ONE VOICE IN ISRAEL — A BAD BUSINESS FOR DECENCY

By James Wilson

            President Obama’s government is pressuring Congress to cancel Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 invitation to speak.  They cite Speaker Boehner’s bad manners for not running the invitation by the President.  Protocol is protocol; if good manners require notice then an apology should come – from Boehner, not Bibi.  There is no reason to cancel the visit, but let’s talk about good manners for a moment.

              It is the President who let the Israeli Prime Minister cool his heels in a reception room for two hours during a previous visit.  It is the President who refuses to meet with PM Netanyahu at all during his upcoming visit – not for the first time.  President Obama excludes Israel from talks – and even briefings – with Iran though Iran is building nuclear weapons for the stated purpose of destroying Israel.  And it is this President who takes bad manners to new levels of outrage in operating a well funded effort – staffed by his own current and former officials – to influence the upcoming Israeli elections toward Netanyahu’s downfall.

            What would be the American response to a blatant effort by the Israeli government – or any other – to interfere in our electoral process?  What if Israel announced it was negotiating a separate peace with Al Qaida and said they would persuade or compel America to come aboard at the proper time?  Yet this is exactly what the American exclusion of Israel from peace talks with Iran achieves.  And now the arrogance ascends to outright intervention in Israel’s electoral process.

            One Voice is an international organization dedicated to Palestinian causes.  Their activist arm in Israel is called V15 – Victory in 2015; V15s sole purpose is to run Benjamin Netanyahu out of office. Israel has strict laws banning campaign financing from foreign sources.  V15 claims non-partisanship in hopes of skirting those laws, but the truth is obvious.  Former Knesset member Yoel Hasson was listed as a board member until his photo was removed from their web site just days ahead of this writing; now he claims to have never heard of them.  This is just one partisan example.  And then there is the international funding and leadership.

            Jeremy Bird – Barack Obama’s National Field Director – and a principal director of V15 – is not the only Obama man on staff.  The organization has multiple grants from the US State Department.  Other funding sources include the European Union, the Palestinian Authority – not Israeli citizens – and the British Labour and Conservative Parties.  America’s vice president and secretary of state have spoken for opposition candidates on taxpayer dollars.  

            This is a simple justice issue for those who do not know the Messiah of the Jews and of all the world – Yeshua Ha’Mashiach – as well as common sense for those who know that in history nations who support Israel and the Jews tend to do well in the blessings department and those who do not – like the British – lose their empires.  But for those who know and pledge allegiance to the Lord of Life there is so much more at stake.

            Christians who actually believe the Bible speaks truth know there is to be an end-times harvest of belief and believers alongside the times of trouble prophesied prior to the return of the King.  But what escapes many is the intimate tie between blessing Israel and inclusion in that harvest and homecoming.  There is – of course – Genesis 12:3 containing God’s promise to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her.  But in Amos – the same Amos (5:24) through whom God commands justice rolling like a mighty river – God declares (9:13-1) that harvest features the restored Israel.  In Haggai 2 the Father says on the day He shakes the foundations of the earth He will make Israel His signet ring.  In Zechariah 8:23 He says, “In those days men…(will say to the Jews) ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.” 

There are some who imagine these Old Testament promises are fulfilled with Yeshua’s resurrection.  In fact, as they clearly reference the final reign of God known to Jews as the Day of the Lord, they are fulfilled only with Yeshua’s return.  They are never cancelled. 

It’s really pretty simple.  Only a fool would forget Iran has called America the great satan and Israel the little satan since 1979; accommodating the mullahs by undermining Israel can only increase Iranian determination to destroy their larger enemy after the smaller.  Common decency calls on common citizens to support the besieged nation of Israel and demand the same of our morally twisted leadership.  Faithful faith calls for – and promises – a whole lot more.