In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

| 133 5 The Tide Turns, 1967–1973 The outbreak of war in the Middle East in the early morning hours of 5 June 1967 surprised no one. The sweeping Israeli victory in six days, however , did. By 8 June Israel had taken control of the entire Old City of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall. As a rabbi blew the shofar to a crowd of emotional Israeli soldiers and civilians, American evangelical and fundamentalist prophecywatchdogsrejoicedaswell .Theendtimeshadbegun.WritingfortheMoody Monthly John F. Walvoord, president of the Dallas Theological Seminary, could barely contain his excitement: “This return constitutes a preparation for the end of the age, the setting for the coming of the Lord for His Church and the fulfillment of Israel’s prophetic destiny.”1 Israel may have returned “in unbelief,” but this newest “piece of the prophetic puzzle” could hardly be ignored. Interpreters of prophecy scriptures outdid one another in their attempts to link the 1967 War with biblical verses. Whether it was the fulfillment of prophecy or not, however, the war certainly heralded a new age in U.S.–Protestant–Israeli relations, as the growing political power of evangelicals coincided with their increasing excitement over Israel. Although Israeli land acquisitions and the refugee crisis following the war would provide another political stumbling block for mainline liberal support of Israel, evangelicals professed no such reservations. Israel was back in the Holy Land, and its boundaries began to look increasingly like those maps in the back of their Bibles. Yet even as the geopolitical landscape changed in the Middle East, the religious landscape in the United States was also undergoing dramatic transformations that would have a serious impact upon the U.S.–Israeli alliance. While the 1950s witnessed a surge of religiosity in American society, with record-high church attendance, profound internal controversies in Protestant denominations resulted in denominational splintering that created newer, more orthodox churches. The mainline Protestant denominations that had adapted to the sweeping societal changes of the 1960s and adjusted their doctrines accordingly (women’s rights, gay rights, civil rights, and abortion ), faced declining memberships. 134 | The Tide Turns Disillusioned by the increasing loss of theological distinctions between most mainline denominations and their abandonment of orthodoxy in favor of modernity, American Protestants in the late 1960s began to establish their own churches. A move into the suburbs to newer homes and newer church buildings, coupled with a reactionary return to orthodoxy, created a profound shift in American Protestantism. Mainline Protestants were now the “liberals ,” and evangelicals and fundamentalists gradually became the dominant group of American Protestants. This religious realignment had profound implications for American politics, and especially for U.S. foreign policy. The mainline American Protestants who had supported Israel for pragmatic and humanitarian reasons were increasingly replaced in numbers and influence by evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants who viewed Israel through an eschatological lens. Certainly the importance of having an ally in the unstable Middle East appealed to these Protestants, but more important than that was the prophetic role Israel would play in the end times. Whereas the reaction to the Suez crisis in 1956 had marked the beginning of a change in political activity , the evangelical response to Israeli military prowess and land acquisitions between 1967 and 1979 permanently altered evangelical Protestant political behavior and set the foundation for the dynamic political engagement that would characterize evangelical Protestants in the 1980s. The War of 1967 In the months leading up to the outbreak of war the United Nations had been inundated with complaints filed by both Israel and Syria about constant border skirmishes and aerial dogfights between the two nations. In May Nasser, leading the United Arab Republic and twelve other Middle Eastern countries , had called for the total mobilization of military forces along the border with Israel and, on 18 May, demanded the removal of U.N. peacekeeping forces stationed in Gaza and the Gulf of Aquaba. To worldwide surprise, U.N. Secretary General U Thant complied with Egypt’s request and removed the U.N. forces. On 22 May Nasser implemented a total blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba, preventing the free passage of Israeli ships. The U.N. security measures implemented after the Suez crisis had enforced the right of Israeli ships to pass through the gulf. In response, the Israelis declared the new blockade a violation of international law and considered it “an act of aggression against Israel.” Israel began mobilizing its forces in preparation for war—a war that both the Arabs and Israelis...

Share