Four thousand delegates from across the country have just wrapped up the annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) conference in Washington D.C.
No doubt some Jewish-Americans and others who generally support Israel would not gravitate towards a conference of Evangelical Christians. Valid concerns about separation of church and state and historical memories of Christianity imposed, by force at times, on one’s ancestors are not conducive to automatic trust.
But for those of us Jewish-Americans and supporters of democracy worldwide who understand Israel’s precarious position as Iran races towards attaining nuclear capability, Christian support for Israel–indeed, any solid support for Israel–is much appreciated.
As stated earlier, many of my fellow Jewish-Americans are concerned that, regarding alliance with Evangelical Christians, too much acceptance of the mingling of religion and politics could come back to haunt us at some future date. I am not deaf to this concern. But with a fanatical, human-rights abusing, rogue regime - one that has sworn itself to Israel’s destruction - on the cusp of attaining nuclear weapons, I think any reasonable assessment of priorities would dictate that Jewish-Americans and other Americans who value human rights, democracy, and personal security re-affirm our commitment to Israel. Doing so may mean reassessing our alliances. And realizing that few enough people in the world “get it” for us to reject any true ally based on knee-jerk thinking and stereotyping.
Two years ago, I attended the CUFI conference. The delegates with whom I spoke (I interviewed about a dozen people at random), struck me as committed, unapologetic, devoted supporters of Israel with an impressive command of facts and history.
On a personal level, meeting them was interesting and broadening - an experience I would recommend to my fellow Jewish-Americans, many of whom decry and fight prejudice and stereotyping on many fronts.
Here, I would say, is an opportunity to reduce stereotyping and prejudice that can simultaneously benefit our community and the State of Israel in its time of trial.
This trial is not going to go away without standing up to the enemy. While no one knows the future, Ahmadinejad’s regime shows absolutely zero indication that it will halt its march towards nuclear weaponization. The leaders of the free world trumpet support for Israel, but thus far adopt policies of equivocation at best, collaboration and appeasement at worst.
We have been here before.
Anyone with a sense of moral responsibility has worked–and has hoped–for the success of sanctions in stopping Iran. But should they fail, in coming months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face a historic decision, as will U.S. President Barack Obama: whether to allow a rogue regime led by a madman whose stated intention is to destroy another people to acquire the means to do just that.
We have been here before.
At this juncture, it is vital for Jewish-Americans to be open to alliance with anyone who “gets it.”
Following this year’s conference, 4,000+ Evangelicals, who personally paid their way to Washington D.C.–went to Capitol Hill to lobby their members of Congress on behalf of Israel.
How many of their fellow Americans, including Jewish-Americans, have done the same? How many have made it clear–on the pages of U.S. newspapers, in community government, at rallies in support of the Jewish state, in letters to their members of Congress–that their support of any politician - including President Barack Obama - will require staunch, clear-headed support for Israel in the days ahead? How many?
Not enough of us.
Before the Congressional elections in November, Jewish-Americans and others who care about human rights, democracy, Israel’s and our own survival must make it clear, at the ballot box, to President Obama, that our support is not to be taken for granted. The best way to send him this message is to vote Republican this time. If President Obama feels he can take Jewish-American and other Israel-supporting Democratic voters for granted - regardless of his actions vis a vis Israel, which have thus far been, overall, dangerously naive to the mortal threats Israel faces - he will be far less likely to take military action against Iran should it become necessary. He will also be less inclined to support Israel in the likely event the Jewish State is forced to take pre-emptive action, alone, in self-defense and defense of the free world. In such an unfortunate event, while the entire free world would inwardly breathe a sigh of relief, cowardice and duplicity would likely mean universal condemnation of Israel.
Repetition of phrases like, “The United States will always support Israel” is not a guarantee of safety–not for Israelis, not for American Jews, not for Christians, not for European and American leftists, not for moderate Muslims, not for gays, not for feminists, not for atheists, not for secular “apolitical” Westerners, all of whom would be radical jihadists’ next targets next were Israel to fall. Think you can stay out of by not taking a position? Think again.
So did a lot of European Jews, so did a lot of European Catholics, so did gypsies and homosexuals, so did the Austrians, the French, the Poles, the Czechs. So did Stalin. So did most Americans. Until Pearl Harbor.
We have been here before.
While I have little doubt in the solid moral instincts of the American people, I do not underestimate the character that will be required of President Obama to stand up against great pressure and make what would be a courageous and (in some circles) extremely unpopular decision to organize an international coalition to stop Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, if necessary.
He will be far less likely to take such a stand if he does not feel it would have the support of enough Democrats, including Jewish-Americans, to be viable. To put it crudely, we can’t expect him or anyone to support us if we do not help ourselves.
Helping ourselves means recognizing our allies. This starts with rethinking our assumptions about conservatives in advance of the 2010 congressional elections.
This is not some partisan speech. It is a matter of Israel’s survival. There will be plenty of time, hopefully, to vote Democrat in the future and to debate prayer in the schools, abortion rights, and stem cell research. Frankly, debating those issues with the religious right will seem like an absurd luxury once the first dirty bomb goes off in a U.S. city, or Iran attains a nuclear weapon and begins exporting a wave of ferocious terrorism that makes 9-11 look like a practice run. These are just projected scenarios. No one knows the future. But is there any logical reason to asume that a rogue regime which is presently exporting terrorism around the world will decelerate its efforts once it is empowered–and cushioned–by the knowledge that it has a nuclear weapon, and therefore much more power to intimidate and threaten?
Israel does not have much time, the world does not have much time, to prevent from acquiring nuclear weapons a regime that has openly stated its intention to bring on a new Holocaust.
We have been here before.
This time around, let us help ourselves and our fellow Jews. Let us help the people of Iran, who are being tortured by their own government.
This time around, let us not assume the unthinkable is not a possibility. And let us not assume “It isn’t us they hate.”
This time around, let us not make the cowardly and foolish mistake of appeasing the crocodile, expecting it to stay full forever on the blood of our brothers and sisters.
Let us show character in the face of evil and stand together to defeat it - before it rages out of control.
7 Comments
The Jerusalem for Public affairs has written an interesting analysis of the issue outlining the problems with an evangelical alliance:
Jewish concerns about building coalitions with Evangelicals fall into three key categories, which were noted above:
1. Fear of efforts to target Jews for conversion, and the implied lack of acceptance of Jews as Jews
2. Discomfort with Evangelical notions of “end-times” scenarios
3. Disagreement with Evangelicals on a host of domestic policy issues ranging from abortion to church-state separation.
Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg, who has studied Evangelical views of Israel for years, advocates caution toward this support:
“Accepting the embrace of conservative evangelicals poses problems of principle for Jews and Israel, in return for an illusory short-term payoff. Jews would do better to follow the Hebrew maxim ‘Respect him and suspect him,’ maintaining a polite distance and publicly delineating their differences from the Christian right, even while at times supporting the same policy steps.”
Gorenberg also disputes the findings of the Tarrance poll:
The Christian right’s view of Israel derives largely from a double-edged theological position: Following a classic anti-Jewish stance, it regards the Jewish people as spiritually blind for rejecting Jesus. Yet it says that divine promises to Jews - to bless those who bless them, to return them to their land - remain intact.
Indeed, it regards Israel’s existence as proof that biblical prophecies are coming true - heralding an apocalypse in which Jews will either die or accept Jesus.
http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/cjc-schrag-s05.htm
Gershom Gorenberg has a good balanced discussion of the issue in the Washington Post after researching this complex relationship and the associated dangers:
Unorthodox Alliance
Israeli and Jewish interests are better served by keeping a polite distance from the Christian right.
By Gershom Gorenberg
Friday, October 11, 2002
JERUSALEM — The idea is supposed to make me tingle warmly: While I sit in my home here enjoying the Friday evening calm, thousands of Christian Coalition supporters will be gathering at the Ellipse in Washington to proclaim solidarity with Israel. According to pre-rally PR, my prime minister will speak by satellite hookup, pleased to have the backing of an American constituency more hawkish than most of his Israeli voters. At least some American Jews, including leaders who once wanted nothing to do with the Christian right, may point to the rally as proof of an important new political alliance.
With Israel facing a danger to its existence — so they argue — Jews should welcome the help of a group that loudly proclaims its love for the Jewish state.
I’m not tingling.
Having spent years researching the Christian right’s tie to Israel — listening to leading “Christian Zionists,” reading their sermons and examining the links of some to Israeli extremists — I have to conclude that this is a strangely exploitative relationship. Accepting the embrace of conservative evangelicals poses problems of principle for Jews and Israel, in return for an illusory short-term payoff. Jews would do better to follow the Hebrew maxim “Respect him and suspect him,” maintaining a polite distance and publicly delineating their differences from the Christian right, even while at times supporting the same policy steps.
The Christian right’s view of Israel derives largely from a double-edged theological position: Following a classic anti-Jewish stance, it regards the Jewish people as spiritually blind for rejecting Jesus. Yet it says that divine promises to Jews — to bless those who bless them, to return them to their land — remain intact. Indeed, it regards Israel’s existence as proof that biblical prophecies are coming true — heralding an apocalypse in which Jews will either die or accept Jesus. Israel is loved as confirmation of fundamentalist Christian doctrine.
“The most dramatic evidence for His imminent return,” the Rev. Jerry Falwell has stated, is “the rebirth of the nation of Israel.” Evangelist Chuck Missler once told me that Israel gets more support in America from Christian fundamentalists than from “ethnic Jews” — yet he has asserted that Auschwitz was “just a prelude” to what will happen to Jews in the approaching Last Days.
Jews who advocate working more closely with the Christian right say this is irrelevant. “These religious beliefs . . . speak to an unknown future,” while evangelicals are providing support right now, Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman wrote recently. This answer misreads millennial belief.
To long for the End is to assert that our world is deeply flawed. One whose millennial vision is “Gonna lay down my sword and shield” says one thing about what’s wrong today.
Those who look forward to the Jews’ converting or dying proclaim another, very different “flaw” in our world. It’s no accident that evangelical support for Israel often comes bundled with efforts to proselytize to the Jews.
By ignoring this theology, Jews both demean themselves and condescend to conservative evangelicals. They also risk undermining decades of dialogue with Catholics and mainstream Protestants who have undertaken the difficult task of reassessing Christianity’s attitude toward Jews. It will be hard for Jews to affirm that reassessment if prominent Jewish groups are working closely with Christian groups that negate Judaism.
Does Israel’s current crisis justify ignoring such long-term considerations in order to ensure immediate, tactical backing, as some argue? Living in Jerusalem, I don’t underestimate today’s dangers.
But as frightening as Palestinian terror is, it does not threaten Israel’s existence. Palestinian demographics do threaten Israel, as long as it holds all the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Within a few years, there will be a Palestinian majority in that land, and Israel will either cease being a Jewish state or cease being a democracy.
No wonder a recent poll showed a majority of Israel’s Jews favoring a Palestinian state. The Christian right’s position, on the other hand, is exemplified by Sen. James Inhofe’s statement last March on the Senate floor that Israel should keep the West Bank “because God said so.” Rather than support for Israel, this is support for hard-line policies that endanger Israel in the name of fundamentalist theology.
Jews have every reason to speak with conservative evangelicals — in forthright interfaith dialogue, plainly stating differences as well as points of agreement.
In the political realm, however, Israeli and Jewish interests are better served by working with politicians and religious groups that champion renewed American diplomatic efforts to end bloodletting in the Holy Land. Seeing negotiators sit down again to talk peace — now that would give me a warm tingle.
Gershom Gorenberg is the author of “The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10067-2002Oct10
David Goldstein describes how the Christian right is increasingly pro-Israel while anti Jewish more bluntly:
The end of the world is near! (And other good news from the Christian right)
by Goldy, 11/06/2004, 12:04 PM
My head filled with dark thoughts in the days following yet another stolen election (oops… forgot to wear my aluminum hat), I totally forgot to read Collin Levey’s latest column: “Bush’s religious base bolsters support for Israel.”
Happily, any such temptation is likely to be nipped in the bud by a serendipitous and growing alliance between Jewish pro-Israel voters and the “Zionist” Christians of the president’s conservative base.
Yeah… see, Collin… the only problem with this serendipity is that these “Zionist” Christians are pro-Israel because they believe it will lead to the total destruction of the Jewish people.
I’m assuming Collin is Jewish like me, and perhaps like most Jews, she hasn’t spent much time reading the New Testament. As a piece of nonfiction I find it rather boring and preachy compared to the Torah… and I must say I find some of the gospels transparently self-serving on the part of the authors.
I’m sure many Christians might disagree with my critique. There’s no accounting for taste.
But as I’ve said before, Revelations is, well… a revelation.
The prophecy requires that before the Second Coming the Jews must return to the Holy Land (check) and rebuild the Temple… (Oops! That would require tearing down the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest mosques in Islam.)
Anyway… and what happens next? Well, a third of the Jews convert to Christianity, and the rest of us are destroyed in Armageddon. (The good news is, it finally ends over two thousand years of anti-semitism.)
This “Zionist”, evangelical Christian Republican base with which Collin is so eager to ally herself, may indeed be passionately pro-Israel… but they are most definitely not pro-Jew.
These are people who are happily looking forward to Armageddon… who eagerly await “The Rapture” (which my brother-in-law Dan reminds me, could be a boon for the schmatte business.) These are people who fervently believe the end-of-the-world is coming, and not a moment too soon.
And these are the people we want driving our foreign policy?!
Collin — from one Jew to another — I’ve got only one word to say to you: Oy!
http://horsesass.org/?p=232
The bottom line: The Christian right offers Jews the same deal as the witch forced upon Hansel and Gretel in the children’s fairy tale.
Although the cannibalistic witch’s effort to feed Hansel may have relieved his hunger in the short term, the witch’s motives, like the Christian right, were self serving and would have led to the end of Hansel and Gretel had they been carried out.
I agree that is high time to drop the paranoia re Evangelicals and accept the friendship and support. High time to wake up and look around, Jews! haven’t you noticed that The world doesn’t seem to be filled with friendship and support for Israel…? Drop the old and old-fashioned knee-jerk liberal leftist *****.
Stop ignoring the obvious, please. PLEASE! M. Pitz
Zev Chafets argues that, in the age of global jihad, for American Jews to cultivate paranoia towards the one bloc of individuals who reliably support them is perverse. I tend to agree http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1578973,00.html
Thanks all commenters. Thanks for the heads up, Erik, but I just can’t muster too much existential fear of Evangelicals. It seems much more likely they will kill me with kindness than with a bomb. And thanks, Julio, for alerting me to the Zev Chafets piece. Here are some exerpts from it:
“Let’s look at some of the reasons given by Jews who rebuff evangelicals … there is the fear that to befriend Evangelicals is to support their project of “Christianizing” the U.S. The idea that Evangelicals want to turn America into a Christian government is both alarmist and mistaken. For one thing, there is no Evangelical legal system like Islamic sharia.”
(To the above I would add that, in order for
Evangelicals to impose their alleged political agenda–and there may be some truth to the idea they have their vision for the U.S., as does every other religious/cultural group–every Democrat, moderate, independent and libertarian in the country would have to cede to this agenda at the ballot box. Because Evangelicals are not generally violent people. So unless the rest of this huge, diverse country voluntarily decides to “go Evangelical” –I don’t see it happening.
Chafets continues, “Jewish leaders also fret about a two-part Armageddon scenario. The first part is that, according to Evangelical prophecy, all the Jews are either forcibly converted or killed in the last reel. The second part is that Evangelicals are trying to bring on Armageddon as a necessary condition for the Second Coming of Christ. Yet both parts are red herrings. First of all, we Jews don’t believe in the Second Coming. Either we are right about this, or we are wrong, in which case we’ll have some ’splainin’ to do to Jesus. Either way it’s out of our hands. Secondly, almost all premillenialist Christians believe that the End of Days will come in God’s time. Humans can’t hurry things along.”
Note: one of the things I like about Chaftez’s research is that, unlike Goremberg, he did not rely primarily on secondary sources. Instead, he spent several years traveling with, talking with, and actually getting to know …Evangelicals! A wise man once told me, if you want to see how people are, get to KNOW them. (Note to PC-minded liberals: this is also a great antidote to stereotyping).
Meanwhile, I find all the fears about Armageddon pretty funny. If we Jews don’t believe in that, why are some of us so worried that others do? Is it possible some of us fear they could be right? I don’t think so, personally, but if they are, would it really hurt us to have some Evangelical friends?
Here’s the end of the Chafetz piece:
“Finally, some Jews are uncomfortable with the heart of Evangelical Zionism. Verse 12:3 in Genesis reads, “I will bless those who bless Israel, and curse those who curse Israel.” Since Israel’s foundation in 1948, many evangelicals have seen Jews as the chosen people and modern Israel as the embodiment of God’s plan. This grates on more secular Jews, who don ‘t go in for God talk. We know ourselves too well to suppose we are chosen. And some of us (especially us Israelis) have cursed Israel more than once. Thus Evangelical Christians may love us for the wrong reasons.
But love is a lot better than its opposite. Especially in wartime. While American Jewish leaders worry about the mythological Armageddon, the Iranians are building a bomb to drop on the actual, physical Armageddon, a locale an hour and a half from Tel Aviv. The Palestinians have elected a government committed to Israel’s destruction. Al-Qaeda has dubbed its jihad a, “holy war against Crusaders and Jews.”
In the face of such animus, the unconditional love and approval of American Christians is a great gift. The Democratic party, with its many Jewish activists, has traditionally supported Israel. But the Republicans have no such ethnic affinity. It is the Evangelicals, major stakeholders in the G.O.P., who have made it a bastion of pro-Israel and pro-Jewish sentiment. They make being on Israel’s side as American as apple pie.
Israelis appreciate this. Every Israeli prime minister has cultivated their goodwill. Evangelical leaders, in turn, have been content to accept Israeli decisions. If Christian Zionists really were the crazed fanatics of liberal Jewish imaginings, they wouldn’t have been so sanguine about Israeli withdrawals from “promised land.”
Nor would American Jews feel so secure. They — and not just Israelis — are primary targets of every radical Islamic movement. To paraphrase Trotsky, the Jews of America may not be interested in the jihad, but the jihad is interested in them. Their security depends on being wrapped in a larger American polity which very much includes 60 or 70 million conservative Evangelicals.
American Jews don’t need to adopt Christian beliefs or even join the Republican Party. But they do need to stop slapping away the hand Evangelicals are extending, and learn to disagree without sneering. There is a war going on. And that means saving your declarations of war for the enemy.”
AMEN!
ADL discusses some deceptive tactics of the Evangelicals:
ADL Denounces World Evangelical Alliance’s Targeting European Jews for Conversion
New York, NY, September 5, 2008 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) denounced a call by an international evangelical group to target European Jewry for conversion, declaring it a “serious affront to the Jewish people” and “disrespectful to Judaism’s own teachings.”
The theological commission of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) issued the call in its document, “The Berlin Declaration on the Uniqueness of Christ and Jewish Evangelism Today,” reiterating its commitment to proselytize European Jewry.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, and Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg, ADL Director of Interfaith Policy, issued the following statement:
Promoting a campaign to convert Jews away from their faith is a serious affront to the Jewish people and disrespectful to Judaism’s own teachings. Though the World Evangelical Alliance claims it seeks to convert Jews out of their “love” for Jews, we believe that if the WEA really loved Jews, they would respect Jewish teachings and recognize the integrity of Jewish tradition.
It is especially troubling that the WEA includes and validates the deceptive proselytizing tactics of Messianic Jews and groups like Jews for Jesus. To issue this declaration from Berlin, where the Nazis directed their Final Solution to exterminate the Jewish people, is the height of insensitivity. This Evangelical document is not an offer of love, but a prescription for hate. As long as the WEA teaches that Judaism is incomplete or misguided, anti-Semitism will continue.
We urge on the WEA to withdraw its call to target the Jews of Europe for conversion and immediately begin serious dialogue with Jewish interfaith representatives, so they can understand the immense pain and anger they are causing with their ill-advised and theologically misguided position.
Post a Comment