The Buie Knife

Danger to Jews of 'Devout' Christians Pushing for Armageddon in Israel

Despite Republicans' strong support for Israel, American Jews do not generally support Republicans. Michael Medved, a USA Today columnist and activist in the Republican Jewish coalition, looks at the numbers and asks why. Conservative blogger Sam Spagnola of Greensboro, NC wonders if Jewish skepticism toward Christian Republican politicians is a form of liberal bigotry:

"If a Christian refuses to vote for a devout Muslim solely because the candidate is a devout Muslim, wouldn't some people call that bigotry? If that's the case, then what would you call a Jew who refuses to vote for a devout Christian solely because the candidate is a devout Christian?" he writes. 

First of all, advertising your faith for political gain doesn't tell us how devout or faithful you are. At the Republican forum in Iowa, all six candidates in attendance pledged their devotion to Jesus Christ. If American Jews are uncomfortable with what seems to be a religious test for the Republican presidential nomination, who can blame them?

Secondly, American Jews have strongly affiliated with the civil rights movement, because they faced rank discrimination themselves. Anti-semitism in America was quite prevalent well into the 1970s. If you were a Jew, you often encountered hostility at certain colleges, certain fraternities and sororities, certain neighborhoods or certain country clubs, some of which had restrictive covenants. You couldn't become partner at certain law firms, or the heads of certain companies. President Nixon on the Watergate tapes made highly offensive slurs against Jews. As late as 1980, Bailey Smith, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, a leader of the religious right in the Reagan coalition, no doubt represented many of his compatriots in the church when he declared "God does not hear the prayers of Jews."

Even today, many Christian conservatives in politics advocate the re-installation of Christian prayers in public schools, and tuition tax credits for private Christian schools, policies Jews aren't likely to support. Holocaust survivor Eli Weisel has called on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has served in leadership roles in the Mormon church, to ask his church stop proxy baptisms of Jews. Mormons believe that the practice creates the possibility Jews (who haven't acknowledged Christ while alive) can still get into heaven.

A Jewish reporter I knew, when covering conservative evangelicals, was asked if he was a "completed Jew" or, as Ann Coulter suggested, a "perfected Jew," meaning a Jew who is saved because he has accepted Christ.

Thirdly, to understand Jewish skepticism toward Christianist displays of piety in politics, look at Jewish history. Jews have faced far more persecution from Christians than from Muslims. In traditional Christian theology, God punished the Jews for refusing to recognize their risen Lord and savior. The Romans' destruction of the Holy Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was seen as God's punishment. He supposedly sent them wandering for centuries across the globe as they tried to outrun persecutors. Many "Christians" cast a blind eye to the Jewish Holocaust because, well, the Jews were after all "Christ-killers." One of the reasons the nation of Israel was founded was because many Americans did not want tens of thousands of Jewish refugees entering the United States. 

In the last 30 years, conservative Christians have attempted to over-compensate for their historical hostility to Jews by becoming "holier than thou" supporters of Israel. Timothy Weber in his 2004 book, On the Road to Armageddon, details how these conservative evangelicals -- known as "dispensationalists" for their belief that these are the "end times" -- have mobilized political support for Israel among their Christian flock in America. As he wrote in a Beliefnet article: 

"In their commitment to keep Israel strong and moving in directions prophesied by the Bible, dispensationalists are supporting some of the most dangerous elements in Israeli society. They do so because such political and religious elements seem to conform to dispensationalist beliefs about what is coming next for Israel. By lending their support-both financial and spiritual-to such groups, dispensationalists are helping the future they envision come to pass."

But underneath Christianists' zealous support for the most aggressive policies of the most conservative Israeli governments, including assaults on Palestinians and financing of Jewish settlements in illegally- occupied territories, one wonders if there isn't an underlying religious intolerance and anti-semitism.

To Christian Zionists, support for modern-day Israel is rooted in Biblical prophecy: the return of Jews to Jerusalem is necessary for the second coming of Christ. In the Apocalypse, Jews will be converted to Christianity, as predicted by the Book of Revelation: "Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you."

As a Christian, I see the Book of Revelation as a mysterious and largely unfathonable allegory to demonstrate that God's love wins out in the end. Many Christian conservatives do not see the Book of Revelation as allegorical, however, but as a detailed predictor of the near future.

Disturbingly, many Americans support the modern state of Israel, founded in 1948, because they see it as fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and EQUIVALENT to the Biblical nation of Israel from 2000 years ago: 

Over one-third of those Americans who support Israel report that they do so because they believe the Bible teaches that the Jews must possess their own country in the Holy Land before Jesus can return. Source.

For Jesus to come again, according to Biblical prophecy, the Jewish temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and Islamic holy places must be destroyed. Then, "all who seek to keep the covenant with God will acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah in defiance of the Antichrist." (Wikipedia.) This is a radical call to war in the Middle East as a fulfillment of scripture.

Many American evangelicals who congregate in the Republican Party do not believe in the Mideast peace process. Indeed, as Weber pointed out in his BeliefNet article, they believe that the worst thing the United States can do is 

force Israel to give up land for a peace that will never materialize this side of the second coming. Anyone who pushes for peace in such a manner is ignoring or defying God's plan for the end of the age.

One of the worst anti-semites among the "Christians for Israel" is Rev. John Hagee of San Antonio, Texas, pastor of Cornerstone Church and founder of Christians United for Israel. He blames antisemitism, including the Holocaust, on Jews themselves, for their rebellion against God in not accepting Christ.  Liberal Jews, he says, are "poisoned" and "spiritually blind." He currently calls for a pre-emptive strike against Iran, acknowledging that Iran's response will likely kill most Jews in Israel.

So, Mr. Medved and Mr. Spagnola, if you wonder why Jews are reluctant to jump on the conservative Christian Republican bandwagon, study a little history and theology. It's not difficult to discern. Jews don't want to cheer on their own annihilation. It's hardly bigotry on the part of Jews to shy away from "devout" conservative Christian preachers and politicians.

Drill Deeper:

• On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend
• Muslims, Jews in Jerusalem Were Allied Against Intolerant Christians
• Jews Often Thrived In Muslim Societies, While They Were Discriminated Against In Christian Societies

What Jerusalem's Bloody History Teaches: Importance of Religious Tolerance. Control By 1 Faction Is Doomed

If there is any lesson to be drawn from the history of Jerusalem, observed David Shapiro of Columbia University, "it is that people have killed each other and engaged in the ugliest of human behavior in Jerusalem—all in the name of religiosity. Nearly every group examined in Jerusalem: The Biography has suffered victimhood at one time—and nearly every group has acted as the oppressor as well."

Jerusalem's history is certainly proof of human sin, even if one wonders about God's constant intervention in the holy city, wrote Barnaby Rogerson in his review.

If this is the point on earth at which God's influence is most manifest, we are indeed nothing but the Devil's spawn and nothing good will ever come of us. Extortion, riot, incest, schism, civil strife, torture and assassination stalk the alleys, cellars and towers of Holy Jerusalem, and that's in the good times. The fat years of peace allowed parasitic dynasties of priests, custodians, hoteliers, shop-keepers and pimps to milk pilgrims, visitors and distant believers.

The history of Jerusalem is so full of brutality, gruesome violence, and oceans of blood that "the reader may begin to long for redemption, not from the book, which is impossible to put down," wrote Jonathan Rosen in The New York Times, "but from history itself."

Munro Price quotes Montefiore on the alliance between America and Israel:

'The American Constitution [is] secular…separating state and faith, yet on the Great Seal, the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin depicted the Children of Israel led by cloud and fire towards the Promised Land.’ For millions of Christian Americans today, supporting the Jewish state is a case of the new Israel protecting the old.

This fascinating but ghastly past does not inspire optimism for Jerusalem’s future. Yet its history does seem to teach one lesson – that attempts by any one religion to control the city are doomed. Ironically, the founder of Zionism himself warned against the dangers of this trap. Outlining his plans just before the First World War, Theodor Herzl wrote: 'We shall extra-territorialise Jerusalem so that it will belong to nobody and everybody, its Holy Places the joint possession of all Believers.’ Words for Binyamin Netanyahu to ponder.

Salacious History in Jerusalem

I didn't realize until I started reading Jerusalem: The Biography that "many of Jerusalem's rulers were far worse than Herod and had wonderfully redolent names, like the priapic and violent 12th- century warlord Zangi the Sanguine, the rapacious Crusader King Fulk the Repulsive (he really was) or one of his successors, Baldwin the Big."

This was not taught in high school world history class!

And I certainly didn't learn in Sunday School that Empress Theodora of Byzantium, a former showgirl, “was said to be a gymnastically gifted orgiast whose specialty was to offer all three orifices to her clients simultaneously.”

Will US Aid to Israel Eventually Prove Too Expensive?

I didn't realize, until I started reading Jerusalem: The Biography that for many of the empires that have conquered Jerusalem, occupation proved so expensive to maintain that it essentially destroyed empires. Observed Barnaby Rogerson in his Telegraph review: 

For King Abdullah of Jordan, the British, Herod, Heraclius, Babylon, Saladin, the Sassanids and Assyria, Jerusalem was the irresistible jewel in the crown that also marked out the high noon of all their empires. 

This makes one wonders if US support for Israel, to the tune of $8 million a day or $3 billion a year -- one-fifth of the entire US foreign aid budget -- will eventually prove to be too expensive for the American empire to support. Money if not morality is a compelling reason for the US to support the peace process.

Muslims, Jews in Jerusalem Were Allied Against Intolerant Christians

I didn't reallize, until I started to read Jerusalem: The Biography that early Muslims built the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Jewish temple, not as an act of hostility, but as an act of unity with the Jews, because they saw Islam as the true heir of Judaism. 

When Caliph Omar, who wrested Jerusalem from the Christians in 636, visited the Temple Mount, he found what one observer called “a dung heap which the Christians had put there to offend the Jews,” Jonathan Rosen observes in his NYTimes review of the book. "Omar built his mosque there precisely because of its Jewish significance..."

Muslims agreed with Jews that Jesus was a prophet but not the Messiah, the Christ, the only son of God. The walls of the Temple Mount declared this to be so. Over the decades, as Jews failed to embrace Christianity or Islam, hostility towards Jews grew. "Omar II, around 720, banned Jewish worship on the Temple Mount — a ban that stood for the duration of Islamic rule...," Rosen points out. This ban on non-Islamic prayers at the Temple Mount sadly stands to this day.

And yet, for centuries, Jews and Muslims had a "mutually beneficial relationship that was at odds with the far more antagonistic Byzantine Christians. The fact that such a mutually productive relationship was sustainable for so many centuries seems to make the present situation all the more tragic." 

Some other shocking revelations from reviews of the book:

"Violence among Christian denominations in the city is pettier and far more ancient than the relatively recent national conflict between Palestinians and Israelis," wrote one of The Guardian's reviewers. "When Pope Paul VI asked the Greek Orthodox for permission to pray at the chapel of Calvary in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the patriarch required him to make a written petition, then summarily refused it. The ceremony of the Holy Fire on Easter Saturday, when a tongue of flame "miraculously" descends and illuminates the church, has repeatedly deteriorated into brawling among monks who have little consideration for health and safety. As Tom Lehrer ought to have sung, the Armenians hate the Greeks, the Syriacs hate the Armenians, the Orthodox hate the Catholics, and everyone hates the Copts."

The Ottoman (Turkish) Muslims conquered the city in the 16th century and ruled it for 400 years in relative peace and religious tolerance. 

Can You Recount the Basic History of Jerusalem?

I thought I knew the basic outline of Jerusalem's history from Sunday School, church and world history class. But my knowledge has significant gaps. It has been shaped by religious, ethnic, tribal and national loyalties that distort a sense of perspective. Reading Simon Sebag Montefiore's Jerusalem: The Biography is an effort to achieve a larger understanding.

I knew that Jerusalem was founded by Jewish King David in about 1000 BC. His son, wise King Solomon, "in all his glory," built the First Temple to the monotheistic God Yahweh. About 500 years later, Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple, ended the rule of the Israelites and enslaved them in Babylonia (present-day Iraq). Fifty years later, the Israelites returned to Jerusalem when the Persian King Cyrus the Great conquered the city. They began to build the Second Temple, which was completed in 516 BC and endured for more than 500 years. 

Dastardly Roman pagans destroyed the sacred second Jewish temple in 70 A.D. and ruthlessly massacred both Jews and Christians, causing many to scatter, enslaving and persecuting those who remained. In the early 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine had a dream that led him to believe the Christian God was more powerful than pagan gods, so he made Christianity the official religion of the empire. The Roman Catholic Church grew in power and influence until the fall of the Roman Empire in 476.

Gradually, Orthodox Christians from the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium -- Greeks and Armenians -- supplanted the Romans in Jerusalem. Then in 637, fervant Muslims Conquerors took the city and controlled Palestine for about 400 years, allowing Jews to live and worship freely in the holy city in ways Christians had not allowed. The Muslims were eventually overthrown by bloodthirsty Christian Crusaders from Western Europe, who tolerated no dissent of any kind. Apostates were simply killed.

Do you know who ruled Jerusalem after the crusaders?

This was a surprise to me. I didn't realize "during the Middle Ages, Kurdish and Frankish warlords snarled over the city like dogs over a juicy bone." 

Related:

• Jews and Muslims Lived in Peace for Hundreds of Years, Until Western Powers Carved Up Middle East

 

'Studied Empathy' for Muslims, Christians & Jews Is Essential

I'm enjoying reading Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore. It's so well-written. The author asserts that the history of Jerusalem is "the story of the world" -- with so many illustrious characters in world history playing important roles there.

At more than 600 pages, the book is a bit intimidating. But I hope to finish it before I visit the "shining city on a hill," maybe in 2012. As they say at the end of Yom Kippur during the Passover Seder, "Next year in Jerusalem." 

Montefiore, an historian and a Jew, demonstrates "studied empathy with the yearnings of his various subjects," reviewer Tom Holland wrote in The (UK) Telegraph. If only all those who pontificate about the Arab-Israeli conflict could do so with "studied empathy" instead of tribal, nationalistic or religious loyalties.

Related:

• What Jerusalem's Bloody History Teaches: Importance of Religious Tolerance. Control By 1 Faction Is Doomed 
• Salacious History in Jerusalem
• Will US Aid to Israel Eventually Prove Too Expensive?
• Where Do America's Interests and Israeli Interests Diverge?
• Muslims, Jews in Jerusalem Were Allied Against Intolerant Christians 
• Can You Recount the Basic History of Jerusalem?
• Jews and Muslims Lived in Peace for Hundreds of Years, Until Western Powers Carved Up Middle East
• Has the Apocalypse Already Happened?
• Visit Israel? Sure (WRAL Video on Ties Between NC and Israel)
• 'Exodus', Great 1960 Movie About the Founding of Israel

Where Do America's Interests and Israeli Interests Diverge?

Some American presidential candidates, as well as their supporters, seem to think the desires of certain Israeli factions are more important than America's interests. Good questions to ask now are:

"Where do the interests of the US and Israel diverge?"

"What's appropriate/inappropriate for a US presidential candidate in regard to Israel?"

Some specific examples. Is it appropriate for US presidential candidates to

• give interviews to Israeli publications saying without qualification "if you mess with Israel, you’re messing with the United States of America"; 
• refer to "the 'so-called' Palestinian people" as if you think they don't really exist; 

• visit illegal West Bank settlements and encourage more settlements; and 
• criticize US policy and the US president on foreign soil, allying yourself with Israel against the US.

• state that modern Israel is the equivalent of Biblical Israel, so any opposition to Israeli government policies is effectively opposition to God?
• assert, as some ultra-Orthodox Jews claim, that Israel has a divine right to expand to all territory supposedly held during the Biblical era, as Exodus 23:31 put it, "from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River." In short, Israel has a divine right to take back the Sinai peninsula from Egypt, and to expand from the Med through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, much of Iraq and well into eastern Turkey. 

How can candidates who do these things ever be credible in assuming the traditional US role as mediator of Arab-Israeli disputes?

One commentator at Newsweek.com made an astute observation: 

Why are we supposed to revile a theocracy such as Iran and revere the theocracy of Israel? And, how can we call Israel "democratic" when it segregates a portion of its population (the people of the West Bank and Gaza) out of its electorate, based primarily on ethnicity?

Hat tips: Newsweek piece on Herman Cain's "Palestine Blunder"; Andrew Sullivan on Cain's Israel gaffes.

Drill Deeper:

• US, Israeli Isolation At the UN
• Secularism, Reform and Orthodoxy in Modern Israel

Widow of Israeli Founding Father Moshe Dayan Advocates for Palestinian Statehood

The widow of Israeli founding father and war hero Moshe Dayan tells Newsweek she fears that Zionism has "run its course" because of this Israeli government's mismanagement and refusal to grant a Palestinian state. “I reject Netanyahu’s policy; it is a recipe for disaster. He is unwilling to address the issue. It’s a bunker mentality," she says.

 

The Charade Is Revealed: Israeli & Palestinian Extremists Need Each Other to Maintain Political Power

What's up with Israel's tough-guy right-wing government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, negotiating with "terrorist" group Hamas? Israel released 1,027 Palestinian detainees -- previously condemned by the government as "terrorists" -- from jail in exchange for just one captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Since Hamas' charter calls for the complete destruction of Israel, why would Israel ever negotiate, and indeed appease Hamas??

Because Israeli right-wingers need to build up and legitimize Hamas as the Palestinians' representative, in contrast to the far more moderate Palestinian group Fatah, to justify their own opposition to a Palestinian state.