Our most unwelcome ally [Jerry Falwell & Israel]

Jerusalem Post ^ | 5-27-07 | JONATHAN TOBIN

[SJackson]

In 1984, the United States rectified a diplomatic anomaly when it formally recognized the Vatican and agreed to exchange ambassadors with the papal mini-state in Rome.

But when Congress held hearings on the measure, at least one discordant voice was heard in dissent. Rev. Jerry Falwell, by then already a familiar figure as the head of the "Moral Majority" group, hustled to the Capitol to testify against the move.

One might have expected Falwell's position to be based in the sort of theological antagonism between Baptists and Catholics that had its roots in the Reformation. But the roly-poly evangelical had another agenda that day: He was mad about the Church's foreign policy in the Middle East. He urged the Senate not to recognize the Vatican until it extended the same courtesy to the State of Israel.

That was an issue that was also of concern to Jewish groups. The Vatican eventually did recognize Israel a decade later. But the idea of the Jews publicly campaigning against the Church in this manner was simply out of the question. Falwell's intervention in this issue is barely a footnote to this chapter in history, but it is symbolic of much of his interactions with the Jews over the years.

He was always among our most zealous allies on the question of Israel, its security and its place in the world. But his efforts in this regard were not merely unbidden. They were, for the most part, regarded with incredulity by Jewish audiences and groups, and thus not merely unappreciated, but often met with outright rejection. As such, he was always American Jewry's most unwavering and yet unwelcome ally.

FALWELL'S DEATH earlier this month at age 73 set off a wave of retrospectives in the media about the rise of Christian conservative politics. But no discussion of his impact on the culture of the United States is complete without a discussion of his iconic position as the b te noire of liberal Jewry who regarded his noisy support for Israel - and the willingness of Israeli leaders such as Menachem Begin and Binyamin Netanyahu to embrace him for it - with a combination of disgust and horror.

The reason for that horror wasn't hard to explain. As one of the leading figures of the Right's counterattack on both liberal politics and cultural values, Falwell was deeply hated by liberals. His sanctimonious demeanor and willingness to voice his (in the view of most American Jews) antediluvian views on just about everything - including the possible sexual orientation of one of the "Teletubbies" - made him a ripe subject for satire.

But what made Falwell, who avoided the sort of personal and financial scandals that make it easy to discount many of his fellow televangelists, really scary to liberals was the fact that his mobilization of Christian conservatives helped change American politics. Although the "Moral Majority" itself had a short shelf life (it was disbanded in 1989), Falwell's influence will live on long after him.

But what must be understood is that his movement was not an attempt to undo democracy. Rather, it gave life to the well-founded fear on the part of religious conservatives that they were losing control of American culture. Despite the fact that they won a fair share of the election battles they picked, that verdict is unchanged.

Take a look at the content of virtually any network television drama or comedy - let alone contemporary major feature films - and it won't be hard to discern the fact that Falwell's views about abortion, sex and gay rights have not only not prevailed, but, in fact, have lost considerable ground.

As more than a few of his allies on the Right noted in the wake of the public's unwillingness to support the impeachment of president Bill Clinton, maybe the majority in this country wasn't so "moral" after all. And given the fact that a pro-abortion rights candidate such as Rudy Giuliani has a shot at the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, it may well be that the tide has turned on these issues in the GOP itself.

BUT NONE of that explains why his enthusiastic support for Israel was always something that many Jewish liberals felt ought to be treated with disdain. The excuses for this attitude always centered on the notion that his motives were tainted by his intention to evangelize among Jews or notions about his wanting a Zionist triumph to set off the second coming of Jesus.

But few who made these charges understood much about his actual beliefs. While Falwell was honest about the fact that he considered his own faith to be the truth, he always denied that his love for Israel was anything but unselfish. And given the fact that most Jews never gave him anything but abuse for it, his critics ought to concede that point.

Nor did his willingness to open up the pulpit of his Liberty University to figures like Reform movement head Rabbi Eric Yoffie convince liberals that he was as committed to the free flow of political debate as they were. To the day he died, liberal groups used his waning presence on the national scene to rally their faithful, and were unwilling to make common cause with him even on a principle many shared with him: the safety of Israel.

This unwillingness to accept conservative Christian support for Israel remains the great contradiction of modern American Jewish politics.

Contrast this attitude toward Falwell with the enthusiasm with which many Jews continue to make coalitions with liberal Protestant denominations that have often joined efforts to wage economic warfare on the Jewish state via disinvestment schemes.

Jews didn't have to agree with Falwell on abortion or anything else on which they differed any more than they do with liberal Protestants. But what they ought to have done is to recognize his willingness to expend his own political capital in the defense of Israel.

During crises, such as the 2002 terror war waged against Israel by the Palestinians, Falwell and his allies were capable of putting aside their other agendas, and putting the Bush administration's feet to the fire in order to ensure that it backed up Israel's measures of self-defense.

PERHAPS THE main disconnect came from the fact that for Falwell and his friends, Israel was not the marginal point that it has become for many Jews who who place its survival far below domestic issues on their list of priorities. Though he never harmed a single Jew in his life, most of us still seemed to be more afraid of him than we were of Hamas.

At a time when Israel is under increasingly vitriolic as well as violent attack, this reluctance to extend the hand of friendship to an ally remains, at best, short-sighted.

One imagines that few synagogue sermons were devoted to Falwell's memory this past week, but before the dust settles over his grave, it might be appropriate if more Jews took a moment to recognize his friendship. The rise of international anti-Semitism and left-wing anti-Zionism should remind us that - whether we like it or not - we are going to need a lot more "unwelcome" allies like Jerry Falwell in the years to come.

[SJackson]

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High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

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[Abcdefg]

Tobin is an ass.

[dighton]

Tobin is an ass.

The article is not at all what someone would expect from the title, if (and sorry if I’ve made a wrong assumption) the title is what you’re going by.

[SJackson]

Read the article.

[Stepan12]

The article is not bad.

[A_perfect_lady]

This is very interesting. My conservatism falls more along the Ayn Randian lines, so I never paid much attention to Jerry Falwell one way or another, and I didn’t know about his support of Israel. But I’m glad I read this. It’s amazing how many people I know whose entire impression of him is lifted from “The People vs Larry Flynt,” and they believe utterly that this is Perfect Truth. This article broadens my own perspective of Falwell quite a lot.

[Always Right]

Nor did his willingness to open up the pulpit of his Liberty University to figures like Reform movement head Rabbi Eric Yoffie convince liberals that he was as committed to the free flow of political debate as they were.

I got a really good laugh out of that one. Since when are liberals committed to the free flow of political debate????? The left's idea of a free flow debate is one between Bill Clinton and Micheal Moore, left and lefter.

[Always Right]

To the day he died, liberal groups used his waning presence on the national scene to rally their faithful, and were unwilling to make common cause with him even on a principle many shared with him: the safety of Israel.

Can someone please name all these liberal groups who give a rats ass about the security of Israel???

[Cacique]

btt

[dennisw]

Rest in peace Jerry Falwell, friend of Israel

[Salem]

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" ... It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world."—FReeper Retief
"Palestine is the wrong name for their State. It should be called Anarchy."—FReeper sgtbono2002
"Then let's wait and see what the Arabs do after they take Gaza. There's nothing like Arab reality to break up a Jewish fantasy."—FReeper Noachian
A student told his professor he was going to "Palestine" to "fight for freedom, peace and justice,"—Orwellian leftist code words that mean "murder Jews."

[F15Eagle]

Yes, good article.

[Suzy Quzy]

Just name ONE liberal group that is NOT out to have Israel destroyed. Only the right keeps Israel on the map.

[eleni121]

The Reverend Falwell was a great Christian man...a man for the ages.

[GOPPachyderm]

What specifically do you disagree with? I think he raises some good points!

[zerosix]

Certainly a painfully biased opinion from the leftist point of view.

Christians, Falwell, Hagee, et al are the most supporters of Israel that there are in the free world today.

We all are Israel's hope in a land surrounded by people who truly desire their death and destruction.

Anti-Semitism is alive and well in Europe and even growing in America, which is surprising, considering that Israel is the only democracy in that God forsaken part of the world.

"Those who bless My people, I will bless, and those who curse them, I will curse."

[Abcdefg]

It was the writer’s consistently negative descriptions of Falwell.

[California Patriot]

Good column.

Sooner or later, in one way or another, ingratitude is repaid.

[justiceseeker93]

As more of a few of his allies on the Right noted in the wake of the public's unwillingness to support the impeachment of Bill Clinton, maybe the majority in this country wasn't so "moral" at all.

The Clinton impeachment battle had relatively little to do with collective morality of American society, but turned much more on collective fear of Clinton and his machine on the part of the senators in his own party, not one of whom voted for either of the two articles of impeachment presented to the Senate by the House managers. A large part of the failure of impeachment was the failure of the House to consider and prosecute much more serious charges against Clinton than the articles that were eventually voted on.

[justiceseeker93]

Can someone please name all those liberal groups who give a rats ass about the security of Israel???

The author Tobin is talking about groups of the Jewish Left, many of which still pay lip service to the security of Israel as a Jewish homeland, but, for foolish reasons and fears, refuse to align themselves with the Religious Right to form pragmatic political coalitions in support of her.

You won't see Jews here on FR rejecting such help from conservative Christians.

[justiceseeker93]

Ping!

[GOPPachyderm]

I liked the fact that he reminds people:
“He urged the Senate not to recognize the Vatican until it extended the same courtesy to the State of Israel” and noting that he expended his personal capital to support Israel. I think it is a good article whether or not Tobin is an ass.

[Larry Lucido]

I was impressed with Larry Flynt’s words about Falwell. Apparently they became quite civil with each other following the case.

[juliej]

Jerry Falwell was a faithful servant of G-d. May he rest in peace. He was kinder to his enemies than they were to him. I am frankly sick of liberals!

[juliej]

Liberals - Jewish or otherwise - are foolish people with no sense of self-preservation.

[steamroller]

eric yoffe is a gun-hating,queer-loving liberal POS-while i didn’t follow falwell as a religious authority,i did think he was sincere and i don’t think there were any flies on him because the aclu commie scumbags would’ve found out for sure-he was a man who you had to take on his own terms-not a jellyfish like so many of our politicians-i know he was a better man than eric yoffe who is exemplary of why so many people develope stereotypes about jews-those like myself seldom get noticed and are an embarrassment to the “jewish establishment”otherwise known as ethnic pimps

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

Falwell was a friend of Israel and will be blessed for that. Those who hate Israel hate God. Falwell represented both, so was a target of the God-bashing Left, including most of the press.

[dervish]

May Rev. Falwell rest in peace. He was a great friend to Israel and the Jewish people.

[George W. Bush]

For a group that is so intelligent and well-educated, American Jews can be incredibly stupid about Christian support for Israel.

In the end, I think the Christian Right is a far better friend to Israel than most of the liberal Jewish groups. Some of the liberal Jewish groups (and liberal Protestants) verge on genuine antisemitism. It's just couched in polite language. But if Tel Aviv is hit by an Iranian nuke, it will be them who will be most to blame for it, not friends of Israel like Jerry Falwell.

[rmlew]

His sanctimonious demeanor and willingness to voice his (in the view of most American Jews) antediluvian views on just about everything - including the possible sexual orientation of one of the "Teletubbies" - made him a ripe subject for satire.
Seems to me the real problem is that these Jews, especialy Rabbi Joffe, have walked away fromt he Torah.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Thanks for the ping. And I agree, whatever compliments Tobin paid Rev. Falwell were extremely left-handed. I am a bit surprised (but not totally) at the sometimes conservative Tobin's holding up abortion as a key Jewish value.

My own not-so-humble opinion is that the whole identification of Judaism with liberalism is a product of the disassociation of the Bible with Judaism and the Jewish People and their self-definition (and definition by others) as primarily a dissident religious minority in the Middle Ages. Although medieval Jews were both Orthodox and Theocratic (they were under Rabbinic civil authority), they are contextually interpreted as the "hippies" of the era, whose refusal to knuckle under to "the man" (the Catholic and Orthodox churches) "paved the way for being gay."

Fundamentalist Protestants seem to be the only people in the whole wide world who still view Jews and Judaism through the prism of the Book of Joshua, which most Jews (liberal and otherwise) seem to have completely wiped from their memory. The Biblical Jews seem to have been retroactively reclassified as either Southern Baptist Kluckers or medieval Catholic inquisitionists.

I think it's time the Book of Joshua was taught in public schools!

[PRePublic]

R..I.P Jerry!

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

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[dennisw]

Can someone please name all these liberal groups who give a rats ass about the security of Israel???

Damn straight and that includes lots of liberal Jews. Israel should put up a statue of Jerry Falwell may he rest in peace

[Valin]

The support Christian conservatives have given to Israel will (IMO) be seen in the future as one of the major movements of this time.

Christians and Jews have a lot of history...and most of it has not been good. So we (speaking as a Christian) have some work ahead of us.

[MeanWestTexan]

“Israel should put up a statue of Jerry Falwell may he rest in peace.”

A Jew is prohibited from sculpting, building, shaping or otherwise creating the image, form or likeness of a human being, heavenly body (such as the sun or moon) or angelic creature (animals are generally fine), whether for his personal use or not.

Commandment #3 and its entourage of laws specifically forbids one from creating a three-dimensional likeness of any of the abovementioned objects. Furthermore, it is even forbidden to own such an object.

But the sentiment was nice. Maybe a painting. ;-)

[dennisw]

Israel should commission the painter who does the poker dogs

[MeanWestTexan]

Hey, I actually like those paintings.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

"Those who bless My people, I will bless, and those who curse them, I will curse."

besides the fact that that quote is not in the book you imply it is from (unless you call it a REAL loose quote), the fact is that geopolitical Israel ceased to be identified as the people of God with the first coming of Christ.

We should be supportive of Israel because they are a democratic republic, believers in freedom, allies of ours (when it suits their purposes), and a bright point of light in a sea of savagery and barbarism. Further, they are "loved for the sake of the fathers."

They are NOT, however, the "people of God" no matter how many times CI Scofield says they are. Let us hope for a re-grafting in? For sure. Nothing but a weird antibiblical unhistorical hermeneutic and a scottish milkmaid's "prophecy" argue for a reconstitution of the OT theocratic nation state. Israel as a nation could be driven into the sea and it would not affect biblical prophecy one whit.

[zerosix]

I'm going to presume that you are a student of the bible, based upon your telling every freeper exactly what the bible (and many of us believe it to be the inerrant word of God, not CI

Genesis 12:3 (KJV) "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." ; Genesis 12:3(NIV) "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."; Genesis 12:3 (NAS) "And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.": Genesis 12:3 (The Message Bible)"I'll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I'll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you."

As to the Israel and the people of Israel NOT being identified as "the people of God, with the first coming of Christ..." perhaps you might also look up Matthew 24:22, Mark 13:20, Titus 1:1, 1 Peter 2:9 and these all occur after the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

I'm not at all sure which bible you study, regardless of the version, everything in the Old Testament and the New Testament as well, revolves around Israel, though the Book of Revelation.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

Well, like I said, it was a very loose quote. Your problem by the way, is your misidentification of “Israel” with a geopolitical group of physical descendants of Abraham. The New Testament is VERY clear that the title “Israel” extends to the TRUE Israel, those who are of the FAITH of Abraham, and includes Gentiles and Jews. True Jews, in fact are those with circumcised hearts, which includes Gentile believers. The wall between “Jew and Gentile” has forever been destroyed so that there is ONE Israel, which is not to be identified with an atheistic, secular state. Rather, the promises you cite (I can give ya a few more if you like), are all fulfilled NOW in the universal, or TRUE Israel. The bunch of shemites who squatted in Palestine for a while were the precursor to the TRUE recipients of the promise, which is far bigger than an ethnically limited group. At least, so the NT interpretation of the OT promises said, until Darby and crew decided they needed to correct its author. There is no biblical basis for assuming the present apostate unbelieving crew over there has ANY claim on the promises of God, because they weren’t the ones to whom the promises were made.

[zerosix]

"There is no biblical basis for assuming the present apostate unbelieving crew over there has ANY claim on the promises of God, because they weren’t the ones to whom the promises were made."

I would gently disagree with you on that point, in that God is still waiting for them to believe in Him (and in Jesus Christ as Messiah) and charges us believers to bless them and give them the Good News for all of His prophecy to be fulfilled.