Posted on 09/21/2002 6:03:20 PM PDT by Stultis
Born-Again Zionists
Christian conservatives are teaming with hard-line Jewish groups to transform American policy toward Israel.
Ken Silverstein & Michael Scherer
September/October 2002
Nearly three decades after leaving his job as a marketing manager at Colgate-Palmolive, Ed McAteer, considered one of the godfathers of the modern Religious Right, still sounds like a salesman. In a well-honed patter, he tells of introducing Jerry Falwell to then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, discussing spiritual matters with Jesse Helms and John Ashcroft, and helping organize the evangelical movement that has become the most powerful grassroots component of the Republican Party. But no subject excites the 76-year-old born-again Baptist more than his unequivocal love for the Jewish people and the state of Israel, and his increasingly influential role as one of the nation's leading "Christian Zionists."
The passion of McAteer, a gregarious man with a toothy smile and thinning wisps of brushed-back hair, is evident during a prayer breakfast in May for more than 200 people at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. "I am delighted and thrilled and just pumped up to be here," McAteer tells the crowd in a Tennessee drawl, nearly bouncing behind a podium backed by brightly colored banners celebrating the biblical tribes of Israel. Before him sits the self-described inner circle of Christian Zionism: pastors, preachers, and religious activists who quietly but effectively lobby for Israel. With a born-again Christian in the White House and events in the Middle East spinning out of control, McAteer recognizes the power of those in the room to influence U.S. policy on behalf of Israel. "The best friends that Israel has are those people who believe the Bible does not contain the word of God, but that the Bible is the word of God," he announces to the faithful.
When McAteer left the business world in 1976 to help organize the Christian right, the idea of the Israeli government working hand in hand with conservative Christians would have been difficult to imagine. At that time, some evangelical groups were openly anti-Semitic and associated with the John Birch Society and other far-right groups. Today, though, Christian conservatives provide Israel -- and in particular the hard-line Likud Party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- with its most important political support in the United States. They oppose Israel ceding land to the Palestinians and are pressuring the Bush administration to close Palestinian offices in the United States. They also have close ties to GOP congressional leaders and to a group of high-ranking hawks in the Pentagon -- led by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- that some D.C. insiders call the "Kosher Nostra." "They are very vocal and have shifted the center of gravity toward Israel and against concessions," says Doug Bandow, an evangelical who serves as a senior fellow at the conservative Cato Institute. "It colors the environment in which decisions are being made." Indeed, thanks to the top-level connections and grassroots activism of evangelical Christians, U.S. policy in the Middle East has never been so closely aligned with Israel as it is under the administration of George W. Bush. As the conflict in the Mideast has heated up, even some of the Jewish state's most ardent supporters have been surprised by the president's strong pro-Israel stance.
Who was openly anti-semitic and Biblical at the same time?? What group?
And John Birch was not that crazy, and in fact, has some great stuff on their site, what groups are they trying to slander here??
What does it take to be hard-line Jewish in this context? An unwillingness to let the Arabs push them into the sea?
BINGO!
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