Josh Hammer, senior editor- at-large at Newsweek, discusses his new book Israel and Civilization and makes the case for a renewed Jewish-Christian alliance to preserve Western civilization. Here is my interview with him:

Josh Hammer (Photo via Wikipedia)

Let’s start with the title of your book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. It sounds like the title is almost a thesis statement – that you’re not just writing a history book or a book of mere social commentary, but you actually have a point that you want to make.

The original title we were brainstorming was actually “Sinai and Civilization.” That gives away the core of the argument. “Israel and Civilization” also makes sense when you understand that “Israel” serves a dual function. It’s not just the State of Israel, but also the Children of Israel, the Jewish people.

The cover features Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. We wanted to make a statement that this is not a traditional blue and white Magen David hasbara book. I’m an unabashed Zionist, but such books have been written before.

This book was written in response not just to the horrific pogrom on October 7, 2023, but really in response to the world’s reaction to that pogrom. The world had a clear opportunity to choose between a Medieval Islamist death cult and one of the most vibrant, flourishing nations, and the fact that it was so morally confused is telling.

It was time for someone, especially from a younger generation, such as myself, to write a book trying to remind Westerners: “What do you think this is? You’re living in a very flourishing society. Where do you think you got this from?”

The book makes the argument that Western civilization begins with the Bible. The Judeo-Christian tradition going back to Revelation and Mount Sinai really is the core of what we refer to as “Western civilization.” Fundamentally, I’m explaining how the original People of the Book, the Jewish people, have a special and unique role to play not just in Western civilization, but really in the fate of mankind as a whole.

What you’re pointing to is that the reaction to October 7 was like picking up a rock and seeing all the bugs crawl out, realizing there was something very rotten at the core of how so many people in the West think about their own identity. Are Americans your primary audience for this book?

The primary audience is Americans, especially younger Americans. They tend to be more morally confused in public polling when it comes to basic questions like: “Who do you sympathize with, Israel or Hamas?”

Part of the book includes my personal story as someone raised in a very secular setting who has since embarked on a religious journey. Part of that is a message to liberal Reform Jews and secular Jews: To be a true “Light unto the Nations,” don’t just talk the talk – actually walk the walk.

But above all, the number one audience is younger conservatives, maybe especially young Christian conservatives. The evangelicals in America are the Jewish people’s greatest friends, period. 

But there is a problem within some of the younger generation of Christians in America. I’m trying to make sure they don’t go down the path of people like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and that they understand that their Bible is not just the New Testament. The Hebrew Bible is a huge part of the Christian Bible.

As a constitutional lawyer, I can speak at length to how the American founders incorporated the Hebrew Bible into their view of what America is, everything from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia having the Book of Leviticus inscribed on it. Note that it’s not Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics or some pagan source – it’s the Book of Leviticus.

Drilling down further

I want to drill down further into this issue about where the America First movement, especially the younger part of the movement, is going, relative to Israel. Populist nationalist right-wing groups throughout the world are unequivocally pro-Israel. It’s only the populist nationalist right in the United States that seems to have lost the plot.

Israel has been a somewhat contentious issue on the American Right since at least the 1990s with the rise of Pat Buchanan and the paleo-conservatives. Back then, there was this idea that Israel was a net liability for the United States’ relations with the Arab world.

Whatever merit that argument may have had, the Abraham Accords single-handedly defeated it. The Accords showed that when the United States goes all-in for US-Israel relations, the result is not more war – it’s actually peace. Trump’s first term saw the most stable Middle East in my lifetime, with transformative peace deals.

One of the chapters in your book deals with an “America First” foreign policy. What do you see as the correct “America First” policy regarding Israel?

I explain how an “America First,” realist foreign policy makes US-Israel relations not just a good fit, but a perfect fit. First, I explain how Bush-era neo-conservatism is actually not a good fit for US-Israel relations. What motivated the neo-conservatives was this moralistic urge to build democracies, and their grand state-building project regarding Israel was the Palestinian Arab project.

Trump understands that an emboldened Israel is in the American national interest, partly because he prioritizes China as America’s number one threat. America has real concrete interests in the Middle East – from the threat of radical Islamic jihad to the regime in Tehran that chants “Death to America” daily. The question is: “How can America prioritize China while safeguarding its interests in the Middle East?”

The answer is to embolden your allies to act in ways that benefit both your national interests. Last summer, Israel killed high-ranking Hezbollah jihadis who orchestrated the 1983 US embassy bombing and Marine barracks bombing [in Beirut]. The US had bounties on these men for over four decades, but nothing happened until Israel killed them.

Israel is doing America’s dirty work, and all it asks in return is support in international forums and occasional weaponry. The return on investment is very high.

So what’s the way forward? How can the West recover and perpetuate itself?

If I could implement one sweeping change, it would be getting more Christians into Bible-believing churches and more Jews into Torah-observant synagogues. That would solve so many of America’s problems – from loneliness to social media addiction.

Even for non-believers, you must understand where our morality and laws come from. The golden rule taught in kindergarten comes from Leviticus 19:18.

The concluding chapters of my book include “The Maccabean Imperative,” which is an extended argument for being a modern-day Maccabee. The final chapter calls for a Jewish-Christian alliance to save the West. This is my pitch: Jews and Christians standing shoulder to shoulder to embrace our shared inheritance, the Bible, which created and forged the West.

Neither group can do it without the other. Christians cannot forsake the original people of the book. 

And my message to Jews who are hostile to Christians is: We cannot resuscitate Western civilization without an alliance with our fellow biblical religion that has done more than anything else to build Western civilization for 2,000 years.

The article first appeared in the J-Post. The writer is executive director of Israel365Action.com and host of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast.