Inviting Yair Netanyahu to speak was a disservice to Israel

The Evangelical community in the U.S. has been traditionally a staunch supporter of the State of Israel through political engagement, advocacy, donations, public demonstrations, and humanitarian activities. While relations between Israel and Evangelists (sometimes referred to as Christian Zionists) are marked by strong support and advocacy, this unique alliance has also been faced by challenges due the natural tension between the two religions.
In this context, it has been of utmost disappointment that leaders of the New Wine Ministries Church in Cooper City, South Florida (the Church) chose to invite Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Netanyahu, to be a keynote speaker at the Church’s “Israel celebration Service” on July 14, 2024.
Here are some of the concerns associated with this invitation:
1. Lack of authority – The only reason Yair Netanyahu was invited to speak at the Church is due to his being the son of Israel’s Prime Minister. He lacks, credentials, skills or knowledge in geopolitics. Presenting him as “a sought-after speaker on geopolitical situations” and as the son of the PM may imply he is a credible authority who represents or speaks on behalf of the State of Israel. This is misleading and cannot be farther from the truth.
2. Controversial figures – Yair Netanyahu is a divisive, controversial figure known for spreading baseless conspiracy theories. A 32-year-old man who does not hold a job, chooses to live in Miami while his peers fight in Gaza, and spends his days inciting against Israeli military and political leaders on social media, should not receive legitimacy from a church that represents moral values, honesty, decency and the work of God.
3. Irresponsible platform – Knowing Yair Netanyahu’s previous public statements, and still giving him a public stage to continue spewing his incitements and toxic, shameful rhetoric is absolutely irresponsible. In his talk at the Church on July 14, Yair Netanyahu claimed, for example, that the left in Israel is breaking all the rules of the games, of the political discourse, giving up on civil discourse, political discourse, and is “going back to their Marxist communist roots of trying not to debate your political opponent, but to jail his father, incite against him, and try to kill him”. He added that “this is very dangerous for the Western world, for America, for liberty. We can’t let it go on this way. It’s happening in Israel as well.”
Calling Israelis who do not agree with PM Netanyahu people who go back to their communist roots is absurd. The protestors in Israel are law-abiding, hard-working Israelis, professionals, high tech entrepreneurs, who believe in free market and capitalism, and have always called for and conducted non-violent protests. These are the people who give Israel its financial stability and high standing in the world. To call these people communists is laughable. It is unfortunate the Church has given platform to such ridiculous claims.
Another puzzling statement by Yair Netanyahu was about Qatar, which “for some reason received red carpets in Washington and New York, but they are… the number two funding of terrorism, in the world after Iran.” Netanyahu chose to forget that his father himself has been dealing with Qatar and was the facilitator of transferring money to Hamas in Gaza, insisting on delivering millions of dollars in cash every month – money that went to building their tunnels of terror and hell where our hostages are now rotting. The Church giving legitimacy to such demagoguery is hypocritical.
4. Church misleading statements – In his introduction, Pastor Mario Bramnick stated that PM Netanyahu is “one of the greatest statemen of our time… that his leadership for three terms is exemplary… that he has accomplished more in shaping Israel’s modern history than any other leader…that his passion for the safety, security, fulfillment of Israel’s purposes is unparalleled.” These statements by the Church are inconsistent with the opinions of the vast majority of senior military and political officials and leaders, from the right and left, in Israel. These are misleading statements that may be viewed as grave interference in Israel’s internal affairs and need to be condemned.
The Church leader’s assertion that ‘…The incitement that we’ve seen against President Trump, the incitement against your father, Prime Minister Netanyahu from progressive left, from media source funded NGO…’ is either dishonest or demonstrates a misunderstanding of Israeli politics. In Israel, the progressive left constitutes a small portion of the population, and criticism of the Prime Minister primarily comes from the center and even the right of the political spectrum. These statements disregard hard-working Israelis who are not aligned with the progressive left and who protest against the direction Prime Minister Netanyahu is taking Israel – a path towards a radical theocracy, driven by political and personal interests. Such a catastrophic scenario may align with Christian Zionist agendas but does not reflect Israeli Zionist aspirations. Moreover, given the well-documented corruption accusations against the Netanyahus, these claims are incendiary.
Members of UnXeptable, Israeli-expat pro-democracy movement, demonstrated outside the Church calling for the release of the 120 hostages who have been abandoned by the Netanyahu’s coalition since October 7, and reminding the Church and Netanyahu that he is an inciter working to undermine Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. UnXeptable plans to be in Washington, D.C. on July 24 – the day Netanyahu is scheduled to address the U.S. Congress – to remind the world that he does not represent Israelis but only himself.