Conservative Christians blast UN vote to force Israel out of biblical homeland
They also warn secretary general seeking ‘unprecedented’ emergency powers threatening US, Israeli sovereignty
WASHINGTON, DC — The overwhelming vote by the United Nations General Assembly this week demanding that Israel fully evacuate the West Bank within twelve months or face massive international economic sanctions and arms embargoes has infuriated Israeli officials who regard Judea and Samaria not as the “West Bank” but as their Biblical homeland.
It has also outraged pro-Israel Evangelical and conservative leaders around the world, and particularly in the United States, who also view Judea and Samaria as part of the land God had given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the nation of Israel.
Also infuriating, they say, are the ongoing efforts by UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres to gain for himself the authority to implement sweeping emergency powers if he declares that various international crises or “complex global shocks” necessitate fast UN action, first laid out in a 26-page position paper he issued in March 2023.
Dozens of American Evangelical Christians and conservative policy leaders that I met with yesterday expressed grave concern by what they described as an “unprecedented” and “dangerous” power grab by the UN that could have devastating consequences for all nations, but especially the U.S. and Israel.
Not everyone was ready to go on record.
But two were – former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official.
THE UN WANTS ISRAEL TO LOSE THIS WAR, SAYS FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN
Bachmann previously served on the House Intelligence Committee and is now the Dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, one of the preeminent Christian universities in the world.
“Eighty percent of the American people stand in support of Israel today,” Bachmann told me in a sit-down interview. “The American people are not in favor of the United Nations violating Israel's sovereignty and, in effect, forcing Israel to lose a war to its dangerous neighborhood.”
Bachmann described what Secretary Guterres and the UN General Assembly are trying to do as “a betrayal of Israel's sovereignty.”
“They're weighing in on the war. They're putting their finger on the scale of the war and they're putting the full brunt of the UN behind the terrorists who want to see Israel destroyed and all Jews killed.”
“THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED”
“The UN is very clear about their intention,” Bachmann added. “They intend to have each of the nations on earth give a portion of their national sovereignty to the UN, so that the UN can make decisions that will impact all nations on Earth. This is unprecedented .”
“UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres has stated that [as] part of his powers he envisions dealing with conflicts – conflict resolution – that could include the Israeli conflict that is occurring today,” she warned.
“He appears to be giving himself authority to call the shots in the Israeli/Gaza conflict, or the greater Arab-Israeli conflict in the region. That is very concerning because this could apply not just to Israel but to all nations.”
“But as Christians who deeply care about the Jewish people and stand in support of the Jewish state, in no way do we want an anti-Israel UN to be calling the shots and making decisions over Israel and its authority over its land and its people.”
“That same thinking would conceivably apply to the United States of America,” Bachmann said. “We don't want to see our sovereignty impacted and trampled upon by the UN either.”
UN SECRETARY-GENERAL TRYING TO DELEGITIMIZE ISRAEL, SAYS FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL
Gaffney, who served in the Pentagon during the Reagan administration and went on to become the founder of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, fully agrees with Bachmann.
“Firstly, the immediate threat [posed by the recent UN moves] is it de-legitimizes Israel again — and in its own territory, no less,” he told me. “And that only will further feed the appetite of her enemies to seek with this kind of [mandate] from the UN to destroy Israel.”
“Secondly, there is the problem that Guterres – who says he will act on this vote – is about to get new powers to do that.”
“The extent of those powers, and how quickly he can act on them all, remains to be seen,” he noted, adding the Christians and conservatives who love and support Israel should be deeply concerned.
Speaking specifically about Sec.-Gen. Guterres, Gaffney said the man is an enemy of Israeli security.
“I believe that, as is true of the vast majority of Christian conservatives, Guterres is hostile to Israel, as we saw in this vote of member nations of the United Nations.”
“Unfortunately, the secretary-general is working with a U.S. administration that is also hostile towards Israel,” Gaffney added.
“That gives rise to a very real vulnerability that if he is successful in getting these new emergency powers to deal with whatever he characterizes as ‘complex global shocks,’ he will be able to wield sanctions or other kinds of measures to [force] Israel into taking steps that are completely inconsistent with its security.”
CONTEXT: WHAT DID THE UN JUST VOTE ON?
As ALL ISRAEL NEWS reported yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly voted to adopt a nonbinding Palestinian resolution, calling on Israel to “end without delay unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory” within a year or face consequences, including embargoes.
The resolution calls on Israel to withdraw from all territories seized after the 1967 Six-Day War, including East Jerusalem. Israel has consistently maintained that holding these territories is necessary for its defense and security.
UNGA's resolution also called on member states to refrain from selling military equipment or weapons to Israel that could be used in Palestinian territories and called for a boycott of goods produced in Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.
The resolution, the first proposed by the Palestinian delegation since being granted diplomatic privileges in May, was approved with 124 nations voting in favor, 14 against and 43 abstentions.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon called the vote “a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic terrorism.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned the Palestinian Authority that it would respond in kind based on the resolution's wording.
“If the Palestinian Authority acts against Israel in complete contradiction to the commitments it undertook in the interim arrangements that were signed, Israel will act in the same way and stop all cooperation with the PA and bring about its dissolution,” he said.
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Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
