The Freedom Federation is set to hold Awakening 2012 in Orlando, Florida, next year, and according to the schedule, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is confirmed to address the right-wing rally via video feed.
The Freedom Federation includes the country’s leading Religious Right groups: Liberty Counsel, Eagle Forum, Exodus International, Family Research Council, American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, WallBuilders, Vision America, High Impact Leadership Coalition, Traditional Values Coalition, American Values and Americans for Prosperity. The Freedom Federation also includes fringe groups closely associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, including Cindy Jacobs’ Generals International, Lou Engle’s The Call, Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries and Che Ahn’s Harvest International Ministries.
Last year’s Awakening 2011 at Liberty University’s Thomas Road Baptist Church featured speeches from leading Republicans including Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee, as well as talks from far-right extremists like Janet Porter, Ryan Sorba, Greg Quinlan, Matt Barber, Rick Joyner, Rick Scarborough, Judith Reisman and Frank Gaffney, among others.
Confirmed speakers for Awakening 2012 already include Liberty Counsel’s Staver, who said that Obama made the U.S. “one of the world’s immoral leaders” for opposing the criminalization of homosexuality; LC’s Barber, who has called President Obama “anti-God”; Engle, who used one of his The Call prayer rallies to defend Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill; Quinlan, the prominent ex-gay leader; John Stemberger, a Florida anti-gay and anti-Muslim activist; and Gaffney, the conspiracy theorist who has claimed that Obama is a secret Muslim.
If Awakening 2012 is anything like Awakening 2011, it is set to be a gathering of far-right, anti-Obama extremists. And since it will be held months before the presidential election, the focus on defeating Obama will likely be even stronger.
Does Prime Minister Netanyahu feel comfortable addressing an election-year anti-Obama pep rally that will feature some of the most extreme and unhinged anti-gay, anti-choice, Christian nationalist activists in America?
