Ted Cruz and the most cynical, despicable political stunt of the year

theweek ^

[chessplayer]

Aggressively supporting Israel is a political winner for conservatives. But when it comes at the expense of persecuted Christians who fear for their lives...

Since the second half of the 20th century, some of my fellow Christians have been the most persecuted religious group in the world. They still are. You probably are surprised to hear this. That's because most of these persecuted Christians don't live in the West. They are, as the awful phrase has it, too foreign for the right and too Christian for the left.

In recent weeks and months, however, the West has heard about the plight of at least one set of these persecuted Christians: those in the Middle East. These communities, many of which date back to the very beginning of Christianity, are now facing outright extinction. And it's happening at the hands of ISIS, the West's Public Enemy No. 1.

A summit was held this week in Washington, D.C., in support of Middle East Christians, and Cruz was supposed to be a keynote speaker. However, right in the second paragraph of his speech, he began exalting Israel. After a while, the assembly started to boo and heckle him. Cruz said, "If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you," and left the podium.

Keep in mind that many Christians in the Middle East are ethnic Arabs who live under Israel's occupation of the West Bank, and therefore have negative feelings about Israel. Of course, there are also many Middle East Christians who are supporters of Israel (indeed, there are even Arab Christians who serve, with distinction, in the Israeli Defense Forces).

As the excellent coverage, transcript, and recording provided by The American Conservative's Jonathan Coppage shows, the audience in Washington applauded Cruz's first lines of support for Israel and the Jews. The crowd turned against him ONLY WHEN IT BECAME CLEAR that he was launching into a rah-rah pro-Israel stump speech that had NOTHING to do with what they were doing there.

Cruz tarred and attacked one of the most powerless and beleaguered minorities in the world, solely for personal political gain. He was strong against the weak.

In the end, what was most striking about Cruz's tirade was the last phrase: "If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you." Cruz was literally standing in a room with his fellow Christians. In the Bible, the idea of the fellowship of Christian believers is a very important one, and to break fellowship is to put oneself outside the community. What Cruz was saying was that agreeing to his views on Israel was more important as a badge of fellowship than believing in Jesus Christ.

[Fresh Wind]

[Kaosinla]

It’s not a tactic. Cruz stated a falsehood and was bood for it.

Once you go out of the realm of this conference, it is a tactic to muddy the water. As it stands and by virtue of the speakers, attendees, funders, alliances, and stealth jihadists, TC was correct to call them out. He received jeers for mentioning the persecuted Jews in the same light as persecuted Christians and all other faiths. It was then that the mask of this conference came off.

[txhurl]

Got any pix of Cloud-to-Cloud ZOTS? This guy did at least give it the old (Columbia) college try.

Pretty sure he jacked his screenname, not interested enough to investigate.

[wardaddy]

I’m not sure to be honest in this precise case....he was applauded at first and defended by the group leader

But if he walked into a major mosque in say New York or Beverly Hills or Dearborn...or better yet London or Riyadh or the Dome of the Rock or more importantly Obamas face on national TV

And told them they followed Satan and were a religion of hatred and violence and the subjugation of women

Then I’d be as excited as you guys are....that would be courageous

Telling a bunch of Arab Christians ...some of whom have territory issues with Israel going back 60 years they are bigots is easy

They are not a protected class

Nobody’s perfect I guess

[txhurl]

Ted didn’t go there to attack... this guy has a 200% full plate and a million other places to be.

He went there understanding the invitation, then got a sense of maybe 1/3 of the crowd that jumped him over his support of Israel, he tested them out with another statement to confirm his suspicion of a tainted audience. Once they confirmed that, he ‘turned the other cheek’ and left.

He avoided the trap that was set for him. And went on Megyn Kelly to re-state why he did what he did. And she saluted him.

[MHGinTN]

Yup, typical troll behavior to make false assertion of what you said. It is even trying to put words in my mouth. It doesn’t care if I hate Arabs or not (and I definitely do not hate Arabs), it just tries to taunt and bait. Trolls getting thick at FR of late ... election year don’tchaknow.

[Balding_Eagle]

Ah, moving goal posts.

[Arrowhead1952]

Got any pix of Cloud-to-Cloud ZOTS?

Ask and you shall receive.

[ontap]

Yea! talks in circles. probably from DU!!!

[MHGinTN]

Megyn displays discernment at times ...

[Rashputin]

Like I said, it's a long shot. The Hollywood and media crowd are going to kick in the same no matter what, true, but there's a lot of money other than from them that may not be forthcoming.

It's a case of, "every little bit helps" and the media would have made as much hay from his not going at all as they are from what happened. So, he did the best he could IMHO, and made a smart tactical.

[TigersEye]

Not really. Does his patience and logic remind you of me? ;-)

[AmericanExceptionalist]

Was Cruz afraid to speak of the plight of massacred Christians without multiple shout outs to Israel? I mean, it was off topic.

The only way it might be considered "off topic" is if one defines the "topic" so narrowly as to exclude all forms of bigotry except anti-Christian bigotry. And most of us would prefer not to be quite so narrow as that.

And I have no reason to believe that Sen. Cruz was "afraid" to speak of those massacred Christians. I believe he would, indeed, have addressed that matter, if he had not been treated so despicably. (That sort of blatant rudeness is usually the hallmark of the frustrated left--not the right...)

[wardaddy]

What's at stake here?

Teds infallibility?

The threat of Christian Arabs who still harbour a grudge over the partition?

Last I looked they aren't blowing us up nor declaring Jihad on the West since

In fact they have been rather quiet even towards Israel since the Palestinians took Lebanon in the early 80s

Is anyone who disagrees with Teds assessment of Israel an anti Semite

I don't agree with that nor am I impressed with Teds bravado in this case.....I prefer filibuster Ted

In fact I find it all stagecraft against an imaginary bogeyman

Its really rather Freeper like...lol

I think I've been clear enough

So you can now fire away with impunity cause I'd say we're done

I am not pro Ted or pro Israel enough to suit the Freeper masses

I can live with it

I heard the same from some of the same Freepers when I questioned Bush and dear Sarah too over the past 14 years

I can only envision the same clique of zero criticism will evolve here for ted too

For the record...one can never qualify enough

Ted is my choice....far and away.

I support Israel...unlike most here I used to work there and knowledge place and the people including in the 80s old Haganah folks and the various wars vets and I gave money to these folks and have for years

http://www.fidf.org/page.aspx?pid=309

But I'm not oblivious to the nuance and complexity of it all

[wardaddy]

Nice summation...you did actually read the articles

But I dare say I don’t get my affirmations of right or wrong from Megyn Kelly

Or anyone on FOX for that matter....but especially not her....so chinny

I like FOX women but all except Carlson and Faulkner are politically correct conservative fembots

Yes...that’s a mouthful....Guilfoyle is OK too

[wardaddy]

OK...BTW...again to be clear

Even though I’m ambivalent about this episode I do not agree with this thread title

Freepers just die to ascribe....

[Fightin Whitey]

Who toll you??

Another of your so-called friends??

You’ve got them watching me again don’t you!

[chessplayer]

You can speak on generalities and lofty platitudes all that you want, but we are talking about this conference and it’s true meaning. It served neither as a defense of Christianity nor about anything to do with Christian values. It was a hive of Hezbollah and sympathizers of various muslim extremists. They used Christianity as a cover story in hopes to mainstream radicalism...similarly to CAIR/Hamas and etc.

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Good grief. Can’t people take off their tinfoil hats and stop with the “middle eastern Christians aren’t ‘real’ Christians” conspiracies crap? We don’t hold a candle to muslims when it comes to spouting nutso conspiracies.

[TigersEye]

The tiger's eye is everywhere! ;^)

Boo hahaha

[chessplayer]

His detractors were anti Semites!!!

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So anyone who criticizes or questions Israel about anything are anti-Semitic. Israel is absolutely infallible about everything. Where have I heard that line of reasoning before? Hmmm,,,ok, got it! obama defenders do it. He is infallible and anyone who criticizes him is a racist.