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Max and Facts

By Ron Kampeas · November 2, 2009

Max Blumenthal, not actually wanting to argue over the place of theology in the political sphere, has issues with the facts. To set him straight:

a) I don't live in a settlement.

b) Not that it's germane, given a), but the neighborhood in Jerusalem where I own an apartment (not live) was, mostly, on the Israeli side as part of the 1949 armistice agreement. In fact, it ended up being a no-man's land, although, from what I've heard from locals, parts of it were used by Palestinian shepherds for grazing. So it's disputed, at the very least.

c) It would come as a suprise to me if John Hagee's money ever reached this neighborhood -- such donations usually earn a prominent marker on the involved institution, and I've never seen Hagee or his organizations cited in the neighborhood. If Max wants to enlighten me, that's fine.

One thing he's right about: I can be long winded, if only because I like to work through an argument, to examine every side of it before jumping to conclusions.

But still.

So I'll make this brief: I really don't care about theologies and eschatologies when it comes to examining how people act -- unless they are expressly attempting to fulfill the specifics of an End Times belief.

So, if Hagee were planning to murder all but 144,000 Jews (and as I noted, it's not even clear he hews to that particular End Times scenario), yes, I would worry. A lot. If he says, though, that he believes that a power utterly beyond his control plans to include that atrocity at a time that Hagee would not presume to guess -- then, what can I say? That I find it distatesful? Sure. Relevant? No.

Of course there's a fat gray area between the lunatics who believe they are somehow channeling God's specific impulses and those who simply believe, and do not think their actions will affect the outcome. And it takes judgment to assess where a religious figure lies along that spectrum.

Max doesn't have a whole lot of it. Imagine, for instance, treating one of the 1980s era terrorists who planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock precisely the same way you would treat an Ethiopian Jew deboarding at Ben Gurion who believed his arrival was a tiny part of biblical prophecy fulfilled. Imagine treating a crazed mother who murdered her children at the behest of "voices" the same way you would treat at stockbroker who had a dream, woke up, quit his job and spent the rest of his life volunteering in soup kitchens.

Max thinks it's the same. Does John Hagee allow his theology to inform his choices? Of course; some of these I think are uncontroversial (Max is free to disagree), for instance, money that has gone to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon. Some deserve scrutiny (as I pointed out), for instance, money that has gone to educational institutions in the West Bank -- or the propagation of notions of  a secretive cabal that controls the world's finances that have had provable consequences in the last century.

In fact I've never heard of (and am happy to be disabused) of a major movement that used End Times theology to target Jews in our lifetime. And I don't see any evidence that Hagee wants to murder Jews, which essentially is what Max argues.  In fact, Hagee is almost alone among evangelicals in arguing against proselytizing among the Jews -- and converting Jews is a critical element of the scenario that Max (free with facts) wants to foist upon Hagee.

And that's a calumny.

And Max, avoid getting personal. Ask the folks around you: It's a career killer.