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Notes -
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XS7itdfgNnU
Over the weekend, an interview between Tucker Carlson and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has been making the rounds. The general thrust of the Interview is: Mike Huckabee is something called a "Christian Zionist", that is:
Steelman: An evangelical protestant Christian who recognizes the unique place in history and theology that The Jewish people occupy, and recognizes that Israel has a Right to Exist.
Strawman: An evangelical protestant Christian who worships the Jews as the main character of history and society, and sees the rest of the world as second-tier citizens who exist to support the work of Jewish people.
The interview attempts to answer what Christian zionism is, what Mike Huckabee believes, etc.
After listening to this, it seems as though Mike is not doing a great job of hiding the fact that he is closer to the strawman than the steelman on this one. Some points:
Huckabee hosted a meeting with Johnathan Pollard, an Israeli who stole US state secrets and sold them to Israel, and subsequently Russia during the cold war. Pollard currently lives in Israel, and Huckabee has been criticized for hosting a meeting with him.
Israel is currently a safe haven for sex criminals (or accused sex criminals). There is a not-insignificant number of men who have been charged with sex crimes in the US, who flee to Israel, and are protected by the Israeli government from extradition to the US. Or more specifically: the US simply ignores these people once they are safely in Israel. Tucker confronts Huckabee about this.
There are a few other things like this, Tucker also asserts that the Iraq war was done on behalf of Israel. The entire interview is quite spicy, and I recommend listening to it.
The "money" quote, however, is one where Tucker is pressing Huckabee on what Israel is, what "a right to exist" is, and what the borders that Israel is entitled to are. Tucker quotes the bible passage that Huckabee is citing to justify Israel's ownership, and points out that the land indicated in the passage is substantially larger than the land Israel currently claims. Tucker's question is, essentially: "if Israel has a right to the land they currently occupy due to this Bible passage, then don't they actually have a right to a majority of the entire Middle East, due to the same Bible passage"
Huckabee's response is, essentially: yes they do. If they want to take it, then that would be fine.
Hard to overstate what a big deal this has been over the weekend. This undermines 30 years of US foreign policy with regards to the ME, and vindicates every fear that every ME nation has had with regards to their own defense, their desire for a nuclear weapon, etc. It's my opinion that this is bad enough that Huckabee needs to be very publicly fired immediately, and that a lot of reassurance needs to be made to these other countries that Huckabee is essentially in a cult, that his insane beliefs do not in ANY way represent the beliefs of the broader US government, and that we will never allow another member of his cult into any position of power within the US government.
The problem: none of that is true. Yes, from my perspective (a Catholic) Huckabee is in an insane, anti-christian cult with absolutely insane beliefs. My (somewhat unrelated) point is that this is why you need The Church. But there are plenty of people in The US Government who think this way. Ted Cruz is another one, who was also interviewed, also disastrously, by Tucker.
Where this, the Cruz interview, and the general discourse around Israel is heading is: what is Israel, exactly? Why does the US support them so much? What was the Iraq war, actually? If we are really using The Bible to dictate foreign policy, then what implications does that have? (I don't think the bible at all supports Huckabee's idea here, btw. I think this is Zionists essentially preying on a very specific type of protestant)
You even undersell the depth of Jonathan Pollard's betrayal, who was one of the most damaging spies in US history. Pollard's professed motive was that he believed the US wasn't doing enough for Israel. Huckabee meeting with Pollard is a feature not a bug, as Huckabee's worship of Jews is the fundamental job requirement for his US government position.
The most unfortunate part is that what you call the "strawman" of Christian Zionism is actually the only internally coherent position a Christian can hold... like, don't you believe the Bible is divinely and literally true? It's a fatal flaw in the Christian blockchain that the Torah really does reduce to race worship of Jews symbolically represented by their tribal god Yahweh, like Zeus was a tribal god representing the European tribes worshipped by him. I don't see how you could believe the Old Testament and also not agree with Huckabee's perspective.
I understand where HUCKABEE is coming from, it's Tucker Carlson who pussyfoots without saying what he actually means. Is Carlson saying that Yahweh did not promise the land to the Jews? Or is he saying that Yahweh did, but for diplomatic reasons we shouldn't acknowledge it? Why doesn't Carlson then just say "I agree with you but we shouldn't say it out loud because it's not politically expedient", why act shocked if he believes it as well? The best I can infer is that Carlson is saying Yahweh did promise the land to the Jews but the Israelis are not Jews- although he does not say that directly, he makes the argument indirectly by saying "Netanyahu came from Europe."
Carlson incessantly says we can't criticize Jews collectively for their collective behavior, but his approach to antisemitism is a critique of literature he himself claims to hold is true.
I grew up Christian, I understand well the dynamics and how going to a Catholic church is not even close to the same as a sermon from Mike Huckabee. But are you really equipped to challenge Huckabee when he clearly has the bible on his side and you believe the bible as well?
The real problem is that your "strawman" of Christian Zionism is internally coherent within Christianity, and it's actually the Christian antisemitism professed by Carlson that's incoherent.
With that said, for all of Carlson's denials that he is antisemitic he has put himself in a very dangerous position, he has put himself squarely in that camp and none of his meager qualifications or groveling "I hate Rome too because they killed Jews, I'm not antisemitic!" is going to work. I don't understand Carlson's motives. He is either Red Pilled and trying to subversively promote anti-semitism or he's just trying to gain market share from the surge in anti-semitism among young audiences. If it's the latter he's going to have a Come to Jesus moment very soon, if it's the former then he's just demonstrating how Christianity is a blocker from properly engaging that tribe.
Yahweh didn't promise anything to the Jews, Yahweh is literary fiction- ancient capeshit, and the bible is Jewish race propaganda. That's a hard pill to swallow as a long time former Christian myself, but watching the "Carlson vs Huckabee dialectic" on the eve of another major war for Israel just shows how the Christian perspective is unable to grapple with the forces we are dealing with, it is captured by the Torah on both the anti-semitic and philo-semitic side of the debate.
For Christians, does the New Law not fulfill and surpass the Old Law? Do Christians Zionists abstain from shellfish and pork?
You don't need to go into new law/old law. the old law itself is incompatible with SS's claims.
The Old Law: if you don't properly worship Yahweh (symbolically representative of Jews) you are cursed. And if you do properly worship Yahweh (Jews) you will be blessed. I can hear my own political representatives restate that framework to curse their own race and nation for turning against Israel.
Yahweh is not synonymous with Jews. Yahweh frequently demonstrates his supremacy by cursing and punishing the Jews, according to the Jews' own scriptures. As for the Christian perspective, "We must obey God rather than men", told to the Jewish authorities by the fathers of the Church. Nor, IIRC, did the early Christians defend Jerusalem from the Romans, and there's a solid argument that they were following Jesus's instructions when they declined to do so.
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