Israel Welcomes Christian Support

Hardly a day goes by that the world is not pummeled by fresh news of another Palestinian suicide attack in Jerusalem and surrounding communities, with the shell of a bus smoldering on a city street and body parts strewn for blocks. It’s a fairly common occurrence in the little country that refuses to give up its God-given right to exist.

Nearly 1,000 Israelis have been murdered in suicide attacks and bombings since the much-celebrated Oslo peace agreement was signed by Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said Rani Levy, who is Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s adviser on world Jewish and Christian affairs. Levy traveled to the U.S. recently at the invitation of Minnesotans Against Terrorism, a group which devotes its efforts to mustering support for Israel in the U.S. and fighting what it calls the anti-Israel bias that permeates the major media’s coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

Levy said that under the September 1993 Oslo accord, Israel provided the newly created Palestinian Authority with its own land, released 85 percent of the Palestinian population to become residents of the new Palestinian state and arranged for it to receive the other 15 percent of the Palestinian population, as well as more land, over the next five years.

The result of the agreement, he said, was an unprecedented campaign of murder and violence orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority.

“Since the day Arafat stepped foot in Israel and took over the territory (under the Oslo agreement,) he did not waste one minute in creating a terroristic infrastructure,” Levy said.

Levy said he believes Israel is facing the largest coalition of terror in the world, with Arafat’s Palestinian Authority pulling the strings.

“Out of all the terrorism attacks that have taken place, all of them have the fingerprints and signature of the Palestinian Authority,” he said. “Half of them were actually conducted by the Palestinian Authority, and several of them ... were ordered personally by Arafat or the first circle around him.”

Israel recognizes Christian support

With such a ruthless and determined enemy within its own border, and with animosity against Israel growing all over the world, Levy said Israel is grateful to the American people for their continued support. Nowhere is that support demonstrated more passionately than among Christians.

“We are enjoying tremendous Christian support in the world, especially in America,” Levy said. “More and more, Christians are starting to make Israel a true part of their lives. They’re traveling there, they’re investing there, they’re supporting projects there, they’re doing all sorts of things that are contributing gradually to an important critical mass for Israel.”

Levy said that despite the serious drop in the numbers of tourists coming to Israel because of the suicide attacks, many Christians have continued to travel there as a concrete sign of support for the nation. According to Levy, 60 percent to 65 percent of the nation’s tourism income comes from Christians.

“There are those who are coming even more than before to show support and solidarity to Israel,” he says.

Levy said he believes that there is solid motivation for all Americans—especially for Christians—to want Israel to be a strong and prosperous nation.

“I believe that the Christian American has two reasons to support Israel: One because he’s American, and I think that it is in America’s interests that Israel will be strong and exist in the Middle East,” Levy said. “And I think that the Christian must support Israel because it is the biblical thing to do.”

Levy pointed out that Israel and America have more in common than any two other nations in the world.

“Wherever they burn the flags of America around the world, they burn the flags of Israel as well,” Levy said. “Wherever you see a doll of President Bush go up in flames, you see a doll of Prime Minister Sharon go up in flames right next to it. It’s not a coincidence. There is a reason the world—especially the Arab world and the Islamic world—views Israel and the United States as one. There is a calling of the people of our nations to know each other, to work together, and to work toward mutual goals.”

Since Sept. 11, the most pressing mutual goal has become crystal clear: Winning the war against terror that threatens not just Israel, but the U.S. and all civilized society.

While Israel is grateful for the support from America, Levy said that ultimately Israel is the United States’ only true ally in the Middle East.

“The U.S. has earned tremendous benefits in its Middle Eastern position because of Israel’s existence,” he said. “It’s a clear U.S. interest for Israel to be a stabilizing force in the Middle East. Israel is like a stable, static aircraft carrier for the U.S. It’s the only democracy in the Middle East, the only Western-world society in the Middle East, the only country there that has any kind of reputable legal system, human rights system, judicial system. The whole fiber of our society is a Western one and it is the only one in all the Middle East.”

Support for Israel biblical

But Chris Heeb of Good News for Israel, the nation’s oldest evangelical outreach to Jews, said that for America’s Christians, support for Israel goes beyond shared Western values to what God says about the true jewel of the Middle East.

“The fulfillment of scriptural prophecy is bound up with the nation of Israel,” Heeb said. “You can’t rightfully separate the people of Israel from the land of Israel.”

Heeb said he often reminds Christians that God promises in Amos Chapter 9 that He would bring back His people to the land He gave to them, and that they would inhabit what was formerly a wasteland. Says Heeb,

“If our desire as Christians is to be in the will of God, we really need to align ourselves with God’s heart and love for Israel,” Heeb said.

Christians who support Israel must understand that there are tough days ahead, since Israel’s determined enemies in the Middle East have a desire for her that goes counter to God’s heart: her destruction. Levy emphasized that Israel is committed to aggressively defending herself until there is a certainty that her people can live in peace.

“The Palestinian Authority is an authority of death, suicide and terrorism,” he said. “Until this changes, we cannot advance in a reasonable peace arrangement or even a hope for peace. All the diplomatic talk about Palestinian statehood, autonomy, territorial settlements and such are irrelevant when buses blow up.”