The bond between the United States and the Jewish people has a rich history that predates the founding of America itself. This relationship is not simply a diplomatic one, but rather a covenantal one, rooted in the principles given by God at Sinai.
Long before the United States existed, a people learned to govern themselves by these divine principles. The Puritan settlers saw their own story unfolding in the ancient history of the Jewish people. In 1630, their leader John Winthrop preached a sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity," which closed with the word of Moses to the Children of Israel, urging his followers to love their God and one another.
The Mayflower Compact was understood to be a covenant, not a contract, because its signers saw it as a voluntary commitment to freedom and personal responsibility. Scholar Os Guinness notes that the American Revolution was not driven by Greek libraries or English common law, but rather by the Jewish idea of a people choosing to bind themselves to one another and to God.
America's founders repeatedly expressed admiration for the Jewish contribution to civilization. John Adams wrote that the Hebrews had done more to civilize men than any other nation, and had influenced world affairs more happily than any other nation. Adams was actually a Zionist, declaring in correspondence that he wished the Jews again had an independent nation in Judea.
Walter Russell Mead's work explains that the pro-Israel conviction in America was never primarily a Jewish conviction, but rather a Protestant one. In 1891, evangelical minister William E. Blackstone presented a petition to President Benjamin Harrison calling for the restoration of Palestine to the Jewish people, citing God's distribution of nations.
The U.S.-Israel relationship does not begin with intelligence-sharing, joint military exercises, or Israeli innovation in fields like water, medicine, and cybersecurity. Rather, it begins with a shared audacious idea that people can covenant themselves to liberty and law under God.
When America looks at Israel, it sees a semblance of its own worthwhile struggle. This is what motivated the founding of the U.S. Israel Education Association 15 years ago, to educate American leaders about this essential collaboration and to strengthen it for the future.
At 250, America does not necessarily need more allies, but it does need to remember and appreciate its origins and covenantal heritage. American and Israel both sprouted from the pages of the Jewish Bible and share a common script that reflects their identity and impacts their view of the world.
