Christian Zionism and the Roadmap to a Palestinian State

Pakistan Times ^ | 9-30-04 | Dr. Habib Siddiqui

[SJackson]

REMEMBER all the fanfares surrounding President Bush’s roadmap to a Palestinian state? Like many earlier hypocritical initiatives, this one, too, is seemingly dead. In all likelihood, we shall read the obituary after the American election is over. Palestinians know it, and Israelis have known it for quite some time. Unlike other initiatives, however, the responsibility for nailing the coffin mostly rested with the Bush Administration.

From the very beginning I was one of those independent analysts or observers of the Middle Eastern politics who was a doubting Thomas. My nagging doubt concerning Bush’s sincerity mainly stemmed from my understanding of his ideology - Christian Zionism. I was equally troubled by the entourage that surrounding him. Not only were many of his appointees Christian Zionists, many powerful officials that were responsible for policy-making within the White House and the Pentagon were pro-Israelis hawks, the so-called neoconservatives, a.k.a. Straussian ideologues.

To understand the mind of a Christian Zionist, it is worthwhile quoting from its cheerleading historian Paul Merkley who said, “The Christian Zionist is not knocked off his perch when Israel is denounced for rough treatment of the Palestinians, or when a politician is found to have his hand in the till, or when the Mossad carries off a dirty trick, or when instances of brutality occur in her prisons, etc. The Christian Zionist does not have to rework the ethical arithmetic when bad news appears, in order to reckon whose side he is on. To the Christian Zionist, it is a requirement of faith to prefer the blessing of Israel above all passing things. Doing this, he believes, cannot, by definition, ever be incompatible with the will of God.”

So, how could one have believed in Bush’s sincerity for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict when he is required by faith to prefer Israel above all things? He announced the roadmap at a time when he needed support within the Muslim world for his Napoleonic incursions in the Middle East. Once those tasks were accomplished, he saw it more prudent to remain a faithful than antagonize his power-base.

As I have maintained through my writings on comparative religion and politics, political Zionism has betrayed Judaism as much as Christian fundamentalism has perverted Christianity. That is why, I am not surprised to find that the union of these two megalomaniacal movements have created this bizarre phenomenon called ‘Christian Zionism’ whose adherents consider it an article of faith to prefer the blessing of the Zionist state of Israel above all things, no matter what gruesome crimes its leaders may have been committing. Nor should you be when you reflect upon the fact that it was Christian Zionism that found its formal expression in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that would lay the foundation brick for the creation of the Zionist state resulting in one of the worst crimes of our time: the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of natives from their ancestral homes?

For nearly three years, the Likudnik think tanks, the so-called Zionist neocons, aided by their Christian counterparts, have been lecturing America about the wisdom behind unilateralism, hegemony and regime change. In their crazed haughtiness, they disregarded voices of reason and empathy.

Now America is slowly realizing that it is the American Zionists – Christians and Jewish – that actually prefer Israel to America. They conspired to conscript the U.S. government on behalf of a foreign power. They lied, deceived and planned to take America into a spiral war - the Iraqi invasion being the first of that long list of yet-to-take dirty wars - to apparently secure and strengthen the rogue state of Israel.

Neither peace nor democracy in the Middle East was their intent. They conned us all. In that process, they killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, destroyed Iraq, devastated its economy, looted its ancient treasures; and worse still, brought about anarchy in Iraq, with no jobs (outside Police and military – working as collaborators for the American invaders) for the local Iraqis but foreign nationals – the mercenaries and the contractors - who are willing to risk their lives; and worst of all, shamed us all through systemic, beastly crimes at Abu Ghraib – crimes that even Hitler’s army dared not to commit.

To them: world opinion does not count, only the allegiance to the Israeli state counts - a theme which reverberated again and again in this week’s (8/30/04) Republican National Convention in Manhattan, NY. America is hated today more than anytime in its 228-year old history. No individual is considered a greater threat to humanity than President Bush. What an achievement by these servants of Zionism!

Recently one of the Christian Zionists – a mid-level operative working as an analyst for the Pentagon – is investigated on an espionage charge. The FBI has evidence that Larry Franklin passed classified presidential directives on Iran to the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee - the most influential advocate group for Israel in America), which then passed it to the Israelis. Interestingly, Franklin is a religious Catholic in his late 50s, who has never hidden his unequivocal support of or preference for Israel.2 The case is puzzling in that there is already such a high degree of bilateral cooperation between the two states that Israel need not spy against America - a theme that was recently echoed by Sharon himself. I guess: Franklin took it to heart what it really means to be a Christian Zionist! Colleagues from the Near East and South Asia (NESA) desk at the Defense Department said that his sympathy for Israel was overt and public - he didn't refrain from praising Israel and he held aggressive views about several Arab governments, primarily the regimes in Iran and Iraq. He was the "go-to" person on Iran for Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and for undersecretary of defense Doug Feith.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Franklin's political opinions are similar to those of his bosses - Feith, and William Luti, the deputy undersecretary of defense responsible for NESA affairs. (It is worth noting here that Luti, a key player in planning the Iraq war, is an impassioned protégé of former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Feith, before becoming the Pentagon’s No. 3, was sometime consultant for the Likud party, Ariel Sharon’s party. His former law partner Marc Zell has served as a spokesman in Israel for the Jewish settler movement on the occupied West Bank.) Like them, Franklin supports the policy of acting to bring democracy to Arab regimes and build up pro-American allies in the Middle East. As to the office of NESA, it was not too long ago that journalist Jim Lobe wrote: “Along with Feith, all of the political appointees have in common a close identification with the views of the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.”

It is no secret that AIPAC leverages its power by an alliance with the Christian Right, which has adopted the bizarre ideology of "Christian Zionism." The latter holds that the sooner the Palestinians are ethnically cleansed, the sooner Christ will return to rule the world. Without millions of these Christian Zionist allies, AIPAC would be much less influential and effective.

Christian Zionists, as pointed out by one of its vociferous cheerleaders, are “increasingly the bedrock of Israel’s support in the United States, more solidly pro-Israel and more robustly Zionist than many in the Jewish community.” They are truly the ‘best assets’ that the Zionist state has outside Israel. That is why as soon as the so-called (now dead) “road map” for Palestine was announced its greatest opponents were Christian leaders like Gary Bauer, Richard Land, Cal Thomas and Jerry Falwell. Opposition came from President’s own advisers and party leaders (see below). This was quite evident from the statements made at the last year’s Jerusalem Summit by Sen. Brownback (one of the keynote speakers at the RNC, Aug. 31, ’04), Alan Keyes (a Republican senatorial candidate in Illinois), advisers Richard Perle and Daniel Pipes. Following Rabbi Benny Elon’s neo-fascist Moledat (Homeland) party’s ethnic cleansing formula, the participants parroted the hymn “Jordan is Palestine.” They declared that the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River (including the Occupied Territories) belonged exclusively to the Jewish people because of biblical entitlement and was, therefore, not negotiable. The Summit presenters were unanimous in their agreement that the existence of a "Palestinian" state on the west bank of the Jordan River would be suicidal for Israel They also condemned UNRWA for what they called ‘perpetuating the Arab refugee problem.’

It is worth pointing out here that in May ’03, Sharon’s Minister of Tourism Benny Elon was on a tour of the U.S. promoting his program of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as the only viable solution. Joining Elon’s plan were Martin Peretz, publisher of the New Republic, and officials of the Christian Coalition and the Christian Broadcasting Network, as well as Garry Bauer and Christian talk show host Janet Parshall. (Interestingly, Ronn Torossian, Elon’s spokesman, is also the media director of the Christian Coalition. Revs. Falwell and Robertson were Elon’s hosts.)

Emboldened by the quick U.S. military victory in Iraq, the ‘Amen corner’ (friends of Israel) within the Congress cried foul to the Palestinian ‘road map.’ The House Majority Leader Tom DeLay called it “a confluence of deluded thinking between European elites, elements within the State Department bureaucracy, and a significant segment of the American intellectual community.’ In a March 12, ‘03 speech at the Union of Jewish Congregations of America, DeLay, referring to the road map, had said: “The Israelis don’t need to change course. They don’t need to travel the path of weakness as defined by the neo-appeasers.” On July 23, 2003, he told the influential AIPAC, “The United States must stand with Israel against Palestinian terror because Israel’s fight is our fight.” During his trip to the Holy Land the next week, he told a thronged hall in the Israeli Parliament building, “Standing up for good against evil is very hard work – it costs money and blood. But we’re willing to pay.” This, in spite of the fact that on July 11 a settler ran over and killed Yazan al-Tal, a 13-year old Palestinian child, south of Nablus and another 6-year old boy Mohammad Kabha was killed near Barta al-Sharqeyah by IDF within few days. What do you expect from fanatics like him?

For Christian Zionists like DeLay the systematic destruction of Palestinian culture by radical right wing Israeli Zionists is part of God’s Master Plan for the Holy Land. They believe that the Holy Land must be cleansed of Palestinians before the second coming of Jesus (and the appearance of anti-Christ); Israelis must control the Haram al-Sharif (the so-called Temple Mount), destroy Masjid al-Aqsa, and build their Jewish temple there. They offer, therefore, an uncritical endorsement of Israeli political right and a criminal lack of compassion for the Palestinian tragedy. In so doing, they have legitimized the oppression of the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christian, in the name of Jesus.

The Support for Israel is so strong within the two Houses that few dared to appear unsympathetic to the Jewish cause. Within weeks of the official announcement for the ‘roadmap’, 315 Congressman and 88 Senators signed an open letter, asking the President to stop pressuring Israel.

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, which generally lobbies the Executive Branch while AIPAC takes care of Congress, came out against the road map, but supposedly did not want to appear to be disagreeing with the president. Yet its own chair, Mortimer Zuckerman, owner of the NY Daily News and the US News & World Report, blasted the ‘roadmap’ in an editorial in the magazine on March 17, 2003 headlining it as "The Road Map to nowhere."

Zuckerman, soon to step down from his chairmanship, was keeping up the attack. In an editorial in the June 2 edition of US News, he wrote, "Washington... having gone to war to eliminate a rogue terrorist regime, can hardly now support the creation of a new Palestinian terrorist state, with its history of contacts with terrorist networks from all over the world."

Morton Klein, the Zionist Association of America's bulldog of a chair, speaking in Berkeley in the first week of May ‘03, repeated what has become his mantra on the issue. "This road map is a disaster," he said. "It cannot and will not work. It's further appeasing terrorism." (Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, May 15, 2003)

Then there were the Jewish gurus of this administration, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, William Kristol and others along with Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (who not long ago referred to the West Bank as 'so-called occupied territories') opposed this ‘roadmap’ and presumably any reasonable alternative road map.

It was quite clear from the very beginning that Israeli government and the American Likudniks, Christian and Jewish Zionists would not allow the ‘roadmap’ to succeed. Last year, Sharon was quoted as saying, “I am here to preserve the land of Israel, not divide it…. After all, nothing will come out of this Road Map planning anyway.” And he was right. With Christian Zionists like President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and advisors like Karl Rove, it is simply foolish to expect anything that would be fair and just to the Palestinian people.

So, it was only a question of time when officially Bush would dump the roadmap. With recent Bush administration’s endorsement of Sharon’s plan for further settlement activities in the Occupied Territories seemingly the final nail on ‘road map’ coffin has been struck.●

The writer is a Pennsylvania (US)-based noted analyst. His e-mail address is saeva@aol.com

[SJackson]

Islamic Propagandist Attacks Me! [No, not me]

by Alan Caruba

September 15, 2004

I have known about Dr. Habib Siddiqui, identified in the Pakistani Times as "a Pennsylvania-based noted analyst", for some time now. His commentary about me has been circulating on a number of Middle Eastern and Asian websites and his admirers have sent me its text. He learned about me by reading my commentary, "The Decline and Fall of Islam", posted on my website for The National Anxiety Center and widely posted on other news and opinion websites.

"He helps to foment anxiety among people through negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims," says Dr. Siddiqui. I don’t think I have do anything to promote negative perceptions about Islam and, in particular, the fanatical Islamists responsible for 9-11, the slaughtering of children in Beslan, Russia, and other acts of barbarism one can read about daily in newspapers or learn about from television news. Christians and Jews do not take hostages and behead them. What I do, however, is write about the way Islam encourages the worldwide holy war that so many nations have experienced.

Indeed, I am not the only commentator and analyst with whom Dr. Siddiqui has a problem. Another is Dr. Daniel Pipes, arguably one of the best analysts of Islam and the problems of the Middle East. In a September 5, 2003 letter, Dr. Siddiqui described him with terms such as racist, spiteful, disingenuous, biased, and bigoted. Both Dr. Pipes and I support a strong American defense and a vigorous campaign, in cooperation with our allies, against Islamist terrorism.

In his commentary criticizing me, Dr. Siddiqui devoted most of it to a comparison between the Koran and the New Testament, citing the latter extensively to prove that Christianity too supports and urges violence against unbelievers, ending by saying "So much claptrap about Christian ethics!" Trying to justify the attacks on churches and synagogues by saying Christian and Jewish religious texts advocate violence while the Koran is devoted to peace and love is so ludicrous it defies comment.

Like all Islamic apologists, Dr. Siddiqui identifies America and Israel as the real enemies, citing the actions taken in defense of our nations. In a March 22, 2004 opinion editorial, Dr. Siddiqui wrote the following: "Caruba’s charge that Islam has been trying to conquer modern world is debunked by history. It is outright criminal and mendacious to the core. His analysis lacks scholarship and gives a bad name to journalism." No mention is made of Osama bin Laden’s fatwa calling for the deaths of all Americans or the long history of attacks on Americans going back to when Iranian Islamists took our diplomats hostage for 444 days in 1979, culminating in 9-11. The attacks in other nations are a mounting list of atrocities.

Dr. Siddiqui dismissed my review of these attacks as I connected the dots with other attacks. "One has to be totally out of touch with reality to make such a silly and wacky observation," said Dr. Siddiqui in his attack on "anti-Islamic hawks" in the Bush administration and "a brain-dead devotee, Alan Caruba is one such paranoid journalist."

If I am paranoid, then there is clearly no need for the new US Department of Homeland Security, nor was there any need to attack the Taliban in Afghanistan or remove the threat of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein whose record of aggression is a very long.

Nor has Dr. Siddiqui been content with attacking Dr. Pipes or me. In a June opinion editorial published in the Pakistani Times, he wrote a long piece attacking former President Ronald Reagan, a week after he was laid to rest. "How will future (sic) measure Reagan? It is highly unlikely that it will look as rosy as it has been the past week." Suffice it to say that Reagan’s policies were turned inside out as proof that he was anti-Islamic, "If America fails to learn the lessons from his failed policies, it is doomed to repeat them, something that has already become the hallmark of the current Bush administration."

The pathetic history of Muslims since their brief period of scholarship, abandoned hundreds of years ago, the way they were driven out of Europe, and the end of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, speaks volumes for why Muslims submitted to the oppression and exploitation by the monarchs and despots who have ruled the Middle East and northern Africa. Islam has engaged in conflict throughout modern India, has encouraged it in modern times throughout Africa and the Pacific Basin, inflicted it on Spain and Russia, and continues to threaten the United States of America.

One hardly needs to be paranoid or anti-Muslim to examine history or respond to the Third Great Jihad the world is experiencing today. Whether Dr. Siddiqui will continue to quote this commentator and direct attention to my views is of little concern to me. He merely gives voice to the distortions of fact common to the media that ill-serves Muslims. One can only hope that the vast bulk of Muslims regard the current conflict to be the hijacking of Islam.

There are few Muslims who have experienced democracy and freedom with the exception of modern Turkey and, ironically, those who are citizens of Israel. When they do, as in the case of an Iraq that is struggling to join the modern world, Muslims may elect to practice their faith without the bloodshed that has been the hallmark of its history since it was founded in the seventh century. That said, I will continue to maintain that a religion that is unable and unwilling to respond to change, as both Judaism and Christianity has, is doomed to fade away over the centuries to come.

Alan Caruba writes "Warning Signs", a weekly commentary posted on the website of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[2banana]

According to Dr. Habib Siddiqui, Christians should stay out of the "muslim world," even though much of the "muslim world" was Christian until conquered by islamic armies.

Also, he could give a damn about what islamic terrorist do in the name of allah, but the "beastly crimes at Abu Ghraib" are even beyond Hitler.

What a moroon...

[MissAmericanPie]

What in the world would one expect from a religion of thugs, Islam? The reason the "Road Map" failed was Islam and it's determination never to live in peace with infidels.

They are a sick people with a sick psyche who blissfully agree with beheading of infidels and captive hostages, that's not considered "rough treatment". Let a Palestinian stump his toe on his prison door and the howling never stops.

The only wonder to me is that sane people bother to listen or attempt to reason with them, it's not possible. They are a section of humanity that has turned cancerous and needs removing, starting with the main tumor, their radical clerics.

[SJackson]

And since he lives there, he'd likely include Pennsylvania as part of the Muslim world. Remember, he's a moderate.

[Alouette]

worst of all, shamed us all through systemic, beastly crimes at Abu Ghraib – crimes that even Hitler’s army dared not to commit.

Panties on head = worse than mass genocide.

How did this psycho type an article while wearing a straitjacket?

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

[sukhoi-30mki]

& this bloke belongs to a country the US govt(& a few Freepers!!) call America's most important ally in the War on terror.I can say for one thing,his line of thinking ain't out of place in Pakistan & is in fact found in the army & media.So think twice,before selling them another batch of F-16s.

[boycottliberalhollywood.com]

According to Dr. Habib Siddiqui, Christians should stay out of the "muslim world," even though much of the "muslim world" was Christian until conquered by islamic armies.

Indeed. Christians should stay out of the Muslim world, but Musilms are welcome to take our citizens hostage and fly them to their doom into our buildings. Riiiiight.

Actually, a Palestinian state is a fine idea. Get all the troublemakers together into a single geographic area. Call it a nation, call it their own. They will inevitably start some sort of war. When they do, you'll know where the bad guys are.

[Salem]

I am continually pleased that the Evangelical Christian community in America is making such a profound impact on American culture, and the world, exploiting the great opportunities we have in these times, to reduce an Islamist like this into a such a hyper-ventilating, blithering idiot.

Why, you can almost see this guy wetting his pants.

Bravo to the American Conservative community, and especially the best of the aforementioned represented in the men and women of Free Republic!





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[xJones]

I think my eyes started blurring around this point:

and worst of all, shamed us all through systemic, beastly crimes at Abu Ghraib – crimes that even Hitler’s army dared not to commit.

Habib seems to forget that even Hitler's armies didn't slowly behead prisoners while filming it.

[Nachum]

This commentator is a common representation of discourse among the majority of Muslim society. Hyperbole, exaggeration and outright lies are the norm here. It is hardly surprising to read it or hear it.

Because of our addiction to oil, we have given them money and a voice. If we ever have another source of energy that the world may employ, we can cease having an interest in what they say at all. There will be little reason to have anything to do with them and the flow of oil money that gives them power will dry up. They will run out of money and go back to living in their caves,mud huts, and tents,with little power to harm any civilized country.

[tuckrdout]

Thanks for the ping. One does wonder....

We all need to remind people that it is NOT the "West Bank"....but "Judea" that we are talking about here.

I believe if many more church going people heard the true name for the area, and realised what we are talking about, more would demand the terrorists get out!

[Nachum]

Habib seems to forget that even Hitler's armies didn't slowly behead prisoners while filming it

Many Nazi atrocities were captured on film for a permanent record, included death camp footage. The main reason we did not see much of it has more to do with the Nazi cover-up during the years prior to America's involvement in the war. It was not good propaganda to let the world know of the "final solution"- yet.

[tuckrdout]

The "Palestinians" are actually Arab terrorists. Arafat is Egyptian! They already have their own country: Jordan. They don't need and shouldn't get any land in Judea. All readers of the Bible, know this is the land God gave Abraham.

[Sam's Army]

CZ Bump

[Til I am the last man standing]

Mr. Siddiqui's writing is similar to that of the liberal left in that he chooses to ignore the Holocaust just as the left chooses to ignore 9/11/01.

[SevenofNine]

This guy is psycho patient

I don't know if he realize that back in da day most of Middle East was Christians before Muslum crusades punk that population

What a shumck

[lupie]

I LOVE your new tagline. And prayers always for your sons.

[yonif]

Like many earlier hypocritical initiatives, this one, too, is seemingly dead

It's "dead" but I have a feeling will be full speed ahead after November 3.

[Robert Drobot]

Christian Zionist......sounds good to me!!!

Let's face it...this guy's linage are rolling in their graves....I can find soome solice in the fact that there will be a Final Judgment. Rumor has it there'll be a center stage front VIP section roped off for Zionists....