A Jewish perspective …

Christian Century, June 28, 2003 by Yehiel E. Poupko

IN THE MAY 17 editorial "Minus a miracle," the CENTURY states:

   Policy on Israel is one area of U.S.
   politics directly shaped by theology:
   conservative Christians believe
   that God's covenant with Israel extends
   to the current state of Israel,
   and so anything less than unconditional
   support for Israel--as defined
   by Israel's right wing--is
   viewed as apostasy. Bush is not likely
   to offend conservative Christians
   on this score, at least not before he
   secures a second term as president.

This statement has less to do with Israel than with a current internal Christian conversation. The state of Israel has become the issue, the locus through which Christians debate their religious differences. This can have negative consequences for the Jewish people. It means that we are being used for Christian purposes, that we are being critiqued according to a Christian faith standard. Or to put it more plainly, when one Christian group judges us and holds us accountable and criticizes us, and thereby arrives at a negative assessment of the Jewish people, Judaism or Israel because of its differences with another Christian group, then we are being made to suffer for Christian theological differences in which we have no interest, for which we are not responsible, and in which we can play no determining role.

The CENTURY editorial reads the current mainline encounter with evangelical Christianity into the woof and warp of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This is not helpful.

Yehiel E. Poupko

Jewish Federation of Metropolitan

Chicago,

Chicago, Ill.