Wolf D. Fuhrig

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Christians At Odds Over Israel’s Future

Last week, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) faxed a letter to President Bush asking him “to stop Israel from trying to expand Jerusalem’s boundaries and cut off Palestinians from the city, which should be the capital of both states—Israel and Palestine.” Associated Press had reported that the Sharon government was moving forward with construction of a separation barrier that will connect the large Israeli settlement of Maale Adumin with Jerusalem and block the Palestinians of East Jerusalem from the West Bank. Although President Bush demanded “no expansion of settlements,” Sharon is going ahead with the building of 3,500 new Israeli homes on the undeveloped land between Maale Adumin and East Jerusalem.

CMEP is an association of a large variety of American Christians: northern Baptists, Brethren, Church World Service, Disciples of Christ, the Episcopal Church, Lutherans (ELC), Mennonites, Orthodox churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA), Quakers, the Reformed Church, Roman Catholics, Unitarians, the United Methodist Church, and the National Council of Churches. Since 1984, CMEP has actively advocated the realization of two viable states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side within secure and recognized borders and sharing an undivided Jerusalem with the three religious communities that call it sacred: Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

In a March press release, entitled “Jerusalem: The Key to Peace or a Fuse for Conflict?” Corinne Whitlatch, CMEP’s executive director, explained that “East Jerusalem is far more than the center of religious life for Palestinians; it is also the hub of Palestinian economic, cultural and institutional life. Among those institutions are the Lutheran’s Augusta Victoria Hospital, built to serve both Christian and Muslim Palestinians on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City. The Episcopalian St. George’s Cathedral and College lie on historic Nablus Road near the intersection with Saleh Eddin Street. The inclusion of East Jerusalem in a Palestinian state is central to its viability, both economically and politically.”

CMEP, however, faces powerful opposition from Prime Minister Sharon’s lobby in Washington: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and, among others, the Religious Freedom Coalition (RFC), an organization of evangelical Christians. RFC’s chairman William R. Murray was among 20 evangelical leaders invited on Tuesday to meet with Prime Minister Sharon in Washington, D.C. Others in attendance included Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Rev. Pat Robertson, Rev. John Hagee, and Gary Bauer, president of American Values, a conservative not-for-profit organization.

According to Murray, Sharon recounted that Pope John Paul II told him that although Israel is holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, “God had promised the land only to the Jews.” Sharon made it clear “that he would never negotiate over Jerusalem’s future and that the entire city would remain a part of Israel.” The major Jewish population blocks inside the West Bank, moreover, will have to be a part of Israel.

“The evangelical leaders have Biblical concerns about the surrender of any part of Samaria” to the Palestinians, Murray asserted. When he specifically asked if the RFC’s base of operations in the Samarian city of Ariel would be “inside the fence,” the prime minister told him not to worry. He made it “very clear that he sees the evangelicals as friends of Israel and welcomed the political influence” they have as a group both on Capitol Hill and within the White House.

Yet, in his press conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, President Bush again contradicted Sharon and his American supporters. “As to the settlements,” he stated, “I've constantly spoken out for the need to end the settlements. And we'll continue to work with both sides on this very sensitive issue.”

It now seems the battle lines for any negotiations about the borders of the projected Palestinian state have been hardening. Far from supporting the Israeli and evangelical demands for the inclusion of the West Bank settlements and Jerusalem in the future state of Israel, President Bush has moved close to the position of America’s mainline churches in his insistence upon a Palestine unencumbered by Israeli settlements.