Title: Welcome to WorkingForChange
-Caveat Lector-
http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=16028
Religious
right relishing Road Map's collapse
Bill
Berkowitz - WorkingForChange
11.21.03 - In the coming maelstrom that lies ahead, in the
coming judgment that's going to burst in cyclonic fury over this
world, and this planet, America's only hope -- listen to me, White
House, listen to me, State Department, listen to me, Pentagon,
listen to me, Mr. President -- America's only hope is not GNP, it's
not scientific achievement, it's not an education at Harvard or
Yale, but it's America holding on to that little, tiny state of
Israel and saying, "We will stand with you," because God said, "They
that bless Israel I will bless, and they that curse Israel, I will
curse." -- Rev. Jimmy Lee Swaggart, March, 1985
Fundamentalist Christians in the U.S. are looking to last month's
attack on a convoy of U.S. diplomatic and CIA vehicles in the Gaza
Strip -- which killed several U.S. citizens -- as a watershed event
that will hopefully force the Bush Administration to re-evaluate its
involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Shortly after the
October 15 attack the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a U.S.-based Christian
fundamentalist organization, introduced an e-mail "Action Alert"
with the following: "The Bush Doctrine is being challenged by
Arafat's PLO terrorist organization. If the Bush Doctrine is
defeated, then the war on terrorism is lost. If Israel loses her war
on terrorism, America will lose her war on terrorism. The future of
America hangs in the balance."
The Jerusalem Post posed three questions about a potential U.S.
response to the attack: "If Palestinian Islamic militants are now
targeting Americans in their war with Israel, how should the White
House respond to this dangerous escalation? Did Yasser Arafat know
about the attack in advance? Did he approve it, even tacitly? What
is the future of the Bush Administration's 'Road Map' since the
Palestinian side staunchly refuses to crack down on terror for fear
of triggering a civil war?"
Aluf Benn, the diplomatic correspondent for Ha'aretz, an Israeli
daily newspaper, wrote: "In the immediate aftermath of the bomb
attack... Israel is making the argument it has been trying to make
since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the U.S. and since the war in
Iraq -- that it and America are facing the same enemy. That the
enemy in Baghdad is the same as the enemy in Gaza."
This blow to the "Road Map" came on the heels of increased
suicide bombings, Israel's strike against terrorist camps in Syria,
its ongoing West Bank "security" fence project, and the Israeli's
government's debate over whether Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat should be exiles or assassinated.
In mid-September, in an effort to put a roadblock in the way of
Bush's "Road Map," several US fundamentalist Christian organizations
sent President Bush a petition urging him to "stop his involvement
in the 'land for peace' process," according to Worthy News, a daily
Christian-based news service. The petition, organized by Worthy
News, Koenig's International News, Bridges for Peace and the
International Christian Zionist Center, "presented the Biblical
foundation for supporting the nation of Israel and showed the
importance of not parceling Israel's covenant land," and serves as a
reminder of how opposed to a Palestinian state many fundamentalist
Christian groups are.
Religious right ramps up support for Israel
Describing the recent visit to the United States of Binyamin
Elon, Israel's Tourism minister and the head of Moledet, "one of the
small right-wing parties that help keep Ariel Sharon in power," New
York Magazine's Craig Horowitz writes: While the "alliance between
the Evangelicals and the Jews is not new, it has suddenly taken on a
sense of urgency and an intensity that haven't been seen before."
During his trip, Elon met with a number of fundamentalist
Christian leaders including Roberta Combs, president of the
Christian Coalition, Mike Evans,
