Gorilla, what Gorilla?

I didn’t see that big silverback in the room before, but by golly he’s here. Does Israel’s lobbying arm in the U.S. wield disproportionate power as compared with other nations? If your answer is yes, do you consider yourself an anti-Semite? If no, are your ready to label those who see it differently as anti-Semitic? Heavy stuff – about eight hundred pounds of gorilla that’s just now being noticed, or at least acknowledged.

Scholars from Harvard and the University of Chicago have written a paper that says that the Israeli lobby is too powerful and damages both the U.S. and Israel. This has led to some but not all leading American Jews to scream anti-Semitism at the authors. One in op-ed in the New York Times quotes others on the sloppy scholarship that went into the effort and the ever reticent and understated Alan Dershowitz asserts that the careers of the alleged scholars were ruined by this baloney.

Are those who criticize Israel and those in America who lobby aggressively on behalf of the state anti-Semites? Obviously, many are, but many more are not. But defenders of the status quo are quick to lash out with the charge. It seems to me that that many of the most aggressive supporters of Israel in this country are not keeping up with events in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where public opinion seems to be shifting in the direction of many of the American critics.

I think we should look beyond the eight hundred pound gorilla to the ten ton T-Rex that looms so large behind it that we cannot see it as anything but a huge gray mass, Evangelical Christianity. While American support of Israel has indeed been great since the state was recognized during the Truman administration and while the Israeli lobby has been extraordinarily effective, a major part of the more aggressive American position in recent decades has not been the sole result of the Israeli foreign office or Washington lobbyists who seek to keep Israel at the fore of American thought but of Evangelical leaders who have an agenda that is far more aggressive than appears to be desired by the government and citizens of Israel.

For years, many political leaders in Israel have recognized that the settlements issue, as constituted, was not in the best interest of the nation, and Ariel Sharon, a leading architect of the program, was in the process of abandoning much of the effort. Demography and the adverse impacts of the occupation were tearing the country apart. The recent national vote appears to support the Sharon initiative.

But among the greatest cheerleaders for the settlements and expanded Israeli boundaries are American Christian fundamentalists who find support for their position in Biblical references and prophesies. Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ spur many American to support aggressive policies for both countries that appear far from the best interest of the parties, at least as seen by those with more secular views.

The Middle East is volatile enough without the constant pressure being applied to the mix by those promoting a religious overlay not sought by the American or Israeli governments or by the vast majority of those living in Israel.

So while the gorilla seems to be coming into focus for many Americans, and while name calling seems to be rising exponentially, let’s cool the rhetoric and look to the T-Rex theocrats looming large behind it.

Who knows what names Wild Bill will be called after this one?

Blog on!

Wild Bill