Roots of Armageddonist Support for Israel

• "The return of the Jewish people to their homeland was prophesied in the Bible. Their return to the Land is of great importance to Christians as it heralds the Coming of the Lord"
  - Christian Friends of Israel
• "The founding of Israel as a nation in 1948 was ordained of God to provide a homeland for the Jewish people and to prepare for the future return of Jesus Christ."
  - Jerry Falwell, Armageddonist Televangelist
• "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ."
  - John Hagee, Armageddonist Televangelist
• "Persons of biblical faith are called to 'pray for the peace of Jerusalem' (Ps. 122). The ideology of Christian Zionism celebrates violence and the defeat of peacemaking efforts. It blesses neither Israelis nor Palestinians."
  - The Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism
• Pat Robertson published The End of the Age, a book he calls his first work of fiction — although he says it is "based solidly on the Bible." In the book, Robertson paints a bleak picture of the end times he says we are about to enter. He writes about a Christian militia-type group raised up to fight a tyrannical American government, and the dropping of a neutron bomb on Israel. Then, glory be to God, Jesus comes back with a company of angels and destroys the enemy, and the saved live happily ever after
  
  Based on this vision of current events, Robertson not only opposed Rabin's peace efforts, but claimed that God removed Rabin because he stood in the way of God's plan.

Reaction of Non-Armageddonists

• “God save us from these people... When you see what these people are encouraging Israel and the U.S. Administration to do that is, ignore the Palestinians, if not worse, if not kick them out, expand the settlements to the greatest extent possible, they are leading us into a scenario of out and out disaster.” - Yossi Alpher, who served 12 years in Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad. Later, he became Israel Director of the American Jewish Committee
• "Some Christians who I know very well, very devout people, believe a certain interpretation of Revelations, that in my opinion are quite weird, in that in the coming of Christ that the holy land has to be occupied by the Jews and not by anyone else and then in the end that all Jews will have to be killed or either converted to Christianity. This is a very seriously distorted interpretation of the Scriptures that I am very familiar with.
  -Jimmy Carter
• "...as a reflection of their End Times theology, the message of the Christian Right to U.S. policymakers is ‘don’t be involved in getting the parties to the negotiating table,’ then they certainly are... an impediment to the peace process, and that isn’t helpful."
  - Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Olmert warns against aparthied; calls for separate but equal

An Associated Press article quotes the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert as saying that"the state of Israel is finished" if a Palestinian state is not created, saying the alternative was a South African-style apartheid struggle.

Isn't this like saying that the solution to South Africa's apartheid system was to create a separate state for the blacks?  A two state solution is like rearranging the furniture on the deck of the titanic.  It's the underlying principle that is the problem.  Why is a democracy where the rights of all are protected not the goal?

Glen Beck and John Hagee Discuss Iran and the Second Coming

Glen Beck, a radio personality who has a show on CNN by his name, exposes fundamentalist reading of history which drives his understanding of the world. This is part 1 of 6:

In this series of videos, Hagee prophecies that the end of the world will (they add the refrain "as we know it" to circumvent criticism) will be within 20 years; that he is looking for candidates who are pro-Israel; that we live in the end times. And at the end of all this, Glen tells him that he has been saying the same thing for a long time now.

Here's another video to be watched in the context of the above belief system:

Mixing prophecy and politics

I was surprised to see an article titled Mixing prophecy and politics on the Christian Science Monitor newspaper. Here is what the subtitle says:

Christian Zionists are growing in influence - even as they fight for policies their critics say work against peace in the Mideast. For these believers, it's all about fulfilling biblical prophecy.
- read the full article here