Christian/Jewish Theocrats, Oilmen and Central Bankers Moved World to War

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=262503&lang=e&dir=news
Mark Dankof
03-11-2003

For me, Jim Lobe's Inter Press Service article entitled, Conservative Christians Biggest Backers of Iraq War, reprises old memories past and new anxieties future, where the alliance of the Israeli lobby and the Dispensational Christian Right is concerned. Throw in a dose of oil and natural gas consortiums and central bankers into the mix for good measure along with ill-devised notions of Old Testament theocracy, and one has all of the combustible ingredients for the gestation of a global conflagration destined to kill not thousands, but millions of innocent people of every conceivable geographic, racial, and religious background.

In his article, Lobe mentions the shadowy Jewish rabbi, Yechiel Eckstein, co-chairman of Stand for Israel and the chairman of the Chicago based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). Eckstein, once designated the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith's (ADL) international liaison to Fundamentalist and Pentecostal Christians, has now entered into a new alliance with the peripatetic Christian Right mogul, Ralph Reed, to cement the alliances being consummated by the Zionist lobby, Christian Dispensationalists, the American/British oil and natural gas consortiums, central bankers, and the defense industry for a War for Empire destined potentially for tragedy on an apocalyptic scale. Reed now joins Eckstein in this effort as co-chairman of Stand for Israel.

I remember Rabbi Eckstein well. In 1988, while serving as 36th District Chairman of the Republican Party in King County/Seattle and occasional voice for a talk show on a 50,000 watt Christian station in that city, I received a phone call invitation from the then Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League for the Pacific Northwest based in Seattle, to have lunch with Eckstein and his then cohort, Jan Van Der Hoeven, a Dutch Reformed clergyman representing the so-called International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ). I accepted the invitation, discovering upon arrival at ADL headquarters in Seattle that I was the only local Christian clergyman present at this private planning luncheon. Aside from Eckstein, Van Der Hoeven, a cadre of Jewish rabbis, and the ADL Regional Director, Marvin Stern, the only other individual I remember being present was a Christian clergyman traveling with Eckstein and Van Der Hoeven named Terry Moore. By strange coincidence, Moore and I were both graduates of Chicago's Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He, however, was also a member of Dr. Clarence Wagner's Bridges for Peace organization, another Christian group I was to subsequently learn had major ties to the Israeli government and its supporting cast of characters.
<snip>

[Chants]

1. The is dangerously -- if not fatally -- close to anti-semitism

[Karenina]

2. Maybe try READING the article

before making accusations.

[Chants]

3. I did read the article

And I guess I just came to a different conclusion than you did. We will have to respectfully agree to disagree as to whether it is anti-semetic.

I also read all of the comments posted below the article. The comments posted support my interpretation.

[newyawker99]

5. Hi Chants!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. I will, on occasion , watch Faux or listen to Rush to find out what tactic

or BS they are supporting. This does not make me a neocon.

I don't agree with your read on the article, and I posted the article, NOT the opinions.

Welcome to DU, Chants.

[Resistance Is Futile]

6. The role of organized religion in politics

Factual discussion of the role of Jewish groups in poltics is not antisemetic any more than discussion of the role of Islamic groups in politics is anti-Islamic.

Unjustified accusations of antisematism are nothing more than a brand of religious hatred aimed at non-Jews.

[Chants]

7. It was not a "factual discussion"

Mark Dankof's article was not a factual discussion of the role of Jewish groups in politics. It was an attempt to link Jews to a specious conspiracy theory asserting that oil companies rule the world. (Here is the Norman Livergood "big oil conspiracy theory" article Dankof cites at the end of his editorial: http://www.hermes-press.com/impintro1.htm. Summary: Democrats, Republicans, Stalin, Jimmy Carter, you, me and my cat are all pawns to British Petroleum and the Rockefellers).

Dankof observes that a Jewish Rabbi is seeking financial support from Christian conservatives. True enough. He also points out quite correctly that Christian conservatives have ties to Ralph Reed and that Ralph Reed was a consultant for Enron. He also correctly notes that Ralph Reed and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League worked together to put an ad in the New York Times.

But Dankof doesn't stop there. He suggests that all of these facts expose a rule-the-world alliance between the Isreal, neoconservatives, and oil companies. The fact that a Jewish Rabbi is seeking financial support from American conservative christian groups and that Reed and the ADL put an ad in the NYT is simply not enough to suggest -- much less prove -- that such an alliance exists. Furthermore, Livergood's article doesn't even suggest such an alliance.

Dankof also uses language characterizing Jews and Isreal in unflattering terms. Eckstien is not just a Rabbi, but a "shadowy Jewish Rabbi". The hypothetical and highly tenuous connection he makes between Isreal and other groups are not simply connections, but rather "unseen hands with ties to Tel Aviv". If this was merely a "factual discussion" of the role of Jewish groups in politics, then there would be no need for these conspiracy laden adjectives.

Jews rule the world with big oil because Dankof knows a Jewish Rabbi who did some fundraising. I'm convinced!