The Missing Link in the Evangelical Community

Jewish World Review March 30, 2007 / 11 Nissan 5767

Living the commanded life …

By Rabbi Berel Wein

as a means to fulfilling our ultimate life's purpose

(As I have reflected on the cohesiveness of the Jewish community, it seems that there is within that community a certain discipline that is sadly missing in the world of the Christian Right...Call it pride in being Jewish; call it reactive to minority status; call it whatever you will, but many Jews have managed to build within their religious and family structure a responsibility to contribute...This responsibility spills over into every aspect of public life and has produced a refined excellence that should serve as a model for other communities...

Rabbi Wein has raised an important question: "What is our ultimate life purpose?" That question lies at the root of Christian life in America and seems lost with so many disparate groups vying for recognition and so many competing doctrines...Perhaps it is time to revisit the Westminster shorter catechism - "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."

Stan Moody, author of "Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship" and "McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry.")

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | There is a single Hebrew word that conveys much of the basic message of Judaism and the traditions of Torah life: "tzav", the first word — and name of — this week's Torah portion.

Even though we live, or believe that we do, in a world of ultimate free choice and personal autonomy, the structure of all civilizations and societies is that we are commanded to do certain things in life. Sometimes it is our family that makes these demands on us, other times it is our work or profession and still other times it is the government that intrudes upon our autonomy. There is always a piece of us, deeply hidden within the recesses of our psyche, which rebels against these intrusions on our private choices and lives.

The Torah recognizes this nature of ours and therefore emphasizes the necessary requirement of commandments that can thereby insure a moral lifestyle and a better society. Even the great Aaron, the paradigm of human goodness and peace, the holy High Priest of Israel, has to be commanded. The strength of being commanded — of "tzav" — is the bulwark of Jewish life and tradition. Without that ingredient of asher tzivanu — blessed be G-d Who has commanded us — there is no Judaism and ultimately no private or public Jewish life.

All of our lives, from the time of infancy onward, we are shaped and raised by commandments. The sages called this process "chinuch" — laying of a strong foundation for our lives. Thus, the word "tzav", which introduces our Torah portion this week, is not only to be understood in its literal and narrow meaning as it applies to the laws of sacrifices in the Temple and to the High Priest of Israel but it is to be seen as the basic expression of the values and mindset of Judaism in all of its aspects.

Special note should be made that this word "tzav" appears in conjunction with the commandments regarding the sacrifice of the olah in the Holy Temple. The olah, unlike any of the other sacrifices, was a sacrifice from which no human being obtained any immediate tangible benefit. It was completely consumed by the fire on the altar.

There must have been a hidden voice of hesitancy that resonated within the person bringing that sacrifice and even within the priest that was offering it up on the altar to be totally consumed. After all, of what value was a sacrifice if no one would derive any immediate value from its offering?

Because of the limited range of human logic as compared to G-d's infinity so to speak, the Torah emphasized here the word "tzav" — this is an order, a commandment — not subject to human logic or choice. Many times in life demands are made upon us there are illogical and sometimes appear even to be capricious, but nevertheless they must be met.

By realizing the innate necessity in life for "tzav" — for bowing to Divine Will and for obeying commandments, we therefore make our lives easier to live and more meaningful as well. And we also must realize that life at times demands an olah from us, selfless sacrifice that shows little immediate or tangible reward or benefit. We are here to serve. That is our ultimate life's purpose.

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JWR contributor Rabbi Berel Wein --- Jewish historian, author and international lecturer offers a complete selection of CDs, audio tapes, video tapes, DVDs, and books on Jewish history at www.rabbiwein.com Comment by clicking here.

"Salvation is of the Jews" - John Hagee

United for Israel
By John Hagee
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 27, 2007

[Pastor John Hagee gave this speech at the AIPAC Policy Conference, March 11, 2007. To hear the audio file, click here. - The Editors]

(This speech has all the ingredients - all the buzz words - to appeal to McChurch, a pop-Christian culture addicted to excitement...John Hagee reaches into the doctrinal wasteland of the Christian Right, for whom the sacrifice of the Lamb of God has become stale and meaningless...He reverses the typology of the law, pointing to the Messiah, and makes Christianity a mere shadow of the restoration of national Israel...What he fails to disclose is that the the restoration of the land, the resettling of the people and the rebuilding of the Temple is to build up what must then be destroyed..."If you build it, they will destroy it!" This is an anti-Semitic wave that will resonate with the Christian Right because there is just enough truth behind it to render it familiar...

Stan Moody, author of "Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship" and "McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry.")

Good evening dear friends of Israel; thank you for the privilege and pleasure of speaking to this distinguished AIPAC gathering. May I begin by thanking Melvin Dow for his friendship and wisdom that have been a guiding light for me personally and in all out endeavors on behalf of Israel over the years. I also want to thank AIPAC and each of you for being Israel's defender in the halls of the US Congress. You are the finest and most efficient advocacy organization in Washington, DC.

On September 10, 1981, we conducted our First Night to Honor Israel in San Antonio and there are two people with me tonight that made that First Night to Honor Israel possible - my wife Diana, the love of my life and Rabbi Aryeh Sheinberg without whose courage there would never have been the First Night to Honor Israel nor the birth of Christians United for Israel. There to my left, would you please stand; I'd like you to be welcomed by this great group of people.

We meet tonight at dangerous and difficult time in world history. To anyone with eyes to see and ears that hear, it is clear that Israel is in the gravest danger she has faced since six Arab armies tried to strangle the Jewish state in the birth canal in 1948. I know that during difficult days such as this when it seems that the whole world is against Israel many in the Jewish community nervously scan the globe searching for friends. You look toward the United Nations which Dore Gold calls The Tower of Babble. You look at Europe where the ghost of Hitler is again walking across the stage of history. You open your newspapers and read about American universities where Israel is being viciously vilified by students taught by professors whose Middle Eastern chairs are sponsored by Saudi Arabia. You look to America's mainline churches and their initiatives to divest from Israel. You go to the bookstore and see slanderous titles by the former President of the United States and you feel very much alone.

I came here tonight to speak about Christians United for Israel and millions of evangelicals in America who have a deep-seated faith-based belief to love Israel, to speak up for Israel, to standup for Israel, to pray for Israel and to financially support Israel until Israel achieves a just and lasting peace.

I came here tonight to deliver a message to you from those millions of evangelicals in America and I want to say this as clearly and plainly as I can possibly say it – Israel you are not alone.

There are millions of evangelical Christians across America who consider the Jewish people the apple of God's eye, who see you as the chosen people, a cherished people and a covenant people with an eternal covenant that will stand forever. Ladies and gentlemen of AIPAC it's a new day in America. The sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awakened; there are 50 million Christians standing up and applauding the State of Israel.

If a line has to be drawn, draw the line around both Christians and Jews; we are united; we are indivisible; we are bound together by the Torah – the roots of Christianity are Jewish. We are spiritual brothers and what we have in common is far greater than the things we've allowed to separate us over the years.

As you know, Iran poses a threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear holocaust. I have been saying on national television, in churches and auditoriums across America it is 1938; Iran is Germany and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler. Ladies and gentlemen we must stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly with Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. The only way to win a nuclear war is to make certain it never starts. Iran's President has not limited his maniacal threats to Israel. He has also asked his fellow Iranians to imagine a world without America. This is a clear threat to destroy the United States of America. I have something to something to say to Iran's President or Iran; Mr. Ahmadinejad, don't threaten America.

Do not threaten Israel by saying they will pass away in a sudden storm. In the Bible when Pharaoh threatened the Jewish people of Egypt he became fish food in the Red Sea. When Haman threatened the Jews in Persia in modern-day Iran he and his sons hung from the gallows that he built for the Jews. Mr. Ahmadinejad's threats against Israel have a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy; you may be well speaking about your own demise when you talk about passing away with a sudden storm, but you are not talking about Israel's future.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is watching you. King David wrote that thou that keepeth Israel neither slumber nor sleeps. The Christians of America are not going to sit by in silence this time and watch you plod and plan a nuclear holocaust. There will never be another Holocaust - not on our watch and never again.

Beyond that threat from Iran, there's another more subtle threat that concerns me. I am concerned that in the coming months yet another attempt will be made to parcel out parts of Israel in a futile effort to appease Israel's enemies in the Middle East. I believe that misguided souls in Europe, I believe that the misguided souls in the political brothel that is now the United Nations and sadly - and sadly even our own State Department will try once again to turn Israel into crocodile food. Winston Churchill said "an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile in the futile hope that it will eat him last." In 1938, Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland land was turned into crocodile food for Nazi Germany. The Nazi beast smelled the weakness in the appeasers, ate the food and marched and devoured most of Europe and systematically slaughtered 6,000,000 Jewish people.

We are again hearing calls to appease the enemies of Israel. Once again, those who would appease seek to do so at the expense of Israel. They tell us that if we want the Sunnis and the Shiites to stop massacring each other in Iraq then Israel must give up land. They tell us that if we want the Syrians to stop murdering the leaders in Lebanon, then Israel must give up land. They tell us if we want the Saudis to permit women to drive and to vote, Israel must give up land. If we want the sun to rise it the east and set in the west, Israel must give up land.

Let me be clear; Israel is not the problem here.

Scapegoating Israel will not solve the problem; the problem is the Arab rejection of Israel's right to exist. The problem is that Israel has no partner for peace; the problem is radical Islam's bloodthirsty embrace of a theocratic dictatorship that believes they have a mandate from God to kill Christians and Jews. The problem is the failure of the moderates in the Arab and Muslim world to stand up and rein in these Islamic extremists.

If the moderate Arabs believe that murdering Christians and Jews is wrong then standup and say so - this is America. We welcome your participation in free speech but your silence is deadly.

Appeasement is not the answer my friends. To quote the great evangelical abolitionist William Wilberforce, “appeasement is nothing more than surrender on the installment plan.” America should not pressure Israel to give up land and America must never pressure Israel to divide the City of Jerusalem.

Dore Gold in his latest book, The Fight for Jerusalem, said “turning part or all of Jerusalem to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban.” I agree. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people now and forever. Jerusalem is united under Jewish control and must always remain under Jewish control.

Why do Christians support Israel? Truth is not what I say it is. Truth is not what you think it is. Truth is what the Torah says it is; there's the Torah way and the wrong way. Genesis 12 and 3 says I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. We believe those blessings are very real and those judgments are very real.

Where are the nations that have persecuted the Jewish people? Where is Pharaoh and his army? Where are the Babylonians? Where are the Greeks? Where is the Ottoman Empire? Where are the Romans? Where is that goose-stepping lunatic Adolf Hitler and his Nazi hoards? All are historic footnotes in the bone yard of human history. Where is Israel? Where are the Jewish people? They're alive and well; they're thriving; they're prospering; they're growing - even on a day of adversity they're still going forward.

Where is Israel? Where are those who are scattered throughout the Diaspora? The mighty right hand of God has gathered them from the nations of the world and Israel was miraculously born May 15, 1948. Israel lives! Shout it from the housetop - Israel lives! Let every Islamic terrorist group hear it - Israel lives! Let every tinhorn dictator in the Middle East hear it - Israel lives! Let it be heard in the halls of the UN - Israel lives! Let it echo down the marble halls of the Presidential Palace in Iran – Israel lives! Let it ring in the terrorist camps of Osama Bin Laden - Israel lives! Israel lives! Israel lives!

Jews have suffered programs and persecution; they have outlasted Pharaoh's slavery and Hitler's final solution, and I have no doubt that long after Hamas and Hezbollah have been buried in the bone yard of human history, long after the crisis with Iran has been resolved, the Flag of Israel will still be flying over the ancient walls of the sacred city and Jerusalem and Israel will be the praise of all the earth.

Why do Christians support Israel - because Christians deeply believe we owe a debt of gratitude to the Jewish people; you gave us the word of God, you gave us the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; you gave us the Prophets, Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Amos, Josiah, Joel – not a Baptist in the bunch. The first family of Christianity – Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, the Apostles, John the fourth chapter says salvation is of the Jews; that's a New Testament verse. You don't hear it many sermons that preached on that but that's a real verse. Salvation is of the Jews; the point is if you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity there would be no Christianity. Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its existence, but Christianity cannot explain its existence without Judaism.

Therefore, I have been saying for 26 years over national television it's time for Christians to stop praising the dead Jews of the past - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob while avoiding the Jews who live across the street. That's anti-Semitism and anti-Semitism is sin and as sin it damns the soul. As Christians tonight on this historic occasion, we ask God's forgiveness and yours for every act of anti-Semitism in our past. The crusades, the inquisition, Martin Luther's Concerning the Jews and Their Lies; the final solution of Adolf Hitler carried out by baptized Christians in good-standing with their church; the fact that the Roman Church was silent during these atrocities and did not share - we did not share their theology. They did not share our appreciation for the great contribution the Jewish people have given to humanity and to Christianity. Tonight I humbly ask forgiveness of the Jewish people for every act of anti-Semitism and the deafening silence of Christianity in your greatest hour of need during the Holocaust. We were not there; we cannot change the past but together we can shape the future. Think of our potential future together; 50,000,000 evangelicals joining in common cause with 5,000,000 Jewish people in America on behalf of Israel is a match made in heaven.

Let the word go forth from Washington, DC tonight. There is a new beginning in America between Christians and Jews. We pledge to God and to the Jewish people to fulfill the words of the Prophet Isaiah; for Zion's sake we will not hold our peace and for Jerusalem's sake we will not rest. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent and give the Lord no rest until he makes Jerusalem the praise of all the earth. We have organized Christians United for Israel. We have 13 Regional Directors; we have 40 State Directors; we have 80 City Directors and they're growing. We're organizing Congressional District by Congressional District, so that as body we can standup and speak up for Israel every year in Washington, DC and Congress will know that the matter of Israel is no longer just a Jewish issue; it is a Christian Jewish issue from this day forward.

In closing, I believe 2007 is the year of destiny. America and Israel are at war with a common enemy. It is a war of good versus evil. It is a war of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness versus the culture of death. I close with the words of Winston Churchill, who is my favorite statesman of all time. Spoken during the dark days of World War II when Hitler seemed unbeatable and victory seemed impossible, Churchill said, "you ask what is our aim; I can answer in one word - it is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of the terror, victory however long and hard the road may be for without victory there is no survival." Ladies and gentlemen, as Christians and Jews, our aim is victory - victory for Israel and victory in our time. May God bless Israel; God bless America; and God bless each of you.

Are anti-Zionists anti-Semitic?

Is criticizing Israel anti-semitism? A Canadian Jew comments

CRITICIZING ISRAEL IS NOT AN ACT OF BIGOTRY. By Jason Kunin
This article appeared in Winnipeg Free Press, Feb. 24, 2007.

(I am certain that those of us who claim to be Evangelical will soon be coming under fire from both sides of the Zionist camp as anti-Semitic...There is something pervasive about how advocates of the letter of the law tend to view the spirit of the law as hostile...Evangelicals and progressive Jews who put human rights above territorial rights would do well, I think, to have a number of well-developed defenses when the mud begins seriously to fly...Otherwise, we could be toast in public opinion among those who really don't much care, including the press...Stan Moody)

A grassroots revolt is underway in Jewish communities throughout the world, a revolt that has panicked the elite organizations that have long functioned as official mouthpieces for the community. The latest sign of this panic is the recent publication by the American Jewish Committee of an essay by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, entitled Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism, which accuses progressive Jews of abetting a resurgent wave of anti-Semitism by publicly criticizing Israel.

This is the latest attempt to conflate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism in order to silence or marginalize criticism of Israel. This approach is widely used in Canada. Upon becoming CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Bernie Farber declared that one of his goals was to "educate Canadians about the links between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism."

It is misleading for groups like the CJC to pretend that the Jewish community is united in support of Israel. A growing number of Jews around the world are joining the chorus of concern about the deteriorating condition of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories as well as the inferior social and economic status of Israel's own Palestinian population.

In a world where uncritical support for Israel is becoming less and less tenable due to the expanding human rights disaster in the West Bank and Gaza, leaders of Jewish communities outside Israel have circled their wagons, heightened their pro-Israel rhetoric, and demonized Israel's critics. These leaders imply that increased concerns about Israel do not result from that state's actions, but from an increase in anti-Semitism.

Despite this effort to absolve Israel of responsibility for its treatment of Palestinians, Jewish opposition is growing and becoming more organized. On Feb. 5, a group in Britain calling itself Jewish Independent Voices published an open letter in The Guardian newspaper in which they distanced themselves from "Those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries (and who) consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of the occupied people." Among the signatories of the letter were Nobel-prize winning playwright Harold Pinter, filmmaker Mike Leigh, writer John Berger, and many others.
This development follows the emergence of similar groups in Sweden (Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace), France (Union Juive Francaise pour la paix, Rencontre Progressiste Juive), Italy (Ebrei contro l'occupazione), Germany (Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost), Belgium (Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique), the United States (Jewish Voice for Peace, Brit Tzedek, Tikkun, the Bronfman-Soros initiative), South Africa, and others, including the umbrella organization European Jews for a Just Peace and the numerous groups within Israel itself. In Canada, the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC) has been founded as an umbrella organization bringing together Jewish individuals and groups from across the country who oppose Israel's continued domination of the West Bank and Gaza.

Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, nor does it "bleed into anti-Semitism," a formulation that says essentially the same thing. Some genuine anti-Semites do use Israel as a cover for maligning the Jewish people as a whole, but it is fallacious to argue that anyone who criticizes Israel is anti-Semitic because anti-Semites attack Israel. There are some anti-Semites who support Israel because they are Christian fundamentalists who see the return of Jews to Jerusalem as a precondition for the return of Christ and the conversion of Jews to Christianity, or because they are xenophobes who want to get rid of Jews in their midst. Anti-Semites take positions in support of and in opposition to Israel.

It is wrong to criticize all Jews for Israel's wrongdoings, yet Israel's leadership and its supporters in the Diaspora consistently encourage this view by insisting that Israel acts on behalf of the entire Jewish people. This shifts blame for Israel's crimes onto the shoulders of all Jews. But Jewish critics of Israel demonstrate through their words and deeds that the Jewish community is not monolithic in its support of Israel.

Defenders of Israel often argue that Israel is forced to do what it does -- to destroy people's homes, to keep them under the boot of occupation, to seal them into walled ghettos, to brutalize them daily with military incursions and random checkpoints -- to protect its citizens from Palestinian violence. Palestinian violence, however, is rooted in the theft of their land, the diversion of their water, the violence of the occupation, and the indignity of having one's own very existence posed as a "demographic threat."

To justify Israel's continued occupation and theft of Palestinian land, the state and its defenders attempt to deny Palestinian suffering, arguing instead that Palestinian resentment is rooted not in Israeli violence, but rather in Islam, or the "Arab mentality," or a mystical anti-Semitism inherent in Arab or Muslim culture. Consequently, pro-Israel advocacy depends upon on the active dissemination of Islamophobia. Not surprisingly, engendering hatred in this manner inflames anti-Jewish sentiment among Arabs and Muslims. None of this is a recipe for making Jews safe.

Jewish people can help avert the catastrophic effects of Israeli behaviour, but only by taking a stand in opposition to it.

Jason Kunin of Toronto is a member of the administration council of the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians. This article was written with help from other council members, including Cy Gonick and Dr. Mark Etkin, both of Winnipeg, Andy Lehrer of Toronto, Sid Shniad of Vancouver and Abraham Weizfeld of Montreal.

McChurch - "On Israel, America and AIPAC

On Israel, America and AIPAC

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20030

(note: AIPAC, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying organization with strong influence in both the Republican and Democratic parties, has, according to George Soros, reached over the top in branding as anti-Semitic any criticism of Israeli hard line policy toward a negotiated peace settlement with the Palestinians...Sensing a growing criticism of American policy in the Mideast, AIPAC has recently courted the support of the Christian Right, who appear poised to influence the government of the United States to invade Iran, one of the perceived powers in the Battle of Armageddon...It is our position that to postulate foreign policy on the basis of interpretation of Scripture is a dangerous course of action but one that carries great weight with the current American administration...Stan Moody)

By George Soros

The Bush administration is once again in the process of committing a major policy blunder in the Middle East, one that is liable to have disastrous consequences and is not receiving the attention it should. This time it concerns the Israeli–Palestinian relationship. The Bush administration is actively supporting the Israeli government in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, which the US State Department considers a terrorist organization. This precludes any progress toward a peace settlement at a time when progress on the Palestinian problem could help avert a conflagration in the greater Middle East. more

McChurch - Christian Atheism

“Pro Israel” Christian Leader Blames Jews for the Holocaust

By: Bruce Wilson. Mon Mar 05. 2007 http://www.talk2action.org/printpage/2007/3/5/105015/2167

( Note by Stan Moody: In reading through the article, what jumps off the page is that Hagee simple does not believe that God can do anything without him... There are four doctrinal tenets of the Christian faith: 1. The authority of Scripture 2. The sovereignty of God 3. The Lordship of Christ 4. The presence of the Kingdom of God Hagee denies the authority of Scripture by failing to believe what it intends to teach...Instead, he selects verses that support preconceived dogma and misses the significance of the New Covenant... Hagee denies the sovereignty of God, as evidenced in statements that insist that we must get the Mid-East ready for the so-called Rapture...Furthermore, he congratulates himself for accepting Christ and condemns others for rejecting Christ, totally ignoring the pivotal role of the Holy Spirit in the equation... Hagee sees Christ as impotent and away - sitting down on the job (at the right hand of the Father, who is a Spirit)...Apparently, nothing can happen until the leadership of the Christian Right makes it happen... The Kingdom of God, for Hagee, is away and totally future...He is going to force it to earth... What we have, then, is a person who ostensibly has accepted Christ as Savior and now views the Godhead as asleep until we jump start Armageddon... When this kind of foolishness was contained within the ghetto we call church, it was somewhat amusing...With the merger of McChurch with the Republican Party, however, it has the potential not only of chaos but the destruction of America and its ideals... The bottom line is that, although Jesus died for Hagee's sin, His words on the Kingdom, in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Olivet Discourse, are meaningless....)

John Hagee, deemed one of the 20 most influential evangelical leaders in America, is an increasingly powerful, fast rising star on the Christian right who has built his career on aggressive support for the Israeli hard political right. In early 2006, Texas pastor John Hagee founded the new, ostensibly "pro-Israel" national lobbying group "Christians United For Israel". But John Hagee's writings, in his latest book, might lead some to doubt Mr. Hagee's love for Jews.

In "Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude To war" Hagee has stated that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by rebelling against God and that the Holocaust was God's way of forcing Jews to move to Israel where, Hagee predicts according to his interpretation of Biblical scripture, they will be mostly killed in the apocalyptic Mideast conflict Hagee's new lobbying group seems to be working to provoke and which John Hagee believes to be a necessary precondition for the "Rapture" that will lift Christians, but not Jews, bodily into Heaven to enjoy physical immortality amidst paradise.

Over the past year, frequent and generally favorable media coverage of a new US national political lobbying group, "Christians United For Israel", and its outspoken founder Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee has helped cement Hagee's brand recognition as a steadfast friend to Israel and has cast a favorable light on his new CUFI lobbying group that is designed to flex the political muscles of tens of millions of American evangelicals, ostensibly on Israel's behalf.

In a January 2007 conference call with Jewish bloggers, John Hagee explained that he and his fellow CUFI members were working to "organize every congressional district where every church in that district that is an evangelical church can be known to us so that if at a point in time someone in Congress or the US Senate proves to be hostile to Israel that we can lend our strength to retire them from public office."

Since CUFI's founding in early 2006, John Hagee has been barnstorming the American Jewish community through feel-good events entitled "A Night To Honor Israel" which have helped win the confidence of American Jews and swelled the roles of volunteers pledged to travel to Washington DC for CUFI organized lobbying events. In apparent recognition of the new lobbying group's growing electoral power, The White House has granted CUFI considerable access and and top GOP leaders such as John McCain and House GOP Minority Whip Roy Blunt have met personally with Pastor John Hagee in recent weeks.

Few media reports, however, have paid attention to jarring contradictions between CUFI's public face and public statements and writings of its founder John Hagee and CUFI's top executive members.

Text from the Christians United For Israel website home page depicts the goals of the organization: CUFI seeks peace and a strong Israel, is committed to Israel's defense, and "blesses" Jews:

"The Bible commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), to speak out for Zion's sake (Isaiah 62:1) to be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6) and to bless the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3). These and so many other verses of the Bible have one overriding message - as Christians we have a Biblical obligation to defend Israel and the Jewish people in their time of need."

But On July 19, 2006, at a CUFI's Washington DC inaugural event, with GOP Party head Ken Mehlman and US GOP Senators Sam Brownback, Rick Santorum, Kay Bailey-Hutchinson and John Cornyn in attendance ( President George W. Bush sent recorded greetings to the event ) , Pastor John Hagee declared :

"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 [the] Second Coming of Christ."

Hagee subsequently wrote, in a Charisma Magazine editorial entitled "The Coming Holy War", that the preemptive attack he advocates should be carried out with nuclear weapons.

In short, Hagee's new lobby -far from promoting any sort of peace- appears to be devoted to promoting war and conflict in the Middle East. Hagee called the 2006 summer Israeli bombing and invasion of Southern Lebannon a "miracle of God" and Hagee, along with CUFI's executive board members, have repeatedly publicly vilified Islam and Muslims.

Similarly, Hagee speaks of the need to "bless" Jews but has written that Jews suffer under a historic, divine curse which is their own fault.

In his 2006 book "Jerusalem Countdown" that has sold over 1.1 million copies so far, Pastor John Hagee writes that Jews themselves are responsible for antisemitism, for their own persecution, and for the Holocaust itself :

"It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God's chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day....

How utterly repulsive, insulting, and heartbreaking to God for His chosen people to credit idols with bringing blessings He had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come.... it rises from the judgment of God uppon his rebellious chosen people." ( "Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude To War", paperback edition, pages 92 and 93 )

The Holocaust also was part divine mechanism, suggests Hagee in his book, God's way of forcing Jews to move to Israel, where most of them, Hagee thinks, will soon be killed in the apocalyptic war his lobbying group seems to be formed in part to encourage but where Hagee seems to feel they properly belong, as a necessary, magical human precondition that must be in place before the Rapture, that will grant Christians physical immortality in Heaven:

The Prophet Jeremiah... paints a vivid picture of the human agents God intended to use to bring the Jewish people back to Israel:

'But now I will send for many fisherman', declares the Lord', 'and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.'

I believe this indicates the positive comes before the negative.....

First, God sent the fisherman to Israel. These were the Zionists, men like Theodore Herzl who called for the Jews of Europe and the World to come to Palestine and establish the Jewish state. The Jews were encouraged to escape while there was still time....

[Then] God sent the hunters. The hunter is one who pursues his target with force and fear. No one could see the horror of the Holocaust coming, but the force and fear of Hitler's Nazis drive the Jewish people back to the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have-Israel.... I am stricken with awe and wonder at his boundless love for Israel and the Jewish people...( "Jerusalem Countdown", paperback edition, pages 132 and 133 )

In "Jerusalem Countdown" one can find echoes of many of the themes that been at the core of historical antisemitism. IN the book, Hagee repeatedly states that Jews are "spiritually blind" - echoing the age-old charge that Jews are materialistic - and in an a September 18, 2006 WHYY "Fresh Air" interview with Terry Gross, Hagee seemed to blame Jews for the death of Jesus:

Zechariah says in the 14th chapter `and when they, the Jewish people, see him whom they have pierced' -and the word pierced there actually refers to his rib and side-`when they see him whom they have pierced, they will weep as one weeps for his only son for a period of one week.

In a July 26, 2006 interview with the San Antonio Times, Hagee has described liberal Jews who do not agree with his political views as "poisoned" :

" I think if I could put a dividing line, the Orthodox and Conservatives who have a Torah appreciation give us wholehearted support. The rest who are not driven by the Word of God have a liberal agenda.

And the liberal agenda is they are pro-abortion. They're pro-homosexual. They're pro-gay marriage -- they want men to marry men and women to marry women -- and their difference with me is not really what I'm doing with Israel. Their hostility to me is poisoned by their liberalism."

In fact, the wellbeing of Jews themselves appears not to be the centerpiece of John Hagee's foreign policy objectives. Rather, Hagee seems intent on a catastrophic war that will trigger "The Rapture" :

Russia with Arab allies will plot and plan Israel's destruction. That's happening right now. It has been happening for 10 years. Iran's nuclear weapons have been produced with Russian scientists. The Islamic Arabs are using the Roadmap to Peace to get all of the land of Israel they can get. And when Israel finally says, `Enough!' you're going to see the beginning of the implementation of Ezekial's war in 38:39. The critical point is the church is raptured before this war begins. I am telling you that makes this message one of the most thrilling prophetic messages you've ever heard in your life. You could get raptured out of this building before I get through finished preaching. We are that close to the coming of the Son of Man. - Pastor John Hagee, from a September 18, 2006 interview in WHYY's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross

What John Hagee leaves out of his "thrilling" apocalyptic narrative, is that he believes, subsequent to the "Rapture", that most Jews in Israel, who by definition are not a part of the ones who will get "raptured" to Heaven, will die in the apocalyptic conflict Hagee and his fellow apocalyptic Christian zionists yearn for. IN "Jerusalem Countdown", Hagee does not specify what percentage of world Jewry would be killed in the apocalyptic global conflict he has described as "thrilling", but he gives a general sense. In reference to passages from the Bibles Book Of Isaiah 10:22, 22, Hagee writes :

"Who is this remnant [those who will survive] ?

First, it's obvious that all of that remnant is Jewish.....

God promises that by his sovereign grace a "remnant" would be saved by the grace of God, a group of survivors who have the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus Christ." ( Jerusalem Countdown, paperback edition, pages 192 and 194 )

Many Christian Premillenial Dispensationalists -- the theological persuasion Pastor John Hagee belongs to -- believe that the majority of the Jews currently living in Israel will be killed in the period of warfare that follows the "Rapture," when "believing" Christians ( fundamentalist Christians, that is ) are bodily transported up to safety in heaven. The standard interpretation is that 2/3 or more of Israeli Jews will be slaughtered during this period but that a righteous "remnant", who have realized the error of their ways and converted to Christianity, will survive what Christian Zionists often call the "final Holocaust" or the "second Holocaust." Writings and statements made by CUFI board members Jerry Falwell and George Morrison sum up such views:

Millions of Jews will be slaughtered at this time but a remnant will escape and God will supernaturally hide them for Himself for the last three and a half years of the Tribulation, some feel in the rose-red city of Petra. I don't know how, but God will keep them because the Jews and the Chosen People of God." ( CUFI Executive Board Member Jerry Falwell, in a December 2, 1984 sermon)

As recounted by Terje Langeland, reporting for the Colorado Springs Independent in 2003, one of Pastor John Hagee's CUFI board members, George Morrison, expresses his sense of how Israeli and Israeli Jews will fare in the apocalytpic scenario Hagee and others long for:

"Morrison, whose casual, folksy manner belies his apocalyptic beliefs, already sees signs that the End is approaching. The European Union, he says, might be the alliance of nations that according to prophecy will join the Arabs to wage war against Israel during the final days.

"Great wars will begin to take place" Morrison says in a matter-of-fact voice. "Those wars are going to involve nukes."

The extent of the destruction will prompt Jesus to return in order to stop it, Morrison believes. Unfortunately, he says, many Jews will be killed.

"It's another Holocaust, if you will" Morrison says. "

When talking to many Jews and Israelis, Hagee seems stress the need to protect Israel and promises his group's unwavering support for what Hagee calls God's historic covenant with Jews to whom, Hagee believes, God gave the historical lands of Israel for perpetuity.

When talking to the Christian Zionists of CUFI, however, Hagee speaks of other matters : the need for an apocalyptic war in the Mideast that will trigger the "Rapture" of fundamentalist Christians into Heaven but also kill, Hagee believes, most Jews now living. That "necessary" war ( necessary to trigger the "Rapture": of Christians, that is ) may even lead, Hagee speculates in "Jerusalem Countdown", to massive nuclear strikes that will destroy America's East and West coasts and kill hundreds of millions and which would amount to, Hagee feels, divine punishment visited, via ICBM, on liberal Americans for insufficient support for the sort of far right, even fringe, Israeli politics Hagee promotes.

Texas Pastor John Hagee, who heads the San Antonio based 20,000 member Cornerstone Church and has founded a growing broadcast empire that projects his sermons around the world is deemed one of the 20th most influential evangelical Christian leaders in America.