David Goldman is one of those rare polymaths capable of startling observations in multiple fields — economics demographics religion music — and the ability to weave them all together in fascinating ways. A recent document produced by the Church of Scotland “An Inheritance of Abraham? ” a veritable potpourri of reasons for rejecting the Jewish claim of a historical connection to the Land of Israel occasioned a typical Goldman apercu: “The most successful Christian communities embrace the State of Israel while the least successful abhor it.”

Ironically the Church of Scotland was once a hotbed of Christian Zionism. It was a Church of Scotland cleric who coined the phrase “A land without people for a people without a land.” But that was more than a century ago when the Church ofScotland and the Calvinism it embodied was far more vibrant than today. Since 1956 the Church of Scotland has shed two-thirds of its members and continues to lose them at a rate of five percent a year.

Things are not much better for the Church of England. Less that 40 percent of Britons say they believe in G-d and more British Muslims than British Christians attend weekly religious services. Like the Church of Scotland the Church of England has increasingly descended into mindless political correctness.Israelhas often bore the brunt of that political correctness in the form of resolutions for disinvestment.

The religious energy in Americahas shifted dramatically from the old mainstream churches — Episcopalians and Presbyterians — towards evangelicals. Here too Goldman’s observation holds up. Both the Episcopalians and Presbyterians have passed disinvestment resolutions in recent years (though the Presbyterians subsequently rescinded theirs). Meanwhile the evangelicals have proven to be the most stalwart supporters of Israel often citing the Biblical verse “And I will bless them that bless you and curse him that curses you; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Bereishis 12:3).

TheUnited Statesis by far the most religious of the developed countries. Two-fifths of Americans attend services weekly and only 18 percent never worship. By contrast more than half of Britons never attend church and only one in eight does so weekly. That religiosity correlates highly with attitudes toIsrael. Americans favorIsraelover the Palestinians by nearly five to one while Britons viewIsraelnegatively by a ratio of nearly four to one.

Goldman connects his observation about failing religions to another: anti-Semitism is correlated to declining ethnic groups. Europe’s most prominent anti-Semitic party at present isHungary’s Jobbik Party the third largest in the country. AndHungary’s fertility rate today is a paltry .83 per woman the lowest inEurope. But well-below-replacement fertility rates characterize the entire continent. The UN projects for instance a Russian population of 115 million in 2050 an astounding 30 million people fewer than the number in 2000. (In Scotland by the way the number of births per year is one-half of what it was in 1950 and the number of babies born to married couples one-fifth.)

Meanwhile Muslim birthrates remain high acrossEurope. Native Europeans then can already smell the death scent of their own self-extinction.

Goldman quotes the German-Jewish thinker Franz Rosenzweig on the fear of impending death at the national level:

Just as every individual must reckon with his eventual death the peoples of the world foresee their eventual extinction. …. Indeed the love of the peoples for their own peoplehood is sweet and pregnant with presentiment of death. …. Thus the peoples of the world foresee a time when their land with its rivers and mountains still lies under heaven as it does today but other people dwell there; when their language is entombed in books; and their laws and customs have lost their living power.

Only one people has shown itself immortal: the Jews. As Mark Twain observed in his famous essay “Concerning the Jews.”

The Egyptian the Babylonian and the Persian rose filled the planet with sound and splendor then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed and made a vast noise and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out and they sit in twilight now or have vanished. The Jew saw them all beat them all and is now what he always was exhibiting no decadence no infirmities of age no weakening of his parts no slowing of his energies no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

To see the Jews return to their ancient land once more speaking their ancient tongue and still observing their ancient law must be particularly grating for those who can already foresee another people dwelling in their land speaking a different language and having sacked a once-proud culture.

Twain made his observation before the Holocaust which claimed one-third of the world’s Jews. Yet even after that national tragedy of a scale experienced by no other people the Jews (at least those dwelling inIsrael) show an optimism about the future that contrasts sharply to European pessimism. Elsewhere Goldman has created a graph formed of two axes — one fertility rates and the other suicide rates. On a graph of industrialized nations Israel— with the highest fertility rate and close to the lowest suicide rates (the combination of which Goldman uses as a measure of national optimism) — exists in a quadrant all by itself. Truly the Jews are a nation that dwells apart.

Students of anti-Semitism have long made the connection between anti-Semitism and envy. George Gilder in The Israel Test for instance treats anti-Semitism as primarily a function of envy of Jewish success the same type of envy that drives anti-capitalist levelers of all types.

But I think Goldman has located the most profound source of history’s “longest hatred”: Jewish immortality. As Michael Wyschograd observes “Israelis beyond the ‘laws’ of history. It is not subject to the rise and fall of other peoples and empires a fact which causes angry philosophers of history whose schemesIsraelundermines to refer to it as a fossil.”

That envy is less in Americabecause Americans remain more optimistic about their own future than most Westerners. Despite alarming drops in fertility rates the American birthrate remains well above European levels. And American religion as noted above remains vibrant. (Birthrates and religion are closely linked as Mary Eberstadt details in her new book How the West Really Lost G-d.) Moreover the most vibrant segment of the panoply of American religions has largely linked its future to the state of Israel and come to see in Israel’s existence not a cause for envy but proof as Goldman puts it that the “G-d of the Bible is a G-d of kept promises.”

Let Shavuos be an occasion for us to reflect on history’s most enduring miracle — the survival of the Jewish people as a sheep among 70 wolves — for that immortality can only be explained by our connection to the “living G-d” through the Torah He gave us at Sinai.

What’s Behind the Israeli Attacks on Syria?

Israellikely had numerous objectives in the multiple strikes on Syrian arms depots over a 24-hour period last week. The Israeli government has long made clear that it will not tolerate the transfer of advanced missiles to Hezbollah viaSyria and has previously bombed arms convoys headed intoLebanonfromSyria. Last week’s strikes analysts agree were designed to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining Fateh-110 solid-fuel missiles which can be launched in minutes from a small vehicle and carry a half-ton warhead with great accuracy over 300 kilometers.Israelalso sought to deny Hezbollah high-precision Yakhont missiles that could be used against the new gas rigs off the Mediterranean coast upon whichIsrael’s energy future is so dependent.

The strike also sent several messages toIran. The missiles stored on the outskirts ofDamascuswere in thickly protected underground caches which few countries in the world could have broken through with such ease. Their destruction reminds Iran of Israel’s capabilities. And President Obama’s message of support after the strike conveyed to Iran American backing for Israel’s self-defense.

Syria has turned into a proxy war between a Shiite Islamist Iran and free-floating Sunni jihadists who are supported by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was summoned to Tehran for a mid-April meeting with Gen. Qassem Suleimani commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to a report prepared by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Suleimani spelled to establish a 150 000-man Iranian and Shiite force in Syria. That force would outnumber the number of Syrian troops still under Assad’s command.

The Revolutionary Guard’s first priority is to prevent the fall of the Assad regime. Syria is crucial to the mullahs’ vision of a Shiite crescent from Iran to Lebanon. But Iran is also developing a Plan B: having militias in place to grab large swaths of Syria in the event Assad falls.

Such an Iranian takeover would represent an even greater threat to Israel than new sophisticated missiles in the hands of Hezbollah. Hezbollah is subject to deterrence. It paid a heavy price for the 2006 Second Lebanon War and it knows that the Israeli response will be even more destructive in the event of a new war in Lebanon. Iranian forces in Syria in possession of the same missiles however would be less concerned about Israeli retaliation against Syria. Last week’s Israeli strikes may well have been designed to forestall that scenario.