Palin’s Unsettling Views
What passes for punditry these days says that Sarah Palin must be taken seriously, not just as a potential talk-show host but a potential presidential candidate. We’re trying. So rather than dismiss her mystifying views on the expansion of Jewish settlements, we sought to understand them.
“I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” she told Barbara Walters recently. Okay. Reasonable people can disagree on whether President Obama has been too forceful (or not forceful enough) in persuading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to live up to Israel’s agreement to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank.
But when Palin said that settlements should be “expanded upon” because “that population of Israel is, is going to grow,” we looked up. And when she cited, as fact, something that only those who promote aliyah could hope for — “More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead” — we were left scratching our heads.
Until we came upon Jeffrey Goldberg’s fascinating blog post in which he argues that Palin’s logic conforms to the belief that Jews will flock to Israel to establish the conditions for what some Christians predict will herald the Second Coming. First, will be the ingathering of Jews. Next, Satan will attempt to stop their conversion. Then, Jesus will rescue the Jews and a new world will be born.
We see. And now we are left to wonder how Netanyahu’s announcement of a 10-month settlement freeze fits into the dangerous worldview of someone who employs a radical reading of Scripture to formulate foreign policy.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
