Imagine, in America of 2009, the formation of a lobby dedicated to, as one of its principal goals, convincing all African Americans to move "back" to Africa - a continent they weren't born on and which most of them had never even set foot upon.

Imagine, further, that leaders of this lobby publicly praised African-American cultural and racial identity but also promoted, in sermons and writing, many of the worst anti-black accusations and slurs known to history.

Imagine those leaders taught that if African Americans don't willingly "go back" to Africa, God will rise up an army to slaughter all African Americans so stubborn as to remain in the land of their birth, as American citizens.

Take out "African-American" and replace it with "Jewish-American", change "Africa" to "Israel," and the description fits an existing, national lobbying group - Christians United For Israel.

Today, Sunday October 25th, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel will deliver a keynote address at the home church of CUFI's founder, San Antonio pastor John Hagee.

Being a supporter of Israel, even "a strong ally of the state of Israel", does not, in itself, prove that a person has a positive, friendly or healthy attitude to Jews per se.

That sums up the thrust of An Open Letter To Elie Wiesel, that Talk To Action contributor Rachel Tabachnick and I have written, which presents our case as to why Mr. Wiesel should not endorse John Hagee or his Christians United For Israel organization. As we write,

John Hagee teaches "theological racism," the idea that the destiny of peoples is based on their biblical genealogy. Hagee claims Jewish souls are different from those of gentiles and that, according to divine plan, Jews have no right to live anywhere on Earth but in Israel. Hagee's fellow Christian Zionists predict that a coming, divinely ordained paroxysm of anti-Semitic violence, a "second Holocaust," will be necessary to force all Jews to make aliyah. From the pulpit, pastor Hagee and his fellow Christian Zionists preach their theological racism that risks provoking such a catastrophe.

Few Jews in the United States, Israel, or anywhere in the world seem to grasp the scale on which Christian Zionists such as John Hagee distribute their anti-Jewish invective. As Tabachnick and I point out, Hagee preaches that,

European-based Rothschilds control the US economy, through the Federal Reserve, and conspire to attack the American middle class by devaluing the dollar. According to the ADL, this class of Federal Reserve conspiracy theory, which names Rothschilds, is a "classic anti-Semitic myth."

...John Hagee's conspiracy theories and theological racism can be consumed without guilt by listeners in the 190 nations Hagee claims to reach through Christian television and radio broadcast networks.

Because Mr. Hagee cloaks such classic anti-Semitic diatribe in the guise of "prophecy" and Biblical exegesis he can do what overt anti-Semites in Neo-Nazi groups could only dream of doing - incite anti-Semitism on a global scale. And yet, during his recent "Feast of the Tabernacles" event held at Hagee's San Antonio Cornerstone church, at which Elie Wiesel delivered the keynote address, Hagee distributed millions of dollars for Israeli philanthropies. So, how could Mr. Hagee possibly be anti-Semitic ?

The facts speak for themselves. As my colleague Rachel Tabachnick details, in her October, 2nd, 2008 Talk To Action story, Fishers and Hunters - the Continuing Saga of Christian Zionism,

...demonizing of  "liberal or secular" Jews has become such an acceptable part of Christian Zionism that this rhetoric is now widely used by those Jewish leaders and writers who partner with them.  This is apparently done without consideration of the danger to all Jews, left and right, secular or observant, as these slurs become more acceptable and are increasingly applied to any Jewish person that does not support the Christian Zionist agenda.

John Hagee is clearly a "fisher" - he endorses, despite his protestation to the contrary, evangelical efforts that target Jews in Israel and he has helped craft a friendly,  ostensibly pro-Jewish image for Christian Zionism. But, through his anti-Jewish teachings, John Hagee is inciting anti-Semitic hatreds that may lead to the rise of those "hunters" which Hagee and his fellow Christian Zionists declare will be necessary when the enterprise of "fishing" proves inadequate.

As Tabachnick and I note in our Open Letter to Elie Wiesel, the eliminationalist undercurrent of Hagee's theology could not be more chilling. Many adherents to perhaps the most virulently anti-Jewish sector of American society, Christian Identity, believe that many or most Jews are in an evil, miscegenated lineage descended from Esau and the Edomites.

In his 2006 book Jerusalem Countdown, which could still be found up on the shelves of major booksellers in 2009, Pastor John Hagee claimed that a lineage of "half-breed Jews," descended from Esau and which included Adolf Hitler, have persecuted full-blooded Jews throughout history. Hagee went on to write that God intends to exterminate that "half-breed Jew" line. If Hagee's beliefs are indeed philo-Semitic then it is a strange, terrible, devouring love indeed.