Foreign delegations reached Jerusalem despite limited flights, giving this year’s prayer gathering a sharper message of faith, politics and support for Israel.
By: Gabriela Colodro/The Media Line – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com
Two weeks before Christian leaders and foreign politicians filled a Knesset auditorium for the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast, Israeli lawmaker Ohad Tal thought the event might have to wait.
He had just come out of a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, where lawmakers had heard updated intelligence briefings. Flights into Israel were scarce, the region was still tense, and the annual gathering, which draws pro-Israel Christian delegations from around the world, looked vulnerable to the same uncertainty shaping much of Israeli public life.
When Albert Veksler, one of the organizers, later came to speak with him, Tal suggested postponing the event. Tal recalled telling him, “Listen, Albert, I’m telling you, I don’t know. Maybe let’s delay it a month or something.” Veksler, he said, was unmoved. “Ohad, it’s going to happen,” Tal recalled him saying. “You’ll see. And thank God you’re all here.”
cont’d…