'Honoring Israel' or Pushing for Nuclear Holocaust?

Last week City Newspaper had an article featuring a group called Christians United for Israel. I was a little surprised to see an event sponsored by this organization featured in City. However, a number of local churches and a Jewish organization are sponsoring the group in Rochester. The article, called "Local evangelicals join 'Honor Israel' push", raises a number of issues. The CUFI organization is led by Reverend John Hagee, a fire and brimstone fundamentalist minister with a large following and big bucks to play with. Hagee is very involved in prophesying the so called 'End Times' when the antichrist will lead the world to destruction. After this, Christ will return and rule over the faithful. Israel is crucial to those who believe that the 'End Times' are imminent because it is where the action is predicted to occur.

Apparently the group is holding a number of events around the country this year to generate support for their ideas. According to a piece on [The Jewish Week] Hagee was a guest at an AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) event where he was warmly applauded. This is very strange because much of Hagee's polemic is really not very flattering to Jews. The City article cites a feature by Max Blumenthal that ran in The Nation last August during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Blumenthal was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! around the same time. He said in the interview that many Jews believe that the group is using the appearance of 'honoring' Israel to undermine the credibility of Jews everywhere. I would think this means that they have read his book or heard him speak.

Regarding Hagee's fascination with Israel, it bears mention that in his prophesy, only Christians will be among the faithful who survive the 'End Times'. Indeed they will have their capitol in Israel, and I suppose one could observe that such an outcome would be a sad irony for the Jews and Muslims who live their now. Meanwhile, CUFI has a sort of alliance with AIPAC based on the fact that both want to see Iran destroyed. It is difficult for me to grasp why AIPAC, representing Israel, would want to see an attack on Iran since they would be a potential target for any retaliation. And if Iran were attacked, it would be very surprising if they didn't make some attempt at retaliation. Whereas at present, they are just an annoying neighbor who appears to be competing for resources in the neighborhood. Hagee and his followers, however, want to see Iran attacked because they are hoping for an all out war in the Middle East to kick off their 'End Times'. Lebanon turned out to be a bust, so they want a bigger initiative.

It is interesting that the Iran hysteria is being promoted by some media outlets in Israel right now. They take the standpoint that Ahmadenijad is another Hitler. This is ridiculous for many reasons; Ahmadenijad is not the highest ruler in Iran, Iran hasn't invaded another country in more than 100 years, Jews in Iran live and worship in peace, and so on… One explanation is that this fierce program of propaganda is due to the abysmally low confidence ratings that the current Israeli government has due to their failure to make sense of the war on Lebanon this summer. But it is worse than that. Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert's government is a disaster. A member of his cabinet [Haim Ramon, a former justice minister] was recently convicted of sexual assault on a young woman serving her obligatory tour of duty in the army. The president [of Israel, Moshe Katsav] was forced to step down because of not one, but several charges or rape. Olmert has elevated Avigdor Liberman within the Knesset, a member of a far right party that supports the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel, and the annexation of the occupied territories. Olmert himself is under investigation for shady financial deals.

The list goes on and on. But just to top the cake, when Olmert was criticized last week for making an unconsidered decision to invade Lebanon last summer [1 | 2 | 3], he responded that, in fact he and the military had a detailed plan which had been in place for 4 months prior to the decision while they waited for a suitable incident to justify enacting it. Hmm, that's interesting. Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbollah really was surprised and he apologized to the Lebanese people for making a mistake that cost them so dearly. But not Olmert. He planned an invasion, then, waited for an expected opportunity to claim self defense, and, when that failed to cover, cited the plan. Sound familiar? The "bait and switch" war strategy is becoming very popular in some governments of late. The Israeli and international presses are following up on the story with some interest. But the US media apparently doesn't find it significant.

So, getting back to Iran, we have the US making every effort to tease Iran into a fight, and we have Israel crying out for justice, accusing Iran of the (intention of) genocide. And what do the people of Israel think about all this? Olmert recently polled at 3% support for holding his office. Only his Minister of Defense [Amir] Peretz got a lower score (1%). And here we have George Bush polling at 30%. Will a new war recover their ratings? will it satisfy their seemingly limitless egos? The people are fearful and insecure. They no longer trust their government, but they don't know where to find a better one. They are constantly bombarded with with manufactured threat of an "Iranian Holocaust", but the creditability of their leadership has been destroyed.

What about the Americans? Well we too have lost faith in our leadership. But we have this sense the horse has run a muck and our carriage is completely out of control. We finally have the Democrats considering our opposition to the war in Iraq, and at the same time, many of them are thinking maybe they could support a war in Iran to protect their good friends in Israel (?), to protect our soldiers in Iraq (?), to bring about the 'End Times' (??). One really has to wonder at the general, if not complete, breakdown of reason in this discussion. In any case, we all have to consider the question "Will an[other] all out war make anyone safe?" And hopefully, we are going to think about it soon!

And then there is Hagee and the CUFI. The article in City states that CUFI demonstrated to support Israel in last summer's war with Lebanon. Max Blumenthal told Democracy Now! that there were supporters of CUFI who were celebrating the so called 'war' in Lebanon, gleefully anticipating the 'End Times'. In response, I have to ask "What would Jesus have to say?" about a group of followers who incite their neighbors to violence, who glory in the murder and wounding of thousands of innocent civilians and the pillaging of entire countries, who self righteously instigate the destruction of all who disagree with them, and anyone else who might be in the way of their ascent to glory; and then wait with self sanctified hubris for the nations of the earth to annihilated one another, so that they might inherit all the earth for themselves alone. So much for 'Turning the other cheek', for 'Loving your neighbor as yourself', for 'the Meek inheriting the earth'.

A final note on CUFI and Hagee's prophesy. His story is really bizarre, and he presents it as a done deal, and absolute fact. According to the article in City, he predicts "worldwide conflict between radical Islamists and Judeo-Christian nations, followed by a conflict between the West (think EU) and China. I guess he thinks the first part is already beginning. There is a short film on the Alternet website where Hagee gives a chilling recitation of his prophesy. He says that the Nazis were just a stopover between the previous evil empire of the League of Nations and the one that followed, the United Nations. He talks about the antichrist being a German leader who is head of the EU and brings into power the "Fourth Reich". Look out Chancellor Merkel! Angela Merkel is Chancellor of Germany and, at the moment, head of the EU, but the "Fourth Reich" hardly seems to be her style.

What is scary is not that there is a John Hagee out there talking this way. There have always been people predicting the imminent end of the world. It is that he has influence with people of power, that a dozen churches in Rochester alone are welcoming him and that Jewish organizations would receive him on behalf of Israel when it is clear that his long term agenda is their destruction. It is easy to believe the predictions of world-wide war and devastation when the most powerful government in the world is led by fools who govern like players in a game of 'War' or 'Monopoly' with no respect for the well being of their people, and who sacrifice thousands of lives, and risk the world economy for their own projects. However, the 'End Times' prophesy doesn't offer a very favorable outcome for most of us. Speaking of predictions, Nostradamus predicted this grand conflict as well, a couple of hundred years ago. He assumed that the anti-Christ would be the leader from the Orient. He was, himself, a Frenchman after all. However, he described this leader as a boy emperor, charming, callow and self-absorbed. There's some food for thought.

Judy Bello lives in Webster, NY and is involved in various anti-war initiatives including RAW Street Theater group. She is also interested in communication initiatives that bring to the public interest a variety of global viewpoints. Judy studies and teaches yoga and meditation for self healing.