Stephen Sizer is being investigated by the Church of England

On the Stephen Sizer front, it appears that the Church of England is going to investigate his latest infelicities: "Church of England to investigate Stephen Sizer over 9/11 Israel post."

The Church of England is investigating one of its clergy after he posted a link on Facebook post to an article entitled "9-11/Israel did it". 

In the week in which Prince Charles led commemorations at Holocaust Memorial Day marking 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Rev Stephen Sizer's link was condemned by the Church as "unacceptable" and a matter of "deep sorrow and shame".... 

When Jewish News contacted Sizer about the 9/11 link, he asked the weekly newspaper to show him articles refuting such claims. 

The article he linked to attempted to make connections between wealthy American Jews and the 9/11 attacks. Sizer asked online: "Is this anti-Semitic?.. It raises so many questions."... 

In an email to the Jewish News, Sizer said: "I would welcome articles you can recommend refuting the allegations." Noting that many Americans feel 9/11 was "an inside job," Sizer added: "It is essential the public become convinced of what happened before and after 9/11. Inevitably the truth will upset many people if it is shown by further investigation that the official explanations are shown to be deficient." 

He added: "Encouraging research and debate on all aspects of [9/11] is not anti-Semitic... Suppressing discussion on such grounds will fuel suspicion, not remove it."

He just posted the following statement on his blog:

Statement from Revd Dr Stephen Sizer

"I very much regret and apologise for the distress caused by the reposting on Facebook of a link to an article about 9/11 from Wikispooks. It was particularly insensitive in that last week coincided with Holocaust Memorial Day. I removed the link as soon as I received adverse feedback, and realised that offence had been caused. I have never believed Israel or any other country was complicit in the terrorist atrocity of 9/11, and my sharing of this material was ill-considered and misguided. At the request of the Diocese, I will be suspending my use of all social media and blogs with immediate effect and until further notice.”

He has, however, not removed the whitewashing article on his blog about his participation in the Iranian government's "New Horizons interfaith conference" in Teheran in October, which I wrote about then - Stephen Sizer hanging out at an antisemitic conference in Iran. This is where he issued a threat to those who criticize the Iranian government: "Critics of conferences such as New Horizons should think more carefully about how their inflammatory words will negatively impact on their own communities in Iran." Apparently Sizer believes that Jews and Christians living in Western countries, where we have freedom of speech, should refrain from criticizing the Iranian government because our co-religionists might be attacked by the government because of our words. There's a word for that: blackmail.

At that conference he gave a speech called "Christian Jihad," where he equates the Zionist movement with ISIS: "I hope that we would all agree ISIS is no more representative of Islam than Zionism is of Judaism, or the Crusades and Inquisition are of Christianity."

For more on Sizer's deep connections to Iran and an Iraqi Shi'ite militia called Kata'ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades), see an article on Harry's Place, "Sizer presents TV show for channel linked to Hezbollah Brigades." The network is called Al-Ejetah, and it is an Iraqi station sponsored by the Kata'ib Hezbollah and paid for by Iran. His program is called "Enlightenment." An article on The Arab Digest, January 30, 2012, reports that, "The first is the Aletejah TV, an Iraqi channel for the pro-Iranian 'Hezbollah Brigades', a small military organisation that is diverting its attention to "social issues" after the American withdrawal."

Kata'ib Hezbollah is one of the Iranian-backed "Special Groups" of Shi'a militias that carried out attacks on coalition forces during the Iraq war. Since the U.S. withdrawal, the group has deployed fighters to Syria and has also set up a front group in Iraq, Saraya ad-Difa' ash-Sha'abi ("Popular Defense Brigades"), to assist Iraqi government forces to roll back Sunni insurgent advances, most notably in the Tikrit area, where security sources speaking to pro-government outlets have readily admitted coordination. Kata'ib Hezbollah, as an Iranian proxy, espouses the Khomeinist ideology of Wilayat al-Faqih ("Guardianship of the Jurist").

From globalsecurity.org:

Kata’ib Hizballah is a radical Shia Islamist group with an anti-Western establishment and jihadist ideology that has conducted attacks against Iraqi, U.S, and Coalition targets in Iraq. Kata’ib Hizballah has ideological ties to Lebanese Hizballah and gained notoriety in 2007 with attacks on U.S. and Coalition forces designed to undermine the establishment of a democratic, viable Iraqi state. The organization has been responsible for numerous violent terrorist attacks since 2007, including improvised explosive device bombings, rocket propelled grenade attacks, and sniper operations. Kata’ib Hizballah also targeted the International Zone in Baghdad in a November 29, 2008 rocket attack that killed two UN workers. In addition, KH has threatened the lives of Iraqi politicians and civilians that support the legitimate political process in Iraq. 

On June 24, 2009 Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg designated Kata’ib Hizballah (KH) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (INA). Deputy Secretary Steinberg also designated KH under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224, as amended. The Department of Treasury has also designated Kata’ib Hizballah under Executive Order 13438. The Department of State took these actions in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury, and other relevant U.S. agencies.

The Al Ejetah network has also hosted Gilad Atzmon on its Panorama program, speaking on the Jewish lobby. On Atzmon's webpage the content of the program is described in these terms:

In this Al Etejah's Panorama program Gilad Atzmon elaborates on the dominance of Jewish lobby in the UK and America and the weak resistance it meets in both Britain and the USA. The activity of the Lobby clearly undermines the notion of Western democracy. We also spoke about the collapse of Left politics and future of Western thinking.

The Harry's Place article details Sizer's contacts with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iranian regime:

This is not Sizer’s first experience doing PR for Iran’s Shia network. 

Sizer has previously toured South Lebanon as a guest of the Lebanese Hezbollah’s TV network Al Manar TV. ... 

Last year he made a tourism video for Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator who has overseen the deaths of 200,000 of his own people, in a civil war in which Assad has bombed his and gassed own people repeatedly – not that this deterred Sizer. 

Sizer has worked before with the Iranian regime. As you can see in this document, he worked with Khomeini’s daughter Zahra Mostafavi to translate his book Christian Zionism into Farsi.... 

The Iranian regime, remember, jails pastors distributing New Testaments, whilst sponsoring a translation of Sizer’s book, which shows the cross locked in by a giant Star of David on its cover.

Last year, Sizer spoke at an antisemitic conference in Iran, which included Holocaust deniers as speakers.

This ought to trouble the Church of England, every bit as much as his 9/11 conspiracy theory.

Daphne Anson has an excellent article about Sizer on her blog, with a screenshot of his Facebook post linking to the article arguing for Israeli/Jewish responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

Further articles on Sizer:

Betsy Childs at First Things writes about Sizer as the "Master of Apologies." She concludes:

While Stephen Sizer has shown himself ready to apologize, he has been unwilling to alter his behavior. It is past time for his church to stop allowing him to plead carelessness as his excuse. His continual posting of anti-Semitic content, as well as his disingenuous apologies, brings dishonor to the name of Jesus and the body of Christ.

Anti-Zionist, Antisemitic Vicar Stephen Sizer in the US

I just learned via Twitter that Stephen Sizer, the antisemitic Anglican vicar, is now in the US to attend the "Christ at the Checkpoint" conference in Oklahoma. The conference,  which is usually held in Bethlehem, Palestine, fights against Christian Zionism. Sizer's first book was a denunciation of Christian Zionism. Here's a link to the article in Fathom about Sizer and the conference: Anti-semitic conspiracy theorist featured at Christian anti-Israel conference.

Luke Moon, the Deputy Director of the Philos Project in New York, told The Tower that “The goal of Christ at the Checkpoint is to undermine Christian support for Israel. Having attended the last four CATC conferences in Bethlehem this one is proving to be the worst.” 

He added that “The organizers have gone too far in hosting Stephen Sizer…The positive relationship between Christians and Jews is at an all-time high and it’s conferences like this one that seek to drive us back to the days of antagonism and distrust—and I will fight hard against that.” 

The CATC manifesto states that the “suffering of the Palestinian people can no longer be ignored” and that “Evangelicals must reclaim the prophetic role in bringing peace, justice and reconciliation in Palestine and Israel.” Their employees have accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” erecting an “apartheid wall,” and enacting a “crucifixion system” against the Palestinians. 

“Christ at the Checkpoint has long been a forum for bigots and anti-Semites,” said Yona Schiffmiller, director of the North America desk at NGO Monitor. “Predictably, this gathering seems poised to follow in that dubious tradition. The decision to give a platform to a 9/11 conspiracy theorist—a participant in Iranian Holocaust-denial conferences—and to those who try to engage avowed terrorist organizations in ‘non-violence training’ exemplifies the radical agenda of this gathering’s organizers.”

Darrell Cates helped bring Stephen Sizer to Oklahoma. Sizer told an interviewer in Malaysia that Zionism "is a form of racism" and that Zionists "bought every single one of those politicians" who stood and cheered Benjamin Netanyahu in the U.S. Congress.https://t.co/TObFtmDtJ9 pic.twitter.com/sVKpnWMq96

— Dexter Van Zile (@dextervanzile) October 16, 2018

Christ at Checkpoint hosting an anti-Semitic speaker, Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer, a well-known purveyor of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, who often posts anti-Semitic links on his social media at their Oklahoma ‘peacemaking’ conference https://t.co/L6WphoP6ZI pic.twitter.com/yNA0dWGYMj

— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) October 16, 2018

Sad for some United Methodists in Oklahoma to facilitate anti-Israel jamboree w/Stephen Sizer et al. At least Anglican scholar & New Christian Zionism champion @GRMcDermott will bring alternative perspective. https://t.co/W3yuf82eTS

— Mark Tooley (@markdtooley) October 16, 2018

Watch out for the disgusting Christian anti-Semitic conference called Christ at the Checkpoint held in Oklahoma today. Speakers Stephen Sizer, who blamed Israel and Jews for the terror acts on 9/11; and Elias Chacour, charged in with sexual harassment.https://t.co/5SCeu4KpeO

— Julie Lenarz (@MsJulieLenarz) October 15, 2018

Reverend Stephen Sizer, Anti-Zionism, and Free Speech

Happily, in the United States, we have the First Amendment to prevent the police from showing up on the doorsteps of bloggers and telling us to take down our blogs on a dubious charge of harassment.

Unfortunately, this is not true in Britain, where the blogger Seismic Shock has been visited by the police on the complaint of a Reverend Stephen Sizer, a campaigner for the Palestinians and against Christian Zionism, who seems to be of the opinion that criticizing other people's actions and opinions on one's blog is a "campaign of harassement and intimidation."

Seismic reports on his visit from the police at Harry's Place. Go to his blog for further updates.

I've tried to read Sizer's blog and his other online writings, but since everything he pens is smothered in a thick flannel of ostentatious piety, it's rather hard to get through.

In this posting on Harry's Place, Seismic discusses Sizer's 2007 visit to Iran:

In October 2007, Stephen Sizer was invited to Iran by Zahra Mostafavi and Jawad Sharbaf of the Iranian institute NEDA, notorious for its links with Holocaust deniers. Not one to insult his hosts, Sizer’s main concern in Iran was to preach about the evils of Christian Zionism.

Faydra L. Shapiro of Wilfred Laurier University in Canada has written a slashing review of his latest book, Zion's Christian Soldiers. It appeared in the Review of Biblical Literature in November 2009 (published by the Society of Biblical Literature). I reprint it here for those interested in a scholarly approach to Sizer's anti-Zionist and anti-Judaic theology. I have emphasized the points I think most important.

In 2004 Stephen Sizer wrote Christian Zionism: Roadmap to Armageddon. Zion’s Christian Soldiers is Sizer’s attempt to reach a wider audience, by simplifying and shortening his previous work, taking out much of the detailed historical and political material to be found there. Zion’s Christian Soldiers is left with some scarce resources to make its point and is primarily a politically motivated theological critique of Christian Zionism.

In the introduction to Zion’s Christian Soldiers, the author sets out the basic terminology for his later discussion, most importantly contrasting covenantalism and dispensationalism. Sizer also takes the time to debunk what he refers to as the “three red herrings”: that dispensationalism is the only biblical literalism; the assertion that anti-Zionism is anti- Semitism; and the “straw man” of supersessionism. Sizer is careful in chapter 1 to emphasize that in his eyes the issue is not solely political; rather, “It is not an understatement to say that what is at stake is our understanding of the gospel, the centrality of the cross, the role of the church and the nature of our missionary mandate, not least, to the beloved Jewish people.” (19) In chapter 2 the author takes pains to distinguish what he deems a kind of acceptable biblical literalism from that of what he calls the “ultra-literalists.” The section on “five common mistakes made by ultraliteralists” is a brief but trenchant look at some of the creative reading techniques used to interpret biblical prophecies in light of current events.

Chapter 3 engages Sizer’s central question of the identity of God’s chosen people. For Sizer, the answer is unambiguously that believers of all nations are the real children of God and that it is thus “inappropriate to … claim the Jewish people have a separate relationship with God based on their ancestry or Mosaic Law” (71). Chapter 4 takes up the issue of “the Promised Land.” It is here that Sizer paints a utopic picture of the nature of the state following the return from exile in Babylonia, asserting that “The Promised Land under the old covenant was to be shared and inclusive. This is a biblical model many Christian Palestinians, who favor a one-state solution, long to see accepted within the modern State of Israel” (89)

Chapter 5 challenges Christian Zionist support for Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, arguing that Christians ought not to focus on an exclusivist, physical city of Jerusalem; rather, their vision should be trained on the inclusive and eternal heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation. From here Sizer moves smoothly into a chapter sharply criticizing Christian Zionists who support rebuilding the temple. Chapter 8 examines the doctrine of the “rapture” and premillenialism generally as creating a “destructive culture of pessimism and fatalism in Western Christianity” (150). The book ends with a chapter of conclusion, followed by a reprint of a sermon by John Stott (Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church, London) entitled “The Place of Israel.”

Zion’s Christian Soldiers suffers from some significant weaknesses. Sizer not only overestimates the influence of Christian Zionism among American evangelicals and significantly overrates the importance of dispensationalism to their Zionism, but he utterly exaggerates the role of Christian Zionism in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and global politics more generally. Sizer’s suggestion in the introduction that Christian Zionism explains everything from the West’s concern about Iran’s development of nuclear capability to Arab terrorism in Britain and America (“despite our commitment to the rule of international law, democracy and human rights” [10]) is simply hyberbolic. On page 19 Sizer likewise asserts that “the movement [Christian Zionism] as a whole is nevertheless leading the West, and the church with it, into a confrontation with Islam,” as if were it not for evangelical support for Israel, the West and Islam would have nothing to disagree about. Statements like these reduce the author’s credibility to such a degree that any valuable parts to his argument are lost along the way.

Sizer clearly does not quite “get” Judaism as an entity that is neither “religion” nor “race.” This is clearly illustrated in his assertion that “The myth of racial purity is nothing new, nor is the desire to limit or exclude those deemed inferior. This is particularly so today when defining Israel, since national identity tends to be restricted to those who are Jewish by race” (46). Beyond the simplistic understandings of religion, ethnicity, and nationalism here, Sizer’s echo of Nazi terminology here is a cheap shot and utterly irresponsible. To paraphrase, Sizer is trying to argue here that, unlike contemporary Israel/Zionism, Israel of the Old Testament was not based in “racial exclusivity.” Yet such allegations of a program of “racial purity” in contemporary Israel are difficult to reconcile with the fact of a state with non-Jewish Arabs comprising some 20 percent of its population, together with the racially heterogeneous mix of Jews in Israel that includes Yemenite Jews, Russian Jews, Indian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and Chinese Jews.

Zion’s Christian Soldiers never pretends to be the work of objective scholarship and should not be thought of as such. The author has a very strong opinion that is anti-Israel and highly critical of Christians (or presumably anyone) who support Zionism. Sizer’s passionate anti-Zionism and anti-Judaism give this work a great deal of energy, yet they harm any scholarly aspirations this book might have. Sizer writes in the preface that the “fear of being labeled an anti-Semite is a powerful disincentive” (8) to challenging Christian support for Israel. Rather than simple anti-Semitism, his work expresses something more complex, deeper, and ultimately more terrifying—a sincere, theological, Christian anti-Judaism. In several instances the reader hardly knows whether to laugh or cry. Bizarre assertions such as “If we have come to know Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we will read the Hebrew Scriptures with Christian eyes—the way Jesus and his apostles did” (27) or “The challenge the apostles faced was proclaiming this good news among the very people [Jews?] who had crucified Christ” (110) speak for themselves and make it difficult to take the work seriously as a contribution to scholarship.

Bishop of Guildford bans Stephen Sizer from writing or speaking on Middle East issues

Statement on the Revd Stephen Sizer by the Bishop of Guildford

Sizer has *finally* been prohibited from engaging in any speech, writing, or activities about the Middle East. This includes attending conferences, which I presume include the Christ at the Checkpoint conferences or his regular jaunts to Iran to take part in antisemitic conferences.

This is the statement from the new Bishop of Guildford:

"The Diocese of Guildford has taken extremely seriously the reports and complaints regarding Stephen Sizer over the past two weeks. Concerns surrounding Stephen were raised both in response to allegedly offensive materials linked from his Facebook account, and to comments he made to the Jewish News and the Daily Telegraph thereafter. 

"Commenting on this matter, the Council of Christians and Jews has helpfully highlighted that:

‘It is perfectly possible to criticize Israeli policies without such criticism being anti-Semitic, and Christians and others should feel free to do so. However, such legitimate criticism must not be used as a cloak for anti-Semitism, nor can anti-Semitism itself ever be disguised as mere political comment’. (see CCJ website)

"Having now met Stephen, in my brand new role as Bishop of Guildford, I do not believe that his motives are anti-Semitic; but I have concluded that, at the very least, he has demonstrated appallingly poor judgment in the material he has chosen to disseminate, particularly via social media, some of which is clearly anti-Semitic. 

"By associating with or promoting subject matter, which is either ambiguous in its motivation, or (worse still) openly racist, he has crossed a serious line. I regard these actions as indefensible.

"I have welcomed Stephen’s apology, his recognition of the deep hurt caused by his actions, his acknowledgement of the gross insensitivity of their timing just prior to Holocaust Memorial Day, and his retraction of the ridiculous suggestion that Israel may have been complicit in the events of 9/11. I have also recognized that much of Stephen’s ministry in other areas and at other times has been good, wise and wholesome. 

"Having consulted closely with my colleagues here in the Diocese, though, it is my view that Stephen’s strong but increasingly undisciplined commitment to an anti-Zionist agenda has become a liability to his own ministry and that of the wider church. Many who more moderately support the Palestinian cause, and share his critique of a particular brand of Christian fundamentalism, themselves find Stephen’s actions to be increasingly unhelpful and counter-productive, a fact he himself now recognizes. 

"It is therefore my decision that Stephen’s work in this area is no longer compatible with his ministry as a parish priest. 

"In order for Stephen to remain in parish ministry, I have therefore asked for - and received from him - a solemn undertaking, in writing, that he is to refrain entirely from writing or speaking on any theme that relates, either directly or indirectly, to the current situation in the Middle East or to its historical backdrop. 

"He has promised to refrain, with no exceptions, from attendance at or participation in any conferences which promote or are linked to this agenda; from all writing, tweeting, blogging, emailing, preaching and teaching on these themes, whether formally or informally – a prohibition which of course includes posting links to other sites; and from all background work in this area which may resource others to act as spokespeople in Stephen’s stead. 

"Should Stephen be deemed by the Diocese to have broken this agreement, in letter or in spirit, he has pledged to offer me his immediate resignation, which I will duly accept. He has also agreed to desist from the use of social media entirely for the next six months, after which he and I will review that prohibition. 

"It is fair to say that Stephen seems relieved to be working within this clear new framework, and would now like to redirect his energies into his work as a parish priest.

"The Diocese of Guildford has been in contact with the Board of Deputies of British Jews throughout this matter. I have made them aware of Stephen’s undertaking, and am grateful for the positive and constructive nature of our conversations.

"I would also like to thank all those who have taken the time to contact me and my colleagues in the aftermath of these events, and for everything we have learnt from your various perspectives. 

"Most importantly of all, I am hugely sorry for the hurt which has been caused to members of the Jewish Community, and I hope and pray that the storms of the past two weeks will ultimately serve to deepen and strengthen our relationship, one with another. This is a time when I would urge all Christian people to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish brothers and sisters in countering the alarming rise of anti-Semitic incidents being reported, not least here in the UK. This is also a time for people of faith, Jews, Christians, Muslims and others, to work together in that open, robust partnership that will help to promote peace and justice in our communities, our nation and the wider world."

Update: Sizer's letter of apology and statement that he will refrain from all activity relating to the Middle East conflict is posted to the diocese of Guildford's website: Stephen Sizer letter (direct link to PDF document).

Stephen Sizer's debate with Calvin Smith

Joseph W reports on Rev. Stephen Sizer's debate with Dr. Calvin Smith last night, in particular focusing on Sizer's closeness to the Iranian regime: Stephen Sizer on his links with Iran’s Khomeinists: “I’ll go anywhere to share the gospel”.

Dr. Smith has just written to let me know that the recorded debate has now been uploaded to Vimeo - here is the link.


Has the Church Replaced Israel? (TV debate) from Calvin Smith on Vimeo.

A rather opinionated assessment of the debate by Moriel Archive.

Gev of the Rosh Pina Project has some harsh words for Rev. Sizer's performance at the debate -

Stephen Sizer is a master at speaking a different way with a different message to different audiences. A prime example is last night’s debate he had on Revelation TV with Calvin Smith, Principal of King’s Evangelical Divinity School, UK. Sizer conceded most of the theological ground to Smith and sought to seem as reasonable and as nice as possible. I just felt like he was grooming his audience for some nefarious purpose.

Last night he concluded that he wanted to “learn from his Messianic brothers” however to an audience of largely non-Christian Palestine Solidarity Campaign supporters he called Israeli Messianic Jews, who support their country, an abomination! He later issued an “apology” when he was caught out, but blamed the naughty Zionists who filmed him for putting him under-pressure and hence he came out with that howler....

Sizer couldn’t keep to the theological topic that was billed in the debate and launched a tirade against Israel’s injustices but ignores, and sometime worse, he rationalises the violence and minimises the murderers of Jews by calling them political prisoners,  as we reported here.

Sizer’s elastic-sided ethics stretch so far as to allow him to promote a new blog site as if he had nothing to do with it, when it fact he started it. We reported this here.

In conceding to Calvin Smith that the Jews were still God’s chosen people and God has not finished with them, Sizer sang a different tune to the one he sang in Malaysia for a Viva Palestina meeting he addressed. He said in an interview to Shahanaaz Habib of the Star Newspaper that the idea that the Jews were God’s Chosen people was “absolute rubbish”. We reported this here.

Debate between Calvin Smith and Stephen Sizer on Israel - November 9

Conor O'Riordan submitted a comment (to an old post of mine) about an interesting debate coming up on November 9 in the UK.

Live televised Debate: Israel and The Church: Replacement or fulfillment?
Place: Revelation TV London UK in front of a studio audience
Date: November 9th 2011
Time: 9 pm to 10:30 pm UK time (please adjust for local time) broadcast live via SKY TV in Europe and live streaming worldwide at this link: http://www.revelationtv.com/watch_now

Participants: Calvin L Smith and Stephen Sizer

Defending the position that the nation of Israel as it exists since 1948 still has a place in end time Biblical prophecy will be Calvin Smith, principal of Kings Evangelical Divinity School.

Opposing this and giving a different Biblical view on Israel and the Church will be Stephen Sizer ,who is vicar of Christ Church Virginia Water Surrey UK and founding member of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism.

E-mails and texts will be intermittently read out and tallied to ascertain which position garners most support from the public.

Note: Viewers in USA with a ROKU BOX can now watch Revelation TV and so view the debate through this medium.

Revelation TV is the most popular UK Christian television station www.revelationtv.com

Dr Calvin L. Smith

Dr Calvin L Smith is principal of Kings Evangelical Divinity School, editor of the Evangelical Review of Society and Politics, author of numerous books including The Jews, Modern Israel and The New Supercessionism. He lectures in theology and hermeneutics. He is an academic researcher conference and Church speaker.

Stephen Sizer

Stephen Sizer is senior pastor of Christ Church, the community church of Virginia Water in Surrey UK. He is a founding member of (ISCZ) Institute for the study of Christian Zionism. He is a member of the advisory council of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding. He co-authored the Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism signed by the heads of Churches in Jerusalem. He has an extensive international ministry teaching regularly in Churches, seminaries, and universities in the USA, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

Update - Dr. Smith has posted about the upcoming debate on his blog.

Was Israel a Mistake? - Review of Sizer's first book

I just found a review of one of Sizer's other books, in Christianity Today, by Paul Merkley: Was Israel a Mistake? It's also a doozie.

In Christian Zionism: Road-Map to Armageddon?, Stephen Sizer advances the fantasy, previously elaborated by a host of anti-Zionist polemicists, that the long and honorable history of defense by Christians of Israel's right to be Israel is merely an epiphenomenon of the history of a singular, off-center school of theology called premillennial dispensationalism. According to this thesis, all Christian Zionists are mindless acolytes of a Sanhedrin of pamphleteers which carries on the teachings of John Nelson Darby.

By my casual reckoning, about 80 percent of the book is devoted to a sedulous taxonomy of End Times speculation. The project began as a doctoral thesis for which Sizer bravely sifted through the mountain of English-language prophetic theology from the 17th to the end of the 20th century and disposed its components into categories: amillennialist, postmillennialist, and premillennialist—the latter further divided into covenantal and dispensationalist, and, in the latter section of the book, apocalyptic-dispensationalist and political dispensationalist. Do not despair: there are charts.

Early in the book, Sizer outlines a sequence of political figures who carried the message of premillennial dispensationalism forward into a plan of action for establishing a Jewish state. The list breaks off with Balfour, and thus Sizer spares himself having to explain the connection between dispensationalism and Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and their successors in the front ranks of political actors after 1918.

Among major misrepresentations of historical fact too numerous to list, let alone to deconstruct, I take the case of Arthur James Balfour, he of the Balfour Declaration, who stands in this book for the entire class of Christian Zionists. We learn that he was a man who was "brought up in an evangelical home and was sympathetic to Zionism because of the influence of dispensational teaching," hence naïve, uncultivated, weak-minded, his thinking processes dulled, like those of the rest of us Christian friends of Israel today, by low-brow pamphleteering and thus easily led by the Zionists. Balfour, dim bulb that he was, "regarded history as an instrument for carrying out a Divine Purpose." (Since when did this become a heresy?)

In truth, Lord Arthur James Balfour was a member of the most prominent political family of his day, noted for its achievements in science and the arts; he had a place at the very heart of British intellectual and artistic circles, was educated up to his ears, and was a widely published critical-academic philosopher, which earns him a long entry today in the Encylopedia of Philosophy. The quotient of dispensationalism in Balfour's intellectual makeup was zero.

In fact, of all the major Christian Zionists whom Sizer describes as standing at the end of the line whose head and fount is the dispensationalist Prophet, John Darby, only one, William Blackstone, was in fact a dispensationalist, or, for that matter, speculated at all about covenants and dispensations. (And how on earth did the notoriously agnostic Lord Palmerston get into this sequence of the mindless dupes of premillennial dispensationalism?)

Sizer's cartoon-Balfour stands for all the Christian Zionists jerked around by scheming Jews. Think of contemporary Christian Zionists, puppets of the Likud, cheering from the sidelines, never questioning, never doubting, as bulldozers destroy the vineyards and homes of Palestinians (as illustrated on the cover of the book), as illegal settlements are expanded towards the never-admitted but palpable goal of extending Israel's boundaries to include Damascus, Beirut, Amman, and Baghdad—perhaps, who knows, to China. Like the cartoon-Balfour, Christian visitors to Israel are swiftly taken captive by State-appointed tour-guides who drag everybody off to Yad Vashem (which exists "to represent Israel as a victim") and then to the Wailing Wall and Masada in order "to perpetuate a favorable image of Israel, stifle criticism and reinforce their claim to the land." Related to this red herring is the one about being in love with cosmic-death scenarios inspired by provocative passages in Daniel and Revelation. The debt which Sizer owes to the Chomsky-Finkelstein-Ateek school of the History of Israel is readily apparent.

Some of my best friends are premillennial dispensationalists, but we get along anyway. For a Christian Zionist of my ilk, a full and sufficient biblical mandate is in Genesis 12, with special reference to verse 3: "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the nations of the world shall be blessed"—a text which Sizer turns inside out on page 147.

It does not seem of any interest to Sizer to note that we stand today on historical ground very different from that of the age of the dispensationalist prophetic conferences. What we have to speculate about today is whether the being of Israel should be undone by human force. Christian Zionists are realists. They no longer attend conferences in which anyone proposes a theory about Israel's coming into existence. Their speculations about what is right and wrong, what should be done and not done, start from the premise that Israel is. Anti-Zionists, meanwhile, live in the same counterfactual world as do the Muslims who speculate about the legitimacy of Zion.

It is a common feature of anti-Christian Zionist literature that little interest is shown in the actual historical circumstances that brought the modern State of Israel into existence. In Sizer's book there is absolutely none, unless we count this oddity on page 148: "in 1948 the U.S. government was just as opposed to the founding of the State of Israel [as was] Britain." Is this revisionism, or what? It is Franklin Roosevelt attacking the Japanese fleet at Pearl Harbor. Did none of that long list of people who are thanked on the Acknowledgements page twig to this incriminating bit of confusion? Does InterVarsityPress not have fact-checkers? This is embarrassing. It is, however, all we have to indicate that Sizer knows that once there was no State of Israel but now there is—somehow.

With this book, says Colin Chapman in his back-cover appreciation, "Sizer has thrown down the gauntlet in a way that demands a response from those who support the state of Israel for theological reasons." Well, anytime, anywhere.

CAMERA on Stephen Sizer and Joseph Weissman

CAMERA, an organization that I often do not agree with, has published a good report about Seismic Shock (Joseph Weissman) and Stephen Sizer: Stephen Sizer Complains to Police About Blogger. One correction I would make to this report is that Weissman's first blog was not hosted by his university's computer system - it was hosted on Blogspot, which is owned by Google. (To access at least the first page, go to the Google cache of the blog). (This is the blog that he deleted at the request of the police).

Stephen Sizer, hanging out at an antisemitic conference in Iran again

The Reverend Stephen Sizer is in the news again, and not for a good reason. He's one of the people who attended the latest Iranian conference, New Horizon, which provided a venue for Jew-haters and conspiracy theorists of all kinds. The purpose of the conference from the point of view of the Iranian regime seems to be to bolster the Iranian position in the ongoing talks on its nuclear program. Its official title was "New Horizon – The 2nd Annual International Conference of Independent Thinkers & Film Makers."

Sizer spoke on two panels. At the opening ceremony, he gave a talk entitled "Christian Jihad vs. Christian Zionism." In another panel, titled "The Mechanisms of Action of the Israeli Lobby and their Effects in Western Capitals," he reported on "The Israeli Lobby in England."

[Incidentally, Sizer has published a talk called The Christian Jihadist on his website which may provide the gist of what he talked about at the conference].

Press TV has a short video about the conference, and Sizer appears briefly, speaking at the opening ceremony, but we don't hear what he's saying. Here's a screen grab from the video, showing him speaking:

He also participated in the "Conversations" part of the conference, in a session titled "Christian responsibility against Systematic Iniquity." The other participants were Randy Short, who has appeared many times on the Iranian propaganda channel Press TV, Maria Poumier, and Marzieh Hashemi. Poumier is a French filmmaker who was the director of a movie about Roger Garaudy, the Holocaust denier. She also worked on a movie called "L'antisémite" together with the French antisemitic comedian, Dieudonné M’bala M’bala. Hashemi is an American who converted to Islam, moved to Iran, and now works for Press TV. Randy Short is a Protestant minister, but Hashemi is a Muslim, and Poumier doesn't appear to be connected to religion at all. A strange set of interlocutors for Sizer.

Sizer has also just uploaded a bizarre video to Vimeo, "Syrian Tourist Board Promo." It has to be seen to be believed, because it is so out of touch with the current reality of civil war and atrocities in Syria. [Update from September 22, 2018 - the video is still available!]

Another interesting participant was Medea Benjamin, of Codepink. She was one of only a few female participants (although from the New Horizon website it also appears that Alison Weir [not the historian] is also speaking, although she's not listed among the participants). Despite her feminist beliefs, she covered her hair with a scarf, as the Iranian regime requires of all women.

Medea Benjamin being interviewed by Iranian state TV - image is from ADL article on the conference.

She was part of a panel on "The Gaza War & BDS Movement Strategies against the Zionist Regime," and participated in two "conversations": on "Different Facets of the Resistance," along with Tim Pool and Caleb Maupin, on "Paradigms Old & New," with Ken O'Keefe, Tim Pool, and Caleb Maupin. The panel discussion also included Randy Short, and two Iranians, Vahid Jalili and Khaled Qoddumi.

Here's how O'Keefe is described on Wikipedia: "Ken O’Keefe (born July 21, 1969) is an Irish-Palestinian citizen and activist and former United States Marine and Gulf War veteran who attempted to renounce US citizenship in 2001. He led the human shield action to Iraq and was a passenger on the MV Mavi Marmara during the Gaza flotilla raid. He said that he participated during clashes on the ship including having been involved in the disarmament of two Israeli commandos."

Tim Pool has worked for Vice Media and is praised on his Wikipedia page for his use of new technology in covering event such as the Occupy Wall Street protests. It's not clear to me from reading about him why he would participate in a conference overflowing with conspiracy theorists and antisemitic nut cases.

Caleb Maupin works for the International Action Center, which still defends North Korea as a communist state. He is also a member of the Workers World Party, another Marxist-Leninist group that supports the vicious North Korean regime. The abstract of his talk at the conference can be found here. He writes, "The same banking institutions which drive the US toward war and support for Israel, are devastating the US economy. I will point to key events that I directly observed during the Occupy Wall Street protests that showed the potential for building a higher level of solidarity. I will identify the harmful role of Zionist Non-Governmental Organizations in controlling the movement’s politics, and blocking it from building a broader perspective."

Who is Vahid Jalili? A report in Alahednews on the conference cites him:

A few Iranian figures spoke during the conference among which was Vahid Jalili, the Director of Cultural Front of Islamic Revolution. He assured that "Israel" failed to establish its land from Nile to the Euphrates. He also said its army is no longer known as the invincible army, and is unable to protect itself. 

Jalili stressed on the cultural aspect of recognizing the fact that the Palestinian cause is international and humane not only Islamic and Arab. He also underlined that efforts worldwide should be joined to fighting the presence of a body that was entrenched in the Middle East.

Some media coverage:

Rosie Gray in Buzzfeed: "Antiwar Activists, 9/11 Truthers Gather In Tehran For Anti-Zionist Conference: Everyone from Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin to French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala."

An article by Ben Cohen in the Algemeiner: "Anti-Semites Gather in Iran for Regime Sponsored Hate-Fest"

Meir Javendafar, "Iran Regime Returns to its Antisemitic Propaganda - Again."

An article by Elham Hashemi in Alahednews, "New Horizon Conference: In Support of World Justice." The article reports that the Islamic Jihad representative in Iran, Nasser Abu Sharif, spoke on the evils of Israel. It also reports on the session with Medea Benjamin and Caleb Maupin:

Medea Benjamin, an American political activist, best known for co-founding Code Pink assured during her speech that there is not even one congress person in the US government who is ready to say ‘I want to cut aid to "Israel", even among the progressives as they are too afraid to take the step. 

Benjamin assured that BDS; Boycott Divestment Sanctions and other movements such as Students injustice for Palestine have become very prominent and vibrant in the United States. She assured these movements raise a very important issue in supporting the Palestinian people and bringing justice to the world. The activist assured that the effort now is to direct these campaigns correctly, and to find the best targets to boycott such as the Ahava cosmetic products, which not only are made by "Israel" but also steals salts from the Dead Sea. 

Other good targets, according to Benjamin, are G4S company, BAE systems, and Soda stream which are major supporters to the Zionist entity. 

In addition, Caleb Maupin, political analyst and journalist from the International Action Center assured that the list of corporations in charge of the economic trouble the US has been facing is almost identical to that of the boycott list, hence proving boycott fruitful. He stressed that boycott is one of the real keys to a major change in the world balance that people would want to see.

A press release by the ADL - "Iranian Hatefest Promotes Anti-Semitism, Draws Holocaust Deniers and U.S. Anti-Israel Activists." See also an earlier article: "Iran New Horizon Conference Draws U.S. Anti-Semites, Holocaust Deniers." An article published on October 2, "Details Emerge On Anti-Semitic Gathering In Tehran," gives more information on the speakers.

Stephen Sizer defended by 9/11 Truther Anthony Hall

Anthony Hall, a defender of Sizer's Facebook post about the 9/11 Truthers who claim Israeli/Jewish involvement in the 9/11 attacks, has written a rambling and conspiracy-laden article about him in Veterans Today, a Neonazi site. Hall is a "Professor of Globalization Studies at University of Lethbridge in Alberta Canada." He writes:

This time Reverend Sizer is charged with mirroring on his Facebook page a small sample of the large and growing body of evidence demonstrating that Israeli-American neocons were lead protagonists in the 9/11 crimes. They directed the complex of US and Israeli agencies that cooperated in the commission of the 9/11 debacle itself and in the coordination of the many subversions entailed in the continuing and increasingly desperate 9/11 cover-up.

Hall wrote on his Facebook page: "Earlier today Antonius received an E-Mail from Rev. Sizer indicating 'Right now I am in survival mode. I anticipate losing my role, my income and home.'" If Hall actually did receive such an email from Sizer, this is further evidence of Sizer's involvement with the murky world of 9/11 Truthers, antisemites, and Holocaust deniers.

Stephen Sizer: Palestine Conference

For those interested in Stephen Sizer, this is one of the things he's been up to recently: Palestine Conference: Justice and Peace in the Middle East.

The conference was organized by the Federation of Islamic Student Societies (in England). He refers to the "Jerusalem Declaration" (which he helped to draft, but which I haven't read), which "repudiates Christian Zionism as a deviant heresy." Not being a Christian, I'm not in a position to declare what is heretical in Christianity, but I had thought (or hoped) that this type of language of denouncing other Christians as heretics had disappeared with the ecumenical movement of the 20th century.

Calvin Smith of King's Evangelical Divinity School in England writes:

This is strong language indeed. Of course, it is no secret Revd Sizer has widely publicised his intense dislike of Christian Zionism, which he has every right to do. But surely labelling millions of fellow Evangelical Christians deviant heretics goes too far....

Thus, it is quite one thing to challenge particular doctrines and teachings one may disagree with (including Christian Zionism or for that matter supercessionism), but quite another to label millions of fellow Christians who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal saviour deviant heretics, a label generally reserved for those whose teachings and beliefs in some way deny the person of Christ.

It is also language which is unnecessarily polemical and polarising in nature, rather than the biblical language of gentle reproof and reconciliation as a first port of call for resolving disputes, theological or otherwise, within the Church. Drawing on this kind of language is also ironic, given how reconciliation is a central feature of the Jerusalem Declaration. Jesus tells His disciples they will discern what is good and bad by the fruit it produces. Unfortunately, the fruit of polarised language and the very public and pejorative denunciation of fellow Christians over their response to Israel has brought not only ecclesial division, but also little hope of much-needed reconciliation between Christians over the thorny issue of how to respond to the Middle East crisis.

Repudiating Christian Zionism somehow as a monolithic movement also lacks nuance. Which version of Christian Zionism is referred to here? The British variety, which tends to be more covenantal than geographical in nature, or perhaps the US variety, which includes (but is not limited to) a more apocalyptic and political expression? Meanwhile, some Christian Zionists espouse an Eretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema (Greater Israel) much like Israel’s Likud party, but others simply believe the Jews should be allowed to return to the land of their forefathers, less concerned with the exact borders or the political structures in place. Between these positions are various theological shades of Evangelical Christianity over responses to the Jewish people and modern Israel, highlighting how current Christian responses to the issue are quite complex. Yet the language of polarisation both masks these complexities and the at times weak arguments of those who would rather seek to promulgate a black and white, dualist narrative that demands an equally polarised response: "You are either with us or against us."

I've taken out some of the deeper thickets of Christian and especially evangelical theology, which I'm not an expert in. There is an interesting exchange in the comments between Modernity Blog & Smith:

ModernityBlog said...
15 February 2010 23:07:00 GMT

I can't comment on the theology, as an atheist, but wasn't the rise of modern Christian Zionism in part a reaction to the rather dubious theology surrounding the whole notion of a "Christ killer" and the exceedingly negative views that many Christians had previously taken of Jews?

I wonder, how does it fit in to the changing theological view of Jews since the 1960s?

Calvin L. Smith said...
15 February 2010 23:52:00 GMT

ModernityBlog, variations of Latent forms of Christian Zionism have existed for centuries. In the pre-modern Israel period they tended to focus theologically on the Jewish people rather than the land (including, for example, among some 17th century Puritans). However, within Church history there is a strand eschewing supercessionism (the view God has finished with the Jews), which arguably stretches back much further. Some (including me)argue the New Testament rejects supercessionism. Consider the take of the Apostle Paul (a Jew) on this in his argument set out in Romans 9, 10 and 11. But

In the aftermath of the last World War there emerged a theology towards the Jews known as post-Holocaust theology, which recognised how some European Christian attitudes throughout history likely contributed towards the Holocaust. This was largely embraced by the historic Protestant denominations, many of which have since become highly critical of Israel.

Moreover, there has emerged a quite vociferous anti-Christian Zionism in the last decade or two, strongly represented within Evangelicalism (the movement in which Christian Zionism is also strongly represented). Thus, Evangelicalism is currently divided over the issue of Israel, with both sides apparently claiming to be in the minority in order to project the need for others to embrace their message.

TV Debate between Calvin Smith and Stephen Sizer

Dr. Calvin Smith has a brief report on his debate last night with Rev. Stephen Sizer on his blog - Calvin L. Smith: That TV Debate. He will be uploading video of the debate eventually to his website. If anyone would like to comment on the debate, I'd be interested to hear it. (I did not hear it, since I'm in the US and was at work when it occurred).

Some links: History, Jacobo Timerman, and Messianic Jews

Defending History by The Plump. A sample:

I am always concerned by historical attempts to make qualitative judgements between unambiguous evils - was Stalin worse than Hitler (thereby implying one was actually better), was Fascism the same as Communism etc. – as they are either a form of sloppy shorthand or an attempt to dissemble. Nor is it enough to quantitatively evaluate regimes by counting the corpses (there are always corpses; many, many corpses).

Jacobo Timerman smeared, at Z-Blog.  A sample:

Many readers will be familiar with the name of the Argentine journalist and publisher Jacobo Timerman. Kidnapped and tortured by agents of the 1976-1983 dictatorship, he was eventually allowed to leave for Israel where he wrote a book, Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number that was to become a classic account of the horrors of military rule in Argentina.

I remember reading Timerman's book when it was first published - it was profoundly disturbing, a witness to the hellish tortures and murders committed by the Argentinean dictatorship.

Messianic Jewish Musings, by Derek Leman. Before the whole kerfuffle with Seismic Shock (Joseph Weissman) and the Reverend Sizer, I hadn't been very aware of Messianic Jewish groups (Jews who now believe that Jesus is the Messiah yet also hold onto their Jewish identity in various ways). Through my reading about his case, I came across this blog by the leader of a Messianic group in Roswell, Georgia. The blog tackles some weighty theological issues, such as supercessionism in Christianity, which Lerman (and Weissman) are particularly offended by, since it negates the value of any continued connection to Judaism on the part of Messianic Jews. (I personally object to Christian supercessionism, since it negates the continuing value of Judaism after the advent of Jesus as the Messiah).

Calvin L. Smith has also written in an interesting way about Stephen Sizer and Seismic Shock at his blog. He teaches at King's Evangelical Divinity School in England.

Mark Dankof, antisemitic Lutheran pastor, blames Jews for same-sex marriage

According to Lutheran minister Mark Dankof, Jews are to blame for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. (Why not? We're to blame for everything else, if you believe antisemites).

Pink News (UK gay paper) reported on his recent interview with Press TV (the Iranian regime's propaganda television station) about the Supreme Court's legalization of same-sex marriage in the US: Christian minister blames the Jews for America getting equal marriage.

A Christian pastor and activist has blamed Jewish people for the Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of same-sex marriage. 

Mark Dankof, a Lutheran, made the claims in an interview with Iran’s Press TV.
As well as same-sex marriage, Dankof attributed “victories for abortion on demand” to “Jewish power, money and activism.” 

“It should not be ignored that the victories for abortion on demand and LGBT rights are reflective of the disproportionate influence of Jewish power, money, and activism in the United States,” Dankof said.

From checking out Dankof on Google News, it appears that he is a regular contributor to Press TV. He thinks that the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo staff was a "false flag operation," and that the "Israel lobby controls US politics," etc. He's a buddy of David Duke, the former Klansman, Neo-Nazi, and antisemite. He is, of course, a 9-11 Truther, and frequently posts a photo of the World Trace Center towers in flame, with an Israeli flag in the upper right corner of the photo.

On one of his websites, however, he has an article called The Iran of Old (from 2002) which makes his current involvement with Press TV very strange. He writes: "The Land of Persia is presently ruled by a cadre of thugs in the guise of an Islamic Republic. The cabal of Mullahs and their trail of oppression, murder, and terror is plainly visible except to the blind by choice."

If he believes that, why is constantly being interviewed by Press TV?

On his blog (mark1marti2.wordpress.com), he has posts of his interviews with Press TV and others, interspersed with the occasional theological essay (he is a Lutheran minister). The article available at that link will also be published in a publication called "Table Talk," from the Lutheran Ministerium and Synod, a conservative Lutheran congregational organization.

In another sermon, given at the annual convention of the Lutheran Ministerium and Synod, it is clear that he believes that Christianity superseded Judaism, and he makes his argument in racial terms.

The New Testament and I Peter 2: 9-10 as a part of that corpus, explicit reject the notion that the Chosen People of God and the Kingdom of God itself, are rooted in notions of racial supremacy, racial identification, nationalism, military power, political power, or economic supremacy.  Jesus makes this clear in his debate with the Pharisees in John 8: 31-58.  Modern Christian Zionism, based in these false assumptions and in the 19th century eschatological inventions of John Nelson Darby and the Scofield Reference Bible..., has resurrected the very false teachings surrounding the Kingdom, the Covenants, Obedience, and Racial Identification that permeated the thinking of the Pharisees in John 8 and those who called for the release of Barabbas on the night of the Savior’s betrayal (Matthew 27:25). 

This is why Peter uses 2: 9-10 to reiterate what Paul says in Ephesians 1:4 when he states that “. . . He [God the Father] chose us in Him [God the Son, Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world . . .” Peter now tells believers in Christ who are racial Gentiles who were “once not a people” that they are “now the people of God” (I Peter 2: 10).  He assures his audience that, “Once you [Gentiles] had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 

Peter now applies the terms and the concepts of Old Testament Judaism to Gentiles who believe in Jesus Christ (verse 9). They are now a “Chosen People.” They are now members of a Royal Priesthood [of all believers in Jesus Christ], and are a “Holy Nation” and a “People Belonging to God.” The Apostle’s application of these terms and concepts to Gentile Christians is fraught with impending spiritual and political irony. After Peter’s death by crucifixion in A. D. 68 in Rome, it would only be two years before the Romans would visit Jerusalem in a fashion reminiscent of Nebuchadnezzar in the Sixth Century B. C., and would destroy yet another Jewish Temple on Tisha B’Av (August 9th) in the year A. D. 70. The notion of National and Racial Judah as the Chosen People of God in the New Testament Era had come to a catastrophic end, never to be resurrected again (Matthew 21: 19 and Mark 11: 14).

"Racial identification" of the Pharisees? "Racial gentiles"? "Racial Judah"? These are terms I would expect to be used by a Nazi clergyman from Germany in 1933-1945, not by a man ordained in the Lutheran Church who is preaching in 2015.

In a post from 2013, Dankof refers to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) as the "synagogue of Satan" (a phrase found in the book of Revelation 1:9, 2:9-10, and 3:8-9). He writes about "Talmudic racial supremacy," and blames a "Zionist-run America" for the legalization of abortion, for homosexuality, and for an America "soaked in lawless and violence."

It appears that Dankof's antisemitism is based both on a Christian supercessionist reading of the New Testament and on racial antisemitism, mixed with his adherence to American paleoconservatism and devotion to a wide range of conspiracy theories about the 9-11 attacks, Zionists, the Rothschilds, and AIPAC.

Update: Seismic Shock reported in 2008 that Stephen Sizer had appeared on Dankof's radio show. Joe W (author of Seismic Shock) reported on Harry's Place in 2011 about Sizer's appearance on the radio show. The ADL also reports on Dankof's appearances on Press TV, in 2015.
_____________________________________________________________________________

When I searched for more information about Dankof on Google News (searching on Google.de), I found that the list of articles by or about him included this notice:

The notice at ChillingEffects.org reads:

My guess is that there is an article by or about him on a banned Neo-Nazi site, probably Stormfront.

In 2002, the government in Nordrhein-Westfalen (where Bochum is located) decided to ban access to Stormfront via any of the local ISPs, according to Online Hate Speech Regulation in the United States and Europe, p. 173.

When I try to access Stormfront directly, this is the message I get:

The content of the website is prohibited by German law.

Lock available from 12-FEB-2002
21:50:30 AZ of district government Dusseldorf
Ordnungsrechtl. Procedures for breaches of the MdStV

What was the "Palestine Conference"?

Another point to make about Stephen Sizer's attendance at the Palestine Conference is that it reveals some of the company he keeps. According to the poster he put up on his blog (see above), his fellow speakers included Azzam Tamimi and Daud Abdullah. The conference was organized by the student association of Islamic groups on British campuses (FOSIS) and cosponsored by the Palestinian Return Centre, Interpal, the British Muslim Initiative, and the Friends of Al-Aqsa.

Harry's Place has written quite extensively on Tamimi and Abdullah. See this recent article on some of Tamimi's extreme statements on Israel and Jews. The author writes, "Support for Hamas suicide bombings is a consistent theme in Tamimi’s public talks, alongside the idea that Israel must disappear – either peacefully or through force."

A report in the Jewish Chronicle (of Feb. 11) covers a recent talk he gave at a prestigious university in London:

Palestinian academic Azzam Tamimi, who has advocated suicide bombing, has told students he “longs to be a martyr” and that Israel “must come to an end”. Dr Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, spoke to students at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) on Tuesday. On Monday, he addressed Cambridge University’s Islamic Society and is also due to speak at the Federation of Student Islamic Societies’ Palestine Week at Manchester University this weekend.

At SOAS, he praised Hamas and said: “Today Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation because that’s what the Americans and Israelis and cowardly politicians of Europe want, but what is so terrorist about it?

“You shouldn’t be afraid of being labelled extreme, radical or terrorist. If fighting for your home land is terrorism, I take pride in being a terrorist. The Koran tells me if I die for my homeland, I’m a martyr and I long to be a martyr.”

He criticised calls for a two-state solution and said: “Why are the Jews superhuman and better than anyone else that God would give them a homeland? Is God a racist? A god who would prefer people because of their race is not a god I want to associate with. Claiming they are being given the land of God is a racist idea.

“If the world felt so guilty about the Holocaust, the Jews should have been compensated, not brought to my country at the expense of my people. “Israel does not belong to my homeland and must come to an end. This can happen peacefully if they acknowledge what they did — or we will continue to struggle until Israel is no more.”

He also urged students to continue hosting debates, despite calls to ban controversial speakers from campuses. He said: “I want to encourage you not to be intimidated by the pro-Israel lobby. The Zionists tell a pack of lies.

Dr Tamimi spoke alongside Ben White, author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide, who urged students to boycott Israeli goods.

On Abdullah, see this article at Harry's Place: Daud Abdullah, the Royal Navy and Jihad.

Why is a Christian theologian, of all people, associating with Azzam Tamimi and Daud Abdullah?

Miko Peled, who appeared in Ithaca in 2016, now speaking to neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers in Britain

I wonder if it's occurred to the people who organized Miko Peled's talk in Ithaca in 2016 to feel a bit of shame in retrospect, considering that he's now appearing at venues in Britain organized by open neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers? 

Peled is the son of an Israeli general who has decided that Israel is entirely responsible for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He spoke here on November 2, 2016, after giving a talk in Syracuse on September 16 to the Syracuse Peace Council. The Ithaca sponsors were a parade of the local leftist great and good:  Ithaca Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Citizens for Justice in Palestine, Episcopal Peace Fellowship's Palestine/Israel Network, Veterans for Peace, Ithaca Catholic Workers, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Multicultural Resource Center. He spoke at GIAC - the Greater Ithaca Activities Center.

See William Jacobson's report on his visit to Ithaca - https://legalinsurrection.com/2016/10/anti-israel-activist-miko-peled-to-appear-at-city-of-ithaca-youth-center/.

What's he been up to since then?

He just spoke at a church in Soho, as reported by David Collier - http://david-collier.com/church-antisemitism and http://david-collier.com/miko-peled-ian-fantom/. It turns out his talk was sponsored by a group called "Keep Talking," which was founded by a 9-11 Truther named Ian Fantom and a Holocaust denier named Nick Kellerstrom. Other antisemites also attended the meeting, among them Alison Chabloz, who has been convicted and jailed for Holocaust denial (illegal in Britain), and Stephen Sizer, the Anglican vicar who also blames Israel for everything and has cosied up with the Iranian regime.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for his local fans to apologize for bringing him here. Much of his antisemitic reputation was already known at the time he came to Ithaca, and it didn't stop any of them from bringing him. A pity.

On those who are against Christian Zionism (Stephen Sizer, cont'd)

The problem with most anti-Christian Zionists is that they can't seem to find a way to dismantle the theology without characterizing Jews as a reprobate and benighted people who deserve whatever enmity that is coming down the pike for them.#catcusa
1/x

— Dexter Van Zile (@dextervanzile) October 17, 2018

To varying degrees, they promote political narratives that portray Israel and its supporters as singularly responsible for the violence and suffering associated with the Arab-Israeli conflict (and in some cases, violence in the rest of the region).

2/x#CATCUSA

— Dexter Van Zile (@dextervanzile) October 17, 2018

The theological and scriptural takedown of Christian Zionism relies on anti-Judaic readings of the Old Testament and on anti-Judaism in the New Testament. Relying on anti-Judaism and supersessionism in theological debate with Christian Zionists has consequences in political

3/x

— Dexter Van Zile (@dextervanzile) October 17, 2018

realm. Anti-Christian Zionists can't, or won't deal honestly with the threats faced by Israel, exaggerate its sins.

An internal Christian fight becomes a springboard for an ideological and theological assault on Jews and their homeland.

4/4#catcusa

— Dexter Van Zile (@dextervanzile) October 17, 2018