Date: November 8, 2006 11:09:41 PM PST
Subject: Christian Zionism Raises Questions among Jewish Community
Christian Zionism Raises Questions among Jewish Community
by Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
The leaders of major Jewish organizations have enthusiastically welcomed
the Rev. John Hagee's Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, which is
holding a "Night to Honor Israel" in San Antonio this weekend. But some
aspects of Hagee's effort do not bode well for Israel or American Jews.
CUFI brings together powerful leaders of the Christian right (the Revs.
Jerry Falwell and Benny Hinn and former presidential candidate Gary
Bauer, to name a few) whose domestic agenda is opposed by the majority
of American Jews.
And because CUFI's support for Israel is based on a particular
interpretation of biblical prophesies, CUFI opposes compromises that
might let Israel secure peace. This puts CUFI at odds with most Israelis
and ultimately will put it out of synch with Jewish organizational
leaders, whose positions have historically evolved in response to
Israeli policies.
Gershom Gorenberg, a leading Israeli expert on Christian Zionism,
recently explained how Christian Zionists' positions on Israel and the
Middle East (Hagee advocates a U.S. attack on Iran) place them "at the
far edge of the radical right within Israeli politics." Speaking on the
public radio program "Fresh Air," Gorenberg said the Christian Zionists
"tend to support military action over diplomacy. It's worth stressing
that this puts them far from the mainstream of Israeli politics."
Christian Zionists base their opposition to ceding land on biblical
interpretation. Hagee, speaking on the same program, gave a scriptural
defense for his opposition to territorial compromise: "Joel 3:2 says do
not do it. Those who divide up the land of Israel will come under the
judgment of God. Therefore, don't do it. It's just that simple."
Christian Zionism focuses on "end times" scenarios that involve
"ingathering" all the world's Jews in Israel against a backdrop of major
international warfare. Jewish leaders correctly dismiss this as an
irrelevant rationale for the political support of CUFI's leaders and the
millions of Christians whom they represent.
Gorenberg, however, points out the contradiction in the use of the term
Zionism by these Christian leaders, who, he says, are "seeing the Jews
as actors in a Christian drama leading toward the end of days." By
contrast, says Gorenberg, "real Zionism, as a Jewish movement, is a
movement aimed at taking Jews out of the mythological realm and making
them into normal actors in history, controlling their fate and acting
for pragmatic reasons connected to the here and now. So what's called
Christian Zionism is actually very distant from Zionism."
Hagee has promised Jewish leaders that CUFI will not use its support for
Israel as a cover for evangelizing the Jews. But most of the members of
CUFI's board and its regional leaders believe that Jews cannot be
"raptured" in the "end times" unless they accept Jesus Christ as
messiah.
Especially problematic is the domestic divide between CUFI's leaders and
the vast majority of Jews, who vote Democratic, favor church-state
separation, support gay rights and privacy in matters of reproductive
health.
In an interview with the Express-News in July, Hagee brushed them aside:
"I think if I could put a dividing line, the Orthodox and Conservatives
who have a Torah appreciation give us wholehearted support. The rest who
are not driven by the Word of God have a liberal agenda. And the liberal
agenda is they are pro-abortion. They're pro-homosexual. They're pro-gay
marriage — they want men to marry men and women to marry women — and
their difference with me is not really what I'm doing with Israel. Their
hostility to me is poisoned by their liberalism."
With Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, billed as a featured speaker
at the Cornerstone Church event, the majority of Jews whom Hagee
describes as "poisoned" should worry about how forcefully Jewish leaders
will voice the community's views on crucial domestic issues — not about
their toxicity.
SOURCE: My San Antonio
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