The Holy Land got just what it needed this week. A visit from Pat Robertson.

The founder of the Christian Coalition arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a three day show of solidarity. He prayed for a victory in Lebanon with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He broadcast the 700 Club from a hotspot on the Israeli-Lebanon border.

Robertson has not always been so well-received in the Land of Milk and Honey. Last January he suggested that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fell into a coma after withdrawing from Gaza, which he termed “dividing God’s land.”

Yet Robertson is still an aging reflection of a growing movement of Christian Zionists, who not only back the most far right Israeli policies, but espouse a disturbingly end-of-days worldview.

Just read an excerpt from Robertson’s recent interview with the Jerusalem Post:

Do you worry that we could be on the verge of some of the apocalyptic visions that are portrayed in the scriptures?

There was a prophet Ezekiel in the time of the Bible who wrote that in the last days there would be an invasion of Israel by a coalition that would include Iran, Russia, Turkey and the Sudan and Libya. God himself is going to defeat that great army that had come against his people. That is a prophecy of one of the Jewish prophets that has yet to be fulfilled. It said that it would be in the later days when Israel has been brought from the nations of the earth and are living in peace in their land.

Are we on the verge of this apocalyptic vision?

Could be.

And don’t forget that Robertson’s evangelical followers also believe that Jews must be in ancient Judea and Samaria when the Messiah returns for Christians to reclaim their rightful land.

What they really want is the destruction of the people they claim to love.