This is a book about politics and religion, Christians and Jews, anti-Semites and righteous Gentiles. It would be difficult to find more emotional and controversial topics about which to write. Anyone who wants to objectively analyze my ideas on these difficult subjects will need to factor in my background and the biases I may bring to my analysis. I thus owe it to you, the reader, to state at the outset just who I am and why I have written this book. Starting with religion, I am a Jew. I am not a Messianic Jew or a Jew for Jesus—I don’t believe that the Messiah has ever appeared on Earth. Nor am I an alienated or self-hating Jew. I embrace my Jewish faith and seek knowledge of my Creator through the paths and texts provided to me by my Jewish ancestors. While I do not observe all of the Halacha (Jewish law), I do recognize the Halacha as a central component of my religion. If there be fault in my failure to observe it, the fault lies with me, not with the law. Moving on to politics, I am a Republican. Yet it is important to note that I spent my entire career in politics working for the most “liberal” of Republican senators, Arlen Specter. I worked for Senator Specter for more than seven years, first as his chief counsel and later as his chief of staff. Senator Specter is a vocal champion of causes that are anathema to the Christian Right, namely legalized abortion and embryonic stem cell research. While I do not share my former boss’s certainty on these issues, I represented him zealously the entire time I was in his employ. Thus I write this book not as a stalwart of the Christian Right, but as one who has seen difficult combat with the Christian Right. My curiosity about the topic of Christian Zionism stems from my years working on Capitol Hill. During this period, I was privileged to meet a number of Christian Zionists who impressed me by their devotion to Israel and their apparent love for the Jewish people. If there is one great theme to Jewish history, it is our lonely walk through the centuries. The Jews have known no great allies, no stalwart friends—we have lived and died facing a hostile world alone. Thus I found it intriguing to think that, finally, we had some very big friends standing on our side.

Yet the media told me not to get my hopes up. Television, newspapers, and magazines all informed me that Christian Zionists were not real friends of the Jews but enemies in disguise who supported Israel out of a sick desire to see the Jews killed or converted at the end of days. I started researching this book in a simple quest to discover the truth, to see if these purported friends were what they claimed to be.

What I learned in the course of my research far surpassed what I had expected to find. I became convinced that the evangelical Christians who support Israel today are nothing less than the theological heirs of the righteous Gentiles who sought to save Jews from the Holocaust. This book represents the fruits of my search for the truth. This book is also my attempt to thank those whom the truth has vindicated and exalted. It is my great hope that this book can contribute in some small way to a reconciliation between Christian and Jew, which is long overdue.

This book has been a labor of love. And like all expressions of love, it has left my heart bigger than it was before I began. I hope that it will have the same effect on you, dear reader.