re: #9 Bob Levin

I’ve been reading the posts about this new Christian/Jewish alliance, and I can’t quite get my head around it. It seems like two people who got together through a dating site, answered all of the superficial questions in a similar fashion, but really don’t know each other.

Let’s see how it plays out. Maybe they’ll just end up as good friends. Can’t see the political metaphor progressing to the stage of being in bed together.

Given the summary of Kahanist thinking above—particularly the bit about extending the borders and remaking the government—they dovetail very nicely with the desires of individuals and organizations that await the fulfilment of the Book of Revelations…and in their own distinct interpretation…which they view as literal, but is actually highly interpretative and lashes in sections of other books of the Bible, plus revealed numerology, etc…the “next” events required for the Second Coming are: for Israel to return to its maximum historical borders, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the return of the Jews to Israel.

I’m sorry I can’t remember the exact timeline off the top of my head…but I know that cluster are considered part of “what come next” in the End Times timeline…it varies a bit by group to group. After those achievements are unlocked (sorry, being glib…) comes the reign of the AntiChrist, and eventually the destruction of Israel by God and the Second Coming. While I don’t think that every person involved in CUFI thinks this way, the skeletal base of the organization and the funding-providers are made up of hard-core end-times believers.

The other creepy, but subtle, confluence is that both groups tend to have a very constrained definition of “Jewishness”—one that is socially conservative. The most ominous statement that Wilder fails to gloss is in the last paragraph: we don’t want you to act like Christians; we want you to act like Jews. That’s who you are, that’s who you should be. Unpack that statement while considering the speakers—men like Glenn Beck and John Hagee—and you realize that’s not an open embrace of Judaism, but rather a presumption of entitlement to define “Jewishness” in their own narrow field.

As to what the Kahanists are getting…well, money and legitimation come to mind, particularly if they’re fully on the outs in Israel proper. Beyond that I’d really be speculating without roots.