his explosives belt, Christians continued to prepare for a spiritual counter attack, BosNewsLife learned Wednesday June 12. The latest killing of a 15-year-old girl in the coastal town of Herzliya did little to discourage evangelist Mike Evans, executive director of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, to gather "Christians from every denomination."
Evans wants to "enlist 1 million people in America to pray daily and 100,000 houses of worship praying weekly for the peace of Jerusalem," the International Christian Jerusalem Embassy (ICEJ) news service quoted him as saying at an event in Dallas.
PRAYER SUMMIT
"More than 280 churches and evangelical leaders across the United States support the Jerusalem Prayer Summit," said Evans, who attended a meeting Sunday, June 10, in Dallas to mark the 35th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.
The initiative comes at a time when a growing number of Americans are displaying anti-Semitic inclinations according to a poll conducted by a Jewish organization known as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), released by the ICEJ news service.
17 percent of Americans hold "unquestionably" anti-Semitic views – what the report calls "hard-core anti-Semitism." The number of Americans who are "prejudice-free" in their feelings toward Jews decreased from 53 percent in 1998 to 48 percent.
GREATLY CONCERNED
"We are greatly concerned that many of the gains we had seen in building a more tolerant and accepting America have not taken hold as firmly as we had hoped, and have to some degree been reversed," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.
However Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, suggested that America "has now a president who understands the problems better than everyone." The ICEJ quoted him as saying that he "trusts (US President) Bush and (Israeli Prime Minister) Sharon to work together to help both countries fight and win the war against terrorism."
ALSO DISAGREEMENT
Not everyone agrees. In a recent open letter to Bush Christians from the West Bank and Israel questioned Sharon’s intentions, saying that the Prime Minister "is not a man of peace." They have suggested that Sharon’s policy only adds fuel to the desperation of many Palestinians and that some of them therefore see no other option than taking their own lives and that of others.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has reportedly warned Palestinian residents to be careful with mines and unexploded devices. Since April 18 people have been killed including eight children in the Jenin refugee camp and on May 1, two children were killed and another three were injured by an explosive device in Bethlehem, the ICEJ news service said.
