“Cruz’s action was an act of moral leadership”
Speaking truth to Middle Eastern Christians about hatred of Israel.
I only followed in passing the incident where Ted Cruz was booed off the stage at a gathering to support Christians in the Middle East after saying that Israel was the best friend Christians have in the Middle East.
The Daily Caller reported:
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.
Here’s a fairly full video:
Here’s the clip of the shout-down:
Some of the attacks on Cruz on Cruz after the event were so extreme to the point of bizarre, that I had to wonder what was going on here.
David Benkoff at The Daily Caller claimed Demagogue Ted Cruz Is A Danger To The GOP.
Someone at The Week called it the most cynical, despicable political stunt of the year.
Really? Stating the obvious to a crowd that didn’t want to admit the obvious was dangerous demagoguery and a despicable political stunt?
I’m with Caroline Glick on this one:
G-d bless Sen. Cruz. He is a rare and extraordinary leader and he should go from strength to strength.
http://t.co/rncZo8ZCIe
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) September 11, 2014
Glick writes at her website, Of politicians and moral courage:
Cruz’s action was an act of moral leadership.
He stood before his audience of fellow Christians and told his co-religionists that their hatred of Jews and Israel is un-Christian. He told them as well that their bigotry blinds them to their own plight and makes them reject their greatest ally in securing their future in the Middle East.
Cruz’s strategy for fighting Islamic oppression of Christians involves uniting all those oppressed and attacked by jihadists. In all honesty, it is the only policy that has a chance in the long term of securing the future of the Christians of the Middle East.
For Cruz to reach this conclusion, he first had to possess the moral clarity to recognize that Christian Jew-hatred is a major obstacle to securing the future of the Middle East’s Christians.
In other words his strategic vision is anchored in moral courage.
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Comments
He was correct to point out their folly.
Hopefully Senator Cruz will be the President of the United States before too long. We need a man like him to lead the country and to lead the free world, whatever’s left of them after Obama gets done.
“…his strategic vision is anchored in moral courage.”
Not to mention ordinary, straightforward logic.
Cruz was not “booed off the stage”. He left on his own terms.
Exactly, it was obvious that he was done and he left with his head held high.
“If you don’t stand with Christians, I won’t stand with you”, is a pretty emphatic statement in my book. With that statement he left. So yes, at that point he was done.
should be “…won’t stand with Jews…”
I’m all for helping Christians against ISIS. I’m not for helping Christians against Israel. Not going there. I doubt I’m alone in that view.
“Spengler” often provides both a wonderful historical prospective and an incisive, logical examination of things Middle Eastern.
I recommend his writing here to anybody who wants some of both.
http://pjmedia.com/spengler/
And Cruz is one smart cat…
I really don’t understand how a Christian can be against Israel.
Are they unaware of what the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:14-16? To be a Christian is to be ‘in Christ’, a ‘new creation’ and thereby the “Israel of God”? Wouldn’t that make the people of Israel our brothers and sisters?
Then there’s this:
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. (1 John 4:20).
Any one who claims to be a Christian and is against Israel is a liar and fraud.
These were “Middle Eastern Christians” which from their reactions to Cruz’s statements sounds more like Muslim Sleepers to me.
As far as I can tell The IDC — “In Defense of Christians” — is a fairly new stealth propaganda organization, funded by in large part by Arab interests aligned with Hillary Clinton (and probably other Obama administration liberals). “Middle Eastern Christians” = anti-Israel Arabs and Africans.
From the Powerline blog and Washington Free Beacon:
If Aoun, Apfrem, Laham and Raï are so seemingly anti-Israel and pro hezbollah would it be correct in assuming that they have paid the jizyah and, knowing which side their bread is buttered on, merely speaking what they’ve been told to say?
They probably know which party will hurt them most if they don’t play along. (Maybe that also explains why Cameron keeps saying that Islam is wonderful whereas people who point out the malign effects of a swelling Muslim population in Britain are nasty and unwanted.)
That’s some serious Stockholm syndrome. “Giving a bad image of Islam”? As if Islam hasn’t been giving itself a hideous image ever since a band of caravan raiders decided to claim that their wanton plunder and slaughter were commanded by the deity! As if Muslims were not slaughtering non-Muslims (definitely including Christians) in many parts of the world where “Zionism” is a complete non-factor.
Those Arab Christians have combined the most ancient theological anti-Judaism with a thoroughly delusional view of Islam.
As a Christian I say- Sen. Ted Cruz is more representative of American Christians that were those in the audience at the IDC event.
To be fair, a lot of it is fear.
Cruz wasn’t booed off the stage. HE kicked the audience to the curb.
Ted Cruz also took up for our First Amendment rights last week when vile, despicable leftist Harry Reid tried to pass a bill to limit free speech in the Senate.
http://www.tpnn.com/2014/09/10/epic-speech-ted-cruz-vs-49-senate-democrats-who-voted-to-repeal-the-first-amendment/
Wake up America.
It is true that Christians have fared well within the boundaries of Israel. It is also true that both Jews and Christians face religiously motivated violence from Muslims. But to say that Israel is the greatest friend the Christians in the Middle East have is both preposterous and provocative. It is partly a projection of how the future could play out onto the past. It is partly encouragement for religious minorities in the Middle East both Jews and Christians to work together.
What has Israel done for the Christians of the Middle East? What have they done for the Assyrians? What have they done for the Copts? How many Christian refugees have settled in Israel? Should anyone even expect Israel to make the welfare of Christians a priority? Israel makes opportunistic alliances with Christian groups when it serves Israel’s interests.
Now if the Christians were the dominant communities in Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, there would be peace and prosperity in the Middle East today. An accommodation with the state of Israel would have been reached that is just not possible with Muslim nations. In the post-Ottoman period Christians have self-identified as Arabs and loyal citizens of whatever Arab country they reside in. The conflict with Israel was an Arab-Israeli conflict and not a Muslim-Jewish conflict. So Israel was the enemy, an alien nation created in their midst that also disrupted the delicate balance of intercommunal relations between religious communities in their region.
Jews are relatively secure in Israel, Christians in the Middle East are not. They must co-exist with their Muslim neighbors in nations that are unfriendly or hostile to Israel. For them to take the lead in making peace with Israel would be suicide.
I haven’t read Cruz’s remarks but I suspect that they were profoundly insensitive to the difficult reality Christians in the Middle East face and irrelevant to the issue at hand.
“Jews are relatively secure in Israel”
Really? Have you been reading the news the past several months? Gaza? Rocket attacks? Terror Tunnels? Hamas?
What is your definition of “Secure”?
Israel has reached out to “all” people in distress in the region – taking in sick arab children from Gaza and treating them in their high-tech cardiac hospital units. How many Christians are in Saudi hospitals?
The same people who are killing Christians are the same people who are killing Jews in the Middle East – it is not “irrelevant” to point this truth out, nor is it “insensitive” to tell the this Christian group that their closest ally against their common enemy is Israel.
If this group of Christians hates the Jews so much that they will refuse their help, and prefer to die rather than being helped by Israel, well, that’s their choice. Good luck to them.
I’m interested to know why you believe Israel should do anything that is not in its interest?
“the delicate balance of intercommunal relations between religious communities in their region” = “Understand that Muslims are your rightful overlords and always obey them.”
Was that “delicate balance of intercommunal relations” in effect when the grand mufti of Jerusalem conspired with Hitler in a plan to eradicate one particular religious and ethnic community — the one with the deepest ties to Jerusalem? Was it in effect when the Ottoman Turks (who then ruled over the Middle East) endeavored to eradicate the Armenian Christians?
The thing I like best about Ted Cruz is that he forges ahead with what he thinks is right. The left smears and fears him as does much of the leadership on the right.
He can and does talk without using talking points and can actually “think” outside the box. I find it amazing that with attacks coming from both left and right that he continues to stand. Perhaps it is because the people like him. Imagine that.
That some of those on the right cheer the fact that a bunch of anti-semites booed him tells us a lot about them. If only Cruz were of an ethnic minority – oh wait, doesn’t being Cuban count?
Ted Cruz is an inspiration to us all when he speaks truth to evil.
It’s exciting being a witness to the vetting of a Great American.
Run Ted Run!!
A lot of people think his remark was opportunistic. I understood it to retell the reality that Jews share a mutual interest for survival with Christians in the Levant, state, whatever. What he failed to note is the tolerance and moderation of secular Muslim leaders like Assad for infidels and believers alike. Perhaps function in that area can only be realized through piece-meal liberty.
I’m sorry, but it was entirely opportunistic. Were there anti-semites at that conference? Sure. Gather any group of people and you will find some anti-semites.
Muslim Sleepers? I call bovine excrement on that one. That group of people represents Christians, many of whom have been *WIPED OUT* by ISIL/ISIS in many areas. Down to the last child. And all most of you have seen or read is what has been reported in various partisan pieces.
Here’s the reality for you. Israel (a state which I admire and respect, which while it has flaws, is the best, brightest democratic state in that region) is not going to *lift a hand* to help out those people against ISIL. Because it isn’t in their interests to do so, nor should it be. So, if Israel is not going to stand with them, why should they stand with Israel? They have stood with Assad. Why? Because Assad protected them as did his father before him. Yes, Assad is an evil man. But on scales of evil, he was much better than ISIL/ISIS.
It should also be noted that the WFB article couldn’t even keep it’s facts straight. Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X (Yazigi) was not at the conference. I don’t know about the other attendees.
While some at the conference had ill motives, and the conference itself was ill advised, to call all these people evil offends me, and it should offend all who believe in not bearing false witness. This was not leadership that Senator Cruz showed, it was opportunism, pure and simple.
While I am generally an ardent of my home state Senator, and support him in just about every way, I cannot support him in this.
Contra Ms Glick, he didn’t unite people, he divided them. And you see it in perfect display in the comments section here.
Has Cruz gone to Syria to profess his Christian solidarity and defy the Islamists that torture these communities because no one (other than Assad) stops them? No. Neither have I and neither have the rest of us Christians living in embarrassingly secure comfort — and neither has Israel. It is a smug and deceitful ambition that pulls the stunt Cruz did. I’m still smarting from his Government shutdown debacle. Daniel Allot attended the meeting and reports it here: http://spectator.org/articles/60432/ted-cruz%E2%80%99s-squandered-opportunity