Posted on 12/14/2005 4:16:59 PM PST by SJackson
The debate in the Jewish world over whether an alliance with conservative Christians is desirable or wise reveals a complete disregard for the nature of political alliances in any political system throughout history. The debate is conducted at a childish level that would cause embarrassment in any other context. As such, there is an air of unreality about it that belies the reputation of the Jewish people for being clever.
Political alliances are not and have never been about whether allies love each other; rather, the nature of such associations is expressed in the well known maxim of Lord Palmerston, a 19th century British prime minister: Britain does not have permanent friends or permanent enemies, Britain has permanent interests.
Alliances are groupings based on mutual interests and needs that can best be met, or perhaps only be met, by associating with parties whose help is sought to meet those interests. A pertinent example is the de facto alliance between the secular Left and extremist Islam today — ideologically the two are poles apart, and extremist Muslims would have no hesitation in physically eradicating such people from any society they controlled. But the two perceive each other as useful (which of course brings to mind Lenin’s description of Western liberals and socialists who often allied themselves with Communists as “useful idiots”).
It is perfectly true that conservative American Christians and Jews who care about the Torah of Moses share many interests, values and morals. But then, religious — even extremist — Muslims and Jews also have much in common. Indeed, as Jews we probably have even more in common with our Ishmaelite cousins. Yet both Muslims and Christians think that as “non-believers” we are headed to Hell, and both groups would like to convert us.
Conservative Christians, however, are our allies in the current struggle for the land of Israel and the Muslims are our adversaries who wish to see the Jewish presence there — if not the Jews themselves — terminated. Whether conservative Christians want to convert us is politically irrelevant.
When Israel was founded, the Soviet Union was one of its important allies in the political arena and through its Czech puppet supplied the newborn state with the weapons it needed for survival in the 1948 war. After Russia’s interest — the expulsion of the British from the area — was met, the Soviets turned against Israel.
The same thing happened with France, which at one time was one of Israel’s key allies, supplying its air force and helping in the construction of its nuclear facilities. But with the ascent of Charles de Gaulle and a changed perception of French interests, France became Israel’s main European enemy. This is the nature of politics, and always has been.
There is, of course, one partial exception to the above rule, and that is the alliance between the United States and Israel. While it too is based on mutual interests, there is something else present. Walter Laqueur, the widely respected historian of Israel and Zionism, once said in a talk to a Jewish university group in London that his conclusion, after studying the American-Israeli relationship, was that beneath the standard politics there was a genuine American commitment to Israel that went far beyond mere political self-interest and that was nearly a moral commitment in itself.
To anyone who rationally looks at the world and what is happening in it, there is no doubt that conservative Christians — mostly but not exclusively American — are just about the only non-Jewish group allied with Israel in the struggle against the Palestinians and Muslims in general. Their reasons and interests are up-front and well known. It is said that Jews fear these allies because they wish to Christianize America. This is peculiar: America was always a Christian country, and in its heartland very much still is. Indeed, America is the only Christian country left in the Western world. There is not a single truly Christian country in Europe. (The UK is so secular that Christian Africa has been trying to convert it back to Christianity.)
No matter how successful conservative Christians are in Christianizing contemporary America, the country will remain considerably more secular than was the case until well into the 1970`s. In any case, the strong Christian cultural influence on American life during the first 200 years of the nation’s existence hardly impeded the development of Jewish life in the U.S.
It is not at all strange that allies of the present could be adversaries in the future and vice versa. You meet each crisis as it comes, if it comes. What is it that many Jews really fear from the perceived power of the Christian Right? They fear for the secular leftist causes, beliefs, practices and values that they espouse and hold dear. But then, Torah Judaism is even stronger in its opposition to what these secular Jews believe and how they define themselves.
It is said that Jews fear conservative Christians because they wish to convert us. Indeed they do. But so what? Secularists, especially leftists and liberals, also seek to convert the Jews — to their ideology, world outlook, lifestyle, values, and morals. Many on the Left, going back to Karl Marx, see the very existence of the Jews, especially Torah-observant Jews, as a problem — and the cause of many if not all of the evils in the world.
Today it is leftists and liberals, not conservative Christians, who threaten the existence of the Jews as a people and who stand in opposition to various aspects of Judaism. Here in the UK, shechita and Jewish education are not under attack by fundamentalist Christians, but by secular leftists.
Furthermore, because we accept the help of conservative Christians in one sphere, it doesn’t mean we can’t oppose them when it comes to specific policies that threaten Jewish interests in other areas. You cannot do this with a good many leftists and liberals, whose opposition to Judaism, like that of fundamentalist Muslims, is existential and total.
As touched on above, the reason many Jews are reluctant to acknowledge or accept any alliance with conservative Christians — when clearly it is secular liberals who are the greater threat, both immediate and long term — is that such an alliance exposes a major fault line among those who call themselves Jews, a fault line many Jews prefer to pretend does not exist.
Namely, it makes salient the division between secular and Reform Jews on the one hand, and Torah-observant Jews on the other. It reveals to one and all that there is not one Jewish people, but at least two, and that these two peoples are often highly antagonistic to one another, each with a different conception of what “Jewish” means. Each has different interests, and these interests frequently clash.
Life would be so much easier for many Jews if conservative Christians were open, rabid anti-Semites. Unfortunately for such Jews, these are found largely on the Left.
Levi Sokolic is an anthropologist and IT consultant living in the UK. His doctoral thesis examined the adaptation of Orthodox Jewish society to the social and cultural changes of the 19th and 20th centuries.
My only disagreement was with his use of the word "convert" regarding Christians wanting to convert Jews.
Since the Christian position is that Jesus is Messiah, if a Jew accepts this, he has not destroyed the Law of Moses, but has, instead, apprehended a more perfect faith; like in kind to the faith of Abraham. Abraham believed G_d, and He credited that belief to Abraham as righteousness in His sight. That one who would believe the Jesus is Messiah -- G_d incarnate -- must also, like Abraham, believe G_d -- insofar as G_d has testified throughout scripture concerning Messiah -- and, having done so, G_d will likewise credit it to them as righteousness. For a Jew, this is not denial of either faith or heritage but, rather, a fulfillment of both as the veil of Moses is taken away and the Jew comes face-to-face with his G_d and realizes that, in Jesus' blood, he is now not only an heir, but a participant in all that was promised to Abraham, having now become his descendant after the spirit as well as the flesh, and having seen his religion not destroyed nor cast aside but made complete; all the requirements of the Law having been satisfied once for all in the person of Messiah.
No, we Christians do not seek to "convert" Jews, we seek only to show them that all of the Law has been fulfilled -- it's many requirements fully met -- and that all are now set free from those requirements to simply believe G_d's testimony about The One Whom He has sent and, in so doing, take up the same faith for which Abraham was credited righteousness before G_d Himself. We don't want to convert the Jews; we want to lead them home to the true House and Line of Abraham; the spiritual house of Israel that G_d established when He declared Abraham's faith to be righteousness; that house which all who would enter must enter into by faith like that of Abraham.
And how could a Jew be any more righteous than to share faith with Abraham? So, then ,Christians do not seek to turn Jews away from faith, or to corrupt their faith, but to urge them to perfect their faith through belief in Jesus as Messiah; that they may, at last, know the faith of Abraham and understand what it is to truly be Abraham's heirs.
Ironically, the majority of the leftists in this country are not even aware of the fact that they are being used. Not too long ago, I ventured over to DU. Someone over there actually posted that if they (DUers) were wrong about Islam, then they were in big trouble. But that's as far as the discussion went.
Liberal Jews must realize that conservative Christians are not looking for a theocracy. We are simply tired of what secular humanists, feminists, socialists, and the rest of the "ists" have done to this country. They have not made America stronger. They have weakened it with their moral relativism.
Thanks for posting. It was a great article!
Why when Forte Runningrock is much more amusing while giving me the same information?
It is supposedly the PC way to write it. Like G*D. I don't care for it either.
Ummm....that was a joke, right?
It is the same with the word 'Hebrew' -- the term describes twelve tribes, not just one. Everything that is written in the Old Testament was written for the the House of Israel as a group, not just for a single tribe.
Understanding this is a major key to understanding the Bible.
By the time Jesus was born, only a small remnant of two tribes remained in the Holy Land. The others had all disappeared -- melded into the genetic infrastructure of the human race.
With their disappearance, the Jewish remnant that remained in Palestine came to the conclusion that they were the sole beneficiaries of all of God's promises to the House of Israel. But the prophet Ezekiel told them no. They were simply the last tribe to go into Babylon's exile.
Ezekiel scolded the Jews for their arrogance in trying to usurp the covenant. He told them in no uncertain terms (see chapter heading) that all twelve of Israel's tribes were going to share equally in the fulfillment of scripture's promise.
Ezekiel put the Jews on notice that the missing Hebrew tribes were not missing as far as God was concerned. Jeremiah agreed. "In those days", Jeremiah said, "the House of Judah will unite with the House of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the land I gave your ancestors as a heritage." (Jer.3:18).
The Jewish leaders did not believe these predictions because they could not see how those vanished tribes could ever be recovered. The missing tribes of Israel had entirely disappeared. Their genetic identity had evaporated completely and seemed irretrievably lost.
The Jewish scholars could not conceive a divine intervention powerful enough to restore these missing people, because the lost tribes had become indistinguishable from the Gentiles into whose stock they had disappeared. For this reason, the Jews steadfastly see themselves as the sole beneficiaries of all the ancient promises in scripture concerning the House of Israel.
Scripture had long predicted a royal lineage for the tribe of Judah and the rabbi's translated that to mean exclusivity. There were so many prophecies all seeming to say the same thing, who could deny it?
But all those prophecies of royalty were for Jesus, not the Jews. It was not the roots that were royal but the One who sprang from them. The royal heir was Jesus, the Christ -- the princely Son of the Almighty King.
It is not PC. Jews write God as G-d because it's believed that they are not to evoke his name directly.
You contradict even the Apostle Paul on the subject....you are way out on a limb on this one.
You want to argue that there might be a disparately distinct people group in the world consisting of the "10 lost tribes" that God will bring together on the day of "Shiloh", there might be some truth to that....but not all of Mankind descends from the 12 tribes....for why does the Bible speak of the "times of the Gentiles coming to an end" in their subjugation of Israel?
Must have been a freeper lurking on that site
The major problem that most Jews have is understanding just weak their stance of do not try to convert us, makes them look to evangelical Christians. Evangelicals are always trying to convert members of other churches to their version of god's word.
It is not PC. Jews write God as G-d because it's believed that they are not to evoke his name directly.
-- I thought is wasn't a matter of evoking but rather the name of God cannot be destroyed or defamed. If someone types God and prints the paper out, the risk is that it can get thrown out or destroyed - typing G_d or G-d is to preclude the holy name from being thrown in the trash can (this is a paraphrase but this is the gist of it as I understand it).
We should not confuse the Hebrew genetic descendants of Abram with the gentile converts to the religion of Judaism 'Jews' that comprise the bulk of the population of 'Jews' today. They are not Hebrew Israelite descendants of Abram and are not the object of Gen 12:3
Thank you all the same. I consider my religion perfect as it is and don't need to be shown the way by anyone.
If you're trying to say that there is not a single descendant from Abraham that is part of Israel you're not making any sense. If you're saying that God's word that those who bless Israel will be blessed is false, again, you are wrong. Are you trying to push some replacement theology point?
>> I consider my religion perfect as it is and don't need to be shown the way by anyone.
As you wish. Go in peace.
then why did Jesus' brother and leader of the church still worship at the Temple?
I meant to refer to James
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