Hundreds of Evangelical Leaders Gather in Show of Support for Israel

Hundreds of conservative evangelical leaders gathered in a show of support for Israel at the fifth annual National Prayer Breakfast honoring the Jewish State yesterday.

In fire-and-brimstone style, some of the nation’s most prominent evangelist orators told of God’s special relationship with the Jewish people and of the terrible destiny that awaits those who seek to crush the nation He has chosen.

Many cited Biblical passages; others talked in terms of U.S. strategic interests as well. All pledged to stand by Israel in its efforts to survive amidst a sea of enemies.

MEETING PERMEATED WITH POLITICS

Coinciding with the strong Christian fervor was the expectedly unmistakable political air in the overpacked ballroom. Among the preachers at the dais were the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and of the recently created Liberty Federation — a political organization devoted specifically to promoting the views of the Christian right — and the Rev. Pot Robertson, who has long been considered a likely contender for the Republican nomination for President.

Interspersed among the ministers and lay leaders who addressed the early morning diners were conservative members of Congress and some of Israel’s most vocal supporters.

They included Rep. Mark Siljander (R. Mich.); Sen. Albert Gore (D. Tenn.), who recently returned from his first trip to Israel; Sen. Arlen Specter (R. Pa.), and Sen. Chic Hecht (R. Nev.), a staunchly conservative Jewish Senator who escorted Sen. Jesse Helms (R. N. C.) on the latter’s first trip to Israel last summer.

Hecht and Specter were among a handful of Jewish participants who were also either honored at the dais or were there to receive the fiery praise of the orators for the Jewish people and their State. They included the usual representation from the Israel Embassy and some of the major American Jewish organizations.

A MESSAGE TO AMERICAN JEWS

But the uneasy alliance that has been forged between the evangelicals and the Jewish community by a common declared commitment to Israel also revealed the pressures that seem to work at unhinging that bond. At the heart of those pressures has been the whole question of church-state relations in this country.

On that issue, Robertson addressed himself to the American Jewish community, saying that “it does not serve your ends to strip the religious symbols” from the “public squares of America, ” and that “it does not advance the cause of Judaism to diminish the faith of evangelical Christians” who value those symbols.

He referred specifically to the issue of school prayer, which has been vigorously opposed by many of the major American Jewish organizations.

Another speaker, evangelist Moody Adams, explained Arab hostility to Israel by the fact that there are “800 million people who believe that God wrote a book called the Koran,” which he said promises heavenly rewards to those who kill Jews.

ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK IN THE UN

But the keynote speaker, former Ambassador to the United Nations. Jeane Kirkpatrick, avoided reference to the Bible or other Scripture, citing instead the words of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and her memories at the UN as reference points for her expressions of support for Israel.

If Qaddafi “were the only leader and Libya the only nation dedicated to the destruction of Israel,” Kirkpatrick said, “Israel’s problems would be much simpler than they really are.” But other states, she stressed, “are just as dedicated as Colonel Qaddafi” to the goal of liquidating the Jewish State.

Recalling what she said was the flagrant imbalance in the UN’s treatment of Israel, Kirkpatrick urged that the U.S. refuse to cooperate on any UN resolutions sponsored and supported by delegations which refuse Israel “fair play.”

Responding to thunderous applause, she observed that perhaps the audience did not perceive what a radical step she was calling for. To take up her recommendation, she said, would mean that “we would almost have to leave the United Nations” — a suggestion that brought further applause.