Fight against antisemitism is now priority of Christians United for Israel

Story By Marshall Weiss, The Observer

“It’s impossible to talk about Israel without mentioning the Bible,” Pastor Lyndon Allen tells a half full but responsive audience at the Victoria Theatre the evening of Sept. 1.

“Our motto as an organization comes from Isaiah 62:1-2. ‘For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name.’”

Allen, central regional coordinator of Christians United for Israel, then turns to the focus of CUFI’s fourth Dayton Night To Honor Israel.

“We are loud against antisemitism, my friends. It’s not easy doing this. Antisemitic rocks are big. They’re seemingly impenetrable, seemingly unmovable. But when you have the joy of the Lord, which is our strength, you can do anything.

“Never again on the watch of the church will the Jewish people be harmed.”

Founded in 2006 by evangelical Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio, CUFI boasts seven million members and bills itself as the “largest pro-Israel grassroots organization in the United States.”

Just as U.S. Jews skew to the left, CUFI’s Christian Zionists skew to the right, though Allen describes the organization as bipartisan.

Allen proclaims CUFI’s advocacy successes: scrapping of the Iran nuclear deal, the confirmations of President Donald Trump’s Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the president’s move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and passage of the Taylor Force Act to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority until it stops payments for Palestinians killed or arrested during attacks on Israelis.

“Our president, he didn’t make Jerusalem the capital,” Allen tells the audience. “David did that 3,000 years ago. But he recognized what was already established truth.”

Across Main Street outside the Victoria, more than 30 demonstrators protest CUFI’s event.

Placards include the logo of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist advocacy group. Signs read “Israel Is A Racist State” and “No Honor in Israel’s Occupation of Palestine.”

Steve Farber of Columbus says he’s demonstrating as a member of JVP to stand “against the forces of CUFI and their wish to basically stamp out the Palestinian people. It has to be prevented at all cost.” He says other protesters here are national members of JVP, but there’s no chapter in Dayton.

Awad Halabi, an associate professor of history at Wright State University, says he’s not protesting as part of an organization. The Kettering resident, originally from Jerusalem, says that along with members of JVP, people from churches are protesting, “though they don’t officially represent” their churches.

“We want to challenge the narrative of the Christians United for Israel and we want to promote one common message of justice and respect and tolerance that is applicable to all people,” Halabi says. “And with Israel’s policies in the occupied territories and the history between Israel and the Palestinians, there hasn’t been this upholding these values of human rights, of dignity, of respect for one another, and this is what we want to challenge, and there’s legitimate criticism of Israel.”

When asked if he believes Israel has a right to exist, Halabi says all people have a right to be part of political systems as equals.

“When Israel’s right to exist is raised, it never raises the issue of what that means to Palestinians,” Halabi says. “Israel’s existence has come at the dispossession of Palestinians. It’s an issue of what is the nature of that existence. And the nature of that existence has become the occupied territories’ apartheid. And for the Palestinians’ dispossession.”

Inside the Victoria, Hagee’s daughter, attorney Sandy Hagee Parker — chairwoman of the CUFI Action Fund — tells the audience, “Make no mistake: the Palestinian people are oppressed. But Israel is not their oppressor. Their leadership is their oppressor. Their leadership is intentionally keeping them under their thumb, weaponizing normalization with their Israeli neighbors, keeping the loot for themselves, while these people have nothing.”

Anti-Zionism, she tells the CUFI gathering, is antisemitism.

“You cannot profess to be a Christian and not love the Jewish people,” she says. “Anti-Zionism is not criticism of Israel. Anti-Zionism denies Israel’s right to exist.”

Because of the rising tide of antisemitism in America, Sandy Hagee Parker says CUFI has launched its Shine A Light Campaign this year.

She tells the audience that battling antisemitism is the practical exercise of the Christian faith, to be comforters of the Jewish people.

“We will shine the light not only on the terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah, but we will shine the light on bigots here in America that shoot up synagogues,” she says. “We will shine the light on those who would like to see Israel’s right of self-determination thwarted through economic antisemitism such as BDS, and we will shine the light on antisemites today — not just those who stand by burning crosses and white robes, but we will shine the light on all of them, wherever they may be found.

“What you plan for the Jewish people, God will do to you. Where your cause is Israel, you cannot fail.”

Among the local churches to support the CUFI event are Dayspring Ministries in Beavercreek, whose lead pastor, Ken Day, is Dayton CUFI’S city director; and Victory Christian Church in Kettering.

Pastor Gary Trenum, now retired from Victory Christian, was CUFI’s first Dayton city director; he raised the funds to present the first Dayton Night to Honor Israel in 2015 at the Schuster Center. Temple Beth Or in Washington Township has hosted two additional Night to Honor Israel events for Dayton’s CUFI, in 2016 and 2018.

At the Victoria Theatre event, CUFI took up a collection to benefit the Hillel at Miami University in Oxford and Yatar, Israel’s elite volunteer counterterrorism unit.

Audience members were encouraged to join and donate to CUFI, which also has an Israel advocacy arm for Christians on college campuses.

Event speakers included Chabad of Greater Dayton Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin and Rabbi Cary Kozberg of Springfield’s Temple Sholom.

To read the complete October 2019 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.