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The Christian Right's Freakshow of Prophecy Quacks

"The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Saviour." - Jerry Falwell

Goodbye Palestine (VII): Prophecy and The Crusade Against Evil, by Jim Miles:

Previously I examined the Israeli right, the Likud, the Haredim, and the Gush Emunim and their impact on Palestine, followed by the support given by the Christian Right's prophetic views. Below, the discussion continues first with a look at Jewish reluctance or outright opposition to those views before returning to the American prophecies.

American Prophecy and The Crusade Against Evil (Continued):

From the Christian point of view "while Christian dispensationalists place Israel as the most important nation in all the world, they do not respect or even like Jews – as Jews." It should occur to most Jewish people to be circumspect in any dealings with the Christian Right, as the relationship is surely a marriage of convenience in which both sides are seeking opportunities with the assistance of, but ultimately at the expense of, the other partner. That is not the spin presented in the media: that spin is the war on terror and their common enemy the 'evil' Satanists known as Islam. The Israeli right seeks a unified, strong and possibly ethnically cleansed state that will lead the world in peace and prosperity. Christianity sees the establishment of a unified Israel as one step in a much bigger picture involving the second coming and the Apocalypse. There is in the Israeli side, people who recognize this clearly – while other Israeli’s may also see it, they are not, at least not yet, ready to break the illusion of harmonious coexistence.

At that point the argument becomes point-counterpoint but not in harmony. Kay Arthur, leader of a Christian organization called Precept Ministries, which takes thousand of pilgrims to the Holy Land argues, "the Jews need conversion, they need to know the Messiah is coming." Further she states that Rabin was assassinated because Israel was "going against the word of God." In rebuttal Yossis Alfer a former Mossad employee, sees the lie in both points of view because "when you see what these people are encouraging Israel and the U.S. to do, that is, ignore the Palestinians, if not worse, if not kick them out, expand the settlements to the greatest extent possible, they are leading us into a scenario of out and out disaster."

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-Jim Miles is a Canadian educator who has regularly contributed a series of book reviews to the Palestine Chronicle (www.palestinechronicle.com) under the general rubric of the American Empire. His interest in this topic stems originally from an environmental perspective, which encompasses the militarization of the global community by the American government.

Long article - continue reading via link above.

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