Re your claim that evangelical Christians were not important in the history of US support for Israel, here’s a key passage from the new book by Geoffrey Wawro:
Truman, a staunch supporter of Zionism as a senator, as president, saw the matter simply: there were five million Jews in the United State and most of them voted. Moreover, settling the uprooted Jews of Europe in Palestine was politically popular in the United States among all classes and religions. … Americans predictably sided with the Zionists on humanitarian grounds. Americans felt natural sympathy for Jewish victims of the Holocaust and were influenced by well-wrought Zionist propaganda … as well as by the sermons of Protestant ministers, who found all the justification needed for the Jewish national home in the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. (91-92)
I understand that one of your natural concerns is to try to convert your own people, people you identify with, just as I’m largely concerned to influence Catholics when I write for my blog or email with family/friends. Nevertheless, I think you do need to be careful not to underestimate the strength of theological factors. And no doubt you may feel your most effective approach is not to get into theological wrangles for which you feel temperamentally disinclined and perhaps ill qualified. However, Jewish nationalism is a complex animal, one that unquestionably has a theological component of sorts, so when you urge Roger Cohen to get involved in that area it’s almost impossible for him to do so convincingly without addressing religious issues–from the standpoint of historicity, etc. I think you’ve done a good job of trying to broaden the appeal of your web site. I think of my very liberal Methodist sister in law. People like her are reflexively favorable to Israel and inclined to feel that criticism of Israel reeks of anti-Semitism. They need to be educated to the justice issues involved with Zionism–something they would ordinarily never look at in any depth at all–and you’re doing that educating. BTW, I thought the WaPo coverage of Emily Henochowicz was possibly groundbreaking, the type of article that would really get through to people who might not ordinarily give these issues much thought.
Anyway.
My contention is that, while Zionist propaganda and Jewish political contributions were unquestionably a significant factor in US support for a state of Israel, the theological predisposition in favor of Zionism was not only another major factor in such support but was probably–and still remains–a sine qua non for such support. IOW, the Zionist seed fell on fertile ground and, had it not, it might have yielded no fruit. That theological predisposition–and not just Holocaust guilt/sympathy–is also what makes the charge of anti-Semitism so potent in American public life. Wawro also notes (25) that Balfour (he of the eponymous declaration) was "a classic Christian Zionist," so this was a factor pretty much from the get go. Now it’s true that Wawro imputes a type of hypocrisy to these Christian Zionists, but I think he’s missing the point with that sniping. The point is that Christian Zionism has always provided an almost teflon like cover for accepting vast amounts of political contributions from Jewish donors–to criticize a political opponent for taking contributions from folks who support Israel opens one up to charges of anti-Semitism that resonate deeply not only among Jews but among many, many Christians as well as ordinary liberals (in the broadest sense). I repeat my contention that this theological predisposition remains strong and until it is effectively challenged will remain a huge factor in support for Zionism.
So Goldman/Spengler makes an important point. Among Catholics, Zionism is more controversial. Support for Neoconservatism is fairly widespread among white pew sitters who have been increasingly influenced by Evangelicals, but support is more mixed in the hierarchy because Zionism doesn’t have the theological pull for Catholics. I assume this is why Spengler has made Catholics a special target for his writings: Evangelicals are already largely on board with Zionism to varying degrees, but Catholics are a large and, as yet, relatively untapped demographic. That’s probably partly because Catholic fund raising is a much more centralized affair than is fund raising among Protestants (esp. Evangelicals).
