16.11.06

Paradise Now or Apocalypse Now ? American Christian Zionism, Israel and the current state of the ME

To some people it may look as a fantasy but the commitment of what is now known as Christian Zionism to a total hegemony of Israel over large territories in the ME, extending from the river of Egypt to the river of Euphrates and including modern day Iraq and Lebanon (Palestinians having to find some another place to live), is real.

Money is being raised by Christian Zionists on the basis of this belief and channeled to Israel to support its present hegemony and criminal wars in the ME. This belief also entails that the realisation of this hegemony is achieved through an apocalypse, precondition for the return of the Christ and the believers' access to paradise.

Michelle Goldberg cites from one of her Salon articles:

"Put baldly, millions of evangelical Christians see forewarnings of Armageddon in the crisis in the Middle East. Followers of dispensationalism, a major strain within American evangelical Christianity, they believe that the return of Jews to Israel and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount is a precondition for the rapture, the apocalypse and the return of Christ... For them, there can be no negotiation over what they call 'Judea and Samaria' despite the fact that many Israelis, and Jews worldwide, hope Israel eventually pulls out of the territories. Randall Price, jet-setting founder of World of the Bible Ministries, says, 'In the book of Genesis, there are territorial dimensions for the land that is given to Abraham and his descendents. It's from the river of Egypt to the river of the Euphrates.' In his view, Israel's right to that land, which extends into modern-day Iraq, is absolute. As for the Palestinians, Price says, 'Ishmael has said that his descendants would live to the East of their brother. There's a much larger geographical territory alloted to them.''

This unholy alliance of the Christian right and Zionism may make Osama Bin Laden look a small player on the international terror scene. After all, didn't USrael achieve more destruction and more mayhem than OBL during the last six years ? And this is why Osama has been off the Bush administration agenda, even since the beginning, serving only as a symbol for Islamist terror, a powerful symbol nonetheless amplified by CNN and Fox news and the images of September 11th.
There is however one problem, the rising regional influence of nuclear Mullah's Iran and its allies, thanks to the ill conceived Iraq and Lebanon wars. A rational mind with no apocalyptic religious beliefs might think, at that point, that caution and diplomacy might replace the last six years political folly that has taken hold of the world and the ME. But if you were a Christian Zionist or a Zionist tout court you might think otherwise. This is a unique occasion to realise the prophecy: the hegemony of Israel in the ME, the Apocalypse and the return of the Christ ! Paradise Now !

Never before in our modern democracies the line was so blurred between politics and religion and the fate of many people's lives jeopardised by a bunch of extremist ideologists and religious fools, thanks to Bush, American christian Zionists, Israel and of course OBL.

13 comments:

Texas Bankruptcy Nerd said...

The problem of "Christian Zionism" is real, but its scope is that of a mere pawn or proxy. It is only a term of convenience for Jewish Zionism's influence on right-wing alligned churches and it is, like you said, only in America.

To clarify: certain Christian megachurch evangelists "awaited [theological] instruction" from the political teat of Jack Abramoff and other avaricious Zealots who claim[ed] to want to do the "right" thing (spiritually and -wingedly)...

In other words, like "Jews for Jesus" is merely a front for the Baptist missionary movement, "Christian Zionism" is the marionnette of Sicariist Zionist machinations!

more to come on this subject on my blog...

Texas Bankruptcy Nerd said...

I'm convinced that after 9/11, Israel capitalized on the fear that Christians would have to make an "either/or" choice on "who controls the Holy Land during The Rapture"...

The recent events in New York solidified the Christian preference of Jews.

If only they knew what went on in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon...

Naj said...

And who knows, maybe Israel capitalized on it even before! ;)

Sophia said...

Behemoth,

I don't know what to think of this. I have the impression that we are living in unreason and that powerful beliefs have replaced reason and that these beliefs are acting on us like dreams act on a sleepwalker. We have become the instrument and the accomplices of unchecked and irrational beliefs like in ancient times before men invented Philosophy, morality, critical thinking and science.

We are not able to see this state of things because either we don't want to see it or we cannot see it because we are so confident with our western way of life and our 'rational' superiority while in fact I believe we have lost our way. We want to see racism and fundamentalism in others but never when it is among us. We want to see misery and injustice in other people while in fact we have plenty of this among us. Or may be our leaders and our media are turning our eyes on these calamities in the other in order not to let us see them among us.

One idea Charles Taylor developped in his conference is that societies sometimes have a malaise they mobilise against an external cause in order to evacuate this malaise. Taylor calls it negative mobilisation, in comparison to positive mobilisation where the society engage in a discussion over its problems and tries to find solutions by quiet reformation.

My diagnosis is that the American society is going through a malaise, a grave one since 2000 and probably before and that the only way to dilute this malaise is to mobilise against others...

The problem is what to do when the negative mobilisation takes a place in a society whose government is the first military power in the world ?

Naj said...

My dear Sophia,

I need didactic help. What does invention of philosophy mean?

I am asking because I am trying to find a path between Merleau-Ponty and Damasio. So now that you mention "invention of morality and philosophy and science" I am all confused. I always thought philosophy and science were just outcomes of thinking and observing and forming trajectories of logic. So now I need to learn what invention of science and invention of philosophy mean.

Naj said...

Speaking of post-2000 American's malaise mobilizing against others.

I saw a very disturbing CBC documentary last week called The Mills of God;Viet Nam (Baryl Fox, 1965). It was disturbing because the soldiers who were interviewed were using the exact SAME expressions that the amrican soldiers are using now in Iraq.

"We are fighting the war here so our children won't have to fight it on American soil"

"We are here to defend people's freedome from communism"

" I was 16, I couldn't vote"

...
The film documented torture (in 1965) abu gharib style ...
I don't know why the CBC doesn't pull this out of its archives and show it to people (the world) who thinks America's mission is "freedom"!

Texas Bankruptcy Nerd said...

The Theory of Military Distraction or Misdirection is nothing new - it's a tactic of desperation used by the strong when their stength is waning...

I'm curious to see what happens when major other hegemonies rise up, like China -

I seem to recall one story of a reporter asking its leaders, "why did you implement those draconian restrictions on having multiple children?"

To which the Chinese leaders responded, "It was either control the population or have another war."

Then again, they have frequent mock-mobilizations of the second best military in the world toward Taiwan, the once-expected Western-invasion staging point...

Texas Bankruptcy Nerd said...

As far as others' suffering is concerned, allow me to quote from Full Metal Jacket, one of the greatest (anti-)war movies ever:

"Better you than me."

Sophia said...

Naj,

I am sorry. I didn't understand your question precisely.

Naj said...

hi Sophia,

My question is a naive one. What do you mean by invention of philosophy?

By the way, CNN has caught up with the stem cell research story too!

Sophia said...

Hi Naj,

That's a long answer to give to a 'naive' question. I would not like to lay out my philosophical ideas on this blog because it is not the purpose here but to put it briefly I believe that Ideas are inventions, like tools.

Naj said...

Of course not, Sophia. Sorry for the question. I think this is what triggered it:

"We have become the instrument and the accomplices of unchecked and irrational beliefs like in ancient times before men invented Philosophy, morality, critical thinking and science"

I just see inventions as specialized tools designed to address a specific need; and I think what is rational to us (or to our philosophy, science and morality) today, is likely to appear irrational to the humans who wil come after us in the next centuries.

Texas Bankruptcy Nerd said...

Sophia, are you by any chance a fan of Thomas Kuhn?

 
Since March 29th 2006