Christian Zionism & 'Islamo-Fascism'

[Annie]

former topic title merged - Christian Zionism CIA fake religion of businessmen
From Rory Winter

Christian Right & 'Islamo-Facism'
Thursday, 10 August 2006
MPCAUK
http://www.mpacuk.org/content/view/2498/34/



"Islamo-fascism," a term that Americans heard George Bush use at an August 7 press conference, is the new term being thrown around among factions of the Christian right, from which he no doubt picked it up. It was much in use last month when the new lobby group, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), held their first "Washington-Israel Summit" at a Washington D.C. hotel. Amidst plenty of the celebratory song and dance usually associated with evangelical meetings and a three-course meal was served to over 2,000 attendees, a series of prominent religious and political speakers got up to promise unquestioning support for the state of Israel.

Although CUFI is a religious organization founded by minister John Hagee of Texas, it was a political speaker, Senator Rick Santorum, whose comments seemed to have a profound impact on the nights events. Santorum was the first to use the term "Islamic-fascists" during the presentation. According to Santorum the constant use of "The War on Terror" rhetoric is erroneous because it is akin to "declaring war on a tactic." Santorum went on to say that "The War on Terror" rhetoric was the product of a disinformation campaign and exclaimed that "terror is not the enemy; the enemy are Islamic fascists."

The term "Islamic fascists" appeared to have mass appeal and was used regularly by the rest of the speakers throughout the evening. Before Santorum's speech the Ambassador of Israel to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, using the same rhetoric, saying, "Radical Islam is on the march."

Santorum felt it incumbent upon himself to explain to the audience exactly what they were up against in their support of Israel. He said, "They [the American public] don't understand the enemy because we don't explain it to them." According to Santorum, "Islamic fascism is a mosaic. But the biggest piece of the mosaic, the one that reaches out and touches all the others, is Iran."

The vilification of Iran was the major thrust of the summit and the speakers pulled no punches. On Iran Santorum said, "This is the enemy we face. This is the enemy attacking us." While Ayalon echoed his prime minister's declaration that "Iran must be stopped," Santorum took the matter even further and severely criticized efforts to negotiate a solution with Iran. "While we negotiate with Iran, they fund Hamas and Hezbollah to attack Israel. While we negotiate, they continue in their pursuit of nuclear weapons technology." Of course, Santorum used this opportunity to encourage support for his bill that calls for increased sanctions against Iran. The bill was defeated last month.

There was more than a fair amount of saber rattling at the CUFI summit. Again, Santorum stood out among the speakers on this point when he admonished the U.S. to "...go at the heart of the problem-Iran." The CUFI speakers made it well known at the summit that they want to see less diplomacy and more action.

Also on display was outspoken and undying support for Israel. The speakers depicted Israel as a victim in the current crisis taking place in the Palestinian Territories and Southern Lebanon. Gary Bauer mentioned the sadness of seeing Israelis who are so used to terrorist bombings that they seem virtually unaffected by their occurrence. Neither he nor any of the other speakers referenced the daily deaths occurring in Gaza and the West Bank. CUFI founder and National Chairman John Hagee demanded that the U.S. let Israel defend itself, declaring that if rockets were falling on United States territory, Congress would be voting to go to war.

Whether or not CUFI's Washington D.C. summit is a success for the organization remains to be seen. It is CUFI's intention to bring their interpretation of the Bible and their mandate to support Israel at all costs to the Hill in a massive lobbying effort. CUFI's followers know their message well and, if they are anything like they were during the last evening of their summit, they possess tremendous enthusiasm for their cause. However, it may take more than enthusiasm to convince the nation's policymakers that adopting CUFI's mission as their own would be in the nation's or the world's best interest.

Source: www.iviews.com
http://www.iransolidarity.endofempire.org/ArticlesText.php?page=261

[Disco_Destroyer]

Bill Moyers: Hagee: Strike Iran for Israel (video; links)

wow I thought I was scared, but stick with it, you might miss the conclusion (Love Thy Neighbour) I very nearly switched off in disgust many a time!

Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, Oct 07, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaXs8M… (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okLFCQ… (part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRiAn… (part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h3xG-… (part 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWaZgl… (part 5)

~Christians United for Israel~
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL reports on the politically powerful group Christians United for Israel, whose leader, Pastor John Hagee, advocates for a preemptive strike against Iran

Source http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/10/07/bill-moyers-hagee-strik e-iran-for-israel-videos/

[TonyGosling]

John Hagee
Check this Christian Zionist agent if you never saw him before
Scary!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auf-Su-xZVU

[TonyGosling]

Zionism's un-Christian Bible
By Maidhc - Cathail - Online Journal Contributing Writer - Nov 30, 2009

'For a nation to commit the sin of anti-Semitism brings inevitable judgment.' --The New Scofield Study Bible
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5322.shtml

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign should widen its scope to target non-Israeli companies who contribute significantly to the oppression of Palestinians. As part of this broader strategy, priority should be given to one of the most egregious offenders, the prestigious British publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP). As unlikely as it may seem, the world's largest university press is responsible for one of the greatest obstacles to justice for Palestinians -- The Scofield Bible.

Since it was first published in 1909, the Scofield Reference Bible has made uncompromising Zionists out of tens of millions of Americans. When John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, said that '50 million evangelical bible-believing Christians unite with 5 million American Jews standing together on behalf of Israel,' it was the Scofield Bible that he was talking about.

Although the Scofield Reference Bible contains the text of the King James Authorized Version, it is not the traditional Protestant bible but Cyrus I. Scofield's annotated commentary that is the problem. More than any other factor, it is Scofield's notes that induced generations of American evangelicals to believe that God demands their uncritical support for the modern State of Israel.

[TonyGosling]

latest bull nonsense from these fake Christian TV psycopaths


Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4dl91wuHKY

[TonyGosling]

John Hagee denies Jesus claimed to be the Messiah
by Matt Slick
http://carm.org/john-hagee-denies-jesus-claimed-to-be-the-messiah

Dr. John Hagee is the founder of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Cornerstone is a nondenominational church with several thousand members. Dr. John Hagee can be seen on more than 160 television stations and 50 radio stations across America. He is the author of at least 10 books.1

On the surface everything looks good. On his website at jhm.org, Dr. John Hagee affirms the basics of the Christian faith including the deity of Christ, the Trinity, etc. His beliefs page is not very precise, but it appears to be within orthodoxy. The problem, however, is with his new book "In Defense of Israel" where Dr. Hagee apparently states that Jesus was not the Messiah. If you were to go to youtube.com2 you can hear where Dr. Hagee speaks regarding his book and says his book, In Defense of Israel, will prove that "Jesus did not come to Earth to be the Messiah," (20 seconds in) and that "...since Jesus refused by word and deed to claim to be the Messiah how can the Jews be blamed for rejecting what was never offered?" (32 seconds in). Obviously, this is a huge problem.

Hagee defines 'Messiah' as political deliverer

So, instead of making my judgment on a one minute sound bite, I bought the book and went through it. I didn't read the whole thing. Instead, I went to the section (Chapter 10, pages 121-169) where he dealt with Jesus as the Messiah. In short, Hagee takes several pages to characterize the Jewish idea of the Messiah as being a political deliverer who was supposed to free Israel from Roman oppression. This is very significant. Hagee defines Messiah not as a spiritual deliverer, but as a political one. To substantiate his position, Hagee calls Moses the messiah of Israel and speaks of the political deliverance of Israel from Egyptian oppression. Note what Hagee says in his book:

"...God gave Moses four signs to convince the children of Israel that he was their messiah... He knew he was anointed of God to overthrow Egypt and lead the Jewish people to the promised land." p. 136.
"The next two signs God gave Moses were to convince the children of Israel that Moses was their Messiah." p. 136
"When impetuous Peter could stand it no longer, he blurted out, 'You are the Christ.' Or in other words, 'You are the anointed one! You are the Messiah who will lead the Jews in their revolt against Rome.'" p. 140
"Even after his resurrection and repeated denials that he would not be the Messiah, his disciples were still hanging on to the last thread of hope that he would now smash realm (Acts 1:6)." p. 141
For reference, Acts 1:6 says, "So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
"He refused to be their Messiah, choosing instead to be the Savior of the world." p. 143.
Notice that in quote number 1 Hagee cites Moses as the Messiah of Israel who was to overthrow Egypt. In quote 3 Hagee interprets Peter's words to again relate the term Messiah as as a political deliverer. In quote 4 Hagee cites Acts 1:6 which is a reference to restoring Israel as a political power. So, we can conclude that Hagee is defining the Messiah as a political deliverer. Therefore, if we were to use this definition, Hagee is correct. Jesus did not come to be a political Messiah. But, Dr. John Hagee has still made a big mistake. He has failed to define his terms adequately and caused an uproar.

http://carm.org/john-hagee-denies-jesus-claimed-to-be-the-messiah

[TonyGosling]

Religious extremism is at the heart of US support for Israel
Asa Winstanley Lobby Watch 6 June 2018
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/religious-extremis m-heart-us-support-israel

Christian Zionist pastors Robert Jeffress and John Hagee led prayers at the opening ceremony of the US embassy to Israel in Jerusalem last month. (White House/YouTube)
One of the most important elements of the Israel lobby in the United States is right-wing Evangelical backing – or Christian Zionism.

The fanatically anti-Palestinian group Christians United For Israel, CUFI, claims to have more than 4 million members. It was founded in 2006 by a Texas mega-church televangelist, Pastor John Hagee. It now has smaller branches in the UK and Canada.

Hagee has a profitable line in supposedly prophetic books which promote extremist apocalyptic visions about the “end times.”

With attention-grabbing titles like Four Blood Moons, the books have a sci-fi or fantasy quality to them. Indeed, they are of course mostly fictional, even if their author would claim otherwise.

His upcoming book explicitly appeals to the lucrative fantasy blockbuster audience, titled as it is: Earth’s Last Empire: The Final Game of Thrones.

He also cashes in on the modern “prosperity gospel” trend among those Evangelicals who purport to show how Biblical prophecies and principles can lead to actual, literal wealth for his readers and congregants, in titles like “Decisions that Produce Wealth” and “The Power to Get Wealth.”

Hagee, then, is a modern-day snake oil salesman. As such, he is an appropriate fit for the state of Israel.

Hagee’s CUFI plays an important role in rallying Evangelical support for Israel in the US. It also claims that one of its aims is to fight anti-Semitism across the world.

Anti-Semitic creed
But in fact Hagee’s doctrine is one of the most fanatically anti-Semitic religious creeds in the world today.

Leading Palestinian intellectual Joseph Massad has made a convincing argument that Zionism’s origins actually lay in evangelical Protestant millenarianism rather than in any Jewish tradition.

At its heart is an anti-Semitic theology which aims to rid Europe of its Jewish communities and “gather” them in Palestine in anticipation of the End Times. There – so this eschatology has it – when the Messiah, Jesus, returns, the majority will convert to Christianity before the final judgement of God. The rest will be doomed to hell.

Christian Zionism sought to bring about this “return” to the “Land of Israel” in very practical terms. In reality, most Jews opposed Zionism as a fringe movement, and never sought to live in Palestine. European Jewish communities are just that – Europeans mostly descended from converts to Judaism.

The dangerous and racist mythology which drives groups like CUFI is therefore a useful tool of the Israel lobby in the eyes of cynical Israeli politicians and their Zionist supporters in the West.

Because despite its empty claims to be fighting anti-Semitism, CUFI’s theology is very much based in anti-Semitic ideas. Hagee himself infamously preached that Hitler was “a hunter” sent by God to drive Jews “back” to Palestine so that the divine plan to “return” the Jews to the Land of Israel could be played out.

Such demented ideology is a major driver of anti-Semitic hatred against Jews.

But it causes little problem for Israel and its supporters. While the re-emergence of Hagee’s Hitler sermon during the 2008 presidential race embarrassed John McCain into renouncing Hagee’s endorsement, the pastor continues to be courted and indulged by both Israeli and US politicians.

Racist logic
At the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem in May, Hagee gave the closing benediction, praying in front of a who’s-who of Israeli and American politicians.

The crowd included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog (of the so-called “Labor” party), Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, former US presidential candidate Ted Cruz, and former senator Joe Lieberman.

During his prayer, Hagee claimed that Jerusalem is “the eternal capital of the Jewish people”. This description – a common claim by such Zionist fanatics – is worth thinking about: while superficially philosemitic, it is, in effect, anti-Semitic.

As the Palestinian intellectual Omar Bargouhti – the co-founder of the BDS movement – puts it: neo-Nazis claim that Jews are sub-human while Zionists claim that Jews are super-human – both agree that Jews are, somehow, not human.

The philosemitism of Christian Zionism is actually a subtle form of anti-Semitism.

The obvious implication of Netanyahu’s baseless claim to be not just the prime minister of Israel but the “representative of the entire Jewish people” and of Hagee’s claim that Jerusalem is the “eternal” capital not just of Israel but of “the Jewish people” is that “the Jews” do not really belong to the many various countries in which they were actually born and brought up, but “really belong” – on some sort of mystical, metaphysical level – in Israel and Israel alone.

The long term aim is to drive Jews out of their ancestral homelands and into Palestine where they are compelled into the role of settlers in the apartheid colony of Israel. It is a racist, anti-Semitic logic.

This is something that Zionism has had a degree of success in achieving over the last 70 years. But the project has been a failure in that most Jews do not live in Israel, and show little interest in ever doing so – especially American Jews.

Fiery pits of hell
Another extremist American pastor to attend the embassy opening ceremony was Robert Jeffress. The Evangelical gave a prayer in front of the assembled politicians and embassy staff in which he described Jerusalem as “the city that you [God] named as the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago.”

He went into full-throated political-religion mode, gushing over Trump, and thanking God “every day that you have given us a president who boldly stands on the right side of history, but more importantly stands on the right side of you, oh God, when it comes to Israel.”

But Jeffress is also an extremist anti-Semite Christian Zionist.

As reported by the New York Times, he once said during an interview on a Christian TV channel that Jews, Muslims and Mormons are all going to hell.

“Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell,” he said. “Mormonism is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell.” He continued: “Judaism – you can’t be saved being a Jew. You know who said that, by the way? The three greatest Jews in the New Testament: Peter, Paul and Jesus Christ. They all said Judaism won’t do it. It’s faith in Jesus Christ.”

In a 2008 sermon, he was more direct: “Not only do religions like Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism – not only do they lead people away from the true God, they lead people to an eternity of separation from God in hell … Hell is going to be filled with good religious people who have rejected the truth of Christ.”

Israeli politicians like Netanyahu are no doubt aware of the hateful ideology of such allies. But as long as these allies are committed to political support for the state of Israel and defending its crimes, they do not care.

On the surface, this should make little sense. After all, in the fever dreams of Hagee and Jeffress, would Netanyahu – a Jew – not end up in the fiery pits of hell should he refuse to convert to faith in Jesus during the last days of judgement?

A settler-colonial movement
It makes more sense when you consider another historical fact: Zionism is not a movement for Jewish self defence, it is a movement for settler-colonialism.

If the global Zionist movement deems it useful to promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (as Israeli intelligence services admit to having deliberately done) and hateful, anti-Jewish Christian theologies, then so be it, goes their thinking.

After all, the goal of Israel is to bring Jews to the land of Palestine and turn them into settlers – human fodder that can be used to displace the indigenous people. Zionism has never had as one of its real goals the protection of Jewish communities outside of Israel.

If anything, the opposite is true. Israeli leaders constantly sensationalize threats to Jewish life in Europe, to encourage migration to Israel. Many Iraqi Jews claim that attacks on their community were actually a plot by Israeli agents to drive them out of the country and head for Israel. Before the rise of Zionism, and the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948, Jewish citizens of Iraq lived in relative prosperity and harmony with their fellow citizens of other religions.

Despite the warm words of Christian Zionists about Jews being “God’s chosen people,” there is no escaping the feeling that behind this veneer of philosemitism, there is a distinctly anti-Semitic core at work.

In the final analysis, the effect of Christian Zionism is anti-Semitic – it is bad for Jewish communities as well as bad for the indigenous people of Palestine.

[TonyGosling]

According to a translation of the prime minister's words by The Times of Israel he further agrees that "the Iranian regime" will "disappear with the help of God" — in the words of one of his supporters, to which Netanyahu adds, "You said it. From your mouth to God."
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-18/leaked-netanyahu-tape-we-mad e-trump-nix-iran-deal

Leaked Netanyahu Tape: We Made Trump Cancel The Iran Deal
Profile picture for user Tyler Durden
by Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/18/2018 - 17:52
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On Tuesday an Israeli television channel aired leaked video footage it obtained exclusively showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasting that he had personally convinced President Trump to abandon the Iran nuclear deal. The statements were made at a small dinner event where he addressed senior members of his Likud party.

The video, aired by Israel's Kan News shows Netanyahu enthusiastically praising his and Likud leadership's efforts, saying “We convinced the US president [to exit the deal] and I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement." He added, "And we didn't give up."


Image source: Reuters via YNet News
According to a translation of the prime minister's words by The Times of Israel he further agrees that "the Iranian regime" will "disappear with the help of God" — in the words of one of his supporters, to which Netanyahu adds, "You said it. From your mouth to God."

Embedded video

כאן חדשות
✔
@kann_news
תיעוד בלעדי | רה"מ @netanyahu התגאה במפגש פוליטי סגור של הליכוד כי הוא זה שהצליח להוביל לביטול הסכם הגרעין: "שכנענו את נשיא ארה"ב" #חדשותהערב @shemeshmicha

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The Times of Israel presents the rest of the short clip's contents as follows:

The prime minister then begins to speak about the Iranian regime — “not the Iranian people, I have nothing against them” — before he is interrupted by an unidentified person off-screen who says, “It will disappear with the help of God.”

“You said it. From your mouth to God,” Netanyahu says in response as the clip ends.

Netanyahu does not explain in the video aired by Kan how he convinced Trump to exit the deal. Trump had vowed to scrap what he assailed as the “worst deal ever” before becoming president.

The Israeli broadcaster that obtained the footage said it was filmed two weeks ago.

When early this week the New York Times published the Israeli account of how a daring Mossad operation deep inside Iran netted what are said to be tens of thousands of secret Iranian nuclear documents in an "Ocean's 11"-style heist, we noted the Times story appeared to be a propaganda victory lap of sorts meant to further bolster Israeli intelligence's reputation and far-reaching abilities abroad.


WikiLeaks
✔
@wikileaks
Leaked Netanyahu tape: We made Trump nix Iran deal https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-recording-netanyahu-boasts-israel-con vinced-trump-to-quit-iran-nuclear-deal/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium= twitter …

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2:39 PM - Jul 18, 2018
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In recording, Netanyahu boasts Israel convinced Trump to quit Iran nuclear deal
Public broadcaster airs clip of PM telling Likud activists US exit came after he stood up 'against the whole world' by opposing accord

timesofisrael.com
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Netanyahu unveiled the stolen cache of about 55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs in a television address that the said proved the existence of an illegal and ongoing secret program to "test and build nuclear weapons" called Project Amad.

Just days after the colorful and prop-laden Netanyahu presentation, President Trump announced he would follow through on prior threats to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA. Observers noted at the time that Netanyahu's address had a single audience in mind in the person of Donald Trump during the very week the White House was intensely mulling a final decision over whether to finally pull the plug on the JCPOA.


Carl Bildt
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@carlbildt
Nothing really new in @netanyahu Iran speech. Confirms that Iran closed down nuclear weapons program in 2003. Continued technology efforts. In principle all of this well known. No allegation that Iran cheats on 2015 nuclear deal. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/pm-expected-to-reveal-how-iran-che ated-world-on-nuke-program-1.6045300 …

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Netanyahu: Iran nuclear deal is based on lies – here's the proof
haaretz.com
650 people are talking about this
While it appears Netanyahu had his April televised presentation in mind when he says in the clip "I had to stand up against the whole world," there is also little doubt that his personal appeals to Trump on the issue were even more direct and persistent. Other signatories to the deal brokered in 2015 under the Obama administration have vowed to stick by it, which include Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China — even as the White House threatens punitive measures against any country that continues to do business with Iran.

Earlier this summer it was confirmed that a high level joint US-Israeli "working group" under the oversight of National Security Advisor John Bolton has been meeting for months with the goal of facilitating regime change in Tehran. As Axios reported: "Israel and the United States formed a joint working group a few months ago that is focused on internal efforts to encourage protests within Iran and pressure the country's government." So it's very clear that Netanyahu has the White House's ear on Iran (though this is no surprise).

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has posted to his official Twitter account a clip of Trump saying that Russian President Putin is a "Bibi fan". The statement came in a Fox News interview following the US president’s summit and press conference with Putin.

Embedded video

Benjamin Netanyahu
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@netanyahu
אמשיך לחזק את ישראל ככוח עולמי עולה 🇮🇱@realDonaldTrump

2,668
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In the uploaded clip Trump said he and Putin “came to a lot of good conclusions” during the meeting, including “a really good conclusion for Israel, something very strong.” Trump said Putin is “a believer in Israel; he is a fan of Bibi and really helping him a lot – and will help a lot, which is good for all of us.”

Netanyahu posted the interview segment with the commentary in Hebrew: “I will continue to strengthen Israel as a rising global force.”

Likely, Netanyahu will continue his boasting about his personal intervention and impact with the White House both in public and in private, so more such revelatory footage will probably surface in the coming months.

[TonyGosling]

U.S. Ambassador Says Israel Is ‘on the Side of God’
Ambassador David M. Friedman, standing next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, spoke at an event commemorating the anniversary of the United States Embassy move to Jerusalem.
Credit
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/world/middleeast/us-ambassador-isra el-god.html

Ambassador David M. Friedman, standing next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, spoke at an event commemorating the anniversary of the United States Embassy move to Jerusalem.CreditCreditGil Cohen-Magen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By David M. Halbfinger
May 14, 2019

JERUSALEM — The United States ambassador to Israel, a driving force in crafting the Trump administration’s long-awaited proposal to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, declared Tuesday that Israel was “on the side of God.”

Speaking at a celebration sponsored by an American evangelical group to mark the anniversary of the move of the United States embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Ambassador David M. Friedman said that Israel was gaining strength for two reasons.

First, he said, the relationship between the two countries was growing “stronger and stronger and stronger.”

“And the second is that Israel has one secret weapon that not too many countries have,” Mr. Friedman added. “Israel is on the side of God, and we don’t underestimate that.”

The remark reflected a common belief among evangelical Christians, but was also the latest sign of an anything but evenhanded approach to the conflict by the Trump administration.

In addition to moving the embassy to Jerusalem, a move seen as partial to Israel in the dispute over the city’s sovereignty, the administration has made deep cuts in aid to the Palestinians and stopped referring to the West Bank as “occupied.”

Mr. Friedman seemed to acknowledge as much moments later, rattling off a litany of other moves the administration has made that broke with precedent in Israel’s favor, including punishing the Palestinians by closing their diplomatic mission in Washington and merging the formerly independent Jerusalem consulate, which had exclusively dealt with the Palestinians, with the embassy.

Still, the remark set off new howls of criticism, with Palestinians complaining that Mr. Friedman was representing the interests of Israel’s right-wing government more than those of the United States. Even one of Mr. Friedman’s predecessors called the statement out of bounds.

“As the ambassador of the far-right Orthodox Jewish community in the United States, Friedman’s comment makes sense,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, who was Washington’s ambassador in Israel under both Republican and Democratic presidents. “As the supposed ambassador of the United States government and all its people, it is an extremely inappropriate comment.”

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Palestinians were slack-jawed.

“Where does that place the rest of the world?” said Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian negotiator and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe this extreme fundamentalist ideologue is an ambassador.”

Ms. Ashrawi — who said that on Monday she had been denied a visa to the United States for the first time — noted that the event at which Mr. Friedman had made the remark, with its echoes of religious warfare, was held in a hotel a stone’s throw from the walls of the Old City, where Crusaders and Muslims had slaughtered one another for centuries.

“The last time we had people thinking that way in Palestine was in the Middle Ages, and look at what happened,” Ms. Ashrawi said.

Saeb Erekat, the P.L.O.’s longtime chief negotiator, questioned the propriety of referring to God as a weapon at all. “What ambassador Friedman is telling Palestinians, Christians and Muslims,” he wrote on Twitter, was “that God is against them (or that they’re enemies of God). This was never an American position.”

No one has accused Mr. Friedman, who was Mr. Trump’s longtime bankruptcy lawyer, of impartiality in his post, or even of the studied neutrality of career diplomats. Before being appointed he was a prominent supporter of and major donor to the Israeli settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank, which most of the world considers illegal under international law.

He can also seem to invite charges that he is overly close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel: Opening his remarks Tuesday night, he acknowledged Mr. Netanyahu’s presence and joked that it had been mere days since they had seen each other, adding, “It’s been difficult to be apart from you for so long.”

In his speech, Mr. Friedman made light of predictions of violence over the move of the embassy to Jerusalem a year ago. “In the entire city of Jerusalem that day, I don’t think more than 20 people got up to protest,” he said. “I think more people were unhappy about the food they were eating in various restaurants than they were about the move of the embassy to Jerusalem.”

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He acknowledged that “there was violence that day in Gaza” — where Israeli soldiers killed about 60 Palestinians demonstrating along the border fence — but said it had “nothing to do with the opening of the embassy.”

In fact, the protests in Gaza had been mounted that day specifically with the intent of overshadowing the embassy ceremony.

Mr. Friedman also said that if he had his way, the United States would continue to push the envelope in its support for Israel. “I don’t believe in enough,” he said.

In a riff about the ancient Jewish Temple, which many right-wing Jews want to rebuild atop the Temple Mount, Mr. Friedman, an Orthodox Jew, noted that inside it was an altar built on a ramp. To achieve a certain level of holiness, he said, “you have to keep pushing forward; there are consequences to stopping.” He added: “We need to keep moving forward, keep moving up the ramp.”

[TonyGosling]

FEATURE - Donald Trump, the Christian warrior, and his bigoted adviser, pastor Robert Jeffress. Lawrence Davidson views the opportunism of President Trump who has appointed one Robert Jeffress as his “top religious adviser” thereby tying himself to Jeffress’s particular set of bigoted opinions: abortion is evil, same-sex relations are evil, Israeli racism is just fine. http://tinyurl.com/y32udnxu


Donald Trump, the Christian warrior, and his bigoted religious adviser, Robert Jeffress
10th October 2019 Home
Top Trump bigot Robert Jeffress By Lawrence Davidson
https://www.redressonline.com/2019/10/donald-trump-the-christian-warri or-and-his-bigoted-adviser-pastor-robert-jeffress/

A top religious advisor
It turns out that President Donald Trump has a “top religion advisor”. This is surprising because there is no evidence that President Trump has a “top religion”, or any religion at all. The only regular activities to occupy this president’s church-going Sundays are rounds of golf and the composing of malicious Twitter messages.

To understand just how irregular his lack of religion is, keep in mind that Trump is president of a country, the leaders of which have been proclaiming for 200 years that God is the national co-pilot. So, how does a faithless president handle this discrepancy? Well, he finds a frontman – a Trump-team religious ambassador. You need someone with sufficient religious credentials to argue that a Christian deity is among the president’s “base”. You need someone who can “authentically” declare that if you’re not for President Trump, you’re not for God.

Given Trump’s unethical lifestyle, you would think it would be difficult to find such a God-connected spokesman. However, it is exactly President Trump’s utter lack of ethics that has made this possible. The man is an opportunist extraordinaire: and unencumbered by ethics he can claim adherence to any belief whatsoever. Thus, it turns out that Donald Trump has made himself appear “the most pro-life president” the United States ever had, even as he simultaneously gives unqualified support to the National Rifle Association. He has turned himself into the “most pro-Israel president” while at the same time giving unqualified support to Saudi Arabia. And, Trump is now also mistaken for the “most pro-religious” president ever, even though, arguably, he is the most impious and profane of modern Oval Office occupants.

Enter Dr Robert Jeffress
It takes a special type of God-connected trickster to pull off the transposing of Donald Trump into a “Christian warrior”. So, who is it that is making such claims for the president? He is Robert Jeffress, 64-year-old American Southern Baptist pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. His local congregation runs to 13,000 members. He is also a televangelist whose sermons are broadcast to more than 1,200 TV stations in the US and 28 other countries. Finally, he looks like an unwholesome Mr Rogers.

Jeffress is a one-dimensional ideologue. Like all ideologues, he has an obsessive certainty in his own point of view – when he talks about God and the “Biblical way” of things, you get a strong impression that he is talking about what he himself sees as right and wrong. Jeffress has a list of such things. At the top of the list of what is wrong is abortion. Jeffress just knows, absolutely, that abortion is evil in the eyes of God. Donald Trump agrees, or at least he is acting as if he does.

According to pastor Jeffress, “the God of the Bible doesn’t sanction the killing of millions and millions of children in the womb”. This happens to be an inaccurate reading of the Bible. For instance, (1) as the story (Joshua 6) goes, the God of the Bible sanctioned the killing of every last Canaanite in the city of Jericho, including “man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey”. He/She/It forgot to exclude women (or the females of other animal species) who might have been pregnant. (2) When the God of the Bible allegedly wiped out 99.9 per cent of life on earth with a great flood (Genesis 5), did He/She/It stop to figure how many of the condemned were with child? In fact, the Bible is full of intermittent slaughter, and this raises an important point which seems never to occur to Jeffress. Throughout this bloody mess, God never gives much thought to the worth of babes in the womb.

And yet here is pastor Jeffress, hypercritically declaring that Democrats who support women’s reproductive rights aren’t Christians. Instead, “the god they worship is the pagan god of the Old Testament, Moloch, who allowed for child sacrifice”. Oh, by the way, if we are to believe Genesis 22, the God of the Bible comes awfully close to doing just that. Remember God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac? He/She/It might have had a change of mind at the last second, but the whole affair must have left both Abraham and Issac with severe cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD.

We can repeat this whole scenario when Jeffress comes to (1) same-sex relations: Jeffress says “it is not ok to be gay” – gay people’s lifestyle is “paving the way for the anti-Christ; and (2) Israel and its racist oppression of Palestinians: Jeffress proclaims that “racism is a sin. Period”, and that “segregation is wrong”. Yet, somehow, it is just fine for the Israelis to be racists. Maybe this exception is made because Israel is supposedly paving the way for the Second Coming of Christ—which, in terms described in the Book of Revelation, signals worldwide chaos and destruction.

What does all of this have to do with Donald Trump? A lot. Trump is the driving force that is carrying Pastor Jeffress from the realm of theory into the field of practice. As long as Trump the opportunist holds course as the most pro-life, pro-Israel, anti-LGBTQ president Jeffress has ever encountered, he warrants the “Christian warrior” title. Does it bother our God-connected pastor that Trump cavorts with porn stars, is a congenital liar, gives not a fig for the US Constitution, and, given his treatment of children at the border, is certainly no family man? No. For the pastor all of this is “irrelevant” as long as the president’s policies measure up to God’s alleged standards. That old saying “God works in mysterious ways” seems to have justified what amounts to Jeffress’s “Faustian bargain” with Donald Trump.

Conclusion
In some significant ways the president’s “top religious adviser” is more troubling than the president he advises. As mentioned above, Trump is an opportunist. In fact, he used to be a card-carrying Democrat hanging out in the same social circles as the Clintons. He was quite capable of adapting to any political position that would work in his favour. Of course, in practical terms, this is no longer likely. With his capturing and reshaping of the Republican Party in 2015-16, he made an alliance with the extreme political right that now precludes any serious flip-flopping. But this is not due to any principled commitment on his part. It is due to self-serving political impulsiveness at a strategic level.

The case of Robert Jeffress is quite different. With him, there never can be any serious thought of flexibility. He is a one-dimensional man whose interpretation of “divine law” is set in ideological stone. Thus, while Pastor Jeffress regards his version of Christianity as unquestionably God’s true faith, Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism and whatever else in religious terms is out there are heresies “from the pit of hell”. And yet, we have seen how problematic are his own interpretations of the Bible.

One might be tempted to dismiss Pastor Jeffress as someone with an unfortunate personality disorder (egomania, rigidity and a weakness for fantasy – much like Donald Trump) if it were not for the fact that his 13,000 congregants loyally follow him as if he were the Pied Piper on steroids. And, they are probably but a drop in the bucket of the total number Jeffress influences.

We have seen this before – and indeed it is almost certainly a constant in human society – the willingness of untold numbers to forgo critical thought, swallow some “big lie” and follow the leader over a cliff. By choosing Robert Jeffress as his “top religious advisor”, President Trump has tied himself to the pastor’s particular set of big lies: abortion is evil,same-sex relations are evil, and Israeli racism is just fine. The two men, the opportunist and the ideologue, seem to be made for each other. However, it is a match that bodes ill for the rest of us.