Behind the asinine antics of Bibi and the GOP lies a seductive vision of doom – but not from Iran

[DonViejo]

Ticking bombs: Iran, the GOP and Israel’s secret plan (for self-destruction)

Behind the asinine antics of Bibi and the Republicans lies a seductive vision of doom – but not from Iran

ANDREW O'HEHIR

It was a marriage made in heaven – or, more likely, in the other place – one that’s been waiting decades to be consummated, as in an old-fashioned soap opera whose sundered lovers pine for each other from afar but are kept apart by one plot device after another. The Republican Party and the ruling Israeli faction of Bibi Netanyahu and his Likud party have long played footsie under the table and passed mash notes back and forth, so the flowering of their forbidden love over the last two weeks is no big surprise. Just to jump way ahead, I’m arguing here that the secret key to this romance lies in the fact that both groups are doomed by history. Beneath their shared posture of arrogance and triumphalism – so maddening to their political opponents – lies a deep-seated, half-conscious awareness that the end is nigh. It’s like the medieval legend of Tristan and Iseult, except with ugly people.

Many people on both sides of this affair have long believed that their hearts beat as one and their destinies were joined; Fox News and the New York Post have been pimping for Netanyahu since the ’90s. But this love story has faced daunting obstacles. To the endless frustration of Netanyahu and his loyalists, most American Jews remain allied with the Democrats, and a large proportion are liberal or left-leaning Democrats. For generations the social-justice movements of American politics – the labor movement, the civil-rights movement, feminism, the LGBT struggle — have been closely allied with the Jewish intellectual tradition. If Noam Chomsky is an extreme example, he is certainly not an isolated one. Yes, it’s actually a longer and more tangled story than that, since the neoconservative movement also has Jewish roots stretching back to the Trotskyist left of the 1930s. We might get back to talking about the spectral force of Leo Strauss, dragging his chains through the corridors of American political life like Marley’s Ghost, but that’s way too big a tangent right now.

Then there’s the fact that the most enthusiastic supporters of Israeli expansionism on the American right include many people who believe that all Jews will go directly to hell and suffer eternal torment (following the reign of the Antichrist and the blowing of the trumpets and all that), unless they abandon their ancient tradition and embrace the heretical sect their ancestors specifically rejected 2,000 years ago. No doubt we can shave that reed a little finer, and observe that there are the people who really believe in that pre-millennial Rapture doctrine, who at least are not hypocrites, and then there are the shameless cynical bastards who manipulate such pseudo-Christian superstition – as they were taught by Leo Strauss! — in order to gain power. I’m sure true believers like Pat Boone and Mike Huckabee feel heartbroken about that aspect of the End of Days, and plan to look down from heaven on their slow-roasting Jewish friends with nothing but love and pity in their hearts.

Details, details. The course of true love never did run smooth, and so on. With Netanyahu’s, um, “controversial” speech to Congress on March 3, and last week’s not-so-well-thought-out open letter from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, and 46 other Republican senators to the Iranian leadership – both seeking to undo a nuclear deal that does not yet exist – the GOP-Likud love affair has come out of the closet and into the streets. They’re here, they’re queer; get used to it. (To the forces of sexual liberation: I’m so sorry. I couldn’t help myself. Merriam-Webster reminds us that “queer” can also mean odd, questionable or “mildly insane.”)

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http://www.salon.com/2015/03/14/ticking_bombs_iran_the_gop_and_israel%E2%80%99s_secret_plan_for_self_destruction/

[freshwest]

1. Good grief, someone finally said what I've been saying all these years watching the RWNJs!

Look at the resemblance of these two characters! They look like father and son. Both got the Dead Eye, too.

No way Bibi does not know what American RWNJs have planned for the people of Israel in their version of Kingdom Come. A pogrom on steroids or a betrayal of Christianity, take your pick. Why have they danced with these lunatics for so long?

Yeah, that's a rhetorical question.

Bible thumpers should know better than to bring the kingdom by force, but the RWNJs of the two other desert religions (sans the Jews, who never follow the crowd) think they can do just that.

This is the creed of ISIS and former Iranian leader Immadinnerjacket (I meant to do that), and Christian dominionists. They intend to create their world order, even if it takes global thermonuclear war, and their Messiah will come to save them alone.

That's the Apocalypse and why they get so excited about Iran, Syria, Israel and all territory that the Bible covers, and added Russia in by interpretation, to have The End. ISIS is literally taking the land that they expect the Final Battle to take place to have front row seats and win the battle for their God. American Christians have said for years it's going to take place on the plains of Armageddon:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon

This belief system played in RWNJ circles, not the fringe but the mainstream GOP, about why we HAD to invade Iraq. The hard core believers say that area of the plains is where Saddam's WMDs are now buried. Which means that Bush was right!!11!

So let's screw up the planet and destroy everything and everyone, because a 1% of the Righteous will naturally be spared all of that and will live happily ever after.

Americans, as usual, have played around with this so much they've divided the hapless Jews into a few prison camps in their dogma. One wants Jesus to come back and personally slay all people of which they don't agree and another is that after all that peace and love foolishness many cling to, is done and over with. In their version of Kingdom Come, Christians will be subservient to all the old Hebrew laws like animal sacrifices to be done where the Temple Mount has been restored to Israel.

After all those other people are also wiped off the face of the planet by Jesus and His Legions, so no sweat. The world's capitol will be Jerusalem and everyone will bow in obesiance to God's rightful rule. IOW, Christianity will no longer exist on Earth, but Judiasm and all opposition to being ruled from Jerusalem will be wiped out. People have not thought this through.

Another version is that Jesus Himself will rule and the Jews, will once again play the role of pawns in their fantasies. They will convert to Christianity in the face of the literally overwhelming fire power of the returned rifle, nuke toting, bolt of lightning slinging Jesus. A little bit of something for everyone by those particular RWNJs, Charlton Heston, Doctor Strangelove and Zeus.

The First Amendment was never intended to give free rein to these fanatics, yet this is what has happened.

Any Jew, Israeli, Muslim or Christian who signs onto this needs their heads examined. Those are simply my observations from years in churches, reading their writings, watching them on television and since then, reading online. These are all dog whistles.

Just sayin'