Global, Israel, Politics, Religion

Evangelicals Rallying Behind Israel

Follow up to an earlier post:
OAKLAND – To prevent the George W. Bush administration from pressuring the Israelis into turning over even more land, Hagee, the pastor of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church and the head of a multi-million-dollar evangelical enterprise, recently brought together 400 Christian evangelical leaders — representing as many as 30 million Christians — for an invitation-only “Summit on Israel”.
The result was the launch of a new pro-Israel lobbying group called Christians United for Israel (CUFI).
By 2002, a number of veteran Christian conservative evangelical leaders and Republican Party power brokers had joined forces with conservative Jewish leaders to launch several pro-Israel organisations. But the history of Jewish-evangelical involvement goes back several decades.
According to Rabbi James Rudin, writing in his recently published book, “The Baptising of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of U.S.,” “the first [modern] evangelical-Jewish meeting” took place in New York in 1975.
Full release
Even Abe Foxman of the ADL recently came out—after many years of condoning this “strange bedfellow” with Christian groups because of their undying support for Israel—critiquing this politically assanine union with Christian groups who could care less about Jewish people in the U.S. or in Israel, let alone the rights of Palestinians.

10 thoughts on “Evangelicals Rallying Behind Israel

  1. Foxman has consistently demonstrated some pretty sound judgment on this repellent alliance, the alarming implications of which are perfectly expressed by the following:
    “Lie down in shit and they call you a pig.”

  2. maybe the temptation to curry favor with Xians is there because the Left in the U.S. has turned its back on Israel, and we’re looking for whatever support we can get.

  3. But doesn’t it seem just a little nutzo to hang out with a bunch of wackos who want you to prosper so that (1) that long-awaited end of the world can come and (2) all us non-Jesus-enthusiast types can give up our heathen ways and/or become Jews for Jesus?
    I mean, these are people who are begging God daily for some catastrophic event in which a whole bunch o’ people die.

  4. the shortsightedness of “looking for whatever support we can get” was precisely the point of my aphorism, which speaks to the inevitability of unintended consequences. The insidious and patronizing “support” from those Christians who think Jews are necessary fodder for preparing the Kingdom of Heaven – without a chance in hell (so to speak) of entering themselves — is the LAST thing we need. I don’t intend this as some theological rebuke of evangelical Christianity, but a condemnation of the grotesque political alliance of the sleazy hustlers and fanatics on the Right, Jewish and Christian.
    As for the Left turning its back on Israel, the statement is false. Alas, there is an element of the “pro-Palestinian” Left that remains profoundly and transparently anti-Semitic, the presence of which has kept me from associating myself with any movement that is tainted by their influence. On the other hand, the Zionist Left has been advocating for at least 25 years precisely the positions that have finally been embraced by the mainstream as essential for the survival of the State of Israel. We knew that Israel ultimately had to separate itself from the Palestinians in order to retain its Jewish and democratic soul, that conquest of the occupied territories was a moral obscenity and political impossibility, and that making peace with one’s enemies has nothing to do with loving or trusting them.
    Meanwhile, the “realistic,” sickeningly amoral neoconservatives sought to turn American Jewry into an outpost of the Likud, which – along with its oily and corrupt avatar, Netanyahu – appears mercifully to have been buried in the sands of history. Just as in their guise as conservative Republicans here in the States, these “leaders” engaged in a relentless campaign of political propaganda, libeling their political opponents as traitors, and mischaracterizing any criticism of their expansionist policies as collaboration with the murderers of Jews.
    Now, if I’m deemed to have “turned my back” on Israel by my refusal to mortgage its future to our own band of theocratic religious fanatics, then I happily stand with such traitors to the Zionist dream as Yitzhak Rabin and his kind.

  5. “Libeling their political opponents as traitors”
    What a terrible thing to do. They should have called them “sleazy hustlers and fanatics”, “sickeningly amoral” “oily and corrupt” “theocratic religious fanatics”. That would have shown real class.

  6. I don’t think the zionist left as in meretz has been advocating Sharon and Olmert’s plan, which involved removing token settlements and annexing the majority of them unilaterally. I also think the zionist left is being smeared as the antisemitic left. The Zionist left believes in two states based on the 1967 borders, through negotiations with the Palestinians.

  7. Hmmm, it’s a shame my lack of “class” seems to have offended your delicate sensibilities, though I didn’t notice any objection that the accusations are inaccurate. In case that IS what you were implying, here are a few examples I had in mind. How about….Jack Abramoff, for example; headed to prison for bribery, corruption, and stealing funds from his clients. Throwing in the endearing revelation that he offered to shill for genocide in Sudan, I wonder which adjective — sleazy, oily, corrupt or amoral — strikes you as classless, unfair or inaccurate? How about his literal partner-in-crime, Tom Delay, who, in addition to his straight-out theft, has — through his “K-Street” and redistricting schemes — single-handedly done as much to subvert the democratic process in this country as anyone since Huey Long? And if “hustler” is a bit too lowbrow, please supply me with a classier description of Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, and their brethren; does “hypocrite” do them greater justice? Finally, the particular theocratic religious fanatics I had in mind were not only those who planned, executed and chanted their approval of Rabin’s assassination, but those who provided religious sanction and absolution in support of the deed.
    Class is great, but somewhat important than accountability or calling a spade a spade.

  8. If I had “delicate sensibilities”, I wouldn’t be here, would I? But thanks for the concern.
    In your earlier post, with the exception of Netanyahu, you did not specify individuals. There was “the grotesque political alliance of the sleazy hustlers and fanatics on the Right, Jewish and Christian”, “the “realistic,” sickeningly amoral neoconservatives , and “theocratic religious fanatics”. Of course, certain individuals fit these descriptions, just as in any other group excercising power. But according to your rant, all or most would. What exactly does Abramoff represent? Jews? Orthodox Jews? Republicans? Or just his own sleazy self? Do you think there aren’t dozens of Democrats (and other Republicans, too, sadly) who haven’t done what Delay has done? What percentage of the right wing religious were anything but revolted by the Rabin murder (and what do you mean by “planned, executed? do you know something the rest of us don’t?).
    Picking out a few names is no argument. (If it was, Julius Rosenberg alone should be enough to ban the existence of leftist Jews for a century.)

  9. Wait! We can stop them.
    The evangelical Christian interest in Israel is loosely based on a drive to verify the content of the Holy Bible. If the descendents of Abraham are in Israel, The Bible is ‘proven’ true.
    Now, if you inform these people that the overwhelming majority of Jews living in Israel today are Ashkenazi; people not descended from Abraham……. these Doomsday preachers might face a little scrutiny from the choir.

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