Zionist circles are expressing concerns that a growing number of evangelicals who were formerly committed to supporting Israel have been “changing sides” recently.
Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein, both working at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, claim that evangelical and conservative Christians—deemed to be “Israel’s most important allies”—are increasingly targeted “for conversion from Christian Zionism to Christian Palestinianism” (The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition, Dec. 2011).
They mention the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference (CATC), a pro-Palestinian initiative aimed at evangelicals—with some success, according to the authors. The 2012 CATC conference is said to include names of people who used to be supporters of Israel. The president of the World Evangelical Alliance is also reported to be one of the scheduled speakers.
The authors claim that this is also linked to a trend to a theological switch toward another understanding of the place of the Jews and of the land of Israel. One could add that these trends are probably also linked to wider changes in the perception of the state of Israel and Zionism in Western public opinion.
(The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition, Jerusalem Post Building, P.O. Box 81, Romema, Jerusalem 91000, Israel)
