Christian Fundamentalism Drives American Extremism [They do suicide bombasts]

Imagine, Israelis are outraged with the anti-Semitic comments of their frequent ally, Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson.

As he and other Christian fundamentalist demagogues have done in the past, Robertson has offended Jews. He said that the brain hemorrhage of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is God’s punishment for “dividing” the land of Israel and compromising with the Palestinians.

He said the same about Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an Israeli extremist. And he continues to blast all those who urge compromise and non-violence as a basis for a Middle East peace accord.

Robertson is typical of American racists who exploit the Arab-Israeli conflict for personal gain. Their support sustains American foreign policy and conservative leaders like President Bush.

In reality, Robertson and the Christian fundamentalists are worse than the Islamic extremists that they, Bush and other American conservatives constantly attack.

Robertson is a Christian zealot. His equivalent of suicide bombing is his “suicide bombast.” I am certain that if Christian fundamentalists in America were to ever find themselves in the same situation as the Palestinians, for example, they would defend suicide bombing as a “justified” form of combat.

Israelis know that Robertson and the Christian fundamentalists are a double-edged scimitar.

I watched one Israeli spokesman on CNN hem and haw in shock when confronted with Robertson’s comments. Instead of denouncing Robertson, the spokesman diverted the issue to inflaming the hatred of Iran’s president who often spouts anti-Semitic and anti-Christian comments.

To extremist Israelis, they, too, exploit Christian fundamentalism to strengthen their own ideological goals. The dirty, ugly secret of Israel’s embrace of the Christian evangelical movement is that deep down, they know that Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists are in fact more anti-Semitic than the Iranians, and may be the most anti-Semitic people on Earth.

Christian fundamentalism is built on a latent hatred of Jews. But they are not beyond exploiting Biblical prophecy to drive their own money machines, disguised as Christian ministries. They downplay their anti-Semitism and exploit the tragedy of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Christian fundamentalists like Robertson believe Jesus cannot return to cast judgment on humanity until Israel is established and the Jewish Temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem.

But the core of the evangelical movement is the belief that all non-believers, including Muslims, moderate Christians and especially Jews will be dispatched to an eternity of hellfire on that Judgment Day.

Ironically, most moderate Christians who wince at the outrageous comments of Christian fundamentalists like Robertson and others tend to ignore these anomalies and contradictions to true Christian belief.

Moderate Christians believe that all people who believe in the One God, be they Christian, Muslims or Jews, will go to Heaven. Fundamentalist Christians, however, believe that only those who embrace their interpretation of religion will go to Heaven.

It is an uncomfortable reflection of the core beliefs of extremist Muslims, too, who believe that those who do not embrace Islam will also burn in hell. That includes all Christians, all Jews and even secular Muslims.

Christians constantly criticize this Islamic view, but their silence on the ignorance of Robertson and other Christian evangelical zealots is deafening. Their silence is the real sin, the true violation of Christian belief.

While Robertson preaches his disguised hatred in the United States, Christians who are suffering in Palestine, the Holy Land, never attract his support.

As far as Robertson is concerned, Palestinian Christians are no different from the Jews, except in terms of how they may be exploited. There is no benefit to Robertson and his Christian evangelical zealots in defending the rights of Holy Land Christians. That’s why they sacrifice them on the altar of their own selfish fundamentalist cause.

The Jews, on the other hand, offer Robertson and the other high priests of the Christian fundamentalist movement a political opportunity to feed their supporters.

Christian fundamentalists need the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in order to build their flock of blind sheep. They do not want a Middle East peace. Everything they do is designed to prevent peace, including pressuring American administrations to pursue one-sided foreign policies that aggravate rather than resolve the Middle East conflict.

Although the Christian evangelists claim to pray for Judgment Day, they are the ones who should fear it most.

Like all tyrants, demagogues and dictators, Christian fundamentalists do not practice what they preach. They don’t believe God will really come down to judge mankind.

But they do know that the fear of that Judgment Day allows them to easily control their followers and, more importantly, to fill their pockets with money and accumulate power.

Regardless of which religious book they carry, the Torah, the Bible or the Qur’an, fundamentalists of all three religions threaten the future peace.

— Ray Hanania is an award winning Palestinian American columnist and former national president of the Palestinian American Congress. A Christian, Hanania can be reached at www.hanania.com.

Perhaps you remember the Jackie "palestinian hater" Mason incident a few years ago. Jackie got him right. Haninia got a lot of publicity.

T'aint funny

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Usually the by-line of this column lists Jackie Mason as co-author. However, the events of the last week that involve Jackie and journalistic integrity (which is as much an oxymoron as "easy work" or "military intelligence") suggest that Jackie should stand on the sidelines and allow me to address the firestorm.

Virtually every major newspaper and TV news show related the saga of Jackie and Ray Hanania, a Palestinian comedian, who Jackie allegedly had bounced from appearing at Zanies, a Chicago comedy club. Watching the Today Show of August 29th, Ray Hanania, the comic, presented a simple story: He was an opening act for Jackie, and upon Jackie learning that he was a Palestinian, "fired" him, thereby denying this deserving youngster an opportunity for success in show business -- one more Palestinian a victim of the Jews. The story sounds great.

However, what really happened does not fit into Mr. Hanania's neat package and, in fact, his explanation bears little resemblance to what actually occurred.

To begin with, Mr. Hanania is not some budding comic struggling for a first break in show business. Rather, according to his own biography on his Internet site, he "...is a professional media and communications consultant, and senior executive for national public relations and public affairs company based in Chicago." As far as being denied his one chance at performing in this particular venue, the same website indicates that "He [Mr. Hanania] has performed at numerous comedy clubs including Zanies, Chicago's premier comedy club."

Mr. Hanania claims he was fired by Jackie Mason. In fact, he was not "fired" but, rather, the Club management rescheduled his engagement to another, more desirable weekend date and he was paid for a full week. Anyone familiar with bookings at comedy clubs knows that rescheduling a comic occurs all the time.

What actually happened was that Jackie approved Mr. Hanania as an opening act. He knew Mr. Hanania was a Palestinian, and that fact was known to Jackie when he hired him. It was not a case of either Mr. Hanania having a religious conversion and becoming a Palestinian between the time he was hired and "fired", or of Jackie discovering that Mr. Hanania was a Palestinian after he was hired. Mr. Hanania being a Palestinian did not enter into his being hired. As a matter of fact, in a prior week, Jackie used a Jordanian comic to "open" for him.

After Mr. Hanania was hired and Jackie was scheduled to perform, Mr. Hanania, apparently in his other capacity as a media and communications consultant, made sure that his appearance was heralded in the media and attempted to play the Arab-Jew conflict card. People began calling Zanies in reaction to the situation.

The decision was made by Zanies to move Mr. Hanania to another date (actually a better date since it involved a weekend). Zanies' action was approved by Jackie. There is no question Jackie approved Mr. Hanania being rescheduled and he did so for good reason. The situation in the Middle East is a tragic one and Jackie simply did not feel it appropriate in the midst of all the killing and mayhem to exploit the horrors to gain for Mr. Hanania fame, nor to make it any part of a comic presentation.

The publicity that Mr. Hanania sought and obtained created a further problem for Jackie. Jackie utilizes comedy clubs to try out new material in preparation for his October Broadway show. In past years and prior Broadway shows he tried out his material at small clubs and charitable organizations ---" religious groups, etc. before coming to New York. The organizations where he performed would charge admission and keep all the proceeds. Jackie would have the benefit of the input of the group to his new material.

Recently he started trying out the new material at comedy clubs. Because of the publicity Mr. Hanania caused, there would be exposure to the media of Jackie's new material before he gets to Broadway. This might have the effect of people feeling that once they heard the material, there would be no reason to buy tickets for the Broadway show, or the media may hear jokes that will never find their way to Broadway because Jackie is dissatisfied with the audience's reaction to them.

Mr. Hanania, in addition to his media skills, does not come cloaked in innocence or lack of sophistication to the Palestinian-Jewish problem. I have specifically refrained from mentioning unfavorable information we have received concerning this gentleman, since I have no way of verifying its authenticity or accuracy.

However, enough is "on the record" to reveal Mr. Hanania's proclivities. It should be noted that Mr. Hanania wants America to lift its boycotts against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In his words, his reasoning is, it is "... a plea to Americans to look past the politics and recognize the hardships being imposed on the people of Iraq."

Somebody should advise Mr. Hanania that we were at war once with this regime, and are about to go to war again, putting American treasure and blood on the line because Saddam Hussein is in a position and has a proclivity to effect extreme hardships on the people of America. He would be better served to be concerned about "the people of America, rather than the people of Iraq."

Viewers of the Today Show heard Mr. Hanania say at least four times in his presentation, he regretted things he said in the past -- as well he should. Jackie, when his turn came, pointed out that amongst things Mr. Hanania obviously regretted was, using words like "murderer" and "Nazis" in discussing the Prime Minister of Israel, and Israeli actions. Mr. Hanania, in an article that he has written, and which perhaps he now also regrets, accuses the Israelis of "institutional violence", and goes on to say, "If the Arab and Palestinians really want to get Israel's attention and force them to take the peace process seriously, then the Arabs and the Palestinians must begin serious preparations for a new war against Israel."

Mr. Hanania was also the subject of some interest by the FBI. In fact, he indicated "FBI agents interviewed my neighbors, my friends, some teachers, and a few relatives for more than 2 years. It upset me."

One could understand the person being upset if investigated by the FBI and, I suppose, his being "upset" on some level would be an understandable reaction. But he should also understand American "upset" when over 2,823 people were murdered in America having done nothing more sinister than going to work on a sunny September morning.

People who have observed Mr. Hanania's humor have found it lacking and decidedly unfunny. In fact, popular radio show host Mark Simone suggested that with all the talk of Palestinian bombers, if they really want to hear a Palestinian bomb, they should attend Mr. Hanania's performance. Perhaps Mr. Hanania should perform in the town of Ramallah. The citizens of Ramallah already have odd sensibilities concerning things that make them happy, as when they danced and sang in the streets after the September 11th murders. Perhaps they would be more appreciative of his talents than we are.

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