Trump's Crazy Christian Zionist Demands On Iran (4 Netanyahu) Make ME Nuclear Armageddon MORE Likely

The Terrifying Alliance Between End Times Christian Zionists and Donald Trump
This far-right Christian organization wants to use foreign policy to pursue the end times—and it has an ally in Trump.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/christians-united-for-israel-zionism-john-hagee-donald-trump-israel-palestine-iran

On September 13, evangelical pastor John Hagee stood before San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church — which seats 5,400 people and is televised to millions more — and told congregants how to vote on November 3. ​“In the forthcoming presidential election let every bible-believing Christian go vote the bible,” he said, to the cheering and applause of a tightly packed crowd of mask-less worshipers (On October 4, news broke that Hagee has been diagnosed with Covid-19). He continued, ​“Take America back from the god of socialism that now threatens the very survival of this nation.”

Hagee was referring to President Donald Trump in all but name, a significant endorsement from someone whose sphere of influence extends far beyond his mega-church and its related school system. Hagee is the founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), an organization that claims 9 million members (a number that may or may not be inflated) and may be more influential with the right than the well-known American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). CUFI has tremendous reach among U.S. churches and exerts profound sway over the white evangelical Christian base that turned out en masse for Trump in 2016. ​“Christian Zionism,” the political ideology that animates the organization, is premised on an end-times prophecy which CUFI translates into a bloody, confrontational foreign policy that has made stunning strides over the past four years.

And this ideology is being used to mobilize a large base ahead of a crucial election. In mid-October, the organization will be showing its new documentary ​“Never Again?” in 800 theaters — in addition to churches—across the country, a move that critics say is likely aimed, at least in part, at encouraging U.S. churchgoers to support Trump. As Hagee and other Christian Zionists have used their perches to mobilize support for Trump, the president has showered them with policy wins, from the moving of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem to violent belligerence towards Iran. During an intense election season that has been upended by news of Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis, it is impossible to fully grasp the contours of the 2020 contest, or the global role of the United States under Trump, without understanding this powerful political force.

“What’s underreported is the massive size of the Christian Zionist voting bloc and how much Trump is relying on it as a prospect to retake the White House,” says Stefanie Fox, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVP Action), a national organization that opposes the Israeli occupation. ​“That has been the reason and rationale for Trump’s very prominent anti-Palestinian agenda from day one.”

Jonathan Brenneman, a Palestinian-American organizer with Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), a Christian organization that advocates for the rights of Palestinians, tells In These Times, ​“After Trump was elected, Christian Zionism might be the main framework the majority of Americans think of Palestine with. Christian Zionism is in the air we breathe.”
What is Christian Zionism?

The modern political ideology of Christian Zionism is, in most cases, premised on the prophecy that the migration of Jews to Israel is a necessary prerequisite for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Upon the rapture, Jews will either convert to Christianity or go to Hell, according to this belief system, which is most closely associated with evangelical, charismatic or pentecostal strains of Christianity. In a February 2018 sermon, Hagee put it this way: ​“God has a set time to do everything, and Israel is God’s prophetic clock for doing it. Recognize this fact: that God’s clock only moves when the Jewish people are in the land of Israel, and when they are in the land, the clock starts ticking.”

In practice, this political ideology as exercised through CUFI has meant unbridled support for Israel ​“as a Jewish state,” alignment with the most far-right political forces in Israeli society, and backing of the ethnic cleansing and killing of Palestinians. While strains of Christian Zionism vary, Hagee holds that the rapture will be preceded by a cataclysmic war, a belief that makes him enthusiastic about conflict and confrontation with Palestinians, as well as with Iran and its allies. In 2005, Hagee declared that ​“it is time for America to embrace the words of Senator Joseph Lieberman and consider a military preemptive strike against Iran to prevent a nuclear holocaust in Israel and a nuclear attack in America.”....