Inciting his viewers against Burns, Gordon Robertson said "I want you to go to the phone and call the State Department ... and the White House."

Tarik Hamdi, IOL Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON, May 21 (IslamOnline.net) - The Christian Right, represented by Rev. Pat Robertson and his son Gordon, has launched a campaign to rid the U.S. State Department of what they call a "pro-Arab" and "anti-Israel" bias.

Gordon Robertson, a vice president of his father's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), on Monday, May 19, repeated his call to viewers to register their complaints with the State Department and the White House about remarks allegedly made by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns on May 4.

He lambasted Burns for allegedly criticizing Christian and conservative objections to President Bush's Middle East peace plan.

The arch conservatives Washington Times, Jerusalem Post and CBN reported that Burns, on a visit to occupied Jerusalem on May 4, told Israeli and Palestinian peace activists that "common sense of all peoples will override the conservative and Christian viewpoints once they see the road map's potential."

The Times added that Burns allegedly called "conservative and Christian viewpoints" the main obstacle to peace.

However, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker dismissed as inaccurate the news reports of Burns' comments, asserting the diplomat had not insulted anyone on his visit to Israel.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) also quoted a "senior State Department official" as charging that the reports were part of a conservative campaign against U.S. diplomats.

Inciting his viewers against Burns, Gordon Robertson said Monday, "I am insulted by what this careerist at the State Department has said. ... His name is Burns. I want you to go to the phone and call the State Department ... and the White House."

He said that career diplomats "think they are somehow above the political process in America, and they can insult more than 60 million Americans."

Gordon Robertson claimed the State Department has a "pro-Arab" bias and thinks the "Christian viewpoint on Israel lacks common sense."

He stressed that President Bush's "road map" peace plan is "dead in the water from the Israeli point of view."

The elder Robertson, calling for Burns to be sacked, said during a May 13 broadcast, "I don't know about you, ladies and gentlemen, but I am outraged that William Burns ... would go into a private meeting ... and complain about, get this, Christians, American conservatives and [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] ..., saying that these three groups lacked common sense because they don't go slavishly along with the road map."

"We appreciate our president," he added, claiming "there's some people in the State Department that I don't think are his friends necessarily."