Palin & Jews for Jesus

Jews for Jesus head defends speech Posted: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 3:17 PM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC's Aram Roston
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The executive director of Jews For Jesus -- a group that tries to convert Jews to Christianity -- said in an interview with NBC News that when he spoke at Sarah Palin's congregation Aug. 17, he did not mean to imply that God was punishing Israel for not believing in Christ.

"What we see in Israel, the conflict that has spilled out throughout the Middle East, really which is all about Jerusalem, is an ongoing reflection of the fact that there is judgment," David Brickner told an audience at Wasilla Baptist Church that included Palin. He added that when his son visited Jerusalem, “He was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment -- you can't miss it."

The blogosphere and others have jumped on the issue because Jews For Jesus has sometimes been criticized by mainstream Jewish political leaders, some of whom consider it offensive and anti-Semitic.

But Brickner defended the comments and said critics are wrong when they claim he was implying that terror is a result of Jews not accepting Jesus.

”That's not what I was saying,” he said. “That's not what I believe. The violence is evidence that sin has marred our human condition and because of sin and non belief, God's judgment rests on all humanity. And that's why God had to send Jesus, the Messiah to deal with the problem of the sin. And actually he became sin, and God judged him.… “I believe that violence is the natural outcome of the human condition, that sin has blinded the whole world to the truth of God in Jesus Christ.”

The McCain campaign acknowledged Palin was in attendance when Brickner spoke, but stressed Palin does not support Brickner's message.

“This was a guest at the church who Governor Palin did not know would be speaking,” said McCain-Palin spokesman Taylor Griffin. “Gov. Palin does not share the views he expressed, and she and her family would not have been sitting in the pews of this church for the last seven years if his remarks were even remotely typical.”

Additionally, Brickner said he had not met Palin, who during the Republican National Convention spoke with the influential pro-Israel lobby, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

But Brickner told NBC News that Palin's pastor is a strong supporter of his mission.

“Larry Kroon is a supporter and friend of Jews for Jesus,” he said, “and a personal friend of mine.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/09/1368740.aspx

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Except she never supported Buchanon.
If your "source" had bothered to do even the slightest bit of research he would know that.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html

mysteryman, I dont consider the Buchanan thing to be important as her views on Jews for Jesus statetments and Rapturite "end times" statements preached at her church. She calls Bushie's war in Iraq "God's Plan" and that has a Rapturite ring to it. Without the GOP rapturite base I doubt Bushie would have gotten away with lying us into war. So I'm interested in her setting the record straight on the preaching at her church just as Obama did with Wright and McCain did with Hagee. As for the Buchanan thing there is this, "Buchanan, Palin "was a brigadier in 1996 as was her husband ... They were at a fundraiser for me, she's a terrific gal, she's a rebel reformer."

personaly i think that jews for jesus is a pretty good trade

Putting Jews Back in Their Place http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-levy/putting-jews-back-in-thei_b_125486.html "But there is also a Jewish specific cause for concern in the Palin pick. Just three weeks ago, with Sarah in attendance, Palin's church hosted the Executive Director of Jews for Jesus, David Brickner -- a group much criticized by the ADL. As Ben Smith pointed out in Politico, Brickner "described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's 'judgment of unbelief' of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity". Palin's Pastor at the Wasilla Bible Church, Larry Kroon, warns of God taking retribution on a sinning America. She trades on an anti-intellectualism and playing of small town vs big city or suburban America that is alienating to most Jews. Mayor Koch is right: this is "scary" stuff.

Third, and perhaps most bizarrely, the types of attacks used by leading Republicans against Senator Obama should be making Jewish voters feel distinctly uneasy -- they are taken straight from the vernacular of classical anti-Semitism. When Rudy Giuliani during his RNC keynote address put a big sneer on his face and used the word 'cosmopolitan' to attack Obama, I was rattled -- literally shocked. Words have coded meanings, and I don't think it would be Jewish paranoia to remind ourselves of the coded meaning of 'cosmopolitan' when used in that insulting, demeaning, and group-defining political fashion. We Jews are after all the quintessential, rootless cosmopolitans. 'Cosmopolitan', 'elites', 'urbane', 'liberal media' -- in trying to negatively define Barack Obama, the Republicans have chosen to use a convenient and familiar existing vocabulary for defining the 'other' -- the vocabulary of anti-Semitic stereotypes. At the very least this is deeply insensitive to Jewish opinion.

It is shameful that Republican Jewish circles have been silent in the wake of this ugliness. It would be even more shameful if it was allowed to succeed. Fortunately Jewish voters, in Florida and elsewhere, will have a big say in the matter."