For the last five months, Moshe Lavi has worn a medallion around his neck in honor of his brother-in-law Omri Miran, who was taken hostage by Hamas in the course of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Inscribed on the steel medallion, modeled after the dog tags worn by Israeli soldiers, is a straightforward drawing of a house with a part of one wall missing. Inside the partitions of the home is a heart.
“This represents the love that’s in our family, however it’s incomplete,” said Lavi, a former Israel Defense Forces captain who was in Nashville last week to attend the annual National Religious Broadcasters meeting.
“It will likely be complete only after we return Omri home,” he said.
Lavi, who now works as a financial analyst, and other members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum were amongst a big contingent of Israelis — including government officials — on the NRB gathering to fulfill with evangelical leaders, radio and tv hosts, and other Christian supporters of Israel.
They were there because evangelicals remain key allies for Israel in a time when the nation is losing support around the globe.
“Evangelicals as a bloc are concerning the only friends that Israel has,” said Joel Rosenberg, a longtime political strategist, novelist and editor-in-chief of All Israel News, an evangelical pro-Israel news and commentary site.
Rosenberg, who became an Israeli citizen a couple of decade ago and identifies as a Jewish believer in Jesus, told Religion News Service that he saw more Israelis on the NRB this yr than up to now.
That’s largely as a consequence of the close ties between Israel and evangelicals, who’re more loyal than other groups, said Rosenberg, host of “The Rosenberg Report” for the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
“Where else are you going to seek out individuals who will listen, after which have a platform and a motive to act,” he said.
Evangelical Christians have long been the backbone of U.S. support for Israel and are arguably amongst Israel’s most ardent advocates. They travel to Israel in great numbers. They donate vast sums of cash and advocate for Israel in Republican Party circles.
After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel killed an estimated 1,200, evangelicals jumped to defend Israel and lift money to rebuild its border communities. The Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm issued an “Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel.”
Evangelist Franklin Graham donated 21 latest ambulances to Israel’s EMS fleet, often known as Magen David Adom, becoming the national nonprofit’s largest donor, said Catherine Reed, CEO of American Friends of Magen David Adom.
“The evangelical community loves Israel,” said Reed, who brought her team, including an Israeli ambulance and a series of short videos concerning the nonprofit, to the exhibition floor of the National Religious Broadcasters meeting as a strategy to thank evangelicals for his or her support.
Reminders of the Oct. 7 attacks were in every single place on the conference. Not removed from the exhibitors hall, conference attendees could watch “Bear Witness,” a three-minute video of the Hamas attacks using virtual headsets. The exhibit where the video was being shown was flanked by Israeli flags and Nashville Metro law enforcement officials providing added security.
A number of floors up, a 45-minute version of the video — taken from footage filmed by Hamas — was being shown to groups of pastors, broadcasters and other attendees. After watching the footage, the groups heard from families of hostages and IDF officers. The videos have also been shown across the country to construct support for Israel after the attacks.
There is nice reason for Israel to woo evangelicals. They are mightier in numbers than Jews, said Dov Waxman, professor of Israel studies on the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Many people, when they give thought to Zionists in America, take into consideration Jewish Americans,” said Waxman. “But in actual fact, there are a lot of, many more Christian Zionists than there are Jewish Zionists within the United States.”
Exactly what number of is difficult to estimate. Mordechai Inbari, a professor of faith on the University of North Carolina, Pembroke, found of the estimated 80 million U.S. evangelicals, between 50% to 70% support Israel.
By contrast, there are near 8 million Jews within the U.S. Those Jews are inclined to be much more liberal and vote Democratic. Far-left U.S. Jews have been amongst essentially the most passionate critics of the war in Gaza, calling for a cease-fire in petitions and protests.
Christian support for Israel has often been rooted in beliefs concerning the end times. For some evangelicals, the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and its ability to capture the West Bank and Gaza within the 1967 Six-Day War, reinforced the idea that Israel is the culmination of prophecies recorded within the Bible and should presage the second coming of Jesus.
However, that belief seems to carry less sway in the present conflict than larger claims about God’s guarantees to Israel.
“The commonest argument without delay could be that God made a covenant with Abraham and his offspring and this is the reason they should support Israel,” said Inbari, the co-author with Kirill Bumin of “Christian Zionism within the Twenty-First Century.”
During NRB, several speakers cited a passage from the Book of Genesis where God tells Abraham, considered one of the patriarchs of Israel, “I’ll bless those that bless you, and whoever curses you I’ll curse.” An identical claim is present in the Book of Numbers.
But younger evangelicals are more skeptical about ties to Israel and have develop into more supportive of Palestinians. In three waves of a survey that examined evangelical views of Israel, Inbari and Bumin found that amongst evangelicals aged 19-29, support for Israel dropped by greater than half, from a high of 69% in 2018 to 29% in July 2021.
With declining evangelical support amongst young evangelicals and growing global condemnation of Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza, where the death toll is reported to be approaching 30,000, Israeli leaders are working to strengthen evangelicals’ advocacy for his or her country.
“Firming up support for Israel among the many evangelical community is absolutely essential, and (Israeli leaders) see that as playing a key role in maintaining U.S. government support for Israel,” Waxman said.
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, a longtime activist for Israel based near Nashville and founding father of the pro-Israel group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, spent last week interviewing survivors of the Hamas attacks and other Israelis for her “Focus on Israel” podcast and connecting with supporters at a booth in NRB’s massive exhibit hall.
The images from the Oct. 7 attack were shocking, said Cardoza-Moore. But the stories of survivors bring the attack closer to home.
“When you meet the people and also you hear the stories — that is what changes people’s hearts,” she said.
Cardoza-Moore, a longtime presence at NRB, began her pro-Israel work within the early 2000s, spearheading a Tennessee resolution in support of Israel in 2002.
Evangelicals, she said, have a responsibility to defend each Israel and their Jewish neighbors.
“Antisemitism never goes away,” she said. “We must protect our Jewish brethren — and we as Christians have a biblical duty to do this, based on the Scriptures.”
Luke Moon, deputy director of the Philos Project, which promotes “positive Christian engagement within the Near East,” said evangelicals have to be more intentional and clearer of their support of Israel. Moon, who had a booth on the NRB, said he recently attended a significant youth conference where he arrange an indication that said, “We are the Zionist generation.”
The same sign, he said, was arrange on the NRB booth.
For years, the nonprofit has taken Christian leaders on education trips to Israel — something that’s on hold as a consequence of the war. The work now has shifted to constructing solidarity with Israel.
Moon said the Oct. 7 attacks revealed that Philos has an incredible deal of labor to do.
“I assumed the world of allies to the Jewish people was larger,” he said.
Tal Heinrich, a long-term Israeli journalist turned spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said evangelical leaders are allies who share the identical values as Israel’s leaders. They each have “moral clarity” about why Israel is fighting Hamas, said Heinrich. And evangelicals are willing to back up their belief within the importance of Israel with motion — which is precisely what Israel needs at this moment.
“We is not going to stop fighting for an absence of support. But it’s a pleasant thing to have — knowing that you just should not alone,” she said, adding that evangelical broadcasters have a job to play at this moment.
“We need you to talk the reality,” she said. “Don’t let anyone forget what happened. Don’t let anyone forget why Israel is fighting.”
For hostages’ members of the family, like Lavi, the goal is more personal. They wish to be certain that the greater than 130 remaining hostages should not forgotten because the war drags on and political pressure for a cease-fire grows. Lavi said he hoped the evangelical leaders and broadcasters he met with would share the stories about those still missing as widely as possible.
“We attempt to make sure that this stays at the highest of the agenda for decision-makers,” he said.
He compared the medallion he wears as a reminder of his brother-in-law to the fictional ring of power featured within the Lord of the Rings books. That ring became a heavy burden for whoever carried it.
Likewise, bearing witness to the hostages is a burden for families — one Lavi hopes will likely be lifted when hostages like his brother-in-law come home.
“I wear it every single day,” he said, referring to the medallion. “I am unable to wait to take it off.”
© Religion News Service
