Christian Attitudes Towards The State Of Israel

During the 1947 United Nations debate on the future of Palestine, world opinion was powerfully affected by news of the Holocaust and the plight of Jewish refugees, creating a momentary humanitarian advantage that helped mobilize support for the creation of the state of Israel. However, almost as soon as it became clear that the Jews had won their war for independence, anti-Zionists within Christianity reasserted themselves. A pro-Arab bloc of Western missionaries at the World Council of Churches echoed the anti-Zionism that has always characterized those churches which today constitute the Middle East Council of Churches, while the Roman Catholic Church, never friendly to Zionism, advocated the "internationalization" of Jerusalem to diminish the Jewish presence in the heart of the Holy Land. Mainstream Protestantism championed "Palestinian nationalism," and still does not hesitate to portray Israel as an "oppressor," but most evangelical Christians see Israel's restoration as a part of God's plan. In Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel Paul Merkley demonstrates that polarized opinion continues to affect how Israel is perceived today.

Although Christians form a significant proportion of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel, very little research has, until now, been undertaken to examine their complicated position within Israel. This book demonstrates the limits of analyses which characterise state-minority relations in Israel in terms of a so-called Jewish-Muslim conflict, and of studies which portray Palestinian Christians as part of a wider exclusively religious-based transnational Christian community. This book locates its analysis of Palestinian Christians within a broader understanding of Israel as a Jewish ethnocratic state. It describes the main characteristics of the Palestinian Christian community in Israel and examines a number of problematic assumptions which have been made about them and their relationship to the state. Finally, it examines a number of intra-communal conflicts which have taken place in recent years between Christians and Muslims, and between Christians and Druze, and probes the role which the state and various state attitudes have played in influencing or determining those conflicts and, as a result, the general status of Palestinian Christians in Israel today.

From The Gallup Organization-the most respected source on the subject-comes a fascinating look at the importance of measuring public opinion in modern society. For years, public-opinion polls have been a valuable tool for gauging the positions of American citizens on a wide variety of topics. Polling applies scientific principles to understanding and anticipating the insights, emotions, and attitudes of society. Now in POLLING MATTERS: Why Leaders Must Listen to the Wisdom of the People, The Gallup Organization reveals: What polls really are and how they are conducted Why the information polls provide is so vitally important to modern society today How this valuable information can be used more effectively and more...

A first-time, in-depth examination of the issue of the State of Israel in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue.

This book of original essays provides an objective and enlightening analysis of the emergence and changing forms of the New Christian Right. The subject is in itself important in contemporary American life, but in addition The New Christian Right reexamines standard theories of social movements and the relationship between religion and politics in America today. The book presents findings from original research, including surveys, personal interviews with elites, analysis of financial documents, reanalysis of existing data, and analysis of direct-mail solicitations and other primary literature. The New Christian Right is balanced and objective rather than partisan and evaluative. Using non-technical and non-jargonistic language, the authors raise questions concerning the nature of religion, the role of status groups, and contemporary directions in American culture.

The attitude toward Jews of evangelical Christians is dualistic; it is the most complex and ambivalent of all Christian, and non-Christian, modern attitudes toward Jews. These Christian fundamentalists view contemporary Jews both as heirs to biblical Israel and as crucial to the coming of the messianic age. At the same time, unless they accept Jesus, Jews are spiritually and morally lost and, hence, require extensive missionary efforts. Leading evangelists often resort to negative stereotypes of Jews, although they support the State of Israel as a precursor of their messianic age. Concludes that evangelicals are neither philosemitic nor antisemitic. While some evangelical Christians opposed Hitler and Nazism, and a number even took part in the rescue of Jews, they attributed the Holocaust not to antisemitism but to the temporary triumph of anti-Christian values.

The issue of Christian Zionism is one that is fiercely debated within theology, the church, politics, and society. Comprehending Christian Zionism brings together an international consortium of scholars and researchers to reflect on the network of issues and topics surrounding this critical subject. The volume provides a lens on the history of Zion

The official establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 constituted the realization of the Zionist vision, but military victory left in its wake internal and external survival issues that would threaten this historic achievement for decades to come. The refusal of the international community to recognize the political, geographic, and demographic results of the War of Independence presented Israel with a permanent regional security threat, while isolating and alienating it in the international arena. One of the most formidable problems Israeli foreign policy faced was the stance of the Christian world toward the new state. Attitudes ranged from hostility and categorical non-recognition by the Catholic Church, through Protestant ambivalence, to Evangelical support. Cross on the Star of David presents the first scholarly analysis, based on newly declassified documents, of Israeli policymaking on this issue. Uri Bialer focuses on the impact that modes of thinking rooted in the historical tradition of Jewish-Christian interactions had on Israeli policymakers and concludes that they were not innocent of the perceptions and biases that influenced the Christian world's behavior toward Israel. The result is a fine-grained, original interpretation of an important dimension of Israeli foreign policy from the founding of the State to the 1967 War.