Important Message to Christian Supporters of Israel

My recent post on pro-Israel advocate Hananya Naftali, who is on record speaking about his mission to get Jews to believe in Jesus, has predictably generated some heated discussion. And unfortunately, much of it has to do with a twisting of my words.

Hence this post to make things really clear.

  • I LOVE Christian supporters of Israel, who I see as allies in our war of good against evil.
  • I actually feel more of a brotherhood with Christian supporters of Israel who genuinely love Israel and the Jewish people without strings attached, than I do for my coreligionists who are working towards undermining us and towards the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.
  • While as a Jew, I reject the notion of Jesus as messiah,  I fully respect the Christian faith for Christians when it means being a good person, treating others kindly, doing good deeds and believing in one god.
  • If as a Christian your support for Israel and the Jewish people is predicated on the belief Jews need to convert to Christianity or otherwise believe in Jesus as the messiah, then in this case, I would rather not have your support.
  • If you work towards that goal, game on! I won’t rest to call out those doing so
  • Otherwise, we are allies and you have my full support and respect

I hope this clears up any misconceptions.

6 thoughts on “Important Message to Christian Supporters of Israel”

  1. i totally respect that, many, many Christian ppl just have a hard time trying to understand that, that jews wont convert easily no matter what, actually some jews do convert , for instance its very “funny” how these things play out, where there were zero anti-Semitism jews disappeared integrating themselves into the local population like china, and where there were a lot of anti-Semitism they prevailed , they remained jews till these days like France for instance, not to say that anti-Semitism is good in any way, that that’s the way things are strangely enough, of course.

  2. Norman_In_New_York

    I agree with Dave. It is noteworthy that Christians accept the Hebrew Bible as holy writ, including God’s promise to Abraham, “I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee.” If this is the basis behind their support for Israel while refraining from trying to convert us, so much the better.

  3. Although I am a believer in Yeshua as the Messiah I am somewhat reluctant to call myself a Christian as people will assume that as such I celebrate the pagan feasts of the Christian faith which were introduced by the Roman emperor Constantine and have nothing whatsoever to do with faith in the Messiah. I support Israel because this is a command from the Almighty God of Israel. The author’s statement that he respects the Christians faith when it means being a good person. doing good deeds. etc. shows a misunderstanding of the faith as these things are “good works” which are not required for salvation which is granted freely and cannot be earned.

  4. Yes, it’s hard to turn down love; but Israel shouldn’t need to be loved by Christian dictate, even minus the proselytizing. Israel is morally, historically, and legally in the right far more than its adversaries (Alan Dershowitz makes the “case” in his book). And if Jews weren’t fetishized as religion-objects world-wide, more people would be able to see these facts and arguments clearly.

    As for Christianity, well, yes, there’s the love message. But if you are unable to acknowledge that there has also long been a very problematic view of Jews inherent to many interpretations of Christianity, than you are really not helping the deeper issues at play; of which unhinged Israel hatred is the other side of the coin. Familiarizing yourself more fully with Christianity (e.g., read James Carroll) will give you a more nuanced understanding of friend and foe.

  5. Let me be clear too: There is nothing wrong with trying to convince someone that what you believe is true. We all do it from time to time and it involves anything from religion to Zionism to politics to sport. It is wrong to force that believe down the other person’s throat, but no reasonable/sensible/sensitive person would do that. I am talking about rational discussions, debate, arguments, apologetics. I trust the person I am having this discussion with is intelligent enough to analyse my arguments and make up their own minds as to whether I have a point or not. To be afraid that by merely engaging a Jewish person in a discussion about the truths of Jesus’ claims I will corrupt that person’s soul forever is a motion of no confidence in Jewish intelligence in general and that person’s intelligence in particular. (My support of the Jewish nation is not dependent on any one Jew “converting” to Christianity, by the way. I love Israel because Israel is God’s chosen nation. God loves Israel. God still has a purpose for Israel – in this world and in the world to come. I’m just following the ancient Hebrew prophets’ advice.)

  6. Fully agree. Welcome others’ whole, unqualified support, but never at the expense of your own belief–or lack thereof–or theirs.

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