On Saturday, June 14, 2003, at 07:14 pm, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
I suspect a major reason that US conservatives back Israel is that a major component of US conservatives is the so-called "Christian Right" who are generally fairly fundamentalist Protestants who take the Bible seriously (if not literally), and so believe that the Jews are God's chosen people and the Holy Land was promised to them, and see the creation of Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy and a sign of the end times.
Good point. And support on that basis is quite different from supporting it for secular political reasons, or 'natural justice' or whatever. But how major a component of the American Right are the Christian Right really? I get the impression they spend a lot of money and energy lobbying and raising a stink but there aren't really that many of them.
That was probably not a good way of putting it. Whether they identify themselves as members of the "Christian Right" or not, a large number of Christians believe that Israel is specially blessed by God. (Based not on formal surveys, but on the views they express spontaneously in everyday conversations on current events.)
And on another list today, someone I know posted a link to the following NPR story:
"NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports that some Christian Zionists believe the fulfillment of biblical prophecy is being threatened by the Bush administration's road map for peace in the Middle East."
<<http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.jhtml?prgDate=06/12/2003&prgId=3>>
(His comment: "Gee, I knew Bush was powerful, but more powerful than Jesus Christ?!")
So they have a disproportionate amount of influence in American right-wing politics, and many politicians are just paying lip-service to their positions because it is easier than getting on their wrong side.
Even if that's true, it means that politicians recognize that there is a large group of "ordinary voters" who feel that way.
(FWIW, while I do believe that the scriptures say that the Jews are chosen of God, and I don't think there's anything Bush can do to derail whatever is truly prophesied (which is probably a lot less specific than some people believe), most mainstream Christians are of the opinion that anyone who believes as I do is going straight to Hell unless we hurry up and convert to a denomination they accept as true . . .)
-- Ronn! :)
God bless America, Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam… God bless America! My home, sweet home.
-- Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
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