Christians United for Israel.

Max Blumenthal’s mini-documentary about the summit held by Christians United for Israel is pretty stunning. When some of our nation’s leaders want the end of the world to come about ASAP, one has to question their commitment to peace and stability. The video is only about ten minutes long.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

10 replies on “Christians United for Israel.”

  1. When was Lieberman not off the deep end? There’s a reason I voted against him in 1988 when he first ran for Senate.

    I have to pretend that the person sponsoring the DC House Voting Rights Act in the Senate is a different guy, his non-evil twin.

  2. Dammit. I was all ready to write a short entry castigating Waldo for his unwarranted vilification of these folks, but, damn, that bit with Delay at the beginning is a little spooky.

    That said, Son of Sid’s reference to Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the US, as one of “Pastor Hagee’s minions” strikes me as a little far-fetched.

  3. Related to this matter, a view from Israel:

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/746312.html

    Relevant quote:
    “Beyond that, Israel and its friends in the United States should seriously reconsider their alliances not only with the neocons, but also with the Christian Right. The largest “pro-Israel” lobby day during this crisis was mobilized by Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United For Israel, a believer in Armageddon with all its implications for a rather particular end to the Jewish story. This is just asking to become the mother of all dumb, self-defeating and morally abhorrent alliances.

    Internationalist Republicans, Democrats and mainstream Israelis must construct an alternative narrative to the neocon nightmare, identifying shared interests in a policy that reestablishes American leadership, respect and credibility in the region by facilitating security and stability, pursuing conflict resolution and promoting the conditions for more open societies (as opposed to narrow election-worship). The last two years of the Bush presidency can be an opportunity for progress or an exercise in desperate damage limitation. It sounds counter-intuitive, but Israel should reflect on and even help reorient American expectations.”

    Keep in mind this article was originally written over a year and a half ago — it’s a sad statement that it still has any resonance.

    Bottom line: Hagee is not really for “Israel” — at least not for ordinary Israelis. He advocate policies that undercut the security of Israel in very real ways. What makes this especially reprehensible is that these so-called advocates are pushing radical policies while remaining largely immune from the impact of these policies. It’s one thing to push policies and then live with the consequences in a real way; it’s quite another to profit off of other people’s misery as Hagee has been doing. These folks need a little bit more humility and a lot more first-hand knowledge of the region and the players involved.

  4. One of the things that I have learned in the aftermath of the VT shootings is that there are a lot of wackos in the world, and many are draw to others sorrow to work their own agenda and use a receptive audience to peddle their consuming obsession.

    Take Tom DeLay. He’s a discredited criminal political fixer looking for a new constituency – hence he shows up at CUFI and sets up camp to sell his brand.

    Listen to the fevered ramblings of the attendees – they bring their own prejudices to the preju-fest. From Islam to Presbyterianism, here they find freedom to shed their veneer of rationality and seek fellow followers of Crazy.

    Check out t-shirt boy at the end. ThirdGender666?
    http://thirdgender666.com/index.html
    What does his agenda have to do with CUFI? Nothing. He’s like a nutty moth drawn to an emotional flame.

    These people persist because there is always a willing wacko somewhere that will make them a deal: “You buy my bullshit, and I’ll buy yours”. Nothing good can come of it.

  5. I thought a lot of the charges against Delay were dismissed and that it was his Texan Javert who was a discredited political fixer. Could be wrong though.

  6. From Wikipedia:

    ‘DeLay publicly denied the charges, saying that the actions of Earle, a Democrat, have partisan motivations. After DeLay moved to dismiss all charges, trial judge Pat Priest dismissed one count of the indictment, which alleged conspiracy to violate election law. However, Judge Priest denied DeLay’s motion to dismiss the more serious charges of money laundering and conspiracy to engage in money laundering, and the prosecution is proceeding on those charges.’

    As far as I know, this sounds right. I know Wikipedia isn’t gospel so if someone has something more current then please, fire away. :)

  7. Yup, that’s certainly my recollection. DeLay and his Republican allies worked hard to present the judge as some sort of a crazed partisan, back when DeLay was hoping to hold onto his political career. But once DeLay resigned and the charges were upheld by Priest, that was the end of that. It was a standard attempt at a defense in the public square. Unfortunately, not everybody got the memo that it was all heat and no light.

  8. Well, then too Richard Nixon was never court convicted of his crimes before he resigned, yet he died a discredited criminal fixer. Shall we make trendy excuses for his fate?

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