Dance with who brung you: Black pastors should back Israel without reservation

More than a thousand black pastors have called on President Biden to demand that Israel agree to a ceasefire in Gaza. Their stance carries an implicit threat that President Biden will lose Black support at the polls next November unless he makes a maximum effort to pressure Israel to stop the fighting.

As the New York Times reported, one influential Black pastor said that "Black faith leaders are extremely disappointed with Biden on [the Gaza] issue" and that "it's going to be very hard to persuade our people to go back to the polls and vote for Biden."

African American religious leaders seem to be sympathizing with the Palestinians who are suffering real hardship due to the Gaza war. Thousands of civilians have been killed or driven from their homes by the Israeli invasion.

Let's not forget, however, how the war started. Hamas terrorists raided Israeli towns on October 7 and committed heinous acts of torture, rape, and murder. Then these thugs kidnapped more than 200 people and still hold more than a hundred in underground bunkers.

Israel understands that these racist, sadistic butchers are intent on genocide--to wiping Jews from the face of the earth. There can be no compromise with them--Israel is truly in a fight to the death.

All Americans, including African Americans, should stand four-square with Israel in its war against Hamas.  The United Nations made an eternal promise to the world's Jews when it recognized the Jewish homeland as a nation-state in 1948. The world cannot renege on that promise--certainly not now when Israel is defending itself against terrorism.

African-American religious leaders need to realize that a wishy-washy stance on Gaza is not only a threat to Israel, it is an insult to American Jews. Jewish Americans were prominent participants in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and Jews and African Americans stood in solidarity as mainstays of the Democratic Party during those days when the Party advanced civil liberties for all Americans.

To borrow from the lyrics of Asleep at the Wheel, Black religious leaders need to "dance with who brung you" rather than give aid and comfort to Hamas--which a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza would do.

Image credit: Politico/Reuters