Guest Blogger - Avi Berkowitz

Israel, Jews, Catholics and Evangelicals: A Political Perspective

Last month was a remarkable month in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. Pope Benedict XVI visited the Park East Synagogue, a modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, during his trip to New York City. A few days later, Pastor John Hagee, founder and President of Christians United for Israel, convened a conference of American Evangelicals in Jerusalem in support of Israel’s exclusive right to its eternal capital. As reported in the Jerusalem Post (7/4/08) Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, who attended the Jerusalem conference, declared that the rapprochement between Christians and Jews “is one of the miracles of the 20th century.” The Rabbi went on to explain that “the Christianity of Pastor Hagee and most evangelists today, is not the Christianity of persecution, intolerance, and Jew hatred.”

The Rabbi could not be more right, and not just about the Christianity practiced by Pastor Hagee and most of his fellow American evangelicals. After all, Evangelical Christians are part of the broader Protestant movement, indeed, its most recent wave, and Protestantism, at least in its post-Lutheran phase, never really indulged in “persecution, intolerance and Jew hatred.” Instead, wherever Protestantism took root, Jews were generally welcome, and more often than not, permitted to build strong and prosperous communities. Such was the case during Protestantism early days, when there was a flourishing Jewish community in the Netherlands, and when Oliver Cromwell invited the Jews back to England. And such, of course, is the case in the United States of America, whose Protestant ethos has made it possible for the Jews to flourish as never before.

To be sure, when it comes to anti-Semitism Protestantism is not a panacea, and its record is far from perfect. One only needs to remember that Germany was also a Protestant country, although rooted, of course, in Lutheranism. And yet, the remarkable affinity between Protestantism and Judaism, or at least between Protestants and Jews, needs to be understood, especially in light of the incontrovertible fact that Christian Zionists in the United States are, in the words of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, “Israel’s best friends in the world.” Baldly stated, should we be concerned that our new best friends come from a tradition that is not only philo-Semitic but also dedicated to proselytizing? Is Christian Zionism a gigantic ruse, calculated to lower our guard in order to ensnare us in yet one more conversion scheme?

The answer to these questions is a resounding no, and here is why. Protestantism is animated by a spirit of sectarianism. At the level of theology, the spirit of sectarianism stimulates endless splits and rifts among the believers, who soon part company from each other, dividing into their own denomination. Between and among the various denominations, there is a healthy spirit of competition but also the capacity for cooperation. In many ways, it is this capacity for cooperation which distinguishes Protestantism from Catholicism. Because Catholicism possesses a universal theology, it has great difficulty managing relationships with members of other faiths.

Now, let us apply Protestantism’s sectarian ethos to the political level. In politics, or at least in modern international politics, the rule of territorial boundaries captures the Protestant spirit of denomination. In the first place, territorial boundaries separate the nations into sovereign states even as they integrate the nations into a single international political system. In other words, not only do territorial boundaries stimulate competition and sometimes even conflict between and among the nations of the world, they also facilitate international cooperation. More to the point, the political history of the United States of America testifies with great eloquence to the connection between the sectarian ethos and the rule of boundaries. After all, during the great Western expansion, driven, of course, by the Protestant ideal of manifest destiny, the American Protestants drew boundary lines around each particular territory that they conquered and pacified, creating, ultimately, 48 separate – and at least until the Civil War – semi-sovereign juridical domains. In this way, the American Protestants aligned their political and territorial accomplishments with their religious ideals.

Israel, of course, is a sovereign state, albeit one whose boundaries have not yet achieved international recognition. As such, from the Protestant perspective, our community, the Jews of Israel, is different from any other Jewish community with whom Protestants, or indeed, Protestantism, has previously interacted. In some respects, we have the political status of being a legitimate “denomination.” And beyond that, we are the genuine inheritors of a legitimate religious alternative to the faith which they uphold. Either way, from their point of view, our community is safely ensconced within its proper territorial boundaries and must be respected for its belief code. And who knows. Maybe, with their help, those proper territorial boundaries will be extended all the way to the Biblical borderlines.

Rabbi Dr. Avi Berkowitz teaches at Young Judaea Year Course in Jerusalem and is the Rabbi of Bet Knesset Ma'ayan in Efrat.

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Prouty and Spinelli Verdicts: A Fine, a Commendation, and a Walk

The verdicts are in from Federal Court on former FBI and CIA agent Nada Nadime Prouty and her roommate (and one-time sister-in-law) Marine Corps Capt. Samar Spinelli. The two Lebanese citizens were involved in citizenship fraud. Prouty also peeked into secret files on Hizbullah.

Prouty: No jail time, $975 fines and fees, and no deportation (the Feds requested no deportation because she knows too much about American intelligence agencies).

Spinelli: No jail time and a $500 fine.

Federal Judge Avern Cohn blasted media coverage of the case and added that the women had served their country (the U.S.) with distinction. Bloggers, including this one, pegged her as a potential Hizbullah mole.

As usual, the best coverage of the case is David Ashenfelter's in the Detroit Free Press.

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On Zero Population Growth, Condi & Condoms

THE JERUSALEM POST

Take your favorite houseplant and do something stupid: put it in the freezer. Within two hours it will be irreversibly dead.

Like plants, human communities and families grow, flower, reproduce and spread their roots. Unless someone does something stupid and attempts to "freeze" them.

On May 2, four ministers of the "Quartet" - comprised of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and representatives from Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - expressed "deep concern at continuing settlement activity and called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth."

Rice and her partners are opposed to all settlement activity, not just the planting of a rickety caravan on some wind-swept hilltop in Samaria. They are opposed to building in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, to new apartments in the city of Ma'aleh Adumim, or new housing in the Gush Etzion town of Efrat. They do not give any dispensation to Jerusalem's new neighborhoods. They are opposed to construction in settlement population centers despite President Bush's assurances of April 14, 2004 when he wrote: "In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949 [the 1967 lines]."

How serious is that Bush commitment? National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley admitted in a January briefing that Bush's 2004 letter was aimed at helping prime minister Ariel Sharon win domestic approval for the Gaza withdrawal. "The president obviously still stands by that letter of April 2004, but you need to look at it, obviously, in the context of which it was issued," he said. Is the "context" of 2004 different from the context of 2008?

The Quartet makes clear that the "natural growth" of Jewish communities is taboo. That means Zero Population Growth, or even negative population growth. It is a call for no new apartments for growing families and no construction of health clinics, kindergartens or schools. What would that mean for the ultra-Orthodox Jews in the burgeoning West Bank towns of Betar Illit and Kiryat Sefer, where children under 17 comprise two-thirds of the population? The "knitted kipa" national religious communities are not too far behind in the size of their families. Shas politicians could never accept such a diktat.

ZPG = Zionist Population Growth

How does the Quartet plan to stop the natural growth of these Jewish communities? With procreation police? Campaigns advocating birth control? "Sorry," the religious Jews will respond, "we gave at the ovens." In their case, ZPG stands for "Zionist Population Growth."

A few years ago, an imprudent ad agency placed posters of bikini-clad models at bus stations in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. Within hours the stations and posters were toast. A few months later, an anti-AIDS poster campaign was launched with a picture of a condom. Incredibly, the posters in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods were left unscathed. Why? Probably because the residents had no clue what the product was. These are neighborhoods where televisions are banned and late-night activities do not include watching Jay Leno.

Large families mean larger apartments. Married children mean a demand for nearby housing. The ultra-Orthodox community of Mea She'arim was visited recently by US Ambassador Richard Jones, who showed just how much he was out of touch with his audience when he expressed concern "about where things are built in Jerusalem... Sometimes people do have to move to a different location. They cannot always stay close to their families." Would an American ambassador ever make such a statement in an Arab society where sons traditionally stay close to their fathers and clans?

Incredibly, it is a tragic fact that the government of Israel actually approved the Quartet's road map in 2003, with its restrictions on settlements and natural growth. The Israeli government, which at the time included several right-wing ministers, expressed 14 "reservations," but they have no standing in talks with the US government or the other members of the Quartet. And not one of those reservations included opposition to the "natural growth" restriction.

To use a rabbinic term, the restriction is a gezera (decree) that the community cannot bear.

So why did Israel's leaders accept such a decree?

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that government leaders who supported the road map live primarily in the tony coastal plain, have few children, or have children living on the West Bank of the Hudson, the Rive Gauche of the Seine, a government-granted homestead in the Negev, or eventually in a state correctional facility.

Compare those leaders with two gentlemen very dear to me who passed away last week. Joseph Black, my father-in-law, made aliya at the age of 92 and moved into our home in Efrat. (Is that defined as "natural growth?") When he died at the age of 97, we were comforted by his six grandchildren (our children) and seven great-grandchildren, all of whom live in relatively new homes nearby. Our neighbor, Ernie Alexander, died at age 85 while we were still sitting shiva. His tribe numbers some 60 children, grandchildren and their offspring.

Virtually all live in Israel, and most live "over the Green Line." They prove that "natural growth" is an irrepressible and irresistible force.

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Fascinating and Thought-Provoking Article: Why Israel Is the World's Happiest Country

"Spengler" is the pen name of a columnist published in The Asia Times. He is a conservative writer with an incredible grasp of theology and history. Who is he? What is his nationality, religion, occupation? Nobody knows. But some of his essays, such as this one, are extraordinary. I don't want to run afoul of copyright laws, so I present here only a few excerpts. Click on the title for the full article:

Why Israel Is the World's Happiest Country

By Spengler

Envy surrounds no country on Earth like the state of Israel, and with good reason: by objective measures, Israel is the happiest nation on Earth at the 60th anniversary of its founding. It is one of the wealthiest, freest and best-educated; and it enjoys a higher life expectancy than Germany or the Netherlands. But most remarkable is that Israelis appear to love life and hate death more than any other nation....

Can it be a coincidence that this most ancient of nations, and the only nation persuaded that it was summoned into history for God's service, consists of individuals who appear to love life more than any other people? As a simple index of life-preference, I plot the fertility rate versus the suicide rate of 35 industrial countries, that is, the proportion of people who choose to create new life against the proportion who choose to destroy their own. Israel stands alone, positioned in the upper-left-hand-quadrant, or life-loving, portion of the chart....

In a world given over to morbidity, the state of Israel still teaches the world love of life, not in the trivial sense of joie de vivre, but rather as a solemn celebration of life.....

Israel is surrounded by neighbors willing to kill themselves in order to destroy it. "As much as you love life, we love death," Muslim clerics teach; the same formula is found in a Palestinian textbook for second graders. Apart from the fact that the Arabs are among the least free, least educated, and (apart from the oil states) poorest peoples in the world, they also are the unhappiest, even in their wealthiest kingdoms. The contrast of Israeli happiness and Arab despondency is what makes peace an elusive goal in the region....

In the modern world, where fertility reflects choice rather than compulsion, the choice to raise children expresses love of life. The high birthrate in Arab countries still bound by tradition does not stand comparison to Israeli fertility, by far the highest in the modern world. The faith of Israelis is unique. Jews sailed to Palestine as an act of faith, to build a state against enormous odds and in the face of hostile encirclement, joking, "You don't have to be crazy to be a Zionist, but it helps."...

My suspicion is that Israel's happiness is entirely unique. It is fashionable these days to speculate about the end of Israel, and Israel's strategic position presents scant cause for optimism. Israel's future depends on the Israelis. During 2,000 years of exile, Jews remained Jews despite forceful and often violent efforts to make them into Christians or Muslims. One has to suppose that they did not abandon Judaism because they liked being Jewish.... If the Israelis are the happiest country on Earth, as the numbers indicate, it seems possible that they will do what is required to keep their country, despite the odds against them. I do not know whether they will succeed. If Israel fails, however, the rest of the world will lose a unique gauge of the human capacity for happiness as well as faith. I cannot conceive of a sadder event.

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Update on Possible Hizbullah Mole:Despite Guilty Plea, Will She Get Off with a Slap of the Hand?

Since November 2007, this blog has been following the security ramifications of Nadia Nadime Prouty’s arrest. The Lebanese national fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship and used it to secure employment in the FBI and CIA. Her two sisters also obtained citizenship through sham marriages, and one later married a Detroit restaurateur suspected of fundraising for Hizbullah. He fled to Lebanon before his arrest.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, NNP pleaded guilty at the time to “charges of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship, which she later used to gain employment at the FBI and CIA; accessing a federal computer system to unlawfully query information about her relatives and the terrorist organization Hizbullah; and conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

Prouty’s sentence will be handed down on May 13.

Last week, in an effort to knock down Prouty’s sentence to probation, her lawyer presented to a federal judge a pre-sentencing memo detailing some of her activities in the CIA and FBI. He claimed that she was involved in the investigation of the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000 and the investigation of the assassination of U.S. diplomat Lawrence Foley in Jordan in 2002. The next year, the lawyer claimed, she joined the CIA and worked in Baghdad. His memo also reveals that Prouty worked in Islamabad Pakistan as a legal attaché.

Imagine the access NNP had to top-secret intel working in the FBI and CIA headquarters and then in the various epicenters of Islamic terror.

According to Detroit Free Press reporter, David Ashenfelter, who has been following the case from its start, Prouty “likely will be allowed to stay in the U.S. because of the jobs she held at the FBI and CIA, authorities said.” Read Ashenfelter’s “Fake citizen worked on major terror cases.”

Despite her confessing to accessing files on Hizbullah and her family ties to a Hizbullah fundraiser, NNP could get off and her deportation could be cancelled. Amazing.

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What’s Really behind the Screaming Headlines about the Arrest of an Octogenarian Spy for Israel?

American engineer Ben-Ami Kadish was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly providing to an Israeli “handler” classified data on nuclear weapons, F-15 fighter jets, and the Patriot missile air defense system.

A few important points of perspective are vital: Kadish is 84 years old. The alleged crime took place some 25-30 years ago (!), between 1979 and 1985. Today Mr. Kadish lives an open, active life in a New Jersey retirement village where, according to a community newspaper, he and his wife open their sukka every year to raise money for local charities and for Magen David Adom.
According to the New Jersey Jewish News, “Ben-Ami grew up in what was then Palestine and fought with the Hagana. He also served in both the British and American military during World War II and is an ex-commander of the Jewish War Veterans Post 609 in Monroe.”

News accounts suggest that Kadish’s handler was the same man who directed Jonathan Pollard. Probably to avoid any issue of statute-of-limitations, the indictment alleges that this Zayde maintained ties to his handler until last month.

Why now?

Do federal prosecutors really see octogenarian Kadish as a major criminal? More likely, Kadish is being used by American officials as a means to loosen support for Israel as the two countries enter a tenacious period of negotiations. This is a pattern of American pressure that repeats itself. The tactic is geared to embarrass American supporters of Israel, particularly Members of Congress, who oppose weapons sales to Israel’s foes, dangerous concessions to the Palestinians, or the abrogation of previous commitments to Israel.

During the last 30 years, particularly, in times of tension, American officials claimed that Israel stole plans for the Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, diverted nuclear material from a U.S. plant in the 1960s, illegally obtained krytron triggers for nuclear weapons, pilfered computer components from Patriot missiles, and used American technology on the Lavie aircraft that was later transferred to China. The 2005 arrest of two AIPAC staffers is more of the same, and they were charged under the creaky 1917 Espionage Act statute older than Kadish. For years, unnamed American spy-hunters have been looking for an accomplice to Jonathan Pollard. Leaks on these stories almost always took place on the eve of some contretemps with the U.S. State Department.

Today’s case against 84-year-old Kadish reflects more the impatience of the U.S. Secretary of State with Israel’s decision to continue building in Jerusalem and in settlement blocs and to retain security roadblocks. To push ahead in the illusionary Annapolis process at all costs, the State Department must de-emphasize President Bush’s letter to Prime Minister Sharon stating that it is “unrealistic” to seek a “full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.” With President George Bush on his way to Israel to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary, what better way to deflate the goodwill and cut-down the gifts the President is supposedly bringing?

Lastly, in the twilight of George Bush’s administration, a presidential pardon for Jonathan Pollard is again being discussed, at least by Jewish and Israeli sources. Disclosure of another Pollard-like spy would be an effective tool to keep Pollard locked up for good.

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The Iran-Gaza Axis Is Not New

Iran attempted to establish a beachhead in Gaza much before Hamas and Ahmadinejad.

A new study published today shows that Hamas “is engaged in the broadest and most significant military buildup in its history with help from Syria and Iran,” in the words of the New York Times.

Kudos to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center for their new study, Hamas’ Military Buildup in the Gaza Strip.

But analysts err when they focus only on Hamas; Iran deserves the main spotlight. Iran sees itself as a growing regional superpower. As the American military learned in Iraq, Iran will use whatever proxy is available in order to attack Western interests in the region. In the case of the Palestinians, the Islamic Republic worked closely with Yasser Arafat for decades, particularly after the Oslo agreements granted Arafat a foothold in the Palestinian territories. Arafat’s relationship with Ayatollah Khomeini predates the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Former CIA senior officer Robert Baer details the Iranian-Palestinian relationship in See No Evil, The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism. “Arafat had put his entire worldwide terrorist network at Iran’s disposal,” Baer pointed out. “Having been forced out of Beirut in 1982 by the Israelis, he had handed it over lock, stock, and barrel to the Iranians for safekeeping.”

The liaison between Arafat and Iran was none other than master terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, a former member of Arafat’s Force 17, the mastermind of anti-American bombings in Lebanon, the man behind the bombings of Israeli and Jewish institutions in Argentina, and the alleged chief planner for the Hizbullah war against Israel.

Once Arafat established his beachhead in Gaza, Mughniyeh set about to arm it with Iranian weapons – seven years ago.

Click here to look at the inventory of the Santorini and Karine-A ships captured by Israel in 2001 and 2002, respectively. It includes the same weaponry smuggled into Gaza over the last year and now being used against Israeli civilians. Pay particular attention to the Grad 122 mm rockets and the 120 mm mortars. Those were fired against Ashkelon last month. And don’t ignore the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and the anti-tank Saggers which are presumably now in the Palestinian arsenal and will be used sooner, rather than later.

Israel’s vigilance in 2001 and 2002 blocked the delivery of the weapons to Arafat’s forces. The surrender of the Philadelphi route between Sinai and Gaza two years ago opened the gates above and below ground for the weapons to flood in.

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On Cue: UNHCR Settles Palestinian Refugees ... in Chile

Sunday's blog posting on the failure to resolve the Palestinian refugee problem compares the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)'s abysmal performance to that of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

As if on cue, the UNHCR resettled the first contingent of 117 Palestinian refugees in Chile this week. As explained in this AP report, "The refugees had spent months stranded at a desert camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border. They were the first of 117 Palestinians whom the Chilean government has agreed to receive under a plan coordinated with the Catholic Church and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The refugees will live in La Calera, a city northwest of the capital, Santiago, that has a strong Arabic community."

In other words, these Palestinians never fell under UNRWA's corrupted and corrupting care. They were refugees from the Iraq war, not from the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967. As a result, they are not being forced into the anti-Israel UNRWA stage production that keeps refugees in their poverty-ridden state of suspended animation.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled Baghdad in recent years. As explained by the UNHCR, "Under the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, the [Palestinians] received protection and assistance and enjoyed a relatively high standard of treatment that some segments of the Iraqi population considered unfair. Soon after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Palestinians were targeted with forced eviction, death threats and killings in Baghdad. Many sought refuge in neighboring Jordan and Syria but became stranded in desolate border camps."

In September 2007, Brazil accepted some 100 Palestinians who were stranded for over four years in Jordan's Ruweished camp.

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