Bridging divides

Why Jewish communities must embrace Christian Zionist solidarity

By Allen Menkin, MD Project Coordinator. CAMERA’s Naples Partnership of Christians and Jews

The Oct. 7, 2023, massacres, the plight of the hostages and the normalization of violent antisemitism have occupied our minds for a year-and-a-half. As of this writing, we do not know if the current ceasefire represents a step toward peace or just a tactical pause (hudna) in Palestinian Arab aggression. Could moderate-growing international demands for the legal persecution of Israel have any effect at all on the hurricane of antisemitism raging across Europe and the English-speaking world?

We do know that there has been a glaring lack of moral clarity and support from secular Western democracies, the Vatican and some mainstream Protestant denominations, and it is legitimate to question if those institutions actually learned the lessons of the Holocaust.

In contrast, the approximately 100 million Evangelical or non-denominational Christians in America have no legacy of complicity and unwaveringly support of Israel. In the words of the eminent American historian, Walter Russell Mead, “Israel’s endurance against its enemies remains, for these Americans, proof that God exists; He drives history; He performs miracles in real time; [and that] God’s word in the Bible is true.” As a result, perhaps for the first time in history, more Christians actively support Jews than there are Jews.

Unfortunately, their robust Zionism, philosemitism and offers of help have frequently been met with disinterest, skepticism or rejection from the Jewish community. That is inconsistent with our teachings and traditions. At a time when many traditional friends and allies have become critics or foes, it is also clearly not in our best interest.