On the most recent promotion of his series, “The Watchman”, Erick Stakelbeck says:
Palestinian terrorists have struck again, this time murdering four Israelis in Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market last night. True to form, Hamas is celebrating the attack and has vowed more like it during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which just began.
Last night’s victims included an ex-Israeli commando, a professor, a mother of four and a woman who was engaged to be married. This attack struck me particularly hard, as I was just in Tel Aviv last week, not far from the market where the attack occurred.
The ongoing Palestinian terror campaign against Israel–personified by Hamas–has had a horrible human impact, and nowhere more so than in Sderot, a town in southern Israel which has been bombarded with thousands of rockets fired from Gaza over the past two decades.
Sderot is the focus of tonight’s episode of “The Watchman” show with Christians United for Israel. I spent a day in Sderot recently and learned that the people there are proud, resilient and upbeat, despite the challenges they’ve faced. In short, they are Israelis.
He gives directions for watching or saving the episode. We don’t have a TV but I leave the information for those of you who do:
You can tune in or set your DVR’s for 11:30 pm Eastern (10:30 pm Central, 8:30 pm Pacific) to watch tonight, exclusively on TBN. Click below to watch a sneak peek from tonight’s episode.
My workaround will be to wait until Erick’s YouTube channel posts this episode, however long that is.
Erick’s work here is for the two-million (or so) members of an American philo-semite Christian group that advocates for the survival of Israel. Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, is here. If you search for the administrative costs, their financials look better than most.
Here’s his one-minute sneak preview of what will be a two-part Sderot program:
But that’s not Mr. Stakelbeck’s only paid work. He is employed by CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and is also an author and speaker. This is his latest book, published last year:
Ever since the soi-disant “conservatives” built a pyre for Diana West’s book, American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character
There is a pattern of sorts. For example, these books, written two years apart and on only slightly aligned subjects, both have an overwhelming number of positive reviews. Diana West’s book currently has 286 reviews; Erick Stakelbeck’s, 103. Both garner about eighty per cent of the highest (five-star) reviews.
Drilling down further (yes, I’ve gotten good at this) Ms. West’s book has eight per cent negatives. That compares to Stakelbeck’s four per cent. But one has to take into account the sock puppets sent over to American Betrayal, mostly by David Horowitz, Ron Radosh and Conrad Black (others are still skulking around the edges and making up stuff three years later).
In Ms. West’s case the trolls were on a mission to drive down the statistics. Thus you see reviews that begin, “I know WWII history. Very well. Diana West doesn’t. I admit that I haven’t read the book, and don’t plan to buy it…” Such narcissism would be funny were it not so mean-spirited.
Erick Stakelbeck’s negatives come from critics who don’t like conservatives and particularly have an animus when it comes to the Christian variety. They make one wonder why they’d even buy the book…until you notice that of the one and two-star reviews only half are “verified purchases” — those folks must not have realized who Erick Stakelbeck is?? In Diana West’s case, the critical “verified purchases” drop to a third. In the latter case a strange phenomenon occurred, one I’ve not seen before or since: nearly every critical review of Betrayal has a large number of comments appended to each. For the most part, those appendages make mincemeat of the critics. I would say that Ms. West has loyal followers.
Fascinating stuff down there in the bowels of the book wars. Someday the archives of what must now be millions of book reviews will be fodder for students of cultural history. One tries to imagine how those future folk will view all this.
Why am I concerned about this episode of “The Watchman”? It’s not just because we care about Sderot. Even more important is the larger picture of the ramp-up in weaponry for Hamas. Our president deliberately allowed Iran to have access to 150 billion dollars previously frozen — frozen for good reason: because Iran is a totalitarian terrorist state and actively supports rogue groups like Hamas. Obama knew that much of that money would be funneled into assaults which would make the Middle East even more unstable. Hamas and Hezbollah both are awash in weaponry from Iran.
No rational person would help Iran at this point. It is much like North Korea in the treatment of its own people, and in its export of weaponry. But even more disturbing is its fundamental belief in a coming end-of-the-world where the whole world is consumed in chaos and death.
That eschatological craziness makes it a world enemy. Yet our president did a deal with the devil and brags about it? Some more of his “radical transformation” of America…?
For many of us, January 2017 can’t come too soon. You can be certain that between now and then Obama and his little pen will be busy signing off on more “transforming of America”…ah, to look back on the final days of the Clintons’ first reign when all they did was steal the silver and ashtrays on their way out the door (they were later made to return them).
The Clintons were/are grasping, power-hungry criminals. Obama is in another, far worse category, as yet to be completely defined.
Sderot is a small town by western standards, and one of the prime victims of the enforced Israeli withdrawal from Gaza where everybody promised that THEY would be responsible for the security of Israelis if only Israel returned sovereignty to the Gazans.
Israel did, and THEY reneged.
The result; continuous assaults using short range missiles. Each assault is a war crime, and each illegal assault is studiously ignored by THEY. It would be very simple if the US, the EU and Norway were to cut off their funding to Hamas and its PA sponsors, we could all then live in peace, but ‘war crime’ has a new definition, only violence against the ummah is now a war crime, and it is Israel who commits a daily war crime by just continuing to exist.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” Free of what? Free of Jews – dolt, once more Islamo-nazism plans genocide just as did Haj Amin with Hitler, and once more the world chuckles at the peril of the Middle Eastern untermenchen.
Bringing up a family in Sderot is tough, when the rockets come over, the Alarm goes off and you are on the loo, and your two children are out playing one in the front, the other in the park behind the apartment what do yo do? you have 15 seconds often less.
In order to try to avoid the above situation, you keep the kiddies close,
Then there is the scarcity of jobs, I now work for a high tech just outside the city, but there is just a handful of us who live locally. The rest commute the 40 km from Ashkelon or the 50 KM from Beersheba, I am lucky, I get a professional salary, but it took 4 years to get the job. Most Sderotians are on minimum wage jobs in shops, factories and restaurants if at all. Many children go to school hungry because mum has to work and because there is nothing left to buy food with. As companies withdrew from the area, people lost their jobs but were left with the debts. Hope for Sderot (see the Sderot donation button on the side bar) and others, triy to alleviate some of this, but the funding too has dried to a trickle; we in Sderot are not the only ones under financial pressure.
But our women and girls are safe, we can safely go out after dark and there are no dens of ‘refugee’ iniquity which we have to avoid, the children can walk to school unsupervised and play in the parks happily knowing that the bomb shelter is close at hand…..
Good to hear from you, MC. I remember the town well – many years ago I was a (British) volunteer on Kibbutz Dorot just up the road. Things were quiet then, but the older residents had some fearful tales to tell.
I see your country as a beacon of democracy and sanity in a mad and hate-consumed part of the world. You and your neighbours have my best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous future.
Keep improving your weaponry and technology of instant and mass effectiveness Mike. There may come an opportunity in the not too-distant future (Trump might be the triggering sea-change required in the US) that affords Israel to consolidate its borders. “From the river to the sea, Israel will be free” Free of what? Free of moslims – of course.
A little increase in the area of Israel achieved by clearing Gaza and the entire West Bank and straightening out a few lines on the map can accommodate the Jews fleeing Europe. Keep the population young and expanding and educated and armed and trained and aware. Build multi-sectoral synergies (Technology and Energy having primacy) with India and China and Australia. Russia some day.
If the US can swing back under Trump and an enlightened, influencing, return-to-Christian/Judeo-values broader leadership forms, spreads, and penetrates, there is hope. 5-20 years is the timeline. Iran must be dealt with. Saudi A. will collapse if America leaves it to indulge its own incompetencies. Egypt seems most rational of a hugely irrational neighbourhood. Might Trump even begin the dismantling of the UN and the development of a new Western –centric and Israel supporting Bloc?
You clearly are an enlightened man with significant leadership capabilities. The contrast between you and what masquerades as moslim leadership is startling. You illustrate the contrast between Netanyahu and Erdogan similar to the contrast between Trump and Barry Soetoro (aka B.H Obama) in the US. And then Canada just got Trudeau (Barry-Lite but potentially every bit as disastrous for Canada as Barry has been for the US).
Stay safe and keep on banging Mike.
PS Why is Sderot spelled “Sederot” on the signpost in the picture?
Sederot is an anglicized form, Sderot (avenue/boulevard) reflects the Hebrew which is sort of pronounced ‘ss-drot’. The road signage can be quite amusing often translated directly from the Hebrew using a dictionary and getting it slightly wrong, like ‘narrow shoulder’.
CUFI – Christians United for Israel has put on a very good series in The Watchman. I have watched every episode. You will never, ever see this pro-Israel reporting on network or cable news shows. What I snot reported by Erick Stackelbeck is the following presumably as he would lose his access to people if he told the truth. I am not ridiculing him only reporting on his precarious position when he is in Israel as to what he can and can not say.
There is another problem, however, and that is the nature of Israel today. Like the US, the establishment (Left wing – Cultural Marxist) run the country: Local politicians, lower education, the entire bureaucracy, Histadrut – Labor unions, media (except a few newspapers), higher education – universities, the intelligence agencies, the entire legal system (Lawyers and Judges) and even the IDF General Staff.
No sooner had the recent murders occurred in Tel Aviv, that Tel Aviv”s Cultural Marxist mayor came out and said it is due to Israel “occupying” Palestinian land. Read about it here and read the comment section:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-mayor-links-terror-attack-to-occupation-sparking-outcry/
If you are interested in Israel read or freely subscribe to the following:
Pro-Israel Blogs that are not Cultural Marxist and are anti-PC 100%
Caroline Glick
Abu Yehuda
Sultan Knish
Arutz Sheva
Israel Matzav
Newspapers/Magazines
The Times of Israel
Jerusalem Post
Mosaic Magazine
That is a start and you will branch off into other venues if interested.