In 2018, United States (US) President Donald Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem [1]. The controversial move, disrupting the 1949 Armistice Agreement Lines, emerged from lobbying efforts by Trump’s evangelical base [2]. The President received emails from 135,000 members of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a prominent Evangelical group founded by Reverend John Hagee. Trump advisors wholeheartedly attributed the decision to these efforts [3]. Christian Zionists, like those to whom Hagee preaches, represent a lucrative base of support for Trump and Israel as they number between 50–60 million Americans [4]. Christian Zionists appear prominently within the second Trump administration including figures like Paula White, senior advisor to the White House Faith Office, who interviewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the special relationship between Christians and Israel back in April [5]. Therefore, it is pertinent to explore the historical roots of the American Christian Zionist movement and its collaborative efforts with the Israeli government, in supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Defining Christian Zionism
Presbyterian minister and scholar Donald Wagner defines the radical evangelical faction’s understanding of Christian Zionism as “a movement within Protestant fundamentalism that understands the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and thus deserving of political, financial, and religious support” [6].
The biblical prophecy, emerging from fundamentalist interpretations of the Book of Revelations, entails that a return of the Jewish people to Palestine will trigger the Rapture of the Church; the apocalypse. Believing Christians will rise to heaven while non-believers face seven years of “Great Tribulation” under the rule of the Antichrist. Finally, the end of the tribulations is marked by the second coming of Jesus who establishes the millennial kingdom of peace [7]. In this global apocalyptic scenario, all who are not followers of Christ, namely unconverted Jews, will be damned to Hell.
Christian Zionism and The Nineteenth Century
During the English Revolution of 1642–1651, apocalyptic millennialism circulated among Puritan circles and supporters even figured among Oliver Cromwell’s advisers [8]. In the United States, direct lobbying for a Jewish state in Palestine began six years before Theodor Herzl’s Zionist Congress of 1897. In 1891, evangelical William Blackstone organized the first pro-Zionist lobby, a petition to pressure US President Benjamin Harrison to support the settler colonialist project. It “secured 413 prominent signatures (…) including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, financiers John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan (…) as well as several members of Congress” [9]. William Hechler, an English Anglican minister who had championed a settlement of Jews in Palestine as early as 1883, grew as an influential advisor to Herzl [10]. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, affirming British support for a “Jewish national home in Palestine,” resulted from domestic Christian approval as well as Arthur Balfour’s own born-again religious convictions [11]. Christian Zionist efforts to establish a Jewish state were effective in rallying public support and attention from superpowers.
1967 and The Lucrative Apocalyptic Alliance
The 1967 capture of Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Sinai (Egypt) and the Golan Heights (Syria) seemed to validate biblical prophecy for adherents of apocalyptic Christian Zionist doctrine. The arrival of the messiah now appeared closer, therefore, lobbying efforts, such as providing money, were emphasized [12].
One of the main economic outposts of Christian Zionism resulting from the June War is Christian tourism. The Bible Prophecy Conference in Jerusalem organized by Pennsylvania minister Gaylord Briley in 1971, supported by David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel, sparked large-scale Christian tours of Israel [13]. Prime Minister Menachem Begin formally upstarted the industry by advocating for Missouri pastor Daniel Lewis to establish his own travel agency in the Holy Land. Biblical tours were, and still are, wholly propagandistic to the extent that American Christians pay to be baptized in masses in the Jordan River, like Jesus, through such Christian tourism agencies [14]. The industry has become a lucrative outpost of the Israeli government, generating close to $1 billion yearly [15].
Christian Zionists have been some of the most staunch antagonists to peace deals yet have been explicit in their mission to halt concessions to the Palestinians since the Second Intifada. When 58 liberal evangelicals delivered a pro-two-state-solution letter to President Bush in 2002, John Hagee himself hand-delivered his own letter signed by 50 CUFI pastors to Bush. It declared that “land-for-peace is a failed policy that has led to nothing but war” [16]. In 2006, Hagee claimed that “God opposes giving away the land” thus theologically justifying the $12 million CUFI raised to “settle new immigrants in Israel” [17]. Hagee’s Texas Megachurch hosts yearly galas to raise money for the settlements. In 2008, they raised $6 million to develop a single settlement, Ariel, in the Occupied West Bank [18]. The Ariel settlement, according to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, receives the highest per-capita financial support from the Israeli government. Since the settlement was built in the center of the Palestinian Salfit district, Ariel bars Palestinian access to their villages due to limited rights of movement [19]. Without this Christian Zionist support, Ariel would have received far less attention from the Israeli authorities.
MENA Christianity and Attitudes Towards Zionism
A common talking point of prominent Christian Zionists is to deny the existence of Palestinians. The current American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has stated the following on record: “there’s no such thing as a Palestinian (…) There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities” [20]. Those claiming to share a faith with Palestinian Christians are part of a significant opposition to their freedom in the land where the faith itself started. The views of fundamentalist evangelicals towards non-Protestant branches of Christianity are less than positive to say the least, as evident through Rev. John Hagee’s offensive views of the Catholic Church [21]. Arab Christians fall victim to Orientalist prejudices by Western supporters of Zionism: they are either helpless victims of Islamic fundamentalism or Islamised heretics [22].
Politically, most MENA Churches sympathize with the Palestinian cause and have supported the Palestinian uprisings of liberation [23]. In a joint statement denouncing the occupation of Gaza, the Orthodox and Latin Churches of Palestine have stated that “there can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians, or revenge” [24]. Outside the region, support for Israel is present, however far less extreme than that of American Churches.
The exception to MENA opposition is the Maronite Patriarchate of Lebanon, which maintains hopes for future normalization with Israel. Maronite leadership has a history of cooperation with the Israeli state since 1949 [25]. One cannot discuss Christian Zionist collaboration with Israel without mentioning the case of Phalangist forces in the Lebanese Civil War. The Phalange Party was arguably the largest faction of the far-right paramilitary groups comprising the Lebanese Forces, Israel’s allies in their assault against Palestinians [26]. The Civil War also saw the rise of militias such as the “Guardians of the Cedar,” a fascist group fighting for the expulsion of all non-Maronite groups or “foreigners” to build a “racially pure” Lebanon-Phoenicia [27]. Right-wing Catholic militias, in accord with Israeli intelligence, stormed the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and engaged in what the UN referred to as “an act of genocide,” [28] massacring 2,000 to 3,500 refugees and civilians [29].
Contemporary Plight of Palestinian Christians
Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians continues and escalates. Settlers set fire to the ruins of a Byzantine Church in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh; settler violence increasing to progressively take control of the village [30]. In August, the Israeli government announced that it would tax Church-owned property. These new tax measures will be used as a premise to seize Church land with the pretext of their lack of paying taxes according to Bassem Khoudry, political and human rights activist [31]. Israel also froze the bank accounts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Occupied Jerusalem, disrupting its abilities to carry out its various operations, including charitable works [32]. Unsurprisingly, these attacks receive no condemnation from Zionist-aligned Churches.
Christian Zionists have been involved in Israeli state-building efforts long before the Nakba in 1948. They have allowed their influence to manifest through televangelist pandering to biblical tours of the Holy Land, fundraising campaigns for the establishment of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, and mass displays of public approval. This support remains crucial for Israel as Michael Freund, former director of communications for Benjamin Netanyahu, stated in 2006: “Thank God for Christian Zionists. Like it or not, the future of the relationship between Israel and the US may very well hinge far less on America’s Jews than on its Christians.” [33]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[6], [9] Stephen Spector, Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism. Oxford University Press (2009)
[3], [4], [13], [14], [16], [17], [33] Stephen Spector, “This Year in Jerusalem: Prophecy, Politics, and the U.S. Embassy in Israel,” Journal of Church and State 61, no. 4 (2019)
[2] Barbara Plett Usher, “Jerusalem Embassy: Why Trump’s Move Was Not About Peace,” BBC, May 15, 2018
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44120428
[1] “US Embassy Opens in Jerusalem amid Lockdown,” Al Jazeera, May 16, 2018
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/5/16/us-embassy-opens-in-jerusalem-amid-lockdown
[5] Daystar, “P.M. Netanyahu Speaks Out | An Exclusive Interview with Paula White-Cain and Benjamin Netanyahu,” YouTube, April 11, 2025
https://youtu.be/oiqqMr0pQDc
[7], [8], [10], [11], [12], [23] Yaakov Ariel, “An Unexpected Alliance: Christian Zionism and Its Historical Significance,” Modern Judaism 26, no. 1 (2006)
[15], [17], [33] John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
[16] Stephen Spector, Evangelicals and Israel, pp. 108–109
[18] Alice Bach, “Inside the Christians United for Israel Summit in Washington, D.C.,” Journal of Palestine Studies 40, no. 1 (2010)
[19] B’tselem, “Ariel Settlement Fact Sheet” (2012)
www.btselem.org/settlements/20100830_facts_on_the_settlement_of_ariel
[20] Michele Kelemen, “Palestinians Are Nervous as Mike Huckabee is Named Ambassador to Israel,” NPR, November 14, 2024
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5188521
[21] “Pastor to Catholics: ‘Great Whore’ No More,” NBC News, May 13, 2008
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna24599419
[22] Robert Clines, “Lost in Orientalism: Arab Christians and the War in Gaza,” Al Jazeera, March 31, 2024
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/31/lost-in-orientalism-arab-christians-and-the-war-in-gaza
[24] “Joint Statement by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem,” Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, August 26, 2025
https://www.lpj.org/en/news/statement-by-the-latin-patriarchate-of-jerusalem
[25], [26], [27], [29] R. T. Naylor, “From Bloodbath to Whitewash: Sabra-Shatila and the Kahan Commission Report,” Arab Studies Quarterly 5, no. 4 (1983)
[28] United Nations General Assembly, “Mideast Situation / Genocide Resolution,” December 16, 1982
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-186308
[30] Daniel Estrin, “A wave of Israeli settler attacks reaches a Christian village in the West Bank,” NPR, July 24, 2025
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5476663
[31] Al Jazeera English, “West Bank churches warn Israel using taxes to seize land and property,” YouTube, August 20, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyCZm2HAVy4
[32] State of Palestine, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Condemnation of freezing Orthodox Patriarchate bank accounts,” August 17, 2025
https://www.mofa.pna.ps