How much land was promised? Come again?

The Christian Zionist map of Israel - it all belongs to them!

The map above comes from the blog, "Challenging Christian Zionism" and displays the Christian Zionists' Biblical concept of Eretz Israel. To quote the American secretary of state, this seems "unhelpful" in the extreme.

Alan Epp Weaver, a Mennonite writer, sounds a warning about the enraptured Christians who aim to hasten the apocalypse. (Last weekend Izzy noticed that there now is a drive-through McDonalds on the road to Armageddon. I'm lovin' it!!):

Christian Zionism of the premillennial dispensationalist variety tells a dramatic tale: the rapture of believers, the rise of the Antichrist, and Jesus’ violent, triumphant Second Coming. Within this dramatic narrative the return of the Jews to the Holy Land plays a pivotal role, and the modern State of Israel thus becomes a fact of great theological significance to Christian Zionists.

While Christian Zionism has become a global phenomenon, thanks to the influence of fundamentalist missions, it is in the United States that the political impact of Christian Zionism is felt most acutely. Congregations “adopt” illegal Israeli settlements, sending funds to bolster the defense of these armed colonies. Christian Zionists organize prayer vigils and letter writing campaigns in support of Israeli military offensives (such as the so-called Operation Cast Lead in January) and against any Israeli territorial concessions... Benny Elon, an out-spoken Israeli proponent of “transfer” (a euphemism for the expulsion of Palestinians) is a popular speaker at Christian Zionist gatherings.

[No flawless red heifer has been born inside Israel since 70AD, authorities say, but that does not preclude one who does Aliya from, say, Jerusalem Texas in Brazoria County...or the cloning of such a calf. Yee-ha.]

A rancher in Texas keeps trying to produce the red heifer whose ashes would be required for the purification rituals necessary for the Third Temple that both Jewish and Christian extremists hope to have re-established in place of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Without these ashes, it cannot become functional.

As the government of Israeli solidifies its occupation over Jerusalem and the West Bank, with the blessing of the United States, Christian Zionists actively support even more extreme positions on the Israeli political spectrum.

Gettin' on for Armageddon, Pastor Hagee says

The luxury coaches are crammed with White Bread Americans, and the name of Pastor John Hagee,of Texas mega-church fame, is emblazoned on the side like a multinational brand. The vehicles have been crisscrossing Israel in the past few days, basically following in the footsteps of Jesus-- except for the omission of Palestinian Bethlehem. The itinerary stops at Armageddon, as Time magazine reports:

An Evangelical at Armageddon
By TIM MCGIRK/TEL MEGGIDO


It's quiet at Armageddon, these days, with only the wind racing like invisible war chariots across its grassy plains. But lately, the northern Israeli site — also known as Tel Meggido — designated in the New Testament as the field of the final battle has become a popular tourist destination. Christians arrive by the busload eager to see the battleground where the world as we know it will end. At the souvenir shop, they flock to buy maps of where Jesus walked, and tiny vials of water from the Jordan River. The river may now be mostly a murky rivulet, but thousands of Evangelical Christians insist on being re-baptized in its waters.

Armageddon was a brief stopover a few days ago for a contingent of Christians led by the Texas televangelist Pastor John Hagee, who believes that doomsday is nigh. In his recent book Jerusalem Countdown, which sold 1.4 million copies, Hagee uses contemporary news events, such as the threat of a nuclear Iran, to describe the lead-up to a war in which the Russian and Arab armies invade Israel and are destroyed by God in a terrible battle on this very spot.

Hagee, whose views on Catholicism caused controversy for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain when he endorsed the Arizona senator, didn't charm many Palestinians, either — not even the Christians among them — when he said that "turning all or part of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban." So much for the fate of Jerusalem being on the agenda of the Bush Administration's peace initiative.

Hagee's remarks, however, have certainly endeared him to Israel's hawks. Ex-Premier and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at Hagee's rally in Jerusalem, calling the American Christian Zionists Israel's best friends.

Other Jews, in Israel and in the U.S., are less comfortable in the embrace of the American Evangelicals. They cite a verse from Revelations claiming that Jesus will return only after two-thirds of the Jews are killed and the rest are converted to Christianity. "They are not supporting us out of love," says one opponent, Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifshitz from the anti-missionary group Yad La'achim, "but because they believe that if we convert out of Judaism to Christianity, it will bring on the Apocalypse." And that, he says, is "a danger to the people of Israel."

One pastor in Jerusalem from a mainstream church expressed skepticism about the motives of the Christian Zionists — and of the cynicism of Israelis who play along. "It's the worst kind of anti-Semitism," says the cleric, who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the issue. "At the end, these Evangelicals say that all the Jews will be dead except those who become Christians. But in the meantime, the Israelis are happy to fill their hotels with them and use their help to get American weapons."

Shortly before Hagee's tour, American Rabbi Eric Yoffie from the liberal Reform Jewish Movement denounced the friendship between Israel and Christian Evangelicals, not only because Hagee and his like-minded brethren reject the two-state solution (with East Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state) but because they are often at odds with liberal Jews in the U.S. over such incendiary topics as abortion and gay rights.

America's Evangelical movement is vast and diverse, and so are the reasons why Evangelicals rally to Israel. They range from the simple Sunday school teaching — God loves the Jews and abhors their enemies — to a belief that the Jews' return to their ancestral lands, and the "miraculous" victory of the Israelis over the Arabs in the 1967 war, is a harbinger of the Apocalypse and the Messiah's return. In a 2006 poll conducted by Pew Research Center, 35% of all Americans say that the creation of Israel is a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy about Jesus' second coming. And also that Armageddon is just around the corner. But for now, the only legions arriving on the battlefield are those traveling on tour buses.

Izzy Bee has learned that the good Pastor spurned a scheduled Q & A with the American newsweekly last week. Was this perhaps because it featured Pope Benedict on the cover? (The pontiff, he has implied, plays Eliot Spitzer to the Whore of Babylon.) Meanwhile, Hagee's congregation sent a $6m donation to Israel (and West Bank Jewish settlers in Ariel, Samaria) which has assured an open-armed welcome.

Armageddon any closer? Fire and Brimstone drive Bush's policy in Middle East

http://endtimesworldnews.punt.nl/upload/armageddon.jpg
Tony Blair appears eager to get started on his latest task: picking up the pieces in the Middle East. Some analysts suggest that Blair, who has proved to be the most religious British leader of the century, has openly sympathized with the coded political-religious language that born-again President George Bush habitually uses, as well as with Bush's faith-based efforts to entwine religion and government. The result? Doomsday just got closer, as America contemplates war without end against satanic forces of evil. Theocracy has increasing appeal for Middle America, warns a special report that was released today on Truthout. Here's an excerpt, and note that it is worth reading the entire article for insights on Iran, Middle East Wars and End-Time Prophecy. It's all about Prophets and profits.

Christian Zionists have become Israel's main tourist revenue, shepherding groups to the holy land to see the sites of Armageddon and the Second Coming.

Professor Norton Mezvinsky, an expert on Israeli affairs, is emphatic on one point: although a succession of Israeli prime ministers has courted the American end-timers (the Christian Zionists) and declared them Israel's "greatest friends," the Israelis don't accept the end-time theology one wit. They are also aware that it is anti-Semitic. (For one thing, they interpret the Bible as claiming that only 144,000 converted Jews will be allowed to survive the Apocalypse.) However, Mezvinsky says, the Israelis also know that the end-time Christian Zionists are a lobby that can deliver US support for Israeli hard-line positions on arms, West Bank settlements, negotiations with the Arabs, and Iran.

Cybersnub from JBlog

Huh? Some nameless right-on blogsters from the Jewish cyber-mafi have tossed Izzy Bee out of their cozy cyber ghetto with no explanation.
I have not felt this shunned since some mean high school kids kept me out of their waspy social club. For several months my blog has appeared through an automatic feed on the israelforum,
along with some 445 others. Readers can rate any posts as they come in.
As a neophyte, Izzy Bee was curious to see public reaction to what I observe and interpret around me in the Holy Land. Many of these Israel Forum bloggers seem to be outsiders looking in or aggregating posts from conservative websites, but there also was original and innovative content. I even nominated myself for their annual competition, in hopes of reaching out to new readers and seeing from inside how it all works. I wanted to take part in a wide-ranging collective that included funny, self-deprecating, bright weblogs and some with an odd sideways takes on Jewish or Israeli lifestyles and politics.
Other intriguing ones were recipe recyclers, gay jokesters, black hat philosophers, savvy housewives or rightwing nut jobs. Check out this cross-section of blog titles, for an idea. Definitely not bog-standard:

Joe Settler, Yid with a Lid, Bagel Blogger --the Ozraeli perspective, Jacob da Jew, Jerusalem Cop, Jew-ish, J-spot, Rabbi without a Cause,The velveteen Rabbi, me-ander, Frumkenstein, Jewdicial, Jewcy

You get the picture. Punning Pundits.

Surely there would be room for the musings of a lapsed Baptist ex-journalist who is coming to grips with a peripatetic life in a Bible setting, with all its incongruous high tech surveillance, jaded ex-idealists, youthful energy and ancient feuds. I have a front row seat for the apocalypse, whether it's nuclear or the second coming. And I love Jerusalem's assortment of sabras and Christian evangelicals, kibbutzniks and settlers, Zionists and NGO workers. This is quite a diverse place, once described to me as a game reserve for bigots, but really so much more complex.

Apparently Israelity Bites does not fit in so well. All my initial posts were rated 2 by JBlog, ie POOR. (I figured maybe it was a machine that ranked me so low, but it rankled.) I also noticed that a couple of dozen JBlogsters rated me, but nobody ever bothered to link to my actual page so they could read my entire post beforehand. That's why I switched my settings so the whole post would automatically pop up on JBlog. This improved things immensely: the site upgraded the ratings to 4, or GOOD. Then, it all vanished, POOF. Dunno why. There was a British cartoon mocking Tony Blair, as Terminator. He'd just met with California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I mused that consulting a governor who could win over Israeli politicians despite having a Nazi father might be helpful for someone taking up the troublesome post of MidEast envoy. Was this found offensive? I emailed the webmaster, but was not enlightened. Silence.
The israelforum FAQ s state:

we include most blogs that are Jewish-oriented or pro-Israeli in the conventional sense. We try to avoid blogs that promote hate, illegal activities, adult content, etc. We rely on our readers to report content that is clearly inappropriate, but we cannot promise that we can act on those reports as quick ly as some readers would like. We reserve the right to include or exclude any specific blog at our sole discretion.

Hmmmm. Being perceived as "pro-Israeli in the conventional sense" may be the stumbling block. Does that mean no criticism, even if it's bemused? No talk of Gaza or Palestinian policy? No mention of Assraelis, the so-called Kosher Porn produced in-country? Izzy Bee is stung at this exclusion.