Desmond Tutu Discusses the Only Apartheid Regime in the Middle East

While saying the situation in Israel is similar to aparthied in many ways, Desmond Tutu called for a two state solution:

"We believe in a two-state solution of two sovereign, viable states, each with contiguous borders, guaranteed as secure by the international community. "

While well intentioned, Tutu's solution is in fact a half baked potato. If in fact there is a two state solution, what would happen to those Jews who want to live on the Palestinian side of the border? What about the Palestinians who now call Israel home? Are they supposed to reciprocate refugees? Clearly this is not tenable. Especially since both sides share the same cities as "home."

The obvious solution is to create a United States of Israel-Palestine. A two state solution just gives Armageddonists a target for destruction. A one state solution is civilized. A two state solution is a throw back to the dark ages.

The most powerful message Tutu had to deliver was to the Jewish conscience:

Be not opposed to the God whose Spirit, when it anoints you, makes you concerned for the poor. This is your calling. If you disobey that calling, if you do not heed it, then as sure as anything one day you will come a cropper. You will probably not succumb to an outside assault militarily. With the unquestioning support of the United States of America, you are probably impregnable. But you who are called are they who are called, asked to deal with the oppressed, the weak, the despised, compassionately, caringly, remembering what happened to you in Egypt and, much more recently, in Germany. Remember and act appropriately. If you reject your calling, you may survive for a long time, but you will find it is all corrosive inside, and one day, one day, you will implode.
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Rapture Prank

This girl is scared out of her mind when she thinks she has just been left behind.

A person who believes there will be no peace till after the rapture is pessimistic about peace in the middle east. Such a person will dismiss Annapolis as a non-starter. Here's what CUFI's newsletter had to say about this confrence:

So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; For I was a little angry, and they helped—but with evil intent.” ‘Therefore thus says the LORD: “I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of hosts, “And a surveyor’s line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’ “Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; The LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem."'" Zechariah 1:14-17

As the Annapolis Summit begins let us remember what the Lord says of His beloved Jerusalem. Let us who love Zion and who have taken a stand with her in this day of trouble intercede on her behalf. May those who defend her be as bold as a lion for the Lord will sustain them and they will be exalted above all nations. May those leaders and nations who come against her with “evil intent” be brought to confusion and may they be mocked and humiliated before their peers.

Thank you for your faithful prayers for Israel, her people and especially the city of Jerusalem.

Did you catch that? Hagee calls this day of peace talks a day of trouble. If you follow his other lectures, his angle is straight from the pessimistic dispensationalist play-book. The Jews will be attacked by their neighbors. Just before things get too bad, Jesus comes back to Rapture Hagee and like minded believers. Then those left behind are to suffer; Israel's neighbors will be destroyed of course; along with two-thirds of Israel. The rest will convert to Christianity and only then will there be peace.

The other day, I overheard an Armageddonist discussing a Hamas spokesman's statement "We don't want to push Israel into the sea." Reflexively, this Armageddonist dismissed this as a joke. Might it have something to do with his skewed vision of prophesy which informs him to just wait for Armageddon so that a lasting peace can be achieved? Draw you own conclusions.

Rabbi in Mosque discussing Zionism

No, this isn't the beginning of a joke; it's a series of 6 videos on youtube. Here's part one:

The Fall of the House of Bush

A brand new book by Craig Unger, The Fall of the House of Bush, sheds light on how Rapturist ideology is influential in undermining the America's national security.

The most terrifying news to emerge from the book is Unger's contention that the Cheney gang will do whatever it takes to crown their triumph in Iraq with something even lovelier: an additional war with Iran. It's the latest reminder that neither the Democrats nor the Washington press corps has ever come close to fighting this fire with the flood that will be necessary to extinguish it. Remember: The most energetic part of this coalition is praying for the apocalypse. Will enough of us reality-based types ever come together to defeat them?
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Jewish Voices Struggle with Armageddonism's Rough Edges

This article about Christian Zionism is a window into how a Jewish conscience struggles with the ramifications of Armageddonism, and somehow casts a blind eye to its evils and concludes that this theology is harmless.

I also found this other article on Christian Action for Israel website; again also speaking about Christian Zionism from a Jewish perspective. It would be interesting to read commentary on the topic from a Palestinian/Muslim perspective as well.

My own observation is that these Jewish voices are averting their eyes from a reality that the support they get from the Armageddonist ranks is ultimately bad for Israel not just on some philosophical grounds. But because it opposes any peace which does not march through the shadow of the valley of death - Armageddon.

David Brog, for instance, avoids talking about Armageddon by focusing on the narrow question of whether Rapture based theologians support Israel to convert them:

Evangelicals who support Israel most certainly do want to convert people. Evangelicals who don’t support Israel also want to convert people. The mission of sharing the ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ is central to being an evangelical. But it is important to note that this is not about converting just the Jews — Christians want to share their faith with Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and their Christian friends and neighbors who have yet to be born again. The important question is this: Is evangelical support for Israel merely a tool in the effort to convert the Jews? Is this merely some scheme to soften the Jews up so that they can better sell Jesus to them? And the answer to this question is absolutely not. If anything, the opposite it true.

Of course they don't want you to convert because if you convert now, then who will remain to fight and die in the battle of Armageddon?

The anytime rapture theologians have been saying for a long time now that they expect Armageddon to happen within their life time. They are tired of waiting and are not content to sit by and let prophesy fulfill itself.

Their game is now to play up fears and engage in pre-emptive strikes which will fulfill prophesy. After all, the Russian-Persian alliance that is supposed to attack Israel is taking too long to form. Fifty years is a long time.

So the game is now to raise phantoms such as "Iran wants to wipe out Jews" - a false allegation, even though it reverberates in the media. People hear what they want to hear. Cursory research indicates this statement is taken out of context and the intended message was to promote a true - one man one vote type democracy which would do away with the current system of occupier/occupied reality of Israel.

To conclude, Rapturists' goal is to put Jews in a state of panic and encourage them to view their neighbors as new Hitlers in the hope that they would lash out and begin the "inevitable" battle of Armageddon. They may be acting out of sincerity, but it is misdirected sincerity.

For Rapturists, the Middle East is not Foriegn; It's Personal

For 85% of the US electorate, the Middle East is a foreign issue, and therefore of secondary interest when they enter the polling booth. For 15% of the electorate, the Middle East is not just a domestic matter, it's a personal one: if the president fails to start a conflagration there, his core voters don't get to sit at the right hand of God. Bush, in other words, stands to lose fewer votes by encouraging Israeli aggression than he stands to lose by restraining it. He would be mad to listen to these people. He would also be mad not to.

-The Guardian Unlimited

It's the Rapture Stupid: Explaining the Robertson-Giuliani Alliance

According to Pat Robertson, the reason he supports pat has more to do with fighting Islamic extremism than any domestic policy.

We all know that when it comes to foreign policy, that Pat Robertson's only concern is to follow current events and point out where, how, and when end time prophesies are being fulfilled.

Clearly, Giuliani's view of Israel's future falls in line with that of Robertson. Which is why nothing else matters when it comes to whom Pat Robertson will support. In Robertson's view, peace is bad for Israel. The future is in the apocalypse. Any talk of peace by the surrounding countries is pure propaganda.

The only road-map to peace Robertson condones is one that passes through the Rapture and the Apocalypse. And so when Robertson talks about the Islamic Terrorist blood lust, his world-view is informed by a blood lust of his own. His own blood lust makes him blind to non-violent solutions to world problems. To Robertson, any calls for a the peaceful coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis is tantamount to treason against God.

And so Robertson's endorsement of Giuliani shows that nothing is as great a sin as betraying the path to peace through the Rapture. This issue is greater than abortion and gay marriage combined.

This rapturist theology is what binds Rudy and Pat. This is the theology Pat Robertson preaches day in and day out. Public officials cannot pronounce their allegiance to the rapture because America will vote it down at the polls. This allegiance is implied to the faithful when the candidate simply stands in friendship with the spokesmen for Armageddon.