Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, part fifteen

Today, May 1, 2025, is the Feast of Saints Philip and James in fully traditional Catholic chapels where the General Roman Calendar of 1954 is followed.

While Saint Philip died a martyr in Phrygia at the hands of pagans, Saint James the Less, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Jews in Jerusalem because they refused to accede to their demands stop preaching about Our Risen Saviour, Christ the King.

As we know, things have not changed very much, if at all, in the land where Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ spent His life here on earth to sanctify domestic life and manual labor, to preach and perform miracles unlike any who had gone before Him, to undergo His Passion Death to redeem us from our sins and make it possible for us to have everlasting life with Him in Heaven, and then to rise from the dead on to manifest His Easter Victory He won for us on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday. Contemporary Talmudists, especially those who adhere to the political, ideological zealotry that is Zionism, are just as hateful of Our Lord, His Holy Church, and even the heretics outside of her maternal bosom who profess His Holy Name and want to pay Him the adoration, honor, and glory that are His due:

Thousands of Palestinian Christians have been blocked by Israel from marking Good Friday at Jerusalem's holy sites. 

After Israeli authorities barred Palestinians from the occupied West Bank from celebrating Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, they are now preventing them from obtaining permits to participate in Holy Week activities — particularly Good Friday observances, as well as celebrations for Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. 

Good Friday commemorates the day Christ was crucified at Calvary, which is located inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Israeli restrictions are preventing tens of thousands of Christians from the West Bank from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, preventing them from participating in a key element of their faith.

The Old City and the area around the church — where the tomb of Christ is located — have been placed under a heavy Israeli police presence.

Hundreds of Christians did manage to march through the alleys of the Old City, participating in the Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa (the "Way of Sorrows") towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, amid a noticeable presence of Israeli security forces.

However, the vast majority of these worshippers were local residents and foreign tourists, with the complete absence of Christian West Bank residents due to the Israeli restrictions. 

Father Issa Musleh, spokesperson for the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, confirmed to Anadolu Agency that Israel is denying entry permits to West Bank Palestinians.

He pointed out that the Israeli restrictions imposed on Palestinian Christians during Holy Week — including today’s Good Friday and Easter Sunday — are the same as those enforced against Muslims during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.

Christian leaders have also decided to limit worship and celebrations to churches in protest at Israel's war on Gaza.

Musleh explained that this year’s celebrations "are limited to religious ceremonies due to the war on the Gaza Strip," which Israel has been waging for more than a year and a half.

A fragile truce had interrupted the fighting for less than two months following a ceasefire announced on January 19, 2025, before Israeli forces resumed their brutal offensive on 18 March. 

"We, the heads of churches and clergy, have all decided to limit the celebrations to religious rituals, given what is happening in Gaza and in the refugee camps of the West Bank amid global silence," he added.

"All we can do is pray for beloved Gaza and condemn the killing of children, women, and the elderly, as well as the destruction of homes."

The Christian population of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank have practiced their religion in the city for over almost two millennia.

However, increasingly draconian regulations over Palestinian movement by Israel threaten these ancient traditions, with Israel using the war on Gaza as a pretext to make the granting of military permits to Palestinians to visit Jerusalem, and most other places across the occupied territories, almost impossible.

This Easter, Israel announced it had issued 6,000 permits, though there are over 50,000 Christians – mostly Catholic or Greek Orthodox – living in the West Bank beyond East Jerusalem.

However, in reality, Christian leaders have said that just 4,000 were given, and often only to a few members of each family who applied. (Israel stops Palestinians from marking Good Friday in Jerusalem.)

Even the pro-abortion, pro-contraception, pro-sodomy, pro-One World Order and globalism’s global reset of humanity the World Council of Churches denounced the Israeli restrictions upon Christian worshipers to enter Jerusalem on Good Friday:

At the main checkpoint near the New Gate, hundreds of worshippers were held for over an hour. During this time, many were pushed, beaten, and subjected to derogatory remarks. At least three individuals were arrested. Eyewitnesses reported hearing police officers shout, “Why are you here? Go home,” and “We will not allow you in.”

Those who managed to pass encountered two more checkpoints in quick succession. At the second checkpoint, under the heat of the sun and in a narrow alley, the crowd was again delayed and jostled. At the third, access to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate was blocked by barricades and security forces. A particularly alarming incident occurred when a scout leader had a pistol pointed at his head by an officer—marking the first time a firearm was visibly used inside the patriarchate to threaten the crowd during this event. The traditional scouts’ parade was cancelled this year, as scout groups were denied entry.

A priest at one of the checkpoints told the faithful that he was powerless to assist them. Even the Apostolic Nuncio, present among the worshippers, was not allowed to proceed. Inside the Patriarchate, additional barricades and a heavy security presence contributed to a climate of fear and intimidation.

Local Christians described these as the most severe restrictions imposed since 1967, despite prior assurances from Israeli authorities that access would be eased. Hanna Kirreh, a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Jerusalem Liaison Office advisory committee, described the treatment as “deliberate and provocative,” adding, “We ask for freedom of worship and access to our holy sites, but each year it becomes worse. Our presence is under threat.”

Mayadah Tarazi, also a member of the JLO advisory committee, lamented: “What should have been a moment of spiritual joy turned into a painful reminder of the daily oppression and restrictions we face under occupation.”

This year’s Holy Fire observance coincided with a rare leap-year convergence of the Eastern and Western Christian calendars. Bishop William Shomali, Latin Patriarchal vicar, observed: “There was discontent among many local Christians and some pilgrims due to the closures and the lack of dialogue at some barriers. The numbers allowed to reach the Holy Sepulchre plaza were less than the capacity of the plaza itself which seemed, during the Orthodox Holy fire ceremony, half filled.”

Dr Audeh Quawas, member of the WCC central and executive committees, reflected: “I believe in the Resurrection and that Christ’s tomb is empty. But the checkpoints and violence remind us of our responsibility to pursue justice, equality, and peace in His name.”

 (Holy Fire Saturday in Jerusalem banned to Jerusalemites, marked with Israeli checkpoints and violence.)

Putting aside the World Council of Church’s call for religious freedom, “coexistence” and “shared holiness” have nothing to do with the authentic teaching of Holy Mother Church while acknowledging that our popes have always recognized the realities in which her children live and thus will make concessions in light of those realities without ever conceding any rights to error nor denying the truths of the Holy Faith, Jerusalem belongs to Christ the King and His Catholic Church and to no one and nothing else, not to Talmudism, not to Zionism, and not to Mohammedanism.

This is a truth that even many Catholics understand, including the ideologues and Judaizers with the walls of the cement palace in Washington, District of Columbia, that houses the misnamed United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as it was only four months ago that its apparatchiks gave their imprimatur to a piece of rubbish produced by the America Jewish Committee, “Translate Hate,” that equated opposition to Zionism and thus to the policies of the Israeli government as anti-Semitic, falsehoods I dissected in a three-part series: Ever At the Service of Those Who Deny Christ the King Before Men, part one, Ever At the Service of Those Who Deny Christ the King Before Men, part two, and Ever At the Service of Those Who Deny Christ the King Before Men, part three.

“Translate Hate” has upset even some conciliar leaders in the Holy Land whose people are suffering under the yoke of general Talmudic hatred of Christ the King and His Holy Church and the daily Zionist attacks upon Gaza that have decimated the small minority of Palestinian Christians who are still there, attacks that have targeted Christian churches, shrines, and hospitals and have killed untold thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians, Christians and Mohammedans likes.

The following is a brief letter, admittedly flawed as it states that its opposition to Zionism and Israeli genocide does not represent opposition to Judaism even though we are duty bound to oppose Judaism and to seek the conversion of Jews and all non-Catholics, sent by these conciliar officials to “Archbishop” Timothy Broglio and the conciliar officials who endorsed the AJC’s Translate Hate document:

It has also been adopted without any form of consultation with Palestinian Christians, rendering us invisible and nonexistent in a discourse that directly impacts our lives and communities. The document’s failure to address hate speech propagated on the Israeli side renders it fundamentally biased, effectively turning it into a form of hate speech against Palestinians.

As followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to speak truth to power and stand for justice. Jesus Himself declared, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). This document misrepresents our struggle and seeks to silence voices advocating for truth and justice in the Holy Land. It negates also the immense injustices inflicted upon Palestinians, including the indigenous Christian community whose presence in the Holy Land is on the verge of extinction. 

It is essential to affirm that our criticisms of Israel’s policies and the actions of its leaders are not directed at Jewish communities or Judaism itself. Israel and its policies must not be conflated with Jewish identity, and our call for accountability is not an expression of antisemitism. Rather, it is a moral and just demand for peace, security, and dignity—for Palestinians and for Jewish communities alike. True justice does not come at the expense of one people over another but ensures the safety and rights of all. In this context, adopting the Jerusalem Declaration or the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism is highly problematic, as the IHRA’s definition dangerously equates Zionism with Judaism - despite the fact that thousands of Jews around the world reject Zionism as a political ideology.

The document claims that accusations of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine are “categorically false,” disregarding overwhelming evidence from organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’Tselem and many Israeli historians, even many early Zionist figures such as Ze'ev Jabotinsky. It equates Palestinian resistance with antisemitism, a dangerous conflation that distorts reality and undermines legitimate criticism of Israeli racist laws and policies. We categorically reject all forms of antisemitism, just as we reject any attempt to use this charge to justify oppression and to criminalize our legitimate struggle for our basic rights and our right for self-determination.

Furthermore, the document’s selective portrayal of history omits the staggering Palestinian casualties in Israel’s wars against our people in their quest for freedom. Most egregiously, it ignores the current devastation in Gaza, where entire families— our families—have perished, and where churches sheltering the innocent have not been spared Israeli bombardment. Even Pope Francis has condemned this cruelty, lamenting, “So much cruelty. Children machine-gunned, schools and hospitals bombed.”

By partnering in this document, the USCCB has alienated the indigenous Christians of the Holy Land, causing deep pain to a community struggling for survival. Ignoring their unalienable rights to live in their ancestral homeland and offering the State of Israel a justification for their forced displacement by considering their human and national rights as blood libels, only deepens this harm. We urge you to reconsider your stance and retract this endorsement. We need the Church’s voice to stand with justice and truth, not with narratives that conceal suffering and excuse oppression. (Letter.)

The contemporary disregard for the inviolability of all innocent human life has manifested itself very clearly in the daily slaughter of the preborn, both by chemical and surgical means, as well as in the institutionalization of in vitro fertilization, the medical industry’s manufactured, profit-making myth of “brain death,” the “starvation and dehydration of brain-damaged human beings, palliative care/hospice, euthanasia, forced euthanasia, suicide, assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide and in a myriad of other ways, Most of these attacks upon human life have been promoted secular Jewish organizations, whose attorneys have been in the forefront of judicial edicts and legislative enactments that have resulted in the acceptance of sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance as “acts of mercy” that constitute “core” human “rights” and thus can and must be defended and celebrated throughout what passes for popular culture.

Mind you, this is not to condemn Jewish people nor to sanction any kind of violence against them whatsoever as their immortal souls have been redeemed by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ even though they reject this fact out of hand. We pray for the conversion of one and all to the true Faith while making to treat all others with dignity and respect. Every person we meet or encounter during the course of our lives within the Providence of God must be the object of our prayers, if not particularly, then generally. We will never know until eternity the fruit of our prayers for others if we offer them up with a pure intention and for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

These important points having been noted, though, it is nevertheless true that there are human actors who have played their parts in creating the world without God and the state without the true Church by suppressing the Holy Name of Jesus and then stigmatizing those who profess the Holy Name as “bigoted” “haters,” and it is an undeniable fact that one of the chief goals of Talmudism and Judeo-Masonry is the de facto social, if not legal, criminalization of professing the Holy Name and of defending the Social Reign of Christ the King publicly.

Writing in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record nearly a century ago, Father Edward Cahill pointed out the chief goals of Judeo-Masonry in constructing a civil state and social structure that has no room for Christ the King and His Holy Catholic Church. Faher Cahill explained the ultimate goal of Talmudists was to infilitrate the Catholic Church as Theodore Herzl, the founder of International Zionism, had done with Protestant sects with great success first of all by creating reliable agents from within who would work to supress Catholic docrine before replacing it with the Judeo-Masonic ethos. It was in recognitition of this insidious goal that the Holy Office issued a condemnation of the Friends of Israel in 1928, something that Father Cahill discussed in his collected series of articles:

On March 28, 1928, the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office issued an important decision of the Holy See on ‘the nature and purpose of the Association called Friends of Irsael and on the pamphlet entitled Pax super Israel, edited by the directors of the Association. Although ‘many priests, bishops and even cardinal gave their adhesion to this association,’ the Sacred Congregation condemns and completely suppresses it, by reason of ‘its mode of acting and speaking which is out of harmony with the traditional sense of the Church, the mind of the Fathers and even the Sacred liturgy itself.

The secularist Press, which is mostly controlled by the great Jewish financiers, immediately showed its appreciation for the importance of the decree by striving in the decree by striving to misrepresent it as a gesture of disapproval on the part of the Holy See of Catholic anti-masonic writes, whereas the contrary is the case. The decree is an authoritative reassertion of the traditional attitude of the Church towards the Jewish people. The Church desires sincerely the conversion of the Jews to the true Faith. But she cannot compromise with them any more than she can with the Modernists or even with the so-called Anglo-Catholics. Hence, in the present decree, the Holy See takes measures against the Masonic and Jewish infiltrations into the Church, which were being attempted through the medium of the condemned association and pamphlet. On the other hand she also reprobates as contrary to the Christian spirit and teaching Anti-Semitism, properly so-called, just as she reprobates anti-Germanism or any other similar anti-ism that would imply ‘racial or national hatred.’ But to follow the direction of Leo XIII and ‘tear away the mask from Freemasonry and let it be seen as it really is,’ is not anti-Semitism even when Freemasons in question are Jews; and needless to say, the Holy See does not follow the example of the Masonic sectaries in misapplying the term. (Father E. Cahill, S.J., “Freemasonry: VI: The Jewish Element in Freemasonry, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 1929.)

First, Father Cahill pointed out Holy Office had suppressed the “Friends of Israel” association because it had a “mode of acting and speaking which is out of harmony with the traditional sense of the Church, the mind of the Fathers and even the Sacred liturgy itself.” Yet it is that the counterfeit church of conciliarism has adopted this very mode of “acting and speaking” in a manner that is “out of harmony with the traditional sense of the Church, the mind of the Fathers and even the Sacred liturgy.” Father Cahill defended Catholic doctrine. The conciliarists promote that which is anti-Christ, placing them in league with the Talmudists, who have long sought to eradicate all mention of the Holy Name of Jesus from public life, which is precisely tha Bergoglio did yesterday save for those three references to "Jesus" without referring to Him as Our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it any accident that the Argentine Apostate almost never uses that reverent manner of speaking about the Divine Redeemer?

Second, Father Cahill pointed out that the decree of the Holy Office against the Friends of Israel association defended Catholic doctrine concerning the Jews that has been abandoned by the conciliarists, who have termed it “anti-Semitic” even to speak about any necessity of seeking the conversion of the Jews to the true Faith before they die or to oppose their schemes for the further de-Christianization.

Consider the following words once again:

The decree is an authoritative reassertion of the traditional attitude of the Church towards the Jewish people. The Church desires sincerely the conversion of the Jews to the true Faith. But she cannot compromise with them any more than she can with the Modernists or even with the so-called Anglo-Catholics. Hence, in the present decree, the Holy See takes measures against the Masonic and Jewish infiltrations into the Church, which were being attempted through the medium of the condemned association and pamphlet.  (Father E. Cahill, S.J., “Freemasonry: VI: The Jewish Element in Freemasonry, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 1929.)

Have the conciliar “popes” sought the conversion of the Jews?

Indeed, we have been told by the likes of conciliar revolutionaries that the Catholic Church has no "organized mission to preach to the Jews," who somehow get to be “saved” all on their own. Putative “popes” have gone into Talmudic synagogues content to be treated as inferiors as they have treated this false religion with respect and esteemed its symbols that belong to the devil himself.

The suffering being imposed upon the Palestinian is being undertaken with the full support of the administration of President Donald John Trump even though he has tried to change his pal Benjamin Netanyahu’s mine to permit humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. Trump persists in his blind support for the human carnage of infrastructure wreckage in Gaza that the Israelis have undertaken because of their fundamental contempt of Arabs, both Mohammedan and Christian, and because of their fervor to “restore” a “Greater Israel” that is directly opposed to the will of God.

A secular Jewish writer, Ilana Mercer, who uses rather indelicate language, shall we say, and who does not understand that both Talmudists and Mohammedans are mirror images of each other as their immortal souls are slaves to the devil by means of Original Sin even though they are not subjectively aware of this objective fact, has written about this genocide and so has Protestant author Chuck Baldwin, who is one of the few non-Zionist Protestant ministers even though he does not realize that Protestantism is a diabolically inspired and maintained revolution against the Divine Plan that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ instituted to effect man’s return to Him through His Catholic Church and that “where is no Mass there is no Christianity,” has done so repeatedly, including in one of more recent columns:

On Donald Trump’s Truth Social page this week, Trump wrote (or more likely someone wrote on his behalf):

This Holy Week, Christians around the World remember the Crucifixion of God’s Only Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate His Glorious Resurrection and proclaim, as Christians have done for nearly 2,000 years, “HE IS RISEN!”

Through the pain and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we saw God’s boundless Love and Devotion to all Humanity and, in that moment of His Resurrection, History was forever changed with the Promise of Everlasting Life.

It would be a wonderful Resurrection Sunday greeting, if the man who sent it didn’t possess such an intense antichrist spirit. Trump callously partners with a murderous madman, Benjamin Netanyahu, and slaughters tens of thousands of Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian Christians who would love to be peacefully, joyously celebrating Resurrection Sunday with their families, but instead, they are starving, bleeding, weeping and dying under the U.S./Israeli genocide. This message was nothing more than pathetic pandering to Trump’s already super-duped evangelical base—an evangelical base that has ZERO conscience about the death and destruction that they and their political messiah are inflicting on innocent people in too many countries to even count. With such a dead conscience, how can they possess the “Spirit of life”? (Romans 8:2; Revelation 11:11)

Trump himself told evangelicals in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit on July 26, 2024, “I’m not Christian.” (See also this report of the event.) This makes him a Christ-rejector, a man headed for Hell (John 14:6; Acts 4:10 -12) and, by his fanatical, unconditional support for Jewish Pharisaism, a child of the devil (John 8:44).

And what did Trump mean when he told evangelicals at the above summit, “You won’t have to vote anymore” after 2024? Is Trump really planning to be the first American Caesar in 2028?

Remember what I wrote in this column on April 3:

Also in my message last Sunday, I quoted from an article by Jesse Smith in Technocracy.News entitled Trump’s Staff is Stuffed with Peter Thiel’s ‘Counter-Elite’ Technocrats:

Trump is barely two months into his second term and a republican think-tank called the Third Term Project is seeking ways to have him remain in office beyond his current stint, which expires in 2028. They’re working on amending the Constitution to enable this possibility. Their promotional items depict Trump as a Roman Caesar.

I urge readers to take a look at this placard promoting the Third Term Project that appeared at the recent CPAC convention doing exactly as Jesse said: depicting Trump as a Roman Caesar.

Smith went on to write:

Coincidentally, Musk posted that “America is New Rome” last November.

Trump just selected a radical Zionist Jew as “special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.”

From the Times of Israel:

US President Donald Trump has selected a new special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, elevating a Miami businessman and fundraiser named Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to the role.

“Yehuda is a successful businessman, and staunch advocate for the Jewish Faith and the Rights of his people to live and worship free from persecution,” Trump said on Truth Social, announcing his selection.

Kaploun is affiliated with Chabad, the Orthodox movement, and was a fundraiser and surrogate for Trump during last year’s campaign.

I urge readers to watch my message The Talmud, Chabadism And Noahide Laws to understand the nefarious, devilish underpinnings and objectives of the Jewish Chabad movement.

What about the rights of the American people—including Christian people—to speak freely and honestly about the murderous, genocidal government in Israel? Trump is setting in motion the dismantlement of the First Amendment freedom of speech in the U.S., where no one will be able to criticize—orally or in print—Benjamin Netanyahu, the Zionist wars of ethnic cleansing or even Israel itself.

In his Easter address, Trump says, “Christians around the World remember the Crucifixion of God’s Only Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” He says, “Through the pain and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we saw God’s boundless Love and Devotion to all Humanity.”

Trump twice references Christ’s death on the Cross, but as I noted in my message The Arrest And Betrayal Of Jesus Christ, official government policy under Joe Biden and Donald Trump is recognition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and its definitions of antisemitism, which were written by Jewish Zionists. One of those definitions is: Claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel. The Trump administration and many state governments are using that definition to persecute and prosecute people in America today. Under Trump’s official U.S. policy, the entire New Testament could be designated as antisemitic using this definition. . . .

How long will it be before Donald Trump’s Secret Police led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun get around to categorizing the New Testament—and anyone who preaches it—as antisemitic and thus subject to criminal prosecution?

Trump speak with forked tongue! (Trump’s Easter Message Remembers Christ’s Crucifixion, While Trump Himself Denies The New Testament Record of That Crucifixion.)

Omitted from this column were Mr. Baldwin’s references to what could be construed as “anti-Semitic” passages from the heretical King James Version of the New Testament. However. I will provide readers with faithful English translation of a few of those pasages as found in the Douay-Rheims Bible:

And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he [Saint John the Baptist] said to them: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matthew 3: 7.)

And the Pharisees going out made a consultation against him, how they might destroy him. (Matthew 12: 14.)

Which of the two did the father's will? They say to him: The first. Jesus saith to them: Amen I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you. (Matthew 21: 31.)

Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof.  44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.  45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they knew that he spoke of them. (Matthew 21: 43-45.)

12 And from henceforth Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying: If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar's friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar.  13 Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat, in the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha.  14 And it was the parasceve of the pasch, about the sixth hour, and he saith to the Jews: Behold your king.  15 But they cried out: Away with him; away with him; crucify him. Pilate saith to them: Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar. 16. Then therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him forth. (John 19: 12-16.)

To this partial listing of the passages cited by Chuck Baldwin I will add one of my own:

[12] Again therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying: I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. [13] The Pharisees therefore said to him: Thou givest testimony of thyself: thy testimony is not true. [14] Jesus answered, and said to them: Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go: but you know not whence I come, or whither I go. [15] You judge according to the flesh: I judge not any man.

[16] And if I do judge, my judgment is true: because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. [17] And in your law it is written, that the testimony of two men is true. [18] I am one that give testimony of myself: and the Father that sent me giveth testimony of me. [19] They said therefore to him: Where is thy Father? Jesus answered: Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also. [20] These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple: and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.

[21] Again therefore Jesus said to them: I go, and you shall seek me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. [22] The Jews therefore said: Will he kill himself, because he said: Whither I go, you cannot come? [23] And he said to them: You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. [24] Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin. [25] They said therefore to him: Who art thou? Jesus said to them: The beginning, who also speak unto you.

[26] Many things I have to speak and to judge of you. But he that sent me, is true: and the things I have heard of him, these same I speak in the world. [27] And they understood not, that he called God his Father. [28] Jesus therefore said to them: When you shall have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know, that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught me, these things I speak: [29] And he that sent me, is with me, and he hath not left me alone: for I do always the things that please him. [30] When he spoke these things, many believed in him.

[31] Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. [32] And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [33] They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man: how sayest thou: you shall be free? [34] Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. [35] Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever.

[36] If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. [37] I know that you are the children of Abraham: but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. [38] I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father. [39] They answered, and said to him: Abraham is our father. Jesus saith to them: If you be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. [40] But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God. This Abraham did not.

[41] You do the works of your father. They said therefore to him: We are not born of fornication: we have one Father, even God. [42] Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me: [43] Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. [44] You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. [45] But if I say the truth, you believe me not.

[46] Which of you shall convict me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? [47] He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. [48] The Jews therefore answered, and said to him: Do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? [49] Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me. [50] But I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.

[51] Amen, amen I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. [52] The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. [53] Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? [54] Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God. [55] And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word.

[56] Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. [57] The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? [58] Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. [59] They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. (John 8: 12-59.)

“You will die in your sin.”

The conciliar “popes” and stooges of theirs such as Trail Blazing Cupich have left the Talmudists of today to die in their sins because they not only refuse to exhort them to convert to the Catholic Church, from which they, the conciliar revolutionaries, have expelled themselves by their own unbelief, but because they chastise and condemn Catholics within the conciliar structures who have tried to exhort Jewish friends and acquaintances to convert. The sad, tragic irony of this is that the conciliar revolutionaries themselves will die in their own sins and thus join their fellow non-Catholics in hell for all eternity to suffer the punishment deserving of reprobated souls.

There is almost no one in public life today who understands that, while we are to treat all non-Catholics with respect and dignity and never to will harm to any innocent human being, all false religions, including Talmudism, belongs to the kingdom satan and it is thus a duty of Catholics to oppose error and seek the conversion of all non-Catholics, if only by prayers to Our Lady, and to distributed blessed Green Scapulars and make reparation for our own sins by offering up all the sufferings of the moment as the consecrated slaves of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

It as those consecrated slaves of Our Lord through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary that we can never blind eye to suffering imposed upon the people of Gaza by the Israeli Zionists, whose contempt for non-Christian lives and shrines has been documented many times on this site, including in part fourteen of this series last month. Catholics must not let the charismatic appeal of President Donald John Trump lull them into the belief that he is anything other than a Judeo-Masonic-influence naturalist who is oblivious to the fact that the ethnic cleansing and genocide that has been ongoing against the Palestinians since 1948 is actually affecting the public health and safety of Israeli civilians:

Gaza is suffering the most intense bombing, per capita, of anywhere on earth, ever.

Over 100,000 tons of bombs have been dropped on Gaza, an area slightly smaller than the City of Detroit, Michigan, resulting in the recorded deaths of at least 60,000 Gazans and injuries to hundreds of thousands.

It is impossible to overstate the effects of the abominable bombing war on Gazans, their lives, their families, their health, and their communities.

What has escaped attention up until now is the undeniable environmental and health effects of the bombing of Gazans on Israelis, as well as on citizens of neighboring states, and the potential harm to U.S. military personnel in the region.

A study of explosion physics based on declassified Department of Defense data, as well as blast temperature data and consequent emissions; a review of wind patterns, together with publicly available data of health effects from 9/11, as well as data gathered from U.S. veterans of the Persian Gulf War, yield a shocking conclusion.
Israel, in executing the unprecedented bombing attack on Gaza, is, in effect, bombing itself, with grave consequences for the public health of its people. What is being visited upon Gaza does not stay in Gaza.

The sustained bombing of Gaza pulverizes stone, heavy metals, and the human body. The vaporizing of human beings under extreme heat and pressure combines with dust, water vapor, and metallic particles the size of microns, all blasted upwards, aerosolized, wind-driven across borders, into Israel and surrounding countries.The unlimited bombing of Gaza has created an unparalleled ecological and biomedical feedback loop. Israel exhales death in Gaza and inhales the Gaza it has vaporized.

Israel, in bombing neighboring Gaza, is breathing in its own fallout, along with the vaporized remains of its declared enemies. The external consequences of violence becomes internalized. The substance of the oppressed communes with the oppressor.

On a clinical level, breathing in bioaerosols can compromise human immune systems.⁴ Breathing in ultrafine particles from non-biological war dust can cross the blood-brain barrier and contribute to neurodegenerative disease.⁵

Israel and the Palestinians share a common atmosphere. They inhale the same war dust, from bomb materials, carbon soot, and the fine particle remains of vaporized Gazans.

Human cremation occurs at temperatures between 1,400°F and 1,800°F. The blast temperatures of the bombs identified as being dropped on Gaza—MK-84 bombs: 4,496°F; GBU-39s: 4,892°F; BLU-109s: 3,632°F—far exceed this range. In comparison, blast furnaces used to melt steel operate at 2,500°F to 2,800°F.

People at the epicenter of such bombings in Gaza are instantly turned into dust. This is a factor confounding the determination of exactly how many people have perished in Gaza since October 2023. How can an accurate body count be achieved if bodies have been turned to smoke and ash?

Let’s look at 9/11. The total confirmed dead: 2,753. Almost 40% of the victims were never identified, as their bodies were fragmented or vaporized, reduced to dust.

When a bomb hits its target—for example, a tent city—the high-temperature explosion can vaporize a person so thoroughly that microscopic particles of DNA and loose molecules are suspended in air, mingling with dust and smoke as bioaerosols.

These biologicals—DNA and fat in human tissue—turn to carbon, black dust, and smoke. The minerals of bones and teeth, skeletal dust, go airborne. Fragments of cells can float in the air, bubbles holding fat, bone, and broken DNA strands travel with the wind and are breathed in dozens of miles from the blast site.

It is not only the superheat that destroys the human body. The explosive force of a bomb, in terms of pounds per square inch (psi), can produce vaporization at the blast site, an impact equivalent to a plane plunging into the earth at high speed.

As 100,000 tons of bombs have been dropped in Gaza, the matter destroyed takes a different form, as toxic pollutants carried aloft in gas, dust, vapor, and particulates.

Specifically, toxic quantities of cadmium, nickel, lead, mercury, and arsenic are released into the air, together with dioxins, furans, PCBs, (polychlorinated biphenyls); PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and VOCs (volatile organic compounds).

One calculation indicates that 100,000 tons of bombs, exploded in a densely populated area of Gaza, can generate between 800,000 to 1.2 million tons of pollution.

Add to this the dust of Gazans’ human remains and you have extreme airborne consequences carried by the wind, directly into Israel, particularly the central and northern regions, and far beyond.

There are relevant comparisons for the health effects of a tremendous explosion in an urban area. A month after 9/11, people in Manhattan began to develop chronic coughs.

A longitudinal study of members of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) revealed that after six months, firemen began to suffer from chronic bronchitis; others saw the onset of pulmonary fibrosis.

Two years after 9/11, a higher incidence of thyroid, prostate, breast, and other cancers arose among those exposed to 9/11 contaminants. Early-onset neurodegenerative, Alzheimer’s-type symptoms presented after five years or longer.

Based on epidemiological data from studies of those near the people and buildings destroyed on 9/11, certain health effects can be anticipated in Israel.

The people of Sderot, Netivot, Be’er Sheva—all within a short distance of Gaza—are at high risk of long-term health effects of the bombing. Ashkelon and Tel Aviv have been exposed to environmental consequences, as has northern Israel and even Jordan.

While Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection operates air-monitoring stations at sites proximate to Gaza, it would be instructive, given the intensity of the bombing, to see if the effects of war-related pollution are being fully disclosed to the Israeli public.

Given the unprecedented levels of bombing in Gaza, the types of bombs used, their explosive power, the extent of physical destruction, the extraordinary number of casualties, the creation of large plumes of black smoke containing the genetic material of burned and vaporized Gazans, the people of Israel—on the other side of the Gaza boundary—will likely experience increased levels of respiratory illness, asthma-like and other pulmonary diseases, and a sharp increase in cancer as a direct result of being exposed to toxic airborne substances present at a microscopic level.

Added to this direct hazard is the ongoing recirculation of wind across the vast hellscape to which Gaza has been reduced. That, too, will sweep up and redistribute the contaminants from the over 50 million tons of debris from the land of Gaza to the land of Israel.

At this point, the calamity which has befallen Gaza as a result of incessant bombing will visit, in various forms and degrees of harm, southern and central Israel, western Jordan, the northeast Sinai Peninsula, northern Egypt (Delta and Cairo), Lebanon, Cyprus, southwestern Syria, northwestern Saudi Arabia, southeastern Turkey, Crete, Greece, Sicily, and Malta. Additionally, sea spray can carry aerosolized particles clear across the Mediterranean Sea.

The United States has a substantial number of Naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean, including two aircraft carriers, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as numerous other assault ships.

U.S. military installations are present at Incirlik, Turkey, Naples, Italy, Cyprus, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. All face “war dust” pollution hazards as a result of the bombing of Gaza.

I know well the adverse health consequences suffered by US servicemen and women who served in the Persian Gulf War, 1990–1991.

Veterans of that war came to my congressional office complaining of constant pain, neurological, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms, all of which were ignored or covered up by the Department of Defense.

As a Member of Congress, over the objections of the Department of Defense, I took up the cause of veterans who suffered what came to be known as Gulf War Illness, a multi-symptom condition still affecting, to this very day, nearly 245,000 veterans of the Persian Gulf War.

Bernie Sanders and I worked together in Congress to obtain funding for research into GWI, which is now a medically recognized, war-related condition.

When you see the measurable, catastrophic effect which war environments can have on those who serve, and the measurable catastrophic effect of those proximate to the 9/11 attacks, and the indefensible obliteration bombing of Gaza and its people, you may come to an understanding of the wholly fallacious notion of the containment of war and why I assert Israel is bombing itself.

The bombing of Gaza has created a human health crisis which cannot be ignored any longer. (War Dust and Collateral Inhalation: Israel Breathes in Gaza’s Dust.)

The author of this detailed analysis, former Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, and former United States Representative from Ohio Dennis Kucinich, is a pro-abortion, pro-sodomite statist ideologue of the first order. It must be remembered, though, that even a blind mouse can find cheese and a broken clock is correct twice a day. In this instance, therefore, the seventy-eight year-old Dennis Kucinich, is quite correct, especially since he was one of only a handful of members of the United States House of Representatives who question the official government narrative about the tragic events of September 11, 2021, and, as he mentioned in article, also had to deal with Gulf War veterans injured by the American weapons used to recapture Kuwait from the forces of Saddam Hussein after he invaded the country following assurances given him United States Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie in April of 1990 that the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush had no policy with regard to Iraq’s border dispute with Kuwait (I will paste a transcription of the exchange between Sadam Hussein and April Glaspie that will show a different side of Hussein than that portrayed in the American media. The man was corrupt and a brutal thug, especially to the Kurds, against whom he used the poison gasses provided by United States Envoy to the Middle East Donald Rumsfeld in 1985 when Iraq was in the middle of its nine-year war with the Islamic Republic of Iran.)

The government of the United States of America is participating in genocide that has been going on since even before the founding of the Zionist State of Israel on May 1, 1948, seventy-eight years ago today. A new book, written a self-professed Protestant “pastor,” explains the horrors of what has been happening in the Holy Land for the past nearly eight decades:

There is surely no ongoing conflict on the international stage that has been more widely documented than the birth of the state of Israel and its subsequent 77-year relationship with its Arab neighbors. As an example of the wealth of available literature, the well-known 1986 book The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism, by the Irish diplomat Conor Cruise O’Brien, contains a bibliography of some 300 books and articles. And that book is now almost 40 years old! On the other hand, my own library of books on the subject, which I began collecting in the mid-1980s, is barely one hundred volumes, some of which I had forgotten until stumbling on them in my basement.  

Like most other topics, if one wishes to learn about the “Arab-Israeli conflict,” a large quantity of books is not essential. However, books that weave together history and morality against a background of objectivity and an international context are crucial. To that end, I was pleased to discover and read the just-released book Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza by Munther Isaac, published in March by William B. Eerdmans in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  

Munther Isaac is a 46-year-old Christian Palestinian pastor, born and raised into an Orthodox Christian family on the West Bank. As a youngster of eight, he witnessed the First Intifada of 1987-1988 and recalls Israeli soldiers seizing his family’s car in response to a Palestinian tax strike. He eventually earned a PhD at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in England, after which he was ordained as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land in 2016. In December 2023, just weeks after the start of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza, his Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem displayed an iconic Nativity scene depicting the Christ Child on a pile of rubble. The image went viral and eventually became the cover for the just released book. Isaac’s activist protests against Israeli policies have earned him a world-wide reputation but at the cost of his travel being curtailed or cancelled by the Israeli Government. In his April 2024 interview with Tucker Carlson, Isaac accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a charge previously leveled by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.   

Christ in the Rubble is actually Isaac’s third book. In 2015, he wrote From Land to Lands, from Eden to the Renewed Earth (originally his PhD dissertation), which examined the concept of land in the Bible right from its beginnings in the garden of Eden. A second book, named The Other Side of the Wall, followed in 2020. The title is a reference to the monstrous 25-foot-high barrier wall, some 400 miles in length, constructed by Israel to restrict movement of Palestinians. The book gives a perspective of the tragic realities on the ground, the injustices suffered by the Palestinians, and offers a vision for a shared land. In that regard, it reminds me of a book by another Palestinian cleric – Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, the now retired Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Galilee. After its publication in 1984, complete with a foreward by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, Blood Brothers helped Chacour to receive three Nobel Peace Prize nominations.  

As for Christ in the Rubble, it has earned some noteworthy early endorsements and will certainly collect more. Among the most impressive is the following, from Lily Greenberg Call, a young American Jewish activist: “Munther Isaac has written a heartbreaking indictment of world leaders, religious leaders, and humanity for failing the Palestinian people. With striking moral clarity, Isaac delivers an impassioned argument for the defense of Palestinian life and freedom, one that speaks deeply to universal religious and human values.” Notably, Greenberg Call resigned from her post at the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2024, becoming the first Jewish political appointee to do so in protest of Israel’s war on Gaza. In so doing, she joined a list of other U.S. Government officials who likewise quit over the Biden administration’s endorsement of Israel’s brutality in Gaza.  

Spanning 266 pages and outlined in eight logical chapters, Christ in the Rubble addresses all aspects of the admittedly complicated relationship between Israel and its neighbors – historical, political, theological and pastoral. It also helpfully notes that what exists now in Palestine is not a “conflict,” as though the two sides were approximately equal. Rather, Palestine is the venue in which one side systemically dominates and oppresses the other, due largely to political, diplomatic, military, economic, and religious support from the Christian West. Written more than a year after the start of Israel’s latest Gaza campaign, Isaac states: “This book challenges dominant Western Christian theologies and perspectives about Israel, the land, and the Palestinian people. It presents alternative historical and theological perspectives to counter dominant narratives about Palestine and Gaza.  My alternative perspectives will unsettle many readers. A genocide has taken place. An uncomfortable conversation is required [italics mine].” And Isaac proceeds to lead the conversation in a non-violent and Christian manner. 

Rather than address the book’s outline, I will offer here a few random vignettes from Isaac’s trenchant observations throughout the book. One example involves the notable similarity between the infamous apartheid system of South Africa and the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. “Just as the United States and the United Kingdom defended and supported apartheid in South Africa to the very end, resisting and blocking global campaigns for economic sanctions against South Africa, today they resist and block global movements to boycott and sanction Israel. And just as in the 1980s both Reagan and Thatcher condemned Mandela and the African National Congress as communists and terrorists at a time when the apartheid government promoted itself as a Cold War ally against communism, the superpowers of our day, led by the United States, condemn Palestinians as terrorists while the apartheid Israeli regime promotes itself as an ally in the ‘axis of good’ against Iran and Islamic terrorism.” Worse, most of the same authorities who eventually did condemn apartheid in South Africa have rejected that position vis-à-vis Israel, calling it “antisemitic.”    

A second set of vignettes entails the visceral reaction of American Christian Zionists to the Hamas attack of October 2023. One such individual is Tim Walberg, a Republican representative from Michigan who had previously served as an evangelical pastor. At a town hall meeting in his district, during the height of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in early 2024, Walberg made the appalling comment that bombs should be dropped on Gaza “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima.” As for helping the starving Palestinians, he further remarked that “we shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid.” Isaac has captured similarly ghastly remarks from other members of Congress (all Republicans and Christian Zionists). 

Isaac also included a comment from an American pastor, Greg Locke, of the Global Vision Bible Church in Lebanon, Tennessee. In a sermon shortly after the start of hostilities in October, Locke sermonized that he now had a sense of “hope” that this would “usher in the coming of Jesus.” He added that Israel should “make the Gaza Strip a parking lot by this time next week.”  

To paraphrase Isaac, it seems that Americans like Walberg and Locke (and there are millions of them) have never heard of the beatitudes of Christ. “Blessed are the peacemakers”…”Blessed are the merciful”…”Blessed are the meek (not the mighty) for they will inherit the earth.” The fruit of Christian Zionism is power, not peace. 

Christ in the Rubble is not only a highly relevant resource for the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict,” but it is arriving on the scene at an urgent moment. In summary, Isaac refers to his book as “a call to lament – for a genocide has taken place for all the world to see. It has unfolded before the silence of many who turned a blind eye to it – and those funding and empowering it. This book exposes and refutes the use of biblical texts in the service of any form of violence.  It is an indictment of Western Christian traditions and theologies of supremacy.  It is also, therefore, a call to repentance.”  (New book 'Christ in the Rubble' is essential to understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict.)

Well, I do not know what “Western Christian traditions” are as there is only true Christian religion anywhere in the world, and that is Catholicism, whose Supreme Pontiff told the founder international Zionism, Theodore Herzl, the following on January 25, 1904, the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle:

HERZL: Yesterday I was with the Pope [Pius X]. . . . I arrived ten minutes ahead of time, and without having to wait I was conducted through a number of small reception rooms to the Pope. He received me standing and held out his hand, which I did not kiss. Lippay had told me I had to do it, but I didn’t. I believe this spoiled my chances with him, for everyone who visits him kneels and at least kisses his hand. This hand kiss had worried me a great deal and I was glad when it was out of the way.

He seated himself in an armchair, a throne for minor affairs, and invited me to sit by his side. He smiled in kindly anticipation. I began:

HERZL: I thank Your Holiness for the favor of granting me this audience. [I begged him to excuse my miserable Italian, but he said:

POPE: No, Signor Commander, you speak very well.

HERZL: [He is an honest, rough-hewn village priest, to whom Christianity has remained a living thing even in the Vatican. I briefly laid my request before him. But annoyed perhaps by my refusal to kiss his hand, he answered in a stern categorical manner.

POPE: We are unable to favor this movement [of Zionism]. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The ground of Jerusalem, if it were not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot answer you otherwise. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.

HERZL: [The conflict between Rome and Jerusalem, represented by the one and the other of us, was once again under way. At the outset I tried to be conciliatory. I said my little piece. . . . It didn’t greatly impress him. Jerusalem was not to be placed in Jewish hands.] And its present status, Holy Father?

POPE: I know, it is disagreeable to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places. We simply have to put up with it. But to sanction the Jewish wish to occupy these sites, that we cannot do.

HERZL: [I said that we based our movement solely on the sufferings of the Jews, and wished to put aside all religious issues].

POPE: Yes, but we, but I as the head of the Catholic Church, cannot do this. One of two things will likely happen. Either the Jews will retain their ancient faith and continue to await the Messiah whom we believe has already appeared—in which case they are denying the divinity of Jesus and we cannot assist them. Or else they will go there with no religion whatever, and then we can have nothing at all to do with them. The Jewish faith was the foundation of our own, but it has been superceded by the teachings of Christ, and we cannot admit that it still enjoys any validity. The Jews who should have been the first to acknowledge Jesus Christ have not done so to this day.

HERZL: [It was on the tip of my tongue to remark, “It happens in every family: no one believes in his own relative.” But, instead, I said:] Terror and persecution were not precisely the best means for converting the Jews. [His reply had an element of grandeur in its simplicity:]

POPE: Our Lord came without power. He came in peace. He persecuted no one. He was abandoned even by his apostles. It was only later that he attained stature. It took three centuries for the Church to evolve. The Jews therefore had plenty of time in which to accept his divinity without duress or pressure. But they chose not to do so, and they have not done it yet.

HERZL: But, Holy Father, the Jews are in a terrible plight. I do not know if Your Holiness is aware of the full extent of their tragedy. We need a land for these harried people.

POPE: Must it be Jerusalem?

HERZL: We are not asking for Jerusalem, but for Palestine—for only the secular land.

POPE: We cannot be in favor of it.

[Editor Lowenthal interjects here] Here unrelenting replacement theology is plainly upheld as the norm of the Roman Catholic Church. Further, this confession, along with the whole tone of the Pope in his meeting with Herzl, indicates the perpetuation of a doctrinal emphasis that has resulted in centuries of degrading behavior toward the Jews. However, this response has the “grandeur” of total avoidance of that which Herzl had intimated, namely that the abusive reputation of Roman Catholicism toward the Jews was unlikely to foster conversion. Further, if, “It took three centuries for the Church to evolve,” it was that very same period of time that it took for the Church to consolidate and launch its thrust of anti-Semitism through the following centuries.

HERZL: Does Your Holiness know the situation of the Jews?

POPE: Yes, from my days in Mantua, where there are Jews. I have always been in friendly relations with Jews. Only the other evening two Jews were here to see me. There are other bonds than those of religion: social intercourse, for example, and philanthropy. Such bonds we do not refuse to maintain with the Jews. Indeed we also pray for them, that their spirit see the light. This very day the Church is celebrating the feast of an unbeliever who became converted in a miraculous manner—on the road to Damascus. And so if you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we will be ready with churches and priests to baptize all of you.

HERZL: [At this point Conte Lippay had himself announced. The Pope bade him be admitted. The Conte kneeled, kissed his hand, and joined in the conversation by telling of our “miraculous” meeting in the Bauer beerhall at Venice. The miracle was that he had originally intended to stay overnight in Padua, and instead, it turned out that he was given to hear me express the wish to kiss the Holy Father’s foot. At this the Pope made no movement, for I hadn’t even kissed his hand. Lippay proceeded to tell how I had expiated on the noble qualities of Jesus Christ. The Pope listened, and now and then took a pinch of snuff and sneezed into a big red cotton handkerchief. It is these peasant touches which I like about him best and which most of all compel my respect. Lippay, it would appear, wanted to account for his introducing me, and perhaps ward off a word of reproach. But the Pope said:

POPE: On the contrary, I am glad you brought me the Signor Commendatore.

HERZL: [As to the real business, he repeated what he had told me, until he dismissed us:]

POPE: Not possible!

HERZL: [Lippay stayed on his knees for an unconscionable time and never seemed to tire of kissing his hand. It was apparent that this was what the Pope liked. But on taking leave, I contented myself with shaking his hand warmly and bowing deeply. The audience lasted about twenty-five minutes. While spending the last hour in the Raphael gallery, I saw a picture of an Emperor kneeling before a seated Pope and receiving the crown from his hands. That’s how Rome wants it.]   (Marvin Lowenthal, Diaries of Theodore Herzl, pp. 427- 430.)

Sure, longtime readers of this website have seen this quotation quite a lot over the course of the past twenty-one years, but I do not think the author of what seems to be a noble effort to document the ongoing American support for Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people is familiar with it, and it is certainly the case the war-mongering “Christian Zionist” “pastors” cited in the article about the book have heard anything about how Zionism was dismissed firmly by a true pope as an afront to the Sacred Divinity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by claiming Judaism is a valid religion when it is not.

As noted at the beginning of this commentary, today, May 1, 2025, the month of Our Lady, is the Feast of Saints Philip and James according to the Divino Afflatu ordo.

Consider Dom Prosper Gueranger's inspiring tribute to Saints Philip and James the Less, whose apostolic courage in need in these times when believing Catholics are being subjected to the sorts of naturalist propaganda that has gotten so bad as for Israel’s great ally and enabler, Donald John Trump, a non-Catholic who supports baby-killing “hard cases,” believes that the “people” can “decide” for or against baby-slaughter, is a blasphemer of the first order, believes in contraception, in vitro fertilization, the abortion pill, and the sodomite agenda of perversity as a matter of personal “right” but not of government policy, can joke about wanting to be elected pope (I realize that much of  what Trump supports could very well be ascribed to the late Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself). Saints Philip and James, pray for us, please!

Philip preached the Gospel in the two Phrygias, and his martyrdom took place at Hierapolis. He was married when he was called by our Savior; and we learn from writers of the second century that he had three daughters, remarkable for their great piety—one of whom lived at Ephesus, where she was justly revered as one of the glories of that early Church.

James is better known than Philip. He is called, in the sacred Scriptures, Brother of the Lord, on account of the close relationship that existed between his own mother and the Blessed Mother of Jesus. He claims our veneration, during Paschal Time, inasmuch as he was favored with a special visit from our Risen Lord, as we learn from St. Paul. There can be no doubt, but what he had done something to deserve this mark of Jesus’ predilection. St. Jerome and St. Epiphanius tell us that our Savior, when ascending into heaven, recommended to St. James’ care the Church of Jerusalem, and that he was accordingly appointed the first Bishop of that City. The Christians of Jerusalem, in the 4th Century, had possession of the Chair on which St. James used to sit, when he assisted at the assemblies of the Faithful. St. Epiphanius also tells us that the holy Apostle used to wear a lamina of gold upon his forehead as the badge of his dignity. His garment was a tunic made of linen.

He was held in such high repute for virtue that when the people of Jerusalem called him “The Just;” and when the time of the Siege came, instead of attributing the frightful punishment they then endured, to the deicide they or their fathers had committed, they would leave it to be a consequence of the murder of James, who, when dying, prayed for his people. The admirable Epistle he has left us bears testimony to the greatness and uprightness of his character. He there teaches us, with an eloquence of an inspired writer, that works must go along with our Faith, if we would be Just with that Justice which makes us like our Risen Lord.

The bodies of Saints Philip and James repose in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles at Rome. These Relics are counted as one of the richest treasures of the Holy City, and there is reason to believe that this first of May is the real anniversary of their Translation. For a long period, the Church of Rome kept special Feasts in honor of four only of the Apostles: SS. Peter and Paul, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Andrew (Peter’s Brother): the rest were united in the solemnity of the 29 of June, and a vestige of this is still to be found in the Office of that Day, as we shall see later on. The reception of the Bodies of SS. Philip and James, which were brought from the East, somewhere about the 6 Century, gave rise to the institution of today’s Feast; and this led gradually to the insertion into the Calendar of the special Feasts for the other Apostles and Evangelists. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saints Philip and James, May 1.)

The Divine Office provides us with the official hagiography of these glorious Apostles:

Philip was born at Bethsaida, and was one of the twelve Apostles that were first called by Christ our Lord. It was from Philip that Nathanael learned that the Messias had come who was promised in the Law; and by him also he was led to our Lord. We have a clear proof of the familiarity wherewith Philip was treated by Christ, in the fact of the Gentiles addressing themselves to this Apostle, when they wished to see the Savior. Again, when our Lord was about to feed the multitude in the desert, he spoke to Philip, and said, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Having received the Holy Ghost, he went into Scythia, which was the country allotted to him, wherein to preach the Gospel; and he converted almost the entire people to the Christian Faith. Having, finally, reached Hierapolis, in Phrygia, he was crucified there for the name of Christ, and then stoned to death on the Kalends of May (May 1^st. The Christians buried his body in the same place; but it was afterwards taken to Rome, and, together with the body of the Apostle St. James, was placed in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles.

James, the brother of our Lord, was called “the Just.” From his childhood, he never drank wine or strong drink; he abstained from flesh-meat; he never cut his hair, or used oil to anoint his limbs, or took a bath. He was the only one permitted to enter the Holy of Holies. His garments were of linen. So assiduous was he in prayer, that the skin of his knees was as hard as that of a camel. After Christ’s Ascension, the Apostles made him Bishop of Jerusalem; and it was to him that the Prince of the Apostles sent the news of his being delivered out of prison by an Angel. A dispute having arisen in the Council of Jerusalem concerning the Mosaic Law and Circumcision, James sided with Peter, and, in a speech which he made to the Brethren, proved the Vocation of the Gentiles, and said that the absent Brethren were to be written to, and told not to impose the yoke of the Mosaic Law upon the Gentiles. It is to him that the Apostle speaks in his Epistle to the Galatians, when he says: But other of the Apostles I saw none, saving James, the brother of the Lord.

Such was James’ holy life, that people used to strive with each other to touch the hem of his garment. At the age of ninety-six years—of which he had spent thirty governing the Church of Jerusalem in the most saintly manner—as he was one day preaching, with great courage, Christ the Son of God, he was attacked by stones being thrown at him; after which, he was taken to the highest part of the Temple, and cast headlong down. His legs were broken by the fall; and, as he was lying half dead upon the ground, he raised up his hands towards heaven, and thus prayed for his executioners: “Forgive them, O Lord! for they know not what they do.” While thus praying, he received a blow on the head with a fuller’s club, and gave up his soul to his God, in the seventh year of Nero’s reign. He was buried near the Temple, from which he had been thrown down. He wrote a Letter, which is one of the seven Catholic Epistles. (Matins, The Divine Office, Feast of Saints Philip and James, May 1.)

Dom Prosper Gueranger’s prayer in honor of Saints Philip and James speaks directly to how Jerusalem is a slave to the infidel (the Turks) and heresy (the Greek Orthodox) one hundred fifty years ago prior to its enslavement by Zionists today who not only deny the Sacred Divinity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but literally spit on His followers and defiled His shrines and churches in the very city where He was put to death for our sins:

Holy Apostles! you saw our Risen Jesus in all his glory. He said to you on the evening of that great Sunday: Peace be to you! He appeared to you during the forty days following, that he might make you certain of his Resurrection. Great indeed must have been your joy at seeing, once more, that dear Master who had admitted you into the number of his chosen Twelve; and his return made your love of him more than ever fervent. We address ourselves to you as our special patrons during this holy Season, and most earnestly do we beseech you to teach us how to know and love the great mystery of our Lord’s Resurrection. May our hearts glow with Paschal joy, and may we never lose the New Life that our Jesus has now given unto us.

Thou, O Philip! was all devoted to him, even from the first day of his calling thee. Scarcely hadst thou come to know him as the Messias, than thou didst announce the great tidings to thy friend Nathanael. Jesus treated thee with affectionate familiarity. When about to work the great miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, it was to thee that he addressed himself, and said to thee: Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? (John 6:5)

A few days before the Passion of thy Divine Master, some of the Gentiles wished to see this great Prophet, of whom they had heard such wonderful things, and it was to thee they applied. How fervently didst thou not ask him, at the Last Supper, to show thee the Father! Thy soul longed for the divine Light; and when the rays of the Holy Ghost had inflamed thy spirit, nothing could daunt thy courage. As a reward of thy labors, Jesus gave thee to share with him the honors of the Cross. O holy Apostle! intercede for us, that we may imitate thy devotedness to Jesus; and that, when he deigns to send us the Cross, we may reverence and love it.

We also honor thy love of Jesus, O thou that art called the Brother of the Lord, and on whose venerable features was stamped the likeness of this our Redeemer. If, like the rest of the Apostles, thou didst abandon him in his Passion, thy repentance was speedy and earnest, for thou wast the first, after Peter, to whom he appeared after his Resurrection. We affectionately congratulate thee, O James, for the honor thus conferred upon thee; do thou, in return, obtain for us, that we may taste and see how sweet is our Risen Lord. (Psalms 33:9) Thy ambition was to give him every possible proof of thy gratitude; and the last testimony thou didst bear, in the faithless City, to the Divinity of thy dear Master (when the Jews took thee to the top of the Temple), opened to thee, by Martyrdom, the way that was to unite thee to him for eternity. Pray for us, O thou generous Apostle, that we also may confess his holy Name, with the firmness becoming his disciples; and that we may ever be brave and loyal in proclaiming his rights as King over all creatures.

O holy Apostles—we beseech you to unite your prayers, and intercede for the Churches of the East, to which you preached the Gospel. Have compassion on Jerusalem, the dupe of schism and heresy, the slave of the Infidel; obtain her purification and her liberty; and rid her Holy Places of the sacrileges that have so long polluted them. Lead back the Christians of Asia Minor to union with the Fold governed by the one supreme Pastor. And lastly, pray for Rome, the City where your bodies repose, awaiting their glorious Resurrection. In return for the long hospitality she has given you, shield her with your protection; and permit not that the City of Peter—your venerable Head—should be deprived of its grandest glory—the presence of the Vicar of Christ. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saints Philip and James, May 1.)

This is now the month of May, the month of the fairest flower of our race, Our Lady, who wants to remember that the final victory belongs to her Immaculate Heart and that it is up to us to try, especially by our fidelity to her Most Holy Rosary as we rely upon the graces won for us by her Divine Son during His Passion and Death and that flow into our souls through her loving hands as the Mediatrix of All Graces, to plant a few seeds for the great victory of her, Our Immaculata!

There can never be any peace in the Holy Land unless all men there exclaim with great joy:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dóminus, Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus, qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis.

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, pray for us.

Saints Philip and James, pray for us.

Appendix

Transcript of American Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie’s July 25, 1990, with Saddam Hussein

As found at: CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; Excerpts From Iraqi Document on Meeting With U.S. Envoy - The New York Times

On July 25, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq summoned the United States Ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie, to his office in the last high-level contact between the two Governments before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2. Here are excerpts from a document described by Iraqi Government officials as a transcript of the meeting, which also included the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz. A copy was provided to The New York Times by ABC News, which translated it from the Arabic. The State Department has declined to comment on its accuracy.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: I have summoned you today to hold comprehensive political discussions with you. This is a message to President Bush.

You know that we did not have relations with the U.S. until 1984 and you know the circumstances and reasons which caused them to be severed. The decision to establish relations with the U.S. were taken in 1980 during the two months prior to the war between us and Iran.

When the war started, and to avoid misinterpretation, we postponed the establishment of relations hoping that the war would end soon.

But because the war lasted for a long time, and to emphasize the fact that we are a nonaligned country, it was important to re-establish relations with the U.S. And we choose to do this in 1984.

It is natural to say that the U.S. is not like Britain, for example, with the latter's historic relations with Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq. In addition, there were no relations between Iraq and the U.S. between 1967 and 1984. One can conclude it would be difficult for the U.S. to have a full understanding of many matters in Iraq. When relations were re-established we hoped for a better understanding and for better cooperation because we too do not understand the background of many American decisions.

We dealt with each other during the war and we had dealings on various levels. The most important of those levels were with the foreign ministers.

U.S.-Iraq Rifts

We had hoped for a better common understanding and a better chance of cooperation to benefit both our peoples and the rest of the Arab nations.

But these better relations have suffered from various rifts. The worst of these was in 1986, only two years after establishing relations, with what was known as Irangate, which happened during the year that Iran occupied the Fao peninsula.

It was natural then to say that old relations and complexity of interests could absorb many mistakes. But when interests are limited and relations are not that old, then there isn't a deep understanding and mistakes could leave a negative effect. Sometimes the effect of an error can be larger than the error itself.

Despite all of that, we accepted the apology, via his envoy, of the American President regarding Irangate, and we wiped the slate clean. And we shouldn't unearth the past except when new events remind us that old mistakes were not just a matter of coincidence.

Our suspicions increased after we liberated the Fao peninsula. The media began to involve itself in our politics. And our suspicions began to surface anew, because we began to question whether the U.S. felt uneasy with the outcome of the war when we liberated our land.

It was clear to us that certain parties in the United States - and I don't say the President himself - but certain parties who had links with the intelligence community and with the State Department - and I don't say the Secretary of State himself - I say that these parties did not like the fact that we liberated our land. Some parties began to prepare studies entitled, ''Who will succeed Saddam Hussein?'' They began to contact gulf states to make them fear Iraq, to persuade them not to give Iraq economic aid. And we have evidence of these activities.

Iraqi Policy on Oil

Iraq came out of the war burdened with $40 billion debts, excluding the aid given by Arab states, some of whom consider that too to be a debt although they knew - and you knew too - that without Iraq they would not have had these sums and the future of the region would have been entirely different.

We began to face the policy of the drop in the price of oil. Then we saw the United States, which always talks of democracy but which has no time for the other point of view. Then the media campaign against Saddam Hussein was started by the official American media. The United States thought that the situation in Iraq was like Poland, Romania or Czechoslovakia. We were disturbed by this campaign but we were not disturbed too much because we had hoped that, in a few months, those who are decision makers in America would have a chance to find the facts and see whether this media campaign had had any effect on the lives of Iraqis. We had hoped that soon the American authorities would make the correct decision regarding their relations with Iraq. Those with good relations can sometinmes afford to disagree.

But when planned and deliberate policy forces the price of oil down without good commercial reasons, then that means another war against Iraq. Because military war kills people by bleeding them, and economic war kills their humanity by depriving them of their chance to have a good standard of living. As you know, we gave rivers of blood in a war that lasted eight years, but we did not lose our humanity. Iraqis have a right to live proudly. We do not accept that anyone could injure Iraqi pride or the Iraqi right to have high standards of living.

Kuwait and the U.A.E. were at the front of this policy aimed at lowering Iraq's position and depriving its people of higher economic standards. And you know that our relations with the Emirates and Kuwait had been good. On top of all that, while we were busy at war, the state of Kuwait began to expand at the expense of our territory.

You may say this is propaganda, but I would direct you to one document, the Military Patrol Line, which is the borderline endorsed by the Arab League in 1961 for military patrols not to cross the Iraq-Kuwait border.

But go and look for youselves. You will see the Kuwaiti border patrols, the Kuwaiti farms, the Kuwaiti oil installations - all built as closely as possible to this line to establish that land as Kuwaiti territory.

Conflicting Interests

Since then, the Kuwaiti Government has been stable while the Iraqi Government has undergone many changes. Even after 1968 and for 10 years afterwards, we were too busy with our own problems. First in the north then the 1973 war, and other problems. Then came the war with Iran which started 10 years ago.

We believe that the United States must understand that people who live in luxury and economic security can reach an understanding with the United States on what are legitimate joint interests. But the starved and the economically deprived cannot reach the same understanding.

We do not accept threats from anyone because we do not threaten anyone. But we say clearly that we hope that the U.S. will not entertain too many illusions and will seek new friends rather than increase the number of its enemies.

I have read the American statements speaking of friends in the area. Of course, it is the right of everyone to choose their friends. We can have no objections. But you know you are not the ones who protected your friends during the war with Iran. I assure you, had the Iranians overrun the region, the American troops would not have stopped them, except by the use of nuclear weapons.

I do not belittle you. But I hold this view by looking at the geography and nature of American society into account. Yours is a society which cannot accept 10,000 dead in one battle.

You know that Iran agreed to the cease-fire not because the United States had bombed one of the oil platforms after the liberation of the Fao. Is this Iraq's reward for its role in securing the stability of the region and for protecting it from an unknown flood?

Protecting the Oil Flow

So what can it mean when America says it will now protect its friends? It can only mean prejudice against Iraq. This stance plus maneuvers and statements which have been made has encouraged the U.A.E. and Kuwait to disregard Iraqi rights.

I say to you clearly that Iraq's rights, which are mentioned in the memorandum, we will take one by one. That might not happen now or after a month or after one year, but we will take it all. We are not the kind of people who will relinguish their rights. There is no historic right, or legitimacy, or need, for the U.A.E. and Kuwait to deprive us of our rights. If they are needy, we too are needy.

The United States must have a better understanding of the situation and declare who it wants to have relations with and who its enemies are. But it should not make enemies simply because others have different points of view regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict.

We clearly understand America's statement that it wants an easy flow of oil. We understand America saying that it seeks friendship with the states in the region, and to encourage their joint interests. But we cannot understand the attempt to encourage some parties to harm Iraq's interests.

The United States wants to secure the flow of oil. This is understandable and known. But it must not deploy methods which the United States says it disapproves of - flexing muscles and pressure.

If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you.

War and Friendship

You can come to Iraq with aircraft and missiles but do not push us to the point where we cease to care. And when we feel that you want to injure our pride and take away the Iraqis' chance of a high standard of living, then we will cease to care and death will be the choice for us. Then we would not care if you fired 100 missiles for each missile we fired. Because without pride life would have no value.

It is not reasonable to ask our people to bleed rivers of blood for eight years then to tell them, ''Now you have to accept aggression from Kuwait, the U.A.E. or from the U.S. or from Israel.' ''

We do not put all these countries in the same boat. First, we are hurt and upset that such disagreement is taking place between us and Kuwait and the U.A.E. The solution must be found within an Arab framework and through direct bilateral relations. We do not place America among the enemies. We place it where we want our friends to be and we try to be friends. But repeated American statements last year made it apparent that America did not regard us as friends. Well the Americans are free.

When we seek friendship we want pride, liberty and our right to choose.

We want to deal according to our status as we deal with the others according to their statues.

We consider the others' interests while we look after our own. And we expect the others to consider our interests while they are dealing with their own. What does it mean when the Zionist war minister is summoned to the United States now? What do they mean, these fiery statements coming out of Israel during the past few days and the talk of war being expected now more than at any other time?

I do not believe that anyone would lose by making friends with Iraq. In my opinion, the American President has not made mistakes regarding the Arabs, although his decision to freeze dialogue with the P.L.O. was wrong. But it appears that this decision was made to appease the Zionist lobby or as a piece of strategy to cool the Zionist anger, before trying again. I hope that our latter conclusion is the correct one. But we will carry on saying it was the wrong decision.

You are appeasing the usurper in so many ways - economically, politically and militarily as well as in the media. When will the time come when, for every three appeasements to the usurper, you praise the Arabs just once?

APRIL GLASPIE: I thank you, Mr. President, and it is a great pleasure for a diplomat to meet and talk directly with the President. I clearly understand your message. We studied history at school. They taught us to say freedom or death. I think you know well that we as a people have our experience with the colonialists.

Mr. President, you mentioned many things during this meeting which I cannot comment on on behalf of my Government. But with your permission, I will comment on two points. You spoke of friendship and I believe it was clear from the letters sent by our President to you on the occasion of your National Day that he emphasizes --

HUSSEIN: He was kind and his expressions met with our regard and respect.

Directive on Relations

GLASPIE: As you know, he directed the United States Administration to reject the suggestion of implementing trade sanctions.

HUSSEIN: There is nothing left for us to buy from America. Only wheat. Because every time we want to buy something, they say it is forbidden. I am afraid that one day you will say, ''You are going to make gunpowder out of wheat.''

GLASPIE: I have a direct instruction from the President to seek better relations with Iraq.

HUSSEIN: But how? We too have this desire. But matters are running contrary to this desire.

GLASPIE: This is less likely to happen the more we talk. For example, you mentioned the issue of the article published by the American Information Agency and that was sad. And a formal apology was presented.

HUSSEIN: Your stance is generous. We are Arabs. It is enough for us that someone says, ''I am sorry, I made a mistake.'' Then we carry on. But the media campaign continued. And it is full of stories. If the stories were true, no one would get upset. But we understand from its continuation that there is a determination.

GLASPIE: I saw the Diane Sawyer program on ABC. And what happened in that program was cheap and unjust. And this is a real picture of what happens in the American media - even to American politicians themselves. These are the methods the Western media employs. I am pleased that you add your voice to the diplomats who stand up to the media. Because your appearance in the media, even for five minutes, would help us to make the American people understand Iraq. This would increase mutual understanding. If the American President had control of the media, his job would be much easier.

Mr. President, not only do I want to say that President Bush wanted better and deeper relations with Iraq, but he also wants an Iraqi contribution to peace and prosperity in the Middle East. President Bush is an intelligent man. He is not going to declare an economic war against Iraq.

You are right. It is true what you say that we do not want higher prices for oil. But I would ask you to examine the possibility of not charging too high a price for oil.

HUSSEIN: We do not want too high prices for oil. And I remind you that in 1974 I gave Tariq Aziz the idea for an article he wrote which criticized the policy of keeping oil prices high. It was the first Arab article which expressed this view.

Shifting Price of Oil

TARIQ AZIZ: Our policy in OPEC opposes sudden jumps in oil prices.

HUSSEIN: Twenty-five dollars a barrel is not a high price.

GLASPIE: We have many Americans who would like to see the price go above $25 because they come from oil-producing states.

HUSSEIN: The price at one stage had dropped to $12 a barrel and a reduction in the modest Iraqi budget of $6 billion to $7 billion is a disaster.

GLASPIE: I think I understand this. I have lived here for years. I admire your extraordinary efforts to rebuild your country. I know you need funds. We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait.

I was in the American Embassy in Kuwait during the late 60's. The instruction we had during this period was that we should express no opinion on this issue and that the issue is not associated with America. James Baker has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction. We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods via Klibi or via President Mubarak. All that we hope is that these issues are solved quickly. With regard to all of this, can I ask you to see how the issue appears to us?

My assessment after 25 years' service in this area is that your objective must have strong backing from your Arab brothers. I now speak of oil. But you, Mr. President, have fought through a horrific and painful war. Frankly, we can only see that you have deployed massive troops in the south. Normally that would not be any of our business. But when this happens in the context of what you said on your national day, then when we read the details in the two letters of the Foreign Minister, then when we see the Iraqi point of view that the measures taken by the U.A.E. and Kuwait is, in the final analysis, parallel to military aggression against Iraq, then it would be reasonable for me to be concerned. And for this reason, I received an instruction to ask you, in the spirit of friendship - not in the spirit of confrontation - regarding your intentions.

I simply describe the concern of my Government. And I do not mean that the situation is a simple situation. But our concern is a simple one.

HUSSEIN: We do not ask people not to be concerned when peace is at issue. This is a noble human feeling which we all feel. It is natural for you as a superpower to be concerned. But what we ask is not to express your concern in a way that would make an aggressor believe that he is getting support for his aggression.

We want to find a just solution which will give us our rights but not deprive others of their rights. But at the same time, we want the others to know that our patience is running out regarding their action, which is harming even the milk our children drink, and the pensions of the widow who lost her husband during the war, and the pensions of the orphans who lost their parents.

As a country, we have the right to prosper. We lost so many opportunities, and the others should value the Iraqi role in their protection. Event this Iraqi [the President points to the interpreter] feels bitter like all other Iraqis. We are not aggressors but we do not accept aggression either. We sent them envoys and handwritten letters. We tried everything. We asked the Servant of the Two Shrines - King Fahd - to hold a four-member summit, but he suggested a meeting between the Oil Ministers. We agreed. And as you know, the meeting took place in Jidda. They reached an agreement which did not express what we wanted, but we agreed.

Only two days after the meeting, the Kuwaiti Oil Minister made a statement that contradicted the agreement. We also discussed the issue during the Baghdad summit. I told the Arab Kings and Presidents that some brothers are fighting an economic war against us. And that not all wars use weapons and we regard this kind of war as a military action against us. Because if the capability of our army is lowered then, if Iran renewed the war, it could achieve goals which it could not achieve before. And if we lowered the standard of our defenses, then this could encourage Israel to attack us. I said that before the Arab Kings and Presidents. Only I did not mention Kuwait and U.A.E. by name, because they were my guests.

Before this, I had sent them envoys reminding them that our war had included their defense. Therefore the aid they gave us should not be regarded as a debt. We did no more than the United States would have done against someone who attacked its interests.

I talked about the same thing with a number of other Arab states. I explained the situation to brother King Fahd a few times, by sending envoys and on the telephone. I talked with brother King Hussein and with Sheik Zaid after the conclusion of the summit. I walked with the Sheik to the plane when he was leaving Mosul. He told me, ''Just wait until I get home.'' But after he had reached his destination, the statements that came from there were very bad - not from him, but from his Minister of Oil.

Also after the Jidda agreement, we received some intelligence that they were talking of sticking to the agreement for two months only. Then they would change their policy. Now tell us, if the American President found himself in this situation, what would he do? I said it was very difficult for me to talk about these issues in public. But we must tell the Iraqi people who face economic difficulties who was responsible for that.

Talks With Mubarak

GLASPIE: I spent four beautiful years in Egypt.

HUSSEIN: The Egyptian people are kind and good and ancient. The oil people are supposed to help the Egyptian people, but they are mean beyond belief. It is painful to admit it, but some of them are disliked by Arabs because of their greed.

GLASPIE: Mr. President, it would be helpful if you could give us an assessment of the effort made by your Arab brothers and whether they have achieved anything.

HUSSEIN:. On this subject, we agreed with President Mubarak that the Prime Minister of Kuwait would meet with the deputy chairman of the Revolution Command Council in Saudi Arabia, because the Saudis initiated contact with us, aided by President Mubarak's efforts. He just telephoned me a short while ago to say the Kuwaitis have agreed to that suggestion.

GLASPIE: Congratulations.

HUSSEIN: A protocol meeting will be held in Saudi Arabia. Then the meeting will be transferred to Baghdad for deeper discussion directly between Kuwait and Iraq. We hope we will reach some result. We hope that the long-term view and the real interests will overcome Kuwaiti greed.

GLASPIE: May I ask you when you expect Sheik Saad to come to Baghdad?

HUSSEIN: I suppose it would be on Saturday or Monday at the latest. I told brother Mubarak that the agreement should be in Baghdad Saturday or Sunday. You know that brother Mubarak's visits have always been a good omen.

GLASPIE: This is good news. Congratulations.

HUSSEIN: Brother President Mubarak told me they were scared. They said troops were only 20 kilometers north of the Arab League line. I said to him that regardless of what is there, whether they are police, border guards or army, and regardless of how many are there, and what they are doing, assure the Kuwaitis and give them our word that we are not going to do anything until we meet with them. When we meet and when we see that there is hope, then nothing will happen. But if we are unable to find a solution, then it will be natural that Iraq will not accept death, even though wisdom is above everything else. There you have good news.

AZIZ: This is a journalistic exclusive.

GLASPIE: I am planning to go to the United States next Monday. I hope I will meet with President Bush in Washington next week. I thought to postpone my trip because of the difficulties we are facing. But now I will fly on Monday.