The wedge strategy is in play. The White House has now denounced Pat Robertson calling his comments about Ariel Sharon “wholly inappropriate and offensive.”
Now let’s see if we can get the Israeli government to strip from Pat Robertson and his allies the right to build a “biblical theme park by the Sea of Gallilee”. Leon Hadar has a nice write-up about this ‘Pat Robertson Holy Adventure Land’ today.
According to Conal Urquhart’s report in The Guardian:
The Israeli government is planning to give up a large slice of land to American Christian evangelicals to build a biblical theme park by the Sea of Galilee where Jesus is said to have walked on water and fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.
A consortium of Christian groups, led by the television evangelist Pat Robertson, is in negotiation with the Israeli ministry of tourism and a deal is expected in the coming months. The project is expected to bring up to 1 million extra tourists a year but an undeclared benefit will be the cementing of a political alliance between the Israeli rightwing and the American Christian right.
Robertson, who ran as candidate for President of the United States, is an outrageously offensive hypocrite who should be shunned by those who follow him. And the Israeli government should kill the deal over the theme park.
Interestingly, despite Robertson’s constant Holier-than-thou-isms, the way to shut him down is by squeezing off his ability to make money. He’s all about money and notoriety.
In any case, good for the White House today.
— Steve Clemons
