September 18, 2009
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September 18, 2009

The Truth about Christian Zionists

Ed Lasky
Norman Podhoretz, a former liberal who saw the light decades ago and became a conservative, recently wrote a book "Why Jews are Liberals". He traces the history of the Jewish people and its tragic past in Europe. He believes that Jews tend to be liberals because of latent fears that a strong Christian influence in government has often been a talisman that Jews will be oppressed.

The so-called Christian Right is perceived to be too influential within the Republican Party and therefore Jews opt for the other side of the aisle. Michael Medved and Ilya Somin both believe that this type of fear should be given weight in examining why Jews tend to be Democrats.. Somin goes a step further and buttresses this view with a survey of Jews and political allegiance in other nations where Christianity is not perceived as being a power too involved in government. In those nations, Jews are as likely to be found in the center and the right, as on the left.

Podhoretz briefly touches upon why Christianity in America has followed a far different path than it has in Europe. Evangelical Christians, in fact, are probably the most philo-Semitic people on earth, caring not just for Israel but for Jews wherever they may be. This partly, but not wholly, stems from a moral and religious obligation found in the Bible. I explored this issue in an American Thinker Q and A column with David Brog (who is Jewish) who wrote a superb and concise book on the topic of Why Christians Stand with Israel.

This is not the view promoted by Democrats who are constantly disparaging and caricaturizing Christians as threats to Jews. Many on the left want to "hold onto" the Jews by stoking those fears with serial misrepresentations regarding Christians and Jews. They have also gone a step further. An effort being led by none other than Jimmy Carter is working the other side of the aisle and trying to split evangelicals away from supporting Israel. This effort is failing. Jimmy Carter is no match for God.

Brog is now executive director of Christians United for Israel. He wrote a column for Foreign Policy magazine (The Truth about Christian Zionists ) hoping to dispel the latest attack against Christian Zionists launched by a fierce left-wing critic of Israel, M.J. Rosenberg. He decries the simplistic analysis some on the left apply to Christian Zionists:

Rosenberg repeats three stereotypes about Christian Zionists that stand in stark contrast to the facts. First, he mischaracterizes the beliefs of Christian Zionists, claiming that they are "fundamentalist

Christians whose theology dictates unwavering support for Israel." Next, he confuses the politics of Christian Zionists when he imagines that they all "are hard-core Republicans." Finally, he mistakes the policy of Christian Zionists when he asserts that they "emphatically support Israeli settlements and oppose the two-state solution."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Yet most Christian supporters of Israel have never made opposition to the peace process the focus of their advocacy. Christians United for Israel, for instance, has never taken a position against a two-state solution or in favor of settlements. Instead, much like the leading Jewish pro-Israel organizations, CUFI supports the positions of the democratically elected government of Israel.

For example, like all Israelis, we are worried about the danger of a nuclear Iran. So from its inception, CUFI has focused on building support for economic sanctions that would pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear program. Consistent with our position that Israelis must decide their own fate, we have asked the U.S. government not to pressure Israel into taking risks that Israeli citizens themselves do not wish to take.

CUFI's support of Israel's government reflects our deep respect for Israel's democracy. The members of CUFI do not see Israel as some wayward banana republic that must be restrained or prodded by a wiser United States. We see, instead, an Israel that has behaved responsibly, with admirable restraint, and has repeatedly taken risks for peace, such as Israel's withdrawal from Arab population centers in the West Bank in the 1990s, Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. If the Israelis want to take more risks for peace, we defer to their decision to do so. And if they instead conclude that these risks have not paid off, and choose through their votes to slow the pace of concessions, we once again defer. This is not extremism; it is humility.

Read the whole thing. Jews should not fear American Christians but warmly embrace them for the support they have showered upon the Jewish people here and overseas. Jews who have been stereotyped for thousands of years should not listen to those who would stereotype Christians for base political purposes.

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