Listening to Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christian United for Israel (CUFI), address Sunday’s plenary session of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in Washington was truly fascinating. Addressing a crowd that was about a third the size of the 18,000-plus congregation he attracts on a regular Sunday, he had listeners awestruck by his enthusiasm and support for Israel’s safety and survival.

Underneath it, however, a listener could also be discomforted by all this hoopla directed at a leading evangelical Christian.

There were two basic problems with his remarks and they have only a passing connection to any of the theological questions underlying his support. One issue relates to relations with Israel and the other relates to the Jews in America. Both of these considerations demonstrate that there are some segments — though not all — within the American Jewish community who have a misguided or naïve understanding of the Christian fundamentalist agenda.

With respect to Pastor Hagee’s affection for Israel, the response of the government of the State of Israel to Hagee ought to be distinct from that of the American Jewish community. Israel’s own outreach to Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals serves its interests well. Israel’s approach was captured in 1981, when then Prime Minister Menachem Begin gave the Jabotinsky Award to Rev. Jerry Falwell at a dinner in New York City. After a storm of protests from many segments of the American Jewish community, Begin explained that while Falwell might have positions with which many in the American Jewish community disagreed, this was of no importance to the sovereign State of Israel.

Begin also rejected Jewish objections that Falwell considered Israel a pawn in his Second Coming theology. Begin is reported to have said that he would welcome Falwell’s support until the Messiah arrives and says either “I am here” or “I am back, again.” For the State of Israel, Menachem Begin’s position was absolutely correct. Israel needs to take support from wherever it comes.

This does not mean, however, that AIPAC and the American Jewish community need be in lockstep with Hagee and CUFI, especially given their members’ views on an array of social and domestic issues with which large segments of the American Jewish community disagree.

On an even more critical level, American Jews need to connect very seriously with the rest of the Christian world. It is the Catholic Church, the mainline Protestant churches, and to a somewhat lesser degree the black Baptist churches that need to be engaged. This is the challenge for the Jewish community as it tries to sell Israel and Israeli policy to the non-Jewish world. This is the hard, slogging work in the trenches that is largely being ignored by pro-Israel Jewish activists.

In America, regardless of the growth in numbers of evangelical Christians and fundamentalists, the economic and political power still remains with the mainline Protestant churches. Working with these churches, along with Catholics and Baptists, on Israel issues is not so simple. Pro-Israel activism is met by these groups’ genuine, heartfelt — though too often one-sided — concern for the plight and suffering of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian refugees. It is a much more nuanced discussion when one must engage the issues of blockades, checkpoints, closures, Arab poverty, inadequate medical attention, and unemployment than it is to debate who should drop the first bomb on Tehran — the United States or Israel. The pro-Israel Jewish community in America needs to address these issues with this segment of the Christian community.

On the domestic economic and social agendas, meanwhile, most American Jews have more in common with the mainline churches than they do with right-wing evangelicals. If they fail to engage the mainline churches, they do so at their own peril.

The pro-Israel American Jewish leadership and rank and file, like Israelis, should welcome the support for Israel from the evangelical community. At the same time, it must proactively draw the line when it comes to their disagreements over domestic concerns, to say nothing of the serious theological issues. They cannot be blind or ignore these differences just because these groups support Israel. The American Jewish agenda ought to be clear.