Introduction

The American Prospect is a magazine that describes itself as “devoted to promoting informed discussion” and “help[ing] to dispel myths.” Unfortunately, on August 25, the magazine published an article, “You Can Take This as Gospel,” by Brandeis University Professor Robert Kuttner featuring content at variance with the magazine’s avowed mission. In the course of describing what Kuttner argues could be a resurgence in the expression of progressive religion in American politics, Kuttner propagates myths and misinforms his audience by:

• Claiming the State of Israel committed a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
• Suggesting most American Jews believe Israel committed a genocide in Gaza.
• Assuming American Jewish Israel support and liberal values are incompatible:
  • Employing an anti-Jewish trope of Jewish control.
  • Ignoring the role of antisemitism in the exclusion of Jews from “liberal” spaces.
  • Misrepresenting the historical development of Reform Judaism.
  • Omitting Zionist commitments of social justice-oriented Jews and Christians.
• Accusing Christian fundamentalists of holding beliefs they do not report holding.

Claiming the State of Israel Committed a Genocide of Palestinians in Gaza

Kuttner simply assumes the State of Israel is guilty of committing genocide against Palestinians in referring to “Israel’s grotesque genocide in Gaza,” failing to provide any evidence for this incendiary charge. He neglects to inform readers that more than 500 legal, antisemitism, history, Holocaust, and genocide scholars as well as former prosecutors and additional authorities have rejected the allegation that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza. He also charges the State of Israel with committing “ethnic cleansing in the West Bank” without offering any substantiation for this accusation.

In his article, Kuttner does not even mention the terrorist organization Hamas, whose rape, murder, and abduction of Israelis on October 7, 2023 precipitated the recent war in Gaza and whose charter features an eschatological vision conditioned on Muslims eliminating Jews. As the German political scientist, historian, and antisemitism scholar Matthias Küntzel notes: “According to antisemitism expert Yehoshafat Harkabi, this is a call for an ‘eschatological ‘final solution.’’ The resurrection and salvation of the Muslims is made dependent on a prior massacre of Jews” (Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East: The 1948 Arab War against Israel and the Aftershocks of World War II, p. 40).

Suggesting Most American Jews Believe Israel Committed Genocide in Gaza

One of Kuttner’s statements in the article could leave readers with the impression that most American Jews think Israel has committed genocide in Gaza: “Israel’s grotesque genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank have appalled a majority of America’s Jewish community.”

In fact, a September 2025 Washington Post poll indicated most American Jews (51%) have reported they do not believe Israel’s conduct qualifies as “genocide.”

Moreover, a June 2026 The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs survey showed only 30% of American Jewish adults report believing the Jewish State has committed genocide, with an even greater number (49%) rejecting this claim.

Kuttner also does not provide any substantiation for his suggestion that most American Jews believe Israel has committed ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

Assuming American Jewish Israel Support and Liberal Values are Incompatible

Employing an Anti-Jewish Trope of Jewish Control

In his article, Kuttner suggests that American Judaism has been held in “captivity” by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, with “slavish support for Israel” impeding the ability of American Jewish movements and organizations, like Reform Judaism and the Anti-Defamation League, to pursue social justice.

This description employs an anti-Jewish trope of Jewish control to describe a pro-Israel lobby while falsely suggesting American Jews have been coerced into supporting Israel. Neither most Reform Jews nor the Anti-Defamation League have perceived an incompatibility between support for the State of Israel on the one hand and a commitment to liberal values on the other.

Ignoring the Role of Antisemitism in the Exclusion of Jews from “Liberal” Spaces

By expressing such support for Israel, Reform Judaism, Kuttner suggests, separated itself from “American liberalism.” In blaming Reform Judaism for this purported state of affairs, Kuttner completely neglects to explore what role antisemitism on the political left might have played in pushing Jews out of supposedly liberal spaces in the United States.

Kuttner’s Brandeis University colleague and leading historian of American Jewry Jonathan D. Sarna has observed that antisemitism has, in fact, played a role in the exclusion of Jews from such spaces:

What has been so disturbing and painful to American Jews […] has been the outpouring of antisemitism from the Progressive Left – including, in many cases, their own previous allies. Important leaders of Progressive causes like Black Lives Matter, the environmental movement, the LGBTQ+ movement, and the women’s movement (causes much beloved by many American Jews) have sided with Hamas terrorists against Israel. “We have watched our identities and ancestry completely erased, our very existence demonized for being unapologetic Zionists, and have been forced into silence in our shared progressive spaces,” a Progressive Colorado Democrat named Stefanie Clarke wrote a few months ago in the Denver Post. “Instead of seeing us for who we are – and who we have always been – many of our trusted Progressives allies have reduced an entire group of people to a slur [“Zionist”] and turned their backs on us. The Left has left us behind.”

While recent polling indicates most Americans believe antisemitism in the United States has increased, Kuttner in his article does not discuss antisemitism.

Dr. Rachel Fish—Brandeis University President’s Initiative on Antisemitism Director and Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Associate Research Professor as well as The George Washington University Visiting Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership—who previously served as Brandeis University Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Executive Director, has described the belief that Zionism and liberal values are opposed to one another as a “false claim” leveled by members of “the hard left” who have effectively imposed on Jewish college students “a progressive litmus test that says they have to disavow their Zionist interest.”

Misrepresenting the Historical Development of Reform Judaism

Kuttner’s narrative of Reform Judaism abandoning its liberal roots by supporting Israel is not reflected in the historical account The Jewish Theological Seminary Emeritus Professor of American Jewish History Jack Wertheimer provides of the movement. According to Wertheimer, Reform Judaism’s earlier embrace of at least an appearance of political neutrality and greater representation of rabbis among both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party gave way to the movement’s more explicit adoption of policy positions associated with the American political left:

Until recently, it was possible to find Reform rabbis and lay leaders active in both the Republican and Democratic parties, and the movement’s pronouncements on matters of public policy retained at least a studied semblance of political neutrality. This ceased to be the case. In recent years, Reform Judaism, at the prodding of its Washington arm, the Religious Action Center, issued resolution after resolution in support of left-liberal positions adopted by mainstream liberal Protestantism. But Protestant denominations had split badly over questions like liturgical innovation, abortion rights, and gay ordination. In contrast, on some of the most divisive issues of our time, Reform leaders not only avoided schism but have evidently built a strong consensus (The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today, pp. 109-110).

In contradistinction to Kuttner’s portrayal of Reform Judaism, a 2017 study by Tufts University political scientist Eitan D. Hersh and Harvard University Government and Social Policy scholar Gabrielle Malina determined that more than 80% of Reform rabbis registered as Democratic, the greatest share of any of the religious groups analyzed. In addition, a 2024 Jewish Electorate Institute survey found that 84% of Reform Jews strongly supported former Vice President Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for President in 2024.

Omitting Zionist Commitments of Social Justice-Oriented Jews and Christians

Kuttner approvingly references the American Jewish theologian Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel and the civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in describing traditional American Jewish support for social justice. However, Kuttner misleadingly suggests that Heschel and King embody a political alternative to the kind of Israel support that Kuttner derides by conveniently omitting their Zionist commitments. Kuttner similarly describes Father Robert F. Drinan as “a left-wing priest” who “ran for Congress in 1970 on an anti-war platform” and “was also a champion of abortion rights” while omitting Drinan’s Zionist views.

Accusing Christian Fundamentalists of Holding Beliefs They Do Not Report Holding

Kuttner contends that Christian fundamentalists understand Zionism entirely instrumentally and eschatologically: “Fundamentalists have a totally instrumentalist view of Zionism, as a way station to the Rapture, when all non-Christians will go straight to Hell.”

If Kuttner is using the term “fundamentalists” to refer to theologically conservative or orthodox Evangelicals—against whom such accusations have been leveled—survey data analyzed by the scholars Motti Inbari and Kirill Bumin of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Boston University, respectively, contradict this claim. In their June 2026 article, “The Surprising Sincerity of Evangelical Support for Israel,” published in The Times of Israel, Inbari and Bumin analyze survey data of Christian respondents who

strongly endorsed all four doctrinal criteria [of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) definition of Evangelical as one who strongly agrees that the Bible is the highest authority for belief, that encouraging non-Christians to trust in Jesus Christ is personally important, that Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice capable of removing sin, and that eternal salvation is granted only through trust in Jesus Christ alone].

Inbari and Bumin also provide data relating to non-NAE Protestants in their article.

Most NAE Evangelicals and Non-NAE Protestants Endorse Universal Moral Reasoning

If Kuttner is claiming that theologically conservative or orthodox Evangelicals “have a totally instrumentalist view of Zionism,” survey data analyzed by Inbari and Bumin suggest other factors can play a role in grounding support for Israel among this population.

Indeed, most NAE Evangelicals and non-NAE Protestants report agreement with the statement: “Christian support for Israel can be grounded in concern for the dignity and rights of all peoples in the Holy Land.” Most NAE Evangelicals (83.7%) either strongly agree (57.2%) or somewhat agree (26.5%) with this statement, while most non-NAE Protestants (73.1%) either strongly agree (33.4%) or somewhat agree (39.7%) with this statement.

Inbari and Bumin interpret such agreement as an “endorse[ment] [of] universal moral concern within the Holy Land, rejecting zero-sum or ethnically exclusive moral reasoning” associated with instrumentalist attitudes.

Most NAE Evangelicals and Non-NAE Protestants Report Care-Based Israel Support

Kuttner suggests that an eschatological belief about the rapture entirely undergirds Christian fundamentalist support for Israel, but again, if Kuttner is referring to theologically conservative or orthodox Evangelicals, this suggestion is not reflected in the survey data analyzed by Inbari and Bumin.

The survey data indicate most NAE Evangelicals and non-NAE Protestants report their “support for Israel comes from caring about the Jewish people today, not from beliefs about the End Times.” Most NAE Evangelicals (67.3%) either strongly agree (38.6%) or somewhat agree (28.7%) with this statement, while most non-NAE Protestants (64.3%) either strongly agree (29.7%) or somewhat agree (34.6%) with this statement.

Inbari and Bumin interpret “[t]hese numbers [as] reinforc[ing] the conclusion that their support is relational and people-centered and not just prophetic.” In other words, most Protestants do not regard an eschatological belief in the rapture as the basis of their support for Israel.

Most NAE Evangelicals and Non-NAE Protestants Report Jews Have a Path to God

While Kuttner claims that Christian fundamentalists believe that “all non-Christians will go straight to hell,” the survey data analyzed by Inbari and Bumin contradict this claim if Kuttner is referring to theologically conservative or orthodox Evangelicals.

According to the survey data, most NAE Evangelicals (67.2%) report either strongly agreeing (50.9%) or somewhat agreeing (16.3%) with the statement: “God offers Jews a path to Him through their covenant, just as Christians have theirs through Jesus.” Most non-NAE Protestants (71.3%) similarly report either strongly agreeing (34.2%) or somewhat agreeing (37.1%) with the statement.

Inbari and Bumin interpret such agreement as an “endorsement of a separate Jewish salvation path,” not the hellish fate Kuttner imagines Christian fundamentalists envision for all those who do not believe in Jesus. The fact that so many NAE Evangelicals affirm this belief is all the more striking given “the NAE definition of Evangelical affirms the exclusivity of salvation through Christ alone.”

The survey data analyzed by Inbari and Bumin led these scholars to conclude that support for the Jewish State expressed by NAE Evangelicals “is not merely eschatological or instrumental but is deeply intertwined with inclusive moral commitments to Jewish dignity, a respect for Judaism as an independent religion, and unconditional concern for Jewish well-being in the present.”

Conclusion

In his article, Kuttner asserts the Jewish State committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, suggests most American Jews agree with this assertion, and assumes American Jewish Israel support and liberal values are incompatible. In describing this alleged incompatibility, Kuttner uses an anti-Jewish trope of Jewish control, omits the role of antisemitism in the exclusion of Jews from “liberal” spaces, misrepresents the historical development of Reform Judaism, and neglects to mention the Zionist commitments of Jews and Christians he identifies as advocates of social justice or positions associated with the political left. Moreover, Kuttner alleges Christian fundamentalists hold a wholly instrumentalist and eschatological perspective on Zionism. If Kuttner is referring to theologically conservative or orthodox Evangelicals, this characterization is not reflected in recent survey data analyzed by scholars. In these ways, Kuttner misinforms readers, spreading inaccurate claims about the State of Israel, American Jews, and Christian Zionists. Hopefully, future articles by Kuttner will feature more accurate coverage of these subjects.