As you read this, John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel is hosting its annual conference in Washington, DC. It’s instructive to see which Jewish “leaders” and organizations have made common cause with this anti-Semitic slimeball.
On Monday, David Makovsky (Dennis Ross’ best buddy) and Jennifer Lazlo Mizrahi (Frank Luntz’s best buddy) whipped up a nice bit of hysteria about Iran’s alleged commitment to Israel’s destruction. Let’s not forget that Jennifer’s hubby is a top Israeli diplomat in town. Gary Bauer, the president of CAMERA, and the director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem gave a workshop on Israel 101: Basics of the Israeli-Arab Conflict, which should be retitled “Basic Hasbara of the Israeli-Arab Conflict.” Forcibly retired U.S. senator Rick Santorum and David Frum did a dog and pony show on U.S.-Israel relations (that should be illuminating–yawn).
If you’d only been there last night, you could’ve been illuminated by the cumulative wisdom of Rep. Eric Cantor and Michael Medved speaking to the select wealthy few at the Chairman’s Club Donor Banquet. Just think how smart you’d be after hearing those two illuminati speak.
If you hurry, you might still be to catch Fred Barnes, Rep. Shelley Berkley (Aipac’s most slavish boot-licker in Congress), and Malcolm Hoenlein (still thinks Obama’s a Muslim) give a Mideast Briefing. Can you think of anything more toxic than to hear these blowhards talk on a subject about which they know nothing more than what’s in their hasbara playbook?
Buy your tickets now for the Night to Honor Israel Banquet Dinner at which you will be regaled by the sound and fury of John Hagee and Dennis Prager. What, they couldn’t get Rush to join them?
Jewish neocons and fundamentalist Bible Belters: a match made in heaven! To quote Tevye: “May the Lord bless and keep them–far away from me.”
Meanwhile, one of the funniest satirical pieces I’ve read in a long was written by Justin Vogt about last year’s CUFI conference. Here’s a sampling:
At this year’s CUFI gala, beneath a stage framed by massive American and Israeli flags, the country-music star Randy Travis belted out The Star-Spangled Banner. Cornerstone’s choir performed a Dixiefied version of Hava Nagila, the celebratory Hebrew folk-song (“Chicken in the barn, pickin’ up grain/ It don’t matter if it’s sunny or rain / Next year in Jerusalem! / Ve nis’mecha!”) And a jumbo-sized cinema screen bombarded the audience with an infomercial touting the work of the evening’s proud corporate sponsor, Zion Oil & Gas, a company founded by a Hagee supporter who believes that the Bible contains clues that point the way to plentiful deposits of oil in Israel. (“The geology has confirmed the theology,” explained one executive.)
Effective ridicule.
Richard W,
I do agree with you that Max Blumenthal’s expose was effective but the ridicule part I sincerely believe was self-inflicted.
Bill Moyers did an in-depth report on Hagee and CUFI a couple of years back. I found Hagee and his organization frightening, all the more so given the number of mostly republican politicians who supported him. Here is a link to the report including video clips of Hagee, John McCain, Joe Lieberman and others.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/profile.html
Richard, saying Shelley Berkley is “Aipac’s most slavish boot-licker in Congress” is way off base and unfair. AIPAC is too left wing for her!
She’s actually a ZOA bootlicker. She has bragged that she calls Mort Klein before deciding a bill is ok!!!!
http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/03/30/1004111/zoa-on-the-hill
Oil deposits in Israel is actually not that far off – some years ago they found considerable deposits of natural gas off the coast. Unfortunately for Israel, the largest field is off the coast of Gaza, some 20 nm out, IIRC. That may be another reason why Gaza fishermen are not allowed to fish, except very close to shore. God forbid the Palestinians may set a precedent and claim a right to their own natural resources.
RE: To quote Tevye: “May the Lord bless and keep them–far away from me.”
MY COMMENT: I will settle for just the “keep them–far away from me” part! John Hagee and his ilk have made an atheist out of me.
these people are so creepy…
‘Israel in fact has no sovereignty whatever over East Jerusalem, which it seized from Jordan in the 1967 war. Its presence is as a military occupier, and the legitimacy of its presence depends upon the U.N. General Assembly partition of Palestine in 1947. That resolution recognized Israel within defined borders. But it also recognized Palestinian territory outside those borders, as set by U.N. Resolution 181, as belonging to the Palestinian people, who have the sovereign right to establish their own state there. That includes East Jerusalem.’ William Pfaff
Oh boy, where to start, nobody can do nutty like the Christian Right nutters. They are the primo uno nutters of all nutters. It’s a funny farm jamboree and if you find two brain cells amidst the crowd you can rub ’em together and make fiiirrrrre. These people are so crazy that that word does not even get close to adequately describing the phenomenon. I sympathize with Dickerson in the sense that in the moment I don’t want to believe in God if these boobs believe in God. (But that’s also a bit of a straw man.)
What’s sad is that these “Christian Zionists” are so utterly divorced and removed from what’s true and best in their own tradition, I’d say the same about right-wing Jews. Both the Christian and Jewish branches of the Israel lobby (we see the Christian branch prominently on display here) have such a skewed, distorted, or perhaps simply non-existent relationship to the broader, deeper currents of Western culture and history. It’s like the 18th century Enlightenment, not to mention (earlier on) the Rennaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution never… oh, hell, who am I kidding.
What did Walter T. Kurtz say in the film Apocalypse Now (in a fit of hallucinatory apocrypha), ‘Drop the bomb and destroy them all’? Something like that. Eliahu and Hagee really are made for each-other.
But it also recognized Palestinian territory outside those borders, as set by U.N. Resolution 181, as belonging to the Palestinian people, who have the sovereign right to establish their own state there.
That is good reason for supporting two states. Equally good cause for the determination of Israel to stall for as long as possible.
Two states. Now!
Conferences etc of the militant right are a good focus for non-violent protest.
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Goy in Tallis Alert!
There are still good and decent people in [sic] this socialist planet !
Not too many of us here feel John Hagee is either “good” or “decent.”
However, the movement Hagee represents is powerful.
Jews protesting Zionism have provided a basic ground for understanding that to do so is not, of itself, antisemitic. Protesting Christian Zionism requires a similar understanding that doing so is not anti-religious or anti-Christian. Coalition building with mainstream Christians thus seems necessary for protest to be effective.
This attack against CUFI is pure leftist drivel. There is absolutely nothing anti-Semitic about Pastor Hagee. He is a true friend of Israel and of Jews. If you do not understand this, then I would suggest you try to read The Israel Test by George Gilder, if you are capable of comprehending history, science, and economics—which is highly doubtful, given your leftist predilections…. which is to say that you embrace complete ignorance of the truth. Needles to say, you would FAIL the Israel Test because you understand nothing about what is really happening in the world today.