We had a wonderful night. I mean, Heaven just came down and kissed the Earth. It was very special. And at the end of the program, the security guy came up to me and said, “We’ve got a bomb threat on this building. It’s supposed to blow up in five minutes.” And Rabbi Scheinberg was praying the benediction. He mercifully didn’t pray very long, so I went to the podium and I said, “I hate to end this wonderful night on a negative note but we have a bomb threat on this building.” …
I only intended to do a Night to Honor Israel one time, but because of all of the pushback that the anti-Semites gave us, I said, “There’s a real problem here that needs to be addressed.” So I walked off the platform that night with my wife in one hand and the consul general of Israel in the other, and I said, “We are going to have a Night to Honor Israel every year until they get used to it.”
And it got bigger and bigger, and we took it to national television, because I was on national television 37 years, and global television for 22 years, and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and then in 2006, because of the strength of the Night to Honor Israel, we started Christians United for Israel.
Have you experienced physical or other threats over the last nine years?
On a regular basis. That’s why I have all the security people with me, all the time. I live with them.
What do you anticipate for Christians United for Israel in the next few years?
Here’s what we want to happen. We would like to continue the Nights to Honor Israel in every major city; the pastors’ conferences in every major city, teaching them their responsibilities to speak up for Israel; the continuous growth and development of our college and university programs that are taking the fight to the next generation, because anti-Semitism is a flourishing thing on America’s college campuses, and we are in over 300 universities right now.
And in the future we would like to open a Washington office that has the ability on a daily basis to communicate with Congress members and senators concerning the needs of Israel as we see it, and to become a daily influence on the policies of government as it relates to the state of Israel.