The clout of Christian Zionism

DANIEL PIPES

Middle Easterners were widely puzzled in early 1994 when some leading American politicians, including Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Newt Gingrich, forwarded tougher positions vis-…-vis the Palestinians than did the government of Israel.

One Arabic newspaper, Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, captured the bafflement when it observed that the nationalistic Likud had "lost in Israel but it still rules supreme in Washington."

The same pattern is again visible these days, as Christian leaders such as Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell and Richard Land more vocally oppose the "road map" for Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy than nearly all their Jewish counterparts.

This bold Christian solidarity with Israel manifests a Christian form of Zionism that is nearly two centuries old.

In 1840, the British foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, "strongly" recommended that the Ottoman government then ruling Palestine "hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine."

1891 saw perhaps the greatest early Christian support in the United States for a Jewish state, the "Blackstone Memorial," a petition that carried the signatures of 413 prominent Americans, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the speaker of the House.

Addressed to the president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, and the secretary of state, the memorial asked them to "use their good offices and influence to secure the holding at an early date of an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claims to Palestine as their ancient home."

The Balfour Declaration of November 1917, whereby the British government announced that it favored "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," was perhaps the single most important act premised in Christian Zionism. Harry S. Truman's recognition of Israel, against the nearly total opposition of his administration, was probably second. (Truman's just-discovered diary, with its petulant remarks about Jews, makes his Zionist stance the more noteworthy.)

The media has recently focused on Christian Zionism as though it were something new. The real story is how Christian Zionists are increasingly the bedrock of Israel's support in the United States.

To those who wonder why Washington follows policies so different from the European states, a large part of the answer these days has to do with the clout of Christian Zionists, who are especially powerful when a conservative Republican like George W. Bush is president.

One anti-Israel writer, Grace Halsell, recognizes this fact and deems Christian Zionists a "more dangerous" influence in Washington than are the Jewish Zionists. Put positively: other than the Israel Defense Forces, America's Christian Zionists may be the Jewish state's ultimate strategic asset.

Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum.

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