Robertson: Sharon asked for it

On today's "700 Club," Pat Robertson explained away Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent stroke as divine intervention. "I am sad to see him in this condition," Robertson intoned, but he went on to suggest that Sharon's fate -- as well as that of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister assassinated in 1995 after attending a rally to support the Oslo peace process -- reflected God's disapproval of both men's attempts at creating peace in the region by forming a "divided land." Michelle Goldberg explains here why Christian evangelicals are among the firmest supporters of a unified Israel, believing it is a biblical requirement for the End Times (when, as she points out, "their apocalyptic scenario ends with unsaved Jews being slaughtered and condemned to hell"). Robertson's comments were first noted here.