This story doesn’t note the best thing that Cruz said: “If you will not stand with Israel, I will not stand with you.” Then he left the stage — he wasn’t booed off.
It is shameful that these Middle Eastern Christians heckled Cruz for standing with Israel. This is the result of their long historical identification with Muslims as fellow Arabs. The Arab nationalist imperative was largely an attempt by Christian Arabs to ease the pain of dhimmitude by creating a secular framework upon which Christians could enjoy equal, or almost equal, status with Muslims. Practically this meant the utter co-opting of Christian communities in Arab countries: they became politically, culturally, and socially indistinguishable from the larger Muslim population. This was because for Muslims Islam was always the heart of the Arab identity in any case — as was succinctly summed up by pioneering Arab nationalist Michel Aflaq: “Arab nationalism is Islam.”
Also, farther back than the advent of Arab nationalism, dhimmi communities were also kept apart and at odds with one another. They were communities of fear, living under an ever-ready threat of death if they got out of line. And so mostly, they didn’t.
But at this point, they should be able to throw off these old and outmoded cultural attitudes. They need to realize, as does Cruz, that all the communities threatened by jihad and Islamic supremacism need to hang together — or we will most assuredly hang separately.
“Ted Cruz Booed Off Stage At Middle East Christian Conference [VIDEO],” by Tristyn Bloom, Daily Caller, September 10, 2014:
Sen. Ted Cruz was booed offstage at a conference for Middle Eastern Christians Wednesday night after saying that “Christians have no greater ally than Israel.”
Cruz, the keynote speaker at the sold-out D.C. dinner gala for the recently-founded non-profit In Defense of Christians, began by saying that “tonight, we are all united in defense of Christians. Tonight, we are all united in defense of Jews. Tonight, we are all united in defense of people of good faith, who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare disagree with their religious teachings.”
Cruz was not reading from a teleprompter, nor did he appear to be reading from notes.
“Religious bigotry is a cancer with many manifestations,” he continued. “ISIS, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas, state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East. Sometimes we are told not to loop these groups together, that we have to understand their so called nuances and differences. But we shouldn’t try to parse different manifestations of evil that are on a murderous rampage through the region. Hate is hate, and murder is murder. Our purpose here tonight is to highlight a terrible injustice, a humanitarian crisis.”
“Christians have no greater ally than Israel,” he said, at which point members of the crowd began to yell “stop it” and booed him.
EWTN News Nightly’s Jason Calvi caught the moment on video.
Chris says
So is he not Christian now?
Myxlplik says
When I see people of the book reading the same, looking for excuses to slaughter each other I’m reminded why I turned agnostic. I disbelieve.
Bezelel says
Disenchantment can be a symptom of wounded expectations. God hasn’t changed but people do. I can’t imagine living under their conditions. “To thine own self be true”
Jack Gordon says
Your clear mistake was to swallow the nonsense about Mohammedanism being ”of the Book”. You aren’t alone in this confusion but that doesn’t excuse it. Let me be transparent here: Islam has NOTHING to do with Judaism or Christianity beyond a few pipe-dream lies once proffered by the pervert who cooked up Mohammedanism, fantasies that rearrange totally what Judaism and Christianity have taught.
Myxlplik says
Jack,
I was referring to Christans and Jews, I consider the Koran to be the work of a self indulgent pirate, who manipulated the faith of others to get what he wanted.
I just don’t think these Christians have been part of the world Christianity created for long enough, they’ve been prisoners in the world Mohammed created. This doesn’t mean we should turn our backs on them, give up on them, or consider them enemies.
I’m just more of an agnostic now, have been for a long time. This is one of the reasons why.
Bettina says
Right on, Jack!
bishopsmom says
Don’t care what you are. If we do not stand with Israel, the only democratic nation in the area, surrounded by Arab states that want to wipe them off the face of the earth, then we are NOT TRUE AMERCANS! Now put that in your pipe and smoke it!
somehistory says
Jesus said His true followers would have love among themselves and that the second greatest commandment is: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. He was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Then He told the story of the good Samaritan who acted neighborly toward a Jew.
The parable was instruction on how Christians are supposed to exercise *love of neighbor.*
Hamilton says
Or it could just be that these Christians know the long history of Christian persecution by the Israeli government and some of its citizens, especially the Likud Party, the anti-Christian speeches given in the Knesset, and the laws passed against proselytizing and arrests for distribution of the NT in Israel. Just saying.
cassandra says
So would you be against people who, together with muslims, have murdered, slandered and pogromed you for 2000 years, despite your “leader” Jesus being a Jew and teaching the Torah.
And look at the Pope trying to steal Jewish land by appropriating King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem.
and BTW, where has the pope and the other Christian leaders condemned ISIS out of hand, condemned Iran and Saudi Arabia for arresting and killing Christians?
So please, your words are utterly empty and contemptible.
john spielman says
the pogroms were against the Jews NOT Christians for 2000 years
Jim Spencer says
John – I’ve just read your response to the Jihad Watch article. My original family name is not Spencer. Actually it’s Spielman. My dad’s parents came from Lodz Poland in the very early years of the 20th century and settled in the East End of London where my dad was born. I have nearly no information about the family other than their European origin. I’m always on the lookout for persons to whom I might be related. If you are interested in discussing the possibility of kinship I’d be more than happy to hear from you. My home is in Ottawa, Canada and my email address is ajhs@rogers.com
Cheers!
Jim
JB says
Precisely.
Ha Meshuga says
“the anti-Christian speeches given in the Knesset” Can you provide links to these please?
Bettina says
Who or WHAT are you, Hamilton?! Israel has NEVER, EVER persecuted Christians, you idiot! I’ve lived there. I know what the hell I’m talking about, you lying, deceitful moron!
With such glowing qualities ruling your poor deluded psyche, you really ought to join a movement to exonerate islam, and start spouting your anti-Semitism elsewhere. In fact, get out of here and find your hateful destiny somewhere else.
MORON.
Bettina says
Furthermore, Moron, Christians proselytize in complete and absolute freedom in Eretz Israel. Where the hell do you get your info?
Change your name from Hamilton to A.S. for anti-Semite, and add another “S” for accuracy.
Salah says
As an Egyptian Christian myself … I STAND WITH ISRAEL.
RichardL says
my wife is a former Muslim Egyptian and she is a Zionist. The Christians in Muslim countries are split: many are silently Zionist and more are Jew-haters, I am afraid. The propaganda they are exposed to (matzoh with Christian blood etc.) and they patriotism make them hate Jews. I am not defending – just explaining how I saw it in Egypt.
Also, many of my Israeli friends fallen into the trap of seeing themselves as desert dwellers. They are tired of war and flee into this romantic idea of the community of desert dwellers. They think have things in common with the Muslims and then project and think that the Muslims reciprocate their feelings. That is very very dangerous for Israel.
Cruz is a good guy. I wonder how many of the ones agreeing with him, left the event after him.
PRCS says
“I wonder how many of the ones agreeing with him, left the event after him.”
That’s a good question. None in that short video that i saw.
Bettina says
PRCS, there’s a 5-min. video of Ted Cruz’s amazing presentation, on youtube. The short one you saw is barely a teaser for the real thing. Please try to go there — you’ll be delighted!
Bettina says
Believe me, Michael — the overwhelming majority of Mideast Christians are either pro-Israel or apolitical and watching out for themselves to stay safe from all those f—-ing gangs of muslim murderers.
Just ask Salah.
dlbrand says
“If you will not stand with Israel, I will not stand with you.”
Indeed.
Jay Boo says
It is possible that CAIR might have slipped in a couple of shills in the same way that the Tea Party was discredited by leftists (or so I heard) posing as extreme right wing wackos whenever a camera was near.
cassandra says
I agree. Look at the two-faced so called conservative Republican, Grover Norquist, a stealth jihadist if ever there was one. There must be quite a few under the radar.
john spielman says
his wife is muslim so according to sharia law, he must be a convert too!
Jay Boo says
Let us not forget Islam’s double-dip dipshit Chris Christy as well.
Beagle says
I could understand someone being ambivalent or uninterested in Israel. Maybe standing with Israel is too high a bar. But anyone who supports Israel’s Muslim enemies, who plot genocide thanks to Islamic eschatology, is my enemy.
Myxlplik says
I can’t be enemies with other Christians, no matter what, but to see us divided affirms my loss of faith. I consider myself an Agnostic Theist, I believe in the world Christianity created, but doubt in a God. Not that it matters.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_theism
boakai ngombu says
though in turmoil, may the God of gods and Lord of lords lead you into all truth and grant you Peace through Christ.
Paleologos says
Ted Cruz … one of my heroes.
The U.S. is not in a good place right now.
… muslim pos POTUS barry hussein and his band of islamocrats … supposedly going to lead the country against ISIS, and all the other muslim puke gangs that hate the Great and Little Satans …
… when, in fact, obama is a muslim manchurian candidate that cannot be trusted any more than you can trust any muslim …
… obama is a pure idiot when the task is anything but campaigning … he is clueless on war making, flexing American military muscle when required, and he is an absolute pussy, no balls, … Putin realized this, and that’s why Putin is having a field day in the Ukraine.
… obama is gutting our military in a fashion reminiscent of buck toothed, anti-semite peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter.
I pray every day our country can survive the islamic python around our neck, and wake the world leaders up from the dangerous sleep they are in … those that are just stupid, and not willfully propelling a caliphate.
R/
Paleologos
RichardL says
agree with every word you wrote.
What came after pea-nuts Carter? A revival of freedom and Christianity. It will be the same this time, only stronger. America is strong.
cassandra says
America is not only strong in it’s physical self, it is a powerful IDEA and ideas can never be destroyed. God bless Israel and God bless America.
Bettina says
If ideas, therefore ideologies, cannot be destroyed — may God help us overcome those of the cruel, sadistic monsters biting at our heels.
Barking was the saber-rattling of those dangerous morons, and biting came with the sadistic decapitation of our journalists.
Anushirvan says
“The Arab nationalist imperative was largely an attempt by Christian Arabs to ease the pain of dhimmitude by creating a secular framework upon which Christians could enjoy equal, or almost equal, status with Muslims.”
Well, quite. Secular-oriented (de facto socialist-inspired) Ba’athism was actually cooked up by Michel Aflaq, a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist for this very purpose.
Peter B says
Bat Yeor described the negative sum game imposed on dhimmis under sharia, and the resulting tendency of dhimmi groups to inform on each other to the Muslim authorities to curry favor and to attack other group, or at least aim the mobs at someone else.
What Sen. Cruz encountered was both antisemitism and the distorted thinking inculcated by dhimmitude.
AnneM says
Not surprised Sen. Ted Cruz. This is what Islamic imposed “dhimitude” does to Middle Eastern Christians.
Rajivi says
Don’t , the so called Arab Christians, know that Secular Ideas and Islam are the two opposite poles, that never meet.
manuel-rafael says
There may be the feeling that this is political talk as “usual” the Christian Genocide during Egypt’s Mohammed Mursy’s reign as “Mufti-Mullahs Fuehrer” was ignored across the board, by both Houses of Congress; ISIS IS an issue the Christian Orthodox and Coptic Communities; know IS the evolution of those “moderate rebels” trained, armed and funded by Qatar/Turkey and Obama’s American Emirate, the “racial-hygiene” of the Holiest Sites of Judeo Christianity has been an appalling one. While Syria has seen Damascus, Aleppo and a multiplicity of other Judeo Christian Sites/Cities destroyed, the reaction to Cruz is not unexpected; Given the totally depraved nature of the issue; The Mohammedan Jihadi Genocide was done once before, Ottoman Turkey declared Tehcir Law by Fatwa (1914-1924) the Armenian and Greek Christians were killed by a political/religious order of “deportation;relocation and extermination” this, I believe was the basis for the Holocaust the Third Reich committed against not only Jews butr Christians, Gypsies and anything predating Mohammedan Islamiism: Germany’s own Tehcir Law was not passed until 1935, the Nuremberg Laws of “racial-purity” and political-race-hygiene are the same as this ignored Genocide in the Middle East and the Maghreb; Since the Qatari Arab Spring the Persecution of Christians has been ignored for political expediency and political correctness, during the Ottoman Turkey Total Jihad against non Moslems; the Fatwa for Sharia Law (Tehcir/Nuremberg Laws)
Armenian and Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians escaped across the desert borders to Syria and Libya, the major Christian Communities where Aleppo, Damascus and Tripoli, all within the Ottomans and considered “provinces” until 1924’s final decline and fall of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire.
The bipartisan “intellectual illiteracy” of Middle East and North Africa allowed for a 2011 Strike against Libya, effectively using the “Moderate Rebel” armies of Stateless Jihadi Mohammedan mass murderers; war crimes by “proxy” irrespective of the Human Life they have killed by the sanctions of politically-correct policies, if Cruz cannot understand the issue, he may want to explore the recent events of Pope Francis, within 30 hours of his call for action against ISIS, his family mysteriously died in car accident in Argentina, on the road between Cordova and Rosario, the later being the “capital of the frozen packaged shishkebob” that goes to Europe: It is also the Drug-Cartel Capital of “money-laundering” next ISIS declared the Pope a marked man.
The Judeo Christian Communities see a repetition of Genocidal Holocaust being catered by political expediency and spilling blood daily, this may be why the Christians saw this condescending patronized action for the Christians as shallow and insulting, when the “moderate rebel armies” are formed, it is an Einsatzgruppen and the Fedeyeen Death Squads his audience saw as another period of Genocidal Islamiism, they see the false flag politics of convenient expediency, while the Republicans and Democrats arm, train and fund the same extermination squads that are the Christian Genocide, Cruz had better do some research as to what is Genocide and how a Holocaust was allowed to happen then and now.
medina says
Brigitte Gabriel is a good source of info on this topic. When Christians live in dhimmitude for so long they adopt the mindset that the ummah is merciful:
-because they want you (Christians) to convert and many do
-because you know the violence Muslims are capable of but they spare you
-because they want your daughters
Look at the Egyptian Christians who have their daughters ‘circumcised’ and avoid pork. In stong, vibrant Christian communities, no one is ostracized for kosher or halal dietary habits. Many ME Christians have a religious Stockholm syndrome lifestyle. To them: you’ve had to live as a minority to survive, but we reject this existence.
carpediadem says
I always wondered about the reason Christians initiated the Arab nationalism phenomenon – thanks for clarifying this Robert.
I’m not necessarily surprised that these Christians can’t thi row off their habitual dhimmitude – but booing against Israel in US? Would have thought some things might have changed, after all Wafa Sultan and Hirsi Ali threw off their Jewhatred – but then they deliberately worked at it.
In the meantime, what an admirable and crisp statement from Cruz – a great man who clearly knows what he thinks and can state it baldly. That is courage and conviction.
Brilliant!
Daniel Triplett says
I love Ted Cruz as I love Ronald Reagan, and pray America gains wisdom to elect him POTUS in 2016.
Wisdom, Faith, strategic vision, and huge balls. The perfect man to lead America in this Apocalyptic Era. Sadly we must wait another two and a half years being led by Satan’s minions.
Would love to see also:
SECSTATE: John Bolton
SECDEF: Allen West
AG: Trey Gowdy
And Charles Krauthammer in a Karl Rove/Valerie Jarrett position of high influence.
carpediadem says
Robert,
a quick note – Cruz said: If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, I will not stand with you.”
EYESOPEN says
Kudos to Ted Cruz for daring to castigate supposed “Christian” dhimmis for finding no love in their hearts for their Jewish brethren. You can say what you want about Ted Cruz not being a “natural born” American citizen (he isn’t); but he still does speak the truth in many, many cases.
Will says
Most of the above posts are too kind.
There is only ONE enemy: Islam.
Do not fight it and you are MY enemy.
I do NOT GAF about your god(s) or your religion,
all I care about is whether you fight the ideology
of the barbarian.
All else is irrelevant and IMO inexcusable.
Fight or shut up and die and that goes for those
idiotic, gutless ME Christians.
pongidae rex says
Right On!
History is at a turning point that comes once in a thousand years. The future of humanity is that of an insect, hive-mind under Islam, or a world of intelligent beings approaching divinity in countless creative ways. The stakes have never been higher in the history of the world.
wolfgang says
Lots of Christians in Australia and NZ hate Jews, don’t get me wrong, I really detest the Heredi Jews in Israel , they actually have more in common with the radical Muslims, those nasty pieces of work would just as soon kill Christians, reformed Jews, Muslims and anyone else who opposed them, they don’t believe in carrying and using guns, but apart from that I despise them, having said that I do wholly support Israel, I don’t like many of the things the nation does[ supporting Homosexual rights for one ] and has many anti Christian attitudes , but really as a very strong fundamentalist believer in the Lord himself, I cannot hate the Jews as a nation or race of people, for without a doubt I would NOT be a believer today and in the kingdom of God if it were not for the Jews, so any genuine Christian who has a knowledge of Jesus as Lord really cannot be a born again Christian without acknowledging the Jews and having kinship with them, there really is no other way around it.
wolfgang says
One more important point, America itself is on the downhill slide, not because I take joy in this, this actually grieves me [ I lived in the USA for some years] I have a great love of the American people and the nation, but it has sadly become a real shell of its former greatness and let its morals, hard work and honesty slide down to the point where it does not really stand for Godliness [ no nation does anywhere ] the USA could do this at one stage. I don’t know the future [ only the living God does] but I DO know the enemy rising to bring forth a demonic empire is Islam and all its fellow travellers, be they club of Rome, Bilderburgers, CFR etc, so in a real sense people who are free thinker’s, agnostics, Christians, libertarians and many others must come together at some point and hopefully see their is one common enemy .
pongidae rex says
If this guy is on the 2015 Presidential ticket, he has my vote. The party is irrelevant. Alas, the process usually filters out real men.
Mike Walsh says
The Christians who live as dhimmis under Islamic rule dare express nothing but animosity toward the Jews, lest they bring the wrath of the majority upon them. As for those who are sincerely anti-Jewish: of course they are. The success of the Jewish state is a daily reminder of their own shameful status as second-class people in places their ancestors once ruled, and of the failure of the various devil’s bargains they have made with Islam.