GOP/Christofascist Apocalyptic Fantasies Unleashed in Israel

One of the 1,500+ injured Palestinians. 

At times the only segment of the American population that Donald Trump seems to strive to please are the evangelical Christofascists (since many of them are racists, perhaps Trump seeks to please white supremacists).  A case in point is the lunatic decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem which was seized by Israeli force of arms without international law blessing.  As any sane person would have expected, Palestinians are not happy and, as seems to be always the case, the protests turned bloody and one-sided with Palestinian deaths and injuries while Israelis remained unharmed.  The Washington Post noted the casualties:

Israeli forces killed 58 Palestinians at the boundary fence with Gaza on Monday . . . No Israeli soldiers were injured, though, and Israel drew widespread condemnation for an excessive use of force.  More than 2,700 people were injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, including 1,359 from live ammunition. The dead included six children under the age of 18, among them a 15-year-old girl, and a medic, the ministry said.

Adding to the ugliness of the event was the presence and speeches of two Christofascist extremist preachers who, like their unwashed co-religionists, back the embassy move because in their delusional minds, it is helping to set the stage for the Apocalypse - when all but an small number of Jews survive and countless millions of humans perish.  A column in Esquire puts the idiocy in perspective:

More than 20 people in Gaza were dead on Monday before anyone in Washington had had their breakfast. This was pitched to the awakening nation as a series of “deadly clashes,” even though the deadly part only applied to one side. It was a great start to a day in which the president*, who doesn’t know anything about anything, prepared to toss a lighted match into a lagoon of gasoline in the Middle East.

The decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem is more unnecessary than it is stupid and dangerous, and it’s pretty stupid and dangerous. There was no overwhelming political support—and certainly no overwhelming political pressure—in this country for such a provocative development. It was solely the desire of that odd mixture of highly conservative Judaism and American splinter Protestantism, of the prolonged slow-dance between the apocalyptic factions of two major monotheisms that very likely will incite the apocalyptic faction of the third. It is religious extremism disguised as international diplomacy.

How do I know this? Well, Jared and Ivanka Trump already have met with a conservative rabbi who thinks black people are monkeys. The United States of America will be represented at the ceremony by Robert Jeffress and John Hagee, two completely batshit-insane TV preachers with long histories of supporting Israel because it allegedly will be largely set-decoration for the end times. . . . . From CNN:

Hagee, whose group is dedicated to organizing pro-Israel Christians in the United States into a unified voice, has had relationships with Israeli prime ministers dating back years. But he came under the national political spotlight in 2008 for comments that prompted then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain to reject his endorsement. During the campaign, audio from one of Hagee's sermons in the 1990s was leaked that seemed to suggest that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God's will by aiding the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy.

As for Jeffress, well, he’s been the chaplain on the Trump Train for a while now, and he also has a long record of interesting pronouncements on world religions.

Some might remember Jeffress for his frequent condemnations of Mormonism as a "cult" during the 2012 presidential campaign and his urging of Christians not to vote for Mitt Romney, a Mormon, during the Republican primary. But Jeffress has also called Islam and Mormonism heresies "from the pit of hell," suggested that the Catholic church was led astray by Satan, accused then-President Barack Obama of "paving the way" for the Antichrist, and spread false statistics about the prevalence of HIV among gays, who he said live a "miserable" and "filthy" lifestyle.
 Every American of every faith—to say nothing of Americans who have no religious faith at all—should be embarrassed to be represented by this collection of crackpots and thooleramawns, gone off to Israel to bless an unnecessary and perilous politico-religious gambit that owes more to fringe religion and domestic Israeli politics than to any American national interest. For the first time in its history, the United States has entered into what is at least partly an ancient religious war. This is exactly why our Constitution is as godless as it is.

The Palestinians, of course, are not the only ones outraged by Trump's move.  Countless millions will now be much more receptive to a message that America is their enemy.  Don't be surprised if more terror attacks take place on American soil.  Trump has just about guaranteed that they will through this self-prostitution to Christofascists.

Religious Extremeist Injures Six at Jerusalem Gay Pride

UPDATED:17 year old Shira Banki (pictured above) has died from the wounds inflicted on her by right wing orthodox extremist Yishai Schlissel.  Take a good look.  Death, hate and bigotry are the fruits of fundamentalist religion.  Personally, I would like to see Schlissel drawn and quartered.  Yes, it is a barbaric punishment, but a message needs to be sent to members of fundamentalist religions of all faiths that modern societies will not tolerate their hate and poison and that they will be dealt with in the most brutal and forceful ways possible.  Fundamentalism of every stripe is a poison that needs to be eradicated from the face of the earth.

American Christofascists do not have a monopoly on anti-gay hate and animus.  This week at Jerusalem's gay pride event, Yishai Schlissel, a knife wielding ultra-Orthodox Jew, stab six people leaving a sixteen year old girl still in critical condition.  The photos above via Huffington Post show some of the carnage and Schlissel in custody.  Take a good look.  This is the true face of conservative religion.  Hate and violence, and often death.   Conservative, fundamentalist religion, be it Christian, Jewish or Muslim, is a pestilence that deserves no respect or deference in the modern world.   Here are more details from Huffington Post:

An anti-gay ultra-Orthodox extremist suspected of stabbing revelers at Jerusalem's Gay Pride Parade appeared in court on Friday and the judge ordered that he remain in custody.

The suspected attacker, Yishai Schlissel, was arrested at the pride parade the previous day, after he brandished a knife and stabbed six people. The court extended his arrest by 12 days as the investigation against him continues, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Schlissel was convicted of a similar attack that wounded several people at a gay pride parade in Jerusalem in 2005. Schlissel had been released from prison just three weeks ago after serving his sentence. 

Israeli hospital officials said Friday that a 16-year-old girl remained in critical condition after the attack, with wounds to her chest and shoulder. Three others are in hospital but their conditions are not life threatening, while the remaining two have been discharged, hospital officials said.

The Gay Pride Parade was proceeding as planned with party music, Israeli flags and rainbow-clad marchers wending their way through central Jerusalem's barricaded streets, under a heavy police presence, when the attacker entered the throng of people. Within seconds he raised a knife and began stabbing people in the back.

Police pounced on him and arrested him. The crowd's carefree cheers suddenly gave way to screams.

A world without fundamentalist religion - perhaps without religion entirely - would be a far better world.  It's telling that everyone of the death threats I have receive via comments on this blog (I never publish their venom) have come from "godly Christians."