WASHINGTON — Former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann called for an intensified effort to convert Jews to Christianity. 
 
 
 
 Bachmann, a former congresswoman from Minnesota who ran for the Republican presidential nod in 2012, was in Israel last week on a tour organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Toward the end of the week, she spoke on FRC President Tony Perkins’ radio program, Washington Watch, and discussed the meaning of the recent intensification of violence in Israel and the West Bank. She cast the violence as a signal of the return of Jesus, which would necessitate mass conversions.“We recognize the shortness of the hour,” Bachmann said, “and that’s why we as a remnant want to be faithful in these days and do what it is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one of us, to be faithful in the Kingdom and to help bring in as many as we can — even among the Jews — share Jesus Christ with everyone that we possibly can because, again, He’s coming soon.”First to report Bachmann’s call was Right Wing Watch, a project of People for the American Way, a church-state separation advocacy group."A statement like Ms. Bachmann’s should serve to remind Jews that missionizing is, unfortunately, alive and well, and that we must always be on the lookout for it," said Agudath Israel of America spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran. "It also should be a reminder of the importance of Jewish education, since the surest defense against missionizing is authentic Jewish knowledge."Sam Sokol contributed to this report. 

 Don't say I didn't warn you. 
 
 Throughout her political career, the former Republican representative of Minnesota Michele Bachmann prided herself on being a staunch defender of Israel. Whether the latest threat to the Jewish state emanated from terrorists in Gaza, the ayatollah of Iran, or the Muslim Brotherhood–controlled White House, Bachmann always stood in solidarity with the Netanyahu government. Now in her post-political life, Bachmann is preparing to defend Israeli Jews against the greatest threat of all: their own blasphemous religion. 
 
 Bachmann and Tony Perkins, president of the right-wing Family Research Council, discussed their recent trip to Israel on Perkins’s radio show last week. In the interview, Bachmann called Israel “a miracle of the hand of God,” but also noted that its Jewish citizens should convert as soon as possible because the Rapture is drawing near. 
 
 “We recognize the shortness of the hour,” Bachmann says in audio captured by the website Right Wing Watch. “And that’s why we as a remnant want to be faithful in these days and do what it is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one of us, to be faithful in the Kingdom and to help bring in as many as we can — even among the Jews — share Jesus Christ with everyone that we possibly can because, again, he’s coming soon.” 
 
 Bachmann is hardly alone in fiercely defending the political platform of the Jewish state, while fiercely, if quietly, opposing Judaism itself. One of the Netanyahu government’s most reliable allies in U.S. politics is Christians United for Israel, a group of predominately Evangelical Christians whose support for Israel derives in part from an eschatological belief that the presence of Jews in their biblical homeland will speed the return of Christ. CUFI is headed by Texas pastor John Hagee, who wrote in his 2006 book that Adolf Hitler was a “half-breed Jew” sent by God as a “hunter” to drive Europe’s Jews back to “the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have – Israel.” 
 
 Despite such anti-Semitic rhetoric, Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained a warmer relationship with CUFI than with the Democratic Party, speaking at the former’s conference in 2012. Netyanyahu also met with Bachmann, herself a CUFI member, in 2013. At that time, the interim agreement of the Iran nuclear deal had just been enacted, and Bachmann assured the Israeli prime minister that she would oppose the dangerous deal. 
 
 Notably, President Obama and Netanyahu will be having their first face-to-face meeting since the Iran nuclear deal’s passage in Washington on Monday. The meeting is expected to be strictly business, as the two leaders discuss extending a ten-year military-aid agreement for Israel. Whether the Israeli people will use those weapons for protection against hostile nation-states or for fending off hoards of the damned after the Rapture depends on which “pro-Israel” Americans you believe.
– She may no longer be a presidential frontrunner or even a member of Congress, but Michele Bachmann can still generate headlines. In this case, it's for a radio interview following a trip to Israel in which she encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity because Jesus is "coming soon," reports the Hill. The full quote, given to Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council: “We recognize the shortness of the hour. And that’s why we as a remnant want to be faithful in these days and do what it is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one of us, to be faithful in the Kingdom and to help bring in as many as we can—even among the Jews—share Jesus Christ with everyone that we possibly can because, again, he’s coming soon." Bachmann praised Israel itself, calling it "a miracle of the hand of God," which puts her in the camp of those "fiercely defending the political platform of the Jewish state, while fiercely, if quietly, opposing Judaism itself," writes Eric Levitz at New York. He notes that one prominent evangelical group in the US, called Christians United for Israel, is a big supporter of the nation because of members' belief that the presence of Jews in Israel will speed up Jesus' return. In the Jerusalem Post, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, wasn't pleased. "A statement like Ms. Bachmann’s should serve to remind Jews that missionizing is, unfortunately, alive and well, and that we must always be on the lookout for it," he says.