Dennis Prager: If US abandons Israel, 'that is end of America'
If America abandons Israel and the Jews, “that is the end of America as we know it,” according to American conservative talk show host Dennis Prager.UN accuses Israel of recruiting Palestinian child soldiers
A Jew well known for his deep connection with the Christian Right, Prager expressed concern that America was abandoning the Judeo-Christian values on which it was founded and was, therefore, at risk of losing its support for Israel and, ultimately, its rank of a superpower.
“Christians [support Israel] because they cite God’s promise to Abraham that ‘those who bless you, I will bless and those who curse you I will curse,’” Prager said. “They happen to be correct. Those who have cursed Jews have ended up cursed.
“America has been the biggest blessing to Jews since Darius in ancient Persia, and America has been a blessed country.”
Darius I, “the Great” authorized the Jews to rebuild the Temple after Cyrus, his predecessor, decreed their right of return to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile.
Surveys show rising antisemitism, less religiosity
He made the comments in an interview with The Jerusalem Post in the Israel365 studio at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) conference in Orlando last week, against the backdrop of several surveys that have shown both an America disconnecting from religion and skyrocketing antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in the United States.
Prager did not name any countries that have gone in the opposite direction.
However, much critical sentiment toward Israel is enunciated by groups identifying as Christian. The NRB is an association of Evangelical broadcasters that tends to be far more pro-Israel nowadays than other Christian groups. A majority, 86% of white Evangelical Protestants have a “favorable view of the Israeli people and 42% have a “very favorable view," according to a 2022 Pew Research Center report.
A 2019 Pew Research Center Survey found that more than 10% fewer people described themselves as Christian than a decade before. Moreover, a 2021 Gallup Poll found that 47% of Americans belonged to houses of worship in 2020, down from 70% in 1999.
In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League reported the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the United States since it started recording them in 1979 with 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the US, a 36% increase over 2021.
A draft of the UN’s Children and Armed Conflict report for 2023 accuses Israel of recruiting three Palestinian minors as human shields and combatants. A draft of the report on incidents in 2022 includes the new accusation, which the Israeli Embassy to the UN called “strange” in its official rebuttal. A final draft is expected to be published in late June or early July.
“These claims are not supported by any evidence that could be examined by the Israeli authorities,” the Israeli Embassy wrote.
“According to our findings, this lack of evidence is due to the fact that no such cases took place in 2022 and that the claims are false. Israel expects to see these baseless claims removed from the final report.”
Israel works to not be blacklisted in upcoming UN report
Israel has been working to ensure it is not blacklisted in the upcoming report. Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week to submit the results of Israel’s examination of the UN’s allegations. Israel asked that its comments be reflected in the final draft of the report.
Another UN claim that Israel said was unfounded is the allegation that a Palestinian minor was abducted by settlers. The UN report provided few details of the incident, even after Israel asked for more information, and the IDF and Israel Police have no record of it taking place.
“We believe that a case with such extreme and unusual allegations merits a serious and thorough verification before being included in the report, thus the [government of Israel] expects the mentioning of this unverified [incident] should be removed,” the embassy wrote.
The UN draft report accuses Israel of killing and wounding Palestinian minors. It does not refer to the context in which these alleged activities took place, such as teenagers killed while committing terrorist attacks, nor does it refer to ways in which Palestinians contribute to the violence, such as terrorist groups using children as human shields or launching attacks from civilian areas.
“Regrettably, the draft report does not reflect the efforts made by Israel to ensure the protection of children in the context of the conflict,” the embassy wrote.
In one case, the UN claimed that a 22-year-old Arab-Israeli was a Palestinian minor and that Israel killed him, when in fact he died from accidental self-inflicted wounds. Muhammad Walid attacked a bus carrying Israeli forces and was injured by flammable materials in his own vehicle. He died the following month.
The number of Palestinian children the UN has alleged Israel killed dropped from 86 in 2021 to 32 in 2022.