Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs has performed a major service by posting three videos from Dr. John Hagee’s speech last night to AIPAC’s Annual Policy Conference. Dr. Hagee is the founder of Christians United For Israel.
The first video is seven minutes long. It builds in the second video (another five minutes), and culminates in the remarkable third (a final five minutes). The videos are absolutely stunning. You need to watch them. (More on Dr. Hagee here and here).
UPDATE: The Jerusalem post editorializes about Pastor Hagee’s speech.
His address may not have received as much media attention as those by Richard Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Ehud Olmert and Binyamin Netanyahu. It should have, however, because it could herald a critical new stage in the American-Israeli relationship. . . .
"Today I humbly ask forgiveness of the Jewish people for every act of anti-Semitism, and the deafening silence of Christians in your greatest hour of need, during the Holocaust. We were not there. We cannot change the past, but together we can shape the future. Think of our potential future together: 50 million evangelicals joining in common cause with 5 million Jewish people in America on behalf of Israel is a match made in heaven." . . .
"What is going to happen when Jesus comes back?" Hagee said [in an interview last year], touching on the second sensitive point. "I say to my rabbi friends: ‘You don’t believe it; I do believe it. When we’re standing in
Jerusalem, and the Messiah is coming down the street, one of us is going to have a major theological adjustment to make. But until that time, let’s walk together in support of Israel and in defense of the Jewish people."
Even these quotes do not capture the essence of Hagee’s speech. You need to see and hear it.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Pastor Hagee liked the commentary on the video.
FURTHER UPDATE: The Jewish Press runs Pastor Hagee’s speech as its Front Page Essay, March 28.
OTHER REFERENCE: Omri Ceren’s comprehensive take on Hagee’s conference call with Jewish bloggers arranged by One Jerusalem earlier this year, and background on evangelical motives for supporting Israel, is worth reading in its entirety.