Duking it out over Christian support for Israel

In July, when M.J. Rosenberg was still at the Israel Policy Forum, he wrote a piece at Foreign Policy suggesting that Benjamin Netanyahu’s outreach to pro-Israel Christians was deja vu all over again:

The Obama administration is insisting on a settlements freeze, and the Israeli prime minister, who is resisting such demands, is not getting the support he might have expected from the U.S. pro-Israel community. Usually, when an American President makes any sort of demand on Jerusalem, pro-Israel (primarily Jewish) organizations compel Congress to pressure the president to cease and desist. It usually works. But not this time.

So what’s an Israeli leader to do? Netanyahu is resurrecting a tried and true strategy: Call on Christian fundamentalists — who see maintaining Israel’s occupation as paramount — to galvanize popular pressure against Obama. But just like the last time he played this trick, the tactic is unlikely to work magic for Bibi anytime soon.

Bibi’s avenue is Christians United for Israel, M.J. says:

So, sure enough, Netanyahu was the man of the hour at this week’s Christians United For Israel (CUFI) conference in Washington. The organization’s founder, Pastor John Hagee, addressed Netanyahu — who was in Israel — by satellite, telling him that 50 million Christians support "Israel’s sovereign right to grow and develop the settlements of Israel as you see fit and not yield to the pressure of the United States government."

Netanyahu expressed his gratitude. "Today millions of Christians stand with Israel because they stand for freedom, millions of Christians stand with Israel because they stand for truth, millions of Christians stand for Israel because they want to see genuine peace in the Holy Land," he said. The triumvirate of Netanyahu, Hagee, and Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov now plan to cement their alliance by conference call every three months.

M.J. recalls a similar tactic the last time Netanyahu was prime minitser, in 1996; he was seeking leverage against a Clinton administration pressuring him to embrace the Oslo process:

His last tenure as prime minister was a failure; he was turned out of office in near-record time. Yet even in this brief stint, he managed to antagonize the United States. Remember, he came to office less than a year after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and moved quickly to undo the peace process. Not surprisingly, that led to a swift deterioration in relations between Netanyahu and then President Bill Clinton, who had cherished his relationship both with Rabin and the Oslo peace process.

Sensing the frost, and knowing that getting in Clinton’s good graces would require endorsing Oslo, Netanyahu turned to the Republicans and to the Christian Zionists for support. There was nothing subtle about Netanyahu’s embrace of the right. In fact, during the Monica Lewinsky crisis — when he clearly believed Clinton was done for — the media carried reports about Netanyahu joking with House Speaker Newt Gingrich over some of the more salacious details of the affair.

In a reply published today, David Brog, CUFI’s executive director, takes issue with M.J.’s terminology and what he suggests is a caricature of CUFI’s base:

Rosenberg repeats three stereotypes about Christian Zionists that stand in stark contrast to the facts. First, he mischaracterizes the beliefs of Christian Zionists, claiming that they are "fundamentalist Christians whose theology dictates unwavering support for Israel." Next, he confuses the politics of Christian Zionists when he imagines that they all "are hard-core Republicans." Finally, he mistakes the policy of Christian Zionists when he asserts that they "emphatically support Israeli settlements and oppose the two-state solution." 

All three of David’s points are fair, and he has the evidence top back them up. But David concludes with a feint; he suggests M.J. is overblowing what was a natural enough occurrence, a video address to a major pro-Israel group, into cynical politicking:

Finally, a reality check is in order regarding Rosenberg’s outlandish claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is somehow "playing the Jesus card" —  that is, seeking to rally Christian support to overcome pressure from the Obama administration — because he agreed to speak, via satellite, at CUFI’s July summit. Netanyahu also spoke live via satellite at the May conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest Jewish pro-Israel lobby. It is natural that the two leading U.S. pro-Israel organizations would invite Israel’s sitting prime minister to address their delegates.

But M.J. doesn’t say Bibi’s address in of itself was evidence of "playing the Jesus card." Instead, he makes what seems to me to be a cogent case based on what Netanyahu and CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee said at the conference, including their plans for a semi-official relationship between the lobby and the government. Hagee, after all — in remarks that would surely have been vetted by Israeli officials* — spoke of "not yielding" to U.S. pressure.

So maybe it’s not "deja vu." More like a sequel.

*I’ve been assured Hagee’s remarks were not vetted.