Jason Jones has been working in the Holy Land, trying to get aid for Christians who are being persecuted by the Israeli defense forces in an unbelievable fashion. In this episode of the John Henry Weston Show, Jason Jones shares firsthand accounts of what is happening to Christians in Gaza.
00:14:43.420So you have this heresy or apostasy that really promulgates ethnic cleansing.
00:14:48.820It's new, and it's tragically inspiring a lot of Jew hatred and anti-Semitism, but the truth is that Zionism was birthed in the Christian world.
00:15:00.980There are more Christian Zionists than Jews who are Zionists.
00:15:05.040At the founding of Israel, most Jews rejected the state of Israel and rejected political Zionism, and the most religious Jews still do today.
00:15:12.460So one thing we should also guard ourselves, we don't want to have, and I'm sorry for this long rant, but we don't want to obviously inspire Jew hatred and anti-Semitism when we tell the truth about what the government of Israel is doing.
00:15:26.060And we should even forgive those Israelis who are swept away in enthusiasms of violence, as maybe we all have been in our series of wars that we've had over the past 30 years.
00:15:33.900And we've cheered on horrible things, our drone program, the shock and awe of the Iraq invasion, the sanctions on Iraq that killed tens of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children that we seemed indifferent to.
00:15:45.980So we would no more want to condemn Jews swept away, Israelis swept away by enthusiasms of violence.
00:15:55.060Even more so, it's absurd to blame, you know, that young Jews in America should suffer hatred and violence because of what a government of the world is doing today.
00:16:04.920But it's equally true that we shouldn't allow enthusiasms of violence and hatred and dehumanization against Arabs and against Muslims.
00:16:15.540It's so accepted that you can't even identify.
00:16:18.380It is so part of who we are that to point out anti-Arab hate is to upset people because they think it's justified, because they've been so inculcated in vicious prejudice.
00:16:31.280But just put this in perspective, in 1948, I think the Muslim, the Christian population of Palestine was 11 percent.
00:16:39.580In some places like Bethlehem, it was 72 percent.
00:16:42.360And those churches had been there forever.
00:20:26.940And the churches in the West is silent because in the Anglosphere specifically, where Zion, political Zionism began and not with Jews, but with Christians.
00:20:35.760It began in, in the, in the Protestant world.
00:20:39.120And then there was the Schofield Bible.
00:20:41.120I don't, I don't want to get into the whole bizarreness of the heresy because it's so absurd, but they, they, you know, you'll hear Protestants say, these Christians should give up their land, that this belongs to the Jews.
00:20:53.920But can I read you scripture really quick, John Henry?
00:26:05.220And without flinching, without missing a beat, he said Christian Zionism.
00:26:08.860I said, well, the reason why that's so is there is a foreign government that has run an aggressive influence campaign on the West, especially the Anglosphere, especially the United States, the UK, and for generations.
00:26:23.280And so you have been inculcated by propaganda.
00:26:27.360When I go to Protestant conferences over the years for my work, I'm shocked at how much money the Israeli lobby pours into evangelical and Protestant events.
00:26:38.360You know, we're not spending billions of dollars inculcating people in the Trinity.
00:26:42.460And there are even faux organizations that present themselves as Catholic.
00:26:47.080But at the end of the day, they never, as Christian Catholic human rights organizations, but all of their funding comes from the Israel lobby.
00:26:55.400And they never speak up for Christians when the interest of the Christians and the interest of Israel clash.
00:27:06.520They never condemn Israel for bombing churches and killing Christians in Israel, in Palestine, in Gaza, the West Bank.
00:27:13.900But even they were silent and actually tried to defend Israel funding and supplying Azerbaijan with weapons to ethnically cleanse the ancient Christian community of Artsakh, the Armenians.
00:27:28.280These, quote-unquote, Catholic organizations made videos and wrote articles saying that it was this complex and challenging geopolitical issue.
00:28:28.900In one state alone, 280 churches were burned down out of 340.
00:28:35.920You see that in the United States, the Israel lobby and the India lobby have linked arms and are running influence campaigns on the right, on the conservative movement.
00:28:48.360Imagine if we're so simple-minded, so simple, that we can be brainwashed to be silent on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East when they clash with Israel's perceived interests.
00:29:15.600But it's up to us, specifically as Catholics, because we are the universal church.
00:29:22.800We have co-religionists everywhere on earth.
00:29:25.980So it's quite scandalous that in my own parish, we never prayed for the persecuted church in Gaza or in West Bank or in India or in Artsakh.
00:29:38.280We never prayed for the persecuted church in Iraq.
00:30:15.120And I will be clear, the reason I founded my apostolate was to share with the world the truth about the incomparable dignity of the human person, regardless of ethnicity or religion, whether it's a child in the womb or a child in Gaza.
00:30:33.660Our activism, our humanitarian relief efforts, they're really just to exemplify the truth of the human person.
00:30:41.580A standing with people when it's dangerous, whether it's physical or political or reputational risk, we do that because we want to teach.
00:30:51.840We want to teach what solidarity looks like.
00:30:54.560And we want to show the world how you treat a creature made in the image and likeness of God.
00:31:01.120And that doesn't matter to me if they're Yazidi.
00:31:03.880I have people in my life who are Yazidi who I love.
00:31:20.420I have friends who are Palestinian Muslims and Jews.
00:31:24.160I have friends who are, can you believe, settlers and members of the IDF.
00:31:29.220God doesn't see Palestinian children or Jewish children or John Henry's children or my children.
00:31:34.460God sees his children, and we should have the eyes of Christ.
00:31:39.480And I don't want to see 15,000 children dead in Tel Aviv, and I don't want to see 15,000 children dead in Gaza.
00:31:48.120And where are those who are calling for peace in the world?
00:31:52.260There is the military-industrial complex's biggest grift.
00:31:56.240In Ukraine, we're throwing the Ukrainians into the gristmill.
00:32:01.240We never hear, how come we don't hear about the casualty numbers of Ukrainians?
00:32:04.660Because Americans would be horrified, and the grift would stop.
00:32:08.820We as Catholics, if we don't advocate for peace, no one will, and no one is.
00:32:12.700Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.
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00:32:47.620One of the things that I love about what you do and your men do is you go into these most dangerous situations and try and bring them aid.
00:32:56.520Tell us about your aid efforts in Gaza right now.
00:34:30.860There is just no doubt the World Kitchen convoy that was bombed and then repeatedly attacked until everyone was dead was not an accident.
00:34:40.360One would have to believe at the level of civilian casualties that the IDF is most definitely behaving much more immorally than Russia is in Ukraine.
00:35:38.300The banging on the, I believe, the holding cell or whatever.
00:35:43.220These are Israelis saying that it should be right for them to be able to rape these criminals who are part of the IDF, the soldiers, who are eventually freed.
00:39:58.100We can be swept away by violence and brutal and cruel enthusiasms.
00:40:04.660And what Rene Girard would say is, if you haven't been swept away by an enthusiasm of cruelty and violence when your community has been, it's only by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
00:40:16.340Even Peter, when he was in the crowd, was swept away and denied Christ.
00:40:50.140We dare but for the grace of God go I, is very, very real.
00:40:53.140Part of the necessity, though, is to recognize what is evil so that we can fight it, so that you can see the end result of the horror of choosing sin, the horror of choosing against Christ and of His way.
00:41:07.860To deify it, to make it as if it's a religion, to engage in this, to allow for this, is just, that's why I totally agree with you with regards to apostasy.
00:41:20.880It is a, it's a total abandonment of any kind of faith and true belief in Jesus Christ.
00:41:28.440Let me tell you how insane Christian Zionism is.
00:41:31.400They believe that we have to rebuild the Third Temple so the Antichrist can present himself, do a sacrifice, which denies Christ, and two-thirds of the Jews will follow the Antichrist and be killed and destroyed, and one-third will accept Christ.
00:41:47.100You know, some of them fudge the numbers, play with the numbers differently.
00:42:50.060To bolster your point, let me play for you this clip.
00:42:53.100This is Mother Miriam, former Jew, Rosalind Moss, became Protestant, an actual anti-Catholic Protestant for about 17 years, and then became a Catholic and then a nun.
00:43:04.660But watch what she has to say about this unwillingness to give Jews Jesus Christ.
00:43:36.160Mother Miriam, you spoke very precisely.
00:43:39.840And this we have to, we will commit a grave, grievous sin against the love of neighbor if we do not preach with love and conviction
00:43:52.920to the Jews of today, Jesus Christ as their only Savior, and also to the Muslims, to the Hindus, to all the people.
00:44:03.120She meant every word of that, and when she said that it's the greatest form of anti-Semitism, she was including the Holocaust.
00:44:12.220Because, you know, with the Holocaust, you're doing horrific things, killing, trying to ethnically cleanse them, but you're killing their bodies.
00:44:20.120With denying the Jews Jesus, you're trying to kill their eternal life.
00:45:51.820And the idea that there are Christians that have told me that when I hold that belief, when I say the Jew is not my other, the Muslim is not my other, the Jew is not my other, that in some way, that's anti-Semitic.
00:50:23.300But I think most of a friend of mine who's a very influential evangelical, I called him about another thing.
00:50:29.640I engaged him on some of his posts on social media and said, you need to know about what's happening to Christians in Gaza and the West Bank.
00:50:37.020He's a very good man, a very honest man, one of the most noble men I know.
00:50:39.480And he just actually said to me, Jason, I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know much about the issues.
00:50:45.460I just have, I see them as part of our coalition.
00:50:49.400And I guess it's like another bumper sticker I throw on, on, on, you know, on the car because they're an ally and on the team.
00:50:58.440And I promise you, I'm going to think, I'm going to think about it.
00:51:01.260When people begin to think about what's happening in the Middle East.
00:51:04.300And by the way, Khalil and the young woman I interviewed there, both independently and separately, shared with me that they're really afraid of the blowback on Jews around the world when the world understands, begins to recognize what happened in Gaza.
00:51:21.080Which I thought was so beautiful and so thoughtful.
00:51:23.720How could somebody that has a horrible toothache worry about, I might get a toothache someday, you know?
00:51:30.960So we need to, the devil is a judo master and we have to keep our balance and we have to, you know, in the Catholic space, I see Catholics swept away by anti-Arab, anti-Muslim prejudice and vile hatred.
00:51:49.120I see the same thing with Catholics who are swept away by Jew hatred and anti-Semitism.
00:51:54.660Someone I look to for guidance on how to deal with Zionism is St. Maximilian Kolbe.
00:52:02.960St. Maximilian Kolbe gave his priesthood to the conversion of Jews and Freemasons, died in Auschwitz, landed in Auschwitz because of standing up to the Nazis and speaking up for the Jews.
00:52:13.560But in the 20s and 30s, he was an outspoken critic of political Zionism.
00:52:20.000And you never see, his response to that was to pray for, love, and convert the Jews.
00:52:26.040That was his, you'll never see St. Maximilian Kolbe spew hatred.
00:52:31.940Who is that one lawyer, Zionist who, he went to Epstein Island, what is his name?
00:52:37.800Dershowitz, Alan Dershowitz, Alan Dershowitz was a big critic of St. Maximilian Kolbe during his canonization, saying he was an anti-Semite because he wanted to convert Jews.
00:52:48.000So, well, here's the deal, as a Christian, we want to convert everyone we meet, period.
00:52:56.040Now, I don't go, even with my work in the Middle East, I'm working in Afghanistan or I'm rescuing people.
00:53:00.360I'm not, I'm not proselytizing people in Muslim countries, putting them at risk.
00:53:05.560But what I do do, I hope, is just how I treat them, how I love them, makes them ask questions.
00:53:13.680You know, as St. Francis, I don't know if it's true, but we're told St. Francis said to preach the gospel all the time, use words only when necessary.
00:53:20.560I use words a lot, but through the Vulnerable People Project, we actually don't proselytize for many reasons.
00:53:26.160I don't think when you're pulling someone out of a burning building, it's a good time to try to get them to change the religion that everyone in their community who's suffering along with them holds to and their grandparents held to.
00:53:36.880What we do at that moment is just try to love them courageously and consistently with fortitude and over long periods of time.
00:53:50.680I'm pleased to announce the launch of the new LSN TV app, which can bring all LifeSite News' top video content direct to your phone, tablet, computer, and TV so that you can bypass the sensors and keep fighting with us for life, faith, family, and freedom.
00:54:48.260When you see the odd customs and traditions that seem odd to us of the Orthodox churches and the Catholics in Gaza, in Jerusalem, in the West Bank,
00:54:59.800yeah, it's probably closer to what the apostles and the church fathers knew than, you know, than my old parish that looked a lot like a Jehovah's Witness hall.
00:55:35.580There is Druze, which I've seen reports from geneticists that the Druze are actually probably the closest descendants ethnically to the Jews of the time of Jesus, second to the Samaritans and then the Christian Palestinians.
00:55:56.180But the Arabs, the Jews, the Christians, the Muslims, the Yazidis, all the people in the Middle East have been ambushed by history.
00:56:04.220And the line that we've been given that they're just a violent, uncivilized, barbaric people is, it's just that it's propaganda.
00:56:10.860You know, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it's been a bit chaotic for the past 100 years, where for long stretches of time, they lived well together.
00:56:23.280There were always enthusiasms of violence and cruelty that erupted.
00:56:26.920But we can look to the West, to World War I, World War II.
01:05:07.900And half the people that we save will grow up to hate us and be on the other side.
01:05:13.600That's where I learned to do the work of the Vulnerable People Project.
01:05:18.400And of course, the pro-life movement exists because it emanates from the social teaching of the Catholic Church.
01:05:24.380So let's just together stand with those the world has forgotten, from the child in the womb to the children in Gaza.
01:05:30.480And we're going to end off with that clip.
01:05:32.740So I wanted to, before we do that, Jason, just thank you.
01:05:35.200Thank you on behalf of LifeSite, of all of our donors who are able to contribute to your project and therefore partner with you in helping the Christians and everyone else in the Holy Land, this land of Christ's own birth and his life.
01:05:50.140And we're really called to look to that land in a particular way because, in a lot of ways, it's our heritage as well.
01:05:57.100Why don't we, before we get to the final clip, we'll just pray, pray Hail Mary together just for the Christians in Gaza that are suffering so badly, for the recognition of their plight, that their own brothers and sisters, Catholics, Christians around the world, wake up and see them and see the tragedy that they're going through.
01:06:18.440Unite ourselves with them and do whatever we can to support them.
01:06:21.100Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
01:06:25.080Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
01:06:31.500Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
01:06:42.640We'll see you next time, and watch this clip.
01:06:51.100We'll see you next time, and we'll see you next time.
01:07:21.100Just to get targeted mercilessly and killing innocent people who had nothing to do with anything with them.
01:07:47.420We couldn't believe that Israel bombed the church.
01:07:51.720One older woman and her daughter, holding her hand to take her to the restroom, were shot in the head and killed, both of them, by Israeli snipers.
01:08:01.360And seven Catholic men who tried to come out and kill them, were shot in the legs.
01:08:05.300Christianity in Gaza is something that has been there forever.
01:08:23.280Part of the combat of the church was bombed, and my sister was there.