Lieberman and his Christian Pals are Absolutely Nuts
By Mona
Joe Lieberman is the Senator from Israel, and it just is that simple, as many Jewish bloggers such as Glenn Greenwald state implicitly or explicitly. Today, Greenwald posted one of his best ever; Lieberman and the Xian nutbars he travels with are at least as crazy as the Beltway and MSM want to effectively depict Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul as being. Lieberman & Co. are crazier actually, by many magnitudes, than virtually anyone else in Congress, whatever few outré notions Kucinich and Paul arguably may hold. That Conventional Wisdom fails to acknowledge — or even see this — is a heavy indictment of our punditocracy. Excerpt from Greenwald’s post (brief ad click through):
(2) Could we at least all agree that it is long past time to dispense with the outrageous taboo which prohibits a discussion of the allegiance to Israel among right-wing neocon warmongers like Joe Lieberman and the influence that it has in their advocacy of endless wars against Israel’s enemies such as Iran and Syria? Given that the likes of Joe Lieberman have formed common cause with the likes of John Hagee, and they all explicitly say that God demands that the U.S. defend Israel and wage war against its enemies, isn’t it rather impossible to pretend any longer that no such relationship exist.
The post is long, but that is of necessity to document the End Times, “Rapture is coming” lunacy Lieberman endorses to cheering throngs of American, right-wing, totally fringe (or ought to so be seen) religionists, waving Israeli flags.
Comment by mds —
July 26, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
Christ*, Lieberman is even Orthodox. He’s totally damned to Hell in this crowd’s worldview. Once upon a time, Orthodox Jews were rightly suspicious of Jews for Jesus, let alone the rabid Christian Right. I can almost see the point of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which a rabbi set up to sponge money off evangelicals to support poor Israelis. But this… Lieberman is aware that an “unstoppable” massive military attack on Israel supposedly kicks off the End Times, right? (It’s thwarted by God-magic.) Or what happens to virtually all the world’s Jews at the end of the “Left Behind” series? Yet making common cause with fundamentalist Christian wet dreams of another Holocaust is “supporting Israel.” What a topsy-turvy world.
Oh, and I would totally support Ron Paul replacing Lieberman as my Senator. I’d even take Kucinich, at this point. Or Pat Paulsen.
*Yes, I chose this particular blasphemous expletive deliberately.
Comment by Doug T —
July 26, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
Of course, each side is using the other, and laughing up their sleeve about it. Lieberman doesn’t care about Hagee’s wacky end time ideas because he thinks they’re just crazy superstition. But he’s happy to tap into that craziness and encourage it since it allows him to forward his aims of using the US military to fight Israel’s enemies.
On the flip side, Hagee et al are happy to see Lieberman fomenting wider war in the Middle East, since they view this as the necessary precursor to the upcoming rapture. Even if he’s going to end up lonely once they’re all whisked off the heaven and he’s not.
Comment by Nell —
July 26, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
Way, way too many Jewish Americans who were taken aback by AIPAC having Hagee as a keynote speaker at their annual convention this spring comforted themselves with the thought that, well, “We’re just using those Christian Zionists, so what’s the harm?”
The thought never seems to occur that the using and manipulation might be the other way around.
It’s definitely a two-way relationship between rightist entities at this point: CZers supply half of the U.S. tourist income to Israel, and build support for rightist “pro-Israel” policies where it would otherwise be lacking, in the rural and suburban south. That’s why Robertson was so quickly forgiven after his offensive remarks of a few years ago, and his theme park is being built in the Galilee, despite the outcry.
The lack of consequences for that incident sent a clear signal to the rest of the CZ right. And it was reinforced by Shmuel Rosner, Ha’aretz’s Washington correspondent, who let fly with this bit of excluded-middle sophistry in commenting on the death of Jerry Falwell, the original Christian Zionist:
So it all comes down to the question of practicality vs. perfection, necessity vs. desire. Do you take any support one is willing to give you, or do you pick and choose only those among your supporters with whom you agree on every little detail.
I can only hope that a majority of Jewish Americans will be unwilling to accept fascists as “friends” with no questions asked, and begin to abandon AIPAC and the top-down, sold-out communal organizations to build institutions that genuinely and democratically reflect the community’s interests. And to question why it is that Israel has come to the point of needing such “friends” to begin with…
Comment by Nell —
July 26, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
Meant to link to Rosner’s column, which should be read in its entirety — especially by Jewish Americans who are currently supporting any of the institutions that embrace the Christian right.
Comment by kid bitzer —
July 26, 2007 @ 7:45 pm
Senator from Israel–eh.
It’s actually worse than that. Far worse.
The thing is–Lieberman’s views are to the right of most of Israel’s own population.
You see, in Israel, you’re allowed to have lots of different opinions about Israeli policy. You can even disagree with Likud.
Lieberman? He’s the Senator from one wing-nut corner of Israel. It’s an insult to Israel to say he represents the rest of it.
Comment by Cala —
July 26, 2007 @ 8:38 pm
Good lord, everyone advocating this nonsense should try reading their own holy book for themselves because y’know, if the Rapture comes, they gonna have bigger problems than Palestine.
Comment by Karen —
July 26, 2007 @ 10:03 pm
I soooo wish the Jews who think they’re using the CZ’s would rent Cabaret one weekend and pay special attention to the aristo who tells Michael York “We’re going to use the Nazis to get rid of the Communists . . . ” That worked really well, right?
As for the CZ’s themselves, I grew up around Pentacostals. This movement is one slightly gentrified subset of what is otherwise a pretty completely underclass culture. The slightly gentrified types harbor a cankerous resentment of that part of the population they perceive as having an undeserved social advantage. They particularly hate anyone who moved up the social ladder by getting an education. I think this is because they recognize that education is one thing they could have gotten but didn’t. This envy isn’t economic at all; they only hate people with better taste than they have.
If they confined themselves to preaching in brush arbors about Demon Rum no one would care, but since the 1970’s they’ve used niche marketing to get very, very wealthy and use that money to obtain pernicious influence on policy. I don’t know what to do about it, but it’s certainly a good thing that someone is paying attention.
Comment by JP —
July 27, 2007 @ 6:14 am
Xian?
Don’t you mean Xing? Like Doctor Xing of Johnny Quest fame?
He was evil. Probably a Zionist, too!
Comment by Mona —
July 27, 2007 @ 11:53 am
kid bitzer says:
Good point, and true. Greenwald has many Jewish and/or Israeli readers who make that very observation. Further, some months back I cited a poll showing that among the American population, American Jews lead all other religionists — Protestant and Catholic — in opposing the Iraq war.
Lieberman and the American Jewish neocons are Likudniks, but they have been pretty successful at enforcing a taboo that says to criticize them or Israel constitutes anti-Semitism. That taboo needs to be rejected.
Comment by Jim Henley —
July 28, 2007 @ 9:57 pm
Yeah, Lieberman is much more the Senator from Hebron than the Senator from Israel entire.