Christian Zionism, so-called, arouses a good deal of curiosity and not a little bit of anger. Innumerable are those leftist publications which pin responsibility for the current mess on the Christian Zionists, as well as the neocons; innumerable, too, are those Jews of all denominations and none who scratch their heads trying to work out what, exactly, a liberally oriented, fin-de-siecle Jewish nationalist movement has in common with apocalyptic theology.
But what is Christian Zionism? Over at Zionism and the State of Israel, Hadassah has an admirably dispassionate account of the present debate anchored in its historical context. Writes Hadassah:
“Early British involvement in the affairs of the Holy Land was partially influenced by Christian Zionism. The British government was the first to establish a consulate in Jerusalem, in 1838. In the nineteenth century, a number of British politicians were Christian Zionists: Palmerston, Lloyd George, T.E. Lawrence and Allenby.
Christian Zionism became popular in the United States when the great Ottoman Empire began to crumble. Certain Christians supported the establishment of the State of Israel after World War II and redoubled their efforts in support of Israel after the Six-Day War.”
I think Z-Word is to be commended for beginning this important discussion.
We Jews need to understand the ferocity of the intra-Christian debate over theology before we can decide whether James Hagee is “good for the Jews or bad for the Jews.”
Christian Zionism is not “so-called.” It is a self-described movement.
Stated broadly, we are witnesses to a theological war between “Christian Zionists” and “Mainline Christians.” There are endless shades of gray among them, but they basically disagree over countless political, social, and theological issues. Their disputes over the Jewish people and the State of Israel are but one facet of a fundamental and emotional fight among our Christian friends and neighbors.
That fight has significant repercussions for us. I
for one believe that the theological dispute among Christians has introduced some unanticipated threats and challenges to our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and to maintain our “Jewish Zionism” as a unique expression of Jewish aspiration.
The support of the Christian Zionists is certainly comforting to large numbers of Jews. Some Jews, including me, believe that Jews are currently caught in a “proxy war” among Christians, and that the linking of the word “Zionist” with the word “Christian” by one side of a ferocious internal Christian war presents the Jewish world with some problems that are more than theoretical.
I am hoping there may be others “out there” who would like to continue this conversation.
In a Thursday post to Commentary, David Hazony claims that Jews should accept all support of Israel regardless of where it comes from:
But to reject an alliance with Christian Zionists on the grounds that they don’t support the particular peace-process policies that most Reform Jews do, or that some such Christians entertain the belief that in the end times all Jews will convert, is to blind oneself to the basic strategic struggle that the Jewish state faces. In liberal terms, it is intolerant. In Zionist terms, it is cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
See the rest of this post at http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/hazony/3295
Yes, I have read David Hazony’s post, and found it reasonable. I also read Rabbi Yoffie’s speech on the subject and found that reasonable too.
In other words, we can endlessly debate the topic of whether Christian Zionism is “good for the Jews or bad for the Jews.” At the end of that debate, we will have clearly defined positions. We are gifted at such debate. We do it all day long.
I am asking something quite different: is there a price tag that comes from support from Christian Zionists? And I am not hypothesizing that Christian Zionists ask anything of us in return.
Remember the war underway between Christian Zionists and “Mainline Christians.” Stated broadly, they detest each other. They are two Goliaths in the Christian world, heavyweight champions each.
I believe there may be repercussions from their intramural free-for-all, and those repercussions directly relate to issues of anti-Semitism and “Jewish Zionism.”
For purposes of Z-Word, think of it this way: when a person hears the word “Zionism” these days, what associations and connections will that person make?
This has nothing to do with whether James Hagee is a good guy or a bad guy.
Just throwing it out there for conversation.
I wonder if I got my facts straightened out for this:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Expelled-Jews-statistics.htm
?
It’s about statistics on the expulsion of the Jews from the Moslim and European (”semi-Christian”) countries. STATISTICS, not Zionism.
Pauli Ojala
Finland
You can’t reduce “Christian Zionism” to the views of specific contemporary organised apocalypticist groups. Churchill for example was clearly both a Christian and a Zionist and connected the two in his thoughts, without organising his political action on a presumption of an imminent apocalypse. Lots of Christians (and others) passionately support the restoration and survival of the Jewish state of Israel for deeply felt but often hard to articulate reasons which go beyond power politics, but are not connected to a belief in an imminent apocalypse.