[lbo-talk] Jewish Zionists -- A Minority in Zionism

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat May 24 10:04:09 PDT 2003


At its origin, Zionism was a movement of secular Jewish nationalists, many of whom also fell for settler-colonialist dreams.

In the USA today, however, most Zionists are evangelical Christians. After all, evangelical Christians _vastly_ outnumber Jews in the USA. "[Jerry] Falwell has estimated the number of Christian Zionists at 70 million, a figure that includes evangelicals, Pentecostals, and other conservatives" (Tatsha Robertson, "Evangelicals Flock to Israel's Banner," _Boston Globe_, October 21, 2002, <http://www.acj.org/Daily%20News/October_02/Oct_21.htm>). Falwell's number overstates the case, but it is nonetheless true that Christian Zionists have ironically eclipsed Jewish ones in the USA.

In contrast, the Jewish population in the United States is only about 5.2 million (Sergio Della Pergola, "The Challenge to American Jewry," _Ha'aretz_, October 13, 2002, <http://www.jr.co.il/articles/america.txt>). "The Arab-American Institute (AAI), claims there are 3.5 million Americans who have some Arab heritage, the majority of whom are Lebanese. More noteworthy still, AAI also reports the Christian component to be 75 percent, while the Muslim component is only 25 percent i.e. around 850,000 Arab-Americans. Since most Muslim experts claim that around 1 in 4 American Muslims to be of Arab origin, then if we use this AAI estimate of 850,000 Arab-American Muslims, the total Muslim population logically cannot be more than 3.4 million -- which, in fact, is close to the upper range of the ARIS 2001 estimate of 2.8 million" (American Religious Identification Survey 2001, Profile of the US Muslim Population, ARIS Report No. 2, October 2001, <http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/aris_part_two.htm>). In short, Jewish-Americans are also outnumbered by the combined Arab- and Muslim-American population.

In terms of a war of positions, Christian Zionists are the weakest link in Zionism. It is advisable, in my opinion, that US leftists concentrate their fire on Christian Zionists rather than Jewish ones, at the same time as constantly highlighting the unpopularity of Zionism among Jews (especially Jewish youths).

Cf.

***** Israel Studies 5.1 (2000) 153-182 Likud and the Christian Dispensationalists: A Symbiotic Relationship Colin Shindler

...As Jewish leadership became increasingly lukewarm, Netanyahu's war in the American media gained enthusiastic admirers amongst the newly emergent Christian Right, which counted tens of millions as their adherents. As biblical interpreters of Zionism, their sympathies lay with the Israeli far Right and with successive Likud governments, whose maximalist territorial policies complimented their theological aspirations. But as Jewish leadership started accurately to reflect the views of American Jewry, and the idea of Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement became acceptable, they began to distance themselves from Likud policies. By 1990, they had become less compliant and hesitated to expound the policies of the Israel government. Likud representatives discovered, however, that the strong support of the Christian Right had not waned and indeed remained as solid as before. These Christians were dependable, whereas the Jews were not. Moreover, even in the early 1980s, they were ten times more numerous than the Jews.

The Christian Right also operated in Israel through organizations such as the International Christian Embassy. In encouraging them to operate in Israel and giving them semi-official status--at least in the eyes of the Christian world--the far Right and the Likud gained political support for their policies, financial investment, and an important public relations machine. Christian tourism to the Holy Land increased even though its participants were provided with explanations through the prism of Likud policies. As early as 1980, the Director of the Pilgrim Promoting Division of the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Tourism estimated that 100,000 out of 250,000 American visitors to Israel were Christian tourists. 9 Thus, Christian tours were daily organized to visit biblical sites in Judea and Samaria. Funds raised in the United States by Christians was alleged to be funneled to West Bank settlements. 10 Indeed, the Mayor of Ariel on the West Bank estimated that two-thirds of all Jewish settlements received aid from Christian Zionists. The Colorado-based Christian Friends of Israeli Communities twinned forty churches with settlements. 11 In contrast, the United Jewish Appeal in the United States refused to allocate funds for projects across the Green Line. As early as March 1981, a California-based evangelical group, "High Adventure," was prepared to finance a television station in Southern Lebanon in support of the Israeli-backed Lebanese militias. 12 "In 1992, attempts were made at the eleventh International Christian Prayer Breakfast in Jerusalem to initiate financial investments in Israel through a matchmaking conference for potential investors and a mutual fund." 13...

Colin Shindler is a Fellow in Hebrew and Israel Studies at the School of Oriental and African studies, University of London. His books include Israel, Likud, and the Zionist Dream (London, 1996), and Hollywood in Crisis; Cinema and American Society, 1929-1939 (London, 1996).

[The full text is available at <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/v005/5.1shindler.pdf> & <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/v005/5.1shindler.html> if you have individual or institutional access to the Project Muse.] *****

***** Jews and Israel U.S. Jewish Establishment and Zionism, Not Jews, Feel Crisis By Lenni Brenner October/November 1995, pgs. 20, 83

...The establishment hopes to send 50,000 teenagers per year to Israel to find their roots. This year they spent $1 million on subsidized tours. "An increase over 1994 of fewer than 500," was the result described in "Can't Give a Ticket to Israel Away," in the July 27 Jerusalem Report. The richest Americans, Jews are the most traveled. But "only 20 percent...have ever visited Israel," says an Israeli Ministry of Tourism official....

<http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1095/9510020.htm> *****

***** Whither American Zionism? The bombing of a Conservative synagogue, allegedly by Orthodox vandals, is the latest wedge between Israeli and American Jews

Samuel G. Freedman

...When academics speak about the causes of immigration, they talk about "push" and "pull" factors....In this paradigm, the "pull" away from Israel to America is the profound assimilation and integration of American Jews into this nation, as evidenced by...the 52% intermarriage rate and...the election in 1998 of 11 Jews to the U.S. Senate and 23 to the House of Representatives. With Diaspora this welcoming, it should surprise no one that a huge share of American Jewry is abandoning all but a symbolic link to Israel.

Then, however, there are the "push" factors. One was the emerging belief on the American Jewish left, in the wake of both the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the Palestinian Intifada five years later, that Israel bore some responsibility for the bloody impasse in the Middle East. Another, as evidenced by the recent arson, was the perception that Israel disdained the Conservative and Reform denominations that together represent more than half of America's 5.7 million Jews. A whole series of similar assaults by ultra-Orthodox fanatics preceded the Kehilat Ya'ar Ramot incident: the 1997 firebombing of a nursery school operated by the Reform movement; the verbal and physical harassment of mixed-gender Conservative congregations at the Western Wall in 1997, 1998, and 1999; the vandalism of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College, the Reform seminary, earlier this year.

...Orthodox Jews are twice as likely as Conservative Jews, four times as likely as Reform Jews, and eight times as likely as unaffiliated Jews to have made repeated trips to Israel. Far more than other American Jews, the Orthodox speak Hebrew, have studied in Israel, and have friends and relatives there. As total American immigration to Israel declined after the 1973 war, the Orthodox portion of it steadily grew. By some estimates, half of all American immigrants since 1985 are Orthodox.... <http://beliefnet.com/story/31/story_3166.html> *****

***** Reform Disengages. Now Who's Left? Samuel G. Freedman

Among young U.S. Jews, Israel belongs increasingly to the Orthodox alone.

Several hours after the suicide bombing at the Dolphinarium, I lugged my carry-on bags into a departure lounge at Newark Airport, awaiting the overnight flight to Tel Aviv. All around me, whispering urgently in Hebrew, Israelis drew toward CNN monitors that showed the bloodied bodies. Then I noticed a cluster of Americans, many of them mothers and children, each one wearing a pin with the slogan "Hearts for Israel."

I'd never before heard of this group. But I was so impressed that American Jews were proceeding to Israel, undeterred, at a time of such tragedy and peril that I broke my personal rule against ever conversing with anyone at an airport lest I wind up seated next to a chatterbox. And a blond woman named something like Gundersen explained: They were all Christians, headed for a Holy Land tour....

<http://www.samuelfreedman.com/jrep.html> ***** -- Yoshie

* Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>



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