[WCUSP] "Islamic Civil War" & Christian Zionism End-Times

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

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IS "ISLAMIC CIVIL WAR" A WESTERN PLAN FOR CHAOS-BY-DESIGN?
[By M. Shahid  Alam -- CounterPunch-Weekend -- December 23-24,  2006]
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The  war that Western powers -- primarily the U.S., Israel and Britain --
began  against the Islamic world after September 11, 2001, is about to enter
a new  and more dangerous phase as their early plans for "changing the map
of the  Middle East" unravel.

Codenamed "the war against terror," the imperialist  assault against the
Middle East was driven primarily by U.S. and Israeli  ambitions. Britain's
participation is mostly a sideshow, while the U.S. and  Israel have
convergent aims in the region. The U.S. seeks to deepen its  control over
the region's oil and Israel wants to create conditions that will  allow it
to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

As a first  step, both objectives would be served by removing four regimes
-- Iran,  Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- that still resist U.S. and Israeli
ambitions.  With these regimes removed, the U.S. and Israel would carry
their war into  Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, dismembering them into
smaller, weaker  client states.

Iraq and Afghanistan were chosen as the first targets  because they had been
ravaged by years of war, weakened by internal  divisions; and in the case of
Iraq, hollowed-out by sanctions. With friendly  regimes in power, the U.S.
could start working on regime changes in Iran and  Syria.

Initially, the occupation was indeed a cake walk. But little else  has been
easy. The Sunni-led insurgency that began within weeks of the fall  of
Baghdad has derailed U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq. Indeed, as Iraq  moved
closer to civil war over the past few months, pressures within the  U.S.
mounted for an American pull out. In Afghanistan too, after a period  of
initial stability, Taliban resurgence -- operating from  neighboring
Pakistan -- now threatens NATO forces.

In the meantime,  the U.S.-led war against the region has changed the map of
the Middle East,  but in unsettling ways. Not only has Iran gained deep
influence over Iraq and  Afghanistan, it can leverage this influence to
raise steeply the cost of the  U.S. occupation in both countries. As well,
with help from Russia and China,  Iran has built a military capability that
can threaten U.S. clients on the  Arabian Peninsula; shut off the Hormuz
Straits to shipping; and launch  missiles that can reach Israel. In
addition, Hezbollah demonstrated a new  form of guerilla war -- using low-
tech rockets, anti- tank weapons, and  sophisticated intelligence gathering
-- that neutralized a determined Israeli  offensive.

The Iraq Study Group has described the situation in that  country as "grave
and deteriorating," and recommended a quick drawback of  U.S. forces. It is
unlikely that President Bush will take that advice.  Instead, the U.S.,
Israel and Britain have for some time been working on an  alternative plan
to incite a civil war between Sunnis and Shias across the  Middle East.
Taking a leaf from Israeli experience in the West Bank and Gaza,  they
expect to create controlled chaos throughout the entire Islamic  world.

The battle lines in this civil war have already been drawn. The  principal
American-Israeli surrogates in this so-called "Islamic civil war"  showed
their colors last July when Israel launched devastating air attacks  against
Lebanese civilian targets in response to the capture of two  Israeli
soldiers by Hezbollah. Almost instantly, Cairo, Riyadh and Amman  condemned
the Hezbollah action. On the opposite side, resurgent Shia power  stretches
from Lebanon, through Syria and Iraq, into Iran.

During  recent meetings with Israeli leaders and Sunni Arab potentates
British PM  Tony Blair was working to lay the groundwork for an "alliance
against  extremism." His plan is to erect an "arc of moderation" against the
Shia  Crescent, with Iran as the principal "strategic threat" to Western
imperial  ambitions.

Iraq is already the theatre of this "Islamic civil war." Last  July, one of
the aims of the Israeli destruction of Lebanon's civilian  infrastructure
was to spread this sectarian war to Lebanon. That gambit  failed miserably.
Now Saudi Arabia is threatening to expand its support for  Sunni insurgents
in Iraq and destabilize Iran by raising its oil production.  More ominously,
some of its Wahhabi clerical allies are trying to rouse both  Arab fears of
Persian domination and Sunni concerns about the ascendancy of  the
"heretical" Shias.

The determining factor in this war will be the  Sunni populations under the
thumbs of Arab potentates. There is also the risk  that in fuelling Sunni
insurgency in Iraq, the Saudis will strengthen  al-Qaeda and their allies
who are sworn to bring down the U.S.-friendly Arab  potentates. Moreover, if
there is a real war in the region, the pseudo-Arab  states in the Gulf have
no fighting ability to bring to this conflict. In  that event, does the U.S.
have the forces to occupy Iraq and also defend its  Arab clients in the
Gulf?

Paraphrasing Tony Blair, the fate of the  Middle East, would be felt around
the world. It is unlikely that adding an  "Islamic civil war" to the mix
will benefit the U.S., Israel or  Britain.

(M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern  University, and
author of the soon-to-be-published Challenging the New  Orientalism:
Dissenting Essays on America's "War Against Islam" He may be  reached at
_alqalam02760 at yahoo.com_ (mailto:alqalam02760 at yahoo.com) )


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"CHRISTIAN"  END-TIMES ZIONISM A GROWING CONCERN IN WEST
[By Bill Berkowitz -- Asia Times  -- December 21,  2006]
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OAKLAND,  California -- Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Christian Right has
evolved  into one of the most powerful grassroots organizing forces within
the  Republican Party, and a host of Christian Zionists have taken seats at
the  foreign-policy table. Their support for Israel is not only growing, it
is  becoming an influential political factor.

Several prominent Christian  Right and conservative Jewish leaders have
teamed up to found organizations  that -- among other activities -- provide
millions of dollars to Israeli  charities; lobby in support of policies
advanced by right-wing leaders in  Israel; oppose President George Bush's
so-called "roadmap" to peace in the  Middle East; and help defray the costs
of Russian Jews immigrating to  Israel.

While the Revs Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have been  longtime
supporters of Israel, the founding this year of Christians United  for
Israel by John Hagee, pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in  San
Antonio, TX drew a great deal of media attention.

With Israeli  Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's popularity having plummeted since
the  Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Christian Zionists in the United States view
the  outcome not only as a defeat for Israel, but as prelude to a much wider
war.  In fact, they think the conflict might be a sign of  impending
Armageddon.

"The end of the world as we know it is rapidly  approaching," Hagee wrote in
his most recent book, Jerusalem Countdown: A  Warning to the World. "Just
before us is a nuclear countdown with Iran," he  wrote, "followed by
Ezekiel's war [as described in the biblical Book of  Ezekiel, chapters 38
and 39], and then the final battle -- the battle of  Armageddon."

For Hagee, best-selling author Joel Rosenberg, and other  Christian
Zionists, Israel plays the critical role in End Time scenarios.  Their
books, commentaries and public statements reflect their beliefs that  serial
conflicts in the Middle East are a sign of the biblical prophecy  presaging
Armageddon, the return of Jesus Christ, and the final battle for  the souls
of humankind.

And some have started to train their sights on  Tehran. In a recent weblog
post datelined Jerusalem, Rosenberg wrote: "The  buzz here in the last few
days is that Israel is seriously considering a  preemptive strike against
Iran's nuclear facilities and ballistic-missile  sites."

Given Israel's less-than-sterling performance against Hezbollah  this past
summer, Rosenberg was not convinced that Israel "has the capacity  -- or the
will -- at the moment to neutralize the Iranian nuclear and  ballistic
missile threat."

However, with "a new Hitler rising in  Iran," it is up to Bush, who met with
Olmert in Washington in mid-November,  to deal with the Iranian threat: "If
President Bush believes Iran needs to be  neutralized (and I believe he
does), and he is convinced that military action  is the only way ... then
the U.S. should take the lead."

After all,  wrote Rosenberg, "If anyone is going to stop Iran from
threatening the world  with nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them,
it has to be soon,  perhaps no later than the end of 2007. After all, 2008
is an American  election year [and] 2009 will be the start of a new
administration. By then  it may be too late. The thermonuclear genie may be
out of the  bottle."

The Israeli-Hezbollah war led several U.S. cable-television news  networks
to raise questions about whether the crisis in the Middle East was a  signal
that the so-called End Times were approaching. Rosenberg, author of  such
apocalyptic political thrillers as The Copper Scroll, The Ezekiel  Option,
and The Last Jihad, was invited to appear on CNN and the Fox News  Channel.

In one recent appearance, Rosenberg said he had made several  visits to
"speak at a White House Bible study" and had conversations with "a  number
of congressional leaders and Homeland Security, Pentagon [officials]  about
my novels, which are based on Bible prophecy."

Rosenberg said,  "The question that's been most interesting among these
various administration  and congressional officials is, 'Are you saying that
the Bible talks about an  alliance between Iran, Russia, and a group of
Middle Eastern countries to  attack Israel at some point?' And the answer is
yes."

Some critics  charge that Rosenberg is a self-promoter with little real
understanding of  Judaism.

"Rosenberg chooses to trade in his private salvation narrative  as a way of
winning readers, exploiting contacts, and -- most dangerously --  political
ventriloquism," said Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, co-founder of  JewsOnFirst.org,
a website devoted to protecting free speech, and rabbi of  Beth Shalom
Temple in Whittier, California.

"In this case,  [Rosenberg's] political ventriloquism is using the 'voice'
of Jews to their  eventual detriment -- while claiming it is for their
benefit -- and seeking  what I as a believing Jew must describe as apostasy
against Judaism and God,"  he said. "Rooting for war with Iran and lobbying
for world destruction using  Israel as catalytic agent is no longer
'entertainment' -- it is  obscene."

Rosenberg was an important but mostly behind-the-scenes figure  in the
conservative movement until his first novel, The Last Jihad, became a  best-
seller. A Jew who converted to Christianity more than 30 years ago, he  had
worked for former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,  Israeli
politician and author Natan Sharansky, U.S. business- magazine  magnate
Steve Forbes, and right-wing radio talk- show host Rush Limbaugh. He  is
also a former Heritage Foundation staffer.

The Last Jihad,  completed before the September 11, 2001 attacks, propelled
Rosenberg into the  spotlight. The novel featured a hijacked jet making a
kamikaze-like attack  against the President of the United States,
simultaneous terrorist strikes on  the U.S., London, Paris and Saudi Arabia,
an oil deal between Israel and the  Palestinians that threatened to unleash
a war with Iraq, and a possible  preemptive nuclear strike.

In a late-October interview with the  Washington Times, Rosenberg told
reporter Chrissie Thompson that he didn't  think his novels "were going to
predict the future ... I was basing them on a  series of Bible prophecies,
but when [they] started to come true ... that has  been striking for all of
us, myself included."

Another of his novels,  The Ezekiel Option, is described by Rosenberg as "a
political thriller about  the threat of a Russian-Iranian alliance to
destroy Israel based on the  biblical prophecies found in the Book of
Ezekiel, chapters 38 and  39."

These prophecies, according to Rosenberg, "describe what Bible  scholars
call the war of Gog and Magog. Russia and Iran form a military  alliance
with Lebanon, Syria and a group of other Middle East countries to  destroy
Israel in what Ezekiel described as the last days."

In recent  months, Rosenberg has suggested that Russia be added to the  Bush
administration's "axis of evil" that originally included Iraq, Iran  and
North Korea.

Recently, Rosenberg and his wife Lynn co-founded the  Joshua Fund, which
"partner[s] with evangelical ministries in the Middle East  to provide
desperately needed resources to Christians in the region to bless  their
neighbors in need in the name of Jesus."

According to Internet  religion commentator Richard Bartholomew, the fund's
two "humanitarian aid"  efforts are called the "Project to Bless Israel" and
the "Project to Bless  Lebanon."

"Lebanese refugees will get 'Bags of Blessing,' to be  distributed by Campus
Crusade for Christ and local evangelicals," Bartholomew  reported on his
website.

The bags will include food and other basic  items such as soap and headache
pills, he said, as well as a DVD on Jesus in  Arabic.

However, Bartholomew clarified that while the Lebanese refugees  will
receive the Jesus DVD, the Israelis "will be spared a similar Jesus DVD  in
Hebrew, for obvious political reasons."

(Bill Berkowitz is a  longtime observer of the conservative movement. His
Working For Change column  "Conservative Watch" documents the strategies,
players, institutions,  victories and defeats of the U.S. right.)
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