The Neocons Are Biblically Grounded

by Robert L. Johnson

The new conservatives, or neocons, are a powerful group in Washington, DC. They are credited in Time [1] as being the driving force, through neocon and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, to suggest to George W. Bush that the US needed to start a war in Iraq. After tens of thousands of dead and horribly wounded Iraqis, over 1,200 dead and many thousands more terribly wounded and mutilated Americans, the American people are still faithfully marching down the road the neocons put them on.  

Where did the neocons’ ideas originate? What is their driving and sustaining force?  

All the leading neocons, from Irving Kristol and his son William Kristol, to Paul Wolfowitz, Abram Shulsky, and Richard Perle, either studied under, or independently studied, the teachings of Leo Strauss. The neocon movement is definitely made up of Straussians and Strauss is often referred to as the father of the neoconservative movement.  

Leo Strauss was a German Jewish scholar who immigrated to the US in 1938. Seeing how the Weimer Republic could not stop the National Socialists, he turned against secular democracy. After arriving in the US, he became a professor at the University of Chicago. It was there that Wolfowitz and Kristol became his students and disciples.  

Believing that progress is bad because it moves beyond early superstitions and myth, such as the Bible, Strauss taught an unnatural reverence for the past--specifically the Jewish past. In a speech entitled, Progress or Return? The Contemporary Crisis in Western Civilization, Strauss said, “Judaism is a concern with return; it is not a concern with progress. ‘Return’ can easily be expressed in biblical Hebrew; ‘progress’ cannot.”  

Strauss thought that most people are incapable of living their lives without a belief in a God who would punish them for disobedience, and reward them for obedience. In order for the people to know what this God demanded of them, Strauss, being a student himself of the Twelfth Century influential Jewish leader Rabbi Maimonides, believed the best bet was to use the Hebrew Bible. In the editor’s introduction to a collection of Strauss’ writings, Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity, Kenneth Hart Green writes, “Strauss learned from Maimonides that religion is essential to any healthy political society, and certainly for the moral life of human beings. Over and above this, Maimonides convinced Strauss that Jewish religion, based on the Hebrew Bible, is most essential to ground a ‘genuine’ morality for almost every human being.”  

This cornerstone idea, that the Jewish religion through the Hebrew Bible should be used to control the sheep, is what motivates and holds together the Jewish and Christian neocons. It is the driving force that sparks increasing and unquestioned US support for Israel, no matter what the cost is to the US and the rest of the world.  

The Hebrew Bible is a collection of writings by ancient Jews to promote themselves. It’s filled with absurd stories of rivers turning into blood (Exodus 7:17 ), unicorns (Isaiah 34:7), talking donkeys (Numbers 22:28 ), etc. But threaded throughout this Hebrew Bible is a game plan for the Jews like Leo Strauss, the Kristols, Wolfowitz, ad nauseam, to take and keep the high ground in society and in world affairs.  

To start with is Deuteronomy 7:6. This Bible quote has the God of the Hebrew Bible saying the Jews are, “above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” Getting into this mindset is a good place to start for the masses. To serve God’s chosen people is to serve God on earth.  

The neocon/Straussian idea of basing society on the Hebrew Bible is working amazingly well. Of key importance in the Hebrew Bible is Israel’s well-being. In the book of Isaiah 60: 10-12 we read: “And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." George Bush, the faith-based president, obviously takes this quote as Biblical truth. It was probably in the forefront of his tiny brain when, as the executive director of the 9/11 commission said, he started the war in Iraq for Israel ’s security.

I don’t believe in Bible prophecy, but this quote from Deuteronomy 11:23 could be a picture painted of Israel and its “special relationship” with the US government as it stands today. It reads, “Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.” (Italics added by author)  

Superstitious Christians, such as Pat Robertson, accept the Hebrew Bible as the word of God, just as certainly as Halliburton overcharges US taxpayers. Wanting to please the Judeo-Christian God, Robertson believes the borders of Israel should be extended to borders dating back to 950 BC! He wrote an article about this, the title of which sums up Robertson’s neoconservative outlook on Israel --The Land of Israel: A Gift From God.  

Based on Robertson’s ideas, American youth, and the youth of any country that is foolish enough to be sucked into taking part in these neocon wars, better be prepared for much more sacrifice and dying. The borders of Israel in 950 BC, as Robertson states, “go all the way up north to the Euphrates River which encompasses the better part of modern-day Syria . Solomon's empire went up to the Euphrates River. And Tyre and Sidon and Megiddo. And they had the Via Maris which went from Damascus all the way down to Cairo. It went as far as the area down in Gaza." America’s military really has a full agenda ahead of them!