An Uneasy Alliance for Evangelicals and Jews : Activism: Most Christians believe in Jews’ right to defend Israel, and they often fund projects there. Most Jewish leaders appreciate the support but draw the line at spreading the Gospel.

Some of the strongest supporters of Israel in the United States are evangelical Christians, despite religious differences that make the alliance an uneasy one.

In storefront churches and elegant cathedrals, on radio and television, the pro-Israel message is delivered by Christian preachers who believe in the Jews’ right to defend the land they believe God has given them.

This belief stems from the evangelicals’ literal interpretation of the Bible, said Elwood McQuaid, executive director of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, based in Deptford, N.J.

“The Jewish people have an inherent right, given by God in perpetuity, to that land,” McQuaid said. “There’s no negotiating the rights of the Jewish people to be in Israel.”

The Friends of God Gospel Ministry is supported by 45,000 conservative Christian churches and individuals, and has a quarter of a million subscribers to Israel My Glory, its bimonthly magazine, McQuaid said.

The ministry holds seminars throughout the United States to teach Christians about Israel, and it sponsors several tours to the Holy Land every year, McQuaid said.

Forty percent of the 1.8 million North American tourists who visited Israel in 1992 were on organized Christian pilgrimage tours, said Barbara Bahny, a spokeswoman for the Israel Tourist Office in New York.

Besides spending tourist dollars in Israel, evangelical Christian groups have donated money to help immigrants move from the former Soviet Union to Israel and to support hospitals and medical clinics with funds and volunteers, Israeli officials said.

To many Jews, friends of Israel are welcome indeed. Gospel ministry is another matter.

“There has to be that distinction made between missions to Israel and support of Israel,” said Rabbi Raphael Butler, national director of the Orthodox Union, an umbrella organization for about 1,000 Orthodox synagogues in the United States. He said the Orthodox Union would be opposed to any type of “assault” on the Jewish community.

“The threat is proselytizing,” said Rabbi Samuel B. Rosenberg, spiritual leader of the Elmora Hebrew Center in Elizabeth, N.J. “They’re committed to spreading the word about their Messiah--it’s a fundamental principle of their belief.”

Rabbi Naphtali Rothenberg, director of the Torah Education Department of the World Zionist Organization in New York, said concern about conversion should be met by educating the Jewish people about Judaism.

“I studied Christianity at Hebrew University. I’m not afraid it will take over,” Rothenberg said.

“Jews know what Christians believe,” said E. Brandt Gustavson, executive director of National Religious Broadcasters. The NRB has 750 evangelical Christian broadcasters as members, representing 75 to 100 denominations, Gustavson said. “We take the position that we are happy when anybody comes to Christ, but we’re not going to be obnoxious with Jews, who are our friends.”

Gustavson’s organization, based in Manassas, Va., is holding its 1996 convention in Jerusalem, on the 3,000th anniversary of the establishment of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by King David.

“This sort of thing excites our people,” he said.

The NRB and Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry are among the groups that participate in the annual National Christian Prayer Breakfast in Honor of Israel and to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.

The breakfast is organized by Ed McAteer, president of the National Religious Roundtable in Memphis, Tenn., a coalition of business, political, military and religious leaders whose focus is on “public policy concerning moral issues,” McAteer said.

“When we share a platform with Christian leaders in support of Israel, we don’t mean we share an agenda on other issues, such as local social issues. It just means we appreciate their support of Israel and we feel a kinship with them,” said Avi Granot, consul for Christian Affairs at the Embassy of Israel in Washington.

Although most evangelicals agree that God has a special role for Israel, the largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention with 15.4 million members, is about evenly split on the question of what God means by “Israel.”

“There are those who believe the prophetic references to Israel in the Bible refer to the new Israel and new children of God who are true believers in Christ,” said Mark Coppenger, vice president for Southern Baptist relations in Nashville, Tenn.

Others believe that the Bible has very specific promises for the state of Israel, the Jewish people and the establishment of God in that land.

“There’s a pretty crisp division over prophesy. Is Israel the Jewish people as we know them today with a special role, or is that now passed?” Coppenger said.