Will Washington’s ‘Pharaoh’ bring trouble or plenty to Israel?

NATHAN JEFFAY FROM JERUSALEM

Trump once donated $10,000 to Beit El near Ramallah, which is getting new homes under the settlement announcement

In the second Tablet World feature bringing in-depth views from around the world, our Jerusalem correspondent Nathan Jeffay questions if new warmth from Washington is really in the country’s best interests..

Leaders of Israel’s settler movement were still unpacking their suitcases from Washington, full of inauguration-ball suits, when they got the news they had been hoping for. Settlements are to grow - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved massive construction for the West Bank.

The announcement for 2,500 new homes came two days after Netanyahu spoke on the phone to US President Donald Trump, for a conversation that they described, respectively, as “very warm” and “very nice.”

This was a relationship being overhauled. Not between the US and Israel, as despite the personal distaste that Barack Obama had for Netanyahu, Washington generally had Jerusalem’s back. But it was an overhaul to the relationship between the Prime Minister’s bureau in Jerusalem and the Oval Office.

Trump’s predecessor could make it famously difficult for Netanyahu to fix meetings, and once reportedly abandoned him in a White House meeting room “to have dinner with Michelle and the girls.” Trump rushed to call Netanyahu on his second full day in office, told him that he’s not far after Britain’s Theresa May in the pecking order to visit the White House, and seemingly gave him the okay for the settlement announcement.

Instead of the condemnations that quickly followed building announcements at press briefings in Obama’s White House, Trump’s spokesman just said that it would come up as one of the topics when he meets Netanyahu. It’s a stark change but not a surprising one. After all, in a rare departure from form, on settlements Trump put his money in place first and then opened his mouth: he once donated $10,000 to Beit El near Ramallah, which is getting new homes under the announcement.

Occupation “scandal”

While settler leaders had much to smile about as they unpacked their cases, a group of bishops just back at their homes in the UK, Italy, France and elsewhere would have got back into their routines with a sinking feeling. “We all have a responsibility to oppose the construction of settlements,” they had just declared at the end of a visit to Israel and the West Bank.

They had been taking part in the Holy Land Coordination, which has travelled to the region every year since 1998 to show support for local churches. Backed by the Holy See and led by the Bishop of Clifton Declan Lang the group, comprised of 11 Catholics and one Anglican, called the occupation “a scandal to which we must never become accustomed” and urged Christians to “to recognise our own responsibility for prayer, awareness and action.”

It remains to be seen how these bishops' call resonates in their communities, but what is sure is that they did not manage to have much impact on the Israeli or Palestinian mainstream. Israelis are focussed on the criticism their country is receiving from harder hitters, like the United a Nations. And in Palestinian society, Christian voices are becoming more marginalised. 

America’s Pharaoh

At this time of year, the story of Joseph and Pharaoh is on the mind of many Israelis, as it has just come up in the annual cycle for synagogue Bible readings. Many are referencing the story in their attempt to make sense of the change in administration in Washington, seizing on its themes of how world powers impact on their people. On paper, the most that Pharaoh and Trump have in common beyond their power may be the fact that they are both, thanks to daughters who surprised them by deciding respectively to foster and convert, grandfathers of young Israelites. But dig deeper and there’s plenty to discuss.

For some, today’s story is mimicking the ancient text, but backwards. Now comes the good Pharaoh after eight years of a man they despised. Now comes the plenty - in terms of settlement building - after eight years of famine, during which Barack Obama didn’t halt construction but did manage to restrict it.

For others, the text is a warning, about unpredictable leaders (and they may stress the reading in which it’s the same Pharaoh all along, with different attitudes). Pharaoh drew the Israelites close and showered them with kindness, but he was also a xenophobe with an intense fear of foreigners, who were becoming “too mighty and too many.” His builders were busy with pyramids, so instead of adopting a deportation policy and building a wall he enslaved his immigrant community instead.

The inference from this reading of the story can be: handle unpredictable power with caution, and remember that the fate of a pet foreigner can quickly change. A question it raises is whether the apparent kindness being shown to Israel in Washington is really in the country’s best interests, or actually setting the stage for a more troubled future.

Of course, the settlement issue, complete with the Trump factor, divides Christians as well as Jews. Last Monday (23/1), when I needed a pro-settler voice to provide balance in a news article I was writing, I couldn’t find the settler leaders in my contacts book because they were still flying back from the Trump inauguration, so I decided to call their friends in the US instead.

Hayovel is a Missouri-based evangelical ministry which recruits American volunteers to “serve” settlers and help with their agricultural endeavours. It hosted two right-wing Israeli politicians for the inauguration and a series of prayer meetings afterwards. “We hope there can be a change,” said the ministry’s spokeswoman Lydia Taylor, discussing the Trump era. “We don’t believe that the two-state solution is the option for peace.” Taylor wants to see the West Bank treated just like other areas under Israeli control, which of course involves construction.

There couldn’t be a sharper contrast to the view that dominates in the Vatican - and shapes the attitudes of the Holy Land Coordination bishops. One of the most enduring visuals from Pope Francis’ last visit to Israel and the West Bank was a stop he made next to Israel’s separation barrier, where he prayed next to graffiti that said “free Palestine.”

What often staggers Christian groups that I lecture is the extent to which, among Jewish Israelis, the same religious texts will bring people to opposite conclusions regarding the geopolitical situation - whether to seek peace or assert control of maximum land; whether to be ever-ready for optimism or ever-ready to draw arms.

Now I have a new example to illustrate that this transcends faiths, it’s just that they, layman or laywoman, can find it harder to spot in relation to their own religion. The statement that the bishops of the Holy Land Coordination just issued ends with the observation that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is approaching its half-century and “during this fiftieth year of occupation we must pray for the liberty of everyone in the Holy Land.”

They want the anniversary to bring an end to Israel’s control of the West Bank, and cite a verse from the Book of Leviticus: “You will declare this fiftieth year to be sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the country's inhabitants.” Guess who else likes this verse, with a rather different spin. A clue: the verse goes on to say that the year shall be a “jubilee” and the Hebrew for the jubilee is hayovel. 

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