The world did not pressure Russia over the immense atrocities commited against Chechnya, or China over the Uighurs. The world cares not about the Basques, Bretons, Red Indians, and scores of other oppressed minorities. The United States is built on occupied land. But the entirely insignificant tribe of Palestinian Arabs reaps international attention. The same media provides no coverage of other suffering Arabs: Shiites in Saudi Arabia, Christians in Egypt, Palestinians in Kuwait, etc. The only conceivable reason for the world’s passion for the Palestinians is anti-Semitism. Most anti-Semitic canards hold a bit of distorted truth, and so the Palestinian canard is true to an extent: Palestinians are much better off under Israeli rule, but they are less free, and most importantly, non-sovereign. But the screams in support of the Palestinian Arabs are not meant to support them, but rather to condemn Jews.
Jews lived peacefully with Muslims for centuries, but we have never felt comfortable in any Christian country; even the US was deeply anti-Semitic until the mid-twentieth century at least. Israeli problems with Arab nationalists stem in large measure from Christian actions. Christian nations pushed Israel into indefensible borders by carving Jordan and Palestine out of the land of Israel. Arabs might not fight a relatively large Israel in the borders of the Promised Land, but a beach-strip Israel is provocatively indefensible. The Christian state of America, rather than Muslim Egypt, forced Israel to give away the Sinai. Christian powers finance the Arabs’ wars with Israel by oil purchases, and enable those wars by selling Arabs advanced weapons. Whatever the liberal rabbis are saying now, the Rambam declared in the Laws of Kings, chapter 11, “Jesus of Nazareth… caused Israel to perish by the sword and to have their remnant scattered and degraded. He replaced the Torah and led astray most of the world to serve a god besides the Lord.”
Christian support for Israel is exaggerated. A two-thousand-year-old anti-Semitic mentality cannot change in a few years. Israel enjoys support from several messianic movements, but these are no more than the fringes of Christianity. Even for those churches, Israel is only an instrument for the messianic event. Should the Jewish state perish in an apocalyptic war, messianists will only see that as furthering their aims.
There are many sensible Christians who like the Jews, and still more of those who hate Muslims and view Jews as useful allies. But Israel can’t ever count on the Christian mainstream. Curious indifference is the best attitude among Christians the Jews could hope for.
