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Christian Zionism Growing in U.S., Says U.K. Media
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Netanyahu speaks to thousands of supporters at a pro-Israel rally in Capitol Hill. |
LONDON, May 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Two British media organizations said that the pro-Israeli current that runs through the U.S. is not a product of the Jewish Lobby alone but of a growing support of Christian Americans.
“Since 11 September, support among Americans for Israel has grown massively as many now see the Middle East conflict as the frontline in the U.S. ‘War on Terror’,” BBC’s online news service reported.
Christian Zionism, BBC said, is joining well-established Jewish lobby groups in America. It’s a “new and powerful phenomenon.”
“There are an estimated 40 million Christian Conservatives in America and they may be in a position to wield unprecedented influence in support of Israel.”
For instance, at the Cornerstone Church in Texas nearly 5,000 Christian worshippers cheer in support of Israel. "Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state. Not since Camp David but since King David," says their leader, Pastor John Hagee.
Christian conservatives are now forging new alliances with American Jewish organizations, BBC said. Radio show host Nachum Segal, who hosts one of the biggest Jewish radio shows in the U.S. “JM in the AM” (Jewish Moments in the Morning), constantly urges his listeners to work in support of Israel, according to BBC.
AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, rated as one of the top five lobbying groups in Washington, has a major influence on U.S. foreign policy, the BBC quoted JJ Goldberg, editor of the Jewish newspaper The Forward as saying.
"They work hard to ensure that America endorses pretty much Israel's view of the world and the Middle East,” he said
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian lobbyists say they face an uphill battle to make their voice heard, said BBC.
Khalid Turaani of American Muslims for Jerusalem says the pro-Israel lobby are better funded, better organized and much better established.
Congressman Robert Wexler ridicules suggestions that Israel's supporters control American policy in the Middle East. Instead, he says, America supports Israel because they share fundamental values.
"Americans are just solid, rock-solid with the people of Israel," says Congressman Wexler. "It is a democratic nation and a freedom-loving people and a very decent people and they deserve to have a free and secure state.”
During his visit to the U.S. Sharon addressed a conference of the Anti -Defamation League (ADL), a leading Jewish group, where he was presented “the Distinguished Statesman Award” from ADL’s director Abraham H. Foxman.
Sharon denied that a deadly military operation his army conducted in the Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin was a massacre and ruled out any international prosecution of Israeli citizens.
"No nation in the world has the right to bring Israel to court," he said. The Israeli leader also thanked the administration of George W. Bush for its support of his country.
"I would like to thank the American administration and its leadership that helped us, understood us, and supported us to get out of this trap where we could be trapped in a very complicated situation," said Sharon.
In the same meeting, Powell urged European nations to combat anti-Jewish attacks linked to Middle East tensions. "And we make it clear that America always stands up, will always stand up with the victims of hatred. We have loudly and publicly condemned these crimes, as have national leaders and senior government officials throughout Europe," he said.
British daily newspaper, The Telegraph, said that pro-Israeli sentiment is also growing in Washington. “Ariel Sharon was among friends yesterday in Washington, where pro-Israel sentiment is stronger than ever and Christian conservatives are forming close ties with Jewish groups,” the paper said.
In opinion polls, on Right-wing talk radio and in the editorial columns of the liberal press, support for Israel is unswerving, it said.
On Friday, May 3, some 250 Christian leaders from across America gathered at the Israeli embassy in Washington.
"Some very interesting alliances are forming," said Gary Bauer, a prominent Christian conservative.
"Many evangelicals believe that the land of Israel is Covenant land that was promised by God to the Jewish people. I believe Israel and the United States have got a confluence of interest. We're both democracies, and I see Israel, as I see Great Britain, as a defender of Western civilization," the paper quoted Bauer as saying.
Bauer, the Telegraph said, was described by the Jerusalem Post as “a better spokesman for Israel than some Israeli diplomats.”
More than half of Americans sympathize with Israel; only 14 per cent with the Palestinians, the British paper said.
Jewish groups exert a political influence disproportionate to the two per cent of the population they represent. Ten out of 100 senators are Jewish, and congressional staffers on Capitol Hill privately concede that to vote against Israel is financial, and therefore political, suicide for an American politician, said the Telegraph.
“Even a hint of criticism of Israel in the media provokes a furious response. Jews have cancelled subscriptions to the Los Angeles Times, and in Boston contributions to National Public Radio have been withdrawn because of what was seen as pro-Palestinian reporting.”
The Telegraph said that there has been a widespread criticism in the U.S. of the British news coverage of the battle for Jenin refugee camp.
“Bush is considered the most pro-Israel president since Ronald Reagan and some Jewish leaders who have previously voted Democrat have said they will back him in the 2004 election. Democrats usually capture 80 per cent of the Jewish vote, but polls are showing that Republicans are picking up some of this support.
“When Bush is seen as tilting away from Israel, the White House is flooded with angry e-mails and telephone calls. Last month, he telephoned the Rev Jerry Falwell, an evangelical leader, to reassure him that he was not pressurizing Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. Jason Isaacson, the director of government and international affairs at the American Jewish Committee lobby group, said U.S. support for Israel was based on more than money,” the paper added.
Earlier in April, Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
lobbied the United States for an even tougher stance against Muslims
in the Middle East, saying that "moral clarity," and unyielding force form the
way to an end of violence in the Middle East.
The American-educated former Israeli radical politician took the same militant Israeli recruitment mission message to the U.S. congress and White House officials.
He told the White House that its ties with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat should be broken and an attack on Iraq should be mounted as soon as possible.
Netanyahu saw the hawkish members of the Bush administration in a bid to win
support for his call. He met with President Bush's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and Vice-President Dick Cheney, both seen as among the most fervent anti-Muslim elements in the administration and among the loudest voices for tough military actions in the Middle East.
Netnayahu was described then as having the ear of the President, already surrounded by conservative and hard-line officials, who might take his hard-line advice.
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