Speaking at Christian's United for Israel's 2021 summit in Dallas on Monday, Sandra Hagee Parker, chair of the CUFI Action Fund and daughter of CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee, the organization's advocacy wing, said with some force that the multiple polls indicating waning support for Israel among evangelicals are false.

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Parker said she originally planned on speaking about the work her organization was doing in state capitals across the United States to support a pro-Israel agenda, but after the number of questions she had received from reporters on the topic, she felt the need to address what she called the "elephant in the room."

She said it was a fallacy that evangelical support is waning or that it is so closely tied to the Republican party that their influence is waning with a Democratic administration in the White House and Democrats in control of Congress. Nor, she said, is it weakened by Israel's new government, which is no longer headed by conservative former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Christians have supported every Israeli leader since [first Prime Minister David] Ben-Gurion, and that will not change," said Parker. "Shame on anybody for thinking that our power comes from an administration, comes from a person, comes from a party," she said.

"If that was the truth, then what we do isn't worth [a thing]," she said to applause from the audience. "Because if a man or a party can give us our power, then a man or a party can take away our power. And what we do because of a biblical mandate, and our God is the source of our power."

While the politicians who spoke at the summit were from the Republican party, Parker said that CUFI itself will not treat Israel as a political football, applying the same condemnation for Republicans spouting antisemitic statements such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) as much as it does Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

"Whether you're a Democrat or whether you're a Republican, if you care at all about the politics you aim to support, you should demand that your party clean its own house and take the fringe elements outside, not just merely to the sidelines," she said. "Kick them out of the party and take a stand once again, and make sure that Israel never becomes a partisan political football because it is just too important."

The stories and polls, she stated, are efforts to discredit their work, saying it loud enough and frequently enough to make it the truth.

"We will support Israel, and we will continue to confront antisemitism in all its forms wherever it can be found – in the schoolhouse, in the church house, in your house, in the White House – it doesn't matter," said Parker. "Our support for Israel has no bounds, has no jurisdiction. We go where the fight is. If it's in politics, we're there; if it's on campus, our students are there. If it's on social media, our employees are there."

The invitation-only audience of leaders and donors at the summit included 145 college students who are members of CUFI on Campus, a college outreach program. She said if it was a full summit like they usually hold in Washington, D.C., there would be as many college students as the total attendance this year, which stood at around 700.

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Parker said the organization has more than 350 campus chapters and hundreds of members of Israel Collective members, a CUFI initiative targeted at millennials. The summit later heard from CUFI on campus and Israel Collective leaders speaking about their work.

"So keep your survey, keep pushing your pencils; we have a 15-year track record and 10 million members that prove you wrong," Parker concluded to wild applause.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley joined Evangelical leader Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel, on a solidarity mission to the Jewish state over the weekend.

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The CUFI delegation said on its website last week that it would visit communities "impacted by the recent fighting between Hamas and Israel, meet with leaders representing various viewpoints across the Israeli political spectrum, and visit several holy sites in Jerusalem."

Haley, who is expected by many to run in the Republican primaries ahead of the 2024 presidential election, said on Sunday from southern Israel that "Israelis have the right to feel safe and defend themselves. We're not going to let this go. We will make sure that we're loud about what the root cause of this is. Israelis deserve to be safe in their home."

Video: Yaniv Zohar

She added: "If you had 4,500 rockets that went into [Washington] D.C., if any of our allies said we need restraint on both sides, we wouldn't be appreciative of that. This is a civilian area; where is the [UN] Security Council, where is every government that believes in democracy and freedom? Any country that believes that we need to get rid of terrorist organizations around the world" should be asking what they did to help Israel.

"I'm angry," she added. "This shows you what Hamas is trying to do. To kill civilians and Israelis are trying to defend themselves. Any dollar that goes to Gaza and Hamas, this is what they will use their dollars for. The idea that Israelis have to defend themselves over and over while a terrorist organization lies free and is able to attack innocent civilians like the Holocaust survivor that lived here is unacceptable and the world needs to respond to this. It shouldn't be Israel fighting alone. It should always be that the world is united against any terrorist organization. Tell me where there is a government office here; show me an Israeli government official. This was them trying to hurt the heart of Israel."

Hagee also voiced his unreserved support for the Jewish state.

"Five-thousand rockets. This reign [sic] of terror is made possible by Iran. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Anytime America gives money to Iran, Iran will take that money and make rockets and give them to Hamas so that rockets can fall on Israel. We need to be very cautious about our relationship with Iran and we need to stand by Israel in a more definitive and forceful way so that this nation can protect its citizens from the evil empire of Iran," he said.

On Saturday, the former governor of South Carolina prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and wrote on Twitter: "No matter the challenges, the people of Israel always celebrate life and thank God for their blessings. It's humbling to join them again in prayer at such a holy place."

No matter the challenges, the people of Israel always celebrate life and thank God for their blessings. It's humbling to join them again in prayer at such a holy place. pic.twitter.com/XGCtb2aFhG

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) June 12, 2021

Haley added: "In a world where antisemitism is on the rise and there are growing calls for Israel's destruction … it's an honor to join CUFI's solidarity mission with Israel and her people."

Christians United for Israel describes itself as the largest pro-Israel organization in the US. It has over 10 million members and is a significant force in the Conservative-Christian camp in the US.

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