An American Thinker article published today contends that Israel’s greatest problem is not its military position or capacity to thwart terrorism, but its unwillingness to compete in ideological warfare. Israel’s foreign policy (or hasbarah) does not deal properly with Islam’s political ideology. Bill Warner, the author, uses the analogy of the war in Vietnam, which was lost on the home front, rather than on the battlefield.
As someone who is pro-Israel, I have often been told that I am guilty of not being even-handed (to the Palestinians) or that I am letting my Christian views cloud my judgement. I have been told that my concern for the nation state of Israel is ideologically rooted. On those accusations, I have a few responses:
1.) What biblical mandate requires Israel to be defended? What Biblical prophecy promotes Zionism among Gentiles or even Jews? Hasn’t the Jewish homeland already been established, leaving that prophecy already fulfilled? What is Zionism to a Gentile?
2.) Although Christ was a Jew, the Jews crucified and rejected Jesus. The majority of Jews continue to reject Jesus till this very day. With that understood, how can my interests for the protection of the Jewish homeland be ideologically rooted?
3.) The evangelical community I am familiar with is terrified of politics. Pastor’s and teachers rarely mention modern Israel let alone support it. So no, I am not brainwashed by evangelicals.
However, I do believe that Muhammad was inspired by demonic forces, and can be considered the most benign, insidious false prophet to have ever walked the earth. That would lead me to believe that much of the hatred and animosity towards Jews in the Middle-East was inspired by demons. So perhaps there is a connection that exists between my ideology and conviction that we owe Israel our support. But just because my ideology provides an explanation for the desire of some men and people groups to exterminate the Jews, does not mean that my ideology creates a false perception. And it does not hold true that my ideology is automatically provoking me to think rashly or that my ideology created such perceptions.
From my understanding, it is history and current events that aptly justifies those perceptions. Jews are the most oppressed ethnic group on the face of the planet. Hatred towards Jews is so prevalent, we have an English word dedicated to describing racism specifically towards Jews. Antisemitism exists in our world today, as much as it did during the time of Hitler’s Germany when Hitler and the Third Reich had a political alliance with the imams of Islam.
The Nazis have been eliminated but radical Islam still exists. Just like Nazism was confronted in the second World War, I predict Islamism will one day be confronted in a global war. True Western freedom is diametrically opposed to the mode of thinking that spawns from Islamism. Despite the fact that many liberals promote Islam as a means to an end, a clash of the two worldviews is inevitable.
So my concern for the Jewish homeland is probably more selfish than noble. The same ideology that poses a threat to Israel, poses a threat to freethinking in the western world. If Israel does not succeed in protecting its borders, the war will inevitably make its way to our borders and the American continent will become the next Middle-East.
It is also worth noting that our quarrel should not be with the Palestinians (the people group probably most threatening to the sovereignty of Israel), but their corrupt political establishments (like Hamas and Fatah) which constantly seeks to exterminate the truth. Those corrupt political establishments do not only exist only in Gaza and the West Bank, but in many Middle-Eastern nations that invoke Sharai law. All of them have one thing in common — the application of Islam in politics or Islamism.
I am convinced there is a good many Middle-Easterners who feel the same way. Those people are just not represented in our media, partly because the ideological war in the western world has already been lost. I find it incredible that Barack Obama and the UN are able to recognize Ahmadinejad as the legitimate leader of Iran. The world and Barack Obama (who is considered the leader of the free world) had the opportunity to dispute Achkamdinejad’s totalitarian regime when the green movement in Iran was in full swing. Now the opportunity is lost and we are left negotiating nuclear disarmament with a person who does not properly represent his own people let alone a sane, rational thinking human being.
