Peter Grose, a gifted New York Times journalist, published a book in 1983 titled Israel in the Mind of America. Covering a 400-year period, his informative and insightful study showed how the roles of Jewish thought, symbols, and historical events had woven their way into American values and culture (and not just into religious ethics and reference points) and how strong leaders, in this case President Harry Truman and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, overlapped and affected the policies of each other. Neither politician was afraid to express ambitions and emotions. Grose noted that “Americans have derived inspiration from a national redemption,” despairing when there is a shortfall in this regard. “Be it strategic asset or strategic nuisance,” Grose argued, “Israel embodies an ideal deeply embedded in American thought from the earliest years of life in the New World.” By “ideal,” he meant the commonality of Judeo-Christian ethics.
Thirty-five...