Hagee on Israel

John McCain doesn't like John Hagee's anti-Catholic views, but he loves his Israel policy, telling CNN, "I'm grateful for his commitment to the support of the state of Israel, and I'm very grateful for many of his commitments around the world, including to the independence and freedom of the state of Israel." Ben Smith wisely points out that the actual terms of Hagee's support for Israel are that he thinks a strong hawkish stance will help lead to Israel's destruction as it is covered beneath "a sea of human blood." And what about the Jews?

The Jews, however, will survive the battle, Hagee says, long enough to have “the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus of Nazareth.”

So Hagee supports Israel, or he supports the destruction of Israel followed by a mass conversion episode and presumably the death of whichever Jews remain Jewish, and McCain specifically sites Hagee's views on the Middle East as praiseworthy. That doesn't sound very good to me, but Hagee's got the AIPAC good housekeeping seal so I suppose "sea of blood" is the new pro-Israel.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/05/hagee-on-israel/44883/