WASHINGTON (BP)–The United States should support Israel because the Jewish state has a far more powerful ally than the world’s superpower, Richard Land said recently in a prayer breakfast at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.
Speaking to about 800 people May 2, the president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said he supports Israel as a Christian and as an American.
As an American, he supports Israel because he knows “a fellow lover of liberty and freedom and a believer in human dignity when I see one, and I see them in the Jews and in the nation of Israel,” Land said. “And I want God to bless America. And America needs to support Israel more than Israel needs our support, because Israel has an ally far stronger than the United States of America. He is called the Lion of Judah.”
God “blesses those who bless the Jews, and God curses those who curse the Jews,” Land said.
Support for Israel by Christians is a “matter of conviction, and it will never be surrendered,” Land said. Support for the Jewish state and her people “is biblical,” he said. “It is the fulfillment of biblical promises. We have seen God fulfill His promises in that the Jews are back in the land and they are going to be there, they’re never going to leave.”
The breakfast came only two days after the “road map” to Mideast peace was officially unveiled to Israel and the Palestinians. The plan — proposed by the United States, Russia, United Nations and European Union — calls for a Palestinian state with temporary borders this year and a permanent state in 2005. Critics of the plan say it could result in a division of Jerusalem, with Palestinians controlling half of the city.
No quartet or trio or “even a beloved president … can give away what they do not own,” said Gary Bauer, president of American Values and former Republican Party presidential candidate. Jerusalem belonged to the Jews when “Washington was a swamp,” he said.
It is a time of both hope and danger for Israel and the United States, Bauer said. One of the dangers is that American politicians “might browbeat” the Jewish state to make concessions that threaten its security, he said.
John Hagee, television preacher and pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, told the audience, “This road map to a Palestinian state will lead to nowhere if there’s not an absolute end to terrorism. We cannot ask that terrorist acts slow down. They must stop — period.
“As Christians, we believe that Jerusalem is now and forever shall be the eternal and undivided capital of the state of Israel. Jerusalem is not up for negotiation with anyone for any reason at any time in the future,” said Hagee, who called on Congress to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Palestine has never existed as an autonomous entity,” he said “The Palestinians [have] never owned the land and have no legitimate claim to the land now.”
Christians support the Israeli state because of the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis, because of the Jewish foundation of the Christian faith, because anti-Semitism is sin and because Israel’s war against terrorism is also America’s war, Hagee said.
Other speakers at the prayer and solidarity breakfast included Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon and Christian Coalition President Roberta Combs. The audience, which sat under two large tents on the front property of the embassy, consisted largely of evangelical Christians but also included some Jews. Land and other speakers were among 30 members of the host committee for the event.
The “road map” to Mideast peace requires Israel to destroy Jewish settlements constructed in the West Bank since March 2001 and to freeze all settlement activity. Israel also must end attacks on Palestinians and the destruction of their homes, according to the plan. It also calls for Israel withdrawal to the borders in place before it gained new territories in the 1967 war.
The plan calls for the Palestinians to halt violence against Israel, to dismantle terrorist organizations and to recognize Israel’s right to exist in peace.
While Israel has expressed serious reservations about the “road map” and new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has denounced terrorism, at least one Islamic terrorist group, Hamas, has said it would not cooperate with any Palestinian agreement to the plan.
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