Cruz: American churches ‘asleep’ on antisemitism

Cruz said it was wrong to assume that “all is OK” because President Donald Trump is Israel’s strongest friend and the hostages are now home from Gaza.

By Etgar Lefkovits, JNS

The leaders of the mainstream Christian churches in the United States are asleep as antisemitism poisons the minds of young people from both the left and the right, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Thursday.

The words of warning from the Baptist lawmaker come as elements of both the Democratic and Republican parties are expressing increasingly open antisemitic views.

“We find ourselves facing echoes of the same hatred which fueled the Holocaust,” Cruz told a gathering organized by the Israel Allies Foundation in Washington, D.C.

“The world’s response to the October 7 attacks made clear that the hatred of the Jewish people did not end in 1945. The hatred that fueled the Holocaust is still alive today and is not confined to geography.”

The senator, who has long condemned antisemitism on both sides of the ideological spectrum, said that he was frightened by what he is seeing America, which was facing an “existential crisis” of beliefs for the next generation.

“The poison is yielding results especially among young people,” Cruz said, attributing this worldview in part to the millions of dollars spread by Qatar in the United States. “The poison pouring into their ears is twisting their view of the world.”

He said it was wrong to assume that “all is OK” because President Donald Trump is Israel’s strongest friend and the hostages are now home from Gaza.

“The Church is asleep, fueled by a heresy called replaced theology,” he said. “If we lose this battle, we lose our nation.”

The gala event by the faith-based organization, which was attended by hundreds of Christian supporters and lawmakers from scores of countries, honored Trump with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his unflinching support of the Jewish state.

“There has never been a better friend to Israel in the White House than President Donald J. Trump, and even our wildest enemies would admit that,” Trump said himself in a short video-recorded message.

“There is no other modern-day leader who has shown such friendship for the State of Israel,” Israeli Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Gila Gamliel to the attendees. “As Prime Minister Netanyahu has said, it is not even close.”

“President Trump’s commitment to Israel has altered the course of history,” said Josh Reinstein, president of the Israel Allies Foundation.