Debra Nussbaum Cohen, haaretz.com
Sztulman image from
The Alliance for Israel Advocacy, which aims to be a counterpart of Christians United for Israel, says it was encouraged by government officials in Jerusalem.
Excerpt:
The Israeli government has a multifaceted relationship with evangelicals. They represent a far bigger pool of visitors and political allies – current and potential — than do American Jews, so Israeli tourism and embassy officials interact with them often.
At the same time, a priority, of evangelicals is converting people to Christianity; some parts of the diverse evangelical community also believe that Israel plays a key role in the return of their messiah.
Ilan Sztulman [see], head of public diplomacy at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, deals with Christian communities. “We do a lot of outreach and activities with evangelicals, and they’re very helpful,” he said.
“But we only deal with evangelicals who do not see converting Jews as their goal. People who do have in their objective the conversion of Jews to Christianity we don’t deal with.”
Of the new group [The Alliance for Israel Advocacy] and the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, he said “we don’t have any contact with them.” Their belief in a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “is against what we believe. The official position of the Israeli government still is that the prime minister supports a two-state solution.” ...
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