Who’s On First?
by: Schvach Yid

Evangelical Zionists, that’s who. According to the December 26th edition of The New York Jewish Week, a deal has been struck between The Jewish Agency (you know, Israel’s Aliyah people) and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), whereby the IFCJ will donate 45 million dollars to the Jewish Agency over a three year period.

The rub? The President of the IFCJ, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein (common, you’ve seen him on TV) will be provided with a position on the Jewish Agency’s executive board.

Read it here at: http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c39_a1552/News/International.html

Rabbi(?) Eckstein has served on the board of the Jewish Agency as a non-voting member.

"It feels like we’re losing control," said Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, a co-founder of the Web site Jews on First, which criticizes the growing influence of the Christian right and Christian Zionist groups in America. "Those who will be in charge of the Zionist enterprise will not be Jews, but the senior partners with the most money."

Labor Knesset Member Colette Avital, the former Israeli consul general for New York who sits on the parliament’s committee on diaspora relations and immigrant absorption, called the accord "appalling." "This is the Jewish Agency for Israel. Not the Evangelical Agency for Israel. Why not put an Arab on the board as well?" Avital said.

Nina Penton, a Jerusalem municipal council member from the National Religious Party was unequivocal about the agreement. "This is a national disaster," she said, calling Eckstein a "servant" of the Christian right and the accord a "trap."

Isn’t this exciting? Uch!