Special to WorldTribune.com
A new online Bible aims not only to explain the Jewish people’s connection to the Land of Israel but to stymie the boycott Israel movement’s attempts to “chip away at evangelical support for Israel,” a noted rabbi said.
The Israel Bible, launched online about two weeks ago, is seen as a significant tool for Jews and Christians in light of current events in the region, Rabbi Tuly Weisz told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).
“The evangelical voice on Israel is being pulled away from us by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement,” said Weisz, founder and director of the Israel 365 organization which initiated The Israel Bible.
The Israel Bible includes commentaries written by ten of Israel’s leading educators and is also equipped with interactive Google maps showing the various locations of numerous events in the Bible throughout the Land of Israel.
“This Israel Bible, which is directed at the Christian Zionist evangelical market, can help evangelicals become more knowledgeable of what the Bible says about Israel and to whom Israel belongs as well as the source of the Jewish right to the Land of Israel.”
Weisz said the BDS movement has attempted over the last several years to convince members of the Christian evangelical community to adopt an anti-Israel theological position.
“From March 7-10 there was a Christ at the Checkpoint, anti-Israel, pro-BDS evangelical conference in Bethlehem,” he said, adding the conference was run by the Bethlehem Bible College. Several Palestinian and international evangelical Christians were invited to the conference in order “to challenge evangelicals to take responsibility to help resolve the (Israeli-Palestinian conflict).”
“It was not a Catholic conference. It was an evangelical conference,” Weisz said. “They don’t like that evangelicals are associated with being pro-Israel and they are trying to get the evangelical community to question the Jewish claim to Israel.”
“The only way to get evangelicals to question the Jewish people’s right to the Land of Israel is by rewriting the Bible and by reading things into the Bible that are simply not there,” Weisz explained. “For example, they say that God rejected Israel and that He had a covenant with Israel and then rejected His covenant and replaced Israel.”
“They would claim therefore that we have no right to the land and that we are stealing it from the ‘rightful’ Palestinian owners of the land,” continued Rabbi Weisz.
“We’re hopeful that the Israel Bible will provide people with the educational ammunition to refine their beliefs and to understand that God gave the Land of Israel to the Jews eternally, did not revoke His covenant, did not break His promise and did not replace the people of Israel at any point ever.”
Weisz said the Israel Bible already has some 10,000 people who have “signed up for their own personalized reading plans.”
“We’re certainly living in critical times where support for Israel is more divisive than ever and solidifying Biblical support for Israel among the Christian Zionist community is more important than ever at this moment.”