Ted Beckett
Ted Beckett is the founder of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC), a Christian Zionist organisation which supports settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories. Beckett worked in real estate and managed mobile-home parks.[1] He formerly served in the US marines and reportedly used his vacation time to smuggle Christian literature into communist countries during the cold war.[1] The launching of CFOIC was instigated by the Oslo accords and what Beckett believed to be a threat to the continued existence of the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.[1] Beckett was raised a Catholic but later converted to the evangelical New Life Church.[1]
Beckett is the president of the Center for Environmental Diplomacy (CED). [2] The CED is a 501(c)3 organisation based in Washington, DC. It has offices in Israel, the Occupied Territories and Japan. It describes its mission as 'to promote environmental programs and services that improve living conditions, public health and foster cooperation among Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians.'[3]
Views
Regarding Jewish settlement in historic Palestine Beckett has commented that:
- What God is doing now is restoring Israel to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob... His word says he's going to restore the land to the Jewish people. It's a God thing.[1]
In 1998 he commented that:
- We believe that Christians share a biblical mandate to support the resettlement of Israel... The liberal Jewish establishment thinks Clinton is the best friend Israel ever had, but we don't agree and we think he's pressuring Israel.[4]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Ilene R. Prusher, 'A US Christian Who's 'Doing Deals for the Lord' in Israel', Christian Science Monitor, 24 April 1998
- ↑ Data retrived from filing of Form 990 2013.
- ↑ Institute for Environmental Security Website Center for Environmental Diplomacy. Accessed 22 May 2015.
- ↑ Ilene R. Prusher, 'Israel's Unlikely Ally: American Evangelicals Well-cultivated ties give premier a boost as some US Jews question his hard line', Christian Science Monitor, 24 April 1998
