Photo Shopping Armageddon

by digby

Does this seem like a good idea to you?

As the JTA news service reports today, “Christians United For Israel, a pro-Israel evangelical group, features on its website a photo of Jerusalem with the city’s holiest mosques wiped out.” The JTA story actually misses the nub of the controversy ; the Dome of The Rock, considered the 3rd holiest Islamic site in the world, has been removed from the image of the Wailing Wall and environs featured in CUFI’s website logo. The symbolism inherent in the logo casts a disturbing light on the tactical alliance between American Jews and CUFI founder John Hagee’s new political lobbying group. The possibly incendiary nature of such symbolism to the Islamic world raises the question of why American Jewish groups and leading American politicians have associated with a leader such as John Hagee whose political views would be considered within Israeli society to be out on the extremist or even violent political fringe.

As a possibly intentional provocation, the elimination of the Dome Of The Rock from CUFI’s website logo is consonant with John Hagee’s repeated vilification of Islam. But is it consonant with US foreign policy or the foreign policy positions American Jews would choose to support ? The troubling nature of CUFI’s logo raises the issue of the extent to which Hagee has been granted a place, recently, on the American national political stage and of his access to prominent US politicians. CUFI’s founder, Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee, spoke before a substantial portion of the US House and Senate, as a keynote speaker at the Israel America Public Affairs Committee convention in Washington DC in February 2007, and Hagee routinely enjoys private meeting with top members of the GOP such as Senator John McCain and House GOP Minority Speaker Roy Blunt. John Hagee has also repeatedly discussed, publicly and in his writing, his belief that, because history is unfolding exactly as described in Biblical prophecy, the destruction of the Dome of The Rock and the subsequent rebuilding of a Jewish temple on the site is inevitable.

You know, there are kooks and weirdos in all aspects of politics. Up until recently the really cracked ones were kept away from any real influence. Something changed in our politics during the conservative era. In the liberal years, Democratic politicians weren’t pandering to revolutionaries like the Weather Underground or the SLA and they sure as hell weren’t holding private meetings and making common cause with them.

These crazy people (and I don’t care if they do it in the name of religion, they are still crazy) really believe that all-out war is a positive thing and they are doing what they can to bring that about, including meeting with important American politicians. I believe in free speech, even for nuts. But for AIPAC, John McCain and Roy Blunt to pander to and fete people who are going out of their way to provoke a religious war for their own reasons by pulling ridiculous stunts like that really should be beyond the pale. And politicians of both parties should give their AIPAC pals some friendly advice about what their allies are doing — literally helping terrorists:

Pastor Hagee’s, and CUFI’s, political positions have no counterpart within Israel mainstream society. Rather, such views are held, in Israel, by groups considered to be on the extreme political fringe. A veteran Israeli journalist consulted for this story stated that, in mainstream Israeli political sentiment, actions, conspiracies, or even thoughts concerning the destruction of the Dome Of The Rock are considered “abhorrent” and repeatedly stressed the extremely marginal nature of such beliefs within Israeli society.

The Democrats would gain a lot of credibility around the world, I think, if they did a Sistah Soljah on this (rather than taking another tired whack at Hollywood or the dirty hippies.) This is actually important and might prepare the ground for a more reasonable foreign policy if the Dems take over in 2009. Nobody says that we should repudiate Israel. But we damned sure can repudiate the marginal Israeli fringe and the marginal American fringe that supports them for their own purposes. This stuff should be way out of bounds and somebody should speak out against it.

Update: And then there’s this fool.

Update II: It has come to my attention that this photo might not have been photoshopped. If so, I take back the criticism of the photo, but the criticism of their nutty stated positions and their influence on American politics stands.

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