John Mearsheimer, an expert in international relations at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, academic dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, have issued what United Press International calls "a searing attack on the role and power of Washington's pro-Israel lobby." Their study, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," argues that Israel played a major role in pushing the U.S. into the war in Iraq, and it concludes that the Israel lobby's influence on U.S. foreign policy is bad both for Israel and for the U.S.

by James M. Wall

By Andrew I. Killgore

Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia's 8th District, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, won his June 8 primary race against challenger Andy Rosenberg by a vote of 59 to 41 percent. The outcome is significant because Rosenberg was openly supported by the Israel Lobby.

The pro-Israel Washington Post, the leading newspaper in the nation's capital, heavily played an accusation by a former pollster for Moran that the congressman privately had made an anti-Semitic remark. Moran denied the accusation, which his dismissed pollster declined to reveal.

An even more significant attack on the Israel Lobby was an almost-unheard-of editorial by the local Falls Church News Press. "This election is not about Moran's ability to lead, or about news headlines [i.e., in The Washington Post] accusing him of questionable public statements or personal finances," the paper stated. "It's about a cabal of powerful Washington, DC-based interests backing the Bush administration's support of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's handling of the Middle East conflict trying to up-end an outspoken and powerful Democratic opponent."

by Marianne Arbogast

On the platform, an Israeli student is telling thousands of supporters how the horrors of the year have only reinforced his people's determination. "Despite the terror attacks, they'll never drive us away out of our God-given land," he says. This is greeted with whoops and hollers and waving of Israeli flags and the blowing of the shofar, the Jewish ceremonial ram's horn. Then comes the mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, who is received even more rapturously. ... The placards round the hall insist that every inch of the Holy Land should belong to Israel and that there should never be a Palestinian state. These assertions are backed up by biblical quotations. It could be a rally in Jerusalem for those Israelis who think Ariel Sharon is a dangerous softie. But something very strange is going on here. There are thousands of people cheering for Israel in the huge Washington Convention Centre. But not one of them appears to be Jewish, at least not in the conventional sense. For this is the annual gathering of a very non-Jewish organization indeed: the Christian Coalition of America. - Matthew Engel, The Guardian, 10/28/02

The influence of Christian Zionists on American foreign policy is cause for concern among many who see their worldview - with its unqualified support of Israeli land rights - as potentially contributing to the outbreak of the world-engulfing apocalyptic battle they predict. Michael Prior, a Roman Catholic priest and biblical scholar at St. Mary's College, University of Surrey, England, describes and critiques the development of political Zionism and the "dispensationalist" Christian theology which has embraced it. Prior, who is the author of The Bible and Colonialism: A Moral Critique (Sheffield, 1997) and Zionism and the State of Israel: A Moral Inquiry (Routledge, 1999) and editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal (Continuum, 2002), visited the U.S. in November 2002 on a speaking tour sponsored by Friends of Sabeel and other Palestinian advocacy organizations.

by Donald Wagner

You know, I turn back to your ancient prophets in the Old Testament and signs foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if-if we're the generation that's going to see that come about. I don't know if you've noted any of those prophecies lately, but believe me, they certainly describe the times we're going through. [1]

One expects such a statement from the Rev. Pat Robertson on his "700 Club" television program or in one of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's frequent funding appeals. The speaker, however, was the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, in an intimate phone conversation with Tom Dine, Executive Director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel's powerful U.S. lobby.

Ronald Reagan was not the first high-ranking political official to adopt such a political position as a result of his "understanding" of biblical prophecy. Evangelical Christian Zionists, as this study will refer to them, have been active politically in England since the sixteenth century, and include such influential pro-Zionists as Lord Balfour and Prime Minister Lloyd-George.

by Donald Wagner

Two incidents in the Fall of 1996 underscore the priority the Netanyahu Government will give to the evangelical Christians. The first occurred on October 4, 1996, when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu chose the convention of the International Christian Embassy-Jerusalem (ICEJ) as his venue for a hard-line defense of Israel's right to open the controversial tunnel in Jerusalem's Old City. Netanyahu's remarks were broadcast on CNN and many international media outlets with the Christian Embassy's name on the rostrum, implying that despite an outpouring of international criticism, his policies had the support of this so-called "Christian" organization.

ICEJ spokesman Charles Levine noted the importance of Christian Zionist support for Israel's hard-line policies: "We're talking about hundreds of millions of people out there whose Bible beliefs can be translated into support for Israel." Like his Likud mentors Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, Netanyahu will increasingly utilize the services of Christian Zionists to enhance and justify his government's political and public relations needs in the United States, particularly as controversial issues like Jerusalem, settlements, land confiscation, water, and political sovereignty rise to the foreground during negotiations with the Palestinians.

(Part V) A Heavenly Match: Bush and the Christian Zionists

by Donald Wagner

10/12/03: (Daily Star) When Israel responded to the Netanya suicide bombing in March 2002 by reinvading the West Bank and besieging Jenin, the ensuing international outcry led US President George W. Bush to order Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw his forces from Palestinian areas. Bush sent a strong message to Sharon at an April 2 news conference: "Withdraw! Withdraw your troops immediately!"

At that point longtime Christian Zionist spokesman and pro-Israel advocate Jerry Falwell and other Christian Zionist leaders, working closely with pro-Israel groups, used their media and internet outlets to mobilize their constituencies to deliver tens of thousands of telephone calls, e-mails and letters to the president, telling him to refrain from pressuring Sharon and to allow Israel to finish its job. In the aftermath of that campaign, Bush did not utter another word of opposition to Israeli military actions. Falwell told the CBS news program 60 Minutes that after the incident, Israel could count on Bush to "do the right thing for Israel every time." The lesson was that even when the Bush administration criticized Israel, the Israelis, conscious of the extensive support they enjoy in the US Congress, would not take it seriously. As Falwell said: "The Bible Belt is Israel's safety net in the US."