While Middle Eastern countries resist US and Israeli suggestions to isolate and punish the Palestinian people and Iran offers a hand of friendship to Hamas, Israel has acquired some new friends:
A new group in the United States, Christians United for Israel, will serve as an umbrella organization for Christian congregations that support Israel, and will lobby for Israel.
Some 400 Christian community leaders met in San Antonio, Texas, two weeks ago to establish the group, which Christians United officials said represents about 30 million Americans.
The organization’s main goal is to create a rapid-response network “targeted to reach every senator and congressman” in the United States. It is led by evangelical leaders Dr. John C. Hagee and George Morrison; fundamentalist Baptist minister Jerry Falwell; and Gary Bauer, president of the American Values organization aimed at protecting marriage, family and faith.
This relationship is a dangerous one, though the Israeli Ambassador to the US doesn’t seem to understand. “We see Christians in the United States as true friends and important supporters on the basis of shared values, and we welcome their efforts to strengthen the ties between Israel and the U.S”, he says. “Shared values”? Perhaps he didn’t read the fine print. One of the group’s key aims is to express a “debt of gratitude to the Jewish people for their contribution to Christianity.”