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Unwavering Support

Evangelical Christians honor Israel and
Jews with love, prayer and clout.

Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

L

ong after Hezbollah and Hamas
have been buried in the bone-
yard of history, the Israeli flag
will fly above the walls of Jerusalem,"
the Rev. John Hagee of Christians United
for Israel (CUFI) told an enthusiastic
audience of more than 5,000 people
who filled the sanctuary at the Word of
Faith International Christian Center in
Southfield on Jan. 7.
The unprecedented local show of
African American and Evangelical
Christian support for Israel and the Jewish
people was part of "A Day to Honor Israel"
organized by Bishop Keith Butler, who
heads the 22,000-member church and
serves as Michigan director of CUFI.
"Israel is the only nation created by a
sovereign act of God with an eternal cov-
enant, an unbreakable covenant, which is
still in effect today," Rev. Hagee said, com-
mitting his new organization to use prayer,
political clout and partnership with the
Jewish people to fight anti-Semitism and
support Israel's right to self-defense, the
land of Israel and an undivided Jerusalem.
Rev. Hagee said he is organizing events
in 36 cities across the United States and
planning a July conference in Washington,
D.C. Last year, CUFI's first conference
brought more than 3,000 evangelicals to
Washington to lobby administration and
elected officials for Israel.
Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the
American Congress for Truth, told a
packed morning service of her Christian
family's travails in southern Lebanon and
she credited Israel with saving her life.
All seats were filled again for the evening
program as Rev. Hagee electrified the
crowd that included leadership of many
local Jewish organizations, including B'nai
B'rith, Anti-Defamation League, American
Jewish Committee, Jewish. National Fund,
Jewish War Veterans, StandWithUs, Temple
Beth El, Congregation Shaarey Zedek
and the Jewish Federation and Jewish
Community Council.
"The Jewish people gave us the word of
God," Rev. Hagee said, calling Jesus a rabbi
and reminding his audience of the Jewish
roots of Christianity. "Judaism does not
need Christianity to explain its existence,

Dias speakers included, front row, Bishop Keith Butler (gray suit), Rev. John Hagee and Rev. Jerry Clark; back row, Jeff
Mendelsohn, Rabbi Jonathan Berkun, Rev. Glenn Plummer, Cantor Meir Finkelstein and Susie Pappas.

but Christianity needs Judaism to explain
its existence!'

'Not On Our Watch'
Calling Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad "the new Hitler;' he pledged
that 60 million evangelical Christians will
confront the Iranian nuclear threat to
Israel, America and the West.
"Christians will not be silent. Never
again! There will never be another
Holocaust. Not on our watch;' Rev. Hagee
thundered. "That will never happen. We
stand with Israel until every enemy of
Israel is defeated!
"If there was ever a time when we
Christians need to be supportive of Israel,
it is now:' he said, calling for American
leadership and the "courage, intellectual

honesty and the willingness to act" to stop
Iran.
Other evening speakers included Rabbi
Jonathan Berkun of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek, who spoke of his grandfather who
escaped pogroms in
Russia and lived during
the Holocaust.
"I wish he had lived
to see this day:' Rabbi
Berkun said. "Thank
you for extending your
hand in friendship.
Thank you for under-
standing what makes
us different and what makes us the same.
Thank you for loving the State of Israel
and the Jewish people."
Rev. Glenn Plummer of the Fellowship

of Israel and Black America, which held
its first national conference in Detroit last
September, thanked the Jewish commu-
nity for its support of African Americans.
"When we needed a friend, the Jewish
people stood with
us," Rev. Plummer
said of the civil
rights movement.
"Jewish people
marched with us;
Jewish people went
to jail with us; and
- Rev. John Knee
some Jewish people
died with us!"
He called the airlifts of Ethiopian Jews
to Israel "the first time ever that people of

'We stand with Israel
until ev ery enemy
of Israel i s defeated!

Unwavering on page 20

January 11 . 2007

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