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President Bachmann as Mideast Prophet: Cole/ Truthdig

Juan Cole 08/16/2011

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My column in Truthdig is now out, “President Bachmann: Another Mideast Messiah”

Excerpt:

“Bachmann recently alleged that Iran had been “delivered a nuclear warhead” (this assertion, like many of Bachmann’s bromides, is simply untrue). That Bachmann would be a hawk on Iran, favoring at least covert intervention, probably via the MEK, and perhaps even military action, is clear from her speeches on the subject.
Bachmann does not have so much a policy toward Israel as a posture of obeisance. She told the Republican Jewish Coalition of Los Angeles in February 2010:

I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States. … [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.

Bachmann appears to believe that God’s blessings on Abraham were actually intended for the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu in contemporary Israel. This theology of Israeli infallibility probably was influenced by Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries, with which Bachmann has had a long relationship. Christian Zionists’ fondness for Israel is bittersweet, since it is wrought up with a belief that the end of the world is around the corner, at which time Jews will become Christians.”

Read the whole thing

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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