Israel suspends contact with Pat Robertson

[kpete]

Israel suspends contact with Pat Robertson

BRIAN MURPHY
Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Israel has suspended contact with evangelist Pat Robertson for suggesting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.

The controversy has cast doubt on plans for a Christian tourism center that would showcase the growing flow of money and influence from U.S. church groups.

The decision, announced Wednesday by Israeli officials, does not affect other Christian groups that also consider it their spiritual duty to support Israel as fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

Israeli leaders see the Christian allies as tireless lobbyists in Washington and elsewhere. The evangelicals also funnel millions of dollars each year to Jewish settlers in the West Bank and - before last year's pullout - the Gaza Strip.

Tourism Minister Abraham Hirchson said he gave instructions to "stop all contact" with groups associated with Robertson. Last week, Robertson implied Sharon's massive stroke was a blow for "dividing God's land" with the withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements.

But Hirchson said the order did not apply to "all the evangelical community, God forbid."

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/breaking_news/13602645.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[SoCalDem]

1. Does this mean that "The Rapture" is off? Uh-oh ..n/t

[Selatius]

2. They funnel money to building settlements? That's outright colonialism

I thought we moved passed the age of colonialism, but I guess I'm wrong when it comes to nations with big, powerful weapons and armies like Israel and China and any country guilty of doing the same today.

[savemefromdumbya]

3. this is just to take your mind off the Abramoff and Pat Robertson links

[Lexingtonian]

4. I'm shocked.

You'd think they had discovered he's an anti-Semite. Only took them 18 years....

Sharon took the radical Israeli Right for a dive and destroyed the radical Palestinian Right. In a coma, he knocks the radical American 'Christian' Right out of the I/P game too....

[Sequoia]

5. Best news of the year!

Ha, ha, Pat, God is punishing you now! No Club Med for Jesus.

[catmother]

6. thanks for the laugh. nt