[Part I of this article can be read at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=3805.]
I believe the Jewish Neo-Cons have another element, not yet fully addressed by any other commentator.
I've spoken about American idealism, now I want to address the Jewish element in neo-conservative thinking. As I described earlier, Judaism, as opposed to Christianity, believes in the ultimate perfectibility of the world. This Jewish messianic belief is really the ultimate "idealism". Christian messianism as I earlier said, really gave up all hope for the world's improvement and transferred that hope to the next life; Jewish messianism never did.
Jewish messianism - although perverted - can be found in the thought of the son of recent Jewish converts to Christianity, Karl Marx. Many Jews were communists and socialists because they saw improvement in the workingman's lot - a Jewish moral value - and once secularized, felt close to Communism's desire to "fix the world". Jewish idealism can be seen in Jewish involvement in the trade union movement in America. Jewish idealism can be seen in many of the liberal social causes that Jews flock to in America. Remember, I didn't say they were properly applying that messianic drive, only explaining where it comes from. Many Jews, fairly assimilated into the US and bereft of real involvement in Judaism and its laws buy into the democracy, individual liberties and free enterprise system of America.
I believe a residue of Jewish idealism "to fix the world" is what truly drives many Jewish Neo-Cons.
American political culture has many elements, but one has to look at how very profoundly it was influenced by the Hebrew Bible. America has seen itself as the new Promised Land. America, like the Israelites of old, is an ideological nation, seeing itself as more moral than "Old Europe". America has seen itself as having a mission, but most countries in the world are ethnically based. Before the rise of colonialism, and the modern nation-state, which redrew borders, most people lived in homogeneous population groups. Nations came about by biological proximity and linguistic similarity. It's true that empires sometimes mixed things up, but for the most part, countries, people and nations coincided. America was different; it was born out of ideological fervor, law in hand - the Constitution - with a purpose.
So too, were the ancient Jews.
This similarity between America and Israel is probably the greatest reason for the strong support America has had for the Jewish state. This, I believe, is why the Neo-Cons have been successful in capturing the imagination of America. It's not that Ariel Sharon and the "Likudniks" have brainwashed Bush, or that the Jewish Neo-Cons have "cabaled" the Washington policy establishment, but that America and Israel have an underlying cultural connection and similar policy objectives in the short run. The State of Israel, as a modern democratic state - not yet the Messianic State - is part of the American vision for the world.
Today, you have Christian conservative elements and secularized assimilated Jewish neo-conservative elements driving American policy. As Fundamentalist Christians, Christian Zionists support Israel because of an overlapping of mutual values and because it plays out their own "End-of-Days" theology. As secularized, assimilated Jews, these Neo-Cons are a hodgepodge of Jewish idealism and "America First" ideology. What Pat Buchanan and the other anti-Semites don't understand about the Neo-Cons is that they don't work for Israel's interests, or Jewish interests, but for America's interests.
Back to the third part of the triangle and the "clash"...
Islam, as explained briefly in our previous installment, is more collectivist than Christianity. Thus, one can understand why when secularized elements in the Arab world took charge in the 1950s, they aligned themselves with their natural cultural cousins, the Communist Bloc. Combined with the desire of Islam to conquer the world and put it under Allah's dominion, one can see why Arab socialism held sway. Previous to their love affair with the Soviets, the secularized Arab thinkers had been enamored with fascism and the Nazis. But the underlying point is their totalitarianism - whether religious or secular - and their missionary fervor. Arab socialism is at bay, but Jihadist Islam is on the march.
A "Clash of Civilizations" as Huntington called it, between the West - led by America - and the Islamic world is in the offing. Isolationists like Buchanan really don't have America's best interests at heart. Sure America can close its borders, but to stop the kind of terror that 9-11 symbolizes, it would have to become the type of police state that it abhors. In the process, it would emulate all that is wrong with the Arab-Islamic world. Pro-active intervention overseas, driven by "End-of-Days" theology, Jewish or American idealism, or just plain old American pragmatism, is the best and probably only way to prevent many more 9-11s.
Islam desires to create the "ideal" social order globally; so does the United States. America sees its model - democracy, individual liberty and free enterprise - as universally applicable; so does Islam. That's a sure prescription for conflict. But whereas Islam has never had a reformation and is authentic to its Arab imperialist roots, whether in the Wahabbiist version being exported by Saudi Arabia or the Khomeini variety from Iran (and maybe soon Shiite Iraq), America and Christian Western culture is conflicted. Will it follow the Christian Conservatives and Neo-Cons in their "crusade for democracy and free-markets", or will leftist-liberal elements in America, allied with Islamists homegrown and imported, and their backers in Europe, gain sway?
Jewish Neo-Cons, I believe, will ultimately fail. Christianity at its roots is ultimately other-world oriented and Western civilization has little interest in "fixing this world". I don't believe they have the lasting power. Islam, in contrast, does, and you can count on them to continue their charge toward victory throughout the 21st Century.
The modern State of Israel and most Jews in it, like most Jews throughout the world and in America, have become secularized in the last 200 years. They're weak in Jewish tradition and observance. Watered down Judaism combined with democracy and free-markets isn't far away from American culture. That's why Israeli leaders today and American leaders see eye-to-eye on most issues. Judeo-Christian culture, a phrase used by some people in America, really is Christian culture wedded to some Jewish elements. Although used by some Jews also, the term really stands for "traditional values" more than any overarching cultural symbiosis. Authentic Judaism, including the sense of peoplehood and desire for life as an independent nation, is only taking place in Israel. Torah - that G-d-given law, not democracy and free enterprise - is supposed to be implemented there. Its values are meant for the Biblical Promised Land, where messianic fulfillment is supposed to take place, not in the "promised land" of America.
The transference of Jewish idealism in a secularized and Americanized form, by Jewish neo-conservatives, is doomed to failure. Messianic redemption, the setting up of a Model Nation-State - i.e., polity - and society in the Land of Israel, as prophesized by the Jewish prophets in the Hebrew Bible, is meant primarily, as stated earlier, for the Jewish people, though it will have universal meaning. If America, led by Neo-Cons and Christian fundamentalists, tries to usurp that role from the Jewish people's state, they will either, at worst, come into direct conflict with G-d's unfolding redemptive process, or at best, end in utter failure.
America's current Middle East peace-making policy, the "Roadmap" that envisions a Palestinian state, is just such an example. It's the beginning of conflict between Israel and America. How can America be "helping" Israel and the Jewish people when it threatens to take part of the Promised Land away?
America will never "fix the world" with democracy and free markets, because that isn't a holistic world-view that encompasses both spiritual and worldly realms, as Judaism posits. America will not perfect the world, because it doesn't have the cultural underpinnings to do it, and because it is not America's role in history. It will never bring democracy to the Arab-Islamic world, unless some form of "Islamic Reformation" takes place first.
The best that America can hope for is to play a supporting role in helping Israel in its messianic mission, combating the spread of Jihadist Islam while holding out a torch of freedom to the rest of mankind. The sooner the Neo-Cons see that and the limits to America's power, just as they initially saw the value in attacking Saddam Hussein's regime, the faster they can avert another tragedy for America.
[Part 2 of 2]
(c) 2004/5764 Pasko
I believe the Jewish Neo-Cons have another element, not yet fully addressed by any other commentator.
I've spoken about American idealism, now I want to address the Jewish element in neo-conservative thinking. As I described earlier, Judaism, as opposed to Christianity, believes in the ultimate perfectibility of the world. This Jewish messianic belief is really the ultimate "idealism". Christian messianism as I earlier said, really gave up all hope for the world's improvement and transferred that hope to the next life; Jewish messianism never did.
Jewish messianism - although perverted - can be found in the thought of the son of recent Jewish converts to Christianity, Karl Marx. Many Jews were communists and socialists because they saw improvement in the workingman's lot - a Jewish moral value - and once secularized, felt close to Communism's desire to "fix the world". Jewish idealism can be seen in Jewish involvement in the trade union movement in America. Jewish idealism can be seen in many of the liberal social causes that Jews flock to in America. Remember, I didn't say they were properly applying that messianic drive, only explaining where it comes from. Many Jews, fairly assimilated into the US and bereft of real involvement in Judaism and its laws buy into the democracy, individual liberties and free enterprise system of America.
I believe a residue of Jewish idealism "to fix the world" is what truly drives many Jewish Neo-Cons.
American political culture has many elements, but one has to look at how very profoundly it was influenced by the Hebrew Bible. America has seen itself as the new Promised Land. America, like the Israelites of old, is an ideological nation, seeing itself as more moral than "Old Europe". America has seen itself as having a mission, but most countries in the world are ethnically based. Before the rise of colonialism, and the modern nation-state, which redrew borders, most people lived in homogeneous population groups. Nations came about by biological proximity and linguistic similarity. It's true that empires sometimes mixed things up, but for the most part, countries, people and nations coincided. America was different; it was born out of ideological fervor, law in hand - the Constitution - with a purpose.
So too, were the ancient Jews.
This similarity between America and Israel is probably the greatest reason for the strong support America has had for the Jewish state. This, I believe, is why the Neo-Cons have been successful in capturing the imagination of America. It's not that Ariel Sharon and the "Likudniks" have brainwashed Bush, or that the Jewish Neo-Cons have "cabaled" the Washington policy establishment, but that America and Israel have an underlying cultural connection and similar policy objectives in the short run. The State of Israel, as a modern democratic state - not yet the Messianic State - is part of the American vision for the world.
Today, you have Christian conservative elements and secularized assimilated Jewish neo-conservative elements driving American policy. As Fundamentalist Christians, Christian Zionists support Israel because of an overlapping of mutual values and because it plays out their own "End-of-Days" theology. As secularized, assimilated Jews, these Neo-Cons are a hodgepodge of Jewish idealism and "America First" ideology. What Pat Buchanan and the other anti-Semites don't understand about the Neo-Cons is that they don't work for Israel's interests, or Jewish interests, but for America's interests.
Back to the third part of the triangle and the "clash"...
Islam, as explained briefly in our previous installment, is more collectivist than Christianity. Thus, one can understand why when secularized elements in the Arab world took charge in the 1950s, they aligned themselves with their natural cultural cousins, the Communist Bloc. Combined with the desire of Islam to conquer the world and put it under Allah's dominion, one can see why Arab socialism held sway. Previous to their love affair with the Soviets, the secularized Arab thinkers had been enamored with fascism and the Nazis. But the underlying point is their totalitarianism - whether religious or secular - and their missionary fervor. Arab socialism is at bay, but Jihadist Islam is on the march.
A "Clash of Civilizations" as Huntington called it, between the West - led by America - and the Islamic world is in the offing. Isolationists like Buchanan really don't have America's best interests at heart. Sure America can close its borders, but to stop the kind of terror that 9-11 symbolizes, it would have to become the type of police state that it abhors. In the process, it would emulate all that is wrong with the Arab-Islamic world. Pro-active intervention overseas, driven by "End-of-Days" theology, Jewish or American idealism, or just plain old American pragmatism, is the best and probably only way to prevent many more 9-11s.
Islam desires to create the "ideal" social order globally; so does the United States. America sees its model - democracy, individual liberty and free enterprise - as universally applicable; so does Islam. That's a sure prescription for conflict. But whereas Islam has never had a reformation and is authentic to its Arab imperialist roots, whether in the Wahabbiist version being exported by Saudi Arabia or the Khomeini variety from Iran (and maybe soon Shiite Iraq), America and Christian Western culture is conflicted. Will it follow the Christian Conservatives and Neo-Cons in their "crusade for democracy and free-markets", or will leftist-liberal elements in America, allied with Islamists homegrown and imported, and their backers in Europe, gain sway?
Jewish Neo-Cons, I believe, will ultimately fail. Christianity at its roots is ultimately other-world oriented and Western civilization has little interest in "fixing this world". I don't believe they have the lasting power. Islam, in contrast, does, and you can count on them to continue their charge toward victory throughout the 21st Century.
The modern State of Israel and most Jews in it, like most Jews throughout the world and in America, have become secularized in the last 200 years. They're weak in Jewish tradition and observance. Watered down Judaism combined with democracy and free-markets isn't far away from American culture. That's why Israeli leaders today and American leaders see eye-to-eye on most issues. Judeo-Christian culture, a phrase used by some people in America, really is Christian culture wedded to some Jewish elements. Although used by some Jews also, the term really stands for "traditional values" more than any overarching cultural symbiosis. Authentic Judaism, including the sense of peoplehood and desire for life as an independent nation, is only taking place in Israel. Torah - that G-d-given law, not democracy and free enterprise - is supposed to be implemented there. Its values are meant for the Biblical Promised Land, where messianic fulfillment is supposed to take place, not in the "promised land" of America.
The transference of Jewish idealism in a secularized and Americanized form, by Jewish neo-conservatives, is doomed to failure. Messianic redemption, the setting up of a Model Nation-State - i.e., polity - and society in the Land of Israel, as prophesized by the Jewish prophets in the Hebrew Bible, is meant primarily, as stated earlier, for the Jewish people, though it will have universal meaning. If America, led by Neo-Cons and Christian fundamentalists, tries to usurp that role from the Jewish people's state, they will either, at worst, come into direct conflict with G-d's unfolding redemptive process, or at best, end in utter failure.
America's current Middle East peace-making policy, the "Roadmap" that envisions a Palestinian state, is just such an example. It's the beginning of conflict between Israel and America. How can America be "helping" Israel and the Jewish people when it threatens to take part of the Promised Land away?
America will never "fix the world" with democracy and free markets, because that isn't a holistic world-view that encompasses both spiritual and worldly realms, as Judaism posits. America will not perfect the world, because it doesn't have the cultural underpinnings to do it, and because it is not America's role in history. It will never bring democracy to the Arab-Islamic world, unless some form of "Islamic Reformation" takes place first.
The best that America can hope for is to play a supporting role in helping Israel in its messianic mission, combating the spread of Jihadist Islam while holding out a torch of freedom to the rest of mankind. The sooner the Neo-Cons see that and the limits to America's power, just as they initially saw the value in attacking Saddam Hussein's regime, the faster they can avert another tragedy for America.
[Part 2 of 2]
(c) 2004/5764 Pasko