Next time you are engaged in a dis­cus­sion about Israel with fel­low Jews, try this exper­i­ment. Men­tion how impor­tant you believe the strong sup­port that Chris­tians have shown for the State of Israel has proved in recent years. Then, wait for the reac­tion. More often than not, some­one will talk about their agen­da. Either it’s the fact that they sup­port Israel only because they want to con­vert Jews, or else, it’s because their apoc­a­lyp­tic visions of a mes­sian­ic future require fiery destruc­tion in the Holy Land. Talk about Islam­ic ter­ror and you may hear sen­si­ble rea­sons for it. Talk about Chris­t­ian sup­port, and the argu­ments that get made seem like a page ripped out of the Pro­to­cols of the Elders of Zion.

David Brog has writ­ten an impor­tant book, which has been too long in com­ing. Final­ly, some­one comes to pro­vide the much­need­ed back­ground as to why Chris­tians used to have Inqui­si­tions, and now they have Church Din­ners to raise funds for Jew­ish Olim (new immi­grants). And, that this phe­nom­e­non does not post-date George Bush, nor is it unique to Amer­i­ca. Nor is it because of some vast com­plex con­spir­a­cy, but for far sim­pler rea­sons, such as the fact that today’s Chris­tians, par­tic­u­lar­ly evan­gel­i­cal Protes­tants, may sym­pa­thize with the Jew­ish State, repent their past per­se­cu­tions, and actu­al­ly believe in the God of the Old Tes­ta­ment, who repeat­ed­ly promised Israel a land. 

Brog was for many years Chief of Staff for the Jew­ish and lib­er­al Repub­li­can sen­a­tor, Arlen Specter, often a tar­get of the evan­gel­i­cal right. So, he does not come to his argu­ment from an obvi­ous prej­u­dice. Instead, he builds his case by intro­duc­ing us to Chris­t­ian Zion­ists both liv­ing and dead, and exam­in­ing the his­to­ry that brought them there. 

It begins with an expli­ca­tion of Replace­ment The­ol­o­gy, the ini­tial response by Paul to the con­tra­dic­tion of the Jews. If the Jews did indeed have a covenant with God, how could the Chris­tians have one? Since the Jews reject­ed Jesus, God must have reject­ed them and replaced them with the Church. From this the­o­ry stems two thou­sand years of dis­crim­i­na­tion. Fast-for­ward to a 19th cen­tu­ry sect called the Ply­mouth Brethren, found­ed by a man named John Nel­son Dar­by. From Darby’s small group, and oth­ers like it, has grown the behe­moth today known as evan­gel­i­cal fun­da­men­tal­ism, and these Chris­tians believe that not only were the Jews nev­er reject­ed by God, but that it is incum­bent upon the believ­er to bless the Jews, and through them, to be blessed. 

There is no more pow­er­ful pro-Zion­ist force in the world today than con­ser­v­a­tive Amer­i­can Chris­tian­i­ty. And there is prob­a­bly no force less trust­ed. David Brog pro­vides a cogent argu­ment about why Jews may need to change that atti­tude. Index, notes.