![\"Jews](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/554\/2015\/09\/Disputation.jpg\")
<\/a>Let\u2019s talk about the state of \u201cChristian-Jewish\u201d relations!<\/p>\n
For most of the past 2,000 years, our relations consisted of Christians alternatively killing and forcibly converting (and killing and forcibly converting and exiling) the Jews.<\/p>\n
Since the rise of the state of Israel, all kinds of power dynamics have changed and today the word \u201ccomplicated\u201d hardly begins to describe it. So as we begin the new year of 5776, let\u2019s take a look at how representatives of two of the world\u2019s most intertwined religious groups are doing.<\/p>\n
Item One:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Israeli Christian schools are now in the third week of a national strike over funding. These schools are considered \u201cunofficially recognized\u201d and are paid for a by a combination of state and private funds. They serve over 30,000 students \u2013 including many Muslim and Druze \u2013 and pre-date the modern state by many, many years.<\/p>\n The Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews also maintain their own \u201cunofficially recognized\u201d schools. But there are differences and they\u2019re not small. The Haredi schools \u2013 which receive massive funding \u2013 are notoriously lacking in academic value. They treat secular subjects like a joke and fail to prepare their students for the labor market.<\/p>\n Christian schools, on the other hand, are famously high quality. Almost 90% of Arab workers in the high-tech sector attended a Christian school.<\/p>\n Of course, the ideal would be to eliminate all religious schools in\u2026.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t even finish typing that sentence because I made myself laugh so hard.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s face it. In the holey \u2026 er\u2026 holy \u2026 land there is no way that religion and state and state schools will ever disentangle.<\/p>\n Yet the whole thing makes me wonder if the evangelical \u201cChristian Zionists\u201d are aware of how Israel\u2019s Ministry of Education is treating their co-religionists.<\/p>\n Item Two:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Speaking of Christian Zionists, they\u2019re getting ready to meet in Jerusalem for their big international pro-Israel Sukkot gathering.<\/p>\n This annual meeting is sponsored by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ). For years they\u2019ve been gathering to march in solidarity with Israel during what they call the Feast of Tabernacles. The march has grown to a week-long conference of praying and speechifying.<\/p>\n The ICEJ does do some nice things for Israeli charities so on the night that they\u2019ve dubbed \u201cIsraeli Night\u201d they will be visited by IDF soldiers, Israel\u2019s president, and PM Netanyahu who are there to say thanks for the support and also for the not boycotting.<\/p>\n Which is not sitting well with the two chief rabbis of Israel. As reported by the Times of Israel<\/a>:<\/p>\n In a letter dated September 3, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef charged that the annual event organized by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem was a missionary effort to convert Jews to Christianity.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a grave matter that runs contrary to our faith, and we must therefore denounce it and warn the public,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n While the rabbis noted the staunchly pro-Israel ICEJ were friends of the Jewish state, they said that the gathering \u2026 intentionally targeted Israeli Jews with missionary activities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call on the Jewish community in the Holy Land not to take part in this conference\u2026 the event is spiritually dangerous and undermines the nature of Judaism,\u201d Lau and Yosef wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Item Three:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The chief rabbis of Israel are not the only ones with concerns about all the Israel love being spread by conservative Christians.<\/p>\n Last night Ann Coulter also weighed in with some biting tweets about repeated candidate kissing-up to Israel during CNN\u2019s Republican debate.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t like it when Huckabee did it:<\/p>\n Good grief! Huckabee is running for PM of Israel.<\/p>\n \u2014 Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 17, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n