Delay: US and Israel must enjoy second coming | Will Menaker | Published: Thursday July 26, 2007

After attending the College Republican convention, Nation journalist Max Blumenthal took his camera to the Christians United for Israel's annual Washington-Israel Summit in D.C. Founded by right-wing mega-church pastor John Hagee, the group has "added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby," "forging close ties with the Bush White House and members of Congress."

That evangelical support for Israel is largely based on "End Times" theology is largely irrelevant to the Israeli politicians who share the goal of expanding settlements into the West Banks and a military strike on Iran, but it is anything but irrelevant to the rank-and-file members and even one former House Majority Leader.

Blumenthal opens the video by interviewing Tom Delay, who when asked how much the "Second Coming" plays into his support for Israel, says, "obviously, it's what I live for, I hope it comes tomorrow."

Delay closed by saying, "we have to be connected to Israel to enjoy the second coming." ...
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Blumenthal then interviews a string of conference-goers who explain how when Jesus returns all of the Jews will be "saved" after realizing the divinity of Christ. He also speaks to several people who say they are looking forward to Armageddon, because it will bring about the "cleansing of the earth." ...
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Other conference attendees were quick to note that Muslims are satanic, and that the anti-Christ would most likely be a "man of peace." Much like the College Republican convention, Blumenthal is eventually kicked out after confronting Hagee with a passage from his book that blames the Jews for their own persecution.
- posted by Editor @ 1:16 PM

Jul. 19, 2007 19:16 | World Likud head seeks evangelical funding

World Likud chairman Danny Dannon is going to the United States next week to take part in an evangelical Christian fund-raising campaign to bolster his campaign for party leadership.

Dannon, who will be traveling to Texas next weekend, is facing off against Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu in next month's internal party primaries.

Dannon said that he was proud to accept contributions from evangelicals "whose ideology about the Land of Israel is equal to [his]," rather than receive funding from Israeli building contractors.

Netanyahu, who was long a star in the evangelical Christian world, has disappointed Christian Zionists as he takes a more centrist view to pander to Israeli voters, Dannon said.
- posted by Editor @ 8:55 AM

Giuliani, the Likud Candidate?

Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani announced his foreign-policy advisory team Tuesday, and it looks from the membership as if he’s bidding for the Likud vote (for which he will no doubt receive tough competition from John McCain, Fred Thompson, and, eventually perhaps, Newt Gingrich).

Heading the team is Charles Hill, a retired career foreign service officer ... A big fan of Bernard Lewis’ theories about what ails the Arab Middle East, Hill was a signer of the Sep 20, 2001, letter from Bill Kristol’s Project for the New American Century (PNAC) that urged Bush to be sure to include Saddam Hussein, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and the Yassir Arafat, as well as al Qaeda and the Taliban, in his war on terror.

Of the seven other members of Giuliani’s “Senior Foreign Policy Advisory Board,” several have also been associated with PNAC and the CPD, most spectacularly, the legendary former editor of Commentary magazine, Norman “World War IV” Podhoretz, whose most recent contribution to Western-Islamic understanding was his article, “The Case for Bombing Iran” (an eight-minute “must-see” video version of which is available on YouTube. A founding father of neo-conservatism, Podhoretz is also, of course, the father-in-law of Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams whose own work in frustrating serious peace efforts between Israel and its Arab neighbors has been second only to Dick Cheney’s. ...

Also noteworthy on the advisory board is Martin Kramer, a long-time Lewis disciple, who is also closely associated with Daniel Pipes and particularly his Campus Watch program which many in the Middle East studies field have denounced as McCarthyite. Kramer, a frequent contributor to The National Review Online, is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Shalem Center, which in turn is closely linked to former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Similarly, Peter Berkowitz, ... and director of the Israel Program on Constitutional Government,...

Rounding out the group are former Wisconsin Sen. Bob Kasten, who, along with Minnesotan Rudy Boschwitz, was among the most pro-Likud members of the Senate during his service there between 1981 and 1993; ...
- posted by Editor @ 6:32 AM