“No wonder they call it The Holy Land”

Typically not my bailiwick … but I was taken aback by this Mark Shea post of an Israeli tourism spot featuring bikini clad ladies. He writes, that this “is the sort of thing that makes me wonder how long American Evangelicals (and even some Catholics) can be snookered by the notion that Israel is something other than a secular nation-state. The Golden Calf appeal to Money Sex and Power evident in the commercial is perfectly representative of typically debased postmodern secular culture and has nothing to do with “fulfillment of prophecy”.

Capitalism bad. Sex bad. Fine.

The question, though, is who exactly is “snookering” the Evangelicals? Does Shea mean Jews? Other Evangelicals? Moreover, I’ve never heard anyone claims that Israel is anything but a secular state. Actually, it’s the American-style secular freedom that Jews have been bragging about for the past 50 years.

Mike Potemra has a wonderful post on the issue:

Now, I think Israel is both a secular national state and a nation of descendants of God’s Chosen People—and this gives me two reasons to back Israel. As an Evangelical, I have emotional and religious reasons to support the Jewish believers who live in Israel; as a believer in secular freedom—America, too, is a secular (i.e., non-confessional) state, and long may it remain so—I support the people of Israel, believers and non-believers alike, who are just trying to live normal lives in the face of enemies who want to (first) put their women in burkas and (second) exterminate them.”

Shea says he didn’t mean to post this video as a wedge. And he says his post isn’t anti-Semitic (and I don’t think it is) But then why post it? If Israel instituted a religious police and prohibited bikini-laden ads and substituted Hasidic women making Hallah, does Shea believe that Evangelicals would be more impressed? Such a dictatorial state would be, as far as I can tell, more abhorrent to the mainstream Evangelical than a sexed up tourist spot. Obvious, I think. So Shea clearly has a political problem with the Israel-Evangelical relationship.

Ramesh Ponnuru agrees with Shea and writes that the ad is “both tacky and offensive” for featuring some pretty girls in bikinis. So that must mean he agrees that Evangelicals are being snookered. Who is deceiving them? Also, it’s his prerogative to idealize Israel for religious reasons and hold Israelis to a higher standard than say, Bahamans or Californians. But I’m not sure if either of these guys have had the pleasure of visiting a Tel Aviv beach, which is about as secular as secular gets (I spent two years living in Israel). I am sure the millions of Evangelicals who support Israel and visit the country know full well there are scantily clad women, nude beaches and strip clubs, so most of them aren’t fooled as they continue to support Israel.

In any event, as I read it, Evangelicals do not believe in any fulfillment prophecy that is tethered to the moral fortitude of the Jewish inhabitants in the holy land, anyway.