Divide and conquer

By Ed Lasky

American Thinker has been following a political tactic that seems to be accelerating: attempts to alienate Evangelicals, among Israel's greatest allies against Islamic extremism, from their support of the Jewish state. After all, other groups once predominantly supportive of Israel have been turned against it by clever and careful long term strategies.

Although it now seems long ago, academia was once mostly supportive of Israel, but this support has been reversed, partly due to the influence of many millions of dollars of Arab oil money showered upon pliable universities. The Middle East Studies association has been so corrupted that it might as well serve as a think tank for the Arab League.

The mainstream media is now predominantly biased against Israel. The support for the American-Israel alliance shown by Congress has eroded, as votes show a disconcerting trend. A previously published anti-Israel book Jimmy Carter's " Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" has become a best-seller. Think-tanks have been founded and funded by that have a distinct anti-Israel bias. The embassies of Arab nations have played a leading role in distributing anti-Israel "educational" material to schools and mosques across the nation and in coordinating much of the anti-Israel activities in America. Arab nations have also directly funded Muslim groups in America (CAIR, for example).

Now the efforts to weaken support for Israel are being directed to Evangelical Christians. Jimmy Carter - the beneficiary of millions of dollars in Arab petrodollars - has become a ringleader in the effort. The Arab embassies are again playing a role, as the Egyptian Embassy hosts a meeting between ambassadors from a wide range of Arab nations and leaders of America's evangelical community. (The meeting was attended by the son of the late Reverend Jerry Falwell-Jonathan Falwell. His father was one of the strongest supporters of the America-Israel relationship in America. His take on the meeting-which he described as "historic" can be found here.)

The Evangelical leaders wanted to talk about religious freedom in Muslim nations (which is almost non-existent). The Arab diplomats had an entirely different goal. One goal, in fact.

"Ambassadors wanted to know whether Christians could become more balanced in their support for Israel".

The battle has begun.