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April 24,
2003
Rev.
Pat Robertson in the Temple
Channeling
the Word to the Infidels
by JOHN GREBE
The televangelizing Rev. Dr. Pat Robertson's charm
beamed into his live audience at Temple Beth Sholom in Framingham,
Mass. on the Sunday before Passover, while the mandatory yalmulke
he pinned vertically to the very back of his head evaded journalists'
cameras.
"We have a common heritage, and
we have common enemies," Robertson intoned to over 200 of
the temple's conservative denomination. "There is a devil,"
"Lucifer, light- bringer," "also called Sataan"
(he rhymed it with Saddam).
The temple-hired Framingham police officer
J.H. Smith handcuffed one information- bringer: a 55-year old
Jewish educator from Brookline, wearing his yalmulke and the
star of David, who bought his ticket, listened to Robertson,
then quietly offered leaflets outside the building afterwards.
Marty Federman represented "Jews Saying No to the Christian
Right." No such light may be shed. He was chucked in the
clink. The black-booted officer removed this gentleman--a former
Hillel director at Northeastern University--into the police van
parked outside since before Robertson arrived. Rabbi Gary Greene
says the temple's adult education committee wanted to provide
the whole range of views by offering Robertson's visit. But "Jews
Saying No to the Christian Right" had no opportunity to
ask any questions during the Q&A session. The moderator screened
and chose all the questions--conservative Boston Globe columnist
Jeff Jacoby served well in this role.
"I managed to avoid arrest by the
Israeli army," says Federman, while he spent a month in
the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel this year. "Then I had to
come to Framingham." The leaflets prepared by "Jews
Saying No to the Christian Right" simply listed Robertson's
opposition to non-Christian religions, to separation of church
and state, to public education, to sex, to women's rights, to
homosexuality. There's merely one sentence involving Palestine
on the flyer's back side, describing Robertson's support for
"the failed policies of the Sharon government--policies
that have not only devastated the Palestinian society and its
economy, but have also led to the most Israeli deaths in any
period of the country's history (outside of all-out war), while
wreaking havoc on its economy."
Despite an error in the following Tuesday's
Boston Globe, no demonstrators leafleted inside the temple, as
Rabbi Greene agrees. Greene says he hadn't asked police to remove
demonstrators from synagogue property. But earlier, the police
officer who emerged from the temple sanctuary before the event,
suddenly alerted to demonstrators' presence in the parking lot,
said "we'll get rid of them right away," apparently
unaware of reporters nearby. Greene is "shopping around"
for another temple, and says it has nothing to do with controversy
around Robertson's visit, arranged by the temple's adult education
committee, of which Greene is only one member. Federman's court
date is May 19--for trespassing and disorderly conduct.
American Christians don't usually see
this side of things, but there's a common label that reflexively
pro-Israel Jews can hurl at another Jew who dares question Israeli
policy--"self-hating Jew." A Jewish fan of Robertson's
position on Israel shouted this epithet at "Jews Saying
No to the Christian Right" just as they arrived at the temple's
parking lot. But Robertson says he "loves the Jews."
Why was conservative evangelist Pat Robertson
at Temple Beth Sholom? Was his rare appearance in synagogue a
trial to suss out the political repercussions of a new alliance,
still in the dark to most Americans? The temple's cantor opened
the evening with "America the Beautiful," and then
"Hatikva," Israel's national anthem. Most of the world
well understands that U.S. foreign policy planners' have for
decades channeled billions of U.S. dollars to the Israeli government
and military--more aid than any country in the world receives.
Robertson said to the Jewish congregation, Israel is not just
"a permanent aircraft carrier" for the U.S. What is
it then to Robertson? What strategic alliance does the wealthy
Reverend intend?
There's only one Western developed country
where extremist fundamentalists manipulate a populace in which
large groups believe that the world was created 4,000 years ago,
that evolution is a fiction, that miracles happen. Exploiting
the psychologically vulnerable is an ancient trick. Americans
are only a recent victim. And Pat Robertson only a recent impresario
on the stage of tricksters who interpret holy books for their
own enrichment.
Robertson televangelizes through his
Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club" program
for three hours a day in every U.S. town carrying the "Fox
Family Channel" on cable. A businessman and politician,
he ran for President in 1988, and heads the Christian Coalition.
In 1990 he founded a "family entertainment" vehicle
for The Family Channel, which sold seven years later for $1.9
billion.
The temple's Jack Bushinsky announced
that a portion of the evening's proceeds will be donated to the
Christian Broadcasting Network. According to Rabbi Greene, the
engagement came about because "one of Pat Robertson's businesses
does business with one of our congregant's businesses."
Robertson inherited the patent on the Ice Ban liquid de-icing
product, manufactured in Robertson's town, Virginia Beach, according
to temple congregant Ed Brookmeyer. His company stores a half
million gallons of the chemical in Lowell, Mass. And New England's
environmentally concerned cities and towns purchase the stuff
to reduce their use of road salt-- unknowingly enriching Robertson.
Robertson's mild-mannered preacher's
charm lulled the temple crowd. He claimed he doesn't believe
in the "ingathering" of the Jewish people for an apocalypse
in which they're either converted to Christianity, or killed
by "God." "There is no battle of Armageddon; there
is a battle for Jerusalem." As Chip Berlet of Political
Research Associates says, Robertson has been publishing his apocalyptic
visions and speculating on the "end times" for 20 years.
Berlet identifies as a Christian, and
says according to Robertson's "understanding of Biblical
prophesy, Israel has to be controlled by Jews so that Christ
can come back and slaughter all the Jews, except 144,000 who
convert. Why this would seem like a good idea is probably built
around simple pragmatism. Since most Jews don't think Christ
is coming back, they figure it's not a bad deal, because they
get support for Israel and they don't get slaughtered in the
end times because they don't believe in them."
"What Robertson said at the synagogue,"
says Berlet, "is a gloss to pull the wool over the eyes
of the people he's trying to form a coalition with so that they
can basically blow up the Temple Mount's mosque and replace it
with a synagogue--and then Christ will come back."
Does the Israeli lobby need Robertson's
approval to keep U.S. aid flowing to Israel at $3 billion a year?
No. Could he count on Jewish votes for another run at the Presidency?
No. Is his self-professed love for Jewish people the only thing
motivating his temple visit? Or are his business instincts at
work?
Robertson's CBN television network has
roots in the "Holy Land." Feeding war stories to his
Jewish audience, Robertson pulled off a stunt that only a calculating
pol could nail. First in Israel in '67, he called the Six Days
War "so brilliant." But it was '82 when he wanted to
broadcast. He recounted his adventures in southern Lebanon, in
the service of profit and prophet. Robertson saw a grand design
in broadcasting Christian television to the Lebanese. He claims
the Lebanese shot rockets to knock out his TV transmitter repeater
link to Beirut. Robertson says his competitor's TV station was
showing worldwide wrestling competition to 1.1 million viewers
in Lebanon. Then, "somebody sent us a tape of female mud
wrestling" and "somehow" his Christian station
broadcast it to the Lebanese. "They" loved it, the
Reverend said, before more rockets knocked out the mud wrestling.
Religious extremism aside, Robertson fancies himself a statesman.
He left out 1982 in Lebanon, when Christian Phalangist militia
massacred 700-3,500 civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee
camps while Ariel "The Bulldozer" Sharon's Israeli
troops surrounded and condoned it. Robertson wanted his Middle
East TV in Arabic to "send a message of love and hope to
that region."
"Why not begin educating [the Arabs]?
Take their TV, and cut down their propaganda," suggests
Robertson. Does Rev. Robertson need a toehold in the "holy"
land for televangelizing? Is the born-again President George
W. Bush and his invasion of Arab lands in need of any more Christian
tint? Is the Bush administration's new state television in Iraq--taken
over from the old state television in Iraq--sounding the clarion
call for Robertson to expand his enterprise? "Toward Freedom,"
Bush and company named the new U.S. channel in Baghdad. Uncle
Sam plans to beam a half dozen Arabic-captioned U.S. corporations'
news programs, including a Fox News report.
"Adolph Hitler," says Robertson,
"was demon possessed, as well as others in the Third Reich.
. . . It's only the love of God that will end hatred." "Sharon
is strong . . . and Wolfowitz and Cheney and Bush understand
the spiritual significance."
Calling "Bebe" Netanyahu "my
old friend" several times, Robertson said Moslems' "claim
[to Jerusalem] in my view is somewhat faulty." Of Sharon
in 2000, he said "the Prime Minister wanted to walk on the
Temple Mount. This was the place where Jesus walked. When [Sharon]
did, it caused the Intifada. . . . The Temple Mount was bought
and paid for by King David, and it doesn't belong to the Palestinians
or Yasser Arafat . . . How dare the U.N. tell Israel how to split
up the land . . . No amount of land can be given to gain peace."
At one point Rev. Robertson had opined, "those religious
police are brutal."
John Grebe
airs "Sounds of Dissent" Saturdays, 12-2 p.m. Eastern
Time from Boston's WZBC - 90.3 FM, streaming from http://wzbc.org
, and coordinates radio with the Boston Independent Media Center
http://Boston.IndyMedia.org.
He can be reached at: jgrebe@TecsChange.org
Today's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
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of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
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