This article is from the archive of our partner .
Sen. Ted Cruz abruptly cut short his keynote speech addressing Arab Christians last night after members of the group started heckling him for calling on the group to consider Israel an ally. Now the senator's office is saying that, if someone had told him not to mention Israel he just wouldn't have shown up.
Cruz was speaking at a conference hosted by In Defense of Christians, a group dedicated to raising awareness about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. During his speech Cruz pointed out the parallels between Christians and Jews being persecuted in the Middle East. But when he said “Christians have no greater ally than Israel," members of the audience started yelling at him to focus on Christians. Cruz said it "saddened" him that some in the audience were "consumed by hate" and cut his speech short.
Cruz’s communications director, Amanda Carpenter, told The Daily Signal that he never would have agreed to the event if he'd known his pro-Israel message would be taken that way. “It is crystal clear to anyone who observes Ted Cruz that he stands with Israel,” she said. “If organizers had asked us not to discuss our support of Israel, we would have declined the event.”