Christians and Israel

One of the casualties of the Yom Kippur War was the growing ecumenical spirit between Christians and Jews. In fact, like the 1967 war before it, the war this autumn shocked Christians into sometimes sharp reappraisals of Israel, and shook Jews with the fear of antiSemitism. One Protestant ecumenical expert in Israel, indeed, lamented that Jewish-Christian relations "have never been more seriously threatened."

A case in point: the violently anti-Israeli opinions of Jesuit Radical Daniel Berrigan, once imprisoned foe of the Viet Nam War, longtime champion of the underdog, and soul brother of the late Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel, American Judaism's most poetic Zionist. At a meeting of the Association of Arab University Graduates this fall in Washington, D.C., Berrigan excoriated Israel as "a criminal Jewish community. The creation of millionaires, generals and entrepreneurs... is rapidly evolving into the image of her ancient adversaries." Israel's "historic adventure, which gave her the right to 'judge the nations,' has veered off into imperial misadventure."

To be sure, Berrigan was harsh with Arab leadership as well ("Their capacity for deception, remarkable even for our world ... their contempt for their own poor"). He also tried to soften his criticism by asserting that as "a priest in resistance against Rome" and as "an American in resistance against Nixon," he was "very like a Jew." Berrigan's remarks, his choice of audience, and his pose as an archetypal Jew infuriated Jewish leaders. Historian Arthur Hertzberg, noting that the Jesuit has never been to Israel, ticked off a number of factual errors made by Berrigan in an angry reply in American Report, the journal of Clergy and Laity Concerned, which had published the speech. "Underneath the language of the New Left," he wrote, "it is old-fashioned theological anti-Semitism."

Acerbic Views. Berrigan's speech was still causing trouble last week. The American Jewish Congress protested plans to give Berrigan the Gandhi Peace Prize next month. And the Rev. Donald Harrington of the Community Church of New York withdrew from the presentation. Berrigan "has ceased to be a witness for peace," Harrington said. "His speech was not a prophetic utterance, only an inflammatory one."

Most U.S. Christians do not share Berrigan's acerbic views on Israel. During the Yom Kippur War a nun arrived at the Syrian consulate in Manhattan to offer herself in exchange for an Israeli P.O.W. The First Baptist Church of Dallas took a half-page newspaper ad asking Texans to "support Israel." And hundreds of other church leaders and groups, according to a report by Rabbi

Balfour Brickner, spoke up in outrage against the attack by Egypt and Syria and the profanation of Yom Kippur.

There has, however, been considerably less enthusiasm for the Israeli cause at higher levels of church organizations --especially among liberal Protestants.

During the war the governing board of the National Council of Churches demanded a Middle East arms embargo by the U.S. and U.S.S.R.--a demand that could influence only the U.S. "If the resolution had been taken seriously," complains Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum of the American Jewish Committee, "Israel would have been denied arms at the very moment the Soviet Union was pouring them in on the other side." Suggesting that Israel's presence was a permanent irritant to Middle East tranquillity, one top-ranking Protestant was far more brutal than Berrigan. "It is quite conceivable," he said, "that Israel may have to die for world peace."

Jewish leaders were also alarmed at the reaction of the World Council of Churches. Its general secretary, Philip Potter, issued a bland statement in favor of peace and the U.N., but avoided the issue of Israel's survival and did not mention the Arab attack. Jews argue that the liaison between the council and the Palestine Liberation Organization --intended to preserve a broker role in the conflict--impedes peace by encouraging the extremists. Moreover, the council has a growing number of churchmen from the Third World who actually support the Palestinian guerrilla cause. "The council has committed itself to a national liberation ideology," complains Tanenbaum. "It would help if they would see that Israel is also an instance of liberation for a people."

Eternal Pariahs. Some Christians make a distinction between Judaism as a religion or ethic, which they defend, and the secular state of Israel, which they reject or severely criticize. Most Jews eye the distinction suspiciously.

They question whether such criticism of Israel may not be a recapitulation--in a political guise--of the centuries-old belief that Jews are eternal pariahs.

Though now supposedly abandoned, that brand of dogmatism stressed that Jews were perpetual, persecuted wanderers because they had killed Jesus. In a special issue of New Catholic World, Religion Professor Eva Fleischner points out that the birth of Israel effectively contradicted that thinking: "If there was ever an example of history forcing the hand of theology, here it is."

Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants seem to sympathize more with the intense Jewish concern for Israel than do liberal Protestants. Pope Paul VI, of course, can still be critical of Israel. Just two days before the Yom Kippur War, when he received a new Syrian ambassador to the Holy See, the Pope complained that "The Palestinian people, living miserably, plead that their right to self-determination be recognized." Last week Paul also expressed concern over the fate of Jerusalem's holy places--a thorny political and religious issue that will involve intra-Christian negotiations as well as talks between Arabs and Jews.

In other ways, though, Rome has been solicitous toward the Israelis. Archbishop Jean Jadot, apostolic delegate to the U.S., got the Vatican to intervene with Egypt and Syria on behalf of Israeli P.O.W.s. And a Vatican-Jewish meeting this month, Rabbi Tanenbaum reported, was "a heartening, healing experience." Rome is more realistic about Soviet aims in the Middle East than are many Protestants, he says, and still preserves a sense of tradition that ties Christians to their Jewish moorings.

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