Israel's
Unlikely Ally
By
Judy Lash Balint
April
7, 2005
The
members of the Christian Allies Caucus of Israel’s parliament
sat in stunned silence. A visiting African American pastor had
just told them something they had never expected: Israel had a
potentially powerful ally in America’s black community.
Pastor
Glenn Plummer, 50, former Chairman of the prestigious National
Religious Broadcasters Association told those gathered in the
Knesset lecture hall that the potential for support for Israel
from black Americans is huge. Plummer claimed that more than 80
percent of 33 million African Americans are “Bible-oriented
Christians.” According to Plummer, a recent survey asking
respondents if they had read the Bible in the past week indicated
that 62 percent of African Americans polled responded in the affirmative.
By contrast, only 31 percent of white Americans did.
“And the Bible their preachers are preaching from is largely
the Old Testament,” Plummer continued. “It’s
hard to outdo a black preacher when he talks Old Testament…”
the charismatic Detroit pastor added with a chuckle. “As
a biblical American, I find myself connected to Israel,”
Plummer said.
Plummer, making his third visit to Israel in recent years, asserts
that Jews need to remind African Americans that they stood together
on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
“I know it was Jews who were lynched and jailed as they
stood by black Americans,” Plummer went on. “It was
Jews who helped establish the NAACP.” He implored those
present, including a group of 25 friends and congregants from
Detroit, the heads of Christian organizations working in Israel,
as well as the Knesset members, not to forget “that we’ve
been friends for decades.”
“You need to get in our face and remind us that we stood
together in the 60s. Say ‘we need friends now,’ and
you’ll be met with the open arm of embrace from black Americans,”
Plummer promised, as the members of his delegation murmured their
agreement.
Plummer blamed a few media hungry black figures for the rift in
Black-Jewish relations that has deepened with the demonization
of Israel. “Don’t listen to the Farrakhans,”
Plummer implored. “It’s the pastors who have the sentiment
of the people, and they’re friends and allies of Israel.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense for those black leaders
who label Israel as the aggressor in the Middle East conflict—not
if you know history,” Plummer exclaimed.
Besides invoking the historic alliance of Civil Rights era, Plummer
assured the Israelis that two other issues point to strong pro-Israeli
sentiment among American blacks. One is the common experience
of slavery in countries that still exist today. The other is the
rescue and resettlement of thousands of black Jews from Ethiopia.
Both issues should be emphasized, Plummer said.
The enslavement and eventual liberation of the Jewish people from
Egypt and the two hundred years of oppression suffered by black
Americans links the two peoples, Plummer asserted. “I don’t
totally relate to blacks in Ethiopia, Brazil or even Africa because
they haven’t shared that experience,” he says. “But
we have a strange relationship with Jews who have also experienced
oppression and deliverance.”
Plummer cited Israel’s rescue of thousands of Ethiopian
Jews in two dramatic operations in 1984 and 1991 as a total secret
for most Americans. Despite his position as head of the NRB, Plummer
claims he was completely unaware of the existence of black Jews
until his trip to Israel last summer.
“It’s the greatest tool to reach black Americans,”
he claimed. “There’s never been a people of color
brought out of a country of oppression to freedom—you did
that,” he said. “That story needs to be told.”
Plummer mentioned the members of his own delegation—a cross
section of Detroit’s black community—as people who
had never given Israel much thought prior to their visit. “But
now, having seen and experienced and encountered the land and
people of Israel, their lives are forever changed. They’ll
stand with Israel, they see Israel as our ally, they love Israel.”
The delegation members applauded Plummer’s statement, even
as he went on to unfavorably compare the group’s feelings
of safety in Detroit to how they felt in Israel.
Plummer left his best line for last. Stressing the black community’s
familiarity with the history of the Jewish people, Plummer noted,
“We’re people who understand the difference between
Isaac and Ishmael. We get it.”
Judy
Lash Balint is a Jerusalem based writer and author of Jerusalem
Diaries: In Tense Times. www.jerusalemdiaries.com
The
views above represent the personal views of the author and are
not necessarily the views of the ICIC
