60 Days to Go

5,000 Christian Evangelicals Can`t Be Wrong

By Sherwin Pomerantz

Just 60 days (i.e. two months) to go before the scheduled opening of the UN General Assembly in New York and the possible vote on Palestinian statehood. While there seems to be some progress on the diplomatic front the Palestinian Arab leadership continues to be hell bent on getting their resolution through the UN whether or not it will ultimately benefit them.

But even though their intent vis-à-vis Israel may indeed be negative, today I am not depressed. Today and tomorrow I am in Washington DC attending the annual Washington Summit of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) the evangelical Christian Zionist group whose support for Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people is unequivocal, spirited, vocal and dependable. To walk into a room of 5,000 people who, when the speaker says “The Land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by God Almighty and we will defend their right to this land until our dying day” everyone stands up, cheers, raises their hands and says “Amen” is, in a word, energizing.

Today’s opening plenary session featured, in addition to CUFI Founder Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio, television personality and commentator Rabbi Dennis Prager, Connecticut US Senator Joe Lieberman and CUFI Executive Director David Brog. There is not room to cover all of what was said in the 95 minute opening session, but Dennis Prager’s comments on legitimacy and its connection to refugees bears repeating.

The Arab leadership claims that in 1948 711,000 people were made homeless as a result of the creation of the State of Israel and the subsequent War of Independence. Today those 711,000 individuals have reproduced, with UNRWA’s figures showing the total now to be 4.7 million. And these numbers, of course, are the basis of the Palestinian insistence on the right of return. The anti-Israel forces in the world use these numbers, as well, to prove their claim that Israel is not a legitimate country given this huge refugee problem.

Yet the creation of Pakistan from land taken from India in 1947 created 7 million refugees, composed of Hindus and others. In addition, in 1977 the creation of Bangladesh from what was East Pakistan created yet another 7 million refugees. There are disputes about these numbers as some people claim they are even higher, but everyone agrees on a minimum of 14 million refugees. Yet no one anywhere in the world accuses Pakistan of being an illegitimate country or even seems to be overly concerned with solving that “refugee problem.” But we never hear about this anymore. Only Israel seems to be singled out from among all the nations of the world with refugee problems (and there are many) as, therefore, being illegitimate.

So being in an atmosphere as I was this morning where love for Israel, for the land, and even for Jews as a people, is, quite frankly, energizing and gives one a sense of hope. Here in the US there are millions upon millions of Christian supporters who believe in the bible, who accept that it is God’s word and who, after thousands of years of institutionalized Christian anti-Semitism, a new order had arisen that permits Sen. Lieberman to stand before the crowd and say, to resounding applause, “I am Joseph, your brother.”

It hit me as I was listening to all of this that if we ever get to the point in Jewish existence where our people believe in the bible to the same extent as these Christian Zionists, there is no doubt that the messiah will come. We can argue about whether it is the first time or the second time, but, at this point in time, that is almost simply a small detail.

There are, of course, plenty of people who question the real goals of the Christian Evangelicals. But at this point in history where Israel desperately needs all the friends it can muster, the fact that 5,000 people come to Washington for two days of education followed by one full day where each and every one of them will meet with their congress people to lobby on behalf of Israel is an act of devotion to which thinking people who care about Israel can only say “thank you, thank you very much.”
I was happy today to say thank you to so many people who support us and the only obstacle was to thank them before they thanks me and the significant number of others from Israel who spent the money and made the time to be here. More of us who care need to do this regularly.