Zionist Evangelicals trail Trump to Holy Land with cash in hand
With the High Holy Day season in full swing, the country is getting set to welcome a throng of religious visitors – Evangelical Christians.
Thousands will pour in from more than 80 countries to the streets of Jerusalem in early October for an annual march celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles – Sukkot. As they follow in the footsteps of Jesus, whose holiday visit to the city is described in the Book of John, they’ll also be rallying behind the modern State of Israel.
“We are expecting one of our biggest crowds ever at this year’s feast,” said Jürgen Bühler, the president of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, which is hosting 6,000 Christians from almost 100 nations, who are taking part in the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration.
“Thousands of Christians are once again being drawn here from all over the world by the dynamic worship experience which surrounds this unique biblical festival. But there also is the added attraction of celebrating the 50-year jubilee of a reunited Jerusalem, and this means we are truly in for a banner feast.”
Evangelicals from the US alone pump more than half a billion dollars a year into Israeli tourism and charity, while endorsing the country’s conservative politics in a controversial alliance. President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the Jewish state has energized fund-raising efforts as Evangelicals try to ramp up support for a land many see as God-given.
“After the elections, being pro-Israel became a part of the establishment, rather than part of the opposition,” said Rabbi Tuly Weisz, who raises money for charities from Evangelicals through his israel365.com website. “I do believe that this year’s increase in tourism and overall growth in charitable giving can be partially attributed to the fact that the Trump administration is seen to be extremely pro-Israel.”
Although some fund-raisers haven’t seen a Trump-related uptick in donations, Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, saw the US president’s May visit as an unparalleled opportunity to recruit Christian support. He hailed Trump as the Jewish state’s best friend in a post to his 28 million Facebook followers, and draped buildings with three-story-high banners urging the US president to “Make Israel Great.”
“I want to do whatever I can to influence him to care about the Jewish people,” Evans said.
Polls show no other group in the US supports the Jewish state more than Evangelicals – not even American Jews. Israel can count on their unstinting support in Washington, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognizes the power of their backing as he faces multiple criminal investigations that could drive him out of office.
“Millions and millions of Americans cheering him and donating money to Israel sends an image that is very powerful to the Israeli public,” said Jonathan Rynhold, a Bar-Ilan University political scientist who has studied the Evangelicals’ relationship with Israel.
In the midst of an Eastern European tour in July, the prime minister made sure to address the Washington conference organized by Evangelical pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI). His speech was shown on two massive screens by satellite from Budapest.
“We have no better friends than you,” Netanyahu declared. “You are always there for us.”
Israel didn’t always welcome Evangelicals, who are among the subjects of an anti-missionary law. Many believe that Jews must return to the Land of Israel to facilitate the final redemption.
Others, however, see an unholy alliance. Deeply fervent Jews suspect that all Evangelicals are missionaries, while secular liberals deplore both their conservative politics and their support for Israel’s settlements.
“We do not seek their honey, and we do not seek their bee sting,” said a 2014 ruling given by the Binyamin Region Rabbinical Council’s, quoting a Talmudic adage.
Still, the outpouring of love from Evangelicals is a boon for the state, as it seeks new allies in the face of growing antagonism in the US and Western Europe toward its return to the biblical heartland of Judea & Samaria. Evangelicals see things differently, and according to the Tourism Ministry are arriving in even greater numbers this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, when Israel liberated Jerusalem’s Old City and West Bank biblical sites.
In a 2014 Pew Research Center poll, 82% of white Evangelicals in the US said they believe that the Land of Israel was given by God to the Jewish people, versus only 40% of Jews. Almost 60% of Evangelicals, according to a 2015 Bloomberg poll, said they would back Israel regardless of US interests.
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is the leader in raising money from Evangelicals. His International Fellowship of Christians and Jews collected $132 million in 2015, the last year for which records were publicly available. Much of that money went to the poor here and in other Jewish communities, according to Internal Revenue Service records.
“I demonstrated that there was this group out there that is growing in numbers and influence, that it’s important for the Jewish community to reach out to them, and that it could be done with integrity by a Jewish rabbi,” Eckstein said.
(Bloomberg News/ TNS and Jerusalem Post Staff)