Israeli Gov't Press Office Hosts Evangelical Leader Who Calls for Bombing Iran - Israel News - Haaretz.com

Israeli Gov't Press Office Hosts Evangelical Leader Who Calls for Bombing Iran - Israel News - Haaretz.com> Israeli Gov't Press Office Hosts Evangelical Leader Who Calls for Bombing Iran - Israel News - Haaretz.com Jan 30, 2024 4:53 pm IST At a conference for foreign journalists hosted by Israel's official Government Press Office on Monday night, Evangelical Christian leader Mike Evans stated that "Donald Trump was the greatest president in Israel's history," and encouraged the United States to bomb an island crucial to Iran's oil trade in a keynote speech. "I just communicated a message, that I'm going to share with you, with the President," he paused, "Donald Trump," he continued, to the confusion of the few dozen reporters and media figures in the audience. Mike Evans with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019. Mike Evans with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019.Credit: Yossi Zamir "I have a message for our good friend, who will be the Republican nominee, and could well be the next President of the United States: use your platform and your power to mobilize the Republican Party and the American people in supporting the bombing of the Kharg Island. Ninety percent of Iran's crude oil is deposited on that tiny island," he said. Netanyahu's evangelical love affair isn't helping cratering U.S. support for Israel Just as America forcefully rejects Trump, Israel doubles down on Trumpism One in six American Jews say U.S. should be a Christian nation, Pew survey finds The event, titled "Israel and the Foreign Media in the October 7th War," concerned narratives and the role of media as Israel continues its war with Hamas in Gaza. Other speakers included GPO director Nitzan Chen, Hostage Coordinator Brig. Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, IDF Spokesperson to the Foreign Media Lt. Col. Richard Hecht and a video address by President Isaac Herzog. The event also included panels of government spokespeople and veteran reporters, as well as a discussion with family members of hostages and fallen soldiers. Besides Evans' speech, internal Israeli and U.S. politics were largely absent from the event. In their addresses, both Hirsch and Hecht noted the constructive and crucial role that the current U.S. administration has played in both the hostage release efforts and deterring additional states from entering the war. "There's no question that Donald Trump was the greatest president, in my opinion, in Israel's history," Evans told the conference. "We needed him then, and we need him now." He added that he was a member of the evangelical team that worked closely with the former president, who he said "maintained astonishing moral clarity," to the bafflement of the reporters, who are likely following Trump's New York fraud case. Evans said that by the time the U.S. elections occur, Iran will be a nuclear power, and that Hamas' October 7 massacre was a distraction from that "biggest, greatest, existential threat." The conference took place at Jerusalem's Friends of Zion Museum, whose exhibits stress the role of Christian Zionists in Israel's history. Evans is the organization's founder. Evans, a controversial figure in the evangelical world, has not held his political views close to his chest. In 2017, he installed dozens of pro-Trump billboards throughout Jerusalem, to the tune of $100,000. He is a vociferous proponent of right-wing Christian Zionism, referring to Jews as "God's chosen people" and founding the Jerusalem Prayer Team. In 2021, he garnered criticism for comparing the leaders of the short-lived government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid to "rabid dogs" who want to "crucify" Netanyahu. The statement was seen as divisive in the Christian world, and evangelical leaders shied away from Evans' efforts to prevent Israeli lawmakers from joining the then-fledgling coalition. For instance, the International Christian Embassy, a pro-Israel NGO in Jerusalem, said in a statement that "the Israeli public right now needs to be hearing that evangelical Christians stand in solidarity with them regardless of who is leading their nation." It did not mention Evans by name, but was clearly referring to him. Evans later walked back the statement, telling Haaretz that "Bennett is a Zionist. I wish him well." Nitzan Chen, director of the Government Press Office, who also spoke at the event, told Haaretz that "It goes without saying that we did not know the content of Evans' speech on Monday ahead of time, and his statements express nothing but his own personal opinion, and have no meaning beyond that." He added that "As part of the GPO's job as the organization responsible for relations between foreign news outlets and the Israeli government, we also have close contact with influencers and media figures from the Christian world. Mike Evans, the founder of the Friends of Zion Museum, who has about 80 million followers in the Christian world, is just one of them. In past years, we held similar conferences with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, the Museum of Tolerance, Trinity Broadcasting Network, and others, as part of a yearly working plan with the Christian media in Israel and the Christian world in general." Evans has purported in the past to have 77 million followers, and claims to be the biggest evangelical leader in the world based on that figure. But as Judy Maltz reported in 2021, that number is taken from the number of "likes," real and purchased alike, on his Facebook page for the Jerusalem Prayer Team, which was shut down for ostensibly violating content guidelines that year. In its current iteration, the page has 30 million followers.