No Jewish state in 'Eretz Yisra'el can ever be a mere "Hebrew-speaking Portugal" or just another democratic nation. It has metaphysical ramifications that no other land or nation on earth has. Mr. Robertson recognizes this. Do you?
I'm sick of FReepers demonizing Pat Robertson because he doesn't "realize" that the Jews are no different from any other people and have no special status with G-d.
I agree 100% with everything you just said.
No, I was serious. Like the blow dried TV preacher/fundraiser/diamond merchant, this Islamonazi also tells his brain-dead followers that he knows what's in God's mind and that God routinely punishes millions of innocent people with both natural and man-made calamities.
No, I don't recognize this. Israel is a people, not a spot on the map. The new Israel of the New Covenant are the people of God, of all nations. Do I believe the Jewish people have a right to the "promised land" of the Old Testament? Absolutely, I do. Do I support the Israeli state? Absolutely, I do. Does the fate of salvation depend on Jerusalem or Tel Aviv? No, I don't believe so. If Tel Aviv were nuked, would it mean that God reneged on His covenant in any way? No, I don't believe it would. Jesus Christ lamented the coming destruction of Jerusalem (of that era), He didn't stop it. It didn't change God's covenant and it didn't alter the course of God's plan for Israel. So, with all due respect, I see a vast difference between a Jewish "state" and a Jewish "people". If the Jewish "state" were all-critical, then the Jews would not have survived those centuries outside of Israel. The Jewish people are still God's chosen, wherever they may be and He will not forget His promise to them. That promise is fulfilled (not abolished) in the New Covenant. The New Israel, the New Jerusalem, is a spiritual Israel, a spiritual Jerusalem. Dispensationalists and millenialists believe that Christ will literally reign from a physical throne in Jerusalem, that the Temple MUST be rebuilt as a mandatory part of a sequence of events leading to Christ's return.
This is why Pat Robertson made such an outlandish statement that God is punishing Ariel Sharon for giving away Israeli land. Robertson agrees with your belief that there is a metaphysical ramification to the geographical region known as Israel. It's no more metaphysical than any land in which God in the person of Jesus Christ is worshipped in the Eucharist. God, Himself, gave away Israeli land when He allowed the Romans to conquer and destroy Jerusalem. Did God somehow contradict Himself in doing so? Impossible!
Supporters of the Jewish people recgonize their place in salvation history, which will be in the fold of Christianity when Christ returns. You may or may not agree with that, and that's your prerogative, but don't mistake Pat Robertson's concern for Israel the state as concern for Israel the nation. I'm not calling him anti-Semite by any stretch, but his motivation is based on the belief that without Israel the state, God's plan is void. Assigning God's punishment to Ariel Sharon makes the Father nothing more than a glorified hitman and sullies the meaning of the New Covenant.