More Throwing Israel under the Bus
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, May 20, 2011
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14 comments
"We must give up Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem and return to the core of the territory that is the State of Israel prior to 1967, with minor corrections dictated by the reality created since then,”—Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, 2008 (source).
It seems to me that some folks need to get a little perspective.
(Thanks to a comment by ratufa).
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Obviously Olmert is an anti-Semite who wants to see Israel destroyed.
His ideas don’t exactly sound mainstream Israeli.
Israeli right wing = mainstream Israelis?
And yet, Olmert’s party, Kadima, won the most seats in the Knesset in 2009 elections and was almost able to form the government instead of Netanyahu. In short, this is not the fringe of Israeli politics.
According to a lot of people on the American right, this seems to be what they think.
True, but his plan to give up East Jerusalem did not seem to sit well with the population.
Dr. Taylor,
I think you fell into the brier patch again. I grew up in Michelle Bachmann land (referring to a previous post) with dispensationalists who cannot not see the schizophrenic qualities of believing that
a) “The Church” has displaced Israel as the vehicle through which the Promise of God is delivered to the world,
b) the US (or UK or ROK as there are many versions of dispensationalism ) is synonymous with “The Church” and is the vehicle through which God directs all current prophetic and judgemental actions, and
c) “The Church” (and its government in the US or…) must remain inflexibly and arbitrarily loyal to whatever secular government Israel may have at any given moment because “Israel is still God’s Chosen People and the vehicle through which prophecy is fulfilled for all time.”
The fact that those three beliefs cannot occupy the same space at the same time is simply treated as a mystery similar to the Trinity–it cannot be true and yet it is; it is a mystery.
When Olmert was in office, Evangelicals (there were a few radicals who recognized him as the agent of Satan right away, but they were in the minority) praised him as the man who had been sent by God to resolve the issue. “That was then, this is now, and by the way, what has he done for us lately?”
Sometimes I think we live in a better world than the one laid out in Kevin Phillips’ Theocracy … maybe I can dream good dreams tonight, and forget all about it.
i wanna see a birth certificate, dammit
Here’s a piece I wrote with David Perlmutter, back in 2006…
For Mideast Peace: Both Sides Must “Swallow Poison”
It was published in the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat
There’s nothing all that new in Obama’s speech. It’s just that the solutions to the problem are unpalatable politically.
@Yet: Yes, I am aware of theology in question and do think that it drives a rather remarkable amount of our foreign policy vis-a-vis Israel and the Middle East. I have this semi-delusional hope that I can maybe convince a few folks to at least think about the situation.
@John: thanks for the link, I will check it out.
Steven… put the bong down.
Which is really, really weird when you think about it.
It’s hard to get people to admit the biblical influence on their Middle East thinking, but it usually comes out as a last resort.
Why should America have this, “unbreakable” bond with the racist apartheid state of israel? What do we owe the zionist for this privilege?
America can and should not have a FAVORITE country with SPECIAL relations (billions of dollars of our hard-earned TAXES goes to the zionists) just as it CANNOT have a SPECIAL relationship with a specific American ETHNIC GROUP that is bestowed with SPECIAL RIGHTS OVER the rest of us in this country.
What is good for Americans should be good for other countries!!!!
America doesn’t even have a legal treaty with israel! If we did, it would define the zionist’s borders, but those murdering racist aparthied zionists are still in the progress of stealing MORE ARAB LANDS.
If it doesn’t work like that in America it shouldn’t work like that in our relations with other countries. Treat every country the same. It’s pure baloney to maintain a SPECIAL relation with the zionists.
Ask yourselves if it would be ok to send your sons and daughters to war to defend a bunch of ex-communists thugs from Eastern Europe, so they can continue hogging land that doesn’t belong to them?
This thinking of having a SPECIAL BOND with the zionists has to change! Look where this special bond has gotten us. We losing our rights over it. Remember it the next time you’re hassled at the airport.
What we have gotten from this special bond is 9/11 and the killing of our people and the Iraq war that designed by zionists with dual American and israeli citizenships. George Washington is turning in his grave!!!
What a shame! The war on terror is designed to keep the zionists happy spending our money while our children die for them. Now they want us to attack Iran.
Americans are not slaves to zionists!!