\u201cA bit more on Yours Truly, vintage 1978, in East Jerusalem.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0So I found it somewhat incongruous for anybody to suggest that his or her theology entailed one hundred percent support for Mr. Begin.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the fact is that I\u2019ve never been 100% in agreement with any<\/em> politician. \u00a0Not with Barry Goldwater. \u00a0Not even with the great Ronald Reagan. \u00a0(Perhaps with Margaret Thatcher?)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
To put it mildly, Israelis<\/em> weren\u2019t 100% behind Menachem Begin. \u00a0His election as prime minister in 1977 inaugurated\u00a0a period that lasted almost two decades, during which left-wing and right-wing blocs held roughly equal numbers of seats in the Knesset.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was, it\u2019s true (and as I\u2019ve said), at the absolute apogee of my enthusiasm for Israel and for Zionism. \u00a0(Menachem Begin as prime minister was a major difficulty for me.) \u00a0I distinctly recall visiting the Palestinian city of Hebron (\u05d7\u05b6\u05d1\u05b0\u05e8\u05d5\u05b9\u05df<\/span>;\u00a0Arabic\u00a0\u0627\u0644\u0652\u062e\u064e\u0644\u0650\u064a\u0644<\/span>\u200e\u00a0al-Khal\u012bl<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/i>) in the southern portion of the occupied West Bank and being so revolted by the omnipresent signs of a deeply resented military occupation that, at one point, walking past a sandbagged Israeli machine gun emplacement, I rather loudly muttered something about \u201cfascists.\u201d \u00a0Fortunately, the Israeli soldiers didn\u2019t seem to hear me, or else, if they did, they ignored me.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, it wasn\u2019t my strong sympathy for the Palestinian side in the Arab-Israeli conflict that made me react so negatively to the claim that \u201call true Christians\u201d were \u201cone hundred percent\u201d behind Menachem Begin and Likud, although that undoubtedly played a role. \u00a0It was, rather, my conviction that theologically-dictated absolute support for any<\/em> politician or political party is idolatry<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, yes, you\u2019re perfectly welcome to apply that notion to contemporary American politics.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Curiously, one of the experiences that I remember clearly from my stay in East Jerusalem during the first half of 1978 was a conversation on a street corner with three or four American evangelical Protestants. \u00a0I seem to recall that the conversation occurred on a street corner near the American Colony Hotel; they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7848,7845,1152,1149,4799,1561,446,7842,1914,4820],"class_list":["post-82110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-colony","tag-begin","tag-brigham-young-university","tag-byu","tag-evangelical","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-menachem","tag-politics","tag-protestant"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Magister's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/01\/American_Colony_Hotel_Arch.jpg\")
<\/a>