Israel's rightist government appears in unison with the American Christians United for Israel (Cufi) in drawing support from scriptural arguments Tel Aviv has been using to defend its occupation policies in the Palestinian land, especially in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Cufi's statement of purpose has explicitly declared that the organisation was seeking ‘to provide a national association through which every pro-Israel church, para-church organisation, ministry or individual in America can speak and act with one voice in support of Israel in matters related to biblical issues'.
To enforce this aim, in February 2006, over 400 Christian leaders from across the US flew to San Antonio, Texas to join Pastor John Hagee ‘in determining how the Christian world should respond to the ongoing threats to Israel'. Indeed, Cufi has grown to become the largest pro-Israel organisation in the US. This organisation's support for the Zionist state, regardless of its heinous and apartheid colonial policies, is based upon fundamental interpretation of the Bible which is being marketed by John Hagee, the founder, who has been talking about cosmic catastrophes striking Earth in preparation for ‘the second coming' of Christ. They are known as ‘the end of time' happenings in which all human beings will be annihilated, except the followers of John Hagee and his colleagues who hold the same fanatic belief. ‘Supporting Israel in matters related to Biblical issues' is the foundation of such an insane belief where all believers, except those who follow pastors like John Hagee, would be annihilated during ‘the Armageddon' battle predicted to be taking place in Israel.
In this regard, one may ask: where does Israel come in relation to these ‘biblical issues' which makes it an absolute necessity for every Christian fundamentalist to lend his or her absolute support to the Zionist state?
The extremely outrageous theory of ‘the end of time' asserts that ‘the second coming' will never take place before major catastrophes befall the earth, namely Middle East territories including Israel. In other words, a devastating war in which weapons of mass destruction would be used has to take place in the Middle East in which ‘Israel would be totally annihilated', according to Hagee and his followers. These ‘religious hallucinations' represent the main ‘biblical issues' that unite all the so-called Christian fundamentalists who support the Zionist state. They see in ‘the birth of Israel' the first sign of ‘the second coming'. The subsequent ‘death of the state' of Israel would instantly usher in the actuality of ‘the second coming'.
The colonial apartheid policies of the Likud Party which is now governing Israel makes this war of annihilation in the Middle East possible. But according to Hagee, it could happen as a result of ‘the nuclear threat' of Iran and ‘the statements of the President of Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) who threatened to wipe Israel off the map'.
Voice for peace
This set of horrifying ideas advocated by Hagee and his supporters (who represent part of the hardcore base of the Republican Party in the US) does not really support the survival of the Zionist state, but it calls for its utter destruction which, they think, would bring about ‘the second coming of Christ'.
Such beliefs stand behind their opposition to any peace process that would lead to the Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories.
This fact is well known to conscientious Jews who abhor the strong alliance of Likud with the insanity of Hagee and his followers' beliefs, since Cufi is financially supported by Likud to influence US foreign policy in the Middle East by keeping it on the side of Israel.
However, many of those conscientious Jews in the US and North America have been forming organisations to advocate ‘the voice for peace' with some of their campaigns held under the notion "Israelis and Palestinians, two peoples, one future". A salient example in this regard is the Jewish Voice for Peace New Rabbinical Council which represents groups of Jews who have dedicated themselves ‘to speaking out on behalf of justice for all peoples in the Middle East'.
Indeed, the Rabbinical Council is trying hard to stop two insanities, one of Hagee and the other of an extreme Jewish group allied to him who is ‘genetically engineering the birth of a cow' which they hope will bear the exact marks mentioned in the Torah. The birth of this cow would send ‘the command' to this Jewish group to go and destroy Al Haram Al Sharif (the Temple Mount in Zionist vocabulary) in order ‘to build the Temple of Judaism in its place in Jerusalem'! Whether the American people (and the international community) would ignore such insane groups is a question that could only be answered by the peace-loving forces in our world.
Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.
