Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, and former Amb. Nikki Haley are coming to Israel this week
Will Netanyahu meet with them? Will Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid meet with these major Evangelical leaders as they try to finalize a new government?
JERUSALEM – On the eve of a possible new Israeli government, the founder the largest Christian pro-Israel organization in the world is coming to Israel.
And he is bringing with him one of the most popular pro-Israel Evangelicals in the Republican party as his guest.
Pastor John Hagee is the founder and head of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), with some ten million members in the US.
Nikki Haley is the former governor of South Carolina.
She served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration.
Haley is also widely touted as a possible presidential candidate in the GOP in 2024.
ALL ISRAEL NEWS has learned that Hagee and Haley are planning to meet with senior Israeli government and military officials.
They hope to visit an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery.
While both figures have been close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the years, they have also reached out to possible incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for a meeting.
It is not clear at this time whether such a meeting has been secured.
Bennett should meet with them, however.
Thus far, the former Defense Minister has not done much to build relationships within the pro-Israel Evangelical movement.
Meeting with Hagee and Haley would be a smart beginning.
Possible incoming Foreign Minister Yair Lapid should meet with them, as well.
Axios News first reported the imminent trip on Sunday.
In July 2018, Hagee awarded Haley with the “Defender of Israel Award” at the CUFI conference in Washington to a standing ovation from the crowd.
“Few people in the history of American diplomacy can be compared to the woman whose last 18 months have been spent fearlessly confronting the unreasonable and immoral anti-Israel bias at the United Nations,” Hagee said. “Ambassador Nikki Haley is a courageous voice of truth in one of the most misguided, hypocritical organizations in the world, the United Nations.”
Hagee said that the US had long-defended Israel at the UN, but said there had never been an Ambassador who was so “consistently bold and unwavering in their defense of the Jewish state.”
“Each year the leadership of CUFI selects the one person in America that we feel has done the most to defend and protect Israel,” said the CUFI founder. “We are delighted and highly honored to present this award to Ambassador Haley.”
The award was a large golden plate engraved with Isaiah 62:1.
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.”
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.
