November 7, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Returning from a two-week trip to Israel, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins today said he is looking forward to next week's visit by Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu. While in Israel, Perkins led a FRC sponsored tour that not only visited sites important to Jews and Christians, but heard from a number of political and religious leaders on geopolitical issues impacting Israel and the Middle East. Perkins also delivered a keynote speech at the Jerusalem Leadership Summit on Wednesday night.
Perkins made the following statement as America prepares to welcome the Israeli Prime Minister:
"I greatly look forward to Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to the U.S. and to hear what he has to share with the American people. Our relationship with Israel has been rocky throughout the Obama presidency, but never more than in recent months given the dangerous deal struck by President Obama with Iran over that country's attempted development of nuclear weapons.
"Those feeling ambivalent about supporting the Jewish state need to understand Israel's strategic importance to the United States. Israel is a vital ally and the only democracy in the Middle East.
"Given Israel's loyalty to the United States, her geographic centrality in a vast region in which America clearly has security concerns, her military alliance with America, and her now almost seven-decade history of representative self-government, respect for religious liberty, the U.S. has both a moral and a strategic obligation to stand with the Jewish state. Israel is an island of liberty in a sea of repression and authoritarianism.
"If we want peace in the Middle East, it starts with Israel's enemies finally acknowledging two basic things: Israel's right to exist and to exist as a Jewish state. Until those hurdles are cleared, I fear that supposedly incremental progress will lead only to ongoing conflict."Our relationship with Israel must always remain unshakable and Bible-believing Christians must do their part to insure we select a President in 2016 that is committed to that vital relationship with Israel," Perkins concluded.
The text of Perkins' speech in Jerusalem can be viewed here: http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF15K25.pdf
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