Israeli Cannon Fodder

The NYTs reports again the evangelical belief that support for Israel is "God's foreign policy" in the words of an evangelical preacher. Of course this isn't to preserve Israel, but to initiate a war that will bring about the Apocalypse and the rapture of those true believers.

Many conservative Christians say they believe that the president’s support for Israel fulfills a biblical injunction to protect the Jewish state, which some of them think will play a pivotal role in the second coming...Administration officials say that the meeting with Mr. Hagee [founder of Christians United for Israel] was a courtesy for a political ally and that evangelical theology has no effect on policy making. But the alliance of Israel, its evangelical Christian supporters and President Bush has never been closer or more potent. In the wake of the summer war in southern Lebanon, reports that Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran, may be pushing for nuclear weapons have galvanized conservative Christian support for Israel into a political force that will be hard to ignore.

Samuel Huntington had it wrong. It will not be a clash of civilizations but a clash of fanaticisms with the rational and reasonable left to dispose of the bodies or to become victims of the ecumenical bloodletting themselves.

Oh where, oh where has the Enlightenment gone?