Christian Zionism: Israel's Best Weapon?

[abu afak]

Christian Zionism: Israel's Best Weapon?

by Daniel Pipes - July 15, 2003

Middle Easterners were widely puzzled in early 1994 when some leading American politicians, including Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), forwarded more assertive, tougher positions vis-ÃÂ-vis the Palestinians than did the government of Israel. They were, for example, more reluctant than Jerusalem to let U.S. funds go to the PLO and they displayed more eagerness to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

One Arabic newspaper, Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, captured the general bafflement when it observed that Likud, Israel's more nationalist party, had "lost in Israel but it still rules supreme in Washington."

The same pattern is again visible these days, as Christian leaders such as Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell and Richard Land more vocally oppose the "road map" for Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy than nearly all their Jewish counterparts. But this bold Christian solidarity with Israel should not be surprising, as it manifests a Christian form of Zionism that is nearly two centuries old.

Christian support for the creation of a Jewish state originated in England, becoming a significant movement in the Victorian period. In 1840, the British foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, "strongly" recommended that the Ottoman government then ruling Palestine "hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine." Lord Shaftesbury in 1853 coined the phrase "A land without a people for a people without a land."

George Eliot put these ideas in novel form with Daniel Deronda in 1876. In 1891, Sir George Adam Smith wrote in his authoritative Historical Geography of the Holy Land that the Ottomans had to be pushed out of Palestine and replaced by the Jews, "who have given to Palestine everything it has ever had of value to the world."

That same year, 1891, saw perhaps the greatest early Christian support in the United States for a Jewish state - the "Blackstone Memorial," a petition that carried the signatures of 413 prominentAmericans, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the speaker of the House, the greatest industrialists of the age (Rockefeller, Morgan, McCormick), famous clergymen, writers and journalists.

Addressed to the president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, and the secretary of state, James G. Blaine, the memorial asked them to "use their good offices and influence . . . to secure the holding at an early date of an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claims to Palestine as their ancient home." According to one historian, Paul Charles Merkley, the Blackstone Memorial had the effect of "firmly planting in many minds" the "notion of American sponsorship of a Jewish return to Palestine."

The Balfour Declaration of November 1917, whereby the British government announced that it favored "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," was perhaps the single most important act premised in Christian Zionism. Harry S. Truman's recognition of Israel, against the nearly total opposition of his administration, was probably second. His biographer, Michael T. Benson, finds that Truman's pro-Israel outlook "was based primarily on humanitarian, moral, and sentimental grounds, many of which were an outgrowth of the president's religious upbringing and his familiarity with the Bible." (Truman's just-discovered diary, with its petulant remarks about Jews, makes his Zionist stance the more noteworthy.)

The media has recently focused on Christian Zionism as though it were something new ("How Israel Became a Favorite Cause of the Conservative Christian Right" runs a typical title, this one a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal). The real story is how Christian Zionists are increasingly the bedrock of Israel's support in the United States, more solidly pro-Israel and more robustly Zionist than many in the Jewish community.

To those who wonder why Washington follows policies so different from the European states, a large part of the answer these days has to do with the clout of Christian Zionists, who are especially powerful when a conservative Republican like George W. Bush is president. (In contrast, Christian Zionism has nearly died out in Great Britain.)

One anti-Israel writer, Grace Halsell, recognizes this fact and deems Christian Zionists a "more dangerous" influence in Washington than are the Jewish Zionists. Put positively: other than the Israel Defense Forces, America's Christian Zionists may be the Jewish state's ultimate strategic asset.

http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/weapon.html

[kalyco1]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by abu afak
[B]Christian Zionism: Israel's Best Weapon?

by Daniel Pipes - July 15, 2003




The media has recently focused on Christian Zionism as though it were something new ("How Israel Became a Favorite Cause of the Conservative Christian Right" runs a typical title, this one a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal). The real story is how Christian Zionists are increasingly the bedrock of Israel's support in the United States, more solidly pro-Israel and more robustly Zionist than many in the Jewish community.

To those who wonder why Washington follows policies so different from the European states, a large part of the answer these days has to do with the clout of Christian Zionists, who are especially powerful when a conservative Republican like George W. Bush is president. (In contrast, Christian Zionism has nearly died out in Great Britain.)

One anti-Israel writer, Grace Halsell, recognizes this fact and deems Christian Zionists a "more dangerous" influence in Washington than are the Jewish Zionists. Put positively: other than the Israel Defense Forces, America's Christian Zionists may be the Jewish state's ultimate strategic asset.

Absolutely!-kalyco1, Christian Zionist, True American

[abu afak]

"a movement, largely among Gentile Christians, supporting the right of the Jewish people to return to the Promised Land which has, of course, happened right before our eyes during this century"

Annals of Christian Zionism: De Witt Talmage
by Hugh Fitzgerald - March 2003

Jewish Zionism, which, for nearly two millennia, had been confined to the longing of many for a return to the Land of Israel, began to be discussed seriously by such Jewish figures as Pinsker, Nordau, and Herzl in the late 19th century. But there already existed in Europe Christian Zionists who, recognizing the continuing plight of Jews as a stateless people and, in many cases, inspired by the Old Testament, began to discuss and promote the idea of a Jewish return to Zion.

In her riveting study, Bible and Sword, the historian Barbara Tuchman traced the origins of Christian Zionism in England, from the earliest days to its full flourishing in late Victorian England. It was there that Christian Zionists won the earliest converts, including such powerful spokesmen as the writers George Eliot (Daniel Deronda), Laurance Oliphant, and the lesser-known Charlotte Elizabeth (Judea Capta), important statesmen such as Lord Salisbury and Lord Shaftesbury, and military men such as Colonel Churchill, all of whom were inspired by a vision based on Biblical history that led them to investigate the possibilities of making that vision real. Through speeches and writing, they promoted the restoration of a Jewish commonwealth in what, since Roman times, had been known to Western Christendom as the Holy Land or Palestine, a forsaken place divided under Moslem rule into various Ottoman administrative units, or vilayets.

Those who had grown up with the history of the ancient Israelites did not accept the notion that the post-exilic dispersion of the Jews and their wretchedness and persecution were divinely-ordained punishment. They were more likely to agree that Jews should be allowed to return to the Land of Israel. By the end of the 19th century, not a few in England were ready to agree with Sir George Adam Smith, author of The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, when he wrote, in 1891: "The principle of nationality requires their [the Ottoman Turks'] dispossession. Nor is there any indigenous civilization in Palestine that could take the place of the Turkish except that of the Jews who have given to Palestine everything it has ever had of value to the world." ....""

The rest if you want to read it at:

http://www.christianactionforisrael.org/annals_cz.html

[abu afak]

And many more articles you may find interesting ... here:

http://www.christianactionforisrael.org/czionism.html

[RyaninZion]

Just remember that while Christian Zionists may be Israel's best friend and most solid base of support, Israel's hope still lies in God - not in us Christian Zionists.

That is at the core of any true bible-believing, Christian Zionist's values.

We do not see ourselves as Israel's "savior" or "hope" - rather we support Israel because our God said to. It is we who need to obey him and stand by Israel, and not Israel who "needs" us.

One way or another, Israel will come out on top - God has promised it; whether there are tens of millions of Christian Zionists standing with her or a scraggly band of only hundreds.

[kalyco1]

Originally posted by RyaninZion
Just remember that while Christian Zionists may be Israel's best friend and most solid base of support, Israel's hope still lies in God - not in us Christian Zionists.

That is at the core of any true bible-believing, Christian Zionist's values.

We do not see ourselves as Israel's "savior" or "hope" - rather we support Israel because our God said to. It is we who need to obey him and stand by Israel, and not Israel who "needs" us.

One way or another, Israel will come out on top - God has promised it; whether there are tens of millions of Christian Zionists standing with her or a scraggly band of only hundreds.

More than correct, what you said was righteous! And those also are my sentiments. I see us as blessed that God has given us the opportunity to be called the friends of Israel, and any way in which we may bless Israel is credited only to God for His grace given us to do it.
kalyco1-

[abu afak]

THANK G-D FOR THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS
by George K. Bernstein

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS SUPPORT IS CRUCIAL IN THE BATTLE TO PRESERVE ISRAEL

Good afternoon.

Thank G-d for the evangelical Christians. With the exception of a few Jewish organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America and Americans for a Safe Israel (Editor's note" and the Freeman Center) evangelical Christian groups, such as the Christian Coalition of America, the Christian Friends of Israel and CIPAC (Ed: the Australian based Christians' Israel Public Action Campaign), are Israel's most loyal supporters in the United States.

I am not troubled by their Messianic beliefs involving Jerusalem. When the Messiah comes, it will be time enough to speculate on Israel's future. Right now, I am worried about Israel's survival - today and tomorrow.

Well before the Oslo Accords, fringe groups, such as Peace Now and Tikkun, pressured Israel to surrender Judea, Sumaria and Gaza and supported the establishment of another Palestinian state. Some of their spokesmen likened Israel to apartheid South Africa.

With the advent of Oslo, most of the American rabbinate, Jewish organizations and Jewish members of the media joined the "peace at any price" movement and tried to make pariahs of those who opposed appeasement and defended Israel's historical rights.

They argued that if only the Jewish State would retreat to the pre-67 borders, share Jerusalem, create another Palestinian state, recognize a right of return of Arab refugees and not respond to the murder of its innocents, it would be loved by the world and find peace with its Arab brothers.

The folly of these American Jews was exceeded only by that of the Israeli fantasists who negotiated Oslo, armed the Arab enemy, and ceeded sacred and strategically essential land to a proven group of anti-Semitic murderers and terrorists.

These American Jews welcomed Arafat and his henchmen in their synagogues and conventions. It was only fair, they claimed to hear the other side. And anyway wasn't there going to be a "New Middle-East" where, according to Shimon Peres, economic self-interest would erase religious and ethnic differences between Arab and Jew?

Most American Jewish organizations, including those with the highest access to policymakers in our government, opposed conditioning aid to Arafat on his compliance with Oslo, opposed moving our embassy to Jerusalem, and opposed indicting Arab murderers of Americans in Israel. They even covered up Israeli documentation of the Palestinian Authority's stockpiling of arms, sheltering and support of terrorists and anti-Semitic incitements to violence.

In the name of the "peace process," they always found an excuse for Arafat's transgressions.

We still hear rabbis and Jewish columnists condemning Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as the cause of the current intifada, although it was planned months earlier, immediately after Arafat's incredible rejection of Barak's suicidal proposals at Camp David. Thank G-d for the Christian supporters of Israel! They have been telling the truth about the disaster of Oslo from the beginning. They have endorsed Israel's unconditional right to defend itself against those committed to its destruction.

These Christians, in coalition with the National Unity Coalition of Israel, [Ed: formerly] Voices United for Israel and a few committed Jewish groups, have spoken out against another Palestinian state and the peril to Israel's temporal and spiritual existence of surrendering any portion of Judea, Sumaria, Gaza and Jerusalem.

Unlike most American Jews, evangelical Christians are not too timid to quote the Torah and cite Israel's biblical heritage.

They are not afraid to attribute to G-d, Israel's right to the promised land.

The Jewish people owe a debt of gratitude to these Christian defenders of Israel. I am ashamed that so many Jews have shown less commitment to the Jewish State.


http://www.internationalwallofprayer...hristians.html

[abu afak]

Evangelicals join the war against anti-Semitism

Jenny Hazan Feb. 5, 2004
JPost


Over 60 Christian leaders from around the world met in Jerusalem Wednesday to discuss ways to fight anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment in their communities.

Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal hosted the emergency conference, the first of its kind, together with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

Delegates from 10 European countries including Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, as well as from the UK, US, Canada, and Israel, met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom and Minister of Tourism Benny Alon during the course of the program, which was a forum to share ideas and develop programs.

"In many of these communities, where we don't have a large Jewish community, these are the people who are fighting for Israel's cause," explained founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. "The objective of this meeting is to reach out to our friends in the pro-Israel Christian community in Europe. We want to invigorate them and send them back to their communities with new ideas for how they can help Israel, encouraged by the knowledge that Israel and the Jewish people appreciate what they are doing and we are willing to work with them any way we can."

For delegate Rosemarie Manderbach of the Evangelische Allianz in Germany, the value of the meeting was the opportunity to see Israel first-hand. "Israel should stop excusing itself for its existence," said Manderbach, who said that she is shocked by the reappearance of anti-Semitism in Germany, especially in the country's mainstream churches. "We get the impression that Israel always wants to be loved by everybody and it's not necessary.

"Israel would gain much more support and respect from the outside world if the people of Israel stood up in sovereignty and said, here we are, we are who we are, this is our country and this is our policy; rather than being influenced by world opinion all the time."

Willem-Jacobus Johannes Glashouwer from Christians for Israel in Holland agreed. "Israel should stand up for itself by continuing to inform people. But others should stand up and do the same," said Glashouwer.

According to Malcom Hedding, executive director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, the formation of a coalition between European Christians is the key to the fight against the region's new wave of anti-Semitism. "There is strategic value in Israel's friends standing up for her and helping her," said Hedding, who called the lack of large-scale Christian defense of Jews during the Holocaust an historical indictment against Christianity. "In some instances, Christians are better positioned to defend Israel than Jews because if a Jewish person speaks out, people are inclined to assume that he is biased. But if someone from the Christian community speaks out on behalf of Israel, it has greater clout."

"You are our ambassadors to Europe," world chairman of Keren Hayesod-UIA Avi Pazner told the gathering. "Now we want to assemble an alliance between Israel, the Jewish people, and Christian communities like yours, who are true believers in the State of Israel and in the rightness of our cause. You can bring the good word of Israel to your communities and to your friends in Europe. Tell them not to believe the lies of the media that they are being fed, day in and day out.

"Tell them that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish State; that Israel represents the redemption of the Jewish people and that Israel is a cause worthy of their support."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1075868619278

[David_in_NYC]

I have a lot of contact with Christian "Zionists", though that is really not the proper term for their point of view.

Basically, the Christian point of view requires that the Jews reclaim all of the land of Israel, as a pre-requisite for the second coming of Jesus Christ.

We can count on these people as political support for Israel until, literally, the end of time. We have no better friend in the world, nor do I think we ever will.

That said, this phenomenon is still not a bar to missionary activities directed at Jews. The contradiction, that should all the Jews convert and become Christians, therefore preventing the circumstances under which their Messiah will return, does not seem to bother them at all.

[MGB8]

The support of Christian Zionism is a peculiar trade-off, but one that I think Jews should make.

Basically, the Christian Zionists hope and believe that at some point in the future events will show that the Jews are religiously misguided, and that in fact Jews will need to choose between accepting Jesus as the divine son of G-d (which events will show that he in fact is) or perish.

Thing is, since I have no divine wisdom, I can't say for certain that Jesus is/was not divine. I am Jewish and have faith in who I was born, who I am, but I don't pretend to understand the cosmos.

If the hopes of the Christian Zionists come to pass - nu...so be it.

If not....their help is much appreciated.

It becomes an easier thing to accept.

Meanwhile, the general principles which modern Christianity, in its reaching out to the earliest Christianity, represents - the more tolerant and kind version of Christianity outside of the power-abuses of the middle-ages onward...is not incompatible with modern Jewish philosophy.

However, what both Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists need to do most is foster Muslim Zionism - an Muslim mythology which is willing to allow Jews to be the custodians of Zion until the Prophet returns - much like the Christians wait for Jesus and we wait for our own version of the Messiah.

Such an acceptance of Jews is not necessarily incompatible with Islam, given the fact that Islam recognizes the Jewish prophets and the historical ties between the two faiths.

It is merely a matter of competing interpretations - of offering an alternative to Jihadism. Unfortunately, this alternative cannot easily be presented from the outside - it must come from a respected source from within the Islamic community. Until such an alternative is offered, it seems like this WWIV is going to continue...and very likely the Islamic peoples will lose.

[ibrodsky]

Originally posted by MGB8
The support of Christian Zionism is a peculiar trade-off, but one that I think Jews should make.
...

Actually, I think this issue often gets misrepresented.

There are Christian zealots who see support for Israel purely in terms of some crazy end-of-world scenario. But many Christians support Israel simply because they understand that people who blow up busloads of civilians are evil.

Now, people just need to use some common sense. They should ask themselves whether Jews live in freedom here in the US because Christians are using us or because Christians believe in freedom and tolerance?

I think it is ridiculus to reject Christian support because some (IMO, a small minority) believe we are a necessary ingredient to some crazy end-of-world scenario. I know many Christians who support Israel simply because they think it is the right thing to do.

[David_in_NYC]

Israel needs to learn to slaughter Arabs mercilessly and without guilt. If it cannot do this then Israel does not deserve to survive.

[Oh Jerusalem]

Originally posted by David_in_NYC
Israel needs to learn to slaughter Arabs mercilessly and without guilt. If it cannot do this then Israel does not deserve to survive.

As both a Jew and an Israeli, I am repulsed by your post.

I have no qualms with bombing a Hamas funeral or parade in a densly crowded populated area, no more than I have any problems with Israel's successful helicopter attack yesterday, which killed a child in the vicinity.

But your suggestion of essentially killing any Arab that moves is sickenning. Why don't you be a good Nazi tactition and find a more rabid forum to post on?

[Oh Jerusalem]

Onward, evangelical Christian soldiers! Here's your chance to convert half the planet:

Minister Elon asks Christians to convert Muslims
By YAAKOV KATZ

Tourism Minister Benny Elon (National Union) asked Christian Missionary groups last week to work to convert Muslims to Christianity in order "to show them the light".

According to a report in the Ma'ariv daily, Elon told the Christians "to go from mosque to mosque and to bring the Muslims into the light."

Elon's media advisor Sagiv Rottenberg told the Jerusalem Post that the minister was not referring to all of the Muslims but only asked the missionaries to convert "those who preach to murder and carry out suicide attacks."

"If everyone understands that the Jewish people who have returned to their land are not Colonialists but are people who are fulfilling what is written in the Bible then things will be different," Elon told Israel Radio on Sunday. "When you speak with a Muslim who murders and fanatically believes that our religion lies and that the Bible does not serve as a basis since he doesn't accept the Bible and believes that it is full of lies then it is difficult to speak with him. But when you come to a Christian even if he is hostile there is still a basis for mutual dialogue."

MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) told the Post that Elon's conversion initiative is an "illusionary plan" which is anti-Islam and an expression of racism.

"The plan represents the ideology of those people who believe that they can control another nation while at the same time enjoying peace and security," Tibi said. "A new movement is rising opposite anti-Semitism by the name of Islamaphobia."

Elon is scheduled to travel next week to Charlotte, North Carolina for the National Religious Broadcasters annual convention where a demonstration against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to remove Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip is scheduled to take place.

[David_in_NYC]

Originally posted by Oh Jerusalem
As both a Jew and an Israeli, I am repulsed by your post.

I have no qualms with bombing a Hamas funeral or parade in a densly crowded populated area, no more than I have any problems with Israel's successful helicopter attack yesterday, which killed a child in the vicinity.

But your suggestion of essentially killing any Arab that moves is sickenning. Why don't you be a good Nazi tactition and find a more rabid forum to post on?

Oh please. The tanks are rolling into the ghetto and you're worried about the wives and kids of German soldiers. We're not talking about a society of innocents here, we're talking a society that has been deliberately trained to murder, and to murder Jews in particular (though it has to be admitted that they're not always all that particular).

And considering you have no qualms about bombing funerals or parades or seeing a 12-year-old child die as a result of taking out an enemy, you are quite the hypocrite to claim to be "repulsed" by my statement. What, pray tell, is the difference between what I said and what you admit you agree with?

Morally, there is no difference.

What I am repulsed by is an Arab society so twisted that it is doing everything it can to leave the civilized world no other choice. We didn't start this war. They did. If the choice they force upon you is so repulsive that you refuse to choose, they will win by the slow accretion of victories.

How many more Israeli lives are you willing to sacrifice to console your bleeding heart? And why are you so willing to be a dhimmi in your own nation?