With Jews increasingly supportive of Republicans, are they no longer guarding the wall between church and state?

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By Bradford R. Pilcher/Jewsweek Magazine

Jewsweek.com | I got a condom from some Jewish women the other day.

The women are a group called Jewish Women Watching, and the condom was sent attached to a card telling me why I should be concerned about who the Jewish community is getting into bed with: namely Christian conservatives. The condom politely warned me to practice safe politics.

I admit. I was intrigued. I don’t often get a condom from multiple Jewish women at once. But, as much as it may reflect a serious priority problem, I was more intrigued by the argument against increasing Jewish cooperation with Christian conservatives.

One has to wonder just how, exactly, Jewish leaders managed to forget so much of what made them uncomfortable about guys like Pat Robertson and Alan Keyes. These are the poster boys for the Christian right in this country, and for years they represented public enemies in Jewish politics, and for that matter Jews in general.

Robertson has in the past called Jews "spiritually blind" and "spiritually deaf". This year, however, the Zionist Organization of America tossed him their State of Israel Friendship Award. Jerry Falwell, another stalwart of Christian conservatism, commented just four years ago that the Antichrist was alive in a male Jew. This year, the Israeli embassy hosted him for a prayer breakfast. And Alan Keyes became the beloved of Jewish media-watchers when his now-defunct prime-time cable talk show consistently lambasted the Palestinians.

All of this, despite the hand wringing of groups like JWW, is not why Jews should be wary of the Christian right. The real threat lies not in the audacious theology of televangelists and washed up Christian Coalition leaders. Instead, Jews should be wary of what’s motivating the Christian right to support Israel in the first place, not to mention what some of them are expecting in political return.

Take the example of Dick Armey, outgoing House Majority Leader, who managed to position himself to the right of most Israeli hawks when he appeared on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” earlier this year. When asked if he’d support transferring Palestinian Arabs out of the West Bank and Gaza, a move that could only be accomplished by force, Armey concurred. “Most of the people who now populate Israel were transported from all over the world to that land, and they made it their home,” said Armey. “The Palestinians can do the same.”

“… Now Israel is the primary issue among Jews, and the Republicans find themselves on the positive end of the political fallout from 9/11 ...”

Armey isn't alone among Christian conservatives. Take Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. In a major pro-Israel speech last December, Inhofe boiled the entire issue down to two sentences: “This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of God is true.” This explains why the Christian right has paid so much attention to Israel’s fight against terrorism but given scant discussion to other hot spots like India and the Philippines. Neither of those locations have biblical roots.

Among Christian conservatives, the question of the Arab-Israeli conflict isn't one of pragmatic politics, but rather a theological worldview, and that translates into extreme and decidedly undemocratic ideas. For them, Israel's fight is moral only because it’s biblical, and biblical warriors don’t sign peace treaties and give up the West Bank and Gaza to a Palestinian state.

That raises the question of what these far-right supporters of Israel will do when the Jewish state does finally reach some sort of practical peace with the Palestinians? Will they support the Jewish state, or will their warm relationship with Israel evaporate? More importantly, what will happen to the alliance with Jewish Americans?

When it comes to political support in this country, the bottom line is votes, and when Christian conservatives find themselves cozying up to Israel, only the most naďve would believe Jewish votes aren’t involved. After all, the Jews have long been considered a reliable Democratic voting bloc. In the last presidential election, Bush mustered roughly one-fifth of the Jewish vote.

But now Israel is the primary issue among Jews, and the Republicans find themselves on the positive end of the political fallout from 9/11. Couched in terms of fighting terrorism, the Jews are finding it more comfortable to play ball with former enemies in the conservative camp, especially in light of a growing sense that the Democratic Party has grown tepid in its support for a Sharon-led Israel.

This kind of political realignment doesn’t end with the issue that spawned it. As Jews increasingly support a Republican president, their opposition to social issues like charitable choice and school vouchers grows weaker. That makes it easier for the right to push these agendas through, especially with control over all branches of government.

So when Israel finally has made peace with her Arab neighbors, it may be more important to ask not what the relationship between Christian conservatives and Israel will look like, but rather what will have changed in America’s social landscape.

-- Anonymous, December 25, 2002