U.S. Political Theology: Weaponizing the Bible
by Tomislav Sunic
With regard to the ticking time bomb in the Middle East and the Gulf, it is misleading to pin the blame solely on President Trump or Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu. Many experts on the Middle East overlook a significant factor: the century-long American, Bible-inspired mission to regenerate the world—today playing itself out in Iran. This messianic mindset sheds light on the current situation not only in the Middle East, but also within the EU and the U.S. political class.
Early American settlers saw themselves as God-anointed dissenters, and their new homeland as a gift from the Jewish god Yahweh. America was cast as a new Israel — a Promised Land, a new Canaan for its chosen people. Pilgrims, settlers, and later even secularized Enlightenment politicians — all saw themselves as an elect people who had left behind a sick, corrupt, and tribally torn Europe. One might quote the German sociologist Werner Sombart in his book The Jews and Modern Capitalism (1913, p. 44):
“What we call Americanism is nothing else, if we may say so, than the Jewish spirit distilled.”
The American attack on Iran is merely a logical follow-up to this extended political theology aimed at remaking the world in the American image. This Bible-inspired policy, now playing out in Iran, rests on ideas borrowed from early Judaic thought. The notions of a “city upon a hill,” “God’s own country,” and Manifest Destiny all draw on the Old Testament. The biblical idea of predestination served early settlers as a springboard for their own concept of democratic uniqueness. Biblical Israel was destined to serve as the matrix of America’s Promised Land worldview, and therefore has to be militarily protected at all costs now. Moreover, for millions of Christians, the Second Coming of Jesus will not take place in some village in the Ozarks or in the Croatian-inhabited hinterland of Medjugorje, but only in Jewish Jerusalem.
Different variants of this Bible-inspired urge to “improve” the world have long stood at the center of U.S. foreign policy, even when dressed up in secular language. These ecumenical impulses now go by liberal and communistic labels such as human rights, the fight against evil, moral righteousness, tolerance, and multiculturalism. Modern Jews are the last to blame here, given that millions of Christian Zionists try to outdo and “out-Jew” the Jews — craving, in turn, to transform themselves into the “true Israel” (verus Israel). The monotheistic Christian love-hate mindset vis-à-vis Jews can be described as a kind of neurosis. It is bound up with a theological — and later ideological — system that presupposes a single truth while shutting out all others. A system built on one single jealous god must, by definition, reject all other competing gods—and all rival truths.
The war against Iran follows in the footsteps of this political self-chosenness and theological exclusion of the Other, as already laid out in the Jewish Old Testament. Hence the recurring demonization of political or religious opponents in U.S. foreign policy: first the Indians, then the proverbial “pagan” German “Nazis,” then the “evil” atheistic Communists, and most recently the “evil” Islamists in Iran. All have been cast as subhuman or terrorists. And terrorists, to be sure, are not to be negotiated with — they must be eliminated, or, failing that, re-educated.
It is almost a truism that the EU keeps a low profile regarding the U.S.–Israeli politico-theological bond: Europe has functioned as an American vassal for eighty years. The most visible example of this deference can be seen in the behavior of German politicians, who occasionally voice mild criticism of U.S. military engagements, but never venture into criticism of Israel—let alone make critical statements about Jews. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel, in March 2008, stated in her speech at the Israeli Knesset:
“Each federal government and each chancellor before me were committed to the special historical responsibility of Germany for Israel’s security. This historical responsibility of Germany is part of the reason of state (Staatsräson) of my country. That means that Israel’s security is never negotiable for me as German chancellor.”
Germany stands out as the most grotesque example of this masochistic mimicry. Current German policy toward U.S. military engagement in Iran carefully steers clear of any criticism of Israel. Afraid of being labeled fascists, European politicians are expected to keep rolling out antifascist mea culpas—on cue, as it were, from Washington, D.C., and Tel Aviv. In the same vein, and within the framework of what might be called a policy of “White man’s atonement,” Germany and the entire EU are expected to take in so-called non-white refugees, while constantly showcasing their role as historically wicked “perpetrator nations” (Tätervolk).
The condescending posture of the EU ruling class toward U.S. and Israeli military engagement has deeper roots. Shortly after World War II, the communist-leaning think tank known as the Frankfurt School — many of whose members were of Jewish origin — played a key role in shaping the new European crypto-communist culture. Waves of American, left-leaning Freudo-Marxian psychoanalysts — who turned into tenured shrinks — poured into Europe after WWII, setting out to reshape the European mindset. Alongside them came a host of biblically hyper-moralistic preachers, eager to foist the American model of democracy onto European public life.
Following the Israeli carnage in Gaza, things may soon turn ugly for Jewish identity and its enablers in the U.S. A kind of negative dialectic has set in. The Left and Antifa — unlike the quasi-neutered right wing — have begun to slam Israel and its lobby in increasingly harsh terms. This is hardly surprising. To be sure, the Left, both in the US and EU, and its rabble-rousing sidekick Antifa, now have more room to maneuver when criticizing Israel. It is difficult to label them antisemitic, given that they have historically been influenced by a significant number of Jewish Freudo-Marxian academics. The leftist progeny is turning now against its godfather. Right-wingers and white nationalists, on the other hand, cannot afford that luxury. Long suspected of antisemitism, they are turning more and more into Aesopian shapeshifters — with many doubling down on fake philosemitism, and some right-wing politicians staging ritual pilgrimages to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
German political elites across the board, while mimicking the U.S.–Israeli bond, have gone a step further. In their zeal to display democratic antifascist credentials and signal their obedience to Israel, they resemble the character of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s ballad The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The young apprentice, eager to show off, decides to imitate his master’s skills in handling the magic broom, ultimately unleashing forces that he cannot control, thus bringing about his own demise:
Can I never, Broom, appease you?
I will seize you,
Hold and whack you,
And your ancient wood
I’ll sever—
With a whetted axe I’ll crack you!
The good news is that public language in the EU and the U.S. following the joint Israeli–U.S. strike on Iran is becoming less constrained by politically correct woke norms. In the eyes of the mainstream media, even intellectuals previously dubbed right-wing radicals now voice open criticism of Israel — something unimaginable just a few years back.
Yet the grip on free speech and academic inquiry still persists. President Trump, despite his commendable moves in dismantling the communist-inspired DEI agenda and calling out EU elites over their tightening grip on thought control, was likely forced to cut a deal with the domestic Israeli lobby, which pushed him into the ill-fated campaign in Iran.
Contrary to widespread belief, political sycophancy toward Israel — including its fellow travelers among millions of fervent Christians awaiting the coming Apparition of Jesus — is not the result of a violent ideology imposed by a handful of Jewish conspirators. Rather, long-standing, Bible-inspired guilt feelings had already created fertile ground for the erosion of freedom of thought. Coupled with the illusion of endless capitalist growth, alongside Christian “love thy non-White neighbor” ecumenism, a belief has taken hold that everything will somehow sort itself out. It won’t. At its core, the spirit of Christian-inspired self-denial amounts to a loss of Spirit itself.
READ MORE by Dr. Tomislav Sunic, brought to you by Arktos:
Against Democracy and Equality was the first book ever published in the English language on the European New Right, and it remains an indispensable introduction to a school of thought which remains a vibrant force in the understanding of European politics.
Dr. Sunic examines the principal themes which have concerned the thinkers of the New Right since its inception by Alain de Benoist in 1968, such as the problematic nature of the label ‘New Right’ for a school which sees itself as being beyond traditional concepts of both the left and the right; its revolutionary political philosophy; its conception of history in terms of cycles; its attitude toward democracy, capitalism and socialism; and its endorsement of ‘pagan’ spirituality. He also discusses the significance of some of the older authors who have been particularly influential on the development of the movement, such as Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt and Vilfredo Pareto.
This new edition of Against Democracy and Equality has been completely re-edited, and offers new prefaces by both Dr. Sunic and the principal theorist of the European New Right, Alain de Benoist. Also included for the first time is the Manifesto for a European Renaissance, which highlights the positions of the New Right as it enters a new millennium.