Demagogue

As most of us are aware there are wacko Christian fundy groups who are excited that things in the Middle East are deteriorating and are hoping the trend continues, for it could be a sign of the End Times; they'd be happy to help nudge things along in hope that it will send a wake up call to God that they're ready for Armageddon.

Considering that Bush himself is a conservative Evangelical Christian maybe it shouldn't be much of a surprise that folks who believe this are secretly meeting with people in the Bush Administration, nonetheless I find it deeply disturbing.

Over the past months, the White House has convened a series of off-the-record meetings about its policies in the Middle East with leaders of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a newly formed political organization that tells its members that supporting Israel's expansionist policies is "a biblical imperative." CUFI's Washington lobbyist, David Brog, told me that during the meetings, CUFI representatives pressed White House officials to adopt a more confrontational posture toward Iran, refuse aid to the Palestinians and give Israel a free hand as it ramped up its military conflict with Hezbollah.

The White House instructed Brog not to reveal the names of officials he met with, Brog said.

CUFI's advice to the Bush Administration reflects the Armageddon-based foreign-policy views of its founder, John Hagee. Hagee is a fire-and-brimstone preacher from San Antonio who commands the nearly 18,000-member Cornerstone Church and hosts a major TV ministry where he explains to millions of viewers how the end times will unfold. He is also the author of numerous bestselling pulp-prophecy books, like his recent Jerusalem Countdown, in which he cites various unnamed Israeli intelligence sources to claim that Iran is producing nuclear "suitcase bombs." The only way to defeat the Iranian evildoers, he says, is a full-scale military assault.
...
Hagee recently united America's largest Christian Zionist congregations and some of the movement's most prominent figures--including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer and Rod Parsley, an Ohio preacher instrumental in launching Republican Ken Blackwell's gubernatorial campaign--under the banner of CUFI, creating the first and only nationwide evangelical political organization dedicated to supporting Israel. Hagee says he would like to see CUFI become "the Christian version of AIPAC," referring to the vaunted pro-Israel group rated second only to the National Rifle Association as the most effective lobby in Washington.

Awesome. All the fundies are working together, although I think they probably have pretty different results in mind.

That is the very thing I can't get over. Why is it that any Jews, even hard-core Zionists, trust conservative Christian Zionists? It's not as if folks like Hagee, Falwell, etc. hide their prayers for Armageddon or their belief that Jews must be in Israel to get the ball rolling.