A group of Israeli parliamentarians hosted a prominent African American evangelical leader at the Knesset this week, in a bid to thaw relations between the Israeli government, the Jewish community and black America.

In his address to the Christian Allies Caucus, the increasingly influential lobby group that draws on membership from six political factions, Pastor Glenn Plummer said that he welcomed the attempt, but urged for a more aggressive campaign in courting African Americans and restoring the close relationship that existed during the civil-rights campaign of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States.
,br> "You have to get in our faces," Plummer, the former chair of the influential National Religious Broadcasters Association said. "Remind us: `we stood with you in the 1960s and now we need friends.' What you will get is a big embrace from black America."
,br> Plummer, who led a pilgrimage of some 25 congregants from his Detroit church, urged the Jewish community to look past the "handful" of leaders within the African American community that express vehemently anti-Semitic or anti- Israel views.

"If you think that [Nation of Islam leader] Louis Farrakhan speaks for black America, then shame on you. He doesn't," Plummer admonished the Knesset members during his fire and brimstone address on Monday. "There have been a handful of voices that have painted Israel falsely and incorrectly and I am convinced that the relationship between black America and the Israelis will improve. It was Jewish people who stood with black Americans and helped establish the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]. In the past few years, when I've heard voices from black leaders in America paint the picture of Israel as the aggressor, as the oppressor, as the Goliath, it doesn't compute, it doesn't make sense, when you consider history."

Plummer also urged the Jewish community and the Israeli government to use more actively the story of Ethiopian Jews, which he dubbed "the greatest tool you have."

"When black folks think of Jews, they think of white people," he said. "The story of Ethiopian Jews is one of the most astounding stories I've ever heard and it's not known, by and large. It's a secret in America, and it's kept from the black community. If you told that story alone, you'd win three quarters of us."

"There have been forces that have tried to make African Americans anti-Israel and anti-Jewish and it is very painful that they have succeeded to some extent," chair of the caucus, MK Yuri Stern said in response. "It's our goal to bring African Americans, Israelis and Jews together, so that we can reestablish the close relationship that existed [during the civil rights movement], but which was destroyed in the 1970s and 1980s."

The increasingly influential Caucus, which was founded last year, aims to further Christian interests in the Holy Land and advocate for cooperation between pro-Israel Christians and the Jewish world. Although a considerable force in the evangelical world, this is the lobby's first attempt to garner support within the African American community, which numbers some 35 million in the U.S.