John Hubers has published this timely if provocative assessment of the latest US Veto of the Israeli Settlements on the
Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism website:
Christian Zionists have long asserted the right of Israel to take as much land as they choose for whatever reason they deem necessary. To Christian Zionists there are no "illegal" settlements as all the land currently inhabited by Israelis and Palestinians - the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights - the whole she-bang, is God's gift to the world's Jewish community, including those who live elsewhere. The map John Hagee uses goes even further, giving Israel additional right to most of Jordan, parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
And now we know that the president Christian Zionists love to hate, a man who draws nearly as much ire from the Rapture Ready crowd as Iran's Ahmadinejad, has thrown his hat into the Christian Zionist ring. How else can we interpret his decision to veto the UN resolution condemning Israel's illegal settlements? The claim that this will undermine the "fragile peace process" between Israelis and Palestinians has no credibility. What this is about is bending to the will of the Israeli right and its Christian Zionist friends, essentially endorsing Israel's expansionist claims.
To say that this president has been a disappointment to those of us who had hopes for his presidency as a force for peace in the Middle East, is an understatement. His backbone has proven to be no stronger than any of the other presidents who have withered in the face of Israeli aggressive assertiveness. Which means that what the Arabs in their more cynical moments say is essentially true - Israel is America's fifty-first state. Or maybe we need to say that America is a client state of Israel. The tail is wagging the dog.
And this is ironic since President Obama reportedly told Mahmoud Abbas
on Thursday night that 'no other American president has promoted the Palestinian issue more vigorously'.
