Cry for Palestine, cry for Israel

In the midst of yet another election year and slaughter in Israel's occupied territories. It is important to realize that everyone is a victim. Not only those are injured or maimed, but also those who lose their conscience and moral compass. Not only those who are dispossessed by the occupation, but also those who live in shiny new settlement communities. The Jewish people are as much victims of Hitler as they are of the American Militarists, who have taken a role similar to that of Hitler. The German people were well meaning - just like the Jewish people. The Germans were told they were under attack, so they came to the defense of the motherland. Similarly, Israel is being told that it is under attack. Someone aided, abetted, armed, and pointed Jews at the Palestinians after their terrible treatment at the hands of Hitler. You will find that psychopaths such as John Hagee are pretending to be friends of Israel at the same time that they wish for it to enter into the era of Armageddon and avoid peace so that their perverted interpretation of end times prophesy comes true. They are guilty of

1. Preying on the fears of the Jewish people.
2. Sabotaging any hope of peace by stressing to Israel that Palestinians are not to be trusted.
3. Lobbying to enable Israel to be armed to the teeth.
4. Creating an atmosphere in which Israel will feel justified in massacring civilians.

Make no mistake about it, even the death of a single person, be he/she Palestinian or Israeli is a tragedy. Cry for Palestine and Israel, especially when those who set up the fight stand on the sidelines gleefully cheering the fulfillment of prophesy which they hope will result in the second coming.

Why Israel should break ranks from Armageddon hawks

Because Christian Zionists are, in Don Wagner's words, intrinsically and pathologically, "anxious for Armageddon" (pg 183 of Stephen Sizer's Christian Zionism)
Some among the apocalyptic right express their love for Israel as in

"I pray that even if it takes anti-Semitism in America, God may use it to get his millions back to Israel." -Jan Willem van der Hoeven (as cited pg 223 Christian Zionism). Willem is an Armageddonist Activist & Founder of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and director of The International Christian Zionist Center.

He is saying that anti-semitism may be tolerated or justified if it serves the higher end of forcing Jews to return to Zion so that what has been prophecied should come to pass. Heaven forbid that a few million Jews' desire to live in America thwart Armageddon by not reaching God's quorum for the inevitable Apocalypse.
The only reason the deranged lunatic - Jan Willem - continues to operate in Israel is that he has convinced the settler movement he is their friend by encouraging settlements on the one hand and on the one hand putting forward propaganda which disconnects the inequities caused by the disenfranchisement of the Palestinians from the conflict. Here's a quote from this creep and another from a Benyamin Netanyahu, which represents the worldview that any well-meaning Jewish person would have if over-exposed to the filthy ideas of Armageddonism.

Jan Willem van der Hoeven

Benyamin Netanyahu

Today, most of the relatively uninformed journalists and politicians in the West are of the misguided opinion that as long as Israel withdraws from the “occupied territories,” namely Gaza, Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) and the Golan Heights, there will be a chance for peace in the Middle East. The reason they think this is there false perception of the conflict as basically over land - rather than the reality that what is being sought is the elimination of Israel from the map of the Middle East. (van der Hoeven 1993: 133)

Today too we are told that it is we who provoke terrorism. We provoke it by building apartments in Jerusalem, we provoke it by providing for the natural growth of our communities... The real provocation … is not a housing project, it is not the settlements. The real provocation is pure and simple. It is our existence here. That is what is causing the provocation. It is not a provocation. This is our country, this is the Land of Israel; it is the country that belongs to the people of Israel, and we have an inalienable right to this land. (Netanyahu 1997)

The conclusion van der Hoeven wants to empart to his Jewish audience is that it's your destiny to fight Armageddon. There is no other route to peace.
Van der Hoeven believed that Muslims want to eliminate Israel from the map. This has an ounce of truth to it and a pound of lies. The cloak and dagger technique employed by van der Hoeven leaves out the fact that it's the nature of the democracy in Israel which many chafe at rather than a reaction to the presence of Jews. The nature of this democracy is a topic for discussion elsewhere. The point here is that van der Hoeven evokes the memory of the Holocaust here by evoking the memory of Hitler's attempt to eliminate Jews.
All this because van der Hoaven believes in a certain interpretation of prophecy which leaves him with a theology of history. In turn this belief shapes his perception of reality. And when it comes to identifying friend from foe, percepiton is reality.
He believes that non-Jews surrounding Israel must be destroyed so that the glory of God may be known. The fact that they happen to be Muslim is incidental.
Van der Hoeven and those like him - Hagee, Limbaugh, and well meaning pundits from the right and the left - all accept this line of thinking at face value. What else is one to do when you are told you are under attack? That's what Hitler told the Germans to get them to take up arms against their neighbors.
If you look at the news, you will indeed see news of Jews being attacked. What van der Hoeven asserts is that the cause of this conflict is something enherent to the inferior mind of the Palestinians. And his conclusion is that therefore, there is no way of avoiding armageddon. According to van der Hoeven, the ceansing of the earth is inevitable. People such as van der Hoeaven manage to find niches of acceptance within the Jewish community precisely because they manipulate the Jewish patriot's fears.
Van der Hoeven spends a lot of time explaining, for instance why Palestinians fire rockets. Israeli politicians take on the role of responders to the crisis. In effect, the situation on the ground as seen through the lense of the Armageddonist ideology provides the world-view to which the Jewish state responds.
What would happen if a Jewish politician differed from this script? If we look at history, Ariel Sharon for instance, during his final years, attempted to do just that by attempting a land for peace deal. Although I believe this soluiton is doomed to failure because it's a lot like separate but equal. Be as it may, he was mocked and rediculed by the base in America for even thinking of peace.

JStreet: brave Jewish voices speak out

JStreet.org: There is a new Jewish voice in town. This site is decidedly against the Armageddon hawks which call for war at every corner, yet unfortunately is still voicing support for the mirage of a two state solution of the 1900's rather than the single state solution that represents the new millennium.

Palestinian Doctor Endorses One State Solution

A Palestinian Doctor Ghada Karmi, who wrote the book entitled "Married to Another Man", was interviewed on Democracy Now today, where she endorsed a single democratic state solutions for Israel. A state where both ethnic Jews and non-Jews enjoy equal rights under the law. She asked a question whose answer she did not know. Her question was "Why on earth are we tolerating the situation which we have now, in which Jews are saying 'we as Jews have a right to this territory'? " [1]

In her view, the insistence on the part of a group to say that "we have a right to a place where only we can live" is the wrong solution. That racial exclusivity - is in the model of western secular democracies. She explains "We must challenge any states "

This "we" she refers are the enablers of the current situation in the West. Namely, its original proponents in Britain, and then those who follow in their footsteps in America. The original proponents for this movement are John Nelson Darby and his students. Their end times scenario expects an epic battle in Israel, which is why they wanted to have a Jewish state created so that it may partake in this battle which they believe is the destiny of the reason for the existence of the Jewish state. This mind set naturally believes Palestinians and Jews must be the collateral damage in the process of the fulfillment of God's plan, which they sometimes call the birth-pangs of the return of the Lord.

That was Britain before the creation of Israel. What about now? At this late day in 2008, why do we tolerate this situation? The answer is that most of us have unconsciously played into the agenda of rapturists. Our mistake is that we fail to grasp the important contribution that Armageddonist personalities have had in creating the problem. And we are mainly concerned with the symptoms rather than the disease.

To be perfectly clear, personalities such as Hagee are pushing the agenda of Armageddonism under the guise of supporting Israel. While in fact they work toward the realization of their prophetic ideology which expects war in the Middle East; And destruction for Israel as a Jewish state. They believe this as the inevitable destiny; and in the mean time, they will look you straight in the face and profess unflinching love for Israel. This is no love of Israel - it's only love for what they expect to happen after Israel's destruction. This is the supernatural purpose they zealously guard. It is because we have not called them out on this, that they will continue to drag us behind them. That is why we do not support a single state solution.

It's because these personalities use arguments which are inspired by their hard-line religious conviction, but presented in secular rationale. That is why we continue to tolerate the current state of affairs.

Jewish Zionists did not begin saying "we have a right to a state where only we can live" till they were told by Armageddonist Zionists such as John Nelson Darby that "you have a right to a state where only you can live."

Until we make that connection, we will never have the answer to Dr. Ghada Karmi's question, "Why on earth are we tolerating the situation which we have now."

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------------------------------ References [1] See Democracy now broadcast, segment at time: 45min

As McCain basks in Hagee endorsement; Clinton and Obama Reach out to Hagee Supporters

Hagee calls himself the biggest supporter of Israel. To the secular crowd he praises its democratic credentials. And to the faithful, he preaches its significance as Jesus bait according to his version of prophesy.

Hagee's love for Israel, however is only skin deep. His vision for Israel includes the Jews converting due to the second coming, and does not include a future of Israel remaining a Jewish state. This vision of Jews as the people needing to be perfected through an impending violent war is part and parcel of what Hagee is about.

When Obama and Clinton make strong calls regarding Israel's security as top priority, or as "sacrosanct" while at the same time leaving Hagee's endorsement of McCain uncriticized is both a tacit envy for the support of Hagee's faithful followers, and a promise to continue this march to Armageddon that Hagee and his crowd have been advocating.

Here are a few reasons why Obama and Clinton should be critical of the McCain's acceptance of the Hagee endorsement:

• TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran
• On more than one occasion, Hagee flat out says he is against American foreign policy if American policy is not in line with his weird end-time war-mongering ideology. This means Hagee is anti-American.