Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Carter Anti-Christian?
Thursday, December 28, 2006

As I have written here in the past, I was fairly dismissive of the early attacks on Jimmy Carter for being "anti-Semitic," in no small part because I hate when that term is cavalierly thrown around. I hate it even more when that term is confused with being anti-Israeli. "Israel right or wrong" is an outdated philosophy and American Jews should get over it. Sometimes people criticize Israel for Israel's actions, not because they don't like Jews. Many times those people are Israelis. Or Jews themselves.

But now a more nuanced and, to my ear, more devastating critique of Carter is emerging that to me is much more interesting. The essence of the critique focuses not on Carter's attitude toward Judaism, but on his attitude toward Christianity. Carter breaks from four centuries of Christian Hebraism in America that links American support for Israel with America's mission to form a New Israel in North America, an idea that goes back to Plymouth Rock. No one has yet offered a compelling reason why he does this, but my guess is that it's related to his vocal break from the conservative wing of his own denomination in recent years. He seems to be reasserting the strict moral constructionism of the Bible to the current situation: Those chosen to live on the land of Israel must follow the dictates of God.

But not too much. As Michael Oren, author of the brilliant Six Days of War, one of the best books I've read about contemporary Israel, points out, Carter seems to want to have it both ways.

He complains about the fact that the kibbutz synagogue he enters is nearly empty on the Sabbath and that the Bibles presented to Israeli soldiers "was one of the few indications of a religious commitment that I observed during our visit." But he also reproves contemporary Israelis for allegedly mistreating the Samaritans--"the same complaint heard by Jesus almost two thousand years earlier"--and for pilfering water from the Jordan River, "where . . . Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist."

Disturbed by secular Laborites, he is further unnerved by religiously minded Israelis who seek to fulfill the biblical injunction to settle the entire Land of Israel. There are "two Israels," Mr. Carter concludes, one which embodies the "the ancient culture of the Jewish people, defined by the Hebrew Scriptures," and the other in "the occupied Palestinian territories," which refuses to "respect the basic human rights of the citizens."

Whether in its secular and/or observant manifestations, Israel clearly discomfits Mr. Carter, a man who, even as president, considered himself in "full-time Christian service." Yet, in revealing his unease with the idea of Jewish statehood, Mr. Carter sets himself apart from many U.S. presidents before and after him, as well as from nearly 400 years of American Christian thought.

The book jacket on the left is Oren's new book on the relationship between Israel and America.

Labels: Middle East

Posted by B Feiler at 10:21 AM
Permalink Digg this Post Email this Post

0 Comments: