Few are shocked by the deprivations committed by militarists. The dehumanization necessary to wage war is an evil lie exceeded only by the defamation cast against those speaking truth to military power. Veterans are the most eloquent expositors of this fact. But facts and history have a devestating effect of the machinations on militarists and so history must be changed for the security of right-thinking citizens against the enemies within who must be demorlized and the dangers from without which must be destroyed, lest they perceive our weakness as a paper tiger disinclined to kill.
The glib lies of militarists are familiar acts employed against the forces of peace and justice, too many who gave their lives for the cause of peace. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his most important address, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, one year before his assassination:
The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours. This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words: ‘It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.’This eloquent truism spoken by Dr. King and supported by millions of Americans is on ugly display today in a macabre act performed by American and Israeli propagandists glorifying Israeli militarism and violence as America's capacity to wage continual war wanes.
The neoliberal and neocon's desperate alliance with the utterly crazed and imbecilic Christian right who eagerly await the destruction of the Jews heralding the second coming of Christ is a sick union ignored in the pages of The Atlantic, for example, and mainstream liberal American commentary.
J Street and Max Blumenthal
Consider Max Blumenthal's appearance at, and report on the inaugural "convention of the progressive-leaning Israel-oriented lobbying organization J Street."
Blumenthal takes issue with Elie Wiesel and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's refusal to attend the pro-peace J Street conference, while 'Elie Wiesel addressed a crowd of 6,000 Christian Zionists at Israel-must-die-for-Christ's-return Pastor John Hagee's 'Night To Honor Israel.'"
Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, who appeared at Hagee's Christians United for Israel summit earlier this year, rejected J Street's request to speak at their convention, instead dispatching a low-level embassy official to 'observe' the event. Oren then accused J Street of 'impair[ing] Israel's interests.'
In blessing Hagee while damning J Street, Wiesel and Oren chose an anti-Semitic group led by a far-right End Times theology preacher over a fledgling progressive organization that bills itself as 'pro-Israel, pro-peace.' And both Wiesel and Oren seem to be embroiled in yet another controversy over involvement with the extremist preacher.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain avidly sought Hagee's endorsement, appearing by the pastor's side during a widely publicized press conference to announce it. McCain was intent on winning a seal of approval from a figure of the Christian right, especially since he had lambasted Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries.
McCain may have been completely unaware of Hagee's sermon declaring the Holocaust to be a divinely ordained incident orchestrated by God to fulfill biblical prophecy; Hagee's accusation that the Jews' rejection of Jesus was the root of anti-Semitism; or his prediction that when the Antichrist returned, he would be homosexual and 'partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx.' When Hagee's anti-Semitic ravings surfaced on blogs like Talk2Action.org and eventually gained national notoriety, McCain renounced the preacher's endorsement. ...
Michael Goldfarb, a former spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign who blogs at the neoconservative Weekly Standard, called the blogger panel 'clownish.' He reported on my remarks:'Elie Wiesel Mocked At J Street Conference' In his post, Goldfarb omitted the facts I introduced about Hagee's anti-Semitism. Once again, ideology demanded forgetting history.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for the Atlantic, also called the panel "clownish," attacking me for criticizing Wiesel. 'Here's a tip,' Goldberg wrote on his blog. 'Criticizing public figures who survived the Holocaust is permissible, of course. But mocking them is disgraceful. It's also not going to win you too many Jewish friends.' Goldberg also excommunicated me as one of the 'anti-Zionists with Jewish parents.'
Why is Wiesel palling around with Hagee? Why did I 'mock' Wiesel? Both Goldfarb and Goldberg refused to address these questions and neglected to quote the facts I offered on Hagee. While Goldfarb assailed a J Street donor for controversial statements on Israel, they have never addressed Hagee's anti-Semitic rants. Goldberg has not addressed the issue of Hagee either. The two present their opinions conveniently without the facts.
ADL-Identified Religious Right Figures Assaulting Tolerance and Pluralism (1994) Join Israel-American Militarists, Courted by McCain in 2008
"I believe that God has raised George Bush up for this time in history to crush Saddam Hussein," said John Hagee in the 2003 video below (four-minute, eleven-second mark).
Several American religious right figures signing an anti-Iraqi withdrawal statement in 2007 were identified by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 1994 as extremists assaulting tolerance and pluralism in America, making them, apparently, natural allies for American-Israeli militarists today.
A group of 44 right-wing, extremist American leaders had released a Declaration urging the continuation of American policy in Iraq and warning of catastrophic consequences if America withdraws.
The unique Forgotten American Coalition is composed of both anti-Semitic and Christians-for-militaristic-Israel groups (see below), all of whom lean to the extreme right and expose authoritarian, militarist ideologies.
Several individuals signing the document were blasted in the ADL's 1994 publication, The Religious Right: An Assault on Tolerance and Pluralism in America, (cover pictured above) warning that "an exclusionist religious movement in this country has attempted to restore what it perceives as the ruins of a Christian nation by more closely seeking to unite its version of Christianity with state power."
Among the individuals who have both espoused theologies using state power to attack pluralism in America (identified in the ADL's The Religious Right publication) and who signed the anti-Iraq Withdrawal statement: include: Lou Sheldon (Traditional Values Coalition), Gary Bauer (Chairman, Forgotten American Coalition), Don Wildmon (American Family Association), Pat Robertson (the 700 Club), Beverly LaHaye (Concerned Women for America), and Paul Weyrich (Free Congress Foundation).
The groups form the corp of the religious right in America, and are a pillar of the contemporary Republican political coalition.
Their anti-withdrawal statement echos Bush-neocon talking points on Iraq, now with warnings of strikes against Iran, a pursuit desired by the far-right Israili government.
Peace-minded reformists and Max Blumenthal are slandared by carefully crafted lies by neoliberals and neocons ignoring anti-Semitism and End Times idiocies as it sick union with far-right Israeli militarism is consolidated.
What's next for American-Israeli militarists? Alliances with white supremacists? No. As the Apartheid regime of South Africa demonstrated a few short years ago, Gaza and the occupied territories show now, and Southern Strategy demonstrates anew, no major Israeli or American political force or its cheerleaders like Jeffrey Goldberg would ever consort with racism, right?
The Forgotten American Coalition's 2007 statement reads in part:
As leaders of the conservative movement and concerned citizens, the undersigned wish to make our fellow Americans aware of the tragic consequences of a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. ...The Iraq War must be seen in the broader context of Islamo-fascism's war on America and Western Civilization. It is one front in a global conflict fought from Europe and the Middle East to Africa, the Balkans, the Indian Subcontinent and, finally, to the streets of our cities. ...9/11 was in part precipitated by the perception of American weakness and lack of determination. An Iraq withdrawal before our mission is accomplished will convince the terrorists and their state-sponsors that we indeed are the proverbial paper tiger.
Signed,
Gary Bauer (Chairman, Forgotten American Coalition)
Joe Barrek
Chris Carmouche (GrassTopsUSA.com)
Don Feder (Don Feder Associates)
Janet Folger (Faith2Action)
Richard Ford (Heritage Alliance PAC)
Rick Scarborough (Vision America)
Mike Valerio
Paul Weyrich (Free Congress Foundation)
Don Wildmon (American Family Association)
(The foregoing all are members of the Forgotten American Coalition Steering Committee)
Daniel Pipes (Middle East Forum)
Pat Robertson ("700 Club")
Phillip Jauregui (Judicial Action Group)
Phil Burress (Citizens for Community Values)
William J. Federer (AmeriSearch)
Wendy Wright (Concerned Women for America)
Dr. Janice Crouse (Beverly LaHaye Institute)
Dr. Jack Wheeler (Freedom Research Foundation)
Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Toward Tradition)
Frank Gaffney (Center for Security Policy)
Herb Zweibon (Americans for a Safe Israel)
Lou Sheldon (Traditional Values Coalition)
Mona Charen (syndicated columnist)
Morton Blackwell (Conservative Leadership PAC)
Gary Cass (Christian Anti-Defamation Commission)
Pastor John Hagee (Citizens United for Israel)
Larry Cirignano (Catholic activist)
Star Parker (Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education)
Clifford May (Foundation for the Defense of Democracies)
Jim Laffejy (Christian Seniors Association)
Michael Heath (Christian Civic League of Maine)
Ted Baehr (MovieGuide.org)
Mathew Staver (Liberty Counsel)
Colin Hanna (Let Freedom Ring)
Craig Shirley (Shirley And Bannister Public Affairs)
Ron Wexler (Ten Commandments Commission)
Foster Friess (Friess Associates Inc.)
Tim LaHaye (minister and author)
Beverly LaHaye (Concerned Women for America)
Dr. Rod Majin (The Vanguard.Org)
Melanie Morgan (MoveAmericaForward.org)
Elaine Donnelly (Center for Military Readiness)
Ron Robinson (Young America's Foundation)
Flagg Youngblood (Young America's Foundation
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