Home > Newsletter > June 2002

JEWS AND CHRISTIANS IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

On Thursday, May 23rd a massive news article entitled "How Israel Became a Favorite Cause of the Christian Right" appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. The article, which was more than fifty column inches long, featured a number of Christian conservative leaders who have worked for peace in Jerusalem for many years. Included was my old friend Ed McAteer, founder and president of the Religious Roundtable. It was Ed McAteer who first invited me to Washington, DC for a political event more than twenty years ago while I still lived in Texas. I still have a photo of myself at that event with a much younger Senator Jesse Helms, who retires from the Senate this year. It was at a Religious Roundtable event in Dallas, Texas that I first met Governor Ronald Reagan while he was running for his first term as President.

Even then Ed McAteer realized the importance of American Christians' working with the chosen people. He has always believed that Jews in America had been led over to the liberals' side through deceit and that they would eventually come to stand with Christian conservatives in America. The events of 9-11 have come to reveal Ed McAteer as somewhat of a prophet. American Jews are moving to the conservative movement and to the Republican Party as a result of the aftermath of 9-11 and the solid support of President Bush for Israel.

This movement joining conservative Christians and Jews together began at least twenty years ago to my knowledge. The growing relationship between Jews and Republicans was strained in 1991 by President George W. Bush (referred to here in Washington as "Bush One.") First, the elder President Bush sold Saudi Arabia five AWACS that could be used for command and control platforms for Muslim strikes against Israel. He then refused $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel unless that nation agreed to stop building homes for Jews in Samaria, which is part of the West Bank. Bush probably lost the election to Bill Clinton as a result of these actions. In the 1992 election Bush received only 11% of the Jewish vote, down from the traditional 22% that had voted Republican in the past.

The Wall Street Journal has the largest paid circulation of any national newspaper. Bringing out the facts about the relationship between conservative Christians and Jews was monumental for several reasons. First, other news outlets are now forced to touch on this relationship. Second, many "liberal" Jews who read the Wall Street Journal learned for the first time that conservative Christians, not liberals like Senator Ted Kennedy, are the real allies of Israel. Third, it gave the green light to conservative Jews to speak out in their community on such issues as abortion, now that their alliances with Christians are not looked down upon.