Jeffrey Goldberg writes about how horrified Israel's American Christian right supporters would be if they actually knew anything the country as it actually exists:
I've met evangelical leaders who share an unpleasant tic with Israel's critics on the far left: They all hold Israel to an impossible standard of moral and political behavior. To much of the Christian right, Israel isn't a real nation-state facing a series of painful choices. It is, instead, a biblical fantasyland, and an instrument of Christian salvation. In Bachmann's case, it's a living test of America's fealty to God.For Israel's sake then, if not for America's, perhaps it's best that she remain ignorant of Israeli reality.
Including the reality of all those sweaty gays.
We needn't stick to gay rights here. Conservatives panicking over a supposedly "socialist" president might reconsider their affection for a country founded by socialists, those opposed to universal healthcare might want to avert their eyes from Israel's law mandating the purchase of health insurance, those calling for military servicemembers to be forced back into the closet might consider that the Jewish state has allowed openly gay servicemembers since the 1990s. But perhaps they know all this, and they're merely biding their time until the forces of illiberalism in Israel can complete their project of turning the country into a state whose approach to universal human rights reflects their own narrow tribalism.
