Christian Zionism
By Via Matt see Max Blumenthal’s video of a rally for Christians United for Israel.
Several months ago on Colbert, Zev Chafets made a funny comment about evangelical Christian support for Israel. When Colbert asked how long Christian support for Israel would last, Chafets said “until the end of times, which is long enough.” I laughed; it was a good observation. Intentionally or no, it shed some light on the political alliance between a group of conservative Jews who believe that evangelical Christians are deluded rubes who can be exploited for their religious beliefs, and a group of evangelical Christians who are just as surely exploiting the conservative Jews they believe will be among the first to fall before the flaming sword of the Lord upon His inevitable return.
Now, while I think it’s the Jews who’re going to win this game of chicken in the short term, it should hardly require pointing out that trying to build Israeli security on such a marriage of convenience is dangerous and deluded. Conservative Christian support for Israel will not last until the End Times; rather, it will end at some time that may prove extremely inconvenient for supporters of Israel. As the extraordinarily long history of Christian persecution of Jews has demonstrated, there is nothing whatsoever about the Christian faith which makes it friendly to Judaism. Indeed, Christians have much more often come to the opposite conclusion about Jews, which means that supporters of Israel can hardly rely on those who strongly identify as evangelical Christians indefinitely.