As the saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows. But never more so than when politics is in the sack with religion.
The Jews emerged from antiquity as a group of desert savages who laid waste to much of Canaan, “devoting to destruction” the inhabitants of the land, with their children, their livestock, and their property. Over several centuries, they aspired to become a great state. A couple of @ss kickings by the Romans and their subsequent dispersion dispelled them of that notion. But their unique monotheism and the teachings of a rabbi named Yeshua spread to Europe through a Hellenized Jew named Paul and transformed that civilization. Unfortunately, the Gentile heirs of the Christian branch of Judaism lost regard for their roots. Anti-Semitism became a European tradition.
The Jewish people have found America much more welcoming. Although anti-Semitic slights and some violence have been part of their American experience,, the ghettos, pogroms, expulsions, and death camps remain a tragic story of the Old World. And now that the Jews have reconstituted themselves as an independent nation, they enjoy military and financial support from the world’s most powerful nation.
The Christian evangelical/fundamentalist community in the United States remain their strongest supporters. This support largely rests on their theological views of the future. Hal Lindsey, in his The Late, Great Planet Earth and subsequent volumes detailing the dispensationalist interpretation of prophetic scriptures, popularized among non-dispensationalists and even among non-believers the scenario of events involving Israel and the end of history. The political implications are that the United States needs to be on the same page as Jesus when it comes to Israel. Lindsay has suggested that some branches of reformed Christianity that do not concur with his dispensationalist views are not only wrong, but also are setting Israel up for another holocaust.
More recently, John Hagee has emerged at the leading Christian spokesman on behalf of Israel. He, too, has written books on Israel and prophesy, including Jerusalem Countdown and In Defense of Israel. In addition, he formed Christians United for Israel to support Israel through lobbying efforts with the U.S. Congress.
This is all very interesting because Israel is a modern, secular, socialist state. Israelis enjoy the same freedoms as citizens of other European-style democracies. And Israelis also enjoy the less savory aspects of freedom: alcohol, drugs, and pornography. Their abortion rate is only slightly lower than that of the United States. They even have the dreaded national health care, in which every Israeli must enroll. And sadly, in their fight for survival against their Arab neighbors, Israel makes no distinction between Christian and Muslim Arabs. Palestinian Christians undergo intense suffering at the hands of both Israelis and the Muslim Palestinians. The American evangelical community turns it head.
(For a appeal regarding their plight, see here)