Exhibition opens at UN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened an exhibition on Jerusalem yesterday to reinforce Israel’s claim to the historic city as the Jewish people’s “eternal capital” — and rebuke more than 125 countries that support Palestinians’ claims to east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Netanyahu’s visit to the United Nations’ headquarters in New York follows US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December. The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to denounce the US announcement.

The Israeli-sponsored exhibition traces Jews in Jerusalem back centuries before the Christian era, and Netanyahu said it clearly shows the city’s long history “cherished” by Israelis and friends of the Jewish people and “friends of truth”. This “is being denied by those seeking to erase the history of our people, our connection to our lands, and our connection to our eternal capital Jerusalem”, he said.

Netanyahu met with US Ambassador Nikki Haley before viewing the exhibition and praised her strong support for Israel. AP

Washington, said the Jewish community should be “wary of taking help from those who are playing with our lives to further their own religious and ideological purposes”.

Evangelical Christianity is one of the fastest growing religious movements, making up more than a third of the world’s estimated 2 billion Christians. Evangelicals say their affinity for Israel stems from Christianity’s Jewish roots. Some view Israel’s establishment as fulfilling biblical prophecy, ushering in an anticipated Messianic age. Jews also believe in a future Messianic age, but do not believe Jesus is the Messiah.

“It’s a connection. It’s a DNA that goes back to Sunday school, to their very being. It’s a love affair, it’s a romance with a nation that is connected to heaven and earth,” said Mike Evans, an evangelical Christian who sits on Trump’s evangelical faith advisory board.

In recent years, suspicions have diminished in Israel, thanks in part to the steady flow of donations as well as evangelical representatives playing down talk of the end of days. They say it is not a central tenet for most of the world’s evangelicals or what makes them love Israel.

Johnnie Moore, the faith board’s spokesman, said the scepticism over evangelical support was “ignorant” and “offensive”.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews says it gave US$188 million ($258.8m) to the Jewish Agency over the course of a two decade-long partnership, with Eckstein even sitting on the agency’s executive board. But after disagreements over how to publicise the Fellowship’s support, the two had a falling out and the Fellowship struck out on its own in 2014.

Its own Aliyah project has since ferried thousands of Jews to Israel from 27 countries, providing them with financial assistance beyond that extended by the state, as well as vocational training and assistance with local bureaucracy. The Fellowship said it has spent nearly US$20m on Aliyah since 2014. Eckstein said the organisation believed Jewish-funded groups were not doing enough, particularly after the conflict in Crimea.

Some 200 Jews from Ukraine arrived at Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport recently wearing Fellowship T-shirts. They were greeted by a gaggle of boisterous Israeli student volunteers, waving flags and chanting Hebrew folk songs.

One of the new arrivals, Serghey Lanovyy, said it made no difference to him that his Aliyah was funded by Christians.

“Religion is religion. You can believe whatever you want but if people need help, they need help,” he said. AP