June 18, 2001

Campaign to get evangelical ambassador to Israel ignored
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___MEMPHIS, Tenn.--A campaign to get a conservative Christian activist appointed as United States ambassador to Israel appears to have been ignored by the Bush administration, prompting complaints that yet another Republican president has used the Christian vote to get elected and then failed to produce results.
___"We were dropped like a hot potato once they got out of these Christians what they wanted," said Ed McAteer, a longtime supporter of Israel and founder of the Religious Roundtable.
___A wide array of conservative Christians and Jews has been lobbying the White House to get McAteer, 74, nominated to be ambassador to Israel.
___"It's a pattern with the Republican Party," agreed unsuccessful presidential candidate Howard Phillips, a former official in the Nixon administration who now heads the Conservative Caucus in suburban Washington. "The Republican Party relies on one group of people to get into office, then another group of people to govern. ... This is a pattern throughout."
___Letters supporting McAteer were sent to Washington by Don Sundquist, governor of Tennessee; Fred Thompson, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee; Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis and three-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention; James Merritt, SBC president and pastor of First Baptist Church of Snellville, Ga.; evangelist James Robison; Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor; Judge Roy Moore, of Ten Commandments fame in Alabama; Rafael Grossman, rabbi at Baron Hirsch Congregation in Memphis, the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in the United States; Herbert Zweibon, chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel; Republican Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma; and Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum.
___McAteer said as of June 12, he has not received so much as a postcard from the Bush White House, much less any request for a formal interview.
___Meanwhile, the White House announced May 25 that Bush will nominate Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, as ambassador to Israel.
___A White House spokeswoman defended Kurtzer's nomination, while not specifically acknowledging the campaign to get McAteer nominated.
___"The White House carefully reviewed a number of highly qualified candidates. The president nominated Daniel Kurtzer based on his many years of foreign affairs experience as a career minister in the senior foreign service and former ambassador to Egypt," said Mercy Viana.
___News of Kurtzer's nomination has upset ultra-conservative Christians, because they believe he is the virtual embodiment of what they perceive to be a failed Middle East policy of the Clinton administration.
___They consider Kurtzer one of the primary authors of the Oslo peace process, which promoted the idea of Israel swapping land to the Palestinians in exchange for peace.
___Many ultra-conservative Orthodox Jews and Christians vehemently oppose any ceding of land from Israel because they believe all the land Israel now occupies was given to the Jewish people by divine mandate.
___Kurtzer is himself an Orthodox Jew and a well-traveled veteran in the Middle Eastern diplomatic community. His potential nomination has been supported by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Rabbinical Assembly.
___However, Kurtzer's nomination has been opposed by the Zionist Organization of America, the National Unity Coalition for Israel and other ultra-conservative Jewish leadership.
___"We feel strongly that Daniel Kurtzer does not represent the thinking of the American people who have supported President Bush and hope for a fresh approach," wrote Esther Levens, president of the National Unity Coalition for Israel in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
___On the other hand, McAteer is hailed by the most politically conservative wing of American Jews and Christians as a genuine supporter of Israel and a knowledgeable link between U.S. Christians and Jews worldwide.
___A former sales executive with Colgate-Palmolive, McAteer is a longtime member of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. His Religious Roundtable was a sort of predecessor to the Moral Majority. He has organized so-called National Affairs Briefings during major presidential election years--most notably a gathering in Dallas in 1980 where then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan quipped, "I know you can't endorse me, but I endorse you."
___For more than two decades, McAteer has organized an annual prayer breakfast for Israel, billed as a gathering to follow the biblical admonition to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." Hundreds of Jewish and Christian leaders have attended the events.
___"His love for the nation Israel is legendary," Adrian Rogers said of McAteer in his letter to the Bush White House. "He has more genuine Jewish friends than any evangelical Christian I know."
___Rabbi Grossman called McAteer "a genuinely devoted friend to Israel."
___Phyllis Schlafly added, "I really can't think of anyone in America who is a better friend of both the Israeli and the Christian communities."
___Those advocating McAteer's nomination as ambassador to Israel have been hopeful the Bush administration would take a firmer pro-Israel stance in the Middle East than the Clinton administration. In their view, unquestioning support for the state of Israel is a theological and historical necessity.
___For the Jews among this group, the issue dates back to the covenant between God and Abraham recorded in the Book of Genesis. For the conservative Christians, it also relates to a certain end-times theology.
___"When the League of Nations, with strong American support, endorsed the concept of a Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1922, it did so on the basis of the biblical connection between the Jews and the land of Israel," Jewish leader Herbert Zweibon told the Bush White House. "You need an ambassador who understands that connection.
___"Appointing Ed McAteer our ambassador to Israel will send a badly needed message that those who appreciate religious values have a place in your administration," he added.
___The silence out of Washington on what religious conservatives consider a wonderful idea has left some of them perplexed and worried.
___Chief among the perturbed is McAteer, who served as national director of the Christians and Jews for Bush campaign in 1984, when George W. Bush's father was running for the presidency.
___The younger Bush's White House, he believes, is demonstrating arrogance and ingratitude toward a major part of its electoral constituency.
___It was McAteer, after all, who introduced many of the major players of the Religious Right to each other and helped mobilize them for political action. And now the movement he spawned, although it has become a powerhouse in electing Republican candidates to office, has been unable to get McAteer himself appointed to the one position he most desires.
___McAteer recalled a conversation he had several years ago with Ehud Olmert, now mayor of Jerusalem, in which Olmert first suggested McAteer would be a desirable ambassador to Israel. McAteer's response at the time: "I would rather be the ambassador to Israel than the president of the United States."
___The reason, he said, is because of his theology. "The rewards would be greater because of eternity."

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!