Senator Ted Cruzâ??s vigorous defense of Israel at a recent conference for persecuted Middle Eastern Christians in Washington, D.C., provoked jeers from a loud minority in the audience, made up largely of Catholics and Orthodox, many of them from the region or of Middle Eastern background. In June, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to divest from three firms doing business with Israel to protest Israeli policies towards Palestinians. More politically significant than those events, however, is a shift underway among some evangelicals, who traditionally have been Israelâ??s strongest Christian boosters in America.
The late Rev. Jerry Falwell, a founder of modern conservative religious activism, often boasted that Americaâ??s Bible Belt was Israelâ??s safety belt. But Falwellâ??s zeal for conservative red meat causes has become passé for much of the current generation of evangelical elites, who eschew the confrontational politics of the old religious right.
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