Jerusalem Post Article - A world of difference
Jan. 13, 2010 - Gil Hoffman , THE JERUSALEM POST
Following a week in which the top stories in the Hebrew press were about the deterioration of relations with key allies, a surprising anniversary will be marked in Budapest on Friday.
The Knesset Christian Allies Caucus will mark six years since its founding by the late MK Yuri Shtern by inaugurating its 16th sister caucus in Hungary. An expansion to 30 sister caucuses is expected by the end of the year.
The parliament members in the caucuses, who come from all faiths, lobby their governments and constituencies to support Israel and Judeo-Christian values, providing a powerful army of allies that can be deployed for public diplomacy when push comes to shove.
This year, they will mobilize their governments to back keeping Jerusalem united under Israeli rule and to understand the threat that Iran poses to the Western world. As the number of sister caucuses increases worldwide, members of the original caucus at the Knesset hope their allies abroad can make a difference in the UN and other top international forums.
"Every country has a finger at the UN," said Israel Beiteinu MK David Rotem, who chairs the caucus. "I hope we will persuade more and more countries to support us. If there are nearly 200 countries, I hope we will eventually form nearly that many sister caucuses. Iran obviously won't start supporting us tomorrow, but we can definitely make inroads all over the world."
Caucus director Josh Reinstein said that when the caucus was first established, its founders were not sure what shape it would take. But now they are shocked at how far it has come and how successful it has been at instituting cooperation in the political arena with Christian leadership around the world.
The most obvious sister caucus is the one in Congress, led by Jewish Democrat Elliot Engel of New York and Republican Mike Pence of Indiana, which has 15 Democrats and 30 Republicans. It is also unsurprising that there are caucuses in Britain and Canada, which are both led by Conservative MPs, and one in the European Union's parliament, which is chaired by Hannu Takkula of Finland.
But there are also caucuses in Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in South America; Japan, South Korea and the Philippines in Asia; and South Africa, Malawi and Sierra Leone in Africa.
The list of countries set to form a caucus in 2010 includes Nigeria, which has a Muslim majority and Muslim president, and Sweden, whose government has been condemned by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for its anti-Israel agenda.
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to Switzerland in April, it was the head of the Christian Allies Caucus in that country, then-MP Christian Waber, who led the protests against him. Waber is an Evangelical Christian, but many MPs in the Christian Allied Caucuses come from other streams of Christianity or other religions.
A caucus will be formed in Italy in April in which the overwhelming majority of its members are expected to be Catholic. When a pro-Israel rally was held in Sierra Leone in June 2008, it was organized by Christians who formed the caucus in the poor, West African country, but 70 percent of the crowd was made up of Muslim friends of Israel.
The Israeli caucus includes Likud MKs Gila Gamliel, Danny Danon, Ayoub Kara, Yariv Levin and Carmel Shama; Anastasia Michaeli, Faina Kirschenbaum, Robert Ilatov and Alex Miller of Israel Beiteinu; Arye Eldad of the National Union; Orit Noked of Labor; and Nachman Shai, Shlomo Mula, Shai Hermesh, Arieh Bibi and Yoel Hasson of Kadima.
Although there are currently no haredi members, former Shas faction chairman Yair Peretz was one of the founders. A United Torah Judaism MK said he decided not to join the caucus because he was concerned about the motives of the Christians, some of whom support Israel because they think it could help return the Christian messiah, but Rotem, who is Orthodox, does not see it as a problem.
"When you appreciate their faith in the Bible, you understand their love of Israel," he said. "And eventually, as Jeremiah prophesied, everyone will understand and will support Israel."
Rotem succeeded Benny Elon as head of the caucus when Elon quit politics ahead of the February election. But Elon has stayed active in the organization, chairing the International Israel-Allied Caucus Foundation, a nonprofit organization in the US that coordinates the many caucuses and raises money for them.
Elon will be the keynote speaker at a January 26 rally in India that is expected to be attended by 5,000 Christian pastors from across the country. He said the Christian caucuses provide an important infrastructure of friends of the Jewish state and that Israel should utilize such important human resources.
"Everyone knows there are anti-Semites, but people don't realize how many friends we have around the world," Elon said. "When the prime minister is facing difficult governments in the US and Europe, it's important that he knows there are international supporters who have his back."
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is considered a pioneer in reaching out to Christian supporters, going back to his time as ambassador to the UN. As mayor of Jerusalem and then prime minister, Ehud Olmert also furthered the relationship.
Elon became close to the Evangelical Christian community when he was tourism minister and shifted the focus of marketing of tourism from the sandy beaches in Tel Aviv to the holy sites in the Bible.
MANY MKS who joined the caucus said they were impressed by how many Christian tourists kept coming during the Palestinian wave of violence at the beginning of the last decade when Jewish tourism declined. Reinstein said that half of the current ministers were once members of the caucus, making this the most friendly government to the international Christian community the country has had.
Malcolm Hedding, head of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, said the most important contribution of the caucus has been that it helped bring to the Knesset in general and the wider Israeli establishment the understanding that Christians have made to a positive impact on the country's welfare. He said that his own organization and others have been involved in that effort for 30 years, but the caucus played a key role in improving the image of Christians among Israelis.
"The caucus is the consequence a long, hard and controversial journey," Hedding said. "The establishment of a caucus in the Knesset was proof that Christian support has caught the attention of the highest offices in Israel. We have stood the test of time, weathered the storms and proved our credentials."
Elon said the caucus still had a long way to go to prove its worth. He said he was aware that there were many anti-Israel Christian groups, but the positive impact of the pro-Israel Christians could not be understated.
"The caucuses still have to prove themselves," Elon said. "Right now, they are mostly infrastructure. We are locating Israel supporters and the communities and congregations locally who encourage them. Then we will test their effectiveness on issues like Jerusalem and Iran. The struggles are still before us. But if we get to all the Christians, that's more than a billion people who can counter the influence of Muslims against Israel."
One example Reinstein gave of the impact the caucuses have had is that Saviour Chishimba, a candidate in Zambia's 2011 presidential elections, cited the caucuses as one of the organizations that influenced him. On a visit here last month, he said the first thing he would do if elected is to move his country's embassy to Jerusalem.
"In some countries we are the only voice within the government and one of the few pro-Israeli voices in the country, along with the Christian grass roots who are the MPs' constituencies," Reinstein said. "By reaching out to Christian friends of Israel who act as bridge builders, we have vibrant, independent, energetic streams of support Israel never had before. The bigger we are, the more influential we will be, and we are just getting rolling. There is no limit to what we can accomplish focusing on the spiritual narrative not the political one."
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