Biblical Interpretation and Middle East Policy: The Promised Land, America, and Israel, 1917-2002 - Tapa dura

Irvine Anderson's provocative argument - that fundamentalist interpretations of the Christian Bible have helped create a cultural predisposition that favors returning the Jewish people to the ""promised land"" - offers an important perspective on British and American foreign policy toward Israel, Starting with analysis of Armageddon theology and the Biblical passages on which these ideas have been based, Anderson shows how they have been disseminated throughout popular culture from the 19th century onward, through Sunday School teaching, novels, and TV evangelism. He then examines the origins of the Balfour Declaration, the travails of the British Mandate in the 1930s, and Truman's decision to hurriedly recognize the newly proclaimed State of Israel - emphasizing the president's Baptist background and intimate knowledge of the Bible. Anderson also discusses the assumption that developed after World War II that Israel was a strategic ally in a dangerous part of the world and he shows that at the time no real countervailing force existed. Adding new information to our understanding of pro-Israel organizations, Anderson illustrates the linkages that developed in the last part of the 20th century between pro-Israel lobbies and the religious right. While acknowledging that this alliance is not the only reason that the American government supports the return of Jews to Palestine, he shows that the influence of conservative teachings and beliefs on policy is and has been profound.

Irvine H. Anderson is a retired professor of American diplomatic history specializing in the Middle East; he formerly taught at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of Aramco, the United States and Saudi Arabia: A Study in the Dynamics of Foreign Oil Policy, 1933-1950, and The Standard-Vacuum Oil Company and United States East Asian Policy, 1932-1941.