Zev Chafets, a native of Pontiac, Michigan, has been an Israeli citizen
since the 1967 six-day war against the Arabs and the occupation of
the Palestinian territories. An avid journalist, he just published
a book (with HarperCollins) that tackles a most intriguing story, entitled
A Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One
Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance.
The best known among America’s Christian Zionists are probably
the evangelical preachers Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and John Hagee.
They and their many like-minded colleagues are emphasizing the continuity
of the covenants God is said to have made with his chosen people, the
Israelites, through Abraham, Moses, and King David. For tens of millions
of American evangelicals, the return of the Jews to the land they inhabited
two thousand years ago, as well as the establishment of the state of
Israel in 1948, fulfills what was first prophesied in Genesis 12, 3: “I
will bless those who bless you; and him who curses you, I will curse.”
For Christian Zionists, moreover, it is intolerable that Muslims, unbelievers
other than Jews, reside in Jesus’ homeland. Rev. Robertson poignantly
expressed what this country means for evangelicals: “Israel--to
walk where Jesus walked, to pray where Jesus prayed, to stand where
he stood--there is no other place like it on earth.”
Just as important for Christian Zionists are the predictions about
Jesus’ second coming when Jews are to be in full control of Biblical
Israel and Jerusalem will be the capital of the world (Jeremiah 3:17
and Micah 4:8). Jesus will take all born-again Christians from earth
into heaven while the unbelievers are cast into everlasting fire. This
at least is one of the sterner interpretations of Biblical prophesy
concerning the apocalypse.
For Israelis and their Jewish backers worldwide, the wholehearted evangelical
support--economic, political, and moral--is certainly welcome. Yet,
Jews can hardly be pleased by the evangelical assertion that at the
second coming they, like other unbelievers, will be cast into eternal
fire unless they become born-again Christians.
That is why the author of the “Match Made in Heaven” finds
the Judeo-Evangelical alliance not only wonderful but also weird. For
the growing number of Jews whose moral standards make them highly critical
of Israel’s oppressive occupation of Palestinian territory, the
close association of Christian Zionists with ultraconservative Republicans
and Israel’s Likudniks creates even more distrust. Why, so some
of them ask, do the evangelical leaders persistently fail to condemn
Israeli misconduct while roundly denouncing Islam as an evil religion?
When Rev. Robertson suggested that Prime Minister Sharon’s stroke
might have been God’s punishment for withdrawing Israel’s
troops from Gaza, even Robertson’s friends in the Israeli government
temporarily cut their ties with him.
The majority of America’s Jews--traditionally progressive, secular,
and voting Democratic--remains wary of the simplistic and intolerant
world view of Christian Zionists. Take for example, the recent pronouncements
of Rev. Hagee. As Israeli bombs fell on Lebanon, he came with 3,500
of his followers from San Antonio to Washington, D.C., to preside over
the first annual conference of his newly founded organization, Christians
United for Israel. He called the conflict between Israelis and Arabs “a
battle between good and evil” and demanded unconditional support
for Israel as “God’s foreign policy.” The next day
he took the same message to the evangelical Christians in the White
House and emerged pleased with the encouragement he received.
Liberal Jewish groups, such as Tikkun and the Israeli Policy Forum,
have expressed strong doubt that an alliance between hawkish Jews and
hawkish Christians can produce peace in the Middle East. If President
Bush adopts their religious and political positions, he may be unable
to mediate evenhandedly between Israelis and Palestinians.