Jerusalem to Japan: Join the War on
Terror!
By Etgar Lefkovits
The Jerusalem Post, August 09, 2007
A group of Israeli politicians and academics on Monday sought the
support of Japan's small but influential Christian community, part of
an increasingly global Judeo-Christian alliance against radical
Islam.
The fourth annual "Jerusalem Summit Asia," which was held in a
Parliament-owned building in central Tokyo, brought Israeli Tourism
Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, lawmakers from the Knesset's Christian
Allies Caucus and conservative Israeli academics and thinkers
together with Japan's tiny but growing evangelical Christian
community, who are concerned by the rise of Islamic extremism, but
who have until now maintained their distance on the issue in a
predominantly secular country.
"Here in Tokyo, we are building a bridge of partnership and
friendship to save our basic freedoms based on shared Judeo-Christian
values," said Likud member Gideon Sa'ar. "Our battle against the
forces of Islamic extremism must end with a clear and moral victory,
like the victory over communism."
Monday's event, which was attended by several hundred evangelical
Christians from Japan and elsewhere in Asia, as well as Israeli
ambassador to Tokyo Eli Cohen, was held as Japan marked the 62nd
anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, and amid growing persecution
of Christians throughout Asia and Africa.
"You can try to be politically correct, but don't be biblically
wrong," said Benny Elon of the National Union-National Religious
Party, who spearheaded Israel's ties with the evangelical world
during his tenure as tourism minister.
Elon urged Japanese Christian parliamentarians to carefully
monitor their country's massive financial assistance to the
Palestinians to ensure it was not being channeled to terrorist
organization such as Hamas and to stop contributing to UNRWA, the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which he said had only
exacerbated the Palestinian refugee problem.
He said the decision to enlist the support of Japanese Christians
in the struggle against Islamic extremism followed marked success in
working with the evangelical Christian community in other Asian
countries, including the Philippines and South Korea, which, along
with Singapore, had hosted such conferences in the past.
About 1 percent of Japan's 127 million citizens are
Christians.
Aharonovitch called on the Christian leaders to show support for
Israel by visiting "the country where the Bible is your calling card
and guide book" in the coming year, as Israel marks the 60th
anniversary of statehood.
He said that only 7,000 Japanese tourists visited Israel last
year, and that he was working with Japanese officials to speed up the
planned inauguration of direct flights between the two countries,
tentatively scheduled for 2010.
The Jerusalem Summit Asia was organized by the Jerusalem Summit, a
conservative NGO that debuted more than four years ago, funded by
Russian Israeli tycoon Michael Cherney.
The organization's executive director, Dmitry Radyshevsky, urged
Christians and Jews to unite "politically and spiritually" in the
face of radical Islam, which he called "the reincarnation of fascism
and Nazism."
"Jews and Christians are one tree, with the Jews forming the roots
and the Christians the branches; when it is united, it is
unbreakable," he said.
"Especially in these difficult times, only the biblical path can
be the light to our feet," said Marisa Albert, the executive director
of Jerusalem Summit Asia and chairwoman of the Jerusalem East Gate
Foundation, a Jerusalem-based evangelical ministry that works with
the Asian world.
"The issue of Israel today is most of all an issue of faith," she
added.
Speaking Out Against Persecution
The two-day conference was scheduled to conclude earlier this
week, on April 7, with a discussion among religious leaders on how to
focus world attention on persecution of Christians in Asia,
particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia -- a subject that most
Japanese Christians in the audience said they knew little or nothing
about.
Indonesian Pastor Fransiskus Irwan Widjaja said that it would be
beneficial if governments throughout Asia -- especially those with
larger, more active Christian populations than Japan -- spoke out
against the persecution of Christians in an effort to pressure other
states to intervene on the issue.
Koizumi in Israel
