In El Salvador, Faith Trumps Ethnicity

In El Salvador, Faith Trumps Ethnicity

El Salvador has about 100,000 Palestinians, in a country of six million people. Roughly 1.6% of the population. Yet, two of their recent presidents have been of Palestinian extraction.

Given the Palestinian tendency to success, that percentage should be big enough to influence the country’s foreign policy concerning the Mideast. Yet, it is not so.

Why?

Because in El Salvador, the Evangelical percentage (34%) of the population is closing in on the Catholic percentage (43%). Evangelicals in El Salvador take the faith more seriously, and that faith tends to lean to Christian Zionism.

Source: Christian Zionism in Bukele’s El Salvador
NACLA
Isabel Rikkers & Noelle Brigden
October 9, 2024

On October 8 of last year, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele published a post on X outlining his position on Palestine. “As a Salvadoran of Palestinian ancestry, I’m sure the best thing that could happen to the Palestinian people is for Hamas to completely disappear. Those savage beasts do not represent the Palestinians,” he wrote. Drawing parallels between Hamas and gangs in El Salvador, Bukele continued: “It would be like if Salvadorans would have sided with MS13 terrorists, just because we share ancestors or nationality. The best thing that happened to us as a nation was to get rid of those rapists and murderers and let the good people thrive.” Bukele closed his post with a word of advice, drawing from his nearly 30-month long—and counting—assault against gangs. “Palestinians should do the same: get rid of those animals and let the good people thrive.”

The parallel drawn by Bukele between Hamas and MS13 derives from an evangelical Christian understanding of “terrorist” security threats as a spiritual contest between good and evil. Bukele uses biblical allegories, religious narratives, declarations of devotion, and visual propaganda leveraging sacred symbols to justify the country’s security policies, in addition to asserting the Salvadoran government’s unwavering support for Israel during its genocide of Palestinians.

(Read more)

As noted many times before, here in Latin Arabia, the biggest friend that Israel has in Latin America is Evangelical Christianity.

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is of Palestinian extraction – his ancestors arrived in El Salvador about a century ago – but his administration is pro-Israel. His father converted from Christianity to Islam, and his mother was Catholic. While he is ambivalent about his Christian denonimational affiliations, he seems to have picked up a lot of Evangelical practices.


Posted on YouTube: November 27, 2024

The growing Evangelical presence in El Salvador is what is overruling any power of a potential for a Muslim or Palestinian lobby.


Posted on YouTube: June 5, 2024

By that logic, what is needed for Chile to break the power of its Palestinian-Chilean (Chilestino) lobbies is an Evangelical revival. However, the Evangelical percentage of the population in Chile is somewhat small (18%) compared to the El Salvador percentage (34%).

What is an emerging conclusion is that anti-Zionism and antisemitism seem to follow left wing political attitudes in Latin America. And especially regarding Zionism, faith seems to trump ethnicity as well as politics.

Palestinian Sympathies In Latin America

Palestinian Sympathies In Latin America

Source: Why Latin America Advocates for Palestine: Roots of Solidarity and Resistance
Arab America
by Nissrine Bedda
November 27, 2024

While many Western countries align with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, often appearing to act in support of Zionist agendas, the nations of Latin America show strong solidarity with the Palestinian people. This connection goes beyond political alliances and reflects a shared history and cultural understanding.

From Palestinian identity and traditions to the preservation of their roots and, most importantly, their land, Latin American empathy for Palestinians is deeply rooted in the region’s history of Arab migration, the celebration of heritage, and a profound understanding of the struggles faced by indigenous communities. These nations recognize the pain of displacement and the fight to preserve one’s homeland and cultural identity against forces that seek to undermine or erase them.

(Read More)

Yes, there is a degree of truth to the article, and the author does go through a lot of countries.

However, what is overlooked is the growing demographic of Evangelical Christians in Latin America. They may not be able to elect presidents in some countries, but they limit the maneuverability of those presidents in foreign policies.

All articles have to be checked for bias, and the article above is one of them.

Balance that article with this video below.


Posted on YouTube: November 6, 2023
The video can be auto-translated

Lula da Silva’s government in Brazil would be much more anti-Israel were it not hamstrung by his country’s pro-Zionist Evangelical community which is close to one-third of the population.

And not just Brazil! This video below is from Ecuador.


Posted on YouTube: August 26, 2020
AND THE VIDEO IS BY A CHRISTIAN CHANNEL

This is a growing phenomenon in Latin America, and cannot be overlooked.

While Evangelical Christianity seems to be weakening in the United States, it is growing in Latin America – and not just the mainstream denominations, but tilted heavily to the pro-Christian Zionist denominations.

So yes, the Arab ethnics still have clout (especially in Chile) but for how long? How long?

Brazil Adopts Free Trade Arrangement with Palestine

Brazil Adopts Free Trade Arrangement with Palestine

This is a few months old, and frankly, it is a bit of grandstanding, but I just found it, and thought it was worth mentioning.

Rightly or wrongly, Palestine is now being destroyed, even as we speak. Like it or not, that is fact. Yet, Lula of Brazil wants a FREE TRADE agreement with the Palestinians?


Posted on YouTube: July 8, 2024

Is he crazy? One-third of Brazil is Evangelical Christian and very pro-Israel. What was he thinking? Indeed, his election to office was suspicious. His opponent, Bolsonaro, was a strong Zionist.

Source: Brazil adopts free trade with Palestinian Authority in show of support
Updated July 09, 2024

BRASILIA – Brazil has put into effect a free trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority that has been waiting for ratification for more than decade, in a show of support for the Palestinian people.

“The agreement is a concrete contribution to an economically viable Palestinian state, which can live peacefully and harmoniously with its neighbours,” Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said on July 9 in a statement.

Palestinian ambassador in Brasilia, Mr Ibrahim Al Zeben, called Brazil’s decision “courageous, supportive and timely”.

(Read More)

Sometimes you just read things like this and cannot believe that such policies are enacted.

What will Palestine export to Brazil: Dust from cinderblocks shattered by Israeli munitions?

Will Brazil now enact free trade with the Confederacy?

Palestine’s Deep Roots vs Evangelicals in Latin America

Palestine’s Deep Roots vs Evangelicals in Latin America

We are going to start off with an excerpt of ethnic Palestinian power in Latin America.


Posted on YouTube: May 17, 2024
Note: by TRT, a Turkish media outlet that is hostile to Israel

Source: The Deep Roots of Palestinian Solidarity in Latin America
Dawnmedia.org
Julian Sayarer
May 9, 2024

The large Palestinian community in Peru is thought to exceed 30,000, part of a vast Palestinian diaspora across Latin America that some estimates place around 700,000 people. As with any diaspora, though, it is hard to put a precise number on all Latin Americans of Palestinian origin, because for more than a century—accelerated catastrophically by the Nakba in 1948, when some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes by Zionist forces—this diaspora has been growing but also integrating. People have changed names and even religions, just as Argentina’s president in the 1990s, Carlos Menem—born to a Syrian family and raised as a Muslim—converted to Christianity. Mahmouds have become Manuels; Arabic has in some cases been forgotten. Some simply still identify as Palestinian but primarily as part of the country—Peru, Chile, Argentina—they have been citizens in for generations.


Chile’s diaspora community is by far the largest in Latin America. With half a million Palestinians in Chile, it is the largest community of Palestinians outside of Palestine and the cities and refugee camps of neighboring Arab countries. In Argentina, I was told the issue of putting a number on the population is complicated because many Palestinians—along with Lebanese, Syrian and other Arab immigrants—are, confusingly, often simply called “Turcos,” because everyone arrived originally under the same Ottoman passports. Arab migration to Latin America goes back some 150 years, with the first major wave from what was then the Ottoman Empire between roughly the 1860s until the start of World War I. New waves of migration followed in 1948 from Palestine, and again from Lebanon throughout its civil war in the late 1970s and 1980s.

(Read More)

Most Americans are unaware of the powerful Palestinian ethnic interest groups which are found in some Latin American countries (Chile, Honduras, El Savador); however, they are probably also unaware of the massive inroads made by Evangelical Christianity in the area — and Evangelical Christianity is usually Christian Zionist.

This can lead to usually odd circumstances, such as in Brazil, where the Leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has to be somewhat constrained in his anti-Israel viewpoints, because a third of Brazil is Evangelical Christian with a pro-Israel viewpoint.


Posted on YouTube: November 6, 2023
It can be auto-translated

The Jews have had a mixed relationship with Christians in the past. Ironically, they now depend on some of them, the Evangelicals, for support.

It basically boils down to this: Evangelical Christians take seriously God’s promise to restore the Jews to the land, which they see as a portend of the soon return of Christ.

So Evangelicals support Israel, but for different reasons that the Jews would.

Jews want to “redeem the land,” build a third temple, and set the stage for the messiah.

Christians believe that Jews will build the third temple, but rather than bring the real messiah, it will usher in a false messiah (the antichrist). Jews will then, in their desperation, have to call on Christ, which will bring about Christ’s second coming.

Christians believe that Christ left after His first coming, and will not return until the Jews admit their guilt in rejecting Him the first time.

Hoshea 5:15 I will go away and return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their straits they will seek Me. (Chabad)

Either view requires that Jews be in the land of Israel.

Latin America is de-Catholicizing. Evangelical Christianity is picking up the slack with cultural and political … and Zionist consequences.

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