When Cruz Makes His Move, Watch Out

#newyorkvalues

[rQUOTEr]New York police say assailants chanted 'ISIS' while beating man

New York City police were investigating on Sunday an assault on a man who was pummeled by suspects shouting "ISIS, ISIS," leaving him with bruises on his head and face, authorities said.

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Wow, someone was soundly demolished. This post soundly thrashes the talking points that so many buy without any checking on their own.

 

Alienating his co-religionists to score points with the nationalist junta in Israel is not supporting "The Jews," but it seems like a calculated political move to shore up supporters like you. It's not like Ted visited Sde Boker or Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv, or Dagania in the Galilee -- all of which are more central to the State of Israel's history. Or God forbid, visited Arab communities on either side of the Green Line...

He was there for the photo op with Bibi because so many in America buy the laughable narrative that he's some kind of reincarnation of Churchill bravely defying the world to save an imperiled people from multiple would-be Hitlers by building settlements at breakneck speed.

But let's whine about SNL poking fun at the selective philo-Semetism of Ted Cruz -- I mean it's not like public political figures in Israel we're called out today for using slurs to insult the US Ambassador.

Some of us actually have ties there and have a vested interest in Israel not being a pariah state.

 

You have to remember that many on the evangelical right (of which Cruz is a part) support Israel solely because they think it will bring about the end of the world. Because the Bible told them so.

 

And you have to remember that many on the Israeli right are happy to exploit these photos ops with Evangelicals for their political gain, making "Who is the useful idiot?" a very reasonable question to ask. The religious right in Israel is not terribly keen on Christianity in general and it seems strange that one of the places where Christians are actually persecuted the most is celebrated by Evangelicals as an ideological ally.

Which brings me back to my original question of why Ted Cruz would insult Arab Christians on purpose, especially when he seems like one of the few evangelicals that would be informed enough to know better, but damn if it doesn't seem to be working splendidly for him.

 

I'd say there are two Biblical motivations for support of Israel. One, if the oft-cited role Israel plays in the apocalypse. I don't think it's actually so popular really because of the mainstream view that the Second Coming will come like a thief in the night and that you cannot know the day or the hour. Most Christians are not trying to accelerate the Second Coming or to guess when it will happen because they believe neither is possible. The second motivation is one more of goodwill. That the Jews are God's Chosen People, and that the land of Israel is the Promised Land given to them for all time by God. The status of Jews is changed somewhat in the New Testament because of the expansion of the 'family' with Christianity. But, the New Testament talks about the Christian Gentile being a branch grafted to the vine -- adding to and not replacing the Jew as Chosen (it also talks about branches being cut off). So there is a spiritual brotherhood there even when Jews are not believers. I think most evangelical allegiance to the nation of Israel is actually born of this feeling of kinship and not out of some Machiavellian exploitation of their role in the Second Coming.

 

The problem with this view, is that the "brotherhood" is not reciprocated with any parity. The Israeli right is divided between traditionalist secularists who have reverence for Judaism for it's cultural/historical/tribal function but aren't particularly religious (Bibi doesn't wear a kippa or keep kosher, ya know) and very religious Jews who uniformly view Christianity as far more blasphemous than Muslims do.

While I agree that evangelicals are probably not exploiting the Jewish role in the End of Days, I suspect most are informed enough to know who it is they are posing in photos with and are exploiting evangelical voters in the US who aren't so familiar with either Judaism or Israeli internal politics and benefit from it.

Israel has traditionally been an ally of the US, but other than Menachim Begin (who is also Israel's most successful peace-maker to date), it has largely been and still remains, from Israel's Center-Left, going all the way back to Ben-Gurion (who was a secular socialist).

 

Iowa governor wants Ted Cruz defeated

more at the link

 

You think way too hard about this.

It's very simple: The left supports Israel because they receive a ton of money from Jewish donors. The religious right supports Israel because they believe that they worship the same God and that Israel is important to God even if Israelis don't like them or deny God. Then there are others on the right who support Israel because they see it as a firewall against the spreading of monsters who want to destroy the entire world. Lastly a bunch of people on both sides support Israel out of WW2 sympathy.

Politicians don't give a crap about who they shake hands with, take pictures with, get jobs, put in power, take out of power, etc. as long as it translates to money or votes, or preferably, both. Supporting Israel is a sure fire way to get some money no matter what side of the party you are on.

 

Have no idea how much this translate to support for Israel but according to PEW a few years ago, nearly half of US Christians believe the Second Coming will probably or definitely will happen in the short term (40 years). My own personal experience is I hear this quite often from religious folks I know. It's always amazing to personally witness this and to see stats on how many people actually believe in this.

 

There has never been a people at any point in time that has experienced a life or world worse than the one they live in. It is therefore natural that a chunk of people who follow a religion that predicts a second coming of a savior would look around a broken world and think it has to be in their lifetime.

I bet if you did this poll every year since the death of Christ that the number would be very similar or higher the closer you got to that year when almost all of his followers early on believed it was at hand.

 

Absolutely. I very politely bring up this very point to those who "talk" at me about Jesus returning. It doesn't matter a single bit.

It is still amazing to witness. Personally, they seem to live with both happiness and fear at the same time. Happy that it's coming and fear of the event. It might be me reading it wrong, but I also get the sense that nothing is more important, including their families.

 

I would respond by saying American voters don't think enough about this, which is often the case when it comes to foreign policy. And like many foreign policy mistakes, that support is often short-sided at the expense of the democratic principles they would claim to hold dear.

I don't disagree with any of that, but I think understanding the nuance of how geo-politics operate and being responsible enough to make a case to the American people that might challenge their uninformed positions is something that a statesman is supposed to do, and what I would demand of my elected officials.

Reagan, Bush Sr, and James Baker had no reservations calling out PM Shamir when he ran afoul of American interests in the 80s and early 90s. And it has been conservatives that traditionally have been most critical of Israeli domestic policy, but that changed in the 90s and it hasn't been to the benefit of Americans, Israelis, or Palestinians, IMHO. Part of it is because of the greater influence of evangelicals in the GOP, and I think possibly even more because Clinton staked his legacy on the Oslo peace process, drawing partisan opposition to something that it should have supported.

 

Iowa governor wants Ted Cruz defeated

edit: sorry, I didn't realize justtxyank already posted.

 

that is practically the first thing i have ever read about cruz that i like.

 

My goal is to laugh at Cruz for his silly ideas about electro magnetic impulse attacks from Iran.

 

Does Ted Cruz also support eliminating the subsidies, tax credits, etc. for oil companies or is he OK with those?