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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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Rice briefs 'Christian Zionists' on Mideast peace plan by Douglas Turner, The Buffalo News August 17, 2003 The relationship between President Bush's administration and the evangelical right are under severe strain in the wake of a meeting the White House called to brief religious leaders on the president's road map for Middle East peace.
The rift is over the key part of the peace plan, creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. The gap is widening as a result of the resumption of attacks on Israel by Palestinian terrorist groups backed by Syria and Iran. About 40 church representatives were briefed here July 14 by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. But The News has learned that the secret session failed to quiet the evangelicals' opposition to an independent Palestinian state. The White House acknowledged only that the meeting took place. Most evangelicals oppose the plan on grounds that it represents a mortal threat to Israel's existence. Some believe carving out territory for Palestinians conflicts with Scriptural promises that the Holy Land is destined to belong to the Jews. Even so, the Bush administration is pushing hard for adoption of the peace strategy at the urging of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and moderate Jewish groups here and overseas. The State Department, under Secretary Colin L. Powell, believes giving statehood to the Palestinians will undercut recruitment incentives for al-Qaida and lessen the risk that Americans will be future targets of terrorism. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University and a prominent religious broadcaster, said he respects and admires Bush for crafting the road map and trying to bring peace. But Falwell said the plan will fail. "I believe the plan is doomed unless (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat is expelled" from the Holy Land, he told The News. He said Arafat still controls the Palestinians despite the elevation of Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister. "I cannot see how the road map can work ... unless Mr. Bush is successful in getting Palestinian leaders to stop their barbarism. And they won't," he said. The July 14 meeting was called by the White House Office of Public Liaison at the request of a close friend of Sharon, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of Chicago. Eckstein, who runs a $35 million-a-year pro-Israeli action group and charity from offices in Chicago and Jerusalem, is the Israeli government's key liaison to evangelical Christian groups. Neither Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, nor the White House would provide a list of leaders of "faith-based" organizations who attended the meeting. Eckstein's organization has been endorsed by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, William J. Bennett and other prominent Republican conservatives. Evangelical Christian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, left the meeting frustrated that the president, whom they strongly backed in the 2000 presidential primaries in Southern states against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., does not now seem to be heeding their advice on Israel. "(Bush) won't need us in the primaries next year," said one evangelical official, "but he will sure need us in the general election." Political scientist John C. Green of the University of Akron said that while some evangelical leaders are irritated with Bush over his policy, their less-informed members may have the same concern. "Polling shows that rank-and-file evangelicals tend to be more sympathetic to a Palestinian state," said Green, a leading authority on the politics of the Christian right. The rift with the leaders, Green said, "could present a problem for Bush next year." By itself, the thrust toward an independent Palestinian state might not deprive Bush of support from that sector, but Green said that if Bush offends evangelicals in other ways, it could cost him. Political analyst James E. Campbell of the University at Buffalo said most voters realize that organizations on the extremes of the argument "are going to be unhappy with the plan." "I don't see this as a big rift," he said. Christian evangelicals will not sit out next year's presidential election, Campbell said. "Where are they going to go?" One prominent televangelist who was invited to the White House meeting, the Rev. Jack Van Impe of Troy, Mich., chose not to attend. His office said he could not schedule it. On the Jack Van Impe Ministries Web site, the preacher told of being invited to attend and being asked for his views on the plan by the national security adviser. Van Impe's executive director, Ken Vancil, said that instead of attending, Van Impe is preparing a videotape presentation for the president. In it, Vancil said, Van Impe will remind the president that biblical prophecy says the Holy Land "shall not be divided." National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormick said the White House did not ask Van Impe to make a presentation. McCormick said the meeting is one of many the White House conducts to meet with leaders in various walks of life. He denied it was held to sell evangelists on the peace plan. However, a official for another group with strong links to evangelicals and Jewish conservatives said, "The meeting was an attempt to sell us the peace plan, and it failed." Van Impe, on his Web site, said Bush is "a prayer warrior. (Bush) was born again through Billy Graham's visit a few years ago when he was having problems with alcohol, and today he's proud to claim these verses in John 3: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,' verse 3. Verse 7, "You must be born again." He said: "I have been born again. My life has been changed.' "I am not sure whether he knows all of the prophecies and how deep of a student he has been in God's word, but I was contacted a few weeks ago by the Office of Public Liaison for the White House and by the National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to make an outline. And I've spent hours preparing it. I will release this information to the public in September, but it's in (Bush's) hands." Van Impe and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, are being described as "Christian Zionists," people who believe they are morally bound to preserve the Holy Land for Israel to make way for Jesus' return. DeLay voiced an impassioned defense of Israel in Jerusalem weeks ago that was widely interpreted as an attack on the Bush administration's peace plan. Many evangelicals, especially those who place special emphasis on prophecy, cite sections of the Old Testament as evidence that God promised the Holy Land to the Jews. James R. Mook, a professor of systematic theology at Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, Md., said Genesis 15:18-21 cites God's promise of territory to Abraham. Other references, he said, are in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 and in 1 Chronicles 17. In modern terms, Mook said, this area would include portions of the Sinai Peninsula to the headwaters of the Euphrates River in Syria. Falwell, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and others believe that Jews must possess the Holy Land in preparation for the apocalypse and the return of Jesus. The Associated Press last month quoted Robertson as saying, "Judea and Samaria were given to the Jews by God, and I can't see the United States of America taking their land and giving it to a known terrorist." The return of the resurrected Jesus, Mook said, is foreshadowed in the New Testament, particularly Acts 1:9-11 and in Revelation 19 and 20. The passages in Acts 1 recount Jesus' ascension into heaven, with two angels telling the apostles that Jesus will return the same way he ascended. Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse, describes the enthronement of Jesus, the defeat of Satan and the emergence of "a new heaven and a new earth." While Vancil would not further define Van Impe's position on the plan, the largest evangelical group, the Christian Coalition, said: "Now or in the future, a Palestinian state would spell the death knell of Israel. Terrorism cannot be rewarded with statehood." The Jerusalem Prayer Team, a Texas Christian organization founded by Michael David Evans, is circulating a petition urging signers to help "put a roadblock on the road map." It says Bush needs to "just say no" to the road map until the infrastructure that supports terrorism in Israel is dismantled. Gary Bauer is another prominent Republican who is creating problems for the Bush administration over the plan for a Palestinian state. The onetime head of the Family Research Council ran against Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries. After he dropped out of the race, Bauer founded American Values, an action group that links evangelical groups and Christians who support Israel. Bauer's spokeswoman, Christy Hamrick, said the road map "is very bad policy." "We are asking Israel to make concessions while the only thing required of the other side is a promise to stop acts of terrorism," she said. "The plan sets up a terrorist state on the border of Israel." In Buffalo, the Rev. Daren Drzymala, pastor of Higher Ground Baptist Church, strongly opposes any plan that would have Israel handing over land to Palestinians, saying it goes against the Bible and the will of God. "The land promised to Israel was not to be given to anyone else," Drzymala said. "We believe, according to Scripture, that God gave the land to Abraham for Israel." Drzymala believes American support for ceding of land by Israel ultimately will result in trouble for the United States, opening the door for more terrorist attacks. "You're going to see more and more evangelicals speaking out about this," he said. Meanwhile, the Internet is alive with attacks on the peace plan by Jewish conservatives. One writer, Emanuel Winston, a former ABC correspondent during the first Persian Gulf War, said Sharon, by cooperating in this peace plan, has "truly exposed Israel to utter extinction." Winston said Jewish groups will rally against the road map Sunday in Crawford, Texas, near President Bush's ranch.
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