BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 877, June 28, 2018
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Anti-Semitism is the most insidious hatred in history. Aversion to Jews has flourished under so many circumstances that it is hard to find a common denominator accounting for its manifold manifestations. However, there have been periods when non-Jews showed strong sympathy and solidarity towards Jews. Perhaps the best illustration of this friendship is modern America.
There are precedents showing that America’s willingness to befriend the Jews is not a unique case in history. Calvinist Holland and Puritan England also displayed friendship and solidarity towards Jews, a sympathy that was expressed by fervent Christians. The fervor of those Christians was as strong as that of Catholics who burned conversos at the stake and of Orthodox Christian clergymen who intimidated Jews throughout Eastern Europe.
The difference between Puritans and Catholic or Orthodox Christians towards Jews was not doctrinal. These streams of Christianity each embraced the replacement theology of Augustine, which viewed Christians as God’s new covenant partners. The difference is that Calvinists and Puritans embraced the Hebrew Bible, whereas Catholics, Lutherans, and Orthodox Christians tended to view the Torah as the obsolete relic of an irascible and vindictive Israelite deity.
Nowadays, many Jews are baffled that American Christians overwhelmingly embrace Jews and Israel, whereas those Jews’ forefathers from the “old country” had good reason to fear and resent Christianity. This paradox is accounted for by the contrasting attitudes of Christians in North America and in continental Europe towards the Hebrew Bible. American Christians are eager and sympathetic readers of the Old Testament. Historically, European Christians have disregarded the Torah.
Indeed, the attitude of an ideology or culture towards the Torah is the best predictor of its attitude towards Jews. Nazis and Communists were on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but their hatred for the ethical and theological message of the Torah made them both implacable enemies of the Jewish people. Nowadays secular leftists and postmodernists embrace anti-Zionism and flirt with anti-Semitism, a phenomenon that dismays Jews raised on the axiom that progressivism is sympathetic to Jews. This animosity explains itself once we remember that the morality and ethics of Jewish scriptures are antithetical to postmodernism.
In this discussion Islam also plays a role. As long as Jews were submissive dhimmis of a self-confident Muslim polity, anti-Semitism played a relatively minor role in Islamic thought. After all, Jewish scriptures and Jewish meekness corroborated that Islam was the ascendant faith. However, once Jews returned to their historical homeland and vanquished Islamic armies on their home turf, the Torah morphed in Muslim eyes into an immoral text justifying all sorts of crimes including racism, supremacism, and genocide. Rabid anti-Semitism in the Muslim world followed.
The secularization of European and American societies has coincided with a marked rise in anti-Jewish sentiment in the Western world. University campuses in urban centers are at the heart of this hostility. This is not a coincidence given that these spaces are the least Bible-literate in America and Europe.
The Western powers would have never supported the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948 had their leaders not attended Sunday school and been knowledgeable about the Biblical stories that played out in Canaan and Judea. Indeed, Biblical literacy at the core of one’s cultural identity and ethical self-understanding is the common thread shared by most Gentiles whose sympathy and support for the Jewish people has been selfless and spontaneous.
The secularization of Western society and the hollowing out of Christian culture into a digest of Gospel mantras thus constitute an existential threat to the Jewish people. Secularization erodes the traditional American identity whose sympathy and support for Jews and Israel has historically been so generous. In addition, it contributes to assimilationist trends by flattening out differences between Jews and Christians.
The fate of the Jewish people is intimately bound up with the prestige of the Torah. To strengthen flagging support for Israel and the Jewish people, the Bible and its ethos must be restored in the American educational system and culture industry. This restoration will undermine anti-Semitism more effectively than lectures on human rights and the dangers of racism.
Rafael Castro is a Yale- and Hebrew University-educated political analyst based in Berlin. He can be reached at rafaelcastro78@gmail.com.
BESA Center Perspectives Papers are published through the generosity of the Greg Rosshandler Family
@ Michael S:
Oslo was a huge mistake! Israel brought back all these terrorists from Tunis. They in turn killed lots of Jews and made life worse for the Arabs in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
@ Michael S:
Yes, I have politely mentioned to Pipes that the victory requires an actual physical destruction of the terrorists. He has theory of victory required to end the conflict correct, just missing the needed ingredient that most academics are reluctant to spell out, even if they know it internally.
By the way when you say final status agreement and they you say this does not bring actual peace of a final resolution of the conflict you are just talking hollow agreements or more pieces of worthless or dangerous pieces of paper. Sorry NO INTEREST in that in Israel!
The conflict is now primarily with the “Pal Arabs” and their supporters such as the Hezis and Iran.
Pieces of paper with Sunni Arab Gulf States that comes at price of more than peace for peace and/or normalization of relations are also not of interest.
They also will not want pieces of paper that officially call for peace and normalization if the Pals appeared the losers (from the perspective of Arabs). Trump has been good for Israel but he and his team will learn that the “Ultimate Deal” is not something remotely realistic and will put it on the far back burner. My intuition, says they are getting closer to this now, based on some commentary I read.
The conflict is over 100 years old and unless the Mullah’s in Iran with their Hezi partners in Lebanon plus all the terrorists in the Land of Israel are destroyed it will continue on in some form for quite a while.
@ Bear Klein:
“Israeli Victory”
Daniel Pipes and the Middle East Forum talk a lot about that. I don’t know what they’re planning. Usually “victories” result from something happening on the ground. What has happened on the ground in Israel, for the Jewish side to suddenly switch from thinking they’ve lost, to thinking they’ve won? In 1993, the Arab terrorist leaders were able to march in triumph into the heart of Israel, and set up a government there. That doesn’t sound to me, like the Pals had lost.
Israel has it in its power, to send Abbas and HAMAS packing, put on a people-trafficking ship and set adrift off the coast of Italy. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have the clout to sign off on the deal. All they need in return, is something on the table that benefits THEM, not the Pals. What you need, to pull off such a thing, is a couple of sharp deal-makers. Do any names come to mind?
@ Bear Klein:
Hi, Bear. You said,
“The Pals are generations away from even a possible theoretical coming to grips that they need to accept the Jews rights to have a country in the Land of Israel and agree to live in peace and co-existence with the Jews. They are raised to hate the Jews and want to destroy the Jews… So a final status agreement is not possible.”
A final status agreement probably is not possible WITH THE PA LEADERS; but I haven’t heard that Trump and Kushner plan on bothering with those terrorists. The Egyptians and Jordanians have already signed peace agreements with Israel, which have prevented a recurrence of the full-scale, set piece warfare of 1948-73. Now, Saudi Arabia and UAE, two extremely influential countries in the Arab World, have shown interest in joining on to a deal — perhaps with or without the Pals. If the Kush can bring this about, there is the possibility of a workable solution.
There is lots of chatter on the Internet about these things. I can’t predict or produce these things any better than others have; but my take is this: The main obstacle to peace right now, is the Palestinian Authority; and Trump and Kushner are the first negotiating duo I have seen since 1993, that is willing to acknowledge this and work around them.
I don’t expect a “final status” agreement to bring about lasting peace; but we live in a world of the most unrealistic dreamers in history. The Post-Christian world is desparate, to prove that we can have a Messianic world with a man-made Messiah; and I believe they are eager and willing to accept anyone who seems to be filling the role, by slaying sacrifices and offering insence to him. I’m serious. We live in the world of Maxine Waters: all things are possible!
Israel needs to initiate victory over the Pals on their terms and not rely on the USA but work for USA support.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/25-years-of-Oslo-failure-mocked-at-Knesset-conference-561454