zionism_unsettled_scan

covert or overt overthrow of democratically elected
governments whose national interests conflicted
with perceived US national interests. Now the US
has become "the indispensable nation," fighting a
"war on terror" as we attempt to control or----euphemistically-"stabilize"the
entire Middle East. While
there may be some truth to these slogans, they are
half-truths that mask an ongoing imperial role in the
world, while malntalning a self-righteous national
image of acting solely from virtuous motivations. If
the United States is"the indispensable nation,"our
nation's leaders present American interests as synonymous
with the interests of the rest of the world.
The myths of entitlement, inequality, racial superiority,
and conquest/dispossession have coexisted
uncomfortably with constitutional guarantees of
equality for all. It has taken generations to even begin
to correct the moral and spiritual imperfections
of these founding myths within the United States. In
fact, the histo!}' and ideology of settler colonialism
have been so central to the political histo!}, of the
United States that it is not surprising the political
and religious leadership in the US has been predisposed
to uncritical support for the Zionist movement.
What is surprising is that some of the most influential
and progressive American Protestant theologians
of the twentieth century were also pro-Zionist,
in spite of their denunciation of fundamentalism
and dispensationalist "End Times" speculation. These
include theologians who specialized in a prophetic
critique of American foreign policy and the misuse of
US power around the world. Some of their students
who exercise influence in mainline denominations
. still cling to a form of liberal pro-Zionism that to
this day turns a blind eye to more than 65 years of
systemic violation of International law and human
rights by Israel. In this section we will look at several
mainstream theologians who may be called liberal
pro-Zionists.
PAUL TlllICH AND REINHOLD NIEBUHR
In the 1930s a number of Jewish and Christian
intellectuals with roots in Germany but subsequently
teaching in New York City at institutions such as
Columbia University, Hebrew Union College, and
Union Seminary formed a moral support group.
Among the group were the philosopher and political
theorist Herbert Marcuse, Rabbi Abraham Heschel,
theologian Paul Tillich (1886-1965), and political
ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). As the Third
Reich in Germany escalated its demonization and
violence against Jews, the support group became a
political think-tank, increasingly outspoken against
the Nazi regime and demanding US intervention on
behalf of European JeWl}'.
Tillich was already a strong critic of Nazism,
having analyzed and condemned it in The Sodalist
Decision, a book on social theory, which he wrote
in 1933. He noted that Nazi ideology was opposed
to the spirit of Judaism, which was centered in the
worship of God "who transcended blood, soil, and
communal loyalties and demanded justice."2 Thus it
is not surprising that Tillich was not originally a supporter
of the Zionist cause, questioning the concept
of a nation-state "Israel" and arguing thatthe Jewish
people should not be limited to an attachment to
"space [land] and time."However, Tillich changed
his position as conditions for Jews deteriorated in
Germany. Once news of the concentration camps
and corresponding genocide were confirmed, he
became a supporter of the Zionist quest for Jewish
statehood. He firmly believed that the only answer
was to provide Jews with a safe haven in a state of
their own.
mlich found a close ally in fellow Union Seminary
Professor Reinhold Niebuhr who would soon
become a leading voice on US foreign policy and an
outspoken advocate for Zionist causes. (President
Barack Obarna has called Niebuhr "my theologian"
and one of the major influences on his political and
ethical thought.) Unlike many of their theologian
colleagues, Niebuhr and Tillich were not silent about
what was occwring in Europe. Tillich, a German native,
and Niebuhr, a second generation American of
German descent, began to organize themselves with
a goal of influencing US policy concerning the threat
Germany posed to the Jews of Europe and the unity
of Europe itself.
Tillich called upon all Christians and particularly
the churches of the Reformation to join with Judaism
in a prophetic critique of this highly distorted expression
of German nationalism. He considered Nazism
a false, secular alternative to prophetic Judaism and
Christianity as it was based on pagan Teutonic myths
of Aryan racial supremacy and was, in essence, a
closed system with no room for the p'rophetic critique
that the Hebrew Prophets and Jesus brought
to humanity. In mlich's view, the only just action by
the church was to oppose Nazism in every conceivable
way. Had Tillich anticipated that Zionism would
become a closed system with little room for prophetic
critique, might he perhaps have issued a similar
prophetic critique against it
Once news of the
concentration
camps and
corresponding
genocide were
confirmed,
[Tillich) became
a supporter of the
Zionist quest for
Jewish statehood.
Paul TIllich
Reinhold Niebuhr
38
ZIONISM UNSETTLED