Israel pledges to provide greater protection to Christian communities facing persecution and Islamic terrorism across the world, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a gathering of Christian leaders last Wednesday in Palm Beach, Florida.
Highlighting the plight of Christian minorities in Muslim-majority countries of Africa and the Middle East, Prime Minister Netanyahu unveiled an initiative to unite Christian communities worldwide.
“We are joining an effort to have basically a united nations of countries that support Christian communities around the world, beleaguered communities who deserve our help, just as you are helping us, we want to help back,” the Israeli Prime Minister said.
Israel would offer its expertise in intelligence and security to these embattled communities. “And we’re capable of doing this. In Africa, with intel, in the Middle East, with a lot of means that I won’t itemize each one,” he said, without specifying measures and methods, apparently due to security reasons.
Expressing gratitude for the historic role Christians, and particularly Christian Zionists, played in the establishment of the Jewish State nearly eight decades ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to join forces in “our common Judeo-Christian civilization’s battle.”
The biggest threat to Christian communities came from two forms of radical Islam, notably the Shia-Islamic axis run from Iran and the Sunni axis led by the Muslim Brotherhood, Netanyahu said. Christians facing this twin threat “deserve our help, just as you are helping us, we want to help back,” he assured.
Here is an excerpt from the speech the Israeli Prime Minister gave to Evangelical leaders:
“You are representatives of the Christian Zionists who made Jewish Zionism possible. It’s hard for me to conceive of the emergence of the Jewish state, the re-emergence of the Jewish state, without the support of Christian Zionists in the United States, also in Britain, but the main thrust was in the United States in the 19th century.So Christian Zionism facilitated the rise and success of Jewish Zionism. And it’s been an enormous partnership since then. (…)We’ve fought, as you know, a seven-front war, and we’ve come out in many ways victorious, but there’s an eighth front, and that’s the front for the hearts and minds of people, especially young people in the West, and for me, especially in the United States, and for me, especially on the conservative wing of the United States.I think it’s not just Israel’s battle. I think it’s our common Judeo-Christian civilization’s battle, and I think we have to engage in that battle, as forcefully, with as much resolution as we engage the other seven fronts. I think it affects not only Israel, it affects America, it affects our alliance, it affects the future of Western civilization. (…)There are some people who believe that faith should be silent, and terrorism should be understood. No, faith should speak its voice, and terrorism should be confronted, not understood, confronted and defeated. And that is what we’re engaging right now. (…)I see the battle against us and the battle against our Judeo-Christian tradition, basically being waged around the globe, and it’s waged primarily by two forces, radical Shiite Islam and radical Sunni Islam. That means the axis that is led by Iran, much battered, admittedly, but still there, and the Sunni axis led by the Muslim Brotherhood, which permeates everything. They go to Europe, they go to the United States, they go to Africa, Nigeria. And we are conscious of the fact that Christians are being persecuted across the Middle East, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Nigeria, in Turkey and beyond.We’re also aware of the fact, as you are, that one country protects the Christian community, enables it to grow, defends it, and makes sure that it thrives, and that country is Israel. There is no other, None.We are joining an effort to have basically a united nations of countries that support Christian communities around the world, beleaguered communities who deserve our help, just as you are helping us, we want to help back. And we’re capable of doing this. In Africa, with intel, in the Middle East, with a lot of means that I won’t itemize each one.(Click here for the full transcript of the speech on the Israeli Prime Minister’s official website)
Israel, surrounded by hostile Muslim-majority countries of North Africa and the Middle East, is the only place in that region where Christianity flourishes. While Christians in neighboring Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon are being driven out of their historic homes, Israel’s small Christian minority continues to grow, the official population census released in December showed.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY