Speaking at the US Capitol at a special event marking the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem's liberation and unification, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said he told the Israeli prime minister he could be one of the all-time great leaders of Israel – and recalled his response.
Gohmert was flanked by Martin Oliner, President of the Center for Righteousness and Integrity and of Religious Zionists of America. This is the text of his speech:
[Gohmert recalled telling Binyamin Netanyahu,] "I'm a student of history, I'm a student of the Bible. I'm not a prophet, don't pretend to be, never could be, but, I think you have a chance to be one of Israel’s greatest leaders." And Michelle Bachmann was with me and she said, 'Well, he is one of Israel's greatest leaders'. I said, No no no, I'm talking all-time greats. Going back to David, Solomon, Josiah, Hezekiah (for most of his time), on up to Ben Gurion, but all of them had one thing in common besides being Jewish. They all called upon the Nation of Israel to honor the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that has not happened in a very long time.
And he said, last time I brought it up, he said – "Well, you may not be aware, but I've started a Bible study in my house since you last [were here]. I said I was aware, I was thrilled. And he said, "OK, here's something you could not know. My favorite hour each week is when my son comes over and we read Scripture and we talk about it. My favorite hour of the week".
Well, the first time I brought it up, he said, "That reminds me of that story about Ben Gurion, after he fought his way back up to Jerusalem. And he was challenged: 'What is your voucher for claiming this land?' And Netanyahu didn't use the word Bible, I'm sure it's Tanakh or Torah. He says, "He held up a Bible and said. 'This is my voucher'".
Well, it's quite a deed, I think.
So… We need to be the best friend Israel can have. I don’t think we have been as good a friend as we should have been. I think betraying the trust of Israel is not a good way to be a friend, but we need to work together. We have a democracy, a democratic republic in the middle of the Middle East, in the middle of countries that would like to see Israel gone.
AIPAC got mad at me the time I voted against three billion for Israel. It was not because of that. I would have voted for four, five, six – but we were giving Israel's enemies an equal amount and I think that's outrageous. You're not making any progress when you're giving Israel one amount and their enemies the same amount. That's a mistake.
Il also tell people here, if there were no Israel, we could never set up the kind of defense we need in that part of the world to protect us here, for the kind of money we're giving to Israel. And of course, you know most of it comes back to us for defense materiel.
I’m looking forward to the next three and a half years and hopefully far beyond that. I think Israel is going to be blessed and I think the best way for the United States to be blessed is not to be cursing Israel but to be a blessing to Israel, and that’s what I intend to be.
If you think the solution in Israel is two states out of the Promised Land, your faith in your God is much too small.
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