Christian Zionists must be stopped

I've been off-air due to a prolonged bout of ill health but this has got my goat enough to write about it!

My mother began to be involved with a fundamentalist Christian group in Australia a couple of years ago. She mentioned at the time that quite a few of them were Zionists, but it didn't occur to me what that might mean. More recently she has been working in Jerusalem for an organisation called Bridges for Peace - they operate a food bank, and care for Jewish refugees amongst other things.

In talking about the middle east I was a little surprised to hear my mother coming out with strong anti-Palestinian views. Especially after quizzing her and realising that she had never met a Palestinian. Last week she sent me a newsletter from her organisation that contained an article which decried the two-state solution in Palestine, and expressed very negative views of the Palestinian people. Ironically she had met and liked a Kurdish man on a trip to Turkey last year.

I expressed my concern that Bridges for Peace, ostensibly an aid organisation, were involving themselves in Israeli politics and my Mother countered with some statements which I found rather alarming. Bridges for Peace position on Palestinians is this:

"There must be no talk of a Palestinian state—no money, no land, no release of terrorist prisoners as goodwill gestures, in exchange for “commitments.” - from their top news story 29-10-07.

My Mother echoes it in statements like: "they want domination and they want what they want and they will do anything to get it, even talk about peace". The Palestinians have no part to play in the future of Israel. According this this view, " In fact Palestine does not actually exist".

Hearing this kind of propaganda made me wonder, and I began to look into it. BFP are linked with an umbrella organisation for Zionist Christians called the Unity Coalition for Israel. UCI lobby the mainstream media and was the source of the anti-Palestinian article, although they carefully phrase their agenda in terms of being pro-Israel - their website makes no mention of the Palestinians. UCI apparently have links with Christian fundamentalist groups in the USA, and with the most militant right-wing Jewish Zionists in Israel. One reporter in the US, writing about the UCI said this:

"While rejected by all mainline Christian churches in the United States, Christian Zionist ideology is aggressively promoted by a small minority of fundamentalists linked to the Jewish Zionist lobby in the United States and allied to the most militant extremist elements of the Israeli political spectrum."

But why are Christian aid workers spouting anti-Palestinian propaganda, and why are Christian groups supporting right-wing Jewish groups? Why would Christians be working for Jewish domination of Palestine, and the complete subjugation of the Palestinians? The answer, apparently, lies in biblical prophesy. The old testament cedes the land of Palestine to the Jews: "Christian Zionism is confirmed throughout the Hebrew Scriptures" - from www.christian-zionism.org. Apparently however:

"Most Christian Zionists would agree that Israels reemergence on the worlds scene, in fulfillment of Gods promises to her, indicate that other biblically-predicted events will follow." - from www.christian-zionism.org

Once the Jews are in control of the Holy Land other Biblical prophecies are activated. With the removal of the Muslims from the Holy Land the Jews will be able to take down the Al-Aqsa mosque and rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. This will be the fulfilment of prophesies in the Revelations of St. John - they are trying to bring about the Apocalypse. So Jewish and Christian fundamentalists, with no apparent commonality, manage to find common cause in the elimination of the Muslims from the "Holy Land".

I can't begin to say how much I hate the notion of Christian fundamentalist manipulating the dreadful situation in Israel/Palestine, and lobbying world powers for the purposes of fulfilling a biblical prophesy from which they believe themselves to be the only benefactors. Selfish Bastards! It's the crusades all over again.

They are mental and they need to be stopped. I have passed his story onto a number of media organisations, the Israeli embassy in London, and to a couple of Pro-Palestinian groups. Hopefully bringing it to light will help to curtail any influence they may have. A pox on fundamentalists everywhere, may they fail in every ill conceived project. May the consequences of their greed and hatred find them soon.