The past several weeks have seen an interesting surge of commentary and analysis on neoconservative “dual loyalty” coming from Jewish writers: Phil Weiss’s indispensable blog is ground zero; Joe Klein’s musings in Time Magazine were brave and significant; now J Street honcho Daniel Levy has eloquently weighed in on Klein’s side, pointing out the Jewish establishment support of the Iraq war has been bad for Israel as well as a disaster for America.

But the other end of the two headed monster leading America’s Mid East policy has been getting a free pass. The Israeli far right has long recognized that Christian Zionists were indispensable to keeping America foreign policy narrowly anti-Palestinian and has done much to inflate the reputations (and pocketbooks) of American evangelicals who have been become belligerents for Greater Israel. Jerry Falwell, (recipient of the gift of a private jet from Menachem Begin) has passed on to a different world, but John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel, has stepped into the breach as the main Christian tub-thumper for Israeli expansion.

Most Christians don’t agree with or support Hagee’s bizarre eschatology, but American politicians would seem have little reason to know that. Thus I was happy to hear the small but smart group Churches for Middle East Peace step into the fray with a press release noting that Christian Zionists claim to be supportive of Israel, but only support Israeli warmakers, while never give a hint of backing to Israeli peace-making efforts. Groups like CUFI are not, in the end, as important as the interlocking web of think tanks, neoconservative agitprop mills, and AIPAC alligned political action committees, but they play an indispensable role in enabling the former, helping the neocons present themselves as representing a much broader slice of American opinion than they do. Would that CMEP’s shot at John Hagee’s group foreshadows a more forceful and comprehensive criticism of Christian Zionism from America’s mainstream Christian churches.