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Israel, Palestine, and the Shadow of American Christianity

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Guest Speaker - Ryan Cohen

Israel, Palestine, and the Shadow of American Christianity

Thousands of people have been killed by violence incited by this conflict in the last month alone. Countless more have been displaced and have watched their livelihoods go up in smoke. We owe it to the people suffering from the violence today to make sure we understand it - and how we as American Christians have contributed to it

Remember that a lot has happened even in the two weeks since this presentation - be persistent in staying informed!

Before we begin:

  1. I am by no means an expert. I spent ten days in Israel/Palestine last summer exclusively to learn more about this situation, and my main conclusion when I was leaving was that I felt like everything was even more complicated than I’d thought!

  2. This is something that we as Americans talk about a whole lot despite on balance knowing practically nothing about it. Please try to find a balance between feeling so certain you’re completely unwilling to change your mind and being so detached that you can’t be bothered to care about something really important

  3. “Even after tonight, you still won’t know everything” - A reminder that this should be the beginning or the continuation of your exploration and consideration of this subject, not the end

  4. Warning in advance: things are going to get very bleak very quickly

A brief history of the conflict before October 2023

  1. Video - It’s is a bit outdated (2016)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYZjOuUnlU

  2. Stuff has very much happened since then - Trump comes along and moves the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv as a show of support for Israel in a move that was REALLY controversial - but the broad sentiment remained the same: the second intifada really messed things up (I heard firsthand from Israelis and Palestinians both on this), and the status quo as is can’t last

    October 2023

    Hamas Attack

What IS complicated - some things

    1. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, despite this conflict not being religious

    2. Lots of people groups to consider

      1. Hamas =/= the Palestinian Authority =/= Muslims =/= the Palestinian people

      2. The Israeli government =/= Jews =/= the Israeli people

    3. What things are actually even complicated?

      1. People disagree on a lot of things, and it makes a lot of people VERY passionate, and a lot of people who discuss the conflict - particularly Americans - barely know anything about it

  • American Christianity and the conflict, part 1 - if it’s not a religious conflict, then how exactly does American Christianity cast a large shadow over this?

    1. Questions: 1) how have you experienced American Christians respond to the increased violence? And 2) try to predict the next part of my talk - what role do you think American Christians have played in shaping the conflict?

  • American Christianity and the conflict, part 2

    1. The way I see it, there are two areas in which we as American Christians have exerted influence over - and thus have corporate culpability for - the way that this has played out

    2. First, the theological dimension: Christian anti-Semitism

      1. Worth remembering that anti-Semitism has been and continues to be largely perpetuated by Christians, dating all the way back to the early church. Most famously, the anti-Semitic statement “the Jews killed Jesus”.

        1. The description of a social media account of the perpetrator of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, was “Jews are the children of Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ [has] come in the flesh."

          1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/28/victims-expected-be-named-after-killed-deadliest-attack-jews-us-history/

      2. Anti-Semitism in the Gospels

        1. No less than Yad Vashem, Israel’s National Holocaust Museum:

          1. “They refuse to believe, for instance, that the hard sayings about the Pharisees attributed to Jesus in Matthew 23, the pointed remarks of Paul about the inferiority of Judaism, and the phrase 'His blood be upon us and upon our children', which, according to Matthew 27:26, was on the lips of the crowd of onlookers at Calvary, could in any way have augmented the sufferings of the Jews over the past two thousand years. They do not concede that one of the most belligerent references to Jews in all Christian Scripture, found in 1 Thessalonians 12:16 where the author states that they are the deserved recipients of God's wrath, may have been taken by countless generations of Christians as licence to harass and even murder their Jewish neighbours. They dismiss the antisemitic potential in Jesus' scathing description of his Jewish audience in John 8:44 as the children of the devil, and in John the Divine's reference to the 'synagogue of Satan' in Revelation 2:9.”

            1. https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/academic/encountering-the-new-testament.html

          2. Jewish theologian Eliezer Berkovitz: “Christianity's New Testament has been the most dangerous antisemitic tract in history. Its hatred-charged diatribes against the Pharisees and the Jews have poisoned the hearts and minds of millions and millions of Christians for almost two millennia. Without it Hitler's Mein Kampf could never have been written”

            You don’t have to agree, but you do at least have to understand what they’re saying

      3. Anti-Semitism from the Church Fathers

        1. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: “In the first millennium of the Christian era, leaders in the European Christian (Catholic) hierarchy developed or solidified as doctrine ideas that: all Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ; the destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the scattering of the Jewish people was punishment both for past transgressions and for continued failure to abandon their faith and accept Christianity.” … “Among the myths about Jews that took hold … was the ‘blood libel,’ a myth that Jews used the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes. Other myths included the idea that Jewish failure to convert to Christianity was a sign both of service to the anti-Christ as well as of innate disloyalty to European (read Christian) civilization. Conversely, the conversion of individual Jews was perceived as insincere and as having materialistic motives. This teaching provided the grounds upon which a superstructure of hatred could be built.”

      4. Martin Luther and his virulent anti-Semitism

        1. Wrote a 65,000 word treatise called “On the Jews and Their Lies” proposing that, among other things: Jewish synagogues and schools be burnt to the ground, as well as their houses; rabbis be banned from teaching Judaism with the punishment for doing so being death; and - I’m just gonna directly quote this - “putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow … But if we are afraid that they might harm us or our wives, children, servants, cattle, etc., … then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc., … then eject them forever from the country”

          1. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/martin-luther-quot-the-jews-and-their-lies-quot

      5. For the bulk of the time period from the death of Jesus to the end of World War II, Europe, the source of the anti-Semitism Jews realized they needed to flee from, was controlled by Catholics and Protestants

      6. If anti-Semitism isn’t such a big issue, maybe Jews never feel the need for a state of their own, which then means they never settle on the Holy Land, and… yeah. None of this happens. And whose fault is the anti-Semitism epidemic, again? Largely ours

    3. The second, the political dimension: the unique relationship between American Christians (specifically conservative American evangelicals) and Israel

      1. America and Israel not that close until 1973 - coincidentally, around the same time as Roe v. Wade and the planting of the seeds of the modern Christian conservatism movement. They don’t grow close for specifically Christian reasons, but as the relationship between the two deepened, and the GOP took power claiming to want to further Christian values and agendas, it certainly couldn’t have hurt

      2. Immediately after the initial Hamas attacks, American Christian institutions at large leapt to support Israel unconditionally. SBC, largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. (13m people, 45k churches) issued an “Evangelical statement in support of Israel”. Shockingly, little mention was made of Palestinians

        1. https://erlc.com/resource-library/statements/israel/

      3. Why do some of us care so much? A few reasons:

        1. The belief that God’s promise of Israel to Abraham and his descendants was for all time

          1. Genesis 15, mainly verse 18

          2. https://my.bible.com/bible/3523/GEN.15.NRSVUE

        2. Prophecy! Believed by many that the Jewish people’s return to Israel was the fulfillment of prophecy, and that full Jewish control over the Biblical land of Israel will be the inciting event that leads to the apocalypse and the return of Christ. Specifically, it happens in this order:

          1. Mass return of Jews to Israel (already happened)

          2. The Antichrist will make peace with Israel for seven years and then break it; Israelis will be persecuted and Israel will be invaded (I think some argue that this has happened or is currently happening)

          3. The Temple will be rebuilt (hasn’t happened, but some fringe movements are trying!)

          4. Israel will turn to Jesus and ask Him to save them from their persecution, and they will be restored. Then: here come the end times!

          5. Lots of Scripture has been used to piece this together, mostly in the Old Testament and some parts of Revelation; pretty much all of it, unsurprisingly, is a result of shoddy interpretation and/or removing things from context. Not gonna read all of it for time purposes, but if you want to yourself, see here:

            1. https://www.gotquestions.org/end-times-Israel.html

          6. Striking quotes from an MSNBC article about these Christians: “In their minds, there is little or no distinction between Hamas terrorists and ordinary Palestinians who have been living under the Israeli blockade of Gaza or its brutal occupation of the West Bank.” and “What happens to the Jews and Palestinians is, to put it very mildly, collateral damage.”

            1. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/truth-many-evangelical-christians-support-israel-rcna121481

      4. Christians influence America, America supports Israel substantially and empowers it to act in the way that it does. Transitively… Christian theology has influenced and empowered the Israeli government and disempowered the Palestinian people

    4. We did not cause the conflict, far from it, but we have - and still have - immense corporate culpability in its continuation and escalation

Discussion Questions:

Reflect on any and all of these questions:

  1. How does all of this make you feel?

  2. How have you personally seen Christians use this conflict to commit harm?

  3. How have you personally seen Christians perpetuate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or hatred of the Palestinian people?

  4. What can we do about it?

 Resources - Political Context

- Daniel Sokatch’s book “Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted” (I started reading this after returning from Israel, and I’ve found it to be a helpful way to learn more details about the historical background of the conflict, among other things)

- A piece from the 11/12/23 episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on the Israel-Hamas War (funny, thoughtful, well-researched, and hits on some of the same points I did)

- The Vox video (Played during the presentation)

- “The 11 biggest myths about Israel-Palestine” (Vox, 5/19/15 - a little outdated and I don’t agree with everything, but still helpful)

- “Why the US has the most pro-Israel foreign policy in the world” (Vox, 7/24/14 - more details on the geopolitical strategy behind the U.S./Israel relationship)

- “Why did Hamas invade Israel?” (Vox, 10/7/23 - a good explainer for the attack that instigated this new round of violence)

- Vox’s hub for live updates and coverage of the conflict

- “What We Know About the War Between Israel and Hamas” (New York Times, 11/10/23)

- Note: NYT is paywalled

- “What Does a ‘Complete Siege’ of the Gaza Strip Mean?” (New York Times, 10/10/23 - more context about the severity of the situation in Gaza)

- Note: NYT is paywalled

- “Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 38” (Al Jazeera, 11/13/23)

- “How big is Israel’s military and how much funding does it get from the US?” (Al Jazeera, 10/11/23)

- Al Jazeera’s live updates and coverage page for the conflict (Al Jazeera does a new page every day and has done so for a few weeks now)

- “What to know about Hamas' military capabilities” (Axios, 10/21/23)


Resources - Religious Context

- “For American Evangelicals Who Back Israel, ‘Neutrality Isn’t an Option’” (New York Times, 10/15/23 - further context as to why conservative evangelicals are often pro-Israel hardliners)

- Note: NYT is paywalled

- “‘This war is prophetically significant’: why US evangelical Christians support Israel” (The Guardian, 10/30/23 - further context as to why conservative evangelicals are often pro-Israel hardliners)

- “Half of evangelicals support Israel because they believe it is important for fulfilling end-times prophecy” (Washington Post, 5/14/18 - data-based context as to why conservative evangelicals are often pro-Israel hardliners)

- Note: WaPo is paywalled

- “The dispiriting truth about why many evangelical Christians support Israel” (MSNBC, 10/22/23 - the opinion piece I cited in my presentation)

- “Encountering the New Testament” (the piece from Yad Vashem I cited in my presentation)

- “Antisemitism in History: From the Early Church to 1400” (the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum piece I cited in my presentation)

- “Anti-Semitism: Martin Luther - ‘The Jews & Their Lies’” (source for my Luther quote and information)

- Genesis 15 (NRSVue)

Other things to know about:

- Southern Baptist Convention statement on Israel, 10/11/23

- A conservative evangelical source on what they believe the Bible prophesizes about Israel and the end times

- A page on the website of John Hagee, former Trump adviser and one of the foremost conservative evangelical advocates of Israel’s significance to the end times

- A 2009 academic paper from Liberty University that outlines a common evangelical view of Israel in the prophecies of Revelation 12

- A Christianity Today article from former SBC pastor and current CT editor-in-chief Russell Moore (who I usually respect, but this is disappointing - the article discusses the need to stand by Israel and its right to defend itself without discussing how brutally disproportionate the Israeli gov.’s response is; he even shows some faux sense of self-awareness)


Groups to Donate to:

- Doctors Without Borders

- Islamic Relief USA

- Jews for Racial and Economic Justice

- UN organizations like the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (here’s its U.S. branch) and the World Food Programme (here’s its U.S. branch)