The Judeo-Christian Tradition In The Pro-Israel Stances Of America

The special relationship between the US and Israel is extremely rare in the modern world. Despite the absence of a formal defense treaty and frequent outbursts of violence in the Arab-Israeli conflict, American-Israeli relations have been closer than American relations with most of its allies. For years, the US serves as Israel's protective umbrella and strong backing. The reasons for American people and government's constant support for Israel are various. The cultural and religious root of the special relationship lies in the unique Judeo-Christian tradition in America.This paper adopts the methods of Christian and Jewish theological and historical studies as well as the case study and textual analysis to explore the religious root of America's pro-Israel attitudes which characterized by Judeo-Christian tradition. The whole thesis consists of three chapters between an introduction and the conclusion.The introduction gives general background information of the current study of Judeo-Christian tradition both at home and abroad to explain the significance and purpose of this present project.The first chapter focuses on the origins and connotations of the concept of Judeo-Christian tradition as well as the reasons for the emergence of the unique Judeo-Christian tradition in America and how are the shared values between Judaism and Christianity reflected in Judeo-Christian tradition. The first reason is American early puritans'strong acknowledgement of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). The second is the early Americans'analogy with the ancient Israel. In the second and the third chapter the author primarily explores the results of the acknowledgement of Judeo-Christian tradition in America. The second chapter explores the American acknowledgement toward Israel. Due to the acknowledgment of Judeo-Christian tradition, there is no deeply-rooted anti-Semitism in American history, and the similarities between the modern America and Israel have also been acknowledged in the background of Judeo-Christian tradition. The third chapter further discusses America's pro-Israeli attitudes and its relation with the religious factor-- Judeo-Christian tradition on the premise of their acknowledgment toward Israel. This chapter is divided into two parts. Firstly, the author explores the pro-Israel attitudes from the governmental level. Secondly, the author analyzes the pro-Israel stances of the massive American ordinary people which are represented by Evangelicals.The conclusion offers a brief summary of the major arguments of the essay and briefly explains how the Judeo-Christian tradition acts as the crucial religious factor in US-Israel relations.Through writing this paper, the author clarifies the general misunderstanding which holds that Judeo-Christian tradition is equivalent to Christian tradition. At the same time, the author hopes to demonstrate that the religious factor of American pro-Israel stances lies in the unique Judeo-Christian tradition in America through in-depth analysis and meticulous examples.