by Bill Weinberg, Israel e-News
John McCain’s decision to reject the endorsement of Rev. John Hagee is a glimmer of hope, though it is disturbing that he sought his support in the first place. It is more disturbing still that he continues to maintain some Beltway credibility. David Brog, director of Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI), spoke at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington June 4. (Hagee himself spoke to the 2007 AIPAC meet.) Sen. Joe Lieberman, while saying Hagee’s comments on the Holocaust were “hurtful,” also told Fox News after the controversy: “He represents a lot of people in this country, particularly Christians who care about the state of Israel.”
Not all in Israel are happy about this kind of support. Colette Avital, commenting on the Hagee affair for the daily Haaretz, wrote: “Do we still need to point out that Jesus can return only after Armageddon, and to this end it is best if Israel continues to be at war?”
But most disturbing—especially in the event McCain gains the Oval Office—is how Hagee closely mirrors the leader of Iran that he and candidate McCain both profligately condemn. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to office in 2005 declaring his intention to “hasten the emergence” of the Mahdi—the Twelfth Imam, or successor to the Prophet Muhammed, who the Shi’ite faithful believe will return from a millennium of “occultation” to redeem the world. The New York Times reported May 20 that Ahmadinejad said in a nationally broadcast speech that the Mahdi “supported the day-to-day workings of his government and was helping him in the face of international pressure.” He has even established a “well-financed foundation” to prepare his nation for the imam’s return.
When Ahmadinejad came under criticism from some clerics for too closely mingling religion and politics, he defended himself at a news conference: “To deny the help of the imam is very bad It is very bad to say that the imam will not emerge for another few hundred years; who are you to say that?”
Hagee’s book Jerusalem Countdown similarly calls for speeding along worldly events to prepare for the End Times—and (now notoriously) says the Holocaust was God’s retribution on the Jews for rebelling against Him, as well as His way of driving them to re-establish the state of Israel, a prerequisite for Armageddon.
Hagee has also got his own “well-funded foundation” to prepare for Christ’s return, CUFI. Its website warns: “There is a new Hitler in the Middle East—President Ahmadinejad of Iran.”
We can only be encouraged by any falling-out between Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs—even if it is a case of real zealots and ideologues breaking with what they see as cynical political exploitation of the apocalyptic faith.
But there needs to be a clear-cut break between Washington power and apocalyptic evangelicalism in the United States. A US-Iran confrontation fueled on both sides by eschatologic