Posted on 04/04/2009 6:06:50 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
The Israel Test
By: David Klinghoffer
The Jerusalem Post
April 3, 2009
Israel stands out from other nations in many ways, not least that its survival appears to depend on powerful but geographically very distant countries. That observation should lead Jews to wonder what makes friends of Israel feel as they do.
America has been the country's closet ally, while other Western countries showed less affection even before absorbing huge new Muslim populations. Why? In the American context, why do Republicans on average judge Israel more favorably than Democrats - by a significant spread of 20 percent, 84% compared to 64%, according to a Gallup poll?
Pointing to the number of Evangelical Christians among the Republican base only begs the question. Conservative Christians quote biblical verses to justify their passion for the Jewish state, but you can imagine an alternative universe where those voters today would show the same hostility to Jewish interests that other Christians demonstrated historically.
Chalking up the difference to religious influence also ignores the staunchly pro-Israel stance of secular conservative activists and journalists. Add to this the mystery of Jews who either don't care about Israel or are more or less disdainful. What explains it all?
Israel's well-wishers should carefully consider the question because the trite, frequently cited rationales for being pro-Israel - that it is a "bastion of democracy in the Middle East" and so on - sound like rationalizations. In a secular democracy, religious friends also need to be able to say, without pounding a Bible, why allying with Israel is good not just for Israel but for other countries, notably America.
I'VE STRUGGLED for years to figure out what difference in fundamental viewpoints it is, what polarity in thinking about how the world works, that Israel casts so sharply into contrast.
An answer I came across recently snaps the mystery into focus. I found it in the manuscript of a forthcoming book by, of all people, the capitalism and technology guru George Gilder, one of the chief intellectual stars of the Reaganomics revolution.
Gilder and I share an affiliation with the Discovery Institute, a think tank with offices in Seattle, but I've never met him and hadn't followed his earlier career all that carefully. I'm old school - technology bores me. But his book The Israel Test, which should be out in June, spoke to me with an unexpected power.
Apart from being beautifully, fiercely written, its merit lies in clarifying, in a totally new, secular and intuitive way, why Israel matters. Gilder begins with a frankly, even racially philo-Semitic observation that will make some Jews uncomfortable. I can say it without squirming because, as a convert to Judaism, I can't claim any credit that attaches to having Jewish genes.
Jews are known for their greatly disproportionate giftedness in film, physics, finance - almost every field where creativity and intellect determine success. Gilder writes with candor about Jewish "superiority and excellence." As a result of such Jewish gifts, Israel has done far more with far less, in physical resources, than any other country. The Israeli technology boom has made this clearer than ever.
As Gilder puts it, "The [Israel] test can be summarized by a few questions: What is your attitude toward people who excel you in the creation of wealth or in other accomplishments? Do you aspire to their excellence or do you seethe at it? Do you admire and celebrate exceptional achievement or do you impugn it and seek to tear it down?"
SOME PEOPLE see wealth-creation as a zero-sum game, where your enriching yourself means that you are taking something away from me. Others see wealth as almost miraculous. Material value is created from nothing - ex nihilo. That is, from nothing material - but from an idea, from creativity, from genius. In this view, your enrichment takes nothing from me. In fact, it creates opportunities for your neighbors to enrich themselves by doing business with you. Israel's Palestinian neighbors, with their pitiful economy, have failed spectacularly to perceive this.
Elementally, there are two different personality types here. Where you come down reveals a lot not just about your politics - though political views flow from it - but about the orientation of your soul.
Zero-sum personalities often resent the rich and the gifted and may succumb to a temptation to punish them. Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments are a frequent consequence. Ex-nihilo personalities have no reason to resent Jews or Israel.
A nation populated by ex-nihilo types would see Israel as the embodiment of virtues its own citizens deem crucial to their happiness and prosperity. For America, abandoning Israel would mean rejecting values that have been key to our identity as a powerhouse of creative and commercial leadership. In simple terms, it's bad for business.
That is the Israel test, in which Americans have a greater stake in choosing rightly than we do in any calculus based on the questionable premise that the United States must have a democratic ally precisely in the space between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
You start to see why Israel divides free-market America from socialist Western Europe, and pro-business, anti-tax conservatives from those left-liberals, including some Jews, who would use government power to press the "rich" further and further to support the rest of us.
No less interesting is an issue Gilder doesn't get into at all. The dichotomy he notes helps illuminate subjects with roots at least as deep as those of modern Israel. The question of whether value can be created from nothing has been debated for thousands of years.
Traditionally, rabbinic scholars understood the second word in Genesis, bara - "In the beginning God created" - as implying creation ex nihilo. God's having made humankind in His image implied that people share that gift.
Chapter 8 in the book of Proverbs describes God's wisdom, the Torah - a purely non-physical entity - as preceding creation. The Christian Gospel of John summed up its own version of this teaching with the mystic utterance that "in the beginning was the Word." In the Middle Ages, Maimonides debated on this point with Aristotelian philosophers. Did the universe have a beginning, emerging ex nihilo from divine creativity, or did it always exist, eternal and uncreated? The latter view made nonsense of Judaism, Maimonides warned.
Closer to our time, Darwinian evolutionary science arose from the inspiration of Malthusianism, the classical zero-sum theory in economics. Darwin saw nature as a war of organisms in which the fittest survive while the unfit perish - a gruesome, purposeless affair where the strong dominate the weak by taking their lives.
Today's frontier of science, however, reminds us that human and animal life is animated by something totally nonphysical - the information coded in DNA - that, arguably, could not even in principle have arisen from a purely material process. Since information is invariably the product of a mind, Genesis may be right after all: "In the beginning, God created." From Israel, then, we circle back to Israel's God - the truest reason that the State of Israel, and Jews as a whole, should matter to the world. But we Jews knew that all along.
Ping!
Well, the bottom line is that Israel’s support comes from those who believe that God will do *exactly* (and *literally*) what He says He’ll do, in the Bible (in regards to Israel)...
That’s the real simple answer...
I’m a defender of Israel BECAUSE I’m believe they are God’s chosen people. But the author does make some additional interesting points...especially re: the concept of creating wealth ex nihilo.
You beat me to it...see reply #4
What does this post have to do with evolution?
Is the championing of the superior race evidence that creationism favored Israel?
Did you read the whole article???
PS Who said anything about a superior RACE? The Jews were called out from among the Gentiles. Therefore, there must be some other reason why they excel having nothing to do with their DNA.
But there is a significant difference with the Evangelicals.
Unlike other Christian theologies, the Evangelicals are dominated by a view that rejects the "Replacement Theology" of Historical Catholicism and "mainline" denominations. In replacement theologies, it's taught that Israel sinned and so God judged them, rejected them, establishing the Church in its place.
Thus the promises to Israel are voided (including the Land) and passed to the Church, albeit in a "spiritualized" fashion.
The Evangelicals agree that Israel sinned, but emphasize that we all sinned, and that if God's promises to Israel are revoked, then so are his promises to the Church, for we too have sinned.
So the promises to Abraham, a special nation, a special land, a righteous king, all remain.
God has chosen Israel as a means to bless the nations. It is inappropriate for us to argue with, or interfere with, His choice of means. And why should we, since we (the nations) are the ultimate recipients of His blessing?
So while the Evangelicals believe Jesus is THE Messiah for all, including the Jews, the Jewish people are recognized as a unique vehicle of God's working in the world. That is not to say that each of us gentiles does not have his own "chosen-ness" to live out, but as a nation, Israel is uniquely "chosen."
And that is to the benefit of all.
Come on, folks. You gotta be honest. The GOP ran a terrible election process! And, yes, Dubya saw his family legacy going down the toilet!
Obama? Maybe, he is a muslim. What good does that do him, now? He got into office with better numbers than Dubya. While he’s taken over a broken economy. And, a loss of respect for our military. Since, we’ve managed to “guagmire” all over again. And, no matter what we’ve spent on military “stuff” ... we can’t seem to even fire a shot at North Korea!
You think these things just slide by? I think, not.
The sounds of backfire affect other politicians! So, don’t expect that there aren’t “internal” worries.
Dubya wasn’t well served by Gates. Or James Baker! And, going ahead using these people. Plus, adding on Hillary, isn’t what I’d call “popular moves.”
That DEBKA writes stuff that can scare ya? YES!
But Livni didn’t win. And, if this is supposed to give her stature, I think, not.
I think Bibi in selected Lieberman, did this ON PURPOSE. And, the Foreign Minister has made clear that the Road Map applies, because it has STEPS. And, Annapolis DOESN’T. It doesn’t. What’s Obama gonna do? Have a tantrum in the White House? Heck, he can bring Jimmy Carter in. That would really “do it.” That would give the world a good chance to see what two really bad presidents look like. And, I think you’d see more than just a “tea party.” I think you’d see DEMOCRATS running for cover!
With all due respect, what’s your point?
As Gilder puts it, "The [Israel] test can be summarized by a few questions: What is your attitude toward people who excel you in the creation of wealth or in other accomplishments? Do you aspire to their excellence or do you seethe at it? Do you admire and celebrate exceptional achievement or do you impugn it and seek to tear it down?"
Thanks for the ping!
Wow, you showed a lot more respect than I would have, had I replied.
;-)
Wow, you showed a lot more respect than I would have, had I replied.
;-)
**************
Thanks! It was my upbringing.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “Everything good about me, I owe to my mother.”
bump for later read
[[The Evangelicals agree that Israel sinned, but emphasize that we all sinned, and that if God’s promises to Israel are revoked, then so are his promises to the Church, for we too have sinned.]]
Not sure i agree 100%- There is a line of htought that We, Gentiles, are of the lsot tribe of Ephraim, yet God is clear that His blessing is now being bestowed upon Gentiles, but that His promise will be restored to Israel at future point-
Israel sinned many times and lost the promise, but hte promise was restored a couple of times. The land has already been given them- it’s theirs- they are now a soverign nation- but they have lost the blessigns that we, the Gentiles, now enjoy- ie: Ability to see and ask forgiveness for sins/Salvation (Yes, soem Jews do becoem true born agains, but the majority nation is blind for hte time being)
lol- Just posted about hte lost tribe- I hadn’t read you post yet- thanks for hte link
[[”Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing...Too whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?” (Isaiah 40:15,18).]]
[[In two world wars the British Commonwealth and the United States saved virtually the entire civilized world from powers intent on world domination. Without them our world would be entirely different in many ways.]]
It’s simply AMAZING what our two little countries have done- Rising up from the humblest of positions, to where we dominate the entire international world for hte greater good-
[[Today the decline of Britain and America is leaving a vacuum around the globe.]]
Thanks Obama- Thanks Extreme left Dems- Thanks for destroying America’s greatness!
[[Long in the vanguard of progress, Britain and the United States are increasingly faced with complex and seemingly insoluble dilemmas at home and abroad. Meanwhile, other powers, in the East and West, flex their muscles, preparing to challenge America’s superpower status.]]
Let’s just hope that we have a President with an actual backbone by then- one that isn’t more worried about what other nations think about us for doing what’s right, but rather about takign a firm stand for justice for ALL!
[[the great God, to whom “the nations are as a drop in a bucket” and “as the small dust on the scales” (Isaiah 40:15), is always faithful to His promises.]]
At least one Great force remains true to His word- God!
[[He has given the modern descendants of Joseph—primarily Britain and the United States—the family birthright and many of the earth’s choicest blessings.]]
It’s a sad sad thing that Obama and hte far left are willing to throw all this away simply for the sake of garnering a ‘positive’ world opinion by cowering to terrorism and dictators
During the Cold War the Arabs sided with the USSR for the most part, going back to the "Nonaligned" Movement and things like the Aswan High dam fiasco. Israel, perhaps remembering that they were midwifed into existence by Harry Truman, sided with us.
In 1967, the Mideast came to a boil and in a brilliant preemptive strike Israel kicked the Arabs' butt all over the territory. Gave the Soviets a black eye when their client states blew lunch and got all those expensive tanks and planes and other toys broken by the Israelis.
The American Right appreciated this, while the Left was dismayed and disgruntled. The Euros didn't like it much either, for geopolitical reasons going back to colonial days. In the end the American Left gravitated toward the eurotrash and joined them in their anti-Israeli posturing. Since Israel still had the overwhelming goodwill of the American people at large, they benefitted from internal American political polarization.
I too agree with this. Others (even amog the Jews) know and teach this as well http://www.britam.org
But, a more basic reason for our support is that they are the ONLY western democracy in the region surrounded by vicious sharks. Unfortunately, instead of FULLY supporting them we encourage them to SACRIFFICE THEMSELVES for LYING PROMISES of LAND for PEACE by the Muslims who teach that lying to your enemies is permissible.
Carl
http://www.rs39.com
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