Quote of the day

Andrew Levine discusses here the Israel lobby, America’s evangelical Zionists, Jews and the Israeli rightwingers who benefit from this profane collaboration:

Unlike classical anti-Semites, evangelical Zionists generally get along with the Jews with whom they interact, but their commitment to Israel does not stem from fondness for Jews or Judaism. It comes from a belief in a literal End Time in which those who do not accept Christ — Jews especially — will be cast into the torments of Hell for all eternity. How Christian Zionists hold this idea in their heads and still interact amicably with real world Jews I do not know; no doubt, monumental levels of self-deception and ambivalence are involved. That aside, one must wonder whether even the Nazis evinced a greater hatred?

Since 1977, when Menachem Begin became Israel’s Prime Minister, the Israeli Right has been the dominant force in Israeli politics even in the years when it was not directly in power, and it has courted Christian Zionists assiduously. Israel’s founders were secular and comparatively progressive, notwithstanding their overriding commitment to building an ethnically pure Jewish state in as much of Mandate Palestine as the world would allow. Like much of the Israeli Left today, they would have disdained Israel’s evangelical allies, in much the way, and for much the same reason, that sensible people the world over disdain those who believe that the world ended a week ago Saturday. And they would certainly never have been so base as to court those who yearn to see them rot in Hell. But the Israeli Right is shameless, and its cynicism knows no bounds.

A match made in Heaven? Only if the Gods are Crazy!

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