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Jerusalem, Trump and the San Antonio Connection

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Jerusalem, Trump and the San Antonio Connection Jerusalem, Trump and the San Antonio Connection Nadine Saliba On December 6, 2017, US president Donald Trump announced East Jerusalem fell under Jordanian control. During the 1967 that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital war, Israel occupied East Jerusalem and later annexed it. This of Israel and move the US embassy there. Like several Demo- annexation however was deemed null and void by the United cratic and Republican presidential candidates before him, Nations because it was in violation of international law. Trump had made this a major campaign promise. After all, a Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is pro-Israel US foreign policy has always enjoyed bipartisan sup- considered a break from what is seen as a more balanced, long- port. For example, the democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck held US position that the status of Jerusalem should be deter- LA VOZ Schumer, endorsed the move. Even liberal comedian, Trump mined through negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. critic and known Islamophobe, Bill Maher announced his sup- But it’s important to remember that it was under this decades- port for the Jerusalem decision premising his position with the old US policy that Israel continued to occupy and colonize de disclaimer: “I hate to agree with Donald Trump, but...”. East Jerusalem with impunity. It was under this so-called more 2 31 Issue • March 2018 Vol. ESPERANZA The US congress had already passed, with strong biparti- balanced US position that Israel worked diligently to change san support, a law in 1995 called the Jerusalem Embassy Act, the city’s demographic character, creating a Jewish majority which declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel and required the through policies that constitute a clear violation of interna- US to move its embassy there by 1999. Since then, however, tional law such as home evictions, home demolitions, residency every six months, revocations, land the president in of- confiscation, building fice signs a waiver Jewish-only settle- to keep the em- ments and the list bassy in Tel Aviv, goes on. citing national Trump’s decision security concerns. on Jerusalem allows The Arab- him to show his sup- Israeli war of 1948 porters that, unlike and the establish- past presidents, he is ment of the state delivering on an issue of Israel led to the that is popular among division of Jerusa- Republicans in gen- lem. West Jeru- eral, but especially salem fell under among the party’s Trump’s decision caused world wide protests. Nearly every former U.S. ambassador to Israel disagrees with Israeli control and Trump’s Jerusalem decision. Its implementation remains to be seen. Evangelical Christian 7 base. Many within this base adhere to Christian Zionism, a be- controlled Palestine, was getting increasingly weaker, British lief that the return of Jews to Palestine and the creation of the politicians saw in the creation of a Zionist state in Palestine un- state of Israel comes in fulfillment of God’s will and biblical der British sponsorship potential for extending the reach of the prophecy. British empire and securing passage through the Suez Canal. Zionism is a modern Jewish nationalist movement that Informed by racism and anti-Semitism, the idea of Jewish emerged in Europe in the late 19th Century calling for the im- immigration to Palestine was meant to divert the immigration migration of European Jews to Palestine and the establishment of Eastern European Jews, fleeing poverty and deadly pogroms of a Jewish homeland. While Zionism developed in response to in Russia, away from Western Europe. Arthur Balfour is best European anti-Semitism, it followed the model of other exclu- known as the British foreign secretary who signed in 1917 the sionary nationalist movements that were ascendant in Europe at infamous colonial document the Balfour Declaration, pledging the time and that played no small part in feeding anti-Semitism. Palestine to the Zionist project. The declaration stated: “His It is important to note that the Zionist movement was opposed Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in In an infamous sermon, Hagee called Hitler a hunter sent by God to per- secute European Jews and thus force them to go to the holy land because “so few” of them heeded the Zionist call to live in Palestine. by most Jews of all stripes—secular and religious, socialist and Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will liberal—because they realized that it meant the expulsion of use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this Jews from Europe, a goal that coincided with the desires of the object...” However, the same Balfour presided, as British prime anti-Semites. minister in 1905, over the passage of the Aliens Act, whose Three hundred years prior to that history, proto-Zionist main purpose was to impose immigration controls specifi- ideas had already existed among certain Protestant sects that cally targeting Eastern European Jews. Some might see this as emerged after the Protestant Reformation of 16th-century a paradox. Was the man a supporter of the Jews or was he an Europe. These sects believed in two parallel ideas, the return anti-Semite? Certainly, Balfour and the government he repre- of the Jewish people to Palestine as a precursor to the second sented supported colonialism and Zionism but that does not coming of Jesus Christ and the conversion of Jews to Christi- necessarily mean they supported the Jewish people. anity as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. These views came to In its contemporary manifestation, Christian Zionism has America with European settlers and eventually spread with the an especially odious connection in San Antonio through the growth of Evangelical Protestantism in the US. In the current figure of John Hagee, a millionaire televangelist and pastor administration, Vice President Mike Pence, a zealous believer of Cornerstone megachurch. Hagee founded the organization in this ideology associated with political conservatives and Christians United for Israel (CUFI) in 2006, which claims to be the Christian Right, has served as the Christian Zionists’ main the largest pro-Israel group in the US and whose goal is to pro- channel to the White House. vide political and financial support for Israel. The organization But religious beliefs were not the sole motivation behind lobbies US politicians and raises millions of dollars to bankroll these ideas. Advocates for the return of Jews to Palestine in illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank and the 19th and early 20th Centuries, especially among Western East Jerusalem in addition to disseminating propaganda about European elites and government circles were motivated by the political situation in Palestine and Israel. ESPERANZA • March 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 2 31 Issue • March 2018 Vol. ESPERANZA imperial and colonial interests. As the Ottoman Empire, which Hagee and his organization spread anti-Arab and anti- de LA VOZ 8 Muslim rhetoric and incitement and engage in the vilification, said enough, Hagee goes on to accuse Jews of not being spiri- dehumanization and erasure of Palestinians. He claims that the tually alive, preaching “Today Israel is back in the land and... US is in a religious war against Islam. In his book, Jerusalem they [the Jews] are physically alive but they’re not spiritually Countdown - A Warning to the World, Hagee writes: “This is alive.” A video of this sermon that surfaced during the 2008 a religious war that Islam cannot and must not win,” adding: presidential campaign is credited with prompting then Repub- “The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching... lican presidential candidate John McCain to renounce Hagee’s Rejoice and be exceedingly glad the best is yet to be.” political endorsement. Believing that the creation of Israel is a prerequisite for the According to this ideology, therefore, everything that battle of Armageddon, the pastor opposes any measures that happens, every political event, every historical development, could end the conflict such as an Israeli military withdrawal including the suffering and persecution of Jews, is part of a from the West Bank. This follower of Jesus advocates for war divine plan to drive the Jewish people to Palestine. As for the with Iran just as he was an ardent advocate for the US war in Palestinians, the indigenous people who were slaughtered and In an infamous sermon, Hagee called Hitler a hunter sent by God to per- secute European Jews and thus force them to go to the holy land because “so few” of them heeded the Zionist call to live in Palestine. Iraq. In a 2003 video of a “prayer” broadcast that aired before ethnically cleansed to make room for an ethno/religious pure the US invasion of Iraq, Hagee pleaded with God for war: settler state, their suffering does not even register on his radar “Father, in the name of the lord Jesus, I pray for our president screen. In this scenario, Jews are valued not as human beings tonight, I pray that you would give him the wisdom of Solo- but as characters needed for the development of a plot. That, LA VOZ mon to lead this nation into war...” too, is a form of dehumanization. And yet this man is embraced Guided by a literalist interpretation of the bible, Hagee, by Israeli leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Ameri- like many Evangelical Christians, believes that the end-time can organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Com- de prophecies hastened by the ingathering of the Jews in the holy mittee (AIPAC), a leading pro-Israel lobby. 2 31 Issue • March 2018 Vol. ESPERANZA land include the rapture (true believers of Christ will Indigenous Palestinian Christians, members of the oldest be removed from earth), the Great Tribulation (a time Christian community in the world, who, like all Pales- of wars, famine and disease), the conversion of Jews tinians, are directly harmed by the ideology and actions to Christianity and the battle of Armageddon whereby carried out by Christian Zionists in the name of their unconverted Jews die.
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