EVANGELICALS SEE OPPORTUNITY IN PROMISED LAND
By William Wallis.


The hill in Israel where Jesus told his disciples to love their enemies as well as neighbours could soon be alive again with the sound of gospel music.

As part of efforts to revive tourism and consolidate support from the US Christian right, the Israeli government has offered to lease a prime plot on it to evangelical churches.

The 35-acre site looks down over the Sea of Galilee from near where the Bible says Jesus delivered the "Sermon on the Mount". The idea is that evangelical groups will invest in developing a large conference centre there.

The project also fits the wider strategy of Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the finance minister, who have expanded grassroots support for Israel in the US by strengthening ties with the fast-growing evangelical community.

As such it is likely to be controversial. Palestinians and many secular Israelis fear deepening links between Mr Sharon's Likud party and the US Christian right threaten prospects for peace. For theological reasons, Orthodox Jews tend also to be deeply suspicious of evangelicals.

GALILEE, WHICH IS SPIRITUALLY RESONANT WITH CHRISTIANS FOR ITS PLACE IN THE LIFE OF JESUS, WAS HIT HARD BY A SLUMP IN VISITORS TO ISRAEL DURING THE PALESTINIAN INTIFADA. BUT A RELATIVE LULL IN THE CONFLICT HAS BROUGHT A TURNROUND, WITH SOME 400,000 CHRISTIAN TOURISTS BRINGING $1.4BN (?1.2BN, ?798M) INTO ISRAEL IN THE PAST YEAR, ACCORDING TO TOURISM MINISTRY OFFICIALS.

Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the US National Evangelical Association which groups 22.5m Americans, said by phone from his New Life Church in Colorado Springs that with the right conditions 1m US Christians could be encouraged to visit Israel annually.
Mr Haggard, who met the Israeli prime minister and members of his cabinet on a recent trip to Jerusalem and is galvanising support for the Galilee project, said the government needed to cut red tape to allow more and cheaper flights into Israel.

"When you have a package with a tour company, airline and hotel then you start to get prices in the range that the average tourist from Kansas can afford. Those are wonderful people. They want to go," he said.
He added that other ways of channelling investment from the evangelical community to Israel were under discussion, including through government bonds.

There are an estimated 70m evangelical Christians in the US. As well as assuming a growing influence in US politics during George W. Bush's presidency, the community has begun overtaking American Jews as financial and political supporters of Israel and as a constituency militating for the Jewish state.

RABBI YECHIEL ECKSTEIN, WHO ACTS UNOFFICIALLY AS AN ENVOY TO THE US EVANGELICAL COMMUNITY FOR MR SHARON, HAS RAISED MORE THAN $100M FROM AMERICAN CHRISTIANS SINCE 2000 THROUGH HIS INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS. THIS MONEY HAS HELPED TO FUND EMIGRATION TO ISRAEL FOR ARGENTINE, ETHIOPIAN AND RUSSIAN JEWS, AS WELL AS SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMMES IN ISRAEL. MR ECKSTEIN HAS ALSO LAUNCHED PROGRAMMES TO ENCOURAGE US EVANGELICALS TO BUY ISRAELI-MADE GOODS.

He and other lobbyists see continuing Jewish hostility to evangelicals as petulant at a time when the US community offers uncompromising support for Israel's security and counts among its members the US president as well as a good number of congress representatives and senators.

"The Evangelical Christians are highly motivated with a sincere feeling of connection to the land of the Bible. They will be interested in investing in a project they can identify with in Israel," said Ari Marom, an Israeli official in charge of tourism marketing in the US. "The need and desire to strengthen our relationship with the evangelical community and encourage them to visit and support Israel not just from afar but up close, cuts across party lines."

Evangelicals draw their backing for Jewish claims to the "promised land" from various passages in the Old and New Testaments, and in some cases from a moral desire to rectify the historical persecution of the Jews. A minority of US evangelicals are Christian Zionists who believe Israel's existence is a necessary precursor to end-times and the second coming of Christ.

For theological reasons, some prominent US pastors are unyielding towards Palestinians' own yearning for statehood and have joined settler groups in Israel in campaigning against Mr Sharon's plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

They have also helped, in some cases, to fund Jewish settler expansion into the West Bank - one of the main obstacles to resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

But they have never had a physical toehold in the Holy Land. The prospect rattles traditional Christian churches, whose own land is under increasing pressure from settler groups and the Israeli state, and who tend to see evangelical interpretations of the Bible as selective. As distant observers to the conflict, evangelicals can also afford more easily to adopt hard-line views.

Riah Abu el-Assal, the Palestinian bishop of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem said: "We need to learn how to co-exist. When there is a peaceful resolution to the conflict, pilgrims will come. They always have. We don't need to give out pieces of land."

PROFESSOR GERSHON BASKIN, A LEADING ISRAELI PEACE ACTIVIST FROM THE ISRAEL PALESTINE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND INFORMATION HAS SIMILAR CONCERNS. "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CHRISTIANS COMING HERE, SPENDING MONEY. BUT I WONDER WHAT POLITICAL STRINGS ARE ATTACHED.
"I THINK THIS IS VERY SHORT-SIGHTED NOT ONLY FOR PEACE PROSPECTS BUT ALSO AS A JEW. MANY OF THEM STILL HOLD US RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF JESUS. THEY DON'T BELIEVE PALESTINIANS HAVE RIGHTS HERE AND THEY HAVE CATACLYSMIC DREAMS ABOUT THE NEXT COMING ."

Pastor Haggard sought to allay such fears. "The evangelical community is large and diverse, and the Palestinian community needs to know that evangelicals want life to be better for everybody," he said.

"I am a supporter of Ariel Sharon and I know what he is doing in the Gaza Strip is painful. But I am supportive of Palestinians getting a reasonable government concerned with building roads and schools rather than blowing up children. I have met with President Bush and told him how supportive I am."

He also sought to reassure Orthodox Jews about the project, saying: "There is no single group that respects Orthodox Judaism more highly." He added: "Wouldn't those Orthodox believers love it if we could persuade more Muslims to become evangelicals?"

Mr Haggard says the Israeli government has offered to invest in expanding an airport and other tourism infrastructure near the proposed centre in Galilee, depending on how ambitious plans for the site turn out to be.

"We know we need to move quickly while Netanyahu, Sharon and the current minister of tourism are in office," he said. "They have made the offer. We are thinking how to respond."