By Jennifer Rubin
Christians United For Israel has long been the largest pro-Israel group in the United States. The organization was founded by Pastor John Hagee in February 2006 in San Antonio. In a CUFI press release provided first to Right Turn, it announced its membership crossed the 2 million mark. That dwarfs the most prominent Jewish pro-Israel organizations. According to CUFI, it has “driven hundreds of thousands of emails to government officials, held 2,162 pro-Israel events in cities and towns across the country, garnered more than 1.2 million Facebook fans, brought 304 leading pastors to Israel on 12 Pastors Leadership Tours, has trained more 2,500 students on how best to stand with Israel, presently has recognized college chapters on 140 campuses as well as an active presence at an additional 163 universities.” It holds an annual summit in Washington where 4000 to 4500 pro-Israel activists attend a three-day program and then go to Capitol Hill to lobby members of both parties. It can boast that it has members from every congressional district in America.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogizes the three Israeli teens who were abducted and killed in the occupied West Bank last year. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)
Executive Director David Brog, in a phone interview, told me when CUFI started in 2006 its first task was to tap into what was already there. “Number one was taking present day deep support for Israel in the Christian community and organizing it.” Now, with a true grassroots movement behind it, CUFI is undertaking substantive internal discussions about either a Washington office to lobby and intensify its relationships on the Hill or possibly to spin off a PAC that could raise money for candidates and engage in electoral activities. The latter, especially in the GOP primaries, would be a substantial boost for true friends of Israel and a big problem for pretenders. Brog observes, “People underestimate how savvy these people are.”
For Hagee, the need for a “Christian AIPAC” was evident before President Obama entered the White House. “I started CUFI during the Bush administration when there was an undeniably pro-Israel president,” Hagee tells me in a separate interview. “I was hearing Ahmadinejad threatening to wipe Israel off the map.” In other words, the threats to Israel are not new to Hagee and his members, who take scripture literally and believe “Israel does not occupy the land; it was given the land” according to the Bible. He nevertheless points out that Americans, evangelical or not, are exceptionally pro-Israel. “The American people in the latest poll taken [tell us] 72 percent support Israel. I would also note only 16 percent support the U.S. Congress.” Regardless of the recent fraying of the U.S.-Israel relations, Hagee’s members fervently believe, “Israel will long endure.”
Bible-reading Christians, Hagee says, find CUFI’s pro-Israel message “naturally appealing,” but recent events have certainly contributed to the uptick in membership in the evangelical community and beyond. “As people become more aware of Iran’s nuclear threat to Israel and of ISIS’s and radical Islam’s slaughter of Christians they realized how critical Israel is in the Middle East.” To Hagee, it is only logical that we should support a democratic ally’s right to exist and right to exist behind secure borders. He adds, “And the 1967 green line is not a secure border.”
He plainly is exercised about the administration’s current stance toward Israel. Responding to the recent background quote from a senior official insulting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he does not conceal his indignation. “For a senior official to use a barnyard epithet toward the prime minister of Israel is simply outrageous. Imagine what they would say it were Russia or Iran,” he says. “It’s conduct unbecoming American leadership in America.” Hagee thinks the president should have rooted out and sacked the official.
He is deeply troubled by our Iran policy, which he views as acquiescing to Iran’s demands. “Sanctions are the only thing Iran has ever responded to positively,” he says. “The negotiations are equal parts fruitless and endless.” Iran, he believes, is simply playing for time “until one day they will announce they are part of the nuclear club.” If Congress really wants to be a friend to Israel, he urges quick passage of sanctions with real teeth. As for the Palestinian Authority’s trek to the United Nations Security Council and then the International Criminal Court, Hagee says, “Any use of these institutions by the PA says more about the institutions than it does about Israel.” If the PA carries through on its threat to pursue war crimes proceedings, he says “CUFI would support ending all Palestinian aid.”
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| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogizes the three Israeli teens who were abducted and killed in the occupied West Bank last year. (Baz Ratner/Reuters) |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogizes the three Israeli teens who were abducted and killed in the occupied West Bank last year. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)
Executive Director David Brog, in a phone interview, told me when CUFI started in 2006 its first task was to tap into what was already there. “Number one was taking present day deep support for Israel in the Christian community and organizing it.” Now, with a true grassroots movement behind it, CUFI is undertaking substantive internal discussions about either a Washington office to lobby and intensify its relationships on the Hill or possibly to spin off a PAC that could raise money for candidates and engage in electoral activities. The latter, especially in the GOP primaries, would be a substantial boost for true friends of Israel and a big problem for pretenders. Brog observes, “People underestimate how savvy these people are.”
For Hagee, the need for a “Christian AIPAC” was evident before President Obama entered the White House. “I started CUFI during the Bush administration when there was an undeniably pro-Israel president,” Hagee tells me in a separate interview. “I was hearing Ahmadinejad threatening to wipe Israel off the map.” In other words, the threats to Israel are not new to Hagee and his members, who take scripture literally and believe “Israel does not occupy the land; it was given the land” according to the Bible. He nevertheless points out that Americans, evangelical or not, are exceptionally pro-Israel. “The American people in the latest poll taken [tell us] 72 percent support Israel. I would also note only 16 percent support the U.S. Congress.” Regardless of the recent fraying of the U.S.-Israel relations, Hagee’s members fervently believe, “Israel will long endure.”Bible-reading Christians, Hagee says, find CUFI’s pro-Israel message “naturally appealing,” but recent events have certainly contributed to the uptick in membership in the evangelical community and beyond. “As people become more aware of Iran’s nuclear threat to Israel and of ISIS’s and radical Islam’s slaughter of Christians they realized how critical Israel is in the Middle East.” To Hagee, it is only logical that we should support a democratic ally’s right to exist and right to exist behind secure borders. He adds, “And the 1967 green line is not a secure border.”
He is deeply troubled by our Iran policy, which he views as acquiescing to Iran’s demands. “Sanctions are the only thing Iran has ever responded to positively,” he says. “The negotiations are equal parts fruitless and endless.” Iran, he believes, is simply playing for time “until one day they will announce they are part of the nuclear club.” If Congress really wants to be a friend to Israel, he urges quick passage of sanctions with real teeth. As for the Palestinian Authority’s trek to the United Nations Security Council and then the International Criminal Court, Hagee says, “Any use of these institutions by the PA says more about the institutions than it does about Israel.” If the PA carries through on its threat to pursue war crimes proceedings, he says “CUFI would support ending all Palestinian aid.”
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