Zev Chafets is a founding editor of the Jerusalem Report magazine and the author of nine books of fiction, media criticism, and social and political commentary. He splits his time between Tel Aviv and New York.
In this provocative study, Chafets, a journalist and former Menachem Begin press secretary, explores American evangelical support for Israel. Chafets interweaves reflections on the history of American Christians' embrace of Israel with contemporary reporting, visiting places like Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and tagging along on an evangelical tour of the Holy Land. Perhaps his most important point is that, despite American reporters' claims that only Israeli fanatics have accepted evangelical support, in fact "mainstream Israel" has welcomed the alliance. Chafets argues that especially in a time of war, American Jews need to realize that it is "Muslim fascists," not evangelical Christians, who are Israel's enemy. He acknowledges that much Christian Zionism includes belief in an end times scenario in which Jews don't fare well, but asks why Jews should care so much about their place in Christian eschatology, since Jews reject Christian accounts of the end times tout court . Altogether, Chafets's portrait suggests a great gulf between American Jewry and Israelis, and also points to great diversity of views among American Christians: liberal Protestants tend to be more equivocal in their support of Israel. This intensely readable book, which ends with a warning that evangelical enthusiasm for Israel ought not to be taken for granted and is sure to spark heated debate. (Jan. 9) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
This book could have easily been called Strange Bedfellows, as Chafets, an American journalist who has lived in Israel for more than 30 years, takes on, through a series of anecdotal encounters, the sometimes uncomfortable relationship between American Jews and Evangelical Christians. In discussing Armageddon, for example, Chafets writes, "Evangelical Christians have long debatedbut their eschatology was of no interest to the outside world until they became politically potent. Suddenly there was great liberal suspicion that George W. Bush, with his evildoers and his inexplicable love of Israel, was unduly influenced by the Bible." The author's encounters with leading Christian evangelicals as well as his own disagreements with liberal American Jewish leaders make up most of this short text. In an amusingly ironic final chapter (written before New Life Church Pastor Ted Haggard's infamous downfall), Chafets refers to Haggard's reaction to the charge that Evangelicals dominate the Air Force Academy and discriminate against Jews. Chafets quotes Haggard as saying, "The scandal at the academy was way overrated." Written with a keen journalistic eye, this book sheds light, often comically, on the strange alliances and suspicions between and among liberal Jews and conservative Christians; recommended.-Herbert E. Shapiro, Empire State Coll., SUNY Rochester Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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