For the past two years, John Hagee, the televangelist and head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), has been laying out the lesson plan for Bush's speech in the Knesset this week, in which he accused Barack Obama of appeasing terrorists like Neville Chamberlain appeased the Nazis. Since Hagee founded CUFI in early 2006, he has been beating the drums for war with Iran, and rejecting diplomacy as Chamberlain-esque appeasement.
Hagee, who endorsed Bush in 2000 with a book, God's Candidate for America, said in 2003 said that "God raised up George Bush for this time in history to crush Saddam Hussein." After he met with McCain in early 2007, Hagee declared McCain's views on Israel "on target." In other words, McCain's no weak-kneed appeaser of terrorists. If God raised up Bush, and, as Hagee has maintained, the threat from Iraq was nothing compared to the threat from Iran, then his endorsement of McCain suggests that he views the Republican nominee, once again, as God's puppet for his deranged obsession with a bloody, war-ending war.
Since the 2006 publication of his incendiary, conspiracy and fear-mongering book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee has been comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to Hitler and accusing those favoring diplomacy of appeasing him. Ahmadinejad is not just like Hitler, though, he's like Haman, and he's like Pharaoh, too, and all those biblical stories prove, in Hagee's mind, that confronting him is essential for the survival of the Jews -- nothing short of a military strike will do. His reference to "God raising up" Bush for "this time in history" is a direct reference to Queen Esther's confrontation of Haman. And when Joe Lieberman compared Hagee to Moses last year, he no doubt was validating the Pharaoh comparison. But was he imagining Hagee leading the Jews to the promised land of a boiling lake of brimstone?
Hagee claims in Jerusalem Countdown that an Israeli government insider came to him in April 2005 with "warning to the world" that the President of Iran "will prove to be the new Hitler of the Middle East." This information compelled him, he says, to write the book and launch CUFI. His standard talking point since CUFI's launch has been "It's 1938, and Iran is Germany, and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler of the Middle East."
In the summer of 2006, when war raged between Israel and Hezbollah, and McCain took to the airwaves to suggest we had entered into World War III, one of Hagee's friends in the Knesset, Benny Elon, said McCain got that idea straight from Hagee.
In his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March 2007, and again to CUFI in July that year, Hagee said:
As you know, Iran poses a threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear holocaust. I have been saying on national television, in churches and auditoriums across America it is 1938; Iran is Germany and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler... In the Bible when Pharaoh threatened the Jewish people of Egypt he became fish food in the Red Sea. When Haman threatened the Jews in Persia in modern-day Iran he and his sons hung from the gallows that he built for the Jews.
But the appeasers, Hagee goes on, don't just want to appease Iran:
Beyond that threat from Iran there's another more subtle threat that concerns me. I am concerned that in the coming months yet another attempt will be made to parcel out parts of Israel in a futile effort to appease Israel's enemies in the Middle East. I believe that misguided souls in Europe, I believe that the misguided souls in the political brothel that is now the United Nations and sadly -- and sadly even our own State Department will try once again to turn Israel into crocodile food. Winston Churchill said and I quote an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile in the futile hope that it will eat him last -- end of quote. In 1938 Czechoslovakia -- Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland land was turned into crocodile food for Nazi Germany. The Nazi beast smelled the weakness in the appeasers, ate the food and marched and devoured most of Europe and systematically slaughtered 6,000,000 Jewish people. We are again hearing calls to appease the enemies of Israel.
McCain compared himself to Churchill -- although without, as Bush did, explicitly comparing his opponents to Chamberlain -- in a creepy March 2008 ad. For Hagee, he's right on target, and there's no secret about who's in his crosshairs.
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Why does McCain hate Catholics? He's pissing off a huge bloc of voters. Most of the people at our parish are very upset about his anti-Catholic stance.
Funny, it's a rarity that you hear Atheists beating the drums for war like this. Yet, it's ok for Rev. Hagee to do this because it's his religious freedom. This guy holds the ear of the President and many people within the country all the while beating the drums for war. Religion will be the downfall of mankind.
Atheists do not believe in an afterlife. Their entirely rests in this current existence. Hence, they are probably more likely to be protective of life - rather than take it.
[ A generalization, but food for thought. ]
When any so-called Christian leader constantly beats the drums for war, he has a strange interpretation of the bible. Hagee should discover the Jesus of peace and forgiveness found in the bible. Otherwise, how is he any different from any radical Mullahs who constantly call for war and death to America? His enemy is simply different.
Hagee and his fundi lesson plan:
http://www.light-to-dark.com/t_equals.html
Militant socialism and fundamentalism are symbionts. They thrive together. McCain has already established full mind contact with these theobots and if elected would attempt a grand orchestration of jerking knees under the watchful eyes of Neo Con socialists. Again, right in our faces. Just like 1939 Germany, the people witness totalitarianism's legitimization using the facade of selected Christian virtues. It's O.K. to kill preemptively, if the American Enterprise Institute or the Likud Party encourages it, or simply if McCain lifts a finger.
Can we speed up assimilation of current events in the Bible Belt without a Fairness Doctrine?
if george bush was gods choice for pres, i think we need a new god...
Hagee and the rest of his dimwitted and demented followers remind me of a saying I once heard:
"Lord, help me to always seek the truth, but protect me from those who've found it !!"
Who is this Southern- Fried Preacher and why does anybody pay any attention to him ?
Another Elmer Gantry from the land of the benighteds.
With all due respect, elcojonu: Please take 30 minutes today and just review some of the articles and videos that are referenced in many of the comments about this article. Hagge does not belong on anyone's political platform. But John McCain seeked out his endorsement & respects this man and........... Hagge wants to war with Iran for his own religious aspirations. (bad combo I'd say) Hagge has a tremendous following and takes money from innocent people who think they are defending Israel. And in his final analysis - ANYONE who is not born again after this war of his is over will burn in the fires of hell. The Jews do not believe in Jesus. What might this tell you? But these remarks of mine are overly simplistic. Please do review the information within all of these comments. Thanks.
Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action has found a voice recording from one of Hagee's past sermons in which he claimed that the Holocaust was God's punishment of Jews who refused to join the early Zionists in Palestine and instead stayed in Europe.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/5/15/141520/281
This is one of the sickest rants I've heard yet. People should start passing word of this around so that the public will have a better idea of the sort of madmen that will be hanging around the White House during a McCain presidency.
Great site. They do very important work, exposing these maniacs.
Beyond sad, how America has regressed so far into abject stupidity. That Hagee has the ear of ANY politician is a sad commentary on the idiocy of this nation. The man simply has a monstrous vision of the world, its past, present and future. He believes in a murderous, vindictive, petty, genocidal madman. How many Americans believe in that same god?
Hagee's god would massacre the Jews to teach them a lesson. He would massacre the people of New Orleans to teach them a lesson about even THINKING about having a gay-pride parade.
Why do these people hate Jews and Americans so much? Why do they fear the Other so much that they would rejoice in the destruction of billions of human beings?
The rapture? Joy in the eternal torment and destruction of billions of human beings.
Sick sick sick.
the groundwork for GOP strategy is usually done with their talk radio monopoly and it's unprecedented capacity for coordinated uncontested repetition. just as it was with the iraq occupation and excusing that disaster so it will be with iran. rather than picketing state capitols your local talk radio stations may be more appropriate., that's where most of the chickenhawks are screaming their battle cries from.
This whole discussion about Hagee is utterly incomprehensible to every European secularist believing in reason instead of superstition.
If I report this infantile nonsense, including the serious political discussion on this board, to people around here, they think I invent this as an "America hater".
Part of the US public still is in a Kindergarten state, while others are on the highest intellectual level. (Only: The majority counts! It is a "democracy"!) These idiots sitting by the thousands in the mega churches with empty sullen faces listening to Hagee and his rotten ilk hoping for "salvation" are all American voters, alas, and the rest of the world, independent of their education level, fully depends on them. And the US leaders must also pretend to believe these incredible fairy tales in order to get elected!
These crazy sons of bitches are a danger to this country from what I am seeing. The fact that they can exercise political muscle with a presidential candidate, senators and congressmen sends a chill up my spine. The fact that Israelis and Jews have allied themselves with this band of lunatics and allow these creatures to put themselves forward as pseudo-Jews is astounding. After seeing this charlatan and his works, I am considering that sometimes pre-emption can be a worthy thing. In this case, it is not Iran that needs to be pre-empted, it is these whackos. I submit that any politician who aligns themselves with these fanatics is not worthy of the office they hold and the trust of the people. We should demand that McCain, Lieberman and the other pols who have sullied themselves by showing up at their events or expressed any kind of support for Hagee and his ilk renounce and repent or face the consequences of public ridicule and severe chastisement..
WE NEED TO KEEP THIS STORY ALIVE. PLEASE GO TO DIGG IT:
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Sarah_Posner_Hagee_s_Lesson_Plan_for_Bush_s_Appeasement_Spe
AND WHILE YOU'RE THERE, PLEASE ALSO DIGG THE HAGGE STORY & VIDEOI POSTED FROM LAST YEAR'S HUFF POST:
http://digg.com/politics/HAGGE_IS_ALSO_ANTI_JEW_WANTS_TO_WAR_WITH_IRAN
If Americans vote McCain into office this November, they deserve nothing short of a war-ending war.
Nuff said.
The hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis didn't vote for Bush. When America goes to war, more than just Americans suffer. Do they deserve the consequences of Karl Rove's machinations, the media's complicity, and a plurality of the American electorate's ignorance?
Well, honestly - I'm glad, Saddam is gone... but how this war came about ( being lied to ) and how it has been managed ever since - is just appalling.
I agree, wholeheartedly.
We aren't going to attack Iran to defend the Israelis. If we do it, we will be
doing it over oil & to appease the Saudi Royals as much as the Likudists.
A military strike against Iran would create dire consequences for the US.
"Great Whore" and now "political brothel", does this guy have a sexual problem? Everything described in sexual tones. Even referring to God "raising up" President Bush.
Just wondering!
Don't they all? I just heard a turkey-necked fundamentalist preacher from a mega-church in the South got busted by the FBI in a sting operation where he had been communicating over the internets with what he thought was a 15 year old girl and when he arrived ("extra-large" condoms and video camera at the ready) he was arrested. "Lord, save me from your most devoted followers"!
It's important to point out that Hagee and the Christian Zionists, with their End of Times mandate intend for every Jew to be converted to Christianity or be murdered.
Since Jews don't believe in Jesus, they're exploiting the Evangelicals for financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel until the end of time.
Jewish and Christians Zionists are bed fellows in war.
yes and notice how difficult any resolution in Israel is, now that the Iraq situation has deteriorated like Humpty Dumpty. Previously, (2000) the possibilities of peace were close to the surface but now if you were to propose a perfectly acceptable plan for Israeli/Palestinian peace you would have to ask yourself: How good is this plan if we have a violent revolution next door in Iraq drawing hadjis from far and wide?
What a mess, huh? And look at the money flowing, in the trillions, with Hagee McCain Bush and Clinton all taking their creamy cuts off the top while this country deteriorates to third world status.
Well said! There was an interesting (but frightening) article in "The Nation" a while back about the World Bank. It detailed how they wait for a natural disaster or a calamity such as war or disease, then come in and offer money on the condition that the 3rd world country privatize its natural resources so neocons can come in and buy them for pennies. It was no accident that Wolfowitz was named to head that bunch of crooks.
Another great read:
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" - John Perkins-
In this shocking memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins tells of his own inner journey from willing servant of empire to impassioned advocate for the rights of oppressed people. Covertly recruited by the United States National Security Agency and on the payroll of an international consulting firm, he traveled the world"to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other strategically important countries. His job was to implement policies that promoted the interests of the U.S. corporatocracy (a coalition of government, banks, and corporations) while professing to alleviate poverty"policies that alienated many nations and ultimately led to September 11 and growing anti-Americanism. Within a few weeks of its release , Confessions of an Economic Hit Man landed onThe New York Times Bestseller List, then 19 other bestseller lists including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. The author has been interviewed repeatedly on national radio and television shows, including Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, CSPAN's Book TV, and PBS' Now with David Brancaccio. And now the book is being published in 9 languages around the world. According to John Perkins, "It is accomplishing an important objective in inspiring people to think and talk and to know that we can change the world."
"[A] gr
The book: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein.
Oh my God, how right you are. I'm so glad people know about these BUSHWHACKERS and liars. At one point, I thought we would NEVER wake up to the real deal. When more people realize who's behind the curtains pulling all the strings, they they'll be able to see the real reasons how the players (Hagee, McCain, Bush, Clinton, Cheney, etc.) play the game. The whole GOP (damn near) is involved in this falsefication.
Not just Jews. If I'm not mistaken - it includes all religions whose followers are not "born again".
I simply cannot believe how long this story has flown under the radar. I thank you Sarah for this gift.
I wish the Obama campaign would jump on this. I realize that "guilt by association" is something they don't believe in at all. But as far as I'm concerned, this would be in the best interest of our country if Hagge (and others) were called out on their real agendas. They don't belong on anyone's political platform.
JUDGMENT and FOREIGN POLICY????? Can you even imagine what they would do to Barack Obama if he seeked out an endorsement like this. It would be spinning in the media like the Wright tapes.
PLEASE KEEP THIS STORY ALIVE!!!!!! Digg it please and also view and digg
this: It came out in May, 2006 at Huff. Post. Fascinating video with back/up story.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/rapture-ready-the-unauth_b_57826.html
Ms Posner please do something on JINSA. Peace
There's no doubt in my mind that Bush would attack Iran this summer if he could - but his own intelligence community has cut him off at the pass and has said that Iran is not now working on a nuclear weapon project. That leaves him with the only justification that Iran may be supporting Al Sadr - but that argument runs counter to his notion that the war in Iraq is going just fine as it is.
He just doesn't have a good excuse, except for one thing: Hillary Clinton and others, in a stunning display of poor judgement, voted to acknowledge the Iranian Quds as a terrorist organization.
If Bush attacks Iran on that basis, and he MIGHT, then we should round up every Democrat who voted for that idiotic Kyl-Lieberman bill and run them out of town on a rail.
It is not Bush who is pushing to invade Iran, it's worse - Cheney, from his super secret hiding places, through super secret whisper campaigns and spreading of fear and loathing and cooking of the books to drum up false claims about Iran's intentions and capabilities... I fear the worse, here. I fear that Cheney will succeed in his mission to create a military diversion from the collosal failures of his government in all arenas, from the free fall of the economy to the failures of Iraq to the illegal dumping of all of the Whitehouse emails, etc etc. War with Iran would be the best way to rally the sheep and get McCain elected.
Don't count that thought out completely. Bush has lost Clinton as one of his backups and he will either start war with Iran or stop this election process some way or another. He might even postpone the election and call for martial law. Be aware that it can happen.
And it's Rev. Wright who's the "crazy"---the one who actually preaches love and reconciliation???
Reverend Wright, for all his many faults, at least isn't in charge of foreign policy for the Democratic party.
Thank you Sarah for all you do.
It's 60 years of Israel and just three years ago it was 60 years since the war in the Pacific concluded. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians (nor Hagee for that
Posted May 16, 2008 | 01:36 PM (EST)