“America First” and an Anti-Israel Agenda
For many who read here, the title I gave this piece is really a no-brainer. Move-on, I already know this. So, why write this, if everybody already knows it? Also, it is not likely to persuade the anti-Israel crowd, because they are not given to true, biblical understanding. Perhaps in a majority of cases, God turned them over to a reprobate mind, as Paul warns in Romans 1. Nevertheless, I went ahead and wrote this essay, because I want to make the case that pro-Israel is the America First position and anti-Israel, the America Finished one. I think the idea needs more support in writing and presentation.
Many right now associate putting America first with an anti-Israel agenda. Even Israel advocates, who claim America First, will agree that the United States should stop sending Israel any money, and then usually say something to qualify it: “I want to eliminate all foreign aid, so that would include Israel.” I feel hatred and animosity for Israel even in rural Indiana. I would interpret it as personally jealous and spiritually Satanic. It is spreading and growing, both. If that’s happening here, I would surmise that this is a cross-section of what’s also occurring everywhere else in the country.
If I visit an internet America First location on whatever platform and comment for Israel, it is not unusual for someone also to say, “Go away, dispensationalism is a heresy.” Or something derogatory, such as, “Move to Israel, Jew lover!” The word “dispensationalism” has entered the imagination of even the unchurched, and they see dispensationalists as Jew-loving, in fact anti-Christian, shills for Israel and probably within the tangled web of Benjamin Netanyahu. When a bigger name, larger audience spokesman supports Israel, very often a lot opposition comes, accusing him of being on Bibi’s payroll. This is where we’re at.
Anti-Israel Talking Points
What Tucker Carlson says also represents a lot of the anti-Israel talking points. I don’t listen to him, but in the few clips I watch, I hear him say the following such things. An American president must put his own people first, not another nation. Israel must have something on the president or else he would not have joined with Israel in this war against Iran. I feel sorry for the president, because he’s a slave to Israel or Bibi Netanyahu. The United States is fighting Israel’s war. American soldiers are dying for Israel. The current failings of the West began with Germany’s defeat in 1945. All of America’s problems trace to its alliance with Israel.
Other accusations are frequent. Israel believes in and committed genocide in Gaza. It wants to and then destroyed Christian churches in Gaza. Christians are better off in Moslem countries than they are in Israel. Israel kills the innocent, women and children, in Palestine and in Lebanon. The Israeli army targets civilians and bombs schools and hospitals. The terminology, “Christ is King,” means less, “Christ is King,” than Israel rejected its true King.
I agree that for a little less than ten million Jews in a very small Middle Eastern nation, Israel exerts a lot influence on the United States. It might be right that Israel has more per capita impact on the United States than any other nation. I don’t believe that it has the most influence on the United States of any country, but Israel has a lot. Why? Mainly it’s a religious reason, stemming from a very fundamental biblical doctrine that many Americans grew up hearing and believing. Today, I think it’s true, that this is still held by mainly 45-80 year olds and the vast majority of those below 45 didn’t get it.
Reasons Support for Israel Is America First
So far, I’ve written a lot without addressing why strong support for Israel by the United States is America First. I’ve primarily given an explanation from what is occurring in the United States, why it is important to understand why the U.S. should be pro-Israel. It is also why being pro-Israel is being pro-Christian. Those two go together. Most of those who disassociate Christianity from Israel are not biblical Christians. Probably only a very narrow group of postmillennial and amillennial reformed types both truly believe the gospel and are antagonistic toward Israel.
From the Negative: God Promised a Curse for Cursing Israel
I’m going to approach the next part of this presentation in the negative. Instead of starting with the pro-Israel and America First, I’m going to give the anti-Israel and America Finished. One, God promised a curse upon those who cursed Israel in His unconditional covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, and then continues reinforcing in Genesis 15, 17, 22:15-18, 26:2-5, 24, 28:13-15, 35:9-12; Exodus 2:24, 3:6, 15-16, 6:3-8, 32:13; Leviticus 26:42; Numbers 24:9, 32:11; and Deuteronomy 1:8, 4:31, 7:7-8, 9:5, 27, and 30:20. The Old Testament serves as a non-stop illustration of the veracity of this covenant.
Those who pick God’s cursing are choosing America Finished. They are proud, rebellious, and hard-hearted people. Their future is dim, dark, and destruction. Through His curse, God has unlimited resources to enforce what happens to a nation or empire that will curse Israel. The Bible gives numerous examples of cursed nations that defied God’s covenant with Abraham, hence Israel: Babylon (Jeremiah 50:14–15, 51:24), Assyria (Isaiah 10:5–12, 14:24–25), Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:2–3, Exodus 17:14), Edom (Ezekiel 35, Amos 1:11-12, Obadiah 1:10–15), Seven Nations of Canaan—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—(Deuteronomy 7:1–6, 9:5), Egypt (Exodus 7-12), Ammon (Amos 1:13-14), Moab (Amos 2:1-2) and Philistia (Amos 1:6-8).
Modern Examples of this Curse Exist Too
Two, scripture stands as sufficient and final in its authority, but modern examples exist too after the completion of the Bible. In 1492, Spain issued the Alhambra Decree, expelling its entire Jewish population. Subsequently Spain collapsed economically and lost its global empire, which reasonably was a direct consequence of this curse. The total destruction of the Third Reich in Germany is viewed by many as the ultimate modern example. Lebanon, once called the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” declined into civil war and economic ruin. There are many other examples.
God does not lie. He is serious about His covenant. His reinforcement of it testifies and glorifies His holy nature. Tucker Carlson asks how Israel blesses the United States? That isn’t the covenant. Carlson often mocks those who get something even slightly scripturally wrong, or if they can’t answer one of his ‘gotcha’ questions. He’s totally off on this one and he stands responsible for the damage he causes in doing it. The covenant is that God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel. Carlson would have the United States curse Israel and this is an America Finished movement, if it were to proceed according to his desires.
Even if Israel or Jews Are Bad, Scripture Shows the Covenant Is Unconditional
Three, a major challenge today to God’s covenant with Abraham’s seed, which is Israel, is that Israel is anti-Christian, unbelieving, and not a blessing to America, because it gets Americans killed in the Middle East. As you look at the above examples, Israel wasn’t believing during nearly all of those various occasions either. Even if God was using or allowing an Assyria or a Babylon as His instrument of judgment, that didn’t remove them for their responsibility for what they did to Israel.
Many Biblical Examples
God used Assyria as the “rod of mine anger” to punish the northern kingdom of Israel (Isaiah 10:5-6). Later, God vowed to punish the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria for his pride and cruelty (Isaiah 10:12). In the midst of God’s punishing Israel (Judah), Edom acted with vengeance against the Southern Kingdom of Israel during its fall, acting as enemies. Obadiah 1:10-16 prophesied that because of their violence against their brother Jacob, Edom would be destroyed and cut off forever.
Ezekiel 25-28 describes God’s judgment against Ammon, Moab, Philistia, and Tyre because they rejoiced over the destruction of Israel and acted with deadly vengeance when they were meant only to be temporary agents of judgment. While God permits nations to discipline His people, He holds those nations accountable for overstepping, showing no mercy, or acting in pride against the “apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8, Isaiah 47:6).
God will remain faithful to His covenant with Israel, despite Israel’s behavior, and that does not justify other nations to do something against Israel. Countries could refuse to bless Israel or decide to curse Israel, and God will still hold those nations responsible, because of His covenant. In many of the cases today, the argument comes from those who rebelliously or unwisely allegorize Old Testament prophetic passages. They assert that God fulfilled His covenant already, and so now “the church,” which always in fact is not the actual true church, replaced Israel.
Push Back Against False Arguments
What you will hear today in the way of cursing Israel from agents in the United States is that the United States should not put a foreign nation ahead of its own interests. Whatever money or support the United States gives Israel then, the argument follows, the government or taxpayers could spend on the deteriorating and dilapidated infrastructure of its inner cities. This is as if spending more money doing that will actually solve that problem or even be the right thing to do.
Since its return to the land, the United States has supported Israel. This is a blessing to the United States, despite whatever people might think worldwide Jewry is a detriment to the country. Two things can be true at the same time. One, the beliefs, philosophies, and policies of unbelieving Jews can be a bad influence on the country. Two, cursing the Jews as payback still breaks God’s unconditional covenant.
Recent history has many Jews with very bad ideas that harm the United States. I could start listing many Jews in the last 100-200 years, who propagated awful teachings. There are so many, I don’t even know where to start. Sigmund Freud came to my mind first. Saul Alinsky is another. I think of George Soros. On the other hand, I could provide a very long list of Jews who left the United States with amazing benefits through their discovery, study, and work.
Anti-Israel Is America Finished, Not America First
I’m making my argument from scripture, so it is a faith argument. It is by faith that people please God (Hebrews 11:6). Americans don’t have to follow the bad teachings of atheist or agnostic Jews or Gentiles. They do have to bless the Jews. Both are true. I recognize Jews are not believing. The Apostle Paul did too in Romans 9-11. He even explains why they don’t believe. This same man though wrote concerning the propagation of the gospel: “to the Jew first” (Romans 1:16).
Anti-Israel material, rants, conferences, preaching, and declarations proceed from unbelief in what God said. These are messed-up people saying and doing this. No one should follow what they are saying. These people should be repudiated. They do not know what they are talking about. Do not swallow the lies that they tell, saying that pro-Israel comes out of a dispensational, Scofield, Darby, or Rothschild conspiracy. Some are just completely deluded in the same quality as an insane manifesto, written by someone on the verge of an asylum. It’s worse than that actually.
Anti-Israel is not America First. It is America Finished. Scripture teaches that. History illustrates it. Do not jump on that bandwagon. Burn it.