At his excellent blog, Gershom Gorenberg has a couple of important posts about John Hagee, who is being honored tonight in Ariel -- which, as Gorenberg points out, is not in Israel but in the occupied West Bank -- for his own work "honoring Israel." As part of the bestowing of "honor" on the man who hosts "Nights to Honor Israel" all over the United States, a sports and recreation center will be dedicated to Hagee.
Meanwhile, back in the States, the head of the Union for Reform Judaism, Eric Yoffie, who's been critical of Hagee in the past, was even more blunt in criticizing both Hagee and Rod Parsley in a speech to a conference of Reform rabbis in Cincinnati this week:
We are talking here not about dialogue but about political alliances, which demand of us a higher standard and which require both common values and common interests. And I suggest that we should not enter into such alliances with Christian Zionists for two primary reasons....
The first is that Jews should not enter into alliances of any kind with those who do not speak respectfully of other faith communities. And sadly, tragically, Christian Zionist leaders have engaged in repeated attacks, expressed sometimes in shocking and unacceptable language, directed against other religious traditions....
The Jewish community has a special responsibility to oppose such rhetoric. Supremely sensitive to the power of words, we have responded aggressively to all who express anti-Semitic or anti-Israel sentiments....
Finally, and most important, we should avoid alliances with Christian Zionists because what they mean by support of Israel and what we mean by support of Israel are two very different things. They offer support for a particular religious vision, particular Israeli leaders, and particular political factions, all of which reflect their own prophecy-driven view of the Middle East.
--Sarah Posner
