History teacher Irving Hall ratcheted up condemnation of a Jewish Israel in a July 6 workshop at the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America annual conference. Lacing together pseudo-history, conspiracy, and fear-mongering, he presented a motley case for Palestinian favoritism. Following Barbara Taft at an anti-Zionist workshop, Hall set out to tell the real story behind the Israeli state. He declared, “We are the least informed people in the world about this issue.”
Outside the conference, Irving Hall works as a history teacher. He has worked as a left-wing social activist for fifty years. When he has not been teaching young men and women, he has been protesting the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities, training draft-dodgers, protesting both Gulf Wars, and condemning the current state of Israel. The latter came into special focus just recently with the “freedom flotilla” and what Hall called the “absurdity of Obama.” The President’s error originated in first supporting the original 1967 border of Israel, which is a “universally recognized resolution” to the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts. Hall praised this action for coming into harmony with the opinion of the U.N., the Arab States, some U.S. presidents, and several European countries. Obama fell afoul by changing his mind, supporting Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian territories. This decision came after Prime Minister Netanyahu personally addressed the American government about the issue. For Hall, this move is yet another failure to address the “tragic year of 1967.”
Two 1967 events cemented America’s support for “radically right-wing Jewish fascism.” First, Israel won the Six-Day War. By defeating three powerful Arab nations, Israel not only gained more territory (such as the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Gaza), but also garnered an impressive military reputation. Hall believes the Six-Day War caught the attention of the insidious American military-industrial complex. Soon, policy realists favored Israel as the most powerful democracy in the Middle East region. Also, Hall surmised, the war caused a “mighty blow to the faith of Islam,” where the Muslim world was not holy enough to gain the blessings of Allah. This, of course, led to the formation of radical groups who later resorted to terrorism. Hall conveniently left out that the Six-Day War had been a defensive conflict on the part of Israel against three surrounding foes.
Hal Lindsey’s publication of The Late Great Planet Earth serves as the second great 1967 occurrence. This Christian best-seller popularized the fringe philosophy of Christian Zionism, an outgrowth of dispensationalism, where God will return Israel to their nation after catching up His church in the Rapture. Hall boasted, “I know more about Zionism than 95% of Zionists.” Part-and-parcel of this theological view is what Hall named the “deadly myth of the Promised Land,” where “God is the Divine real estate agent.” Hall went on to outline the history of Zionism. He did well to distinguish the statist Zionism in Europe (which was sometimes fueled by anti-Semitism) from the Christian Zionism of John Nelson Darby. Within this history, Hall was quick to point out that stable, middle-class 1800s Jews tended to be good internationalist Marxists (exposing Hall’s own bias if nothing else). Hal Lindsey became important for making a particular eschatology incredibly popular, receiving recognition from both thoughtful theologians (such as Charles Ryrie) and paperback novelists (such as Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins). In terms of policy, Hall believes dispensational eschatology demands “an unconditional support of Israel.” Especially woeful is the view’s popularity within Southern Baptist circles, which Hall painted as the political arm of the Republican Party. Indeed, Hall portrayed the 1970s recovery of orthodoxy within the SBC as a kind of Zionist overthrow.
The villains of world harmony are now Israel and America. The ultra-orthodox and Jewish settlers are now taking over Israel, calling for a state ruled by Torah. Hall recalled that, after the ultra-orthodox scholars had allowed their followers join the Israeli military, they have become “a very dangerous Fifth Column in the military.” The settlers, on the other hand, bring the great sin of the West (in liberal eyes): imperial colonialism. Now Holocaust survivors are persecutors. Hall outrageously noted, “Now the Israelis are the Nazis and the Palestinians are Jews.” What Hall wants is a liberal secularization: a separation of religion and state that would allow everyone in a country’s borders to get along. Government authority seems invalid in his eyes unless it meets this standard.
America also has a part to play. In addition to the pro-Zionist stance of Republicans, there is an anti-Muslim stance of “Islamaphobia” that corrupts the American people. Indeed, Islamaphobia has become America’s new U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities. “Israel’s terrorists are our terrorists,” Americans naively tell themselves. From here on out, Hall becomes a rather humorous conspiracy theorist. He finished up his presentation retelling the “theft of the Florida election” in 2000 and the 9/11 internal demolition of the World Trade Center. To top it all off, Americans actually watch Fox News. It would be humorous if it did not come from a professional history teacher and a committed protest leader.
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