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.
the Nazis of today are on the left-and many of them are of Jewish background.
Correct, more details halfway down the link.
"And it shall come to pass on that day, that the great Shofar shall be blown, and there shall come those who were lost in the land of Assyria, and who were crushed in the land of Egypt, and they shall bown down to the Lord upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem." Isaiah 27:13.
Which Jewish leaders?
"Hardly" isn't the word...
They have excelled in influence and contribution to "American culture," while having been as important has any ethnicity.
Not everyone is descended from the 12 Tribes. But there are some racialists who like to lay claim to being the "chosen people" by attempting to trace this or that "lost tribe" to the Celts, the Gypsies, the Anglo-Saxons, the Ainu, the Cheyenne...
In Matthew 12, Jesus Messiah brought deliverance to one possessed with a devil. The Pharisees said "this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils," v. 24. Jesus countered with a scathing reply, in v. 43 he said:
Matthew 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and THE LAST STATE OF THAT MAN IS WORSE THAN THE FIRST. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
Jesus Messiah used himself and the man whom he had cast the devil out as an object lesson. The Messiah of Israel was there in their midst purging unclean spirits from them. But only for a short while. In time, Pharisees who rejected their Messiah became Rabbinic Judaism.
Most of you posters on this thread seem to think 2000 years of Judaism rejecting their Messiah somehow has made them more and more acceptable with God. Hardly. Such things as Kabbalah indicates otherwise. Satanic Kabbalah verifies that Judaism has gotten progressively WORSE. Kabbalah is sheer occultism. THE LAST STATE OF THAT MAN IS WORSE THAN THE FIRST.
Jesus Messiah is Judaism's only hope of deliverance from the devil. Without him, they (and everybody else) are on a slippery slope whose final end is the antichrist and outright demon possession.
THE LAST STATE OF THAT MAN
Right on! Alexander Solzhenitsyn's newest book, out for almost three years now, and curiously not translated into English yet, goes into the role of the communist Jews in Stalin's murder machine.
Are you saying that G-D is a racist?
God always has preserved a remnant.
And isn't it interesting what DNA testing can establish these days? Assuming that David's Tomb is really the right tomb, might it be possible to establish whether someone is a descendant? It brings up some interesting questions doesn't it?
Meanwhile read the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Memoirs of Soviet Gulag
good point. germans consider Nazism to be a left wing movement
"Jesus Christ himself was Jewish...."
As were the disciples and most of the writers of the Bible.
A fault line across which conservative Jews are destructively solicitous toward secular Jews, much as conservative Christians have been had way too often by the same crowd.
Baptist ping
"Indeed, America is the only Christian country left in the Western world."
Well, along with Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and Santo Domingo.
Indeed, all of the countries of Latin America, with the sole exception of poor Cuba, are so very Christian that every one of them outlaws abortion, because Catholicism teaches that life begins at conception.
America is a Christian nation, by and large, but not nearly so much so as all Latin American nations except Cuba. The Latin American nations actually maintain the Christian sacredness of life in their very laws.
America doesn't.
"IMHO in the realm of politics one's political philosophy reigns supreme over all other minor attributes such as race, religious affiliation, sex, and sexuality."
Hmmmmm.
Well, speaking personally, I oppose early term abortion and the death penalty, even though I personally am not offended by the morning after pill nor the execution of the really evil who need killing, because the Pope tells me that these things are wrong, and that my own personal attitudes about them are not enlightened.
And because I believe my religion, I respect my duty of obedience to the Bishop of Rome, and modify my political beliefs to reflect Catholic teaching, even though I personally would stand in the opposite place were I not a Catholic and did not consider my religion to trump all other loyalties to causes or countries, or to my own personal preferences.
People are quite different in these regards, and it is difficult to generalize.
I think LostTribe moved over here:
www.lostribes.net
At least the images seem familiar.
Regards
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