Christian Zionists - i.e. the staunch defenders of Israel, mostly from the charismatic, fundamentalist and dispensationalist camps - are tiresomely fond of accusing of antisemitism those of us who think that invading someone else's land and chucking them out is not cricket, and if the critics are Jewish themselves, not to be deprived of their favourite knee-jerk response, they accuse them of being self-hating Jews. I think it's about time to turn the tables on them. It is possible to be a Christian Zionist and an antisemite, as appears to have been the case with the recently clog-popped Tim LaHaye, who was a defender of Israel against all comers, but who also once said that it was a pity that so many brilliant Jewish minds had cleaved to ideologies which were harmful to humanity, which is an antisemitic statement if ever there was one: it's true, of course, but no more so than it is of brilliant minds in general, so why did he specify Jewish ones?
As a matter of fact, belief in Israel as the eternally-promised homeland of the Jews, and that the return of the Jews to Israel is a necessary precursor to the return of Christ, dovetails neatly with one particular manifestation of antisemitism: that which says that, since the Jews now have Israel, they should all be there, and not here. There is a hint of this in those nutty Christian groups which try to persuade Jewish people to emigrate to Israel, and provide help in doing so. It is certainly true that the existence of Israel can encourage antisemitism: there used to be a Jewish community in Iraq - it was small, but very ancient, probably dating all the way back to the first-century diaspora. It doesn't exist any more, because Saddam Hussein chucked them all out, specifically arguing that they could go an live in Israel, so they had no grounds for complaint. That, presumably, is precisely what they did, but the point is that you shouldn't treat people as political pawns like that.
