needs to go.

Ultimately, there is Truth. There has to be, or else how would we ever distinguish the lie. How would we know right from wrong. Truth is beyond our finite understanding, but we strive to understand it anyway. I think Mosab is one such hungry person, who really does seek the Truth.

I used to rebel against the Truth. I didn’t want to let go of my doubts. I didn’t want to rely on faith. I am not good at that. But, in my heart, as in all our hearts, I thirsted for my Creator. And no matter what we say, or how we complain about it or try to deny it, the absolute love of God is what we yearn for, and if we reject it, we open ourselves to the opposite. The absolute hate of Satan. We descend into hell. It isn’t God that does this to us. We do it to ourselves. As The Great Divorce so brilliantly illustrates, we create our own hell. We make that choice; we build its walls, and we move in. We even grow comfortable there and come to loathe giving it up.

I encourage you to read C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. That book changed my way of seeing heaven and hell and was instrumental in returning me to Faith. And I am the biggest Doubting Thomas, let me tell you.

None of us can ever live up to God’s absolutes. We are fallen, sinful humans who chose to defy God and we suffer for it. But no matter how much we don’t want to admit it; we all need salvation. And that takes humility. This is true whether you are Mosab Hassan Yousef, or Yahya Sinwar, or the plumber who lives down the street, or that Sufi driving a taxi, or you, or me.

With those thoughts, here is the interview.

As always, I am interested to hear what you think about all of this.

God bless you all, my dear readers and listeners. I pray that more people will open their eyes, turn away from the lies, see the truth.