Christians gather for Israel

PAT JOHNSON

Two members of Israel's Knesset and a delegation of Christian Zionists concluded a five-city national tour in Vancouver last week, with an interfaith dinner that drew hundreds of Christian Zionists.

The event, at the Italian Cultural Centre on April 23, featured a procession of speakers celebrating the unity of Jewish and Christian Zionists. Although they were the headline guests, the two Israeli parliamentarians were just part of a long list.

Shai Hermesh, a Kadima party member of the Knesset, spoke of the difficult history of Jews and Christians, but welcomed the opportunity for rapprochement. "We should not forget the past, but we should work together and look to the future," he said.

Robert Ilatov, an MK for Yisrael Beiteinu, the party led by Avigdor Lieberman that is part of Israel's new governing coalition, thanked the government of Canada for its support of Israel.

Speaking in Hebrew, interpreted by another member of the delegation, Ilatov warned the audience not to underestimate the genocidal threats coming from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Seventy years ago, when Hitler started talking about the destruction of the Jewish people, no one believed him," said Ilatov, adding that Canada and other Western powers should deal with Iran "with a heavy hand."

As a party to Israel's new governing coalition, Ilatov sees the latest election results as a signal that Israelis are through with compromise. "The nation of Israel is against further concessions in the land of Israel," Ilatov said.

Josh Reinstein, a Toronto native who serves as director for the Knesset Christian Action Group, said the Vancouver event is part of a global groundswell.

"Jews and Christians are coming together around the world in an unprecedented burst of activity," said Reinstein. In response to Islamist terror, Reinstein said, there is a new unity among people who believe in the Bible, facing down threats from those who do not. Jews and Christians, he said, are "coming together in the same city [Jerusalem] where we parted ways centuries ago."

Reinstein said the ingathering of the Jews to Israel is a sign, along with several from the books of the prophets, that God's covenant with Abraham is being fulfilled in today's world. This is evidence, according to Reinstein, that the Bible is correct and the Koran is not.

"How can Islamists teach that the Koran is correct, when the Bible is clearly true?" he asked.

The cross-Canada tour was organized by Watchmen for the Nations, a Christian group made up primarily of evangelicals, whose leader, Dr. David Demian, told of his group's efforts to heal painful history between communities. A decade ago, the group joined with Canadian Jews to commemorate the tragedy of the MS St. Louis, a ship full of mostly Jewish refugees that was turned away at Canada's shores in 1939, with most of its passengers ultimately sent to the Holocaust. In one of several emotional segments of the evening, a survivor of that ship, Herbert Karliner, spoke with Robbie Waisman, a founder of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

The event was co-sponsored by B'nai Brith Canada. Co-emcees were Salomon Rayek, B'nai Brith's regional director, and Rev. Giulio Gabeli of Westwood Church. James Lunney, the Conservative member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Alberni and chair of the Canada-Israel Inter-parliamentary Group, brought greetings from several federal cabinet ministers and spoke of his own commitment to Israel.

Dr. Michael Elterman, Pacific Region chair of the Canada-Israel Committee, commended Prime Minister Stephen Harper for being the first international leader to withdraw from last week's Geneva conference that was a follow-up process to the 2001 Durban conference.

Eitan Pinsky, representing Vancouver Hillel, spoke of the challenges students face on university campuses and Dan Levinson, representing the local chapter of Magen David Adom, spoke of being a 12-year-old boy watching missiles drop on his Haifa hometown and of losing three friends during his IDF service.

Rabbi Yosef Wosk, making a blessing for the meal and hamotzi, contextualized the evening as part of a 2,000-year-old conversation between Christians and Jews which, Wosk noted, has been at times typified by "discord, misunderstanding and persecution." But, he added, "Christians and Jews have never stopped talking."

At the dinner, Wosk's words seemed almost literally true. A series of singers, speakers, dancers, prayers and presentations expanded the evening's program to five hours.

Pat Johnson is, among other things, director of development and communications for Vancouver Hillel Foundation.

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