Christian Zionism is on the move

Christian Zionism On The Move:

Christians United for Israel's Third Annual Conference

By NI Staff Report

From Monday July 21st through Wednesday the 23rd, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) held its annual conference in Washington, with over four thousand people attending seminars, dining at a Night to Honor Israel banquet sponsored by Zion Oil and Gas, Inc., and taking trips to lobby on Capital Hill. The banquet was headlined by speeches from Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman; CUFI founder, Pastor John Hagee; and Senator Joseph Lieberman. Other notable speakers at the conference included Senator Rick Santorum; Gary Bauer, CUFI board member and president of American Values; and Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum.

This was CUFI's third DC conference since the group's founding in early 2006. In addition to the conference, CUFI has held a summit in Jerusalem, publishes The Torch magazine, sends e-mails with rapid response alerts to members, and holds quarterly teleconferences with U.S. and Israeli officials. According to its website, the ultimate goals of CUFI are the education of Christians, building Christian support for Israel, and communicating pro-Israel perspectives to elected officials.

The Role of Christian Zionism

CUFI is associated with the Christian Zionist movement, which supports Israel largely because the existence of a Jewish state fulfills aspects of biblical prophecy, particularly the prophecy found in the book of Revelation in the New Testament.

Christian Zionism is a popular belief among Christian fundamentalists, evangelical or "born again" Christians, who, according to a December 2002 Gallop poll, constitute 46 percent of the American population. Their great numbers, influence and financial base give Christian Zionists much political sway, and indeed, many Congressmen and Cabinet members count themselves among those who subscribe to Christian Zionism. Consequently, this group has had a dramatic impact on American foreign policy toward Israel and the larger Middle East. Like any extremist belief, Christian Zionism is very threatening, especially given its popularity.

In general, Christian Zionists are ardently opposed to a two-state solution. Some even believe that the West Bank, which they call the lands of Judea and Samaria as written of in the Torah/Old Testament, should be entirely annexed by Israel. They believe that Israel is entirely surrounded by hostile Arabs and Muslims, and that it is the responsibility of Christian Zionists to always protect and support Israel.

For more information about Christian Zionism and Christians United for Israel please visit http://www.christianzionism.org/.

To watch a short video expose about the recent CUFI conference, please CLICK HERE

An Insider's View of the CUFI Conference

The highlight of the conference was Pastor Hagee's speech at the Night to Honor Israel banquet, where he pledged support for Israel, noting, "the time is always right to do what is right." It comes as no surprise that Mr. Hagee would "stand for a unified Jerusalem," vow to say "never again" to all threats against Jews, including the silence of Christian churches and the condemnation of Israeli policy by United Nations, state that there are "two ways to live, the Bible way and the wrong way," or even label Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as "the new Hitler."

What was surprising was the Pastor's willingness to discuss the way he is perceived by the public. Along with the aforementioned things to which he would say "never again," Mr. Hagee jokingly added, "what will I say the next time I'm asked to endorse a presidential candidate? Never again!" and went on to describe the surreal experience of being condemned in the media after his endorsement of Republican candidate John McCain. To defend his views, he then took the time to explain exactly why CUFI supports Israel: because Christians have a debt to Jews for providing the foundation of their religion, because God made a covenant with Israel, and because "Israel's fight against radical Islam is our fight." After this he asked that the audience "note what [he] didn't say." What Mr. Hagee didn't say was anything about "speeding up the Apocalypse" as described in the book of Revelation. "We don't believe that," he said, "because the Bible doesn't teach that… we are powerless to change God's timetable. He can do what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants to do it, that's what makes Him God." As such, Mr. Hagee attempted to clarify that he and CUFI, unlike many Christian Zionists, support Israel out of a genuine connection, not out of some desire to cheat prophecy.

Much of the rest of the conference was less encouraging. The understanding of Islamic extremism displayed by the various speakers was rarely nuanced in any way. Roz Rothstein, International Director of StandWithUs said that Muslims look to "knock on heaven's gate with the skull of a Jew" and showed a PowerPoint presentation including a photo of Yasser Arafat with the word "Jihad" superimposed over his face multiple times. Gary Bauer called Islam a "culture of death" urging that Americans "must choose life." Daniel Pipes warned of Muslims who "employ lawful means," who "wear ties and speak English" and seek to "replace the constitution with the Koran." Congressman Elliot Engel said that Palestinian refugees remain in misery, not because of Israel, but because "the Arab countries use their own people as political pawns." William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, claimed to oppose "those who worship death, want to kills Jews, and want to kill Americans." Though some of these speakers did mention that radical Islam does not represent the religion as a whole, it was almost always as a brief statement that failed to affect the tone of their condemnations. The one notable exception was Mr. Pipes, who described violent fundamentalism as "a form of Islam, not the whole of Islam," and only about "ten to fifteen percent of the religion" as a whole. Senator Santorum, however, almost immediately called Mr. Pipes' numbers into question.

The CUFI presenters had similarly strong feelings about the alliance between Israel and the United States, and the basis of that alliance in shared values. Congressman Engel thanked CUFI for supporting "the only democracy in the Middle East, the only country in the Middle East that shares values with the United States," and Senator Lieberman noted that the commonality between American and Israel has been confirmed by Iran simultaneously sponsoring Palestinian rockets that kill Israelis and Iraqi insurgents that kill Americans. The existence of elected officials in many Middle Eastern countries did not dissuade the speakers from presenting Israel as America's only potential ally, as Ambassador Gillerman and Mr. Bauer each mentioned the "Islamic Republic of Iran" as if a republic is something drastically different from a democracy. The fact that Hamas and Fatah were democratically elected in Palestine was, of course, not mentioned at all.

CUFI's final, and unanimously agreed upon, conclusion from these facts was that a new war has begun and must continue. In this war, as Mr. Bauer said, "despite moral and cultural relativism" the Judeo-Christian way of life "is worth defending." As Walid Phares, director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies' Future of Terrorism Project, put it, it is a "war of ideas" in which we "need a policy of containment" to "defeat these totalitarians." What the speakers felt America is up against is the ideology of "Islamofascism," which, as Mr. Bauer said, must be met "with iron, steel, and blood" and defeated as we defeated "Communism and Fascism." Mr. Pipes agreed with John McCain's statement that this is the "transcendent challenge of our time" and said that "we must mix the techniques of World War II and the Cold War" in defeating this new "utopian ideology."

Ultimately, what was most striking about the conference was that if one truly believes that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that shares any commonality with the United States, and that it is surrounded by hordes of people who would "knock on heaven's gate with the skull of a Jew," a new war of ideas on the level of World War II or the Cold War would not be hard to fathom. The policy that stems from these facts is not a great leap of any kind. The problem, however, is that the facts themselves are highly dubious considering the existence of democracy in the Middle East and the peaceful nature of the vast majority of Muslims. It seems, then, that there is a second "war of ideas" afoot, one in which Senator Santorum advised CUFI attendees to "know more than the left does so you can beat them at their own game" and where an institution like the Council for the National Interest, which the Senator would call "the left," will continue to seek the truth and to act accordingly.

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