Frank Bruni, NY Times: Christians Loving Jews

[edhopper]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-benjamin-netanyahu-john-boehner-and-americas-evangelicals.html?_r=0

Yes, Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu, rendered independently of the White House, was a way to get under President Obama’s skin and in President Obama’s way. And, yes, that provocation was manna to the most conservative House Republicans, who sometimes chafe under Boehner’s leadership.

But they loved what Boehner did for an additional reason: It catered to the evangelical Christians who are an integral part of the party’s base, especially for lawmakers from the reddest states or districts. In fact, as Ashley Parker reported in The Times, Boehner’s caucus gave him a standing ovation last week even though he was bucking them by linking arms with Nancy Pelosi to pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

This is one of the few places I have seen in the discussion about the GOP and Israel that acknowledged this prime reason for their support of Netanyahu and Israel. Bruni does a good job of explaining the nutty evangelical obsession with Israel.

The speech was about undermining Obama, and red meat for their rw christian base. It had little to do with Jewish voters or AIPAC.

[frazzled]

1. A tin-ear headline for this op-ed piece

These fundamentalist Christians aren't "loving Jews"; they simply love the idea of Israel as the site of their messianic dream of the Savior reborn (you know, the one in which the Jews are ultimately consigned to hell). I don't think this love fest with Israel was always thus. In its earlier years, the new state of Israel was rather the love interest of the European left--socialists and communists who saw it as the burgeoning of a socialist state, with its communal kibbutzes and freedom fighters and intellectuals. But that wasn't about "loving Jews" either. Nobody "loves" Jews, nor should they. It's demeaning. It's like saying you just love Negroes or gay people. Puh-leeze, Frank Bruni. You sometimes have such a tin ear.

[edhopper]

2. I wonder if this title

was put their by editorial, rather than the author. He never says such a thing in the article.

Either way the content is very on point.