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America's Christian Zionists take Israel by storm<br><br>
U.S. evangelical Christians have become influential supporters of
the<br>
Jewish state<br><br>
By Craig Nelson<br><br>
INTERNATIONAL STAFF<br><br>
Sunday, January 4, 2004<br><br>
<a href="http://www.statesman.com/nation/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/news_f37faba0a54c70d5006d.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.statesman.com/nation/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/news_f37faba0a54c70d5006d.html</a><br><br>
<br>
HERZLIYA, Israel -- Christian evangelist Pat Robertson had them in
the<br>
palm of his hand.<br><br>
No matter that his audience wasn't predominantly Christian. When
the<br>
founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network culminated his<br>
give-no-ground speech to the elite of Israel's political and
military<br>
establishment with the ringing declaration, "Be strong! Be
strong!" many<br>
of his listeners jumped to their feet to give him a boisterous round
of<br>
applause.<br><br>
The rapturous response to Robertson in Israel last month is just
one<br>
example of how a large and growing group of conservative American<br>
Christians has entered the Jewish state's political scene with
startling<br>
vigor, even as the Holy Land's indigenous Arab Christian
communities<br>
wither because of violence and a dying economy.<br><br>
Calling themselves Christian Zionists, the evangelicals are
increasingly<br>
viewed as a political lifeline by influential Israelis who are eager
for<br>
allies to fight what they see as a rising global tide of enmity aimed
at<br>
Israel and to blunt suggestions that Israel is the main culprit in
the<br>
Israeli-Palestinian morass.<br><br>
They provide not only moral support but also substantial funds to
Israel's<br>
sputtering economy, and they've proven their political clout in the
Bush<br>
White House.<br><br>
Fueling the movement's growth is the belief that a great religious<br>
struggle is convulsing the world, one in which the
Israeli-Palestinian<br>
conflict is the main, but not only, battleground.<br><br>
At stake, Robertson and other Christian Zionists have said, is who has
the<br>
greater god: Jews and Christians on the one hand, or Muslims on the
other.<br><br>
"This is a war, a war of images that reverberate throughout the
world,"<br>
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder of the International Fellowship of<br>
Christians and Jews, said in Herzliya, where he shared the podium
with<br>
Robertson. "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the cusp of
becoming,<br>
God forbid, a worldwide conflict between Jews and
Muslims."<br><br>
<br>
Political dividends<br><br>
<br>
High-profile events in recent months underscore the blossoming ties<br>
between Israel and some of the estimated 70 million evangelicals in<br>
America and 600 million worldwide. In October, Israeli Prime
Minister<br>
Ariel Sharon addressed 3,000 visiting evangelical Christians from
80<br>
countries, including about 450 Americans.<br><br>
"We love you!" Sharon told the gathering, and in a march
through the<br>
streets of Jerusalem, the Christians returned the affection, waving
signs<br>
such as "Oklahoma Loves Israel" and shouting "Hallelujah
to the God of<br>
Israel!"<br><br>
The same month, several thousand evangelical Christians flocked to<br>
Washington to participate in a "Christian Solidarity for
Israel" rally,<br>
sponsored by the Christian Coalition.<br><br>
Just days later, about 16,000 U.S. churches participated in a
one-day<br>
"Stand for Israel" prayer campaign co-chaired by Ralph Reed,
who formerly<br>
led the Christian Coalition and is now an Atlanta-based political<br>
consultant and Southern regional chairman of President Bush's
re-election<br>
campaign.<br><br>
The swelling support of evangelical Christians has paid political<br>
dividends for Israel in America, so much so that the Israeli government
is<br>
considering the creation of a special parliamentary committee to
steer<br>
Israel's relationship with them.<br><br>
In a campaign orchestrated by Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and<br>
leading Christian Zionist Gary Bauer, hundreds of thousands of e-mails
and<br>
letters poured in to the White House last year after Bush, in a
Rose<br>
Garden speech, appeared to equate Israeli army actions in the West
Bank<br>
with Palestinian violence.<br><br>
In April, Bush's call on Israel to remove its tanks from
Palestinian<br>
territories in the West Bank triggered a similar flood.<br><br>
A month later, as Bush was rumored to be preparing to pressure Sharon
to<br>
make concessions in the interest of the U.S.-backed "road map"
for peace,<br>
Bauer and other evangelical leaders warned in a letter that any attempt
to<br>
be evenhanded between the Israelis and the Palestinians would be
"morally<br>
reprehensible."<br><br>
Such persistent pressure by this bedrock Republican constituency
has<br>
helped achieve some of Israel's primary goals, such as the discarding
of<br>
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a negotiating partner and the
White<br>
House's hailing of Sharon as a "man of peace."<br><br>
<br>
'Ideological tourism'<br><br>
<br>
And Israel receives more than political support from the movement.<br>
Eckstein's Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and
Jews<br>
is Israel's largest private philanthropy organization, according to
a<br>
survey conducted this month by the Israeli daily newspaper
Ha'aretz.<br><br>
Last year, the organization and its 250,000 evangelical donors gave
$20<br>
million to various Israeli causes, including assistance to the elderly,
a<br>
soup-kitchen network and a rescue service operated by Israel's<br>
ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.<br><br>
To make up for the drop in tourism because of the ongoing violence,<br>
Israel's Tourism Ministry began targeting evangelical Christians this
year<br>
with appeals based on theology and politics.<br><br>
It is buying time on Christian radio stations in the United States
and<br>
sending representatives to U.S. evangelical churches to air the
pitch:<br>
Show your support for Israel in its travails by vacationing
there.<br><br>
Israeli tourism officials say the campaign has been a resounding
success,<br>
despite a State Department travel advisory issued Oct. 20 warning
U.S.<br>
citizens against traveling to Israel because of violence.<br><br>
"It's ideological tourism," explains David Parsons, spokesman
for the<br>
International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, a Christian Zionist
outreach<br>
organization in Israel. "Evangelicals want to come out of a sense
of<br>
solidarity and mission. They know the country needs their help.
We've<br>
advised the Tourism Ministry on how the appeal should be
structured."<br><br>
Not all Israelis are knowledgeable about, let alone comfortable with,
the<br>
support from Christian Zionists. But in a primer on the movement to
the<br>
Herzliya gathering last week, Eckstein tried to debunk what he
described<br>
as myths about it.<br><br>
"Contrary to the impression -- I would say the stereotype, even
the<br>
prejudice -- that many of us have, (Christian Zionists) are not
Southern<br>
rednecks. They are educated, they are well-to-do, and they are
committed<br>
to Judeo-Christian values." Furthermore, Eckstein said, "they
have a huge<br>
network in the media" and "are continuing to grow in influence
(on) public<br>
policy."<br><br>
Eckstein accused the media of propagating the notion that Christian<br>
Zionists support the Jewish state only as a prelude to the Second
Coming<br>
of Jesus Christ when, according to some interpretations of the Bible,
all<br>
Jews will be converted to Christianity or wiped out in
Armageddon.<br><br>
"It is incorrect," he told the Israeli audience, despite
repeated<br>
statements by some Christian Zionist leaders to the contrary. "The
real<br>
reason (Christian Zionists) support Israel is because of the Bible:
`God<br>
will bless those who bless Israel, curse those who curse Israel.'
"<br><br>
<br>
Winning friends<br><br>
<br>
Nonetheless, apocalypse wasn't far from Robertson's mind.<br><br>
"The entire world is being convulsed in a religious struggle. Oh,
the<br>
struggle is whether Hubal, the Moon God of Mecca, known as Allah,
is<br>
supreme, or whether the Judeo-Christian Jehovah God of the Bible is<br>
supreme," the evangelist and former Republican presidential
candidate told<br>
his Israeli listeners.<br><br>
Against the encroachment of what Robertson called a "fanatical
religion<br>
intent on returning to the feudalism of eighth-century Arabia,"
Israel's<br>
sovereignty over the Holy Land must be preserved at all costs, he
argued.<br><br>
Robertson delighted many Israelis when, in remarks to local reporters,
he<br>
called for the "elimination" of Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat and<br>
warned that any attempt by Bush to force Israel to cede east Jerusalem
to<br>
the Palestinians would cost the president "an enormous amount of
support<br>
among the evangelical votes in the U.S."<br><br>
Ironically, Robertson has faced past accusations of anti-Semitism.
His<br>
1992 book, "The New World Order," expounded conspiracy theories
about<br>
all-powerful Jewish bankers.<br><br>
He later apologized, but some doubt that Robertson's and other
evangelical<br>
Christians' embrace of the Jewish state is sincere.<br><br>
"Christian Zionism is a sick ideology. Its scenarios for apocalypse
are<br>
anti-Christian, anti-peace, anti-justice and anti-reconciliation.
And<br>
while Christian Zionists pretend to be pro-Israel, in the long run
they<br>
are anti-Semitic," said Dr. Munib Younan, the Lutheran bishop of
Jordan.<br><br>
But such criticism hasn't dogged Robertson in Israel, says Rabbi
David<br>
Rosen of the American Jewish Committee. Most Israelis aren't familiar
with<br>
it, Rosen says.<br><br>
"Even if they did, it wouldn't make any difference. The past three
years<br>
have elicited reminders of the historical traumas of the Jewish
people.<br>
Israelis say, `We can't be too picky or discriminating about our
friends<br>
when there is such hostility toward us.' "<br><br>
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