PREFACE: ISRAEL OR AMERICA?
.
. .In 1988 Professor Shalom Goldman, an associate
professor of Hebrew and Middle Eastern Studies at Emory University,
made the interesting discovery that a little-known ancestor of the
American presidents Bush was no less than Professor George Bush,
who — in 1830 — wrote The Life of Mohammed,
which just happened to be the first anti-Muslim hate screed ever
published on American soil.
. . .Writing in his own 2004 book,
God’s Sacred Tongue: Hebrew and the American
Imagination (The University of North Carolina Press),
Professor Goldman, writing of Bush, who lived from 1796 to 1859,
says that Bush’s life and work is important in tracing the
roots of “Christian Zionism” in America. Bush was quite
well known and prolific in his day and a fervent advocate of a return
by the Jews to the Holy Land, and his statements in that regard,
says Goldman, “had considerable influence.”
. . .Ironically, despite his advocacy
of Zionism, Bush was not a philo-Semite, but, instead, was actually
quite hostile to the Jewish people, just as he was toward the Muslims.
He viewed the Jewish philosophy as a threat to Christianity and
the West and felt the establishment of a Jewish state might only
be possible if appeals were made to what Bush called the “worldly
and selfish principles of the Jewish mind.”
. . .Of course, today, there is a Jewish
state known as Israel, and Bush’s descendants have proven
to be worthy advocates for that nation, both Presidents Bush having
launched devastating wars on its behalf. And the second President
Bush, at least, seems to share his distant ancestor’s peculiar
love-hate for the Jews by virtue of his own chosen brand of Christian
dispensationalism, which places Israel at its center, yet still
looks forward to those so-called “Last Days” when (so
the teaching goes) only a remnant of the Jews will survive and become
followers of Christ.
. . .However, the Professor Bush of
old was not the only philosopher contemplating the return of the
Jews to Zion. There were others who actually saw the United States
of America as The New Jerusalem — at least temporarily —
and viewed American soil as a gathering place for the Jews to prepare
for their eventual return to Palestine, which was said to be the
land of their forebears. And while today, there are — unknown
to many people — many notable anthropologists and archeologists,
as well as both Jewish and Christian academics and scholars of Higher
Criticism, among others, who have serious doubts about the Jewish
people’s so-called “his-
_____________________________________________________
toric” right to Palestine, the legend of a return to the Holy
Land held great sway in America’s early days, and even unto
today.
. . .(For those who dare to look into
this controversy surrounding the myth of a Jewish historical claim
to Palestine, a good starting point is Professor Thomas L. Thompson’s
1999 work, The Mythic Past: Biblical Archeology and
the Myth of Israel (Basic Books). Also Jewish author
Daniel Lazare’s “False Testament,” in the March
2002 issue of Harper’s, and that
article can be accessed on the Internet at findarticles.com.)
. . . Nonetheless, as we move fast
forward into the 21st century — long after Professor Bush
went to his reward — we find that although the State of Israel
very much exists — just barely, and torn apart by major divisions
within — the position of the Zionist community on American
soil is unrivaled by any other ethnic grouping, even including the
old-line so-called “WASP” families of great power and
reknown.
. . .Although American Zionists insist
that the United States continue to prop up the State of Israel with
billions of dollars in welfare, not to mention military aid and
other forms of support, these same Zionists do not seem so intent
upon taking up residence there. No indeed, they are rather happy
here in America and enjoying it immensely.
. . .As we shall see, the Zionist elite
in America have achieved much and while many people know that the
so-called “Israeli lobby” is powerful in Washington,
most people don’t quite understand precisely why that lobby
is so powerful. The reason is quite simple: despite all the hoopla
and all the rhetoric about “little Israel” and its sacred
place in the hearts of the Jewish people, the fact is that the United
States has become the center of Zionist power in the world today.
. . .Those Who Reign Supreme, by sheer
force of financial clout, coupled with a stranglehold on the Media
Monopoly, have established the United States as the mechanism for
setting in place a world empire, the long-dreamed-of New World Order.
. . .In the bigger picture, the state
of Israel is nothing more than a symbol of an age-old dream that,
in reality, has been achieved right here in America — The
New Jerusalem.
— MICHAEL COLLINS PIPER