Tuesday, November 21, 2023

DESTROYING THE FOUNDATION?

    While it hasn't been too difficult to understand Conservatism Incorporated's support for the Israeli Regime, the near-fanatical devotion to Israel among rank-and-file Conservatives---especially Christian Conservatives---is a little harder to grasp. There seems to be some kind of mass-denial, like an emotional ego-investment in the general belief among them that the Zionists are the world's model of a Jeffersonian self-governing union of freemen with a traditionalist backbone of faith, family, and love of Liberty. The reality of what Israel is: a secular, atheistic, Left-Wing, neo-Fascist police state built largely upon illegal immigration and funding from Organized Crime and Globalist Corporate Cartels, is something that Christian Conservatives can't be convinced of, regardless of the evidence. 

   Reading through the comments on Social Media and political sites when the Palestinian Civil War erupted; it was revealing to see how many Conservatives were completely flabbergasted to learn that Israel has some of the world's strictest gun control laws, advertises some of the world's holiest places as Gay Hot-Spots, has the most liberal Abortion laws in the Middle East, and is the only regional country with legal marijuana. In addition to these social issues, the Israeli Government has a policy of assassinating journalists, widespread control over the Internet and information, a barely-functioning Judiciary with no rights to Due Process, a dismal record on Privacy Rights, religious discrimination against both Christians and Moslems. Property Rights are practically non-existent since the Government and NGOs control 93% of Israeli land. As a specimen of the kind of 'wokeness' promoted in Israeli schools---which is mandatory from age 3-19 and highly segregated---can be seen here


     In short, Israel is the model state of the Great Reset: promoting unlimited hedonism and degeneracy among the general public while maintaining a Corporate Police State which promotes brutality, total control, and suppression of fundamental human rights. 

    Given America's history as a country which, as a small alliance of colonies, revolted against and won its independence from an authoritarian Superpower; one would logically think that traditionalist Christian Conservatives would be in sympathy with the Palestinians who are fighting for their independence against an arrogant Neoliberal State which seeks their extermination if they can't secure their enslavement. The question is: why?

   Part of it is, of course, the saturation of pro-Israel propaganda in the American Media, including---and especially---the so-called 'Conservative Press.' The Israeli Police State recently threw the Internet 'kill switch' on Gaza; and as mentioned above, kills or detains journalists who might report news adverse to Israeli interests. Instead of speaking out against these atrocities against their brother journalists---as men with any dignity or character would do---these poltroons dutifully repeat whatever AI-generated horror-images and prepared scripts that their masters in Tel Aviv order them to disseminate. 

   Part of it, too, appears to be generational. I've noticed a distinct tendency among older Christian Conservatives that gives one the impression that they've checked out of following Foreign Policy developments sometime between the Vietnam War and Glasnost. When they hear 'Israel' they reflexively think 'Strategic Cold War ally' just like their reflexes automatically turn to WW2 when they think of Britain, the USSR when they think of Russia, Chairman Mao when they think of China, the Hostage Crisis when Iran is mentioned, etc. 

  Yet neither of these things fully explain the conundrum. Christian Conservatives above anyone else should know better than to trust the American Media; and not everyone in this demographic is a 70-year old Boomer with romantic ideals of the Holy Land. 

  I believe that the answer lies within a religious doctrine which came to prominence among American Protestants in the mid-20th Century referred to variously as Dispensationalism, Restorationism, or Christian Zionism. In the 21st Century, the movement has seen another offshoot, Christian Nationalism, which emerged from the Alt-Right. This view was never mainstream in Christianity but it gained a huge popular following both among Christians and secular audiences because of its sensationalist and simplistic apocalyptic messages, as seen in the 1970s with the massive bestselling book The Late Great Planet Earth and later with the Left Behind series. Basically, it is a Pop-Culture phenomenon which has ramifications in real-world situations.

   The supposed correlation between the Israeli State and Biblical Prophecy has led many to go so far as to equate opposition to Israel with anti-Semitism: a notion that was thoroughly debunked over 20 years ago. Yet it is still fomented by Israeli money flooding into these 'Christian' organizations: as with everything else in postmodern America, even Christians need to follow the money when a message just doesn't smell right. A good evaluation of the cozy relationship between the blasphemies of Christian Zionist leaders and the Israeli Regime was published in an article in the Middle East during the 2nd Bush Administration. Bush was a devoted believer in Christian Zionism.

    It's doubtful that any of this evidence will disillusion many of these hardcore true believers. When one has committed as an article of Faith that a secular nation is somehow tied to a Divine Plan foretold in Prophecy, a lot of emotional and intellectual investment would be shattered by the realization that the nation they idolize has been a force for evil, and not for good all along. 

   The position of these people illustrates the danger inherent in mixing politics with religion, which our Founders warned us not to do. The danger of a State-sponsored religion was only part of their concern; they also feared popular movements that idolized a political theory under a religious cloak. This is the error that Christian Zionists and Christian Nationalists have fallen into. Worship of the State is idolatry, individuals answer to God, not nations as a whole. To hold the State as a divine institution naturally leads one to support policies that are repugnant to one's conscience. How else can one justify Israeli inhumanity unless they believe that the Regime is on a divine mission of some kind? The fact that it operates in clear violation of all moral precepts proves that Zionism is a cult and a heresy within Judaism itself. 



   

    


4 comments:

  1. Oh yes, good post. Well said.

    I especially like what you said here, "some kind of mass-denial, like an emotional ego-investment in the general belief among them that the Zionists are the world's model of a Jeffersonian self-governing union of freemen with a traditionalist backbone of faith, family, and love of Liberty."

    And also this part, "its sensationalist and simplistic apocalyptic messages, as seen in the 1970s with the massive bestselling book The Late Great Planet Earth and later with the Left Behind series."

    Both of those things explain why there is such a need to put Israel up on a pedestal, and also why we are in a potentially scary situation. Darkly humorous, but it is actually many Jews who are uncomfortable being perceived as the Christian promised land for the end times, which is part of why you see their crackdown on missionaries. Apparently they are bit hesitant about the King of the Jews setting up His kingdom and bringing all His Christian followers into the New Jerusalem. I can't imagine why?!

    I'm chuckling, but it's a genuinely fascinating issue. I have no idea how it will all play out in real life, the way God wills it, but indeed, I do know that a good chunk of Western Christians do get almost all of our eschatology from the Left Behind series and other disaster novels and it has certainly shaped the narrative.

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    1. Remember too what a big pop-culture hit 'The DaVinci Code' and all these 'Lost Books of the Bible' that keep popping up were. It's like Hollywood and Madison Avenue are the real spiritual centers of the US. American spirituality has become a lot like our politics: drama, sensationalism, and celebrity over substance.

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  2. Not a word of condemnation of Hamas?

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    1. No. We have only the word of their enemies that they deserve condemnation. I know that you are South African: remember that the same groups calling Hamas terrorists for fighting an Apartheid State said the same about the ANC. Here in the US, the British called our Founders terrorists for fighting Imperialism. In every Civil War, there are lawless elements who take advantage of the chaos to commit crimes, which the dominant powers invariably blame on the liberators.

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