Last week, Chaldean State Rep. Klint Kesto (R- Commerce Township) and California businessman Mark Arabo attended the national conference of the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC). Then, they filled their social media pages with expressions of fondness of Israel and calls to protect Iraqi Christians—sometimes in the same post— as if the two issues are related. 

It was a miscalculated and hurtful move by two men who claim to represent the Iraqi Christian community. 

On Twitter, Arabo quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying “Iran’s ‘tentacles of terror’ must not persist.”

The AIPAC conference was a hate fest against Iran, which has military advisors in Iraq to help fight the ISIS terrorists who are killing Christians. On the other hand, a United Nations report revealed this past December that the Israeli army is helping Syrian rebels, including al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, near the Golan Heights.  

Israel lobbied for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which rendered the country an open field for terrorists who are targeting Christians today. The Zionist state has no interest in a peaceful Arab World where all religious sects coexist peacefully. It is two countries away from Iraq and has no ability or intention to protect Iraqi Christians.  

More 200,000 Christian Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israel-enforced apartheid that favors Jews above all other sects. The Israeli occupation turned Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, into an open air prison, surrounding the holy city on three sides by a concrete wall of injustice. Last year, Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop at the wall, where he prayed silently next to graffiti-sprayed statements calling for the liberation of Palestine. 

In 2009, 13 Palestinian churches signed a document titled “Kairos” in which they described the Israeli occupation a “sin against God” and called on the world’s Christians to work to end it. 

The tragedies facing Christians in the Arab World are much more comparable to the plight of Palestinians than the state of Israel. While most Israelis and Christians are both religious minorities in the Middle East, Arab Christians have always been integrated in their larger surrounding. Christians have almost solely led the Arab literary renaissance, which gave birth to Arab nationalism. By contrast, Israelis live isolated from the rest of the Arab World with no interaction with their geographical neighbors other than war. 

These Chaldean “activists” are speaking out against the persecution of Christians by ISIS while supporting Israel, which has been driving Palestinians— including Christians— out of their homes since the 1948. 

When Chaldean supporters of Israel attend the AIPAC conference, they are condoning the same brutality their people are facing.

Kesto and Arabo know their support for Israel goes against the ideals of Christianity and hurts the cause of Chaldeans around the world. But we know these opportunistic voices are irrelevant. 

“At the AIPAC conference in Washington, DC. Working with Jewish community members to help support spreading freedom in the Middle East. Freedom of speech and religion are paramount,” Kesto wrote on Twitter.

Working with local Jewish organizations on issues that matter to Arabs, Chaldeans and Jews, such as civil rights and fair representation, helps bring the different ethnic and religious communities together for a common purpose. We at The Arab American News are in partnership with Detroit’s Jewish News as a part of the New Michigan Media. 

However, AIPAC is not a community organization; it is a foreign policy lobby that advocates for Israel, a state that has contributed to the plight of Iraqi Christians. 

When Kesto claimed he was standing with the Jewish community by attending the AIPAC conference in Washington and supporting religious freedom, he was lying. The Michigan legislator was standing with the right-wing government of Israel to support his own political ambitions.