WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden needs to “change course” on his Iran policy, according to Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI).
“We hope that the president has a successful trip to the region, but he will need to make clear to the Israelis and the Arab leaders with whom he is meeting that he hears their concerns on America’s weak policy toward Iran, and he is going to change course,” he said in an interview. “We want him to be very, very firm in his support of Israel and to make it known that it is not possible for the American people to accept the fact that Iran would have a nuclear weapon.”
"We want him to be very, very firm in his support of Israel"
Pastor John Hagee
Next week, CUFI will hold its annual conference in person in Washington for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re excited about all of our leadership from across the nation coming to the national conference,” Hagee said.
He denounced the US Presbyterian Church for voting to declare Israel an apartheid state and establish a Nakba Remembrance Day, saying it was “an insignificant charge by an insignificant group.” The recent resolutions “are pure antisemitism,” Hagee said.
The DEFEND Act
Sandra Hagee Parker, chairwoman of the CUFI Action Fund, said the 2022 DEFEND Act was at the top of the group’s agenda. If signed into law, the bipartisan bill would authorize the US secretary of defense to cooperate “with allies and partners in the Middle East, including those who signed the Abraham Accords,” to develop and implement “an integrated air- and missile-defense architecture to defend against Iranian threats.”
“The Abraham Accords has shown the world that peace pays off, and it has created pathways for people-to-people exchanges that are necessary for lasting peace,” she said. “And what this bill does, it underscores that the Abraham Accords are not the end, but the beginning of the efforts for lasting peace and prosperity in the region.”
The DEFEND Act “is vital in bringing America’s allies together in the region in order to confront Iran,” Hagee Parker said.
“We have had relationships with these countries independently, but now that they’re normalizing with Israel, it’s up to us to lead the effort to ensure that everybody is working strategically in terms of missile defense and security cooperation in the region,” she said. “The bill assesses the need for improved integrated air- and missile-defense cooperation between the United States and our Middle Eastern allies and provides an explanation of how this integrated missile defense improves collective security in the region.”
Another item on the agenda is the “COI Elimination Act,” Hagee Parker said, adding that the Commission of Inquiry is “another effort by the United Nations to totally isolate, delegitimize and single out the nation of Israel. And we do welcome the Biden administration statements acknowledging that this latest COI, the effort to investigate Israel, is blatant antisemitism. But a statement in and of itself is not enough.”