Zev Chafets has a new book--A Match Made in Heaven--urging Jews to capitalize on the fierce Zionism of American evangelicals. I haven't read his book, but the treatment Abby Wisse Schachter gives it in the current Weekly Standard is simple-minded. She doesn't understand why "Jews can't seem to tolerate, let alone embrace, the fastest growing Christian movement in America, a movement that views support for Israel as central to its mission." So, quoting Chafets approvingly, she blames "the ancient tribal instinct to slap [the hand of friendship] away." This is facile. There are a number of reasons Jews don't embrace Christian Zionists. One is that, while they agree about Israel, they don't have much else in common. Diaspora Jews--having long been victims of persecution--support liberal devices like tolerance and the separation of church and state, and they don't appreciate the projection of religious social controls (abortion, premarital sex) that are far more "central" to evangelicals' mission than Zionism. The Southern Baptist Convention is just as loud in its declarations of homophobia as in its professions of philo-Semitism. Schachter complains that "[w]hat Jews hate are Republicans and the conservative agenda." What's wrong with that? Jews may agree with evangelicals on one issue, but it's not enough to send them scampering into the arms of the GOP. You don't hear liberals demanding an alliance with Gary Bauer just because he supports a progressive tax structure. And how big is the Jewish-evangelical agreement on Israel, anyway? To American Jews like me, there's something suspicious in Christian Zionists' strident support of Israel, which quite often exceeds Jewish support and even mainstream Israelis' support. (Tom DeLay, for example, gave a fiery 2003 speech in the Knesset opposing a Palestinian state.) Why should so many Bible-belt evangelicals care so deeply about Israel's right to defend itself against Muslim terrorism (they don't have much to say, by contrast, about Kashmir or Chechnya)? For messianic reasons. They mainly want Jews to control the Holy Land--including the West Bank--because they see it as a biblical precondition to the second coming of Christ (whose arrival, by the way, will render armageddon and send the Jews to hell). Since Israel's own justification for existence is secular and its reason for occupying the West Bank is strategic, Christian Zionists don't advertise this belief too widely, and they don't all believe it (others, like James Inhofe, cite God's gift of Judea to Abraham). Still, it certainly colors the way they see the scuffle for land. To them, it's a divine struggle; to most Israelis, it's just political. But eventually--since Jews worldwide believe it's essential that Israel remain a Jewish and democratic nation (something it can't be if Palestinians have no autonomy)--Israel is going to have to withdraw from (most of) the West Bank; and this is anathema to Christian Zionists, who need a landing pad for Jesus. It turns out evangelical interests (the rapture) and Jewish ones (democracy) aren't totally in sync after all. Schachter, who spends 1,000 words berating Jews for parochialism and obstinacy, doesn't even bother to mention this. P.S.: Peter Beinart wrote the definitive essay on this subject. His conclusion: "[I]f you don't love Israel for what it is, you can't be trusted to love it at all." --Adam B. Kushner