...Likud operatives? No, more like Israel's useful idiots. They only see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear....
Excellent essay:
Christian Zionism: The new heresy that sways America
The Political Agenda of Christian Zionism
"...7. Conclusions: The Political Implications of Christian Zionism
We have seen how
Christian Zionism as a movement has profound and deeply destructive political consequences. Christian Zionists have shown varying degrees of enthusiasm for implementing six basic theological convictions that arise from their literal and futurist reading of the Bible:
1. The belief that the Jews remain God’s chosen people leads Christian Zionists to a justification for Israel’s military occupation of Palestine.
2. As God’s chosen people, the final restoration of the Jews to Israel is therefore actively encouraged and facilitated through partnerships between Christian organisations and the Jewish Agency.
3. Eretz Israel, as delineated in scripture, belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, therefore the land must be annexed and the settlements adopted and strengthened.
4. Jerusalem is regarded as the eternal and exclusive capital of the Jews, and cannot be shared with the Palestinians. Therefore, strategically, Western governments are placed under pressure by Christian Zionists to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem and thereby recognise the fact.
5. The Third Temple has yet to be built, the priesthood consecrated and sacrifices reinstituted. As dispensational Christian Zionists, in particular, believe this is prophesied, they offer varying degrees of support to the Jewish Temple Mount organisations committed to achieving it.
6. Since Christian Zionists are convinced there will be an apocalyptic war between good and evil in the near future,
there is no prospect for lasting peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed,
to advocate Israel compromise with Islam or coexist with Palestinians is to identify with those destined to oppose God and Israel in the imminent battle of Armageddon.
Clearly, not all Christian Zionists embrace these views with the same degree of conviction or involvement. Nevertheless, it has been argued,
the overall consequences of such uncritical support for the State of Israel, especially among Evangelicals, is inherently and pathologically destructive, not least to the very Jewish people they claim to love. At the first major international and ecumenical conference to examine this issue, held in Jerusalem in April this year, under the auspices of Sabeel, over 600 delegates affirmed a declaration which included the following.
“We reject the heretical teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support … a form of racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ.
