AIPAC Probe / AIPAC works to preserve clout in U.S.

[IndianaGreen]

Sun., March 27, 2005 - Adar2 16, 5765

AIPAC Probe / AIPAC works to preserve clout in U.S.

By Nathan Guttman

WASHINGTON - In the seven months since Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin was accused of passing classified documents to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby has been struggling in two arenas: First, to extricate itself from the investigation without any indictments being issued, and second, to preserve its political clout in Washington's corridors of power.

<snip>

Some in D.C. political circles said that AIPAC's main problem now was not the investigation in which it has become embroiled, but rather the political change going on in Israel. "AIPAC is simply lagging behind developments," said a congressional staffer close to the issue. According to the staffer, the fact that most of the AIPAC board is hawkish on the Israel-Palestinian conflict makes it difficult for the lobby to accommodate itself to Israel's new policies.

The issue of AIPAC getting used to the thawing of Israeli-Palestinian relations was put to the test last month during Congressional deliberations on a bill submitted by President George W. Bush to give $200 million in aid to the Palestinians to strengthen reforms and Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas' government. Congress approved the bill in the end, but only after adding some serious strictures.

Who was behind the failure to pass the bill in its original form? Democratic supporters of the legislation said that AIPAC tried to torpedo it and that its lobbyists were behind the restrictions placed on the aid. AIPAC presented a totally different picture, saying that it was House Majority Leader Tom DeLay who had taken a hard-line on the bill, and that AIPAC had saved the day by suggesting compromises which had allowed the bill to pass.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/557051.html

[Coastie for Truth]

1. You don't need to "Live Inside The Beltway"

to understand that "saying that it was House Majority Leader Tom DeLay who had taken a hard-line on the bill, and that AIPAC had saved the day by suggesting compromises which had allowed the bill to pass." is not totally outlandish.

DeLay represents a District outside of Houston that has a large "Rapture Right" constituency, DeLay is heavily funded by the "Rapture Right" community, and DeLay himself claims to believe into the "Rapture Right" theology.

One aspect of the "Rapture Right" theology is summarized by Bill Moyers as:

"The plot of the Rapture—the word never appears in the Bible although some fantasists insist it is the hidden code to the Book of Revelation—is rather simple, if bizarre. (The British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for refreshing my own insights.) Once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the Antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned the Messiah will return for the Rapture. True believers will be transported to heaven where, seated at the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents writhe in the misery of plagues—boils, sores, locusts, and frogs—during the several years of tribulation that follow.

-Bill Moyers, Welcome to Doomsday, New York Review of Books, March 24, 2005
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852

So, before bestowing AIPAC with some kind of powers over Tom Delay, consider Tom himself, and his sources of money and power.

[IndianaGreen]

2. DeLay's brand of Christianity is anti-Semitic

It is anti-Semitic in that it envisions a world in which there are no Jews and no Jewish Israel. Everyone will be a Christian like them. Those that refuse to convert will be slain!

Mainstream Christianity rejected such theology a long time ago!

[Coastie for Truth]

3. He is not doing it out of great love for the Jewish People

He is motivated by his - or his constituents' - or his backers' Rapturist-Apocalptic theology, which is the theology of John Nelson Darby, C.I. Scofield, Edward Irving, Henry Drummond, and the "Left Behind" readers and the like. This theology has an agenda which includes a bizzaro type of support for Israel's actions on the West Bank. I know that it does not derive from any support for the Jewish people or the Jewish religion -- only as pawns in the route to the Apocalypse and Rapture.

[IndianaGreen]

4. You are exactly correct!

DeLay represents a religious cabal that holds a twisted version of the world. In their view, G-d is at war with the universe He created, so that's why theirs is an apocalyptic message.

[Lithos]

5. Excellent

Nice synopsis. And good inclusion of the leading people involved in this relatively modern phenomenon called premillineal dispensationism. I think the only ones you missed in this phenomenon were James Brooks and William Blackstone.

(Personal Note: Doesn't hurt that my father-in-law is a retired CoC lay minister and has all of these books. And yes, we disagree strongly over religion).

A great site on this topic is:

http://www.christianzionism.org/

They also have a link to the very Bill Moyers article cited earlier.

There is also a very relevent book on the topic, Christian Zionism : Road Map to Armageddon, by Stephen Sizer. Unfortunately, I think is available only from the UK.

See:

http://www.christchurch-virginiawater.co.uk/articles/ivp.html