Convinced that the world was coming to an end on May 21, my wife and I decided to spend our last days–before being engulfed in the eternal fire–in Italy last week. Imagine my disappointment that the Lord’s smite schedule was out of whack (except, horrifically, in Joplin, Missouri), and I had to go ahead and cover the AIPAC convention in Washington on Monday. Actually, there was an eschatological link between the two events: a posse of evangelical Christians have attached themselves to Likudnik Jewry in recent years, out of motives both noble (rebel Jews did invent their religion, and Old Testament principles do frame it) and not so (there’s the ridiculous Rapture scenario, which will only be kicked off, according to some versions, when the Jews regain control of the entire land of Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza). There was a panel about why evangelicals should just love Jews to death, and I attended it until the accumulated saccharine–this one woman insisted on calling Israel “Is-Ra-Yel” in a tone that suggested some form of concupiscent ecstasy–made me light-headed and I had to go off in search of more solid policy fare.

Of which there was, happily, plenty…