Though the gap between the Christian right and most Jews on domestic issues is still vast, when it comes to the life-and-death questions of Israeli survival and opposition to terror, it is the people who look to the Hagees of the world for leadership, rather than to the Presbyterians, who stand with Israel.
Unfortunately, that isn’t good enough for many Jews who never tire of making unsupported accusations that evangelicals actually hate Jews and want to destroy us. It is little surprise that this has only encouraged the Presbyterians to use this issue to bolster their own attempt to isolate Israel.
The point here is not to claim that those on the Christian right are Israel’s only American friends, though they are among the most active and effective.
The fact is, most of the rank-and-file members of those mainline churches dabbling in anti-Zionist rhetoric and considering divestment don’t support the campaign against Israel. Indeed, it is doubtful, even after all of the controversy of the past few years, that most are even aware that their spiritual home is being hijacked by radical left-wing elements.
Most American Protestants rightly see Israel as sharing common democratic values with the United States and want nothing to do with the sort of anti-Zionism that has won a foothold among mainline church activists. They need to understand that their silence will be taken as complicity with the actions of these radicals. They must understand that their churches cannot pretend to be friends with their Jewish neighbors while supporting an economic war on the Jewish state. And they must be prodded to take action to rescind such measures enacted in their names.
But, at the same time, American Jews must cease living in the past when it comes to understanding the contemporary religious and political landscape of America. At a time when Hamas, Hizbullah and their Iranian sponsors are plotting a new Holocaust for Israel and its six million Jews, treating those Protestants who actually love Israel as hateful pariahs is a strategy devoid of truth or sense.
