Customer Reviews

Standing With Israel

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Unlike most or perhaps all other readers, I was predisposed to dislike David Brog's work when I picked it up. David, a friend and former colleague, had asked me to look at a draft of a non-fiction manuscript he had been slaving over. I knew David was a brainy guy (Princeton, Harvard Law School, lawyer at a major national firm here and at one in Israel, and chief of staff for a Senator), and I knew he was passionate about his subject. But the aspiring/frustrated writer in me said it's not so easy to translate that into powerful prose. I figured I'd read his first few pages, skim the rest and give him an honest but kind assessment.
I was stunned from his opening paragraph. The work was gripping -- enlightening, inspiring, and written in compelling, captivating, fast-faced prose that tapped historical touchstones and drew on savvy, nuanced observation and analysis to make connections between seemingly disparate elements to present a powerful mosaic and thesis. I wound up reading the entire manuscript in one sitting, savoring language I had expected to skim. I learned key points about a vital, pressing topic and corrected some of my own misconceptions.
Standing with Israel is a great read and an important work -- from an astute, insightful and gifted author.

Standing with Israel is one of those rare books that actually changes how you think. It's not loud. It doesn't shout at you. But it actually persuades you through well-reasoned arguments. I was always supicious of Christian support for Israel and thought that they had an ulterior motive for reachng out to Jews. But I don't believe that any more. David Brog's book has convinced me that Christians who support Israel are true and much needed friends of Israel.

Standing With Israel is an eloquent plea for reconciliation between Jews and Christians, based upon mutual values and a shared history of Zionism. In the introduction, the author makes a link between the righteous gentiles of the past and mainstream evangelical Christians who today support Israel. There are many instances of secular people and Christians that sheltered Jews during the Holocaust. And since the rebirth of Israel, the country has gained good friends amongst influential Christian leaders like Gary Bauer, John Hagee, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

The book chronicles the development of Christian theology and how it influenced attitudes towards Jews down the ages. Replacement Theology, the destructive idea that the Church replaced the Jews, is an ancient thread running from certain Gospel verses through the writings of church fathers like John Chrysostom, Justin Martyr and St Augustine. But another strain of Christianity with its roots in the Puritans found eloquent expression in the Plymouth Brethren founded in 1827 and ultimately became the dominant form of the religion in the USA in the 20th century.

There were always Christians who provided vital assistance to the Zionist project. Early Christian Zionism in fact predates Jewish Zionism. Theodor Herzl had a great ally in the Englishman William Hechler. In America, there was William Blackstone who worked tirelessly for the cause. Three well-known Christians had a direct hand in the rebirth of Israel: Arthur Balfour, Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman. Recently, Jews and Christians have joined hands in organizations like the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, led by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.

The motives of today's Christian Zionists are investigated and found to be based on Genesis 12 verse 3: "I will bless those who bless you." Furthermore, there is a profound gratitude to the nation who wrote and preserved the scriptures. These Christians are steadfast friends of Israel and the Jews, providing material and spiritual support to the beleaguered nation and to Diaspora Jews. In view of the long centuries of Christian persecution, it is not surprising that the mainstream Jewish response has been lukewarm, if not somewhat hostile. To understand this, one needs only consider the sorry history of Martin Luther who turned from supporter of the Jews to a deadly enemy in his later years.

There are many issues on which Christian and Jewish leaders disagree. Abraham Foxman of the ADL, for example, still perceives the Christian Right as a threat. This despite the fact that prominent Christians such as Falwell and Robertson have proved themselves to be trustworthy friends of Israel. Other longtime supporters of the Jewish State include Jan Willem van der Hoeven of the International Christian Zionist Center who was influenced at an early age by the example of the Ten Boom family in Holland.

In the conclusion, the author looks at bipartisan support of Israel in the USA and reveals the close personal relationships between Theodor Herzl and William Hechler, Chaim Weizmann and Arthur Balfour, and Menachem Begin and Jerry Falwell. In these perilous times of resurgent anti-Semitism, it is comforting to know that Israel is not alone. The country now has millions of devoted friends in the USA and around the world. God bless Israel and America.

In Defense of Israel by John Hagee

Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel by Paul Charles Merkley

A Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance by Zev Chafets

The Politics of Christian Zionism 1891-1948 by Paul Charles Merkley

Ruth & Esther: Shadows of Our Future by Frank Morgan

Why Care about Israel? by Sandra Teplinsky

The Mountains of Israel by Norma Parrish Archbold

For those interested in knowing the origins of Christian antisemitism, as well as the modern-day cure to this age-old disease, this book is an excellent tutor. As other reviewers have stated here, the discussion herein is quite calm and collected. It is filled with fact and history, and contains no hyperbole or exaggeration whatsoever.

It's too bad that the supposed saint Obama evidently never read this book --- not (apparently) recommended it to his "uncle" Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

For whereas Wright's Christianity is entirely race-based, Afrocentric, and highly antisemitic, this volume explains that true Christianity went far astray in rejecting the teachings of the Apostle Paul, who declared "has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew." (Romans 11:1-2)

Furthermore, Paul asked whether the Jewish people had "stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not!... Concerning the gospel [the Jews] are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Romans 11:11, 28-29)

Alas, the book explains that about 100 years after Paul's Epistle to the Romans, the church abandoned his "struggle to preserve a special status for the Jews in favor of a clear and clean replacement theology." That is, while the church retained souls to plea for the inherent holiness of the Jewish people, by virtue of God's recognition and gifts to them, Justin Martyr (who died at the hands of the Romans), claimed the mantle of Israel for the church itself, naming Christianity as a "replacement" for the Jewish people, or "all Israel."

This idea was hardened further by Saint John Chrysostum of Antioch in 387, when he pronounced several anti-Jewish messages to his followers, declaring that in replacing the Jewish people as "Israel," the former must needs be eliminated. Thus arose outright hatred of the Jewish people. Essentially, Chysostum preached base covetousness: in order to obtain the blessings given to Israel by God, Christianity must usurp their place. And to do that, Christianity must eliminate them.

Thus, according to Brog --- who cites the erudite and learned Christian scholar Franklin Littell's The Crucifixion of the Jews, among other works --- Christianity and the message of Christ and His apostle Paul themselves became perverted.

Writes the Rev. Clarence Wagner, of Bridges for Peace, "The error of Replacement Theology is like a cancer in the Church that has not only caused it to violate God's Word concerning the Jewish people and Israel, but it has made us into instruments of hate...."

One aspect of this book especially strikes me as truly awe-inspiring --- the understated nature of the repentance herein, which drives home by its very subtlety, a sense of intense sincerity hard to overlook. It contains the kind of understanding and warmth that is dialectically opposed to the rantings of saint Obama's pastor.

One cannot choose one's parents and grandparents, whom in any case always deserve respect.

But one can choose one's ministers. Among very many other things, this book sets straight precisely why Rev. Jeremiah Wright is so wrong about so many things --- and should be followed by no one, least of all excused by a presidential candidate declaring his devotion as a Christian.

---Alyssa A. Lappen

I've never had a particular interest in religious issues or the Middle East, but someone told me that I had to buy this book and I did so. I must say, this is a fascinating topic. I had no idea how bad Christian anti-Semitism was, and no idea how much modern-day Christians have changed in this regard. As a student of politics, I now have a much greater understanding of Christians, Jews, and some of the most controversial issues in American foreign policy. I would highly recommend this timely book.

Brog goes to bat for evangelicals who demonstrate their support for the Jewish nation in Standing With Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State, but what makes this volume unusual for the Christian market is that the author is Jewish--and not Messianic. Having worked for a number of years for U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the author brings an interesting political and historical perspective to the subject at hand.

Brog's extensive research into the roots of anti-Semitism, the development of Christian Zionism and the decline of replacement theology--which sees the church as having taken the place of the Jews as God's chosen people--began with his own desire to learn whether Christian Zionists are, in fact, true friends of the Jews or enemies in disguise. He concludes with the assertion that evangelicals who support Israel are "nothing less than the theological heirs of the righteous Gentiles who sought to save Jews from the Holocaust."

Christians who support Israel will appreciate being seen for who they are by a Jewish author. This well-reasoned and thoughtfully presented book will appeal to readers inside and outside the Christian market.

--Christine D. Johnson

Part history, part politics, part comparative religion, David Brog's Standing With Israel reads like an epic novel. In brief strokes, he paints vibrant portraits of many characters in the saga of Israel's creation, some deservedly famous, others more obscure than they should be. Standing With Israel is necessary reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and the theology of Christian Zionism. From Herzl's first contacts in European diplomatic circles to the Balfour Declaration to the United States' acknowledgment of Israel, Brog details how at each step, Christian Zionists paved the way to Jewish Statehood. He traces the history of Christian Antisemitism, and of Christian Philosemitism, and explains how theology is at the root of both.

Brog thoroughly debunks the conventional wisdom that says Evangelicals support Israel to speed the Second Coming. Whereas they believe that Israel is a sign of the approach of the millennium, they believe that other such signs include a general increase in immorality, apostasy, and, ultimately, the rise of the Anti-Christ. Since Evangelicals do everything in their power to fight these other signs of the End of Days, it is not reasonable to believe that they support Israel because Israel's existence is a sign of the End of Days. Furthermore, they believe that the Second Coming will occur after a massive invasion of Israel - so if they really based their Middle East politics on apocalyptic beliefs, they would try to bring about a massive invasion of Israel, rather than staunchly supporting Israel.

Ultimately, Standing With Israel is an eloquent plea to Jewish leaders to embrace the support of Christian Zionists. They would do well to heed it.

This is the most thorough and comprehensive book in terms of facts and historical data I have ever read on the subject. While Mike Evans' book The American Prophecies is also an exceptional book, this one is as well for other reasons. Mike Evans book is written from a Jewish/Christian viewpoint, while this book is written from a strictly Jewish viewpoint grateful for his Christian contacts. This one reads more like a friendly textbook on the subject: Christian theological and personal support of Israel through the centuries (as well as persecution in the name of Christianity). It covers the good as well as the ugly, movements and personages, naming religious denominations that oppressed the Jew. This book reads with authority and credibility. Hardly a sentence goes by without content of some kind. The political side of the subject is traced throughout history. Christian household names (most of them well-known to most of us) are found throughout the book with their significance. This is not a quick read, nor a tedious read, but takes time to carefully unravel the history of the subject. Will become a reference work in time and still as current as today's news.

This enlightening book is a revelation into the history of the Christian church that most christians don't understand. The author, who is Jewish, has done his homework and has a clear and accurate understanding of the relationship between Jews and Christians and their role in honoring Israel. It is historically based, easy to read and I couldn't put it down. It should be required reading in our schools.

Brilliant -- must read for members of all faiths. David Brog understands the difficult contours of politics, religion, and morality both from practice and insight. Anyone trying to understand middle-east politics and history should run out and get this book right now.