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Israel and the Christian Right By Bill Berkowitz
In late-May, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that "stand for Israel" hopes to become a "Christian version of the pro-Israel lobby on Capitol Hill, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)." One of the group's activities will be to counter what they see as media bias against Israel - a longtime belief shared by both Israelis and Christian right activists. Eckstein is an Orthodox rabbi from Chicago who moved to Israel about a year ago. For the past eight years, he has been running the Jerusalem Friendship Fund, which he claims has collected around $60 million from the US evangelical community in support of immigration and welfare projects in Israel. According to its website (http://www.ifcj.org), the mission of the Chicago, IL-based group is "To foster better relations and understanding between Christians and Jews, help build support for Israel, and cooperate in building a more moral society through open dialogue, education, and sensitization of faith around the world." Eckstein's work has received glowing endorsements from a who's who of the Christian right, including, the Rev. Falwell, Charles Colson, former Watergate felon and now head of Prison Fellowship, singer Pat Boone, Gary Bauer, former head of the Family Research Council, Pat Robertson, Dr. Bill Bright, President of the Campus Crusade for Christ and others. For many Jews in America, Christian fundamentalist support for Israel may seem like strange bedfellows. After all, it was only a few years ago that the Rev. Jerry Falwell got in trouble for saying that when the Antichrist comes it would be in the persona of a Jew. And Pat Robertson has used anti-Semitic conspiracy theories as common themes in several of his books When David Cantor documented the anti-Semitism of some Christian Right leaders in his 1994 report for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) titled "The Religious Right and the Assault on Tolerance & Pluralism in America," a major brouhaha erupted. Cantor wrote:
The "End Times" The Religious Right's strong support for Israel comes from both their Biblical view of the importance of Israel to their "end-times" scenarios as well as from political considerations. Author and activist Jean Hardisty in her book Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers (Beacon Press, 1999), points out that the "end times" and the Second Coming of Christ, comes from the New Testament's Book of Revelation. Veteran journalist and author Frederick Clarkson expands on this in his book, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy,(Common Courage Press, 1997). Clarkson explains that "most evangelicals in…[the 20th] century have been pre-millenialists, that is, Christians who believe it is not possible to reform this world until Jesus returns (the Second Coming), which will be followed by a 1000-year rule of Jesus and the Christians…The key episode in pre-millennial theology is an event called 'the rapture' in which all the saved Christians, dead and alive, are brought up into the clouds with Jesus prior, during or after (depending of the school of theology) a period called 'the tribulation.'" Sara Diamond, in her seminal book on the Christian Right, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right (South End Press, 1989), maintains that "Israel holds obvious special religious significance" for Christians. Diamond notes that historically the relationship between Israel and U.S. Christian fundamentalists was not always smooth sailing. That changed dramatically, however, when "popular broadcast ministries, especially those focused on studies of the 'end-times,' drew evangelicals to pay closer attention to Middle East politics." Diamond credits Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, with adding "Israel's security" to the Christian Right's list of political concerns. In 1988, at the National religious Broadcasters convention, Israeli government and military officials "organized a private briefing for Christian media preachers, with no secular press allowed." That meeting, Diamond writes, was to "tell the untold story about the situation and counteract distortions currently being presented in the media." Ten years later, writes The Nation's Deanne Stillman, "On the fiftieth anniversary of Israel, in 1998, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed an American group in Washington called Voices United for Israel. Most of the 3,000 in attendance were evangelicals, including Ralph Reed and other prominent members of the born-again community. Netanyahu said, 'We have no greater friends and allies than the people sitting in this room.'" At a late-May Christian-organized rally for Israel in Nashville, Tennessee., The Tennessean reported that organizer Laurie Moore said the main reason for the rally was because the Bible commands Christians to support Israel. "In Joel 3:2, it says that in the end times God will pour out his wrath among the nations because they are dividing up the land [of Israel]," Moore said. Twenty-first century politics "End-times" Biblical interpretations are not the only thing that links the Christian Right with the Jewish community. Jean Hardisty claims that Christian and Jewish fundamentalists in the U.S. have more in common than one might think. "Many conservative Jews, especially those whose religious practices are orthodox, feel a similar sense of alienation from secular society [as Christian fundamentalists]. Tradition Jewish religious practices are as threatened by modern tastes and practices as are those of conservative Christians." According to Hardisty, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the head of the conservative Jewish group, Toward Tradition, "argues that the proper practice of Jewish faith dictates a belief in moral values that are more closely aligned with those of conservative Christians than with those of liberals, whose 'secular humanism' runs against the grain of all religious practice." Over the past several years, Jewish religious conservatives have become coveted guests at Christian and conservative public gatherings.
Gary Bauer recently told the Washington Post that conservative Christians believe "America has an obligation to stand by Israel" based "on readings of the Scripture, where evangelicals believe God has promised that land to the Jewish people." Stillman say that Bauer "didn't mention that once Christ returns, Jews - at least those Jews who have not accepted Jesus as a personal savior - get a one-way ticket to hell." "Stand for Israel" has earmarked September 9 [two days before the one-year anniversary of 9/11] as a day of support for Israel in evangelical churches across the US. Thanks to Randy Gould's Oread Daily for a heads up on this story. For information about receiving the OD, contact redpoet@swbell.net. |
Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein 
Pat Robertson's references to America as a 'Christian Nation' has caused a rif between the Christian Right and Jewish groups in the past 
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