Hagee's Lesson Plan for Bush's Appeasement Speech
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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What a bunch of paranoid raving lunatics.
Anybody who buys this crap about a third rate military power like Iran and the "threat" they pose to a nuclear armed Israel is definitely either a few bricks short of a load, or a fundie, take your pick
Pedrothemigrant,
Educate yourself please - there are more than a few article and video references throughout these
comments to provide you with ONE HOUR of your time!
Here's a dossier on this fundy nutjob:
http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/John_Hagee
After reading this article, I believe that people who interprete Bush's appeasement speech as aimed at Obama are wrong. The source is definitely Hagee and Bush is in the Middle East to see if an attack on Iran is feasible. He wants the Israeli govenment to, in exchange for attacking Iran, to make peace with the "
good" Palestinians. Next he needs Saudi Arabia to agree to turn on the spigot if we attack Iran since this will surely disrupt world oil supplies. In return he can promise that this will settle the Palestine problem and weaken Shite influence in the Middle East. And of course his comments about appeasement were also meant to prepare the American people for war with Iran. He was saying that he is no appeaser like Chamberlin. I don't think he even thought of Obama when making that speech at the Knesset. Hopefully he will decide that War with Iran is not possible now. But who knows, he certainly is not timid.
What about Bush's aides who confirmed that he was talking about Obama?
Good article, but it might be helpful to point out Hagee's ultimate plan for Jews and his real reasons for supporting the state of Isreal.
OH THANK YOU!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/for-assassination-joke-hu_b_102186.html
Watch until the very end and you'll see Hagge's ulterior motives.
I have never, ever heard a reasonable explanation from any Christian, much less the insane breed Hagee represents, for a literal belief in The Second Coming and its obvious implications. Have heard a ton of dancing around the question, but never a real answer:
How is it not the ultimate in genocidal madness, and why on earth would you actually worship a god who would commit such a thing?
It really does boil down to this:
Accept Jesus or die. And not just die. Roast in hell.
Why is such a religion EVER granted even a second of respect?
The only way around THAT is NOT to believe in the literal nature of The Second Coming. To see it as metaphor. To see it as symbol. Allegory and so on.
(again, I see it as myth and legend)
Also . . . . why would anyone want to push so hard for the negative aspect of religious interpretation. As in, you will be punished in hell if you don't convert. Rather than provide all of the wonderful reasons for that conversion. If it's really so great, why play the ultimate fear card? Can't draw converts on the merits of the thing itself? Try to scare the hell out of everyone . . . .
Hmmm. That sounds like the Right Wing in a nutshell.
But Jews do not accept Jesus as the son of God. But yet Hagee and his breed support Jews?
Other than Christians, Muslims are the only who actually believe in the miraculous birth of Jesus and his coming as part of their faith. The just do not believe he is God or the Son of God.
Hopefully there are enough wise Jews who know that Hagee's ulterior motive is not to save Israel, but to convert them to Christianity. And if they do not.. according to his faith, they will burn in hell.
And Joe Liebermann is obviously one of the Jewish population who buy into Hagge's crap.
His organization - if you join, visit, donate - professes to supporting Israel for the right reasons.
The ulterior motive, for which Hagge's following is not allowed to talk about, is to speed up the rapture ........ they'll be swept up to Heaven and all non-believers (and I take that to mean born-agains in his faith) burn in the fires of hell.
I ALMOST FORGOT.....
Guess who is seen in the video that I referenced (The Rapture)????
NONE OTHER THAN JOE LIEBERMANN........he's obviously too stupid to make the connection!!!!
Joe, as you all know is JEWISH! What a sucker!
The neocon Jews who support this fruitcake think that they're the smart ones, and the fundies are the suckers. Their reasoning is--let's take their money and their political and military support, and let them think their silly little fantasies about Jews being carted off to hell.
In a sense, they're right. Fantasizing about the Rapture doesn't make it true.
But I think they're underestimating the power of the contempt these people feel for the Jews. I heard Cromwell, another religious nutcase, also befriended the Jews when he first came to power, welcoming them back to England, then turned on them with a vengeance when they didn't all covert.
some very intelligent people on this site. Quite different than Fox.
You've most insightful.
There's no way around it: Hagee's interpretation of Christianity means the annihilation of the Jews. That's the end result of his literal, dominionist POV. His ideology means the annihilation of billions of human beings. His belief system has him actually WANTING to provoke the worst genocide in the history of the world. From his POV, from the POV of those who believe in the rapture, the Jews are convenient pawns to be used to gain heaven for Christianists. The Jews, however, will all be slaughtered by Hagee's god, if they don't convert, along with every single Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, freethinker, etc. etc.
No sane human being could worship a god like that. No sane human being would actually want billions of their fellow humans to be forced to convert or die AND suffer eternal torment. That hate-filled ideology has had a free pass far too long. It should be called what it is, in no uncertain terms:
A monstrous, sadistic, obscene and evil ideology of hate, exclusion, and genocide. That Hagee has the nerve to claim that all those who believe in the Koran want to kill Christians and Jews is appalling enough. Coming from someone who actually WANTS a rapture to occur . . . just makes it beyond the pale.
You've made me realize this guy should be put away. Amazing what people will do under the cloak of religion.
History is full of merciless gods. Baal/Molech immolated children as sacrifices, and that could be the true god of Bush if you believe the Bohemian Grove stuff from Alex Jones. So when you say:
"No sane human being could worship a god like that."
I just have to complain that you don't know what you are talking about. History is littered with tortured bodies of those who opposed or even simply disrespected worshipers of such gods. Think the Crusades. The Inquisition. Heck, remember the Salem Witch Trials. You can characterize it as insane, but it's a huge component of human psychological history.
You make my point for me. Notice your examples. All from the insane believers of Christian mythos. Do you not find it insane to believe that we humans should be in the business of torturing, killing or forcing other humans to convert to our bizarre religions? Do you not find it insane to believe in a god who actually condones or wants such things to be?
If a person believes literally in The Second Coming, they believe in the mother of all inquisitions. It's not strange at all that such believers actually created that inquisition on earth. The mandate comes from their own scriptures. Again, if they take them literally, if they believe in biblical works as inerrant.
It's flat out insane. It is not a refutation of that to say that millions believe in such nonsense. That is just a sign of its normalization. As in, the insanity has been normalized over time. But it IS insane.
The god of the bible orders several genocides. He gives the Jews laws that say children should be killed for talking back to their parents; people should be killed for working on Saturday; people should be killed for wearing the wrong fabrics or eating the wrong foods; women should be killed for committing adultery. The god of the bible orders Joshua, for instance, to murder every last man, woman and child in Jericho simply for refusing to believe in him.
Is that not insane?
Another thing to ponder. Monotheism is inherently imperialistic. There can be only one. It's very structure has an inherent bias against pluralism, multiculturalism, tolerance, etc. etc. Polytheism, OTOH, has a structure that allows for the incorporation and acceptance of diverse gods, new gods, difference, the Other, and history shows it was far more tolerant overall.
Exceptions, of course, abound. But for the most part, the three monotheistic religions of the Levant--especially Christianity and Islam--are responsible for more bloodshed than all other religions combined throughout history. And it's not even close.
IMO, this is not a surprise. Because, again, it's actually IN the scriptures themselves, if one isn't enlightened enough to deal with them as myth and legend . . . if one is ignorant enough to believe in them literally. The payoff, the result, is a belief in a genocidal maniac who will eventually destroy billions of human beings who choose, via free will, to NOT believe in him.
The Inquisition, the Crusades, the Witch Trials you speak of? They are simply the logical conclusion of adherence to the scriptures themselves. Believe or die. Either here on earth, or on Judgment Day. Believe or die.
Not only is this belief insane, it's perhaps the most fundamentally dangerous belief on earth.
Notice something else:
Typically, believers in polytheistic religions at one time did sacrifice humans to gain favor from the gods. But they did not, generally speaking, slaughter others for NOT believing in their gods. That was an innovation of monotheism.
Again, with some exceptions.
Polytheistic religions do not teach imperialism in that sense. They do not teach "convert or die" theologies. They do not teach "there can be only one."
Alexander, for instance, conquered nations, but didn't do so in the name of the Greek gods and goddesses. He didn't put "non-believers" to the sword. He actually welcomed new gods and goddesses.
The innovation of monotheism was to give ANOTHER rationale for humans to kill one another. As if they needed more. Merging the desire for conquest with the conquest of other belief systems has led to millions of deaths and an increase in cruelty to the nth degree. Contrary to received wisdom, the shift from polytheism to monotheism was actually a severe REGRESSION, not a progressive, enlightened change.
Progress and enlightenment come from the fight AGAINST new imperialisms of the mind and body. Fundamentalist monotheism is the mother of all imperialisms.
preachers
The entire evangelist CUFI allegiance is strange - I don't understand why Israelis and American Jews would be so gaga over these Christian preaches like Hagee who support Israel so that it can be destroyed to fulfill the evangelicals prophecy of the rapture
PLEASE PLEASE get a digg account (easy as can be) and digg this article so that it gets an incredible
amount of attention. It is finally time for everyone to understand how dangerous this man is!
"this man"? Hagee or McCan or Bush?
Sarah, I cannot thank you enough for writing this article. I have been waiting for another article about
Hagge's ulterior motive for a very long time. Anti-Catholic? (for which he recently apologized after two decades of being so to help McCain), anti gay and lesbian? Of course. Also anti-Israel. This is one scary man. He's a hate/war monger and a religious fenoatic who believes in Armegeddon and SOON! Enter McCain: I know that McCain stupidly seeked out this man's endorsement. And just what do you think Hagge thought?????? What a perfect union for both of them.
I encourage all of you to view the following video as well that as Huff Post last year. And be sure to watch until the very end when Hagge calls for war in Iran to further his religious beliefs and desires.
This man is going to make Reverend Wright look like NOTHING!
THE RAPTURE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/rapture-ready-the-unauth_b_57826.html
The entire case for Israel is made by various religious fundamentalist. For a person to believe God gave a plot of land to a Chosen people thousands of years ago and they have the right to take it back now you have to be a religous fundamentalist. The logic behind the Jewish State is beyond absurd. Why a bunch of Europeans would try and take back land in a foriegn country surrounded by states that dont want you there, while escaping persecution in the previous place. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. The European Jews came as refugees and then turned the native residents into refugees. These are not debatable facts these are the simplest reduced elements of common truth that tell the story of Israel. All that follows was caused by that which came before. The Jews moved to a hostile land thus there was conflict. The conflict created refugees thus they want to return. The Jews dont want them to return because they want to be the majority. They need to maintain the majority cause they decided to moved to a hostile area in 1948. Now we suppose to defend this maddness! No wonder Hagee's exist in this world they are quite successful with there messages.
The case for Israel was made centuries before World War II. The Jewish people were the majority population in Jerusalem at the time that the UN gave Israel its independence. My great great great great great grandfather had founded the Jewish community of Hebron in 1813. In 1929, the Palestinians slaughtered every Jewish man, woman and child there. To use history to say that one or the other were the true residents of the area, won't help. There is archealogical evidence that the Jewish people were there for thousands of years. Please read the declaration of independence to understand the true argument for Israel's existence:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Declaration+of+Establishment+of+State+of+Israel.htm
Wasn't it that the Jews invaded Arab villages first? Or was it the Zionists. According to some Rabbis, Jews and Zionists are not the same thing, they say. I don't remember the details anymore, but I do remember that the first attacks were attacks on Arab villages.
The Jews were not the majority. A a matter of fact, they were approximately 20% of the population. The delaration of Independence for the existence of Israel's existence? This I gotta see! There is room for everyone, but please don't justify what is happening to the displaced Palestinians with nonsense. I suggest one state.
Dear LBM;
FYI, in the massacre at Hebron 64 Jews were killed and 54 wounded. It was a terrible slaughter of innocent people but hardly amounts to killing every man, woman, and child.
If the Jewish community in Hebron was founded in 1813 who was there befor them? Palestinians perhaps.
Yes, the Jews have been in Israel for thousands of years. What you seem to not want to acknowledge is that they were never the only ones there. It is not for nothing that in the bible, new testament, the area of Galilee is called Galilee of the gentiles because of its large population of non-Jews. The Palestinians trace their ancestors back to the Philistines.
Hagee evil incarnate
This is a very interesting article chronicling some of the absurdities of these alliances of convenience. The historical and biblical references these these so-called holy men are utilizing to push their war faring ways are quite interesting too. For one the references show Hagee's illiteracy of history and the bible. I wish Sarah Posner would do another article exposing the problems with those references (and I would be happy to co-write the article).
- Pharoh didn't become "fish food". Part of his army did.
- Esther didn't confront Haman. The Persian king did. The king's predecessor, Cyrus, had already freed the jews from the Babylonians.
- It was not the Jews (nor Christians who were not around yet) nor any foreigners who stopped Haman. It was the Persians themselves who took care of Haman's conspiracy to commit genocide. I suspect there was a side-motive for the move but I'm still researching that.
- Hagee also fails in his analogy of Hitler & Ahmadinejad. Hitler was a powerful and popular figure in Germany, in part because he restored the German economy and their bruised egos after the devastating WWI and the economic collapse of Germany leading to the worthlessness of Deutch mark. Ahmadinejad, despite idiotic comments has no real power on foreign policy. The economy is supposed to be his domain and he has failed their country so miserably despite the quadrupling of oil prices that he's a widely unpopular character who most likely will lose the next round of the
I think Hagee's followers are going to be a little ticked and a wee bit disappointed if World War III explodes and they find they're not getting get air lifted out in The Rapture. Especially the ones in San Antonio as it has one of the largest collections of bases (i.e. targets) in the US.
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