(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Franklin Graham blames Israel's gun laws for the Israeli-Hamas war [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-08 Franklin Graham has the clarity of a bigot with a book. In an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax, he offered his thinking on the Hamas attack on Israel. He answered a question from the expressionless host by saying he had three thoughts. “First, the Bible instructs us in Psalms 122 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And I certainly am praying for the people, the Israelis. I'm not praying for their enemies. I pray that God will give them victory over their enemies." Graham is a hypocrite of the first order. He represents a religious tradition that, for two millennia, has enthusiastically embraced antisemitism. Graham is a descendant of generations of Christian Americans who had a gentleman’s agreement barring Jews from WASP law firms, investment banks, boardrooms, and country clubs — in other words, the American establishment. However, now that Graham has found a religion his crowd hates more than Judaism, he will cynically make common cause with the Israelis in their conflict with the Palestinians. Over 50% of evangelicals believe Jesus cannot return until the Israelites reoccupy their Biblical lands. This support is not good news for the Jews. Christian fundamentalists also believe God has condemned all non-Christians to Hell. Even as he prays for the Israelis, Graham posts messages spitting on their religion. His latest tweet removes any doubt as to Graham's true feelings about Jews. “There aren’t many ways to God, there’s only one—and it's through Jesus Christ.” So far, Graham is your garden-variety religious bigot. Then he adds MAGA political attacks to his stew. Because, in Graham’s philosophy, no matter how dire the news is from abroad, he cannot allow it to distract him from ripping a Democratic President. He adds, “Second, Greta, this is what sounds so worrisome to me. It could happen in this country. President Biden and the Democratic party have left our southern border unguarded. And they don't have to come over with para-gliders, our enemies. They don’t have to cut through the barbed wire. They could just walk in. And just disappear in this country. That's what's happening. There are tens of thousands of military-age men from countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, that are walking into this country. We don't know who they are. And so, could they have a coordinated attack at some point, where they walk into a theater or a grocery store with a gun and start spraying bullets like they have in Israel? It could happen. Graham seems confused — as if he had started to study MAGA talking points but then got bored. He is warning the Newsmax audience that foreigners could massacre people in public places, without mentioning that shooting up theaters and supermarkets has always been the province of domestic terrorists. Not to mention that "could" is a weak argument — many things could happen, but do not. He carries on with his gun theme — because that is what Republican Jesus would do. “And Greta, our forefathers gave us the right to bear arms. So in this country, we have a right to protect ourselves. So you have the right to have a gun. In Israel, it is difficult to get a gun permit. You can get a gun permit for a pistol …. but they are hard to get. But as far as having an assault rifle in your home, or a shotgun, or a hunting rifle, these things are very difficult. You would think that Israel would require anyone living close to the border with Gaza to have weapons in their home and maybe even be forced to carry those weapons. For the life of me, I cannot understand what happened.” Graham tells the truth when he says he does not understand things. On everything else, Graham lies. The Israeli authorities have promoted gun ownership. It is relatively easy for Israelis to get pistol permits — especially in border areas and the occupied territories. In addition, any member of the IDF, whether in mandatory, career, or reserve service, can keep their military weapons at home. As for “forced to carry” — how does that jibe with liberty, freedom, and small government? I suspect the Israelis do not need to be lectured on state security by an evangelical gadfly with zero anti-terrorist experience. Having shoehorned 2A into a foreign country, Graham wanders away from the topic to rag on Biden some more. "But we also have to put blame on the Biden administration and the Democratic Party for the way Afghanistan collapsed. The billions of dollars that went into the Taliban coffers and all the military weapons that we left there and they can now use against us and our allies. And the $6 billion-plus we gave to the Iranians. So the Biden administration and the Democrats Congress or the Senate gave to Iran." No “billions of dollars" went into the Taliban coffers. Graham may be referring to Afghanistan money that the US is slowly releasing to an independent, non-Afghanistan entity trying to keep Afghanistan’s banking system and its rudimentary economy from total collapse. A catastrophe that will not help anyone, including the US. Having played the Afghan card he follows with the obligatory Iran reference "And now Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map. They fund Hamas. We know this for a fact. Our world is in a mess. Only God can fix this or straighten it out. Our politicians are off-the-charts crazy. And I don't understand it. What you're seeing in Israel, could happen here one day, I’m afraid." Asking God to fix the problem is an odd idea — after all, He created it. He has had 6,000 years (according to biblical literalists) or at least 100,000 years of human history (according to rational thinkers) to fix his screw-up. So far, bubkis. Graham ends with projection — “off the charts crazy”. And adds a further admission that he has little grasp on reality — “I don’t understand it.” (again). Most ludicrously, he seems to have forgotten that it has happened here, on 9/11 — an event that occurred before we were in Iran and which the Second Amendment did not stop. 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