I met a young, promising Christian writer at a one-day seminar on Dietrich Bonhoeffer recently. What a pleasant surprise, he is convinced that the Jewish nation, having been on the verge of vanishing during Hitler's reign, has to grow beyond its victim-hood.

"Israel must stop the air raids on Lebanon, it cannot justify all its aggression first against the Palestinians and now the Lebanese civilians by camouflaging itself as a victim of the Holocaust." His tone could not have been firmer.

As I am recalling our short exchange of views on the issue, Israel has been intensifying its bombardment on its northern neighbour. Barely two weeks into the offensive, the Lebanese authorities came out with a report that the Israelis were using phosphoric bombs that were forbidden under international conventions.

While Tel Aviv insists that its military actions have always been proportionate, prompted by Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, it has obscured the world from the fact that thousands of Palestinians still languish in jails across Israel, often without trial and under appalling conditions.

Reeks of hypocrisy

As Gideon Levy of Israel's Haaretz has written, the behaviour of the Jewish state only reeks of hypocrisy when it continues to avail itself of the right to abduct Palestinian youths in an arbitrary manner and even bomb civilian centres.

To prove his relatively new leadership, Ehud Olmert had been more anxious than any of his predecessors since 1982 to wage war on the hostile elements around Israel, which was in line with the neocon thinking in the White House. To be fair, Hezbollah forces, too, had been turning ploughshares into swords in preparation for a conflict with their Jewish enemies. The stakes are high on both sides.

Expressing his misgivings over civilian deaths, President George W Bush is however steadfast in maintaining that Hezbollah must be disarmed before a ceasefire on the part of Israel could be contemplated. This is, from the American point of view, logical. After two military adventures during Bush's first term, the US' reputation has plummeted to historic lows, and its capabilities now appear overstretched. Most important of all, the American public are showing clear signs of war fatigue. An impatient Olmert has therefore come in handy.

As the war goes on, it is becoming obvious that Israel is going for the jugular, aiming not only to eliminate Hezbollah militarily and expand the buffer zone in south Lebanon in order to ensure Israeli security, but also to destabilise the Lebanese authorities from within that could result in a regime change, to the benefit of Tel Aviv as well as Washington. With Iran and Syria isolated further after Hezbollah was defanged, the current conflict could actually alter the geopolitics in the heart of the Middle East in more ways than one.

Worse for the Lebanese, the economic recovery that they had been enjoying over the last few years has now gone down the drain, and they will continue to taste the bitter fruit long after the war has ended if it ever will. It does not take a genius to foresee whose interest will a politically inchoate, militarily emasculated and economically ruined Lebanon serve in the region. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora did not snub US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for no reason.

Christian Zionism

But why did I mention about my brief chat with the Christian writer at the beginning? As I wrote in this column before, Christian communities around the world, particularly in Malaysia and Singapore, have for years been strongly influenced by Christian Zionism, often unawares.

Among the Christian Zionist thoughts, nothing is more appealing than pre-millennial dispensationalism, which holds that the pre-millennial period will end with the battle at Armageddon mostly taken to mean the final showdown between Israel and the Arab states - before the return of Jesus Christ.

Since becoming a Christian nearly two decades back, I have seen time and time again Christians being aroused by and excited over the Middle East. The establishment of Israel in 1948 continues to be a miraculous sign of God, that it being an out-and-out secular state is irrelevant. Ironically, the two victories over their Arab neighbours in 1967 and 1973, too, have instilled in the successive Israeli leadership a misbelief of their country being a God's state on earth.

The myths that surround the modern Jewish state have strong impacts on the so-called Christian Zionists in America, particular religious leaders like Pat Robertson of Christian Coalition of America, who once called Muslims "worse than Nazis", Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority, who is openly homo- and Islamophobic, but always acts God-fearing in public, and Ed McAteer of the Religious Roundtable, who seems confused over the vast differences between the historical/biblical Israel and the modern Jewish state. They are united in their unfailing support for the "land of milk and honey", otherwise known as Israel today, right or wrong.

As soon as the Israeli offensive started, Falwell, on behalf of Christians United for Israel, an evangelical grouping, urged Congress to come out in support of the Olmert government, which he conceded as a position unpopular with the international media, Europe and the world, but a "right thing to do" nonetheless. John Hagee, a pastor, echoed the call by describing it as a "biblical responsibility".

Early this month, Israel began targeting even Christian areas in Lebanon. I am now keen to read the minds of these Christian leaders who had pledged their unqualified support for Tel Aviv all in the name of God. Such aggression should have debunked the Christian Zionist myth. Curiously, it did not.

As far as I understand, it is the biblical duty of every follower of Jesus 'to love thy enemy, to walk the extra mile, and even to turn the other cheek', as well as 'to love mercy, to act justly, and walk humbly with thy God'.

The danger with the Christian Zionists is that they relish in playing up fears, fears for moral decadence, and fears for the hostile 'others', which come in many shapes and forms. In their haste to popularise these fears, what is lost is the essential teachings of Christian peace and love through the saving grace of God.

The fears are so varied and profound, so much so that these leaders are unable to empathise with the plight and suffering of their fellow Christians across the Arab world, let alone the Muslim Lebanese now. Little wonder that the desperate plea by Reverend Riah H Abu-El-Assal, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, for international intervention is full of sorrow and righteous wrath.

Messianic mentality

Politics and religions never make good bedfellows. As such, Christian Zionism is devious in that it advocates an ethnocentric, nationalistic political agenda running counter to reconciliation and building more walls between Jews and Muslims. Of course, it also legitimates US reckless expansionism and Israeli oppression.

Paradoxically, many orthodox Jews are blind to the eventual goal of Christian Zionists to convert them to Christianity. It is rather puzzling that the phrase "apocalyptic destruction as a precursor to global salvation" never rings horrific to them. To me, such messianic mentality is as fundamentalist as the suicidal mind of a Muslim terrorist.

Israeli aggression has resulted in the loss of livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians, in addition to the numerous deaths of others. As the death toll rises, Israel has absolved itself of the moral status as a victim of the Holocaust, a reality least appreciated in the Christian world, and the reason why I was moved by the young but clear-minded Christian writer.

I am aware there are Muslims who, like me, have been working strenuously to remind Christians of the fallacies in Christian Zionism. Sadly, I notice much of their view is informed by a deep-seated hatred for the Jews. I neither condone this nor see these people as my fellow journeyers. Yet I tend to think they are only a minority, just as I trust there are always kind-hearted and just-minded Jews who are more eager than anyone else to see justice restored upon the Palestinians.

It is vital for all who are concerned over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East to move beyond the dichotomy, and see in everyone's face the vulnerability of human life and the need for charity, Christians and Muslims alike. When one weeps and mourns over a victim of war regardless of his/her religion and ethnicity, it is divine love indeed.