This summer, Israel arrested Mohammad el-Halabi, the director of the Gaza division of the highly respected Christian charity World Vision, for funneling some $43 million to Hamas. Luke Moon explains why this news should not come as a surprise:

World Vision . . . has done more to undermine Christian support for Israel than any other organization. In the late spring of 1979, a group of influential Christian leaders, including [some of World Vision’s senior officials], met at LaGrange, Illinois for a conference entitled “Human Rights and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.” . . . The conference ended with the drafting of what would be called the LaGrange Declaration. Published in Sojourners magazine, it was signed by over 5,000 Christian leaders. The declaration . . . directly challenged what would eventually become commonly known as Christian Zionism. It was primarily directed toward fellow Christians who believe that the universal message of [the New Testament] did not nullify the particular promises God made to Israel.

The LaGrange Declaration also affirmed the anti-Israel position taken by many Christians in the Middle East, especially Palestinians. As the late Geries Kouhry, director of the World Vision partner organization al-Liqa, said, . . .“Christian Zionists are our first enemy. They are more dangerous to Palestinian Christians than the Israeli occupiers.” This hatred of Christian Zionism permeated World Vision and provided the foundation for its antagonism toward Israel. . . .

[Later], World Vision institutionalized its antagonistic position. In 1985, the U.S. senator and World Vision board member Mark Hatfield released his legislative director, Tom Getman, to join World Vision as its director of government relations. Getman headed up World Vision’s newly established Washington office. By 1985, the organization’s budget had grown to nearly $200 million and the group became a major recipient of grants from the U.S. government. Prior to joining World Vision, Getman and Hatfield were already involved in several initiatives opposed to Christian support for Israel. Hatfield’s former chief of staff, Wes Michaelson, had drafted the LaGrange Declaration, and Hatfield himself was a signer.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.