Ted Cruz booed off stage while defending Israel

[Lee Van Queef]

http://theweek.com/article/index/267950/speedreads-ted-cruz-booed-off-stage-while-defending-israel

Ted Cruz booed off stage while defending Israel

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) abruptly walked off stage at an event organized by a pro-Christian organization in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night after the crowd turned on him for vociferously defending Israel.

Delivering the keynote at an event hosted by the group In Defense of Christians, which raises awareness for persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, Cruz said, "Christians have no greater ally than Israel." That's when the crowd began to boo, according to The Daily Caller.

He also lumped Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, and al Qaeda together, saying they "are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East."

"Those who hate Israel hate America," he added, prompting more boos and heckling.

As the crowd continued to shout, Cruz said, "If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you," and then left the stage. --Jon Terbush

 

[sean miguel]

Good for him.

In the middle east, where do christians have it better? In Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Gaza etc., or in Israel?

Yeah, I thought so.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

Not very Christian of them at all. At least he knew to shake the dust from his shoes.

 

[Johan]

Seems like some christians do not think it's OK to bomb schools and hospitals...

 

[sean miguel]

Seems like some christians do not think it's OK to bomb schools and hospitals...where rockets are being fired into Israel.

fixed.

 

[Lee Van Queef]

I would like to know how Ted Cruz determined they were "consumed with hate?" Did they not "get with the program" or was it some other reason?

http://time.com/3328063/ted-cruz-booed-israel-christian-middle-east/

Why Ted Cruz Was Booed Off Stage at a Christian Event

Elizabeth Dias @elizabethjdias

1:52 PM ET
The Senator's remarks about Israel set off the confrontation

While the nation watched President Obama primetime address the threat of ISIS Wednesday night, something else was happening in Washington: Senator Ted Cruz was getting booed off the stage of a Christian event.


Cruz is often considered a rising darling of the American Christian right. He speaks at evangelical gatherings in the country, talks to groups of conservative pastors and headlines events with the Family Research Council. But Wednesday night, his Christian audience was largely Eastern and Arab. The brand of conservative, American evangelicalism that Cruz often champions—one that often aligns itself with the state of Israel’s interests—did not sit well with everyone in attendance.


Cruz was keynoting a gala for In Defense of Christians (IDC), an advocacy and awareness group that aims to bring the U.S.’s attention to the plight of ancient Christian communities in the Middle East, and to protect the rights of other religious minority groups in the region. This week, IDC is hosting a three-day Summit, a conference bringing together a range of Middle Eastern Christians—Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic, Syriac, Lebanese, Assyrian, to name a few—to foster a new sense of unity in the midst of a politically fraught season. Most of the panels at the summit are of a religious nature, but a handful of political leaders are slated gave remarks as well, including Senator Rob Portman (R-OH). Former Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was Wednesday’s gala’s master of ceremonies, but Cruz was tapped to give a keynote.

Cruz initially received applause for his opening remarks that the group was united in defense of Christians, Jews, and “people of good faith who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare to disagree with their religious teachings.”

Things turned sour within minutes. “ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East,” Cruz said. “Sometimes we are told not to lump these groups together, but we have to understand their so-called nuances and differences. . . . In 1948 Jews throughout the Middle East faced murder and extermination and fled to the nation of Israel. And today Christians have no better ally than the Jewish state.”

His audience at the Omni Shoreham Hotel began to boo.

At first, Cruz continued undeterred. “Let me say this: those who hate Israel hate America. And those who hate Jews hate Christians.”

The booing got louder.

Cruz pressed on, adding that his heart “weeps that the men and women here will not stand in solidarity with Jews and Christians alike who are persecuted by radicals who seek to murder them.”

IDC’s president Toufic Baaklini tried to calm the crowd, which appeared to have a divided reaction to Cruz’s words, but by that point Cruz had had enough. “I am saddened to see some here, not everyone, but some here are so consumed with hate,” he said (to which someone in the audience shouted, “We are not consumed with hate, no, you are consumed with hate”).“If you will not stand with Israel and Jews, then I will not stand with you,” Cruz said. “Thank you and God bless you.”

With that, Cruz walked off stage.

Later Cruz reacted to the event on his Facebook page. “Tonight in Washington should have been a night of unity as we came together for the inaugural event for a group that calls itself ‘In Defense of Christians,’” he wrote. “Instead, it unfortunately deteriorated into a shameful display of bigotry and hatred. . . . Anti-Semitism is a corrosive evil, and it reared its ugly head tonight.”

Baaklini attempted to smooth over the situation. “As Cardinal Rai so eloquently put it to the attendees of the In Defense of Christians’ inaugural Summit gala dinner: ‘At every wedding, there are a few problems,’” he said in a statement following the incident. “In this case, a few politically motivated opportunists chose to divide a room that for more than 48 hours sought unity in opposing the shared threat of genocide, faced not only by our Christian brothers and sisters, but our Jewish brothers and sisters and people of all other faiths and all people of good will.”

At its core, Cruz’s problem was one of context. First, he pinned his remarks to the conflict between Israel and Hamas when one of the group’s primary agenda points was actually the plight of Iraqi Christians. Second, Christians are far from a monolithic group, especially when it comes to views on policy on Israel and the Middle East. The American evangelicals Cruz typically addresses tend to be worlds apart historically, culturally, theologically, and politically from the Christian leaders in attendance.

Most American evangelicals are likely not even familiar with the Christian leaders gathered at this event, even though the headliners are the Rick Warrens, Cardinal Dolans, and even Pope Francises of their own Eastern Christendom communities, who also met with Obama at the White House on Thursday: Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Raï, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East; Gregorios III Laham, Melkite Greek Catholic Patirarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria, and Jerusalem; Ignatius Youssef III Younan, Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East; Aram I Keshishian, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church; Metropolitan Joseph Al-Zehlawi, Archbishop of New York and All North America for the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria; Ibrahim Ibrahim, Bishop Emeritus of Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle.

Whether or not Cruz meant to rile up the crowd to rally his own base or whether it was all a giant mistake is hard to parse. Whatever the case, it caused quite a stir. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute and another speaker at IDC’s conference, calls Cruz’s performance “bizarre” yet “expected.” “Like most other blind ideologues on the far right, he cared not a bit for the reality and the sensitivities of Middle East Christians,” he says. “If policy makers want to help Christians, they will first listen to them, before they try to lecture them. Having an ‘I love Israel, and I don’t care about the rest of the Arab World’ mindset may work in US politics, but it’s why we are in the mess we are in across the region.”

Baaklini, the IDC president, says the incident only serves as a reminder that unity, especially among diverse Christian groups, is still needed. “Tonight’s events make clearer than ever, that In Defense of Christians is desperately needed in a world that remains divided to the point where even the most fundamental value of life and human dignity are cast aside,” he said. “We remain undaunted and focused on achieving our goals.”

 

[Johan]

 

[xfire]

Typical Cruz being the dick that he is.

http://news.yahoo.com/ted-cruz-booed-off-stage-because-no-one-223111991.html

from the article-

The American Conservative wrote that he "fractured" the unity between the various Christian groups in attendance, and The Federalist argued that he's "not a hero for insulting a room full of persecuted Christians."

Rep. Charles Dent, a moderate Republican who represents several people of Syrian and Lebanese descent in Pennsylvania, told The Washington Post that while he supports Israel he didn't support Cruz's remarks. "I support Israel, but what Senator Cruz did was outrageous and incendiary," Dent told The Post. "He showed a true lack of sensitivity for the people he was speaking to, especially the religious leaders who were there. It was a political speech, inappropriate and, overall, an uncomfortable moment."

Dent argued that Cruz made the speech to fire up the Tea Party, and he's not the only one who's skeptical of the whole thing. Mark Tooley, the president of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy, argued that Cruz knew exactly what he was doing. "Likely Cruz, a savvy politician, knew the reaction he would provoke from some by commending Israel, and he maximized his political moment before the many cameras," Tooley wrote.

 

[D-rock]

I wish a lot of people out there would not confuse Israel now having a right to exist and not to be destroyed by Islamist as somehow an excuse to give them a blank check and look the other way when Israel does many of it's own questionable things. While they don't deserve the conflict that is often brought to them Israel is deeply flawed and has done things to treat those around them like dirt, even innocent people.

 

[Johan]

Ted Cruz said : If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you.

Would he stand with the jews that protested against the war In Tel-Aviv ?

Would he stand with american jews who protested against the war in NY ?

If YES, according to his own words, he is anti-Israel, so he is also anti-America
If NO, according to hiw own words, he is anti-jews, so he is also anti-Americans

 

[Rey C.]

While he is rightly blamed for bringing down the Republic, ol' Augustus really did have an amazingly effective (one & done) method for dealing with traitors in the Roman Senate. And as always, there is still much we can learn from the Romans.

While you're wearing our jersey, hows about you play for our team (for a change) there, Teddy boy? Great men have given their lives to preserve and protect this republic. All so that the sorry likes of this opportunistic sell-out can talk up the interests of his masters. I stand with the United States of America... which means that I do not and never will stand with you, chico!

SPQA