However, he added, abstraction is hardly unique to Christian Zionism. Israeli leftist Ksenia Svetlova made a similar point in this publication when she decried Western liberals who insist on reading Hamas militants as “freedom fighters.” One might also consider the way that many on the left code Israelis as white European when so many are of Middle Eastern or North African descent. Or the way, with its revised 2017 charter, Hamas was able to ditch blatantly antisemitic conspiracies for an anti-Zionist framework doing the same work. There is power in grand narratives—in the case of the revised charter, that people in support of the world’s only Jewish state are bloodthirsty racists, part of a nefarious plot with global proportions, and responsible for their own persecution.
Citing the threats that Israel currently faces “from both religious and secular sources,” as well as the long history of Christian antisemitism, Goldman believes Christian Zionism to be a net gain for Jewish people. Brett and Stein disagree, Stein indicating that, while all non-Jewish political movements in America have some antisemitic figures and elements, antisemitism is particularly pronounced within Christian Zionism.
But it hardly matters to many gentiles what Jews think when their own feelings are so very strong. And philosemitism almost always manifests as a feeling—a feeling, in the words of one critic, “that they alone have discovered the unique suffering or genius of ‘the Jew,’ and must zealously spread this revelation like a gospel.” There are reportedly now Jews fearfully removing mezuzahs from their doors, while Christians put them on their own, in some cases, engraved with Jesus fish. There’s also Glenn Beck, a long-time promoter of George Soros conspiracies, imploring Israeli leaders for citizenship and wondering on his radio program if his life’s purpose is to “stand with the Jew.”