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 Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:55 am |
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Playing the Jesus Card
Why is Netanyahu courting Christian fundamentalists?
BY M.J. ROSENBERG | JULY 24, 2009
Evangelical pastor John Hagee addresses a crowd in Jerusalem.
Benjamin Netanyahu has a problem. The Obama administration is insisting
on a settlements freeze, and the Israeli prime minister, who is
resisting such demands, is not getting the support he might have
expected from the U.S. pro-Israel community. Usually, when an American
President makes any sort of demand on Jerusalem, pro-Israel (primarily
Jewish) organizations compel Congress to pressure the president to cease
and desist. It usually works. But not this time.
So what's an Israeli leader to do? Netanyahu is resurrecting a tried and
true strategy: Call on Christian fundamentalists -- who see maintaining
Israel's occupation as paramount -- to galvanize popular pressure
against Obama. But just like the last time he played this trick, the
tactic is unlikely to work magic for Bibi anytime soon.
For one thing, it's clear that Netanyahu is on shaky ground with the
mainstream pro-Israel lobby on settlements. At the president's meeting
with Jewish leaders at the White House on July 13, Obama heard virtually
no criticism of his policy on settlements. Even the more conservative
Jewish groups held their tongues. The only exception came when one
participant urged the president not to change his policy but to keep his
differences with Israel private, such that there would be "no daylight"
visible between Israeli and American positions. Obama responded that
past administrations did not have much success with that approach. "For
eight years, there was no light between the United States and Israel,
and nothing got accomplished," he said.
There are numerous reasons why the Jewish community is not rushing to
Netanyahu's defense. First, there has never been much support in the
United States for West Bank settlements. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby,
has never taken a stand favoring settlements nor have most of the other
mainstream pro-Israel organizations. The up-and-coming pro-Israel,
pro-peace organizations like J Street and my employer, the Israel Policy
Forum, oppose settlements and fully support the president's position.
On top of that, Netanyahu has never been a popular figure in the
American Jewish community. His last tenure as prime minister was a
failure; he was turned out of office in near-record time. Yet even in
this brief stint, he managed to antagonize the United States. Remember,
he came to office less than a year after the assassination of Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and moved quickly to undo the peace process. Not
surprisingly, that led to a swift deterioration in relations between
Netanyahu and then President Bill Clinton, who had cherished his
relationship both with Rabin and the Oslo peace process.
Sensing the frost, and knowing that getting in Clinton's good graces
would require endorsing Oslo, Netanyahu turned to the Republicans and to
the Christian Zionists for support. There was nothing subtle about
Netanyahu's embrace of the right. In fact, during the Monica Lewinsky
crisis -- when he clearly believed Clinton was done for -- the media
carried reports about Netanyahu joking with House Speaker Newt Gingrich
over some of the more salacious details of the affair.
At about the same time that Netanyahu started cozying up to right-wing
Republicans, the Israeli government intensified its efforts to court
so-called Christian Zionists. These are fundamentalist Christians whose
theology dictates unwavering support for the state of Israel.
Unlike most pro-Israel Jews, Christian Zionists emphatically support
Israeli settlements and oppose the two-state solution. By no means
liberal, they do not raise questions about Israel's treatment of
Palestinians. They are, quite simply, Netanyahu's natural constituency
-- far more natural than the Jewish community, which tends to be too
dovish for Bibi's taste.
So, sure enough, Netanyahu was the man of the hour at this week's
Christians United For Israel (CUFI) conference in Washington. The
organization's founder, Pastor John Hagee, addressed Netanyahu -- who
was in Israel -- by satellite, telling him that 50 million Christians
support "Israel's sovereign right to grow and develop the settlements of
Israel as you see fit and not yield to the pressure of the United States
government."
Netanyahu expressed his gratitude. "Today millions of Christians stand
with Israel because they stand for freedom, millions of Christians stand
with Israel because they stand for truth, millions of Christians stand
for Israel because they want to see genuine peace in the Holy Land," he
said. The triumvirate of Netanyahu, Hagee, and Israeli Tourism Minister
Stas Misezhnikov now plan to cement their alliance by conference call
every three months.
It has all the makings of a zero sum game: Netanyahu and other
right-wing Israelis hope that the support they gain from the Christian
right can help make up for what they have lost among American liberals
over the past several years.
It won't. Christian Zionists of the CUFI variety are hardcore
Republicans. Their votes are never up for grabs in elections because
they are owned by the GOP -- and not because of Israel. Right-wing
Christians, including Christian Zionists, support Republicans for the
party's stance on abortion, gays, taxes and a host of other conservative
issues. Neither the Democrats (who will never get their votes or their
campaign contributions) nor the Republicans (who will always get both)
have any need to court them. So, loud and organized as they are, this
subset of the American right is not a major political player.
On the Israel issue, the only domestic constituency that matters is the
Jewish community and, thus far, it is supporting Obama -- not Netanyahu
-- on the settlements issue and the peace process. That should be no
surprise, given that most Jews are Democrats and 78 percent of them
voted for Obama over McCain.
So long as that support holds, Obama has a free hand on Arab-Israeli
affairs. And it will hold as long as the president's popularity remains
high. If Obama's support declines --whether due to a failure on
healthcare or anything else -- some of his Jewish support will erode
too. And that would give Netanyahu the opening he wants to enlist the
Jewish community in his effort to stop Obama's pressure on Israel.
In any case, it will be the Jews who make the difference, not
Netanyahu's irrelevant fundamentalist Christian allies. Like most card
tricks, this one is pretty easy to crack.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/24/playing_the_jesus_card |
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