Dozens of parliamentarians from around the world gathered in Jerusalem on
Wednesday to throw their support behind an effort to put pressure on their
respective governments to stop Iran from attaining nuclear weapons.
The
lawmakers signed a “declaration of solidarity” during the Chairman’s Conference
of the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation in Jerusalem, featuring
leaders from the US, Canada, Macedonia, South Africa, the EU and Brazil, among
others.
“The Iranian regime with its developing arsenal of weapons of
mass destruction and its stated goal of destroying Israel constitutes a clear
and present danger to the existence of the State of Israel that must be
opposed,” the declaration of solidarity States.
Public Diplomacy and
Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein addressed the lawmakers and thanked
them for their support of Israel.
“Support of that kind and acts of that
kind are the real dividing line between a nuclear Iran and stopping them in
time,” he said. “This [conference] allays the feeling in Israel that the entire
world is against us,” Edelstein added.
Edelstein and other speakers
frequently cited the pressure from members of Canada’s Israel Christian Allies
Caucus who were successful in lobbying Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to
completely sever ties with Iran last week.
Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu also hailed Harper personally during a breakfast during his recent
trip to New York.
“The Chairman’s Conference proves that faith-based
diplomacy is the most vibrant and successful way to garner international
political support for the state of Israel,” said Josh Reinstein, the director of
the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, the Israel branch of the
foundation.
The outpouring of support from Christian leaders around the
world came just a day after virulent anti-Christian graffiti was spray-painted
on a Franciscan convent less than a kilometer away from the hotel where the
conference took place.
Edelstein and other Christian leaders dismissed
the graffiti, which read “Jesus is a bastard,” as the work of “a few crazies”
and not representative of the average Israeli view.