Israeli Right Falls In Love With AntiSemetic Evangelical Pat Robertson

Occupied Jerusalem - A group of some 4000 American evangelical Christians are in Israel to underscore their support for the Jewish state and opposition to any peace settlement with the Palestinians involving territorial concessions.

The pilgrims, led by televangelist and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson, are planning to stay for ten days in Israel and occupied-Jerusalem as a gesture of identification with Israel in the face of growing international criticisms over the Israeli army's ongoing six-day rampage in the northern Gaza Strip.

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http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_8320.shtml

Gaza is one thing, but if he touches Jerusalem and he really gets serious about taking east Jerusalem and making it the capital of a Palestinian state, he'll lose virtually all Evangelical support, and they will go and form a third party," Robertson said at a Jerusalem press conference, where he was attending the Feast of the Tabernacles celebrations.

Robertson, the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, said the road map is "dead," Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is out for the destruction of Israel, and the Oslo Accords were "a bad mistake."

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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1096870639030

In two Jerusalem appearances, Robertson praised Israel as part of God's plan and criticized Arab countries, saying their hopes to include Israeli-controlled land in a Palestinian state are part of "Satan's plan."
...
"I see the rise of Islam to destroy Israel and take the land from the Jews and give east Jerusalem to (Palestinian leader) Yasser Arafat. I see that as Satan's plan to prevent the return of Jesus Christ the Lord," said Robertson, a Christian broadcaster.
http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstories_story_278180909.html

Held in the Wohl Rose Garden just outside the grounds of the Israeli Knesset, the Day of Prayer saw nearly 2,000 Christian come together in open support of the Jews and their sovereignty over a united Jerusalem.

For two hours, evangelical Christian leaders, Jewish rabbis and Israeli government officials spoke to the gathering about the importance of Christian support for Israel and led the attendees in prayers for the safety of the nation.

...

But one group of Christian visitors decided to make standing with the Jews of Gaza and their right to settle the coastal strip the highlight of their visit to Israel.

Under the leadership of International Christian Zionist Center (ICZC) director Jan Willem van der Hoeven, some 100 Christians will make their way to Gaza’s Katif Bloc Wednesday to physically join hands in solidarity with the Jews living there.

Van der Hoeven believes that Gaza – where Jews are again facing eviction from their promised land – and Jerusalem’s Temple Mount – site of Messiah’s future throne room – should be the focus of Christian support for Israel.

http://www.jnewswire.com/library/article.php?articleid=321

'occupied-Jerusalem'

LOL!!! It's not occupied any longer, it was LIBERATED in 1967!!

Netanyahu and the supporters of Israel all seem to love a guy who believes all Jews are going to hell and wants the US to be a religious state not too different from that attempted by the Taliban.

If you want to understand the Zionist opression of Palestinians its not that difficult to look at the values of the Christian Coalition a get feel for where the dehumanization of Muslims is comming from. Left-Zionists obscure what is going on by making attacks on Zionism seem like attacks on Jews in Israel but a good hard look a religious Zionism (both of the fundamentalist Christain and fundamentalist Jewish strains) reveals why outside o fthe US and Israel there is widespread agreement that Zionism is a form of racism. The really racist shit one sees in the mainstream Israeli media are pretty similar in tone to the racist stuff one sees on the 700 club; ideas that nonwhites are subhuman are hidden behind terms like "criminal", "terrorist", "wellfare queen" and now "antiSemite" but if you dig behind the surface of what both medias say you can easilly see an ideology that justifies not letting certain peopel vote, and justifying the use of force against minorities groups with a justification primarilly based on valuing one minority life much less than of of the chosen people (either Evangelical or Jewish)

'get feel for where the dehumanization of Muslims is comming from'

It could have something to do with kidnappings, rapes beheadings, ethnic cleansing and genocide...all things currently being performed by adherents to the religion of peace

Racism is taking the actions of a few individuals and using that to judge a whole group. Blaming all Muslims for what is happening in Darfur is like blaming all Slavs for what happened in Bosnia.

In South Africa one heard identical talk claiming that if Blacks stopped comitting crimes somehow that would end aparthied, its an almost identically proposterous and racist view to blame Palestinians for having been born in occupied territory (a majority of Palestinians were born after the occupation started after all). Did the "terorrist" or "communist" leanings of Mandela and the ANC justify apartheid (back in the 80s the same people who now love Israel loved apartheid; look at old tapes of the 700 club or look at Israel's policy towards S Africa during the same period). Just as fundamentalist Christians in the US (and many in Israel) laughed at the deaths of the students during the Suweto Uprising and blamed the victims for their Communist/Terrorist leanings, now these same people laugh at the deaths of aid workers in the West Bank and Gaza. During apartheid one also heard people respond with talk of Uganda and other African countries in a racist attempt to say that the struggle of one people for freedom somehow is muted by an attrocity somewhere else; now one hears people post here somehow making Darfur or Al Qaeda a justification for oppression in Palestine. Of course the situation today in Palestine is WORSE than it was in S Africa (more tanks and more home demolitions) and the self-righteousness of the Israel supporters today is even more brazen than the Young Americans For Freedom who used to show up with tires around their necks (and talk of necklacing) to demonize any speaker at a US Universtity who took a strong line against apartheid.

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Christian Zionists face a new dilemma in their longstanding support for Israel: how to support Israel's biblical right to all the land of Israel -- including the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- when the Israeli government itself is determined to give parts of it away.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won the backing of President Bush in April for his unilateral disengagement plan, which calls for the removal of all Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip by the end of next year. Four smaller West Bank settlements also would be evacuated.

Christian Zionists believe that the establishment of the state of Israel 56 years ago fulfilled ancient biblical prophecies, which say that one day the Jewish people would return to the land of Israel.

The land of Israel comprises all of Israel, the West Bank (also known as Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip.

Some Christian leaders in the U.S. have been outspoken against Sharon's disengagement plan because they believe - like many of the people who live in the Gush Katif bloc of the Gaza Strip - that the land there ultimately belongs to Israel, regardless of who is living there.

Some 7,800 Israelis live in 21 Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip among at least 1.2 million Arabs, who live in crowded refugee camps - some of the most densely populated areas of the world.

Settlers in Gush Katif say when they started their communities on the empty sand dunes decades ago, Arabs from neighboring villages greeted them warmly and the two groups lived amicably side by side until the Oslo process started 10 years ago.

Despite their biblical view of what comprises the land of Israel, the Rev. Malcolm Hedding, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), said it's not appropriate to criticize the government of Israel.

"The Christian Zionists have to sort themselves out," Hedding told CNSNews.com. "For too many, they are into radical political Zionism. It's not helpful. It verges on total arrogance [to] tell the government what to do."

The ICEJ, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, is one of the largest Christian organizations spearheading support for Israel worldwide.

This year, nearly 5,000 Christians from more than 70 nations have come to Jerusalem to celebrate the annual week-long Biblical festival of Succoth or the Feast of Tabernacles.

This year is a "defining year" for the Christian Zionists, Hedding said.

According to opinion polls, some 70 percent of Israelis believe that Israel should evacuate the Gaza Strip settlements.

Although the Christian Zionists still believe that the all the land belongs to Israel, by being dogmatic about Bible prophecy, the Christians are "polarizing" themselves against 70 percent of the Israelis, whom they came to bless, Hedding said.

The ICEJ will defend Israel's right to exist, fight for Israel's right to build the controversial security barrier, and combat anti-Semitism but will not "get involved in the issue of sovereignty," he said.

The Rev. Pat Robertson, who is in Jerusalem for the ICEJ celebration this week, raised some eyebrows when he told participants that God would not allow anyone to take the land of Israel away from the Jewish people.

"God says, 'I am going to judge you for carving out the West Bank and these other territories. It's my land, keep [your] hands off of it,'" he said. Although he was referring to the Bible, his words appeared to be a reference to Sharon's disengagement plan.

But the following day, Robertson said he had never mentioned Sharon and added that it would be presumptuous for a visitor from America to involve himself in Israeli politics.

"I'm not here to criticize [Sharon's] government or anybody else. They have to do what they feel is right. I hope the Israeli people will make the right decisions," Robertson said.

Those who could incur the "wrath of God" for dividing God's land, he added, are the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, the Russians, the French and the Germans. "I mentioned all those," he said, "but I never mentioned Ariel Sharon."

Sharon's spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said that Israel doesn't have to agree with the Christians to maintain a close friendship with them.

"Everybody can criticize. I don't need to buy their prophecies in order to buy their friendship," Gissin said. "They're not trying to convert us. They have their own belief. In a cold world...it's good to know you have friends that support you."

Gissin said that despite disagreements, the friendship of Christians around the world is judged here by their deeds: when times are tough, they keep coming.

Minister of Tourism Gideon Ezra said that he believes Christians worldwide will stand with Israel despite differences of opinion.

"It's very significant when people from the United States and from all over the world come to identify with Israel," Ezra said. "There are always people who criticize the government."

Despite the disengagement plan, which Ezra supports, he said he believes the Christians will continue to stand with Israel.

Former Tourism Minister Benny Elon, who was fired from Sharon's government for opposing the disengagement plan, said he believes Christians can remain faithful to Israel without criticizing Israel.

"[The Evangelical Christians] understand what is the meaning of the Biblical heartland and they understand the risk and the danger [of giving it up]," Elon said.

If there is no justification for Jewish people to live in places in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, like Shiloh and Beth El, which are mentioned in the Bible, then there is no justification for Jewish people to live in Israeli cities like Tel Aviv, Elon said.

"Those people understand naturally things that many Israelis are not aware [of] and that's because of the privilege of the knowledge of the Bible," he said.

Elon suggested that the best way for Christians around the world to help Israel is to lobby their government representatives to support Israel's right to all its biblical lands.

When asked if that wasn't akin to pressuring Israel, he replied, "It's complicated, but it's a challenge that we can solve. You can do it in a positive way...[by saying] 'yes, we encourage Israel by seeking peace; yes we encourage the Palestinians to abandon and to leave the terror'...and you don't have to mention uprooting of Jews in the land of Israel.""

http://www.townhall.com/news/politics/200410/FOR20041005c.shtml

OBERTSON: I've been enjoying the Feast of Tabernacles. This group is 5,000 people from all over the world that have come to tell the state of Israel "We love you."

SHARANSKY: Yes, it's always pleasant when people say that they love us, but especially these days when we are in the middle of a very difficult struggle against terror and a very difficult struggle against a new wave of anti-Semitism. There is such hypocrisy in the world, and there is such a clear double standard with us, and here, to see so many people who are coming with such a moral clarity and with a determination to fight the evil and to be with us in these days, it's very exciting and inspiring.

ROBERTSON: You've been forced -- I say you, the nation of Israel has been forced by the Quartet, the United Nations, you know, France, et cetera, to enter into peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, particularly Yasser Arafat. Those negotiations seem to have blown up. Do you have any hope that anything will be back on line in terms of this Road Map?

SHARANSKY: Well, I personally was voting against the Road Map, and I am very skeptical about this process because of one reason.

ROBERTSON: What?

SHARANSKY: I believe you can never rely on the agreements and negotiations with the dictators -- with the regimes which are not interested in improving the situation of their own people, but are only interested in your destruction.

ROBERTSON: Israel has taken out some leaders of Hamas, through various means, including going into Syria. That's not acknowledged, but there are several of them who have met an untimely end. What about Arafat? Assassination? Expulsion? What do you do with him?

SHARANSKY: Well, I think the most important thing today about Arafat is isolation. We have to isolate him from any influence on the political process in the area, and, in fact, I would say that we had some very serious success in it. Unfortunately, it was undermined by constant attempts of a number of Western leaders to bring back legitimacy to the regime of Yasser Arafat.

ROBERTSON: Israel is surrounded by a sea of dictatorial regimes -- tyrannical regimes. How are you going to free them without somehow dealing with militant Islam? Can it be done?

SHARANSKY: Well, it definitely can be done, but it cannot be done by Israel alone. I believe that it can be done, because a majority of people in all these countries under tyranny of the dictators -- whether it is in Syria, whether it is in Egypt, whether it is in Saudi Arabia, or whether it is in the Palestinian Authority -- the majority of people don't want to live in constant fear. But in order to encourage this change, all of the free world has to be very consistent in its policy towards these regimes. The fact that Israel is the only democracy in this part of the world, is not appreciated at all by many countries of the free world. When they are treating Israel with clearly a double standard, when they are trying to de-legitimize Israel, when they, in fact, undermine the right of Israel to fight against the terror, and no doubt, that weakens us greatly. The fact that America for many years believed that, for its own stability, it has to strengthen the regime in Saudi Arabia, of course helped a lot to the international terror, to use Saudi Arabia financially and ideologically. That fact that today, so many leaders in Western Europe believe that dictators in Syria can help strengthen stability, of course, are helping regimes like Syria and Iran to develop the most dangerous weapons. So we have to keep it in mind that it must be a mutual effort of all the free world.

ROBERTSON: Thank you for being with us. God bless you.

SHARANSKY: Thank you.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/041006a.asp

Prominent American Evangelical leader Pat Robertson said Monday the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
should be dismantled.

"UNRWA should be abolished. It has perpetuated intolerable situation for refugees and kept them in perpetual bondage," Robertson, who is in Israel for the Feast of the Tabernacles celebrations, said at a Jerusalem press conference.

He added that the UN agency, which is heavily funded by American taxpayers, should be "done away with."

Asked about the agency's acknowledged employment of Hamas members, Robertson said that the UN should not be consorting with terrorists.

"This is one more example that this agency is not dealing with an even hand," he said.

Robertson also warned US President George W. Bush that he would risk losing the support of evangelical Christians if he changed his position supporting Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1096870636059