A friend linked me to an article the other day that asked (and tried to answer, from a right-wing perspective) the question, “Where Do Jews and Christians on the Left Get Their Values?” In the article, Dennis Prager argues that “Leftism” (which he capitalizes) should be understood as a secular religion; in essence, he argues that the value system of liberal Jews and Christians is actually defined by their cultural/political identification moreso than their religion:
Now, of course, most Leftist Jews and Christians will counter that Leftist values cannot trump their religion’s values because Leftist values are identical to their religion’s values. But this argument only reinforces my argument that Leftism has conquered the Christianity and the Judaism of Leftist Christians and Jews.
This, he says, explains how Jews on the left can support “anti-Israel” policies and politicians (how Jews can support “anti-Israel” policies is the driving question of the article, though he tries to include Christian concerns and questions). Prager’s assertions about “Leftism” as a religion aside (also putting aside whether “Right-ism” is itself a religion), the way this question is framed and answered reflects a common right-wing misunderstanding about Jews and the Israeli state.
Based largely on a particular Evangelical Christian theological perspective, many on the right believe that political support of Israel is more or less a biblical mandate. These people are then puzzled at how Jews (and many other Christians) see things differently. Part of this misunderstanding is based on the assumption that all Jews must have some sense of political solidarity with Israel simply on the basis of ethnic ties. But (as one Israeli acquaintance once explained to me) being a Jew and being an Israeli are two different things. Secondly, many Jews are sensitive to what they see as political misdeeds by those in the Israeli government, in particular the treatment of Palestinians and the refusal to allow the establishment of a legitimate Palestinian state—a much less black-and-white (pro-Israel) issue than many Evangelical Americans (many of whom have nearly zero contact with “real-life” Jews, leaving biblical/literary Jews as their only reference points) realize.
More often than not, conservative Christians’ blind support of Israel boils down to reasoning that looks something like this: the Bible talks about Israel and how supporting Israel is important. A modern nation called “Israel” exists. Therefore, the Bible commands support of the modern nation of Israel. (There are a number of reasons why this kind of biblical interpretation nd reasoning is flawed, even dangerous, but that is material for another post.) Most Christians having this mindset do not realize that modern Jews rely on any sort of authority other than the “Old Testament” (Hebrew Bible), knowing next to nothing of Judaism beyond what they read in their Bibles. (I’m also reminded of how one of my old professors, himself a Jew, used to talk of how [dispensational] Evangelical Christians were far more interested in building a new Jewish Temple than over 99% of Jews.) Themselves having a flat reading of scripture and its blessings upon Israel and assuming Jews (should) read these same passages in the same manner, these conservatives are completely puzzled when they hear Jews criticizing Israeli policies or supporting candidates who seem to support the Palestinian cause over and against Israel.
But the vast majority Jews simply do not read the biblical blessings of “Israel” as though they were speaking of the modern country bearing that name, and many of them are concerned with justice for the many Palestinians living in awful conditions. By no means does this mean they are “anti-Israel,” but they are most certainly not blindly “pro-Israel.” This group sees themselves as supporting as much of a win-win situation as possible, which would require that Israel move away from some of their harder-line positions.
Whether any sort of real solution that would be just for the Palestinians while also supportive of Israel is possible is another question altogether, but the bottom line is that this is not (as many would have it) just a matter of blind support for Israel. On the contrary, it is as often as not a matter of concerns about injustice and the right course of action in terms of all parties involved. Does this mean that these Jews have left their religion behind for “Leftism” by not supporting Israel unconditionally? By no means! It may mean that many Jews are more concerned with the consistent warnings of the prophets against the abuse of the downtrodden or the sojourner in the land than with a form of nationalism/ethnicism. Prager may be right that Leftism (and Right-ism?) is itself a sort of religion, but his treatment of the Jews and Israel is a poor example if this is the case. I would contend that Prager’s own perspective is less informed by a robust reading of scripture and an understanding of Judaism and Christianity than he thinks it is.