Israel orders US-based Christian TV channel off air

Israeli regulators on Sunday announced they ordered a U.S.-based evangelical broadcaster taken off the air, saying the channel hid its missionary agenda when it applied for a license. In his decision, Asher Biton, the chairman of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, said he had informed “GOD TV” on Thursday that it had seven days to stop broadcasting.

“The channel appeals to Jews with Christian content,” he wrote. “Its original request,” he said, stated that it was a “station targeting the Christian population.”

The controversy over GOD TV’s “Shelanu” station has put Israel and its evangelical Christian supporters in an awkward position, exposing tensions the two sides have long papered over. Evangelical Christians, particularly in the United States, are among the strongest supporters of Israel, viewing it as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Some see it as the harbinger of a second coming of Jesus Christ and the end of days.

Most Jews view any effort to convert them to Christianity as deeply offensive, a legacy of centuries of persecution and forced conversion at the hands of Christian rulers. When GOD TV reached its seven-year contract with Israel’s main cable provider earlier this year, it presented itself as producing content for Christians.

But in a video message that was later taken down, GOD TV CEO Ward Simpson suggested its real aim was to convince Jews to accept Jesus as their messiah. “God has supernaturally opened the door for us to take the Gospel of Jesus into the homes and lives and hearts of his Jewish people,” Simpson said in the video.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-orders-us-based-christian-tv-channel-off-air/2020/06/28/a14fa770-b93d-11ea-97c1-6cf116ffe26c_story.html