Is It Good for the Jews?

By NANCY GIBBS

Evangelical leaders have declared that support for Israel has moved to the very top of their agenda. Christian groups are spending millions on everything from armored school buses for Israeli children to halogen lights for the army's emergency-rescue service. There are e-mail chains, prayer ministries and grassroots efforts to get the word out that the U.S. must stand united with its ally in the war on terror.

So why are Jews so divided about this embrace?

On the one hand are those who argue that when there is a Methodist in the White House with Evangelical sympathies, it is smart politics to make friends with his friends--even if you disagree with them on every subject other than Israel. "Evangelicals have a unique role to play with this Administration and in the Republican Party that Jews can't," says Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who runs an interfaith alliance. "Jews today see Israel's survival at stake, so they are more willing to put aside domestic concerns." In this view, Evangelical support reflects many factors: shared security interests, a desire to atone for past persecution of Jews, and deep, shared roots in the Book of Genesis. "Our primary motivation comes from the biblical verses that say he who blesses Israel will be blessed," says Doron Schneider of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. "We see ourselves as part of the fulfillment of the prophecy, but we are not causing it to happen."

And that is where the argument begins, the moment the word prophecy is mentioned. Evangelical leaders emphatically deny that End Times theology plays any role in their support of Israel. So the debate among Jews is whether to believe them, and whether it matters. "You're playing with fire there," says Harvey Cox, professor of divinity at Harvard. "I'd be awfully cautious about this alliance if I were on the Israeli side." The reason is that once you move into End Times theology, the interests of the two groups split apart. According to prophecy, the Jews must be in control of Israel for Jesus to return. But in the last battle, two-thirds of the Jews perish, and the rest either accept Jesus as the true Messiah or they must be damned, literally. "In my view, any theology that continues to deny the validity of Judaism and to fantasize about looking forward to the conversion or destruction of the Jews is one that should arouse a great deal of caution among Jews," argues Gershom Gorenberg, a leading Jewish expert on the Christian End Timers.

Yet when a people feels isolated and under attack, it will take all the friends it can get, retorts Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "I don't think it's our business to get at the heart and soul and metaphysics of people as to why they come to support Israel. Some do it for a national-interest point of view, some because of moral issues, some because of theological issues. We don't set standards or conditions for support." That may be a luxury for a more peaceful age.

--By Nancy Gibbs. Reported by Matthew Kalman/Jerusalem and Amanda Bower/New York

With reporting by Matthew Kalman/Jerusalem and Amanda Bower/New York