Sen. Ted Cruz isn’t helping us move forward in our foreign relations. If anything, he is moving us backwards. Recently, the fiery Republican from Texas attended a posh gala that was organized around the plight of Middle Eastern Christians. Cruz made the comment that “Christians have no greater ally than Israel.” He was then booed off stage.
Perhaps this was justified; in fact, this might be the most misguided comment that Ted Cruz has ever made, which is really saying something. It demonstrates his lack of knowledge about Israel and its situation in the Middle East. He was trying to defend Israel and support the beleaguered Middle Eastern Christians in the countries of Iraq and Syria. For that, I laud him, especially since I am an American Jew myself. However, he went about it the wrong way by concentrating on religion.
So why were the Christians in that audience so angry? After all, Christians are some of the staunchest supporters of both Jews and Israel. Here's why: These Christians know that Ted Cruz didn’t know what he was talking about. First of all, even among American Jews, Muslims are preferred to Christians according to a poll by the Pew Foundation. But when you travel across the Atlantic to see how Israeli Jews—75 percent of the population of Israel—view Christians, it gets even worse: this video just about sums it up. Between the shouts and the shoves, you can clearly see that Christians are not welcome by Israeli Jews.
Cruz was obviously not made aware of this when he made that comment. But he also made an even bigger mistake: He forgot to mention Muslims, insinuating that he equates them with ISIS, a group which has been oppressing the Middle Eastern Christians. He didn’t even try to highlight all the Muslim aid workers working in conjunction with the U.N. that are doing their best to help all of the Christians in war-torn Iraq and Syria. He excluded people like the Egyptian Muslims who came together to protect a church from vandalism and malicious attacks from Islamic extremists.
In effect, he is saying that because Israelis are primarily Jewish, they are more inclined to protect Christians than Muslims are, which is simply not true. He is using religion to inform his view of foreign policy, which sounds eerily familiar to what ISIS does. Now, I’m not saying that Cruz is anywhere near as serious as ISIS; in fact, when he makes comments like this, he can mostly be ignored as a fool.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Cruz’s comment is that he’s only making it harder for us to fight ISIS. While Secretary of State John Kerry works hard to integrate a willing Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations into a coalition against ISIS, Cruz is trying to say that Israel is the ally to which we should look. He says this in spite of the fact that there has been no overt action by Israel to help Middle Eastern Christians at all. In fact, Israel helps out Muslims a lot more than it does Christians in the Middle East.
Cruz should think before he opens his mouth. By highlighting Israel as the biggest ally of Christians just because it is primarily Jewish, he only angers our potential Muslim allies in the Middle East who are trying hard to help oppressed Christians by defeating ISIS. He also angers the American Christians who know the true state of relations they have with Israeli Jews. Maybe Cruz shouldn’t have been booed off the stage, but someone should at least try to teach him a lesson about geopolitics and religion in the Middle East.
Reach the columnist at jbrunne2@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @MrAmbassador4
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
Want to join the conversation? Send an email to opiniondesk.statepress@gmail.com. Keep letters under 300 words and be sure to include your university affiliation. Anonymity will not be granted.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
