With Friends Like these: Christian Zionists stifle US Jews and inhibit peace efforts.
Posted on May 18 2007 by Rob Lipton under American Jewish Committee , Anti-semitism , Faith-based.The recent death of Jerry Falwell can serve as an opportunity to reflect on the growing Christian Zionist (CZ) movement and how such a movement is related to other establishment pro-Israel groups such as The David Project, ADL and AIPAC. To be clear, there is a Faustian bargain being forged, for short term political and financial gain, Israel and the American Jewish establishment are willing to engage with people such as John Hagee of the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) “who is contemptuous of Muslims, dismissive of gays, possesses a triumphalist theology and opposes a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
This bargain also entails muzzling - American Jewish leaders who have been critical of CUFI sponsored local “Nights to Honor Israel” say they have been pressured into silence.
“The pressure has been enormous,” said a prominent Jewish leader who said he was contacted by local community officials after he raised questions about a local Christians United For Israel (CUFI) event. “I can’t even talk about it now; I feel a real sense of intimidation because people in our own community are saying I’m opposing something that’s good for Israel, that I’m hurting Israel.”
In terms of Falwell specifically, although their relationship has not been seamless, Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League has called Falwell a “towering figure of the religious right” and a “dear friend of Israel”
The fly in the ointment, beyond the occasional “oopsy” anti-Semitic utterances, eg, “the antichrist is probably a Jewish man alive today,” (condemned by Foxman of the ADL), is that the relationship between the Christian Zionists (like Falwell, Pat Robertson and Hagee) and Jews is roughly that of Germany to the Soviet Union before Germany invaded its ally. Christian Zionists believe that as one large piece of the Apocalypse endgame, a unified Jewish state must exist over all of what is now Israel and Palestine and that a new temple must be built on temple mount. The important take home point is that within the framework of Christian Zionist belief is the notion that at the time of Christ’s second coming, Jews will be offered a choice to convert to Christianity or immediately be condemned to hell or some reasonable facsimile.
Although this might give some Jewish/Isreali individuals and organizations pause, these would not be Bebe Netanyahu (who has publicly been seen “conferring” with Falwell) or AIPAC or the David Project. Indeed, The David Project is working closely with CUFI in order to develop campus outreach training programs throughout the country, of which, Cal State Bakersfield is the first. The David project takes this so seriously that they actually have a Christian outreach manager that is helping with educational materials. The Jerusalem Post following suit has just inaugurated a new website, The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition. And the Israeli tourism agency regularly advertises on Christian right radio stations. Notwithstanding concern expressed within and without the Jewish community on the ultimate goal of such CZs (such as the deep seated anti-Semitism inherent in such a religious world view),
“The State of Israel finds the Christian community an important base of support, and we cooperate with them on many projects,” said David Saranga, Israel’s consul for media and public affairs in New York.
One needs to ask what kind of friends these CZs actually are. When Sharon unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, notwithstanding the myriad complexities and negatives of the action, it was Pat Robertson who warned that letting any area of the ancient land of Israel go would incur God’s wrath and that Sharon’s stroke was one way god was expressing this wrath.
The close relationship between mainstream Jewish groups and John Hagee’s CUFI may be helping to drive away younger Jewish Americans (from any interest in Israel) in droves.
The question posed by Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism is:
“And so whom do we offer to these young people as a spokesman for Israel? John Hagee… . If our intention was to distance our young adults from the Jewish state, we could not have made a better choice ….. Let’s consider if in return for temporary financial benefit, we are alienating those who will be our leaders and donors tomorrow.”
Putting aside for the moment any religious issues, the CZs act like a giant sea anchor, along with typical right wing/mainstream US Jewish groups (AIPAC, AJC, etc) in retarding progress towards any of the foundational problems besetting the region. If we continue the Faustian tableau we can just imagine the Devil’s glee at collecting on the bargain.
(Cecilie Surasky helped with the writing of this article)
Get Muzzlewatch delivered fresh daily
Print This Post
May 19th, 2007 at 10:44 am
To be perfectly frank here, regarding this special relationship that has been cultivated by aipac between the cz’s and right wing israeli supporters, regardless of the criminal policy in the land of israel against the palestinians, it is a stab in the back and a slap in the face to judaism, or at least ought to be to most judaics. This from a community who turns their backs on family members who accept the rejected messiah, but yet choose to have a special relationship with the cz’s for political reasons, how utterly despicable of them, what a blot on their character.
but all is fair in love and war…even allying oneself with the enemy while turning your back on those of your own family that believe what the enemy believes. Although that is not the issue here it never the less is at the core of the character of the people that embraces the cz’s.
political expedience and duplicity of character are truly intertwined.
May 19th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
I’ve always been intrigued by the near hysteria that engulfs some when discussions of Jewish alliances with right-of-center Christian organizations take place. To a certain extent, this attitude is part of an important narrative for some (including, I would guess, many JVP members) who see themselves as a silent majority of virtuous, progressive voices, open minded and caring Jews in alliance with similar voices within mainline Christian churches, reaching out to other Jews, Christians and even Muslims for the greater good of all. Within this storyline, organized Jewish groups like ADL have been taken over by right wingers and sold their souls to religious conservatives who are only interested in Israel because of superstition raised by a literal interpretation of supposed sacred texts.
Yet here on Planet Earth, one discovers a much more complex (and interesting) set of relationships between Jewish groups and a variety of Christian churches. Certainly the outreach of conservative Christians to Jewish groups has been welcomed by some. At the same time, these overtures have also been criticized by, among others, the ADL which you include in your list of slavish devotees to the Christian Right.
The JVP storyline ignores the fact that a great deal of evangelical support of Israel comes from the black churches, a group routinely ignored when lumping all evangelicals together under the Jerry Falwell umbrella.
It also ignores the tremendous support Israel has among mainline Protestant churches like the Presbyterians. Israel’s critics like to segregate “good” Christians like the Presbyterians and UCC who join them in denouncing the Jewish state from the “bad” Christians like evangelicals who slavishly support Israel’s policies. But this simple-minded view ignores the fact that mainline church criticism of Israel comes almost entirely from the top of the hierarchy of these churches. As you get closer to the pews, support for Israel begins to look like the rest of the country, as demonstrated last summer when Presbyterian Church members rejected the leadership’s divestment policies by a margin of 95% to 5%.
In a way, this is very much a class issue, more than a religious one. For JVP, like the leadership of the mainline churches, cannot imagine themselves as anything other than righteous and virtuous. And, like most elites, they are aghast and bewildered as to why their opinions are not shared by everyone else and, ideally, made the law of the land. The notion that they might be wrong and the vast majority of less lofty Americans who have different opinions on the Middle East right cannot possibly be the answer. And thus, the creation of fantasies whereby powerful Jewish lobbies taken over by crazed right wingers join with primitive, Bible thumpers to deceive and bully the public into having an opinion that contradicts what JVP and the like minded say is their only possible moral option.
I could (and probably will) say more, but we’ll let that sink in for now.
Jon
May 19th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
If JVP doesn’t like that conservative Christians are friends of Israel, then perhaps it should take steps to convince Israelis and their supporters that they have better friends.
I personally am not crazy about the connection myself. Unlike JVP, however, I don’t spend my time pissing on Israel and anyone who dares speak out for it.
May 19th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
“pissing on Israel and anyone who dares speak out for it”?
Please see my post at http://www.muzzlewatch.com/?p=184#comments
You were very much in my mind when I wrote it.
May 19th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Not sure what you’re talking about Alan.
I didn’t end the sentence with a preposition.
May 20th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Here is a good article:
Jerry Falwell: Founder of the Moral Majority and early Christian Zionist
(Conservative Christian televangelist leaves controversial legacy marked with bigoted remarks and a Christian university)
by Bill Berkowitz
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=12864
By the way, Jon Haber, your Marxist analysis is quite funny. JVP is the elite? What kind of drugs are you on? I going to tell you something and you listen to it. You should be glad to have groups like JVP around because they prevent Antisemitism in not portraying Jewish people as some stick together conspiracy. If you want to go along with people who believe in the rapture, then that’s your choice but don’t try to downplay it.
“The narrative of the rapture, drawn from the tradition of Christian fundamentalist apocalypticism, has achieved unprecedented popularity through a recent series of evangelical adventure novels called Left Behind. More than 50 million copies have been sold; the series has spawned companion comic books, movies, children’s books, and audio tapes, as well as a radio drama, a large Internet fan club, and a revival of controversies within evangelicalism about the particularities of what scholars call dispensationalist premillennialism. Beginning with the fifth book, Apollyon, each addition to the series (there are twelve in all, with two additional series planned) skyrocketed to the top of every major best-seller list in the United States. The books have become a publishing phenomenon, surprising their publishers, their authors, scholars, and industry analysts. Conceived by longtime evangelical prophecy writer Timothy LaHaye and written by evangelical fiction writer Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind has brought this religious “subculture” fully into the mainstream.” [1]
1. Amy Johnson Frykholm, Rapture Culture: Left behind in Evangelical America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 3, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103183810.
May 20th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
On the Black Community:
Letter to Black America on Palestinian Rights & June 10 March
by US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation; May 19, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=12859§ionID=107
May 21st, 2007 at 7:57 am
this bill that is being introduced into law will one day be used against israel…..also a terrorist state…it’s called blowback.
WASHINGTON, May 10 (IPS) - Neo-conservative hawks who championed the invasion of Iraq are leading a new campaign to persuade state and local governments, as well as other institutional investors, to “divest” their holdings in foreign companies and U.S. overseas subsidiaries doing business in Iran.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
The term Christian Zionist (CZ), much like the term “neoconservative,” seems to be most used by just people who do not have the slightest idea of what it means. During a year working with some very thoughtful Presbyterians, I was educated on how the conflation of terms such as “Christian Zionism,” “Dispensationalism,” Pre-Millennialism,” “Fundamentalism,” “Evangelicalism,” and “the Religious Right” are used to paint any Christian support for the Jewish state under a single stereotype of a cave-dwelling religious bigot with a stone club in one hand and a copy of “Left Behind” in the other.
In truth, the ranks of Christian Zionists spans many churches, Evangelical and so-called “Mainline.” While some subscribe to a Dispensationalist theology that sees the birth of Israel as representing part of the End of Days myth, most support the Jewish state for the same reason most Americans do: Israel’s democracy, it’s support for the US during the Cold War, a common fight in the current global terror war, and – not insignificantly – the plight of Christian communities in the Middle East from which many Mainline church leaders (unlike church members) have chosen to avert their gaze.
Support for Israel among Evangelicals is pretty much in line with where polls tell us support for the Jewish state is running among Americans as a whole. Christian support tends to stand out because: (1) Unlike many Mainline churches, church leadership is aligned with the rank and file in the case of Evangelical churches; and (2) these churches are growing in the US, while Mainline church populations continue to plummet.
Perhaps these last two points have something to do with one another?
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Re: “the antichrist is probably a Jewish man alive today,”
Isn’t George Soros nominally Jewish? He even wants a One World government…
May 26th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
You are correct that most Christian Zionists (and most low-church Protestants, for that matter) believe that the re-establishment of Israel is a necessary precondition for the return of Jesus Christ.
But they also believe that the Second Coming will be preceded by a one-world government, one-world church and general moral decline.
So, if hastening Christ’s return is the supreme interest, why don’t Christian Zionists also lobby for abortion, pornography, the UN and ecumenicism?
Why, indeed, to they lobby AGAINST all of these things?
It seems to me that Christian Zionism is simply born from a fundamentalist understanding of the Abrahamic covenant.
I know it’s less interesting than the apocalyptic end-game scenario you laid out, but it’s exceedingly more logical.
May 30th, 2007 at 6:51 am
Jackie - Now that’s an interesting take on the end-game storyline I’ve never thought of.
As I’ve “fessed up” in the past, my interest in taking part in online discussion is the ability to listen to and contribute things that are not simply repeats of arguments presented everywhere else.
I think you’re right on that a fundamentalist understanding of the covenant between God and the Jewish people is a more likely motivation than the “End of Days” storyline. While the popularity of books like Left Behind certainly attest to a fascination regarding the playing out of Revelations in contemporary time, the number of religious groups who believe theologically that it is man’s obligation to hasten this process is extremely small.
The only thing I would add to your argument is that the while the fundamentalist understanding of the Abrahamic covenant is a theological motivator for Christian support for Israel, that support also comes from more worldly places, notably an understanding that Israel represents an island of democracy and tolerence in an ocean of repression, especially towards Christians. While the leadership of the Presbyterians (for example) may not understand it, most Christians (fundamentalist or not) do.
Thanks.
Jon
May 31st, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Actually, the “rapture” teachings began in the late 1800’s with a Scottish preacher. It is never mentioned in Christian scripture, but loose interpretations of the scripture, and revelations/ dreams that this man gradually evolved into a dogma of many fundamentalist churches….just, as I suspect, the Quoran and Old Testament have been badly used over the years, depending on who was quoting them. Years before, blatant misuse of the scriptures brought us such wonderful ideas as the “Crusades” and Inquisition. As a practicing Christian, even use of the term saddens me, as I suspect it doesn’t mean what it did in the beginning. I prefer to call myself “one who follows the teaching of the Nazarean.” I cannot and will not believe that, from one who specifically taught that his kingdom was not of this earth, that his teachings should be used to facilitate political agression, inhumane treatment of any peoples, and conveniently validate the ideas of “manifest destiny” for those who are neither just nor moral nor compassionate, collectively, let alone “godly”. Although I believe a time may come when the world, as we know it, may come to an end, I do not profess to understand the exact interpretation. Dozens of conflicting teachings exist among these churches about end-times; they conveniently neglect to read the part where the Christian scripture says that (paraphrased) many will stand before God and say they have done miracles and great works in his name, prophesied, etc….and God will ask them why they didn’t care for the sick, the elderly, the imprisioned, the hungry. He will call them workers of iniquity. Pretty much to the point, huh? As well, the new “prosperity doctine” (where God wants everyone to have power, money, land and success) has pretty much impermeated today’s churches, and found a thriving climate in current political policies. Hunger for oil and power, as in the time of the Crusades, diminishes teachings of humility, poverty, etc. It is much easer to condone acts of brutality or agression when you believe it is your ordained mission; reversely, acts of charity or compassion to the people “not in your camp” become a sin. I fear any government who claims they speak for God and are sanctioned by Him in their political undertakings, while ignoring His most fundamental concepts, as found in all Abrahamic faiths.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:07 pm
PS By “fundamental concepts” I meant compassion,obligation to telling the truth, etc…not dogmatic interpretations.