Iran is at war with the free world.

It is the the Devil’s human face on earth, the axle rod of evil, the “country which must be named” as the Nemesis of all that is right and holy in the world. Iran is Germany under Hitler, and it’s preparing to carry out another Holocaust of the Jews. And it must die! Die Iran! Die!

The preceding is my paraphrase of the message delivered by Israel’s envoy to the United States, Ambassador Sallai Meridor, to a gathering of American fundamentalist rapture enthusiasts yesterday. I confess, I ratcheted up the Honorable Ambassador’s rhetoric to make a point. But not by much:

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Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, said Wednesday that Israel and the free world are under attack by Iran, with a combination of fanaticism, terrorism and nuclear capability posing the most serious threat since the 1930s.

“We must prevent this nightmare,” Meridor said at the “Night to Honor Israel” event, part of the second annual Christians United for Israel summit in Washington, D.C. “The world must act and act now.”

Meridor said Israel would take any steps necessary to ensure that Iran does not develop a nuclear bomb. “All options are on the table, and no matter what, they will not be able to get a nuclear weapon,” he said.

And to whom was he delivering his message of gloom and doom? “Christians United for Israel” (CUFI) is described in the Haaretz article as an “umbrella” organization “for all pro-Israel Christian groups” in America. But what exactly does that mean? Well, apparently CUFI was founded by Pastor John Hagee, one of the more extreme radical right preachers and the most prominent leader of the Christian Zionist Movement in America. Here’s what Hagee himself has had to say about CUFI’s mission:

“Think of CUFI as a Christian version of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),” the powerful pro-Israel lobby, Hagee told The Jerusalem Post in an interview a few days before the early February summit. “We need to be able to respond instantly to Washington with our concerns about Israel. We must join forces to speak as one group and move as one body to [respond to] the crisis Israel will be facing in the near future.”

While Hagee wouldn’t spell out which particular crisis he was concerned with, he did tell the Israeli newspaper that “‘the Bible issue,’ namely what he considers to be the mistaken policy of trading parts of the biblical Land of Israel for peace,” was at the top of CUFI’s list.

So Hagee fancies his organization as the Christian counterpart and ally of AIPAC, the hard right pro-Israeli lobbying group that helped the Bush administration beat the war drums for invading Iraq, and which now seems intent on pushing America to attack Iran. AIPAC recently was instrumental in pressuring Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic leadership to eliminate language in the last supplemental defense appropriations bill which would have required President Bush to get Congress’ express authorization before taking this country into war with Iran.

The same AIPAC which was involved in the spy case of Larry Franklin, a State Department official convicted of passing classified information about the Bush administration’s Iran policy to the Israeli government via two AIPAC staffers. The same AIPAC before which leading Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and John Edwards paid court pledging their undying fealty to Israel, and expressly leaving all options on the table vis-a-vis Iran. It is an extremely powerful lobbying group that seemingly has a strangle hold on American foreign policy in the Middle East, regardless of the party in the White House. That AIPAC.

So for Hagee, a powerful fundamentalist Christian leader to compare his organization to AIPAC is more than a little disconcerting. It also puts the appearance of Israel’s ambassador before this little known group into context. These are people who hunger for the second coming of Jesus Christ within their lifetime. They support Israel in its goals for territorial expansion and in its militaristic attitude toward other nations in the region because they believe Jesus will not return until the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem has been rebuilt in its entirety at the site which now houses the Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock, the former holy to Jews and the latter among the most sacred sites to Muslims. And these Christian Zionists will do everything in their power to see those goals come to pass, even if that means nuclear war with Iran.

Indeed, here’s Hagee from last year’s CUFI meeting in Washington D.C., essentially calling for an immediate attack on Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons:

We gather in Washington, D.C., tonight for one of the most dramatic moments in the history of American Christiandom. We gather here from every state in the nation. We gather here with more than 3,400 spiritual leaders. We gather for one purpose: to express our solidarity with the state of Israel and the Jewish people, because this historic event is being telecast across the nation and around the world; because this telecast is being seen in Iran, where a new Hitler, the President of Iran, threatens to annihilate Israel with a nuclear holocaust, saying Israel should be wiped off the map and saying, like it or not, the Zionist regime is headed toward total annihilation, to be ended with a sudden storm; because the enemies of Israel are doubtless watching this telecast and question our resolve as Christians to stand with Israel until Islamofascism is totally defeated; because this will be seen in Israel by a war-weary people who at this very hour are once again fighting Hamas terrorists whose covenant calls for the death of Jewish people and total destruction of Israel; because God in heaven is watching and has commanded us, keep not silent concerning Israel. Well, those of you in this audience who stand in solidarity with Israel, until victory comes, stand and send a message to the U.S. Congress, to the people of Israel, to the enemies of Israel: We are with you. We stand with you. Israel, you are not alone.

Note the rhetoric. Iran is part of the “Islamofascist” movement dedicated to destroying Israel, headed by a “new Hitler”, which must be “totally defeated.” This is the language of a man calling for a new crusade against Islam by the Christian West. No wonder Israel’s government sent its Ambassador to speak to these people. They share the same goal: war with Iran, and the sooner the better.

And the crazy thing is, they know they have a powerful ally in the Bush administration: Vice President Cheney. Don’t doubt for an instant that Hagee and other Fundamentalist leaders are not making their voices heard in private meetings or phone calls with President Bush. For a President desperate to resurrect his fading popularity and leave behind a lasting legacy in the wake of his utter failure in Iraq, don’t doubt for an instant that he isn’t listening. And that he isn’t sorely tempted.