10-25-2006, 10:58 AM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/storie...nt.23b6b18.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Comment: Christian Zionism raises questions among Jewish community
Web Posted: 10/19/2006 06:59 PM CDT
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
and Jane Hunter
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.
<b>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</b>.
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."
<b>
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."</b>
<b>Christian Zionism focuses on "end times" scenarios that involve "ingathering" all the world's Jews in Israel against a backdrop of major international warfare.</b> 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.
<b>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."</b> 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 â they want men to marry men and women to marry women â 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 â not about their toxicity. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Comment: Christian Zionism raises questions among Jewish community
Web Posted: 10/19/2006 06:59 PM CDT
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
and Jane Hunter
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.
<b>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</b>.
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."
<b>
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."</b>
<b>Christian Zionism focuses on "end times" scenarios that involve "ingathering" all the world's Jews in Israel against a backdrop of major international warfare.</b> 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.
<b>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."</b> 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 â they want men to marry men and women to marry women â 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 â not about their toxicity. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->