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How Christian Zionists got their man into the White House
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It is this demographic that remains among the most conservative with regards
to immigration, demographic change, and climate change.
“These would be people who interpret the Bible almost literally,” said Donald
Wagner, a professor of religion and Middle Eastern Studies at North Park
University in Chicago.
There is no hard data, but some scholars, like Wagner, estimate that about 15
to 18 percent of US evangelicals are fundamentalist Christian Zionists.
Followers of Christian Zionism believe that the modern state of Israel is a
manifestation of prophecies found in the Bible; the fate of the United States is
by implication linked to that of Israel.
“This is Trump’s base,” said Wagner, himself a former Christian Zionist.
Senior members of Trump’s administration, including Vice President Mike
Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have made no secret of their
evangelical beliefs.
But when it comes to the matter of Israel, the role of the Christian right is not
as prominent in the national imagination.
“Christian Zionism is hardly discussed. In most analyses of US policy, it is
given lip service but is not deeply investigated. I see it as part of a bigger
problem of underestimating radical conservatism in the USA,” Jonathan
Brenneman, a Palestinian-American Christian working with the Mennonite
Church USA, said.
“The pro-Israel bias of the US Congress, especially on the Republican side, is
more due to Christian Zionism among evangelicals than it has to do with
appealing to the Jewish community in the US. This is most clear in President
Trump's policies,” he told MEE.
The influence of the Christian Zionist lobby in US politics is not new.
Pompeo: Donald Trump may have been sent to save the Jewish people
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Joze Pelayo, a researcher in foreign policy based in DC, wrote in a 2018 essay
in the Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture: “Partisan
politics in favour of Israel date back to [former US president] Ronald Reagan,
who brought the Christian-Zionist alliance to the centre of the Republican
Party.
“And unfortunately, after 9/11, this alliance solidified, helping them to align
themselves even more based on their ‘fear’ of Muslims.”
Wagner says that the politics of President George W Bush and the war in
Iraq, the "war on terror" and now Iran, all fall within the ambit of this “fear-
based narrative”. And much of it is in the public domain.
Interviewed in Jerusalem on Thursday by the Christian Broadcasting
Network (CBN), Pompeo agreed with a presenter who suggested that Trump
may have been sent by God to “save the Jewish people from the Iranian
menace” and compared him with Queen Esther, who, according to the biblical
story, saved the Jews from being massacred in the ancient Persian empire.
“Could it be that President Trump is being raised for such a time as this, just
like Queen Esther?” the presenter asked.
“As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible,” replied Pompeo.
Vice President Mike Pence addresses the AIPAC conference in 2018 (AFP)
CUFI has also backed anti-boycott legislation, in reference to the BDS
campaign, that has been enacted in 26 states.
“AIPAC uses the power and numbers and the money of the evangelical
Christian Zionists to enforce their position,” Kuttab said.
Though it is understood that AIPAC and CUFI work with each other, it is not
clear the extent to which they collaborate. But notable Christian evangelicals
are known to speak at AIPAC’s policy conference.
“It is possible CUFI overstates its size and scale of activity, but I think it
would be fair to say there are more Christian fundamentalists in this country
than there are Jews in this country that are supporting AIPAC,” Wagner
said.
“Now you even have younger Jews who don’t support AIPAC.”
Neither AIPAC nor CUFI replied to multiple requests from MEE for
comment.
Confronting Christian Zionism
Samantha Brotman, membership manager of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP),
the Jewish-American organisation that works against bigotry and for an end
to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, says that progressive Jewish
organisations have not adequately tackled the influence of Christian Zionism.
“We need to be paying a lot more attention to Christian Zionism because a lot
of our work, and rightly so, focuses on building an alternative Jewish
community, and an alternative Jewish future beyond Zionism,” Brotman told
MEE.
The new faces of Jewish-American resistance to Israel
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“But I do think we also need to focus on challenging the movements and
ideologies standing in the way of Palestinian freedom.”
The Philadelphia-based Brotman said that while the JVP had always
understood that Christian Zionism “was out there”, for “one reason or
another, it hasn’t been a focus of ours... maybe it was the timing”.
But this is changing. JVP recently held an education webinar on Christian
Zionism and Brotman says interest for the topic was off the scale.
“Around 1,000 people registered for the webinar, making it the most
successful webinar we’ve ever had… people are hungry to understand what is
going on.
“Speaking in my personal capacity, I feel it’s a major part of the puzzle as to
why the US is so strongly in support of Israel, and why we spend so much
money on Israel every year and why politicians feel they need to kowtow to
Israeli talking points. If we only focus on AIPAC or other Jewish
organisations, we are missing something.”
Just as JVP is looking to educate its Jewish members on Christian Zionism,
there are a number of projects and organisations looking for ways to persuade
American leaders and evangelicals to change their approach towards Israel
and the Palestinians.
'They meet Palestinian Christians. They see the reality of a military
occupation. We don’t have to do a lot of work to convince them once we show
them'
- Mae E. Cannon, Churches for Middle East Peace
Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, says that her
organisation routinely takes evangelical Christians to Israel and the occupied
territories to “show them the reality”.
“They meet Palestinian Christians. They see the settlements. They see the
reality of a military occupation. We don’t have to do a lot of work to convince
them once we show them,” Cannon said.
A 2014 profile of a non-profit called Telos describes its work as a “quiet effort
aimed at pushing evangelical Christians away from decades of growing loyalty
to Israel and toward increased solidarity with the Palestinians”.
Telos is said to operate behind the scenes, meeting with politicians and
lawmakers and organising alternate trips to Israel and the occupied-West
Bank.
Telos did not reply to MEE’s request for comment or elaboration on their
work.
Turning the tide
In his address at a gathering organised by the Washington Report on Middle
Affairs in 2018, Thomas Getman, advisory board member of Friends of
Sabeel North America, an international peace movement initiated by
Palestinian Christians, said that “silence in the mainstream church has
allowed Palestine to be defined by Zionists”.
“AIPAC is successful as an agent of minority Gentile sentiment, not just
Jewish support. Sadly, the majority… We must stir them up. I propose it is
bad for Israel, as well as America’s place in the free world. It’s destined for
failure,” Getman said.