Going Rogue Zionist Style!

by Matt Sutton

This post is more derivative than usual. It started as an article in the Baltimore Jewish Times, which got picked up by a Baltimore Sun blog. Now, for your reading pleasure (and because Harvey likes it when I write about Palin) here it is for you.

Apparently Barbara Walters asked Palin last week about the Obama administration’s opposition to Israeli expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Palin's answer:

“I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” the former Alaska governor told interviewer Barbara Walters. “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon because the population of Israel is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”

What makes this especially interesting is that it is totally contrary to actual Israeli immigration trends. According to the original blogger, Michael Felson, "Since 2002—the year in which the major wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union came to an end—there has been a consistent downward trend in immigration to Israel. By 2006, immigration was down to 1980s levels, during which time 9,000-24,000 people immigrated annually. And in 2008, the number was 13,681, representing the lowest ratio of immigrants to Israelis since the establishment of the State – 1.9 immigrants per 1000 residents."

This, of course, raises the question: what is Palin's source of information? You guessed it. The books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation. That serious political candidates take premillennial apocalypticism seriously is great news for me; but it might not be such good news for the country (or the Palestinians). Sarah: keep rogue-ing it up!