So President Bush, after 7.5 years in office, has recently decided that he's interested in Israel and serious about addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - enough to actually visit Israel personally for the second time in his presidency, the second time in a period of a few short months. Better late than never as they say.

Anyway, as part of a speech commemorating Israel's 60th anniversary, Bush decided to take a swing at Barrack Obama over his suggestion of direct diplomacy with Iran.

President Bush has said repeatedly that he would not insert himself into the presidential race, but that stance changed dramatically today during his trip to Israel. After likening Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Osama bin Laden, Bush compared Barack Obama to Nazi appeasers:

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," said Bush, in what White House aides privately acknowledged was a reference to calls by Obama and other Democrats for the U.S. president to sit down for talks with leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to the Israeli Knesset. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American Senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Even talking to Iran, in fact anything less than the same level of saber rattling he has engaged in, it would seem is analogous to appeasement with the Nazi's. So much for staying out of the Presidential race.

Barrack Obama responded in kind, and at least to me, perfectly appropriately:

"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel."

"Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power -- including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy -- to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Never mind that Bush's own Secretary of Defense Robert Gates would seem to agree at least in part with Obama's assessment:

"We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them," Gates said. "If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us."

This is one of those sets of comments and sets of meta-comments that will go back and forth in the media for the TV talking heads to bat around till the next one comes along. Its interesting in itself but it me makes think of another set of questions.

What does it mean to be a "friend of Israel"? Are all of its "friends" really supportive of Israel's best interests long term? Do all people who call themselves a "friend of Israel" believe the same thing?

I ask because John McCain enjoys the support of a controversial megachurch fundementalist preacher by the name of John Hagee. Actually to be clear, McCain actively courted Hagee's support dating back to a breakfast back in January of 2007. More on that in a second.

Hagee is controversial for a number of reasons. He's said some pretty hateful things about gays and lesbians. He recently apologized calling the Catholic church "the great whore". The chief thing Hagee is best known for politically, however, is his emphatic support for the state of Israel which in his view extends to advocating for pre-emptive strike against Iran. A group Hagee leads for that purpose exercises a good deal of influence in conservative circles and it is for that groups support, no doubt, that McCain pursued Hagee's endorsement.

To Hagee, supporting Israel (or rather how he defines "supporting") is tied intimately to urging on the Apocalypse and Jesus Christ's return to Earth to bring on "the Rapture".

In "Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude To war" Hagee has stated that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by rebelling against God and that the Holocaust was God's way of forcing Jews to move to Israel where, Hagee predicts according to his interpretation of Biblical scripture, they will be mostly killed in the apocalyptic Mideast conflict Hagee's new lobbying group seems to be working to provoke and which John Hagee believes to be a necessary precondition for the "Rapture" that will lift Christians, but not Jews, bodily into Heaven to enjoy physical immortality amidst paradise.

But On July 19, 2006, at a CUFI's Washington DC inaugural event, with GOP Party head Ken Mehlman and US GOP Senators Sam Brownback, Rick Santorum, Kay Bailey-Hutchinson and John Cornyn in attendance ( President George W. Bush sent recorded greetings to the event ) , Pastor John Hagee declared :

"The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation [...] and [the] Second Coming of Christ."

Hagee subsequently wrote, in a Charisma Magazine editorial entitled "The Coming Holy War", that the preemptive attack he advocates should be carried out with nuclear weapons.

I guess Hagee's version of "The Rapture" is a little different from Debbie Harry's pioneering experiment with mixing New Wave and HipHop. Damn, I was hoping for some rhymes about "bars" and "cars" too.

So does Hagee's endorsement of McCain imply a shared vision for US-Israeli relations?

Here's what Hagee wrote to members of his group, Christians United For Israel, about that January 2007 meeting where McCain came asking for Hagee's endorsement.

Pastor Hagee's email to members of CUFI :
"CHRISTIANS UNITED FOR ISRAELMembership Update
January 29, 2007
Newsflash!
This morning I had an extended breakfast with Senator John McCain of Arizona. Our topic of discussion was Israel and his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America.
Senator McCain's comments concerning Israel are on target! He gets it! While I do not want to put the specifics of our conversation in this update I am glad to report to our leadership and supporters that John McCain is solidly pro-Israel.

McCain for his part is “very honored by Pastor John Hagee’s endorsement.”

Troubling.

Well before we jump to any conclusions, I urge everyone to check out this short video made at a national CUFI conference. Decide for yourself about where these "friends of Israel" are coming from and if you want CUFI with access to the Oval office or not.