Strange Bedfellows

...That message is transmitted, too, by many of the political evangelists who broadcast regularly to the estimated fifty million born-again Christians who identify with the New Right...

...Such efforts can have significant impact: Charles Lawson, a builder in southern California, showed a film and sponsored a speaker on the Middle East for thirty of his co-workers', they were moved to build a house from donated materials, sell it for $40,000, and give the proceeds to right-wing political activists in Israel...

...While Christian funds stream into relief projects for Arab refugees, the plight of Israel's poor goes unnoticed," van der Hoeven told me...

...But it is by no means the only curious—even bizarre—element in the new alliance between the Jewish state and the Christian Right...

...There are signs that anti-Catholic sentiment is being rekindled as well, because of the Vatican's support of Palestinian rights and international trusteeship of Jerusalem...

...You don't expect the United States to give back its land to England or the Louisiana Purchase to the French...

...Elizabeth Smith, a housewife in Houston, Texas, was inspired by the commentaries of radio evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong and others to become involved with Middle East issues...

...Marshall Samuelson, an English professor at Liberty Baptist College in Lynchburg, Virginia, was prompted by Moral Majority literature to become a prolific writer of letters to public officials on Middle East issues...

...Its monthly newspaper, Moral Majority Reports, has a circulation of more than one million and an estimated readership of three times that number...

...In the literature of the Christian Right, the PLO is often referred to as "the forces of Satan" and the vanguard of a "Moslem-Communist conspiracy...

...The alliance is paradoxical, since fundamentalist support for Israel seems to stem less from concern for the welfare of the Jewish state than from a theology that excludes Jews...

...The United States couldn't pull something like that off...

...tf Stephen Zunes, a graduate student in political science in the joint doctoral program of Temple University and the Institute for Policy Studies, has traveled extensively in the Middle East...

...We are in a battle to win the hearts and minds of the American people...

...Like others on the Christian Right, the ICEJ is critical of the Christian groups which do relief work among the Arabs of East Jerusalem, the Gaza strip, and the West Bank...

...The curious alliance between Menachem Begin and the Christian Right Among some of the largest of the evangelical organizations, however, Begin is a hero and defending Israel is a high-priority cause...

...In addition to the blitz from the pulpit and the print and electronic media, various fundamentalist groups sponsor Holy Land tours...

...The "Embassy" serves as a resource center for right-wing Christian religious and political activity in the Middle East...

...Eighty thousand pastors are directly asOne of Israel's most outspoken supporters also says God does not hear the prayers of Jews sociated with the Moral Majority network," says Cal Thomas, the group's vice president for communication...

...The Moral Majority alone broadcasts daily over 400 radio stations...

...Last year, eight fundamentalist religious leaders, including prominent media evangelists, assured Begin in writing that he could count on their support for the annexation of Jerusalem by Israel and the military occupation and colonization of the West Bank and Gaza...

...The ICEJ is located in an attractive building in a fashionable West Jerusalem neighborhood...

...But there is more: Leaders of the Christian Right also appreciate Begin's staunch anti-communism, his militarism, and his conservative stance on social and economic issues...

...That statement called for negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and support for the national rights of Palestinians as well as Israelis...

...my alternative perspective was harshly criticized by my teacher and classmates...

...The Jewish state appears as bastion of God's chosen people high above stormy seas...

...The Moral Majority and other right-wing organizations have condemned the National Council of Churches for the Middle East policy statement it adopted in November 1980 after years of deliberation...

...Similarly, Falwell said, in a speech on the steps of the Virginia state capitol, "A few of you here today don't like Jews...

...Thomas believes there is theological justification for Israel's continued occupation of lands taken during the 1967 war, but he also believes military justification exists: "It's just the spoils of war," he says...

...A letter from three prominent American Jewish leaders, published last December in the Jewish Week-American Examiner, declared that "there is far greater potential commonality of interests among Jews and the Moral Majority than there is among Jews and the National Council of Churches...

...The American Friends Service Committee, the Mennonite Central Committee, and Catholic Relief Services are accused of fostering political resistance through their self-help projects...

...But "even if Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, this does not give them grounds for violence and injustice...

...So did the visitors who came that day...

...The ancient and ugly stereotype of the miserly, power-grabbing Jew is alive and well among staunch right-wing supporters of Israel in the United States...

...Falwell has also warned that "liberal Protestant church groups .. . who are determined that there must be self-determination for the Palestinians fare], very dangerous for our Government...

...Israel's attack on the Iraqi reactor and the Entebbe rescue mission were brilliant military operations...

...Begin had enlisted the assistance of the Reverend Jerry Falwell...

...Too much self-reliance independent from Israeli control could lay the foundation of an independent Palestinian state," says ICEJ Director J.W...

...She has brought speakers to her church and encourages her fellow parishioners and friends to support U.S...

...Tens of thousands of Americans participate each year, and when they return they are often invited to give lectures, appear on local interview programs, write letters to the editor, and disseminate their first-hand views in various other ways...

...God would punish any nation that mistreated the Jewish people," he warns...

...In response, a coalition of fundamentalist groups founded the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ...

...Begin is gaining increasingly vocal support from Christian fundamentalists, though many of them would probably move if he decided to live next door...

...In 1980, the last thirteen foreign embassies remaining in Jerusalem withdrew to Tel Aviv in protest when the Israeli Knesset declared that all of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas constituted Israel's "eternal capital...

...The ICEJ also hopes to speed the Second Coming by calling on Christians to "encourage Jews to make aliya"—that is, to move to Israel...

...Religious broadcasters own an estimated 1,400 television and radio stations, and all but a few allow extensive air-time for political evangelism...

...shooting down those Libyan jets was the first successful thing the U.S...

...And I know why...

...We proclaim that the Land of Israel encompasses Jiidea and Samaria as integral parts of the Jewish patrimony, with Jerusalem as its one and indivisible capital," they wrote...

...The United States in recent years has come across as a bumbling, stumbling giant, perceived throughout the world as not being able to do anything," says the Moral Majority's Cal Thomas...

...The Jerusalem Post has called its associates "ambassadors of friendship...

...The theological explanation is straightforward enough: It rests on the fundamentalist belief that an ingathering of Jews to biblical Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth must precede the second coming of Christ...

...It has won the praise of the Israeli government and Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek...

...It is a question of whose will prevails...

...He spoke with pride of his group's efforts to aid the Jewish poor, and the ways in which such aid helped to free Israeli funds for military expenditures...

...The history of persecution against the Jews requires that they have a homeland which they can control themselves," says John Alexander, editor of the Christian evangelical publication The Other Side...

...military aid—including troops— for Israel...

...military has done in years...

...We're thankful that you have become a champion for better government, for morality in government, and that, on the national political scene, you have become a staunch friend of the state of Israel...

...In this view, the creation of modern Israel represents the fulfillment of biblical prophecy...

...In addition, hundreds of hours are purchased every week on secular stations...

...During my school years in North Carolina, a tour participant came to my public school to offer her interpretation of developments in the Middle East...

...He can make more money accidentally than you can on purpose...

...At a time when militaristic and right-wing factions in power in Israel have alienated many of that country's traditional liberal supporters in the United States, a curious alliance is being forged between Israeli leaders and America's Christian Right...

...They are then able to raise these issues with their parishioners by tying them into scripture...

...Some American Jewish leaders have been surprisingly receptive to the support of Israel by the Christian Right...

...Jacques Torczyner, an executive of the American sector of the World Zionist Organization and former president of the Zionist Organization of America, has said, "We have, first of all, to come to a conclusion that the right-wing reactionaries are the natural allies of Zionism and not the liberals...

...Israel's got to be strong for the final battle," she says...

...The High Adventure Ministries, which has worked'closely with the Israeli government on arranging tour groups and establishing a broadcasting station in the pro-Israeli enclave in southern Lebanon, says that its mission is to "prepare the Jewish soul for the coming of the Messiah...

...That is a curious basis for defending Israel—particularly when it comes from a professing Christian...

...Samuel Cohen, executive vice president of the Jewish National Fund, told Falwell at a banquet in his honor, "We're thankful that you have come and emerged as a major spokesman for religion, for religious values, and religious virtue...

...Others follow a social gospel which calls them to seek a just and peaceful settlement in the Middle East...

...Members of the Moral Majority, who proclaim their goal is to "Christianize America," to place Christian candidates in office, and to reinstate mandatory prayer in the public schools, are also devoted supporters of Israel...

...van der Hoeven...

...To stand against Israel is to stand against God," says Jerry Falwell, and to suggest that the Palestinians might also have a legitimate claim to a national homeland is to defy divine will: "God's word settles the question of whose land [it is]: It is Israel's," he says...

...At a time when many Americans are acutely aware of a diminished sense of community, when the traditional family structure is under assault, when drug abuse and violence seem to be reaching epidemic proportions, Israel's bellicose militarism, by contrast, can be perceived as power and righteousness...

...The Reverend Daniel Fore, head of the Moral Majority in New Yor'k, has issued public statements on the Jews' "almost supernatural ability" to make money and their alleged control of New York City and the media...

...Their support of Israel emerged most clearly after the defeat of the social democratic Labor coalition and the rise of the right-wing Likud bloc...

...One of Israel's most outspoken supporters is the Reverend Bailey Smith,-president of the Southern Baptist Convention, who has stated that God does not hear the prayers of Jews...

...A few have allied themselves with overtly anti-Semitic causes and are calling for the destruction of the state of Israel...

...We believe that God very clearly promised Abraham a blessing for those who bless Israel and a curse for those who curse Israel...

...It's God's will...

...Declaring that the NCC was "moving towards an anti-Israel position," the Moral Majority boycotted later Council policy meetings...

...It's the Golden Rule: Whoever has the gold rules...

...The religious leader, who quickly agreed to mobilize support for the Israeli action, was neither a prominent rabbi nor a member of the "Jewish lobby...

...It claims to have international support, but on a recent visit I found that the entire staff, except for the Dutch director and his Palestinian wife, seemed to be Americans...

...Not all fundamentalist groups have joined the chorus...

...response to Israel's attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor would be one of surprise and indignation, not approval, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin placed a call to an influential American religious leader to ask for help...