Lux Lucet

A screenshot of C-Span at the end of a tally of a US House of Representatives vote to condemn the boycott Israel movement on July 23, 2019.

Congress Shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

– The First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Last Tuesday, the United States House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to condemn a movement of private citizens to boycott companies doing business with the state of Israel. Palestinian Omar Barghouti is generally credited with founding The Boycott, Disinvest, Sanctions movement (BDS) in 2005, and since that time the movement has gained supporters in many nations. Claiming inspiration from the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS website states that, “the Palestinian BDS call urges nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting three demands.”  They are:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall,
   
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and
   
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
   

As the BDS movement’s name suggests, the goal of the organizers is to bring economic and social pressure on Israel to accede to the group’s demands. It is beyond the scope of this post to argue whether or not the goals, methods and motives of those involved in the BDS movement deserve the support of Americans in general or American Christians in particular. Rather, the focus of this post is on the attempts by various Zionist lobbying groups to combat the BDS movement in the United States by shutting down their ability to peacefully protest.

In the opinion of this author, the ongoing attempts by the Israel lobby in America to condemn and to even outlaw private, peaceful protests against the policies of the Israeli government are unconstitutional and represent a grave danger to the American republic. In short, the Anti-BDS movement is a direct threat to one of America’s most cherished liberties, the right to free speech.

Yet despite the grave danger to the American republic, there has been very little criticism of this movement either in the mainstream press or the alternate media. Especially disappointing the apparent lack of scrutiny from Christians, who of all people should be the most vigorous defenders of free speech.

H. Res. 246 – The Israel Lobby’s Most Recent Attack on the First Amendment

As the Washington Post reported on 7/23/19, “The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a measure condemning efforts to boycott and economically isolate Israel over its policies toward Palestinians, an explosive global issue that exposed fissures inside the Democratic ranks.

The 398-to-17 vote comes after months of turmoil centering on Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), two Muslim freshmen who have stood accused of anti-Semitism over public remarks they have made referencing Israel and the Holocaust.”

Put another way, of those who voted on H. Res. 246, 96% supported the measure with only 4% opposing. Of the 17 no votes in the House, only one was cast by a Republican, Constitutional stalwart Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

On his Twitter feed, Massie explained why he voted as he did, giving three reasons:

1. The Resolution “calls for the full implementation of a 2014 bill that spends [American] taxpayer dollars on “green” energy subsidies for another country [Israel], despite the fact that we face a debt crisis of over $22 trillion in the U.S.,”
   
2. The Resolutions calls for Israel to implement a two-state solution, and Massie rejects the idea that the US should be dictating policy to another sovereign country, and
   
3. Massie writes that he does not, “support federal efforts to condemn any type of private boycott, regardless of whether or not a boycott is based upon bad motives. These are matters that Congress should properly leave to the States & to the people to decide.”
   

Massie’s third reason for opposing the Resolution is the one that gets to the heart of the matter, at least as far as the First Amendment is concerned. The Constitution does not allow Congress to prohibit or abridge the freedom of speech, the press or the right of people peaceably to assemble.

Now some may argue that the Resolution does not formerly prohibit or abridge anyone’s freedom of speech or right to engage in peaceful protest as he sees fit. But if Congress is prohibited from abridging free speech, freedom of the press or peaceably assemblies, by logical implication it is also improper for Congress to condemn people for engaging in those activities.

The Tip of the Iceberg

H. Res. 246 is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the Israel lobby’s attempt to suppress free speech goes. With increasing brazenness, the Israel lobby has pushed for laws not only prohibiting private American citizens from speaking freely in opposition to Israeli government policy but also forcing them to support it. Consider the following:

1. US Senate Bill S.1 – Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019. This Senate Bill contained a title called “Combating BDS Act of 2019, which prohibits Congress from interfering with state and local governments divesting in companies that engage in BDS activities. In other words, suppose a state government passed a law that said the state cannot do business with any contractor engaging in BDS, Congress would not attempt to preempt that law. S.1 was passed with this title on February 5, 2019.
   
2. US Senate Bill S.1 was passed at the same time state-level Anti-BDS legislation is sweeping the nation. In an article titled “Newest Arena For The Israel-Palistinian Conflict: Your State?” Liz Essley Whyte notes that in just four years, 27 states have adopted anti-BDS legislation.
   
3. In 2017, following the devastation of Hurricane Harvey the city of Dickson Texas required applicants for aid to sign a pledge that read “By executing this Agreement below, the Applicant verifies that the Applicant (1) does not boycott Israel; and (2) will not boycott Israel during the term of this agreement.” So in order to get help after having their homes destroyed, Dickson residents were forced by their own city to pledge allegiance to a foreign government. This is an outrage, but it’s the very type of legislation S.1 with its “Combating BDS Act of 2019” is designed to support.
   
4. Bahia Amawi, a US citizen of Palestinian descent, was fired from her job as a speech pathologist in a Texas public school for refusing to sign a pledge that she would not boycott Israel during the term of her contract. Her firing was overturned after U.S. district Judge Robert Pitman temporarily blocked the Texas law that prohibits state government agencies from doing business with contractors that are boycotting Israel. The Texas Attorney General’s office intends to appeal the decision.
   
5. In a similar case in Kansas, Judge Daniel D. Crabtree ruled in favor of schoolteacher Esther Koontz, who was fired fo refusing to sign a statement indicating that she was “not currently engaged in a boycott of Israel.”
   

One can reasonably expect more legal battles over anti-BDS legislation as it becomes more and more common across the US.

Why Christians Should Oppose Anti-BDS Legislation

As John Robbins was fond of pointing out, the Word of God is propositional revelation. That is to say, Christian doctrine is not founded on inexpressible emotions or experiences, but on the information found in the 66 Books of the Bible, which is given in the form of propositions. A proposition is defined as the meaning of a declarative sentence.

Christ commands that Christians go into all the world and do what? Go into all the world and teach all the things which he commanded. Put another way, Christ’s disciples are enjoined by Jesus himself to teach others the propositions of Scripture. It is no accident that the First Amendment includes both the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. Free speech is a Christian concept.

In Scripture, we can find many examples of opposition to free speech. The Israelites of the Old Testament frequently imprisoned and sometimes killed the prophets who told them what they didn’t want to hear. These men did not believe in free speech.

In the New Testament, we find the Sanhedrin attempting to stop Peter and John from teaching in the name of Jesus, both imprisoning and beating them for doing so.

During the middle ages and at the time of the Reformation, the Roman Church-State arrested, imprisoned, tortured and brutally executed those who taught the Gospel of Justification by Belief Alone.

Of all men, Christians have the most at stake in the defense of free speech. Yet there seems to be little or no opposition from Christians to the Israel lobby’s efforts to attack the First Amendment.

Why Are Christians Silent?

One likely reason for their silence is that many Christians don’t know what’s going on. Anti-BDS legislation has been enacted with very little fanfare in the media. For example in Ohio where I live, the state legislature passed an anti-BDS law, and I never even knew about it. But it made headlines in the Jerusalem Post. I found out about the new law only after I started reading about the Bahia Amawi case in Texas and became curious about whether Ohio had similar legislation. As it turns out, it does.

The mainstream news media has done a miserable job telling people the critical information they need to know.

A second reason is likely fear of speaking out. The Israel lobby in the US is very powerful and is quick to brand anyone who opposes it’s legislative agenda as an anti-Semite. In 2007, professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer wrote a book titled The Israel Lobby. As tenured professors, they didn’t lose their jobs, but they were marginalized for their trouble, noting that by writing the book they forfeited any opportunity of getting an academic administrative post or governmental position.

A third reason is that under the influence of dispensationalist eschatology, many Christians have an almost superstitious reverence for the state of Israel. Rather than viewing the Israeli government as a institution that can be judged by normal standards, dispensationalist Christians are quick to dismiss any criticism of the Israeli government as something bordering on blasphemy. They believe that the Bible commands Christians to support whatever policy the Likud party favors. In their view, when Benjamin Netanyahu says “jump,” the only proper response is to ask “how high?” Anything less calls down the curse of God upon the offender.

Interestingly, the almost pathological fealty dispensationalists exhibit toward the state of Israel does not shield them from the charge of anti-Semitism. John Hagee, perhaps the most pro-Israel of all dispensationalist preachers, has been charged by no less an authority than the New York Times with anti-Semitism for stating that Jews “have everything but spiritual life.” Apparently, believing that faith in Jesus Christ is required to go to heaven also is now anti-Semitic.

Closing Thoughts

Of all the current threats to the liberty of the American people, the attack on the First Amendment is possibly the most troubling. Internet censors regularly remove posts, videos and entire accounts of individuals and organizations who express opinions challenging pet doctrines of the elite. Antifa thugs roam the streets of American cities and threaten to beat up anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their warped worldview. College Social Justice Warriors scream bloody murder at any comment that doesn’t meet their standard of ethical purity. They’ve even invented a new term, microaggression, to describe such statements.

To these threats to free speech one must also add the activities of the Israel lobby.

If Americans or legal residents of the United States want to peacefully protest Israel thought boycotts, they have every right to do so.  And for Congress to condemn them for it is unchristian, unconstitutional and un-american.  In the opinion of this author, any Congressman who voted for the Resolution should be removed from office. 

Likewise, for local and state governments to force their citizens to sign loyalty oaths to Israel, a foreign county, in order to keep their jobs or to receive aid after having their homes damaged or destroyed by a hurricane is an enormous outrage.

For many Christians, any criticism of Israel is troubling. Most of us have heard our whole lives that we have a Christian obligation to unquestioningly support the state of Israel and that not do so will incur the wrath of God.

No such obligation exists.

Christians who think so are dupes both of the Jesuits (the Premillennial Dispensationalism of the Christian Zionists has its roots in doctrines developed by the Jesuits as part of the Counter Reformation) and of the Jewish Zionists.

Neither one of these groups is Christian. And for that reason, their claims have no authority in the church.

As Christians, we have an obligation to love our neighbor as ourselves. We do not have an obligation to allow our Constitutional, and Christian, right to free speech to be subverted for the benefit of a foreign power. In fact, our obligation is quite the opposite. Our obligation is to defend the right to free speech, especially politically unpopular speech.

Our ability to preach the Gospel and the whole counsel of God depends upon it.