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Pat Buchanan slams Bush for Israel policy; asks "Where are the Christians?" Let's ask them!
As I write, I am watching the mass burials in Lebanon on BBC World. The damage to civilians is heart-breaking. In the meantime, Israel is warning Lebanese citizens to flee for their lives. And they blame America.
I haven't exactly chosen sides in the Mideast. Jewish friends of mine have sat me down and tried to explain to me why what Israel is doing is the right thing; Muslim friends have given me the other side.
I am not going to argue that point with representatives of either side. I don't know whether what Israel is doing is the right thing for Israel, but that's a separate issue from whether it's right for the U.S. to support or condone it through inaction. I can't condone it.
To me, this is starting to look frighteningly like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in July 1914 in Sarajevo. And that was just one shot.
I can't understand what the Administration is thinking. Is this some sort of neocon "Slouching Toward Armageddon" tactic? I have never taken completely seriously the argument that the Extreme Right WANT war in the Mideast because, you know, "Come, Lord Jesus." Ready or not!
People from other parts of the country might be surprised by the strong pro-Israel feeling in certain parts of the country. In the Bible Belt where I grew up, people were the REVERSE of anti-Semitic. Protestants were generally pro-Israeli. As the article linked below reflects, they believe that God gave Israel as a gift to the Hebrews and that they are thereby entitled. But there's more to it.
On the one hand, this (from BBC.co.uk): Evangelical Christians plead for Israel
[quote begins here]
More than 3,400 evangelical Christians have arrived in Washington to lobby lawmakers as part of the first annual summit of Christians United for Israel. ....Pastor Hagee, the main organiser, said the event was the first of its kind. The thousands of Christians in Washington - who came and are staying at their own expense - will be urging the US government "not to restrain Israel in any way in the pursuit of Hamas and Hezbollah", he said.
"We want our Congress to make sure that not one dime of American money goes to support Hamas and Hezbollah or the enemies of Israel." John Hagee is the pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, and a long-time fervent supporter of Israel. ...In common with many American evangelicals, he believes that God gave the land to the Jewish people and that Christians have a Biblical duty to support it and the Jews.
His latest book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World, interprets the Bible to predict that Russian and Arab armies will invade Israel and be destroyed by God.
This will set up a confrontation over Israel between China and the West, led by the anti-Christ, who will be the head of the European Union, Pastor Hagee writes.
That final battle between East and West - at Armageddon, an actual place in Israel - will precipitate the second coming of Christ, he concludes.
It is not clear how many evangelicals believe literally in those type of prophecies.....
Two in three evangelicals believe that the establishment of the state of Israel fulfils Biblical prophecy, the survey found. And what they see in the news only reinforces their faith, according to Timothy Shah, a scholar at the Pew Forum. "When they see what's going on in the Middle East, a whole range of enemies arrayed against God's people, they see God's word being played out on their television sets," he said.
"They see Israel triumphing over its enemies as proof that God's promises remain."
[quote ends here]
Gaaaaaah! Do these lunatics really believe that God wants us to allow the maximum amount of suffering? The promise they want God to keep is the second coming of Christ. Like Christians in eras past, they don't want to wait for it; unlike them, they live in a time when there is technology to create the circumstances which they believe (based on the book of Revelations) will yank Christ back into history.
If I were an Israeli or a pro-Israel Jewish American, these people are the LAST supporters I would want. They envision a kingdom of heaven founded on Israel's blood (at the end of which, of course, comes 'the conversion of the [remaining] Jews.') They are TRYING to make Revelations a self-fulfilling prophecy. The "kingdom of heaven" that they envision (and which is nothing at all like the one Christ seems to have had in mind) will then displace Israel.
Pat Buchanan disagrees with them. He has, of course, been an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration's Mideast Policy. On MSNBC, he and Chris Matthews slammed "war-mongering' Republicans." The story by Dave Edwards and the transacript are here at here at The Raw Story. Here's the part that some of these people who are enabling the Administration's current policies in the name of Christianity should read.
[quote from transcript begins]
MATTHEWS: Do you think we are creating another thousand year war by killing so many Arabs? I've been afraid of this war from day one because I've always felt, based on history, every time you kill somebody, you've got his brother, his mother, his family coming back to get you. We've killed 50,000 Iraqi's in a war that was supposed to be a two-day wonder.
When are we going to notice that the neocons don't know what they're talking about. They're not looking at this country's long term interest. They're bound up in regional and global ideology and they have had no experience, I'll say it again, in even a school yard fight. They don't know what physical fighting is all about. They went to school and were intellectuals but they want our government to be their big brother. I don't get it. I don't know why we keep falling for it. And the president, you say, is he free of these guys or not?
BUCHANAN: Well, the president, he fell for it after 9/11 when they put that little pre-cooked meal in front of him, after they knocked down Afghanistan. And so they said, "Let's do Iraq now." And Wolfowitz and all the rest of them.
But let me say this, Chris. I think the president realizes now, that we went into Iraq to pursue weapons that did not exist, a country that did not attack us, did not threaten us, and now we have created a great base camp for terrorism in the Anbar providence that did not exist. In response to Mr Shrum, you attack Iran, Hezbollah will retaliate against the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon. You will have massive hostage taking and killings. Are these people nuts? You've got to ask yourself. I certainly hope the president is not listening to them because I really question whether they've got America's national interest at heart. They're calling for wars against people that never attacked us. I don't care how bad they are. There are wicked people all over this world but you don't go after people unless they come after you.
[quote from transcript ends]
And before leaping on the Evangelical bandwagon, the so-called 'Christians' who are giving unstinting support to the invasion of Lebanon might want to reflect on Buchanan's position in this column from World Net Daily, entitled "Where are the Christians?"
[quote from column begins]
The Lebanon that Israel, with Bush's blessing, is smashing up has a pro-American government, heretofore considered a shining example of his democracy crusade. Yet, asked in St. Petersburg if he would urge Israel to use restraint in its airstrikes, Bush sounded less like the leader of the Free World than some bellicose city councilman from Brooklyn Heights....
Let it be said: Israel has a right to defend herself, a right to counter-attack against Hezbollah and Hamas, a right to clean out bases from which Katyusha or Qassam rockets are being fired and a right to occupy land from which attacks are mounted on her people.
But what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests. It is un-American and un-Christian.
But where are the Christians? Why is Pope Benedict virtually alone among Christian leaders to have spoken out against what is being done to Lebanese Christians and Muslims?
When al-Qaida captured two U.S. soldiers and barbarically butchered them, the U.S. Army did not smash power plants across the Sunni Triangle. Why then is Bush not only silent but openly supportive when Israelis do this?...
Already, Bush is ranting about Syria being behind the Hezbollah capture of the Israeli soldiers. But where is the proof?
Who is whispering in his ear? The same people who told him Iraq was maybe months away from an atom bomb, that an invasion would be a "cakewalk," that he would be Churchill, that U.S. troops would be greeted with candy and flowers, that democracy would break out across the region, that Palestinians and Israelis would then sit down and make peace?
How much must America pay for the education of this man?
[quote from column ends]
I'm a bit surprised to find myself quoting Buchanan with [heavily qualified] approval. That in itself may be a sign of the Apocalypse. The thing is, it's a foregone conclusion that the Evangelicals who are up in Washington advocating no restraints for "the Lord's first love" aren't going to listen to the likes of me. Maybe their own will be able to persuade them that they shouldn't mix up religion and politics or confuse Revelations with the requirements of a Christian life.
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Image drawn by Mr. Tenniel; painted by Damozel!
10:47:44 PM 
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