David Brog, the executive director of Christians United for Israel, has sent out a mass e-mail to followers urging support for Pastor John Hagee and the organization. The money line: “Make no mistake about it, many who attack Pastor Hagee seek not only to hurt him, but to silence all Christian friends of Israel. We need to give a bold and unified response!”

He also did a Q & A with Shmuel Rosner of Ha’aretz. [UPDATE: Sorry, I had the wrong link up for a while.]

Here’s Brog’s full e-mail: (more…)

Reader mail:

Dear JTA,

My father thought I should email you this story. My name is Marc Friend and I am a student at the George Washington University. Recently Ann Coulter came to speak at G.W. and I was able to get a ticket, even though I am a Jewish Liberal. So, Ann Coulter gave her usual liberal bashing speech and then opened it up for questions. I got in line to ask her a question and when it was my turn, I said the following.

“Thank you Ms. Coulter for coming, my name is Marc Friend, I am a sixth generation American and one of the proudest Americans you will ever find. In an earlier interview, you said that Jews were imperfect Christians, as a Jew I was wondering how am I imperfect ?” She responded by saying that she never said anything like that and this is an example how the liberals make things up that she never said.

For the record here is the Fox news story on her interview, followed by the YouTube Video of it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301216,00.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2wnPHFSdrME

So, there is my story of how Ann Coulter lied to me. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Marc Friend

Maybe everybody messed up and the millennium starts tonight: Christians are joining being officially represented at the highest levels of the Jewish Agency and getting circumcised by mohels.

Not sure which is crazier (for them or for us).

I guess the latter shouldn’t come as surprise, considering the popularity of Hebrew National. It’s sort of the same idea.

‘Tis the season for the war against the war on Christmas, so we weren’t surprised to receive a press release from the Catholic League’s president, Bill Donohue, listing about a dozen examples of “multicultural monsters” censoring holiday displays. What did catch our eye, however, was this item on the list: “A Jewish public official in Wisconsin wants to rename the state Capitol Holiday Tree the Christmas Tree, but is being opposed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”

The Catholic League was talking about Marlin Schneider, a state representative from Madison – the very same Marlin Schneider who went to bat for naval veterans demanding a congressional investigation into Israel’s attack on the U.S.S. Liberty during the 1967 war.

Hmmm.

As it turns out, Schneider is not Jewish.

But he does like Jews, which is why he was so baffled by all of the hoopla over his efforts on the U.S.S. Liberty issue:

The Liberty veterans believed that the attack on their ship was deliberate and not friendly fire, and that it had been covered up by the United States Navy and the State Department for years because of fear of reprisals by influential people who would bring down any politician with the audacity even to ask questions about the attack. Some of the people who later talked to me both within and outside our own capitol warned me to beware of massive political contributions against me and even potential assassination. I laughed that off because I have never been anti-Israel and, in fact, the people who got me to run for office in the first place in 1970 were Jewish constituents whom I admired because in the 1950s they had taken on Sen. Joseph McCarthy right here in central Wisconsin. Moreover, one of my former assistants was the daughter of a rabbi incarcerated at Buchenwald who now works for a Jewish organization in New York City. I also thought that a lowly state legislator was too small a potato for anyone really to care much about.

It turns out that the Catholic League misread this story, which identifies Schneider’s pro-Christmas Tree spokesman, as a Jew:

“A rose is a rose is a rose,” said Schneider spokesman Michael Schoenfield in the article. “Whatever you call it, it is going to be a Christmas tree, so call it what it is.”

While opponents to the resolution said by using the word “Christmas,” it is offensive to non-Christians, Schoenfield said he disagrees.

“As a Jew, I have a problem calling it a holiday tree,” he said in the article. “It’s not my holiday.”

While we’re on the topic … Schneider from “One Day at a Time”:

Jew or not a Jew? I’d say no. But that was actor Pat Harrington Jr. sitting at Larry David’s seder table in Season 5, Episode 7 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” (Thanks to my wife for that pickup.)

The Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee are out with statements condemning Ann Coulter’s recent interview on CNBC with Donny Deutsch. Both groups focus in on her assertion that Jews should be “perfected” by dumping Judaism and becoming Christians.

But the real zinger, I think, came a few moments earlier in the interview, when she responded to a question about her “dream” American, by saying: “It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that’s what I think heaven is going to look like. … People were happy. They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America.”

So Ann Coulter is a Christian who thinks Jews should become Christian. That’s her religion. Fine. It’s not as if she’s launched a conversion crusade. Watch the interview, and it’s clear that Deutsch was the one pushing to get to the religion point, not Coulter.

Her comment about the GOP convention, however, was not just about her own personal theology. It speaks more directly to her understanding of America and the contemporary Republican Party. She essentially described the GOP convention as an all-Christian club (guess she missed then-RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman).

Again, the irony with all of the fuss over this Coulter outrage is that this time around it was really Deutsch pushing her toward controversy (usually she has her own offensive agenda item that she’s pushing — i.e, Democrats are traitors).

Deutsch says he wants to know what she hopes America will look like. First she says she wishes everyone was Republican. Deutsch pushes. Then she wishes that all of the Democrats would be like Joe Lieberman (!?!). Deutsch pushes some more. Only after a few more prods does she find religion.

Judge for yourself…

I had a similar take watching the video of John McCain’s “America is a Christian country that needs a Christian president” interview.

To my eye he seemed stilted and contradictory the whole way through. He wants a president who will uphold Judeo-Christian values. He wants a Christian, not a Muslim. Well, maybe a Muslim would be okay. But maybe not. Mormon, that would be just fine.

All that said, it’s hard to see how Coulter’s or McCain’s remarks could be interpreted as a “Non-Jews welcome” sign. And it’s hard to ignore that its supporters/lawmakers of the party with no blacks and just three Jews in Congress who keep saying these sorts of things (yes, yes, Democrats have their own patterns to worry about, but that’s for another post).

Senate GOPers are tripping over themselves to run out Larry Craig, but what about his fellow Idahoan over in the House of Representatives, Bill Sali. Here’s a quote of his from last summer:

“We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes — and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The principles that this country was built on, that have made it great over these centuries were Christian principles derived from Scriptures. You know, the Lord can cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike.”

Throw in the fact that the Hindu in question was actually heckled (see video) during his prayer, and you’d think this sort of talk might be a bit higher on the agenda of congressional Republicans than Larry Craig’s wide stance.

Sali tried to backtrack from the impression that he was saying Muslims shouldn’t be congressmen. But he wasn’t the first Republican to wander into such territory.

After Ellison’s victory in 2006, a Republican House member from Virginia, Virgil Goode, sent a letter to constituents complaining about the Minnesota Democrat’s decision to take his private oath on the Koran:

“I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”

Jeez, even Iran has a token Jew in its parliament.