The Missionary Position
By MICHAEL KRESS
STANDING WITH ISRAEL
By David Brog
285 pages. Frontline. $19.99.
It
is one of the great religious-political realignments of the last generation:
the strong, and growing, support—political, financial, spiritual—of evangelical
Christians for the State of Israel. Twenty or 30 years ago, it would have been
hard to imagine Israeli politicians, and Jewish-American ones, habitually
attending fund-raisers and other gatherings with conservative Christians, and
one could hardly have predicted that Christians would make up a strong
percentage of American tourists in Israel, regularly traveling to the Holy Land
on solidarity missions, even, or especially, when the terrorist threat is high.
And accompanying that shift is one of the great mysteries of Jewish interfaith
cooperation: why the organized Jewish world has reacted to evangelical
friendship with suspicion, offering a collective cold shoulder to a group of
politically well-connected, amazingly well-organized, and extremely well-funded
would-be friends of the Jewish State.
David Brog, a former aid to Senator Arlen Specter—a member of that dying breed
of moderate Republicans who are not aligned with conservative
Christians—tackles both these questions, evangelical Zionism and the Jewish
reaction to it, in his thorough, readable, and informative, if sometimes too
agenda-driven, Standing With Israel.
In tracing evangelical support for Zionism and Israel, Brog wisely goes back
much further than the past generation—when the phenomenon burst onto the public
scene in force—and begins with the origins of anti-Jewish theology in the
earliest days of Christianity, offering along the way a sweeping history of
Christian anti-Semitism (though he inexplicably fails to address the oft-cited
anti-Jewish passages of the Christian Bible), before beginning to describe the
first efforts to question and revise these teachings. These efforts began long
before the Holocaust—not out of especially strong feelings for Jews, often, but
rather because of a newfound affinity for, and often a newfound reading of,
biblical promises and prophecies. In bringing us up to the present, he shows us
the Christian involvement in such fundamental Zionist milestones as Theodor
Herzl’s activism and the Balfour Declaration. Brog can skillfully deploy the
colorful and not-well-known illustrative anecdote, and is able to explain
complex theological notions in a clear, understandable manner.
The book’s heart, however, is its exploration of the current phenomenon of
Christian Zionism, which Brog rightly attributes to a mixture of making up for
past anti-Semitism by Christians; politics; and end-times theology. It is the
latter two that are most interesting and controversial. Politically, it’s hard
to imagine conservative Christians offering such strong support were Israel not
a staunch U.S. ally, a democracy in the volatile Middle East, and a military
foe of terrorism and its sponsors. Likewise, I suspect that the Jewish-American
community would not keep Christian Zionists at arm’s length if these would-be
friends were supporters of abortion rights, against prayer in the public
schools, and generally liberal on issues of domestic policy. But as Brog points
out, politics in a democracy is all about coalition building, and two groups
can fight it out over one issue while working together like old friends on
another. Given the political and financial strength of the American evangelical
community and the intense level of dedication toward Israel that it displays,
and which Brog documents, the Jewish-American world would do well to reconsider
its stance and offer a warmer embrace to these natural allies.
The story gets even more interesting, and complicated, when it comes to
theology. The best explanation of the Jewish attitude toward Christian Zionists
is fear of a hidden agenda—that, ultimately, all the evangelicals really want
to do is convert the Jews. Brog argues passionately, and plausibly, that
Christians Zionists’ actions speak for themselves, and that these are not
actions of people seeking to or expecting mass Jewish conversion anytime soon.
Fair enough. But the author doth protest too much, and the book suffers from
Brog letting his clear affinity for evangelicals and his drive to convince Jews
of Christians’ pure motives get in the way of deeper, more honest exploration.
The result is that he answers Jews’ theological fears—do they want to convert
us?—with sociological evidence (No, if they wanted to convert you, why would
they do X or Y?). In a book so thoroughly researched and passionately argued, I
would have liked to see Brog grapple with the fact that many, though not all,
Christians’ end-times beliefs do
portend conversion, or worse, for the Jews.
Clearly, no person or group deserves to have their every action and belief
judged through the lens of one corner of their belief system; in other words,
an end-times belief that offends Jews doesn’t negate the huge amount of good
that Christians are doing for Jews and Israel today. But those apocalyptic
beliefs remain, making Jewish fears of an ulterior motive valid. As intelligent
readers, we deserve for Brog to have been honest enough to admit that fact and
grapple with it. Similarly, intellectual honesty calls for Brog to have stepped
out of his agenda to address the fact that, despite the sincerity and
well-meaning of most Christian
Zionists—despite the fact that they are driven by a clear sense of moral
purpose in supporting Israel—some are less pure, and carry their own
conversion-driven agenda on their sleeves, fueling Jewish fears. Beyond just
the Israel issue, stories of Jews (and other religious minorities) still being harassed by Christians
and of missionary drives by Christian
organizations—however occasional these may be—add to the problem. It would have
been helpful for Brog to devote a chapter to this less seemly side of Christian
Zionism and evangelicalism more broadly, if for no other reason than to provide
a contrast to those conservative Christians who are truly friends of the Jews.
The bigger problem with Standing With
Israel, however, is Brog’s implicit definition of who is a Zionist, whether
Christian or Jewish. We hear about Menachem Begin and Benjamin Netanyahu, and
about Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, but Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton are
barely mentioned. Brog falls into the same problematic trap that too many
American Zionists (Christian and Jewish) fall: Believing that to be a supporter
of Israel means to be a supporter of a hard-line, right-wing Israeli political
agenda. In this worldview, advocating a land-for-peace deal or opposing an
Israeli military operation equals anti-Zionism, no matter the fact that these
things are the source of healthy debate among Israeli Jews themselves. Witness
the vehement opposition to last
year’s Gaza withdrawal from many Christian Zionists for whom
Ariel Sharon’s plan was tantamount to rejecting the prophecies on which their
pro-Israel stance is based.
Whether advocated by Jewish or Christian Zionists, this limited worldview fails
to accept that friendship and support can come from all sides of the religious
and political spectrum—and that friendship sometimes entails criticism and
guidance, lovingly offered and carefully phrased. Criticizing Israel, or
advocating liberal policies—like those of many leading Israeli politicians and much
of the Israeli public—is not a violation of Zionism (though a refusal to accept
dissent and disagreement is contrary to the democratic principles so important
to the state of Israel). In the Jewish community, this attitude leads too
easily and too often to absurd accusations that liberals are somehow
anti-Israel and defiant of God’s will for the Land of Israel. In the world of
Christian Zionism it is no different.
Brog clearly falls into this camp, and it is a shame that he doesn’t offer us a
more expansive and inclusive definition of what it means to love Israel. But to
be fair, the problem hardly begins or end with David Brog, and his book is just
another reminder of a serious shortcoming among too many American Zionists, be
they Jewish or Christian. Despite that, it is well worth reading by anyone who
remains wary of evangelical Christian overtures to Israel and the Jewish
community. It’s time to open our eyes and accept a hand being offered in
friendship.