Zionism, Judaism and the State of Israel

Extract

The existence—and persistence—of the State of Israel continues to be a stumbling block, if not a scandal, for many Christian religious leaders. What is most remarkable and distressing is that the inability to understand the rationale of Zionism and the State of Israel is more prevalent among many Protestant “liberals” in theology, who might have been expected to have less dogmatic problems, than among Protestant “conservatives.” As for the Roman Catholic Church, the longstanding opposition of the papacy to Jewish aspirations and rights in the Holy Land and in Jerusalem has long been a staple of Catholic foreign policy, both because of ancient theological prejudices and contemporary political considerations.