Has Standing With Israel Blessed America? (Part One)

Has standing with Israel blessed the United States?

The true test of any theology is in its fruit. Jesus indicates this himself. For instance in the gospel of Matthew he says,

“15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:15-20)

If the true test of a prophet is the fruit they bear, does it not stand to reason, also, that the true test of a particular biblical idea is the fruit that it bears?

As I heard one Trump pick for his cabinet say, “Zionism and Americanism are the frontlines of western civilisation and freedom in our world today.”[1] For many American and Australian Christians the idea that supporting Israel brings blessing to a country, especially America, is just a given, that is why an American solider and journalist would say this, because he believes that America’s highest priority is its alignment with Israel, for this is God's will. For many Christian Zionists Israel first is America first, because only in blessing Israel can another nation be truly blessed. These two things come hand in hand.

So, what I intend to do once a week for at least the next few weeks is examine the fruit of this idea. If this idea is even remotely true it should be testable. God’s word is not mythical, it is not ephemeral, it is built on real and tested wisdom and therefore should be able to be tested. After all, does not God say, “Taste and see that the Lord is good?” (Ps. 34:8). Is this not an invitation to test the application of his Word? 

For some of you reading this, the answer to this question is that of course this notion is unbiblical. It is simply untrue that supporting a secular, indeed, godless nation like Israel would bring any blessing to America. You already know the countless ways this has caused America to open its own borders, to get involved in wars around the world and more. You understand that throughout history whenever one nation has drawn too close to another nation and had its sovereignty subverted by that union it has been bad for both of those countries. You already know all this and need no convincing. 

However, there are people who are not aware of the manifest ways that supporting Israel has either damaged the United States, materially in the world, or correlated to social decline which in no way can be said to be the result of blessing. Some of these people may be open to considering a counter argument if it is laid out for them. So that is what I will do in this series.

The first example I would like to bring up is the 1970’s fuel crisis. You have probably heard of this, as Austin Powers jokes in one of his movies, it does not matter if you have missed the 1970’s all you missed was a fuel shortage and a flock of seagulls. At least he makes some joke along those lines. The fuel shortage and the harm it did to American manufacturing and culture are well known. But are you aware of what caused this fuel crisis, a crisis that extended even to Australia at the time? It was the United States standing with Israel:

“The Arab oil embargo of 1973 put the United States economy on the back foot, causing fuel shortages, a quadrupling of oil prices and long lines at gas stations. Several legacies of the resulting energy crisis have persisted decades later.

The spark of the embargo was the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, when a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. In that war, the Soviet Union resupplied its allies Egypt and Syria, and the United States responded with a massive airlift of supplies to aid Israel.

Members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) retaliated with an oil embargo against the United States and the Netherlands, Israel’s main supporters at the time. The resulting shock to the U.S. economy proved to be a vexing problem for American consumers and a string of U.S. presidents, who struggled to adapt. But it also led to important changes in energy efficiency, policymaking and building designs.”[2]

For its stance in supporting Israel America came face to face with one of the worst energy crisis’s it has ever faced. The actions of the OAPEC countries drastically cut down the supply of oil to America causing inflation and economic distress across the United States and its closest supporters.

One of the onflow effects of this was the expansion of the United States government, “In an April 1977 speech, new President Jimmy Carter proposed the creation of the Department of Energy, one of several policy changes he announced aimed at dealing with the challenge of a vastly changed energy landscape.”[3] Just consider that for a moment, a government caused crisis - America had no reason to intervene in that Yom Kippur war - created the very excuse the Democratic President needed to expand the size and reach of the US government. This was a direct result of the American support for Israel. 

Almost every Christian Zionist I know would agree that the expansion of the government is a net negative. They would also point to a litany of disasters that having increasing government causes. This is almost definitionally, according to most conservatives and most Zionists I know, not a blessing. The side effect of the creation of the Department of Energy was also to take power away from state departments that had previously been doing this job, increasing the size of the Federal government and therefore the centralization of power at the federal level. Another thing which is anathema to small government opponents, which many Zionists I know are. 

Another ongoing result of the support of Israel in this war was that Americans had to lower their standard of living,

“The energy crisis also forced U.S. presidents to make energy efficiency and conservation national priorities. Just two months after taking office, President Gerald Ford gave a speech  Congress on October 8, 1974, laying out his plan to curb inflation, which he dubbed Whip Inflation Now, or WIN. His message included urging Americans to conserve energy.

“To help save scarce fuel in the energy crisis, drive less, heat less,” said Ford.

In a 1977 fireside chat, Carter sported a cardigan sweater and urged people to keep their thermostats at 65 during the day and 55 at night to help ease a winter natural gas shortage.

In his April 1977 speech, Carter warned of a possible “national catastrophe” unless Americans were willing to make sacrifices that entailed curtailing energy consumption.[4]

Things Americans were free to do previously were suddenly restricted. Those like myself who are into muscle cars will know that these sanctions on America ended the muscle car era, and led to malaise era of car manufacturing. This itself should be all the proof we need to show that support for Israel has not blessed America; support for Israel ended the great American muscle car era for a couple of decades. 

During the malaise era of US car manufacturing  lower fuel using cars that were often much less reliable became the norm.[5] It was in this era when Japanese cars started to dominate the US market and overtake American cars in popularity. Largely because of the fuel efficiency of these smaller cars, but also because the Japanese had already been making smaller cars and were in the prime position to overtake American manufacturing when the new carbon emissions laws came into effect. America's stance on Israel made buying American cars unaffordable for many Americans. 

That is right, the decline of US car manufacturing and the increase in Asian manufacturing was a direct result of the United States support for Israel in the Yom Kippur war. That is not blessing, that is God directly taking from the US and giving to other countries, countries which compete dominantly with American and other western made cars today. In fact Japanese and Asian car manufacturing has completely killed the Australian car industry as well. The flow on effects of bad Middle Eastern policy have had generational effects.

Another side effect of the US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur war was the western focus on renewables which has spiralled out of control in our era,

“Carter also took symbolic steps like installing solar panels on the top of the West Wing of the White House in 1979. Many experts agree that Carter was ahead of his time in his focus on renewable and clean energy.

“A generation from now,” Carter said, “this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people— harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil."[6]

Essentially Carter, and other US presidents, were forced to seek to spin what was a disaster for the United State's economy as an “opportunity to innovate”. And for sure some innovations did happen, some positive, some negative. But the ongoing effects of America’s support for Israel was to hamstring its own economy and entrench foreign manufacturing in its own country in such a way that American manufacturing was to progressively lose its dominant position. The rise of Japanese car manufacturing, which was better positioned to take advantage of the new government policies on energy efficiency and carbon emissions, is just one example.

So, the next time you are looking around the roads around you and you are lamenting how so many of the cars on the road are made overseas, remember this happened in large part because of America’s commitment to a Middle East policy that directly led to a massive shock in their own economy and ongoing decline because of that. Of course, there is more to the story of why American manufacturing and Australian manufacturing have declined, but support for Israel is at least a large chapter in that story.

This is a direct impact. But what about a correlative impact?

Well this chart[7] is very significant. Look at what has happened to US debt since the 1970’s as the nation drew closer and closer to Israel:

Since the era of America tying its foreign policy close to Israel’s foreign policy, Federal Debt has skyrocketed in comparison to American Gross Domestic Product. This is a correlative point of data that shows that economic prosperity - because debt is not prosperity - has declined markedly since the United States has been closely tied to Israel. And, in fact, the closer it appears to have acted with Israel, which it has done so increasingly over time, the worse things have gotten.

Again, my argument is not that this relationship with Israel is necessarily the cause of this, I think the causes are multiple. My argument is simply to show that alignment with Israel has not blessed the United States, at least according to these two metrics. And that is all we need to demonstrate is it not? We need not demonstrate a causal link between the US supporting Israel and blessing, we need only establish a correlative link, because the blessings to America for supporting Israel are meant to be general, not specific. In other words, the act of support is supposed to lead to unspecified, but still observable and experienced blessings. However, we have established both a direct and a correlational link between support of Israel and lack of blessings in this one blog. And this is just the start of our series.

Tune in next week for more evidence that support for a secular country called Israel cannot be measurably shown to have blessed America. Bad ideas need to be challenged, especially those that propagate war. 

List of References

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[1] https://www.jns.org/trump-taps-pete-hegseth-for-defense-secretary/

[2] https://www.history.com/news/energy-crisis-1970s-innovation

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] The term Malaise era refers to a period in the U.S. automotive industry from roughly the early 1970s through the early to mid 1980s, characterized by malaise: poor products and a generalized industry unease[1] — an era of profound adjustment as the U.S. automotive industry adapted to meet wholly new demands for more fuel-efficient, safe and environmentally responsible products.

[6] Ibid.

[7] https://www.macrotrends.net/1381/debt-to-gdp-ratio-historical-chart