Paranoia Will Destroy Ya

Abraham Foxman suffers from clinical paranoia. How else can we explain his belief that the biggest threat to Jews in the United States is the "religious right"? A Washington Times article says this:

A group of Jewish leaders meets in New York this week to develop a response to the religious right, which they say is eroding civil liberties and planning to "christianize America." Led by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the private meeting is set for today, said an assistant to Mr. Yoffie.

Both men were unavailable for comment Friday, and neither organization would divulge details of the meeting, including who else is attending and where it is being held. But the meeting is the culmination of a month of attacks by Mr. Foxman and Mr. Yoffie on conservative Christian groups, starting with Mr. Foxman's speech Nov. 3 at an ADL function in New York.

"We face a better-financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before," he said. "Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us."

The chief villains, he said, were the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family; the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund; the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association; and the Family Research Council, based in Washington. "This issue is serious enough for us to develop a strategy, and, clearly, our first task is to win the support of the American public," Mr. Foxman said. "We also need to come together with other Jewish organizations ... and to find allies beyond our community."

On Nov. 19, Mr. Yoffie compared the religious right to Nazis. "We understand those who believe that the Bible opposes gay marriage, even though we read that text in a very different way," the rabbi said. "We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations."

So, Christians are essentially Nazis. If Christians acquire much more political power in this country look for extermination camps for Jews to sprout up next to the local Wal-Mart.

When, we have to ask, have Christians talked about banning gay organizations (as distinct from gay marriage)? How, exactly, are Christians a threat to Jews? Neither Foxman nor Yoffie explain. In our post-modern, PC world there is no distinction between leveling an allegation and substantiating it. The fact that these men eagerly embrace the narrative of Christian tyranny and feel oppressed by a Christian hegemony that exists entirely in their febrile imaginations is all that's necessary to validate their claims.

Don Feder, president of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, succinctly highlights the silliness of the fears voiced by such as Foxman and Yoffie when he says this:

"Foxman loves to whine about the religious right and how they're destroying religious liberty in America. Is wanting to keep God in the Pledge of Allegiance Christianizing America? Is opposition to gay marriage Christianizing America? Are efforts to keep public displays of the Ten Commandments Christianizing America? If so, Moses was a Christianizer."

The Times' article continues:

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder of the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), pointed out that evangelicals are Israel's best U.S. friends. His group raised $44.9 million in 2004, mostly from evangelicals, for pro-Israel causes. In 2002, the IFCJ commissioned a poll of 1,200 Americans that found that "conservative church-going Christians" had the highest rates of support for Israel (62 percent) among non-Jewish religious groups. In 2002, Mr. Foxman penned "Evangelical Support for Israel Is a Good Thing" for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Conservative Christians and Jewish groups have united over Israel, foreign policy and the threat of Islamic terrorism, said Kristi Hamrick, spokeswoman for American Values. "It's common knowledge that no other non-Jewish community in the country supports Israel as loyally and generously as do evangelicals," said Paul Hetrick, vice president of media relations for Focus on the Family.

But no matter. For the paranoid conspiracy theorist all this is just proof of the cleverness of the plot. Christians are lulling Jews into a false sense of trustworthiness before they treacherously spring the Final Solution upon them.

2004 Republican electoral successes and President Bush's faith-based initiatives have made some Jewish organizations nervous about evangelicals' ultimate aims. "It's absolutely an issue," said Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia. They aren't using outright violence themselves," he said of the religious right. "But they are one step down from people who are ready to use the coercive powers of the state to impose their own religious outlook."

Don't ask for evidence for any of this. That would just be a sign that you've already been co-opted by the conspiracy and are probably even working for the evil Dr. Dobson and his holocaust-loving minions.

Here's what this sort of Jewish antipathy toward Christians is going to produce: Eventually, Christians are going to get weary of it and are going to ask themselves whether their support for Israel is really worth the constant threat of terrorism on our soil. Wouldn't it be easier to just abandon Israel to her enemies and take care of things at home, they'll wonder. When that day of decision comes, the attacks by Jewish leaders on American Christians are going to do absolutely nothing to incline those same Christians to hang tough with Israel. If this country ever walks away from its commitments to Israel the Israelis will be able to give a hefty thank you very much to the likes of Abraham Foxman.