The Arab_Israeli Conflict

by Jonathan Rynhold

  240 Oppenheim, “The Segmentation Study of the American Market, Fourth Quarter 2010.”

  241 Frank Luntz, America 2020 (The Israel Project, June 2005).

  242 Public Opinion Strategies Survey of US College Students, October 28–November 8, 2011, conducted for the Israel Project and the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.

  243 Phillips, Lengyel, and Saxe, American Attitudes toward Israel, 41, 105–106, figures 15, 54; Oppenheim, “The Segmentation Study of the American Market.”

  244 Public Opinion Strategies Survey of US College Students.

  245 See, for example, Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).

  246 “Obama Advisor Samantha Power Calls for Invasion of Israel,” 2002 video, YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFdt6fjdHQw; “Samantha Power on U.S. Foreign Policy,” Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, May 30, 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20070813072047/http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ksgnews/KSGInsight/power.html.

  247 Luntz, America 2020.

  248 See Matthew Yglesias’s blog posts for 2002; for example, “So the Saudi Plan,” February 27, 2002 http://yglesias.blogspot.co.il/2002_02_24_archive.html; “It’s Been a While Since,” April 11, 2002, http://yglesias.blogspot.co.il/2002_04_07_archive.html.

  249 Author interview with Matthew Yglesias.

  250 Author interview, 2013.

  251 Public Opinion Strategies, May 2010 survey for the Israel Project.

  252 “After Boston, Little Change in Views of Islam and Violence,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, May 7, 2013, http://www.people-press.org/2013/05/07/after-boston-little-change-in-views-of-islam-and-violence/.

  253 “Foreign Policy Views: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel.”

  254 “Public Takes Strong Stance Against Iran’s Nuclear Program” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, February 15, 2012, http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/02-15-12%20Foreign%20Policy%20release.pdf.

  255 “Pro-Israel margin” refers to the difference between sympathy levels for Israel and the Palestinians. Calculations are based on figures presented in David Moore, “Republicans, Conservatives More Supportive of Israelis Than Democrats, Liberals: Pattern Has Persisted for At Least the Past Decade,” Gallup, April 17, 2002, http://www.gallup.com/poll/5836/Republicans-Conservatives-More-Supportive-Israelis-than-Democrats-Liberals.aspx; Newport and Carroll, “Republicans and Religious Americans Most Sympathetic to Israel”; “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis”; Lydia Saad, “Americans Maintain Broad Support for Israel,” Gallup, February 28, 2011, http://www.gallup.com/poll/146408/americans-maintain-broad-support-israel.aspx.

  256 Jones, “Nearly Half of Americans Favor Independent Palestinian State”; Saad, “Americans Remain Skeptical about Middle East Peace.”

  4. Evangelicals and Christian Zionism

  1 Moral Majority Report, March 14, 1980. Quoted in Colin Shindler, “Likud and the Christian Dispensationalists,” Israel Studies 5, no. 1 (2000), and in Jerry Falwell, Listen, America! (New York: Bantam Books, 1980).

  2 Gershon Gorenberg, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

  3 David Brog, Standing with Israel (Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2006).

  4 Stephen Spector, Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 43–45; Gary Dorrien, “Evangelical Ironies: Theology, Politics and Israel,” in Alan Mittleman, Byron Johnson, and Nancy Isserman, eds., Uneasy Allies? Evangelical and Jewish Relations (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007), 103–126; Gerald McDermott, “Evangelicals and Israel,” in Mittleman, Johnson, and Isserman, eds., Uneasy Allies? 129–132.

  5 George M. Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 1–5; McDermott, “Evangelicals and Israel.”

  6 Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1992), 93; Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800–1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970). About half the contributors to “The Fundamentals” were premillennialists; see Malise Ruthven, Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 10–14.

  7 “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, June 2008, http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf.

  8 Walter Russell Mead, “The New Israel and the Old: Why Gentile Americans Back the Jewish State,” Foreign Affairs 87, no. 4 (July–August 2008).

  9 John C. Green, “The American Religious Landscape and Political Attitudes: A Baseline for 2004,” University of Akron, Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, no date, https://www.uakron.edu/bliss/research/archives/2004/Religious_Landscape_2004.pdf; “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” June 2008.

  10 John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldrige, God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World (London: Penguin Press, 2009), 52.

  11 Dinesh D’Souza, Jerry Falwell: Before the Millennium: A Critical Biography (Chicago: Regnery, 1984), 10.

  12 “Trends in Party Identification of Religious Groups,” Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, February 2, 2012, http://www.pewforum.org/2012/02/02/trends-in-party-identification-of-religious-groups-affiliation/.

  13 Spector, Evangelicals and Israel, 3.

  14 Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour (New York: Ballantine Books, 1984), 120–125; Yaakov Ariel, “An Unexpected Alliance: Christian Zionism and Its Historical Significance,” Modern Judaism 26, no. 1 (2006); Peter Toon, ed., Puritans, the Millennium and the Future of Israel: Puritan Eschatology, 1600 to 1660 (Cambridge: James Clarke, 1970), 23–26.

  15 Timothy P. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 20–25.

  16 Ibid., 35–43.

  17 Paul Charles Merkley, The Politics Of Christian Zionism, 1891–1948 (London: Frank Cass, 1998).

  18 Yaakov Ariel, Philosemites or Antisemites? Evangelical Christian Attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel (Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, 2002), http://sicsa.huji.ac.il/20Ariel.htm.

  19 L. Nelson Bell, “Unfolding Destiny,” Christianity Today, July 21, 1967, 28.

  20 Washington Post, March 23, 1981.

  21 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 218–219.

  22 Brog, Standing with Israel, 4

  23 Zev Chafets, Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man’s Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 73.

  24 Paul Charles Merkley, Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2007), 172.

  25 Ruth Sinai, “When Money Speaks Louder Than the Word,” Haaretz, January 7, 2005; International Fellowship of Christians and Jews 2008 Annual Report, http://www.ifcj.org/ifcj-08/pdf/2008/2008-IFCJ-Annual-Report.pdf.

  26 Uriel Heilman, “US Churches Pray for Israel,” Jerusalem Post, October 18, 2004.

  27 Sinai, “When Money Speaks Louder Than the Word”; Bill Broadway “Scripture Inspires Many Christians to Support Zionism Politically, Financially,” Washington Post, March 27, 2004; Brog, Standing with Israel, 162; Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 231–232.

  28 Jacob Berkman, “Jewish Agency Gives Evangelical Christians Powerful Seat at Table,” JTA, December 30, 2007.

  29 International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Financial Summary, http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageNavigator/eng/about/financial_accountability/financial_statement/.

  30 Chafets, Match Made in Heaven, 120–124. />
  31 Brog, Standing with Israel, 4.

  32 Jerry Gordon, “What a ‘Night to Honor Israel’: The CUFI Washington Summit Dinner in DC,” Israpundit, July 20, 2006; Wayne Slater, “Protecting Israel Is San Antonio Pastor John Hagee’s Mission,” Dallas Morning News, October 28, 2007, http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/102807dntexhagee.37a2adf.html.

  33 Jerry Falwell, “Our Citizenship as Americans,” sermon, March 7, 1976, quoted in Warren L. Vinz, Pulpit Politics: Faces of American Protestant Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997), 181.

  34 Jerry Falwell, “The Twenty-First Century and the End of the World,” Fundamentalist Journal, May 1988, p. 10.

  35 Pat Robertson, The Collected Works of Pat Robertson: The New Millennium, the New World Order, the Secret Kingdom (New York: Inspirational Press, 1994), 256–257.

  36 John Hagee, Final Dawn over Jerusalem (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 131.

  37 “American Evangelicals and Israel,” Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, April 15, 2005 http://www.pewforum.org/2005/4/15/American-Evangelicals-and-Israel.aspx (though it is estimated that less than 20 percent of evangelicals believe in the specifics of Dispensationalism); Merkley, Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel, 177, 189.

  38 Cited in Brog, Standing with Israel, 78–79.

  39 Bruce David Forbes, “How popular Are the Left Behind Books … and Why? A Discussion of Popular Culture,” in Bruce David Forbes and Jeanne Halgren Kilde, eds., Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times: Exploring the “Left Behind” Series (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

  40 Brog, Standing with Israel, 69; Spector, Evangelicals and Israel, 23–25.

  41 Falwell, Listen, America! 98.

  42 Merill Simon, Jerry Falwell and the Jews (Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David, 1999), 64.

  43 Ronald R. Stockton, “Christian Zionism: Prophecy and Public Opinion,” Middle East Journal 41, no. 2 (1987): 253; John C. Green, “The American Public and Sympathy for Israel: Present and Future,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 44, no. 1 (2009).

  44 Merkley, Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel, 169.

  45 Brog, Standing with Israel, 78–79.

  46 Clark, Allies for Armageddon, 26–27.

  47 Corwin E. Smidt, “Religion and American Attitudes toward Islam and an Invasion of Iraq,” Sociology of Religion 66, no. 3 (2005): 243–261; “American Evangelicals and Israel,” Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project; “Religion and Politics: Contention and Consensus: Growing Number Says Islam Encourages Violence among Followers,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, July 24, 2003, http://www.people-press.org/2003/07/24/religion-and-politics-contention-and-consensus/.

  48 “Americans Struggle with Religion’s Role at Home and Abroad,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, March 20, 2002, http://www.people-press.org/2002/03/20/part-2-views-of-islam-and-religion-in-the-world/; “Views of Islam Remain Sharply Divided: Plurality Sees Islam as More Likely to Encourage Violence,” Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, September 9, 2004, http://www.pewforum.org/2004/09/09/views-of-islam-remain-sharply-divided/; “Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism,” Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, September 26, 2007, http://www.pewforum.org/2007/09/26/public-expresses-mixed-views-of-islam-mormonism/.

  49 Brog, Standing with Israel, 78–79.

  50 Spector, Evangelicals and Israel, 32–33.

  51 Brog, Standing with Israel, 66.

  52 “Religion and Politics.”Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

  53 Chafets, Match Made in Heaven.

  54 James L. Guth, “Religious Leadership and Support for Israel: A Study of Clergy in Nineteen Denominations” (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, New Orleans, January 2007).

  55 Weber, On the Road to Armageddon, 225.

  56 Grace Halsell, Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill, 1986), 106; Kendall Hamilton, Joseph Contreras, and Mark Dennis, “The Strange Case of Israel’s Red Heifer,” Newsweek, May 19, 1997; Yaakov S. Ariel, On Behalf of Israel: American Fundamentalist Attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, 1865–1945 (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson, 1991), 204–205. Nadav Shragai, “Dreaming of a Third Temple,” Haaretz, September 17, 1998.

  57 Ariel, Philosemites or Antisemites?

  58 “‘Sen. Joe Lieberman Praises Pastor Who Said Holocaust Was God’s Work,” Reuters, July 23, 2008. For similar comments by other Christian Zionists see Brog, Standing with Israel, 80–87.

  59 Spector, Evangelicals and Israel, 180, 190, 200.

  60 Cited in Brog, Standing with Israel, 78–79.

  61 James L. Guth and William R. Kenan Jr., “Religious Factors and American Public Support for Israel: 1992–2008” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, WA, September 1–4, 2011). For a similar argument, see Timothy P. Weber, “American Evangelicals and Israel: A Complicated Alliance,: in Jonathan Frankel and Ezra Mendelsohn, eds., The Protestant-Jewish Conundrum, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, vol. 24 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 141–157.

  62 “Religion and Politics”; see also Jody Baumgartner, Peter Francia, and Jonathan Morris, “A Clash of Civilizations? The Influence of Religion on Public Opinion of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East,” Political Science Quarterly 61, no. 2 (2008): 171–179; David W. Moore, “Protestant Tilt toward Israel Partially Explained by Biblical Connection,” Gallup, April 29, 2002, http://www.gallup.com/poll/5893/Protestant-Tilt-Toward-Israel-Partially-Explained-Biblical-Connection.aspx; “American Evangelicals and Israel,”Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project; Green, “The American Public and Sympathy for Israel.”

  63 “Ideological Gaps over Israel on Both Sides of Atlantic,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, January 29, 2009, http://www.pewglobal.org/2009/01/29/ideology-and-views-toward-the-middle-east-conflict/; “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, January 13, 2009, http://www.people-press.org/2009/01/13/modest-backing-for-israel-in-gaza-crisis/1/.

  64 “Ideological Gaps over Israel on Both Sides of Atlantic”; “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  65 Jeremy D. Mayer, ‘Christian Fundamentalists and Public Opinion toward the Middle East: Israel’s New Best Friends?’ Social Science Quarterly 85, no. 3 (2004): 695–712.

  66 Ibid.

  67 Todd Hertz, “The Evangelical View of Israel,” Christianity Today, June 9, 2003; “Roadblocks and Voting Blocs: Today’s Evangelicals Are Committed to Peace–Not Just Security–for Israel,” Christianity Today, July 1, 2003.

  68 Approximate figures based on “Ideological Gaps Over Israel on Both Sides of Atlantic”; “Modest Backing For Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  69 Guth and Kenan, “Religious Factors and American Public Support for Israel: 1992–2008.”

  70 “Public Takes Strong Stance Against Iran’s Nuclear Program,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, February 15, 2012, http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/02-15-12%20Foreign%20Policy%20release.pdf

  71 “Goal of Libyan Operation Less Clear to Public: Top Middle East Priority: Preventing Terrorism,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, April 5, 2011, http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/05/goal-of-libyan-operation-less-clear-to-public.

  72 Guth and Kenan, “Religious Factors and American Public Support for Israel: 1992–2008.”.

  73 “Pat Robertson Interview on Road Map,” Jerusalem Post, September 5, 2003.

  74 Proclamation of the Third International Christian Zionist Congress, 1996, Affirmation 10, http://www.Christianactionforisrael.org/congress.html (no longer available); “American Evangelicals and Israel,” Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project.

  75 Spector, Evangelicals and Israel, 51–54.

  76 Avram G
oldstein, “Christian Coalition Rallies for Israel in Comeback Bid,” Washington Post, October 12, 2002.

  77 Shindler, “Likud and the Christian Dispensationalists”; Hal Lindsey, “Shades of Munich at Annapolis,” WND, November 30, 2007, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=44808.

  78 Ilan Chaim, “Anti–Road Map Book Mmakes ‘NY Times’ Best-Sellers List,” Jerusalem Post, July 23, 2003.

  79 John Hagee, Jerusalem Countdown (Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2006), 26.

  80 Daphna Berman, “‘Don’t Touch Jerusalem,’ Evangelical Leader Warns Bush,” Jerusalem Post, October 5, 2004; “Pat Robertson Interview on Road Map”; Eric Fingerhut, “Robertson Sees Armageddon in Jerusalem Struggle,” JTA, February 3, 2009.

  81 Pat Robertson, “Pat Answers Your Questions on Israel,” The 700 Club, Christian Broadcasting Network, http://cbn.org/700club.