1) Non-Jews, no matter how sincerely friendly, will not save Israel. HaShem will save Israel. It is true that the sooner the Jews themselves return to the fullness of Torah and do their jobs the better it will be for everyone, but even in the worst case scenario, if this never happens, Mashiach will still come and Israel (and the world) rescued, though the delay will cause much suffering. I also call to your attention that since the Exodus the Jews have had to contend with the `Eirev Rav (the great mixed multitude) which went up with them and instituted most of the disobedience and resulting tragedies that occurred during the wanderings in the wilderness. Apparently Israel's final battle will not be with the accursed nation of `Amaleq but with this `Eirev Rav which still exists and which which strives to pull Benei Yisra'el away from their Heavenly Father.
2) With regard to the Passion flap, please understand that the reason so many Evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestant chr*stians were in love with that picture was that they thought it portrayed the "vicarious damnation" of their savior which relieved them of all law, ceremony, and even participation in their own salvation (after all, if J*sus has assumed one's position in Hell, where else is there to go but Heaven?). At the time of the controversy I urged Mr. Gibson's Fundamentalist fans to ask him why, if he understood the sufferings of Chr*st so well, he (as a Catholic) still felt the need to spend a lifetime of praying, confessions, doing good deeds, avoiding sins, and participation in the Church's ceremonial, after which he may still be damned (the traditional Catholic doctrine is not only that one is never "eternally saved" in this life but that one never knows absolutely whether or not one is in the "state of grace"). While I criticized the hypocritical Jewish attacks on the film, I still wonder if it was not made in part to pull Fundamentalists away from the Jews and draw them towards the Catholic Church.
3) With regard to "the h word" (by which I assume you mean the one I used above), please be aware that a local Fundamentalist university once invited devout Catholic Tommy Lasorda to speak at a sports banquet and his language (though tame by the standards of today's mainstream culture) was considered by them to be extremely coarse and inappropriate.
Just some thoughts!
Charlotte the Shiksa says--"Well, now I can't talk about it because you said 'Holocaust'"--too many times the Shoah is used as a rhetorical trump card in discussion. Charlotte eventually converted--he dumped her, but she was not a "fair weather Jew" and continued her observance, only to find herself constantly fixed up with the sons of the nice ladies at her synagogue. Cute story line.
That's what I meant by the "H" word.