Leading evangelicals counter Christian Zionists with call for Palestinian State

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Leading evangelicals counter Christian Zionists with call for Palestinian State

Background by JewsOnFirst, August 2, 2007

More than 30 prominent evangelical Christians have sent a letter to President George Bush supporting a Palestinian state as part of a two-state Middle East peace settlement. The letter comes ten days after the leading Christian Zionist group, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), convened in Washington and denounced Bush's new initiative on Israeli-Palestinian peace. Obliquely referring to CUFI in their letter, the evangelicals said it was "a serious misperception...that all American evangelicals are opposed to a two-state solution."

Please also see our report on the Christian Zionists for Israel lobbying conference last month. Click here.

Letter to President Bush from evangelical leaders in favor of Palestinian state

Text of letter, posted on the web page of Evangelicals for Social Change, July 27, 2007

Dear Mr. President:

We write as evangelical Christian leaders in the United States to thank you for your efforts (including the major address on July 16) to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to achieve a lasting peace in the region. We affirm your clear call for a two-state solution. We urge that your administration not grow weary in the time it has left in office to utilize the vast influence of America to demonstrate creative, consistent and determined U.S. leadership to create a new future for Israelis and Palestinians. We pray to that end, Mr. President.

We also write to correct a serious misperception among some people including some U.S. policymakers that all American evangelicals are opposed to a two-state solution and creation of a new Palestinian state that includes the vast majority of the West Bank. Nothing could be further from the truth. We, who sign this letter, represent large numbers of evangelicals throughout the U.S. who support justice for both Israelis and Palestinians. We hope this support will embolden you and your administration to proceed confidently and forthrightly in negotiations with both sides in the region.

As evangelical Christians, we embrace the biblical promise to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you." (Genesis 12:3). And precisely as evangelical Christians committed to the full teaching of the Scriptures, we know that blessing and loving people (including Jews and the present State of Israel) does not mean withholding criticism when it is warranted. Genuine love and genuine blessing means acting in ways that promote the genuine and long-term well being of our neighbors. Perhaps the best way we can bless Israel is to encourage her to remember, as she deals with her neighbor Palestinians, the profound teaching on justice that the Hebrew prophets proclaimed so forcefully as an inestimably precious gift to the whole world.Continue.

Coalition of Evangelicals Voices Support for Palestinian State

By Laurie Goodstein, The New York Times, July 29, 2007

In recent years, conservative evangelicals who claim a Biblical mandate to protect Israel have built a bulwark of support for the Jewish nation -- sending donations, denouncing its critics and urging it not to evacuate settlements or forfeit territory.

Now more than 30 evangelical leaders are stepping forward to say these efforts have given the wrong impression about the stance of many, if not most, American evangelicals.

On Friday, these leaders sent a letter to President Bush saying that both Israelis and Palestinians have "legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine," and that they support the creation of a Palestinian state -- that includes the vast majority of the West Bank." Continue.

Christians United for Israel Responds to Evangelicals' Letter to Bush

CUFI membership update rips moderates' position

David Brog, executive director of CUFI, July 30, 2007

Last Friday, a group of over 30 evangelical Christians wrote a letter to President Bush to "correct a serious misperception among some people ... that all American evangelicals are opposed to a two-state solution and the creation of a new Palestinian state." They made reference to the "cycle of violence" in the region and the fact that "Israelis and Palestinians must both accept each other's right to exist."

It's no coincidence that this letter was sent barely a week after our second annual Washington, DC summit. As we grow, those who disagree with us, however few they may be, will be shouting at the top of their lungs in an effort to equal the sound of 4,500 Christians gathered in the DC Convention Center cheering our cause. They will not succeed.

This letter raises many questions. But the biggest question is this -- where have these people been for the past decade? Don't they realize that Israel not only accepted the Palestinian right to exist, but repeatedly sought to give the Palestinians land on which to build their state? Click to continue (halfway down the page).

Evangelical Split Over Israel Batters Bush

Hagee to White House: No on two-state solution. But others urge Bush to back it more actively.

Larry Cohler-Esses, The Jewish Week, August 3, 2007

Evangelical Christians, long seen as a monolith in lockstep support of Israel, publicly fractured last week as two significant evangelical factions lobbied President Bush with criticism of Israel from opposite points of view.

For the first time, Christians United for Israel, a major Christian Zionist group with strong ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, lobbied President Bush against the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a solution advocated by Israel, the Bush administration and the pro-Israel Washington lobby itself.

Meanwhile, some 30 Evangelical leaders, including prominent activists and intellectuals, publicly lauded Bush’s stand in favor of two states: Israel and a seperate state in the West Bank and Gaza for Palestinians. They also urged Bush to get involved more actively to make this happen. But this group pointedly noted that both Israelis and Palestinians “have committed violence and injustice against each other.” Continue.

Evangelical Leaders Challenge Unconditional Support for Israel

Bob Allen, EthicsDaily.com, July 30, 2007

Evangelical leaders including a former ethics professor at a Southern Baptist seminary issued an open letter to President Bush challenging the notion that all American evangelicals are uncritically pro-Israel.

Signed by leaders including Glen Harold Stassen, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary who formerly taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the letter addresses a "serious misperception" that American evangelicals oppose a two-state solution in the Middle East and a new Palestinian state that would include the majority of the West Bank.

The letter, addressed to the president but also aimed at other U.S. policy makers, came a week-and-a-half after a second-annual gathering of Christians United For Israel convened by San Antonio, Texas, preacher John Hagee. The meeting brought 3,500 evangelicals to Washington to hear from politicians including Sen. Joseph Lieberman, House Minority Whip and Southern Baptist Roy Blunt and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. Continue.

CUFI: Loving Israel to Death

Column by M.J. Rosenberg, Israel Policy Forum, July 27, 2007

"Some friends of Israel are playing with fire," writes Rosenberg, in a posting on Christians United for Israel. He notes that CUFI leader, Pastor John Hagee, has written that catastrophes have befallen the Jewish people because they rejected Jesus Christ. Says Rosenberg:

I don’t understand how any Jew can fail to recognize just how dangerous this theology is. Christian anti-Semitism, in all its deadly forms, is built on the idea that Jews rejected Christ and must suffer until they accept him. For 2000 years, Jews have endured persecution because that idea led not just to the hatred of Judaism but of Jewish people.

Rosenberg also writes about CUFI's adamant opposition to trading land for peace. Click here.

Evangelical Christians and the Middle East

Aaron Schachter, The World, Public Radio International, August 2, 2007

In his report on the evangelicals' letter to Bush, The World anchor Aaron Schacter includes the voices of Rev. John Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, who initiated the letter, Christians United for Israel leader Pastor John Hagee, M.J. Rosenberg of Israel Policy Forum, author Sarah Posner. Click here, please for a link to the report.

US Evangelicals at Odds on Embracing Israel

Bill Berkowitz, Inter Press Sevice, August 2, 2007

Oakland, Aug 2 (IPS) - It was business as usual during Christians United for Israel's recent "Israel Summit," its highly-publicised second summer sojourn to Washington.

There were thousands of supporters in attendance, including an impressive array of Republican Party elected officials and political leaders. There were a series of seminars and workshops aimed at solidifying pro-Israel talking points, and growing the organisation's political effectiveness.

And there was Pastor John Hagee, the head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), once again proclaiming that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was this generation's Adolph Hitler. Continue.

Christian Group Warns U.S. Against Pressuring Israel on Peace Deal

Sharon Kehnemui Liss, FOXNews.com, July 30, 2007

Diplomacy is back in fashion in the Middle East as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair tries his hand at bringing Israel and the Palestinians to a two-state solution of peaceful neighbors.

But Mideast talks are taking another form back in the United States. An unexpected voice from right field is warning U.S. negotiators not to be so quick to give away the farm, literally.

"I don't believe Israel should give up any piece of their land. I think they've given up too much of their land," said Michelle Stephens, one of 50 million Evangelicals who are said to be "waking up" to the idea that Israel's existence is integrally tied to their own religious outlook. Continue.