Bibi: Christian Zionists our top friends

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israel has no better friends in the world than Christian Zionists, Likud opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

"This is a friendship of the heart, a friendship of common roots, and a friendship of common civilization," Netanyahu told a conference of American Evangelicals in Jerusalem.

The event, which was organized by the San Antonio, Texas-based Christians United for Israel, drew 1,000 Israel supporters led by the conservative evangelical Pastor John Hagee, who has been a stalwart supporter of Israel for the past three decades."

<snip>

"Netanyahu's remarks come just days after the head of the left-leaning Reform Movement in the US Rabbi Eric Yoffie said that Israel should not deal with Christian Zionists like Hagee, calling him an "extremist" who rejected territorial compromise with the Palestinians and disparages Catholics."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207486208002&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[sharesunited]

1. Bibi better get ready to accept Christ as his savior.

[grassfed]

2. birds of a feather

[azurnoir]

3. eeegads

"This is a friendship of the heart, a friendship of common roots, and a friendship of common civilization," Netanyahu told a conference of American Evangelicals in Jerusalem.

Perhaps Bibi needs a refresher course in history, even Protestants had their share of and excuse me here but Joo-A-Q's back in the olden days, common history huh? More like the enemy of my enemy.....

[LeftishBrit]

4. Bibi is a nutcase...

and I suspect that this may hurt his chances of election. Jews are the pawns, not the friends, of the likes of Hagee; and I hope that sufficient numbers of Israelis realize this to help send Bibi packing.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

9. Bibi is a zionist. He could well be Israel's next elected leader. Bibi represents a sizable portion

of the Israeli population, does he not?

[notfullofit]

10. More so

today than yesterday, I believe.

[Sezu]

11. Kassams and terrorism and Jew hate are

Bibi's best friends. Way to go Palestinians.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

17. It's hardly the responsibility of the victims to bring out the best behavior in their oppressors. nt

[Vegasaurus]

18. Absolutely right

Terrorism has not pacified Israel.

The more militant the Palestinians become, the more militaristic Israel becomes.

[oberliner]

12. Poll: Livni would beat Netanyahu, Barak

From this month:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627062320&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[LeftishBrit]

15. Glad that there's SOMEONE who might beat Netanyahu!

BTW, does anyone here have a good idea of what Livni is really like? I know less about her than about some other prominent politicians. I know she's in Olmert's party; does that mean their views are similar?

[LeftishBrit]

16. Virtually all Israelis are Zionists

Well, you and Henank have raised the same objection to my comment about Netanyahu, from different sides! As I said to him: I think that Bibi's support for the Christian Zionists *is* nuts (in the sense that it is ultimately very dangerous to his own country), in a way that differs from other people's hawkish but less nutty views.

I do think that a significant number of Israelis are hawks, which is different from being supporters of Christian Armageddon-fever, or even accepting it because it means immediate support for Israel despite the obvious ultimate dangers.

As I've said in other posts: in many countries, the baseline percentage of predominant hawks versus predominant doves tends to be very close to 50%, and can be crucially affected by all kinds of things. Until quite recently, polls suggested that the hawks represented a bit under 50% of people, in both Israel and Palestine. However, the percentages seem to be increasing worryingly; and the actions of each group increase the hawkishness of the other. Every new settlement helps to maintain Hamas in power, despite the fact that they are absolutely disastrous as rulers. Every kassam is a contribution to Netanyahu's election campaign.

[henank]

13. I am usually in agreement with you

on more or less everything you post. But you have said more than once that Bibi is a nutcase. Now we may not agree with his positions or his politics, but please do not classify him as a nutcase. He is a right-wing politician, period. Just because a politician has the opposing views to our own does not make him a nutcase.

If he was such a nutcase he wouldn't have nearly the amount of support that he does command in the Israeli electorate.

[LeftishBrit]

14. I do think that there's a difference between him and some other RW politicians...

I strongly objected to most of Sharon's policies and actions but I didn't call him nuts. I think that Bibi's welcoming of the truly dangerous policies of the Christian Zionists IS nuts.

I suspect that most of Netanyahu's supporters are hawks who support him because he's a hawk, not because they agree with every aspect of his views.

[pegleg]

5. And on top of all of this is the damage Hagee has done to other Christians-

ones who realize his absurdities.

[...of J.Temperance]

6. But don't they want

All Jews to convert to Christianity, isn't that what the lunatics like John Hagee want?

[Scurrilous]

7. Hagee's apocalyptic support of Israel

<snip>

"When Sen. John McCain was forced to distance himself from Pastor John Hagee earlier this year, he denounced the pastor’s attacks on Catholicism. But asked why he wouldn’t “repudiate” Hagee’s endorsement of him, McCain found something to praise.

“I'm grateful for his commitment to the support of the state of Israel, and I'm very grateful for many of his commitments around the world, including to the independence and freedom of the state of Israel,” he told CNN’s Campbell Brown on April 29.

Hagee’s commitment to Israel, however, is itself controversial: It’s rooted in the belief that the Jewish state will — soon — be the site of Armageddon.

Hagee, who leads the evangelical group Christians United for Israel, is a proponent of U.S. aid and support for Israel, and he is a major ally of Israeli conservatives who reject any "land for peace" formula in dealing with the Palestinians. But Hagee is viewed with distrust by some Jews and Israelis because his brand of Christian Zionism closely links support for Israel to the end of the world and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.

Hagee’s predictions are very clear. Armageddon, the final battle, could begin, he wrote in his 2007 book "Jerusalem Countdown," "before this book gets published."

The Antichrist "will be the head of the European Union," he writes.

Using geographical calculations based on the Book of Revelation, he writes that Israel will be covered in "a sea of human blood" in the final battle.

The Jews, however, will survive the battle, Hagee says, long enough to have "the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus of Nazareth."

"They will be blessed beyond their wildest imagination," he writes."

more

[ProgressiveMuslim]

8. Hagee for President!!! nt

[Scurrilous]

19. McCain Backer Hagee Said Hitler Was Fulfilling God's Will (AUDIO)

<snip>

"John Hagee, the controversial evangelical leader and endorser of Sen. John McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God's behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph Hitler was a "hunter," sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God's will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.

Going in and out of biblical verse, Hagee preached: "'And they the hunters should hunt them,' that will be the Jews. 'From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.' If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can't see that."

He goes on: "Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said 'I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.' So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.

"Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says -- Jeremiah writing -- 'They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,' meaning there's no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don't let your heart be offended. I didn't write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." (Listen to the audio below.)

The sermon, which was first posted by Bruce Wilson on his site, Talk To Action, adds another element to Hagee's controversial stance on the state and history of Israel. It also may provide a new round of political headaches for McCain who has admitted that seeking out Hagee's endorsement was a mistake, but still declared himself "glad to have" it."

more



McCain Rejects Hagee Endorsement

<snip>

"Republican John McCain rejected the months-old endorsement of an influential Texas televangelist after an audio recording surfaced in which the preacher said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land.

"Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well," the presidential candidate said in a statement issued Thursday.

Hagee quickly responded that he was withdrawing the endorsement.

McCain actively courted Hagee, who leads a megachurch with a congregation in the tens of thousands and has an even wider television audience. Former GOP presidential rivals also sought Hagee's backing.

The preacher has controversial views that were well-known before McCain accepted his endorsement at a news conference Feb. 27 in San Antonio shortly before the Texas presidential primary.

Hagee has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and called it a "false cult system." He also has linked Hitler to the Catholic church, suggesting it helped shape his anti-Semitism. And Hagee said Hurricane Katrina was God's retribution for homosexual sin."

more