The Political Agenda of Christian Zionism

Reverend Stephen Sizer, Friends of Al-Aqsa Journal

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In his controversial book, Road to Holocaust, Hal Lindsey equates those who reject dispensationalism with the Nazis because, from his perspective, both deny the Jews any separate identity or future destiny within the purposes of God. The political consequences of Christian Zionism are manfold. Christian Zionists are implacably opposed to the present Road Map to peace in the Middle East. I want to show how they may be contributing to the very holocaust in the Middle East which they predict.     

We are going to examine six ways in which Christian Zionist theology has been translated into political action: This outline illustrates the correlation between its distinctive doctrines and political agenda.

1. The Chosen People: Supporting Israeli Colonialism

The conviction that the Jewish people remain God’s ‘chosen people’ in some way separate from the Church is deeply rooted in Christian Zionism. A recent Christianity Today survey of evangelical opinion about Israel gives an indication of the strength of Christian Zionism in America. The survey revealed that 24% believe ‘the biblical mandate for Christians is to support the State of Israel.’[2] This is expressed in a variety of ways:

1.1 Standing with Israel

Following the Six Day War in 1967, apart from the support given by the United States government, Israel has been largely isolated within the international community. Hal Lindsey laments:

‘Up to the time of the 1991 Madrid Conference, the Arabs were “called upon” to “comply”, “desist”, “refrain” etc. four times. Israel was “demanded”, “ordered”, etc. to do General Assembly bidding three hundred and five times. The UN voted six hundred and five resolutions between its inception and the Gulf War. Four hundred and twenty nine of those resolutions, or, sixty-two percent of the total of the UN’s resolutions were against Israel or its interests.’[3]

 Citing Isaiah 40, Christian Zionists see their role to, ‘comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’ So for example, in October 2000, just days after Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the Haram Al-Sharif, which was deliberately timed to undermine the government of Barak for negotiating with Arafat over a  shared Jerusalem,[4] and sparked the second Intifada, an advertisement appeared in the New York Times entitled ‘Open Letter to Evangelical Christians from Jews for Jesus.’ In it they called upon evangelicals to show solidarity with the State of Israel at this critical time:

‘Now is the time to stand with Israel. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our hearts are heavy as we watch the images of violence and bloodshed in the Middle East ... Christian friends, “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). So must our support for the survival of Israel in this dark hour be irrevocable.  Now is the time for Christians to stand by Israel.’[5]

 1.2 The Israeli Lobby on Capitol Hill

Until the 1980s, US Middle East policy was largely peripheral to the wider global threat posed by Soviet Communism. The protection of Western Europe through NATO was a higher priority. The collapse of Communism, however, created a power vacuum in the Middle East which the US has filled. Following the Gulf War to liberate Kuwait and then more recently, Afghanistan from the Taliban and Iraq from the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein, the US has significantly increased its influence in the Middle East.  Many contend that US foreign policy has become skewed through the disproportionate influence of the Zionist lobby. Michael Lind, the political analyst summarises the ways in which the Israeli lobby has distorted US foreign policy:

‘Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, enabled by US weapons and money, inflames anti-American attitudes in Arab and Muslim countries. The expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land makes a mockery of the US commitment to self-determination for Kosovo, East Timor and Tibet. Beyond the region, US policy on nuclear weapons proliferation is undermined by the double standard that has led it to ignore Israel’s nuclear programme while condemning those of India and Pakistan.’[6]

The Christian Right came to shape US foreign policy largely through the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. His victory over Jimmy Carter gave a considerable boost to the Christian Zionist cause. Wagner claims his election, ‘ushered in not only the most pro-Israel administration in history but gave several Christian Zionists prominent political posts.’ He points out that in addition to the US President, those who subscribed to a futurist premillennial theology and endorsed Christian Zionism included Attorney General Ed Meese, Secretary of Defence Casper Weinberger, and Secretary of the Interior James Watt.[7] White House seminars became a regular feature of Reagan’s administration bringing leading Christian Zionists like Jerry Falwell, Mike Evans and Hal Lindsey into personal contact with national and congressional leaders. In the same year, the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, was founded with the purpose of coordinating ‘direct political lobbying activities in cooperation with the Israeli government.’[8] One of its primary goals is to see the removal of PLO offices in Western countries and the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.[9]

The power of the pro-Israeli lobby, which ensures Israel continues to receive more than 3 billion dollars annually from the US in grants, loans and subsidies can be gauged by the fact that George Bush Snr. was the last US President to criticise Israel in public. During the Gulf War, he enraged the Israeli lobby by pressurising Israel not to retaliate against Iraqi attacks and promised the Arab coalition partners that he would deal with the Palestinian issue. In September 1991, he complained that, ‘there are 1,000 lobbyists up on the Hill today lobbying Congress for loan guarantees for Israel and I’m one lonely little guy down here asking Congress to delay its consideration of loan guarantees for 120 days.’[10] Lind points out that the pro-Israeli lobby was also responsible for encouraging, ‘the greatest abuse of the Presidential pardon power in American history’ when Bill Clinton, on his last day in office, controversially pardoned Mark Rich, the fugitive billionaire on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’ list.  In a New York Times article in February 2001, Clinton explained that he had done it for Israel:

‘Many present and former high-ranking Israeli officials of both major political parties and leaders of Jewish communities in America and Europe urged the pardon of Mr Rich because of his contributions and services to Israeli charitable causes, to the Mossad’s efforts to rescue Jews from hostile countries, and to the peace process through sponsorship of education and health programmes in Gaza and the West Bank.’[11]

With the formation of the NUCFI bringing together 200 different Christian and Jewish organisations, it is unlikely that the power of the pro-Israeli lobby will in any way be diminished in the foreseeable future. Christian Zionists have also been influential in forging a closer relationship with Israel by facilitating solidarity tours to the Holy Land.

1.3 Solidarity Tours to Israel

Since 1967, following the capture of most of the important biblical sites associated with pilgrimages from Jordan and Syria, Israel has systematically exploited what Shirley Eber describes as a lucrative ‘touristic gold mine’,[12] and made tourism a tool of propaganda[13].Israel’s greatest success, however, has been to enlist American evangelical leaders such as Pat Boone and Jerry Falwell as allies in promoting pro-Israeli solidarity tours. For example, Falwell’s 'Friendship Tours’ to Israel include not only meetings with top Israeli government and military officials but also, “.....On-site tour of modern Israeli battlefields... Official visit to an Israeli defence installation... strategic military positions, plus experience first hand the battle Israel faces as a nation.”[14]

2. Restorationism: Facilitating Aliyah from Russia and Eastern Europe

Christian Zionists are convinced that it is God’s will for the Jewish people to return to Israel since it was given in perpetuity to the descendants of Abraham. With the fall of Communism in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Eastern Europe, Christians Zionists have become increasingly active in facilitating Jewish émigrés to make aliyah.[15]

2.1 By Land and Sea: From Restoration to Transportation

Since 1980, a coalition of Christian Zionist agencies has taken the initiative in encouraging Jewish people to emigrate to Israel, seeing this as the fulfilment of prophecy. Exobus was probably the first Christian Zionist agency to turn the doctrine of Restorationism into a reality and assist Jews in the former Soviet Union (FSU) to make aliyah. Founded in 1984 by Phil Hunter and based in Hull, England, the first Exobus team was sent to the Ukraine in 1991. They have since then they have assisted over 56,000 Jewish people to emigrate to Israel in close cooperation with the Jewish Agency.

Since 1991, the ICEJ has also paid for the transportation of 40,000 immigrants, 15,000 of whom were taken to Israel on 51 ICEJ sponsored flights[16]. ICEJ Russian team members are especially active in the more remote regions of the FSU. They locate Jews, persuade them to emigrate, help them obtain documents to prove their Jewish origins, distribute humanitarian packages and pay for exit permits, passports, debt repayment, transport and accommodation[17]. Once in Israel, ICEJ as well as BFP assist émigrés with their resettlement costs, providing food, clothing, blankets, kitchen and school supplies as well as medical equipment[18].  

3. Eretz Israel : Sustaining the West Bank Settlements

For religious Zionism, Jewish and Christian, the legitimate borders of Israel are considerably larger than those presently disputed with Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Christian involvement in the realisation of Eretz Israel includes the military justification of these enlarged borders; the political adoption of the settlement programme; and economic support for the settler movement.  

3.1 Justifying Eretz Israel

David Allen Lewis, President of Christians United for Israel, puts the territorial claims of Israel into the wider context of the Middle East. He observes that, ‘The Arabs already have 99.5 per cent of the land … this cannot be tolerated.’[19] Echoing the experience of the Israelites under Pharaoh, Jan Willem van der Hoeven offers a theological explanation for Israel’s victory in 1967 and a justification for its refusal to withdraw from ‘biblically Jewish lands.’[20]

‘God wanted to give His people that part of the land which they did not receive in 1948. The result of what became known as the Six Day War was that Judea and Samaria - heartland of biblical Israel - and the ancient city of Jerusalem - King David’s capital - were returned to their original owner ... God has His own sovereign way to fulfil His Word and promise.’[21]

In response to international calls on Israel to give back the West Bank, Bridges for Peace asks the rhetorical question: ‘What is so sacred about the June 4^th, 1967 line?’ Nothing, they argue since historically this was all part of biblical Israel and ‘squarely won in defensive battles in 1967 and 1973.’[22] This conviction that the entire West Bank is integral to Israel has led many Christian Zionists to ‘adopt’ exclusive Jewish settlements to strengthen their claim to the land.

3.2 Adopting the Settlements

Since 1967, using various economic and tax incentives as well as appealing to biblical rhetoric, Israel has encouraged over 400,000 Jews to colonize East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights through 190 illegal settlements[23]. Several Christian Zionist organisations have given their full support to this judaization of the Occupied Territories. Jews for Jesus, for example, compares Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories with the settlement of Texas by the United States.

The Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC), founded by Ted Beckett in 1995, works in partnership with Christian Friends of Israel (CFI). So far, CFOIC claims 39 illegal Israeli settlements have been adopted by 50 churches in the USA, South Africa, Germany, Holland and the Philippines. For example, Ariel has been adopted by Faith Bible Chapel, Arvada, Colorado; Hevron  by Greater Harvest, Tallahassee, Florida; Alei Zahav by Calvary Chapel, Nashville; Revava by the United Methodist Church, Green Forest, Arizona; and Psagot by Tarzana Baptist Chapel, Tarzana, California. To strengthen the settlers’ claim to the land, CFOIC publish maps on their website showing the few areas of the West Bank given back to the Palestinian Authority. CFOIC lament the ‘partition’ of the land as ‘the reality of the “peace process” for those living in the Land G-d promised the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for ever!’[24] Christian Zionists have not only made a clear stand in justifying Israel’s illegal settlement of the West Bank. Their ‘adoption’ programme is also intended to be a means by which financial assistance as well as practical support for the settlers is delivered.

3.3 Funding the Settlers

Besides facilitating the emigration of Jews to Israel, several Christian Zionist agencies are active in funding illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. During the 1991 ICEJ Feast of Tabernacles celebration, for example, representatives from 12 countries presented cheques to the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitshak Shamir, to help finance the settlements[25].  Through their ‘Social Assistance Programme’ ICEJ also provides financial support for projects in the Jewish settlements, including bullet proof vests to strengthen the resolve of settlers, living among what they describe as ‘3 million hostile Palestinians.’[26] ICEJ’s ‘Bulletproof Bus for Efrat’ appeal is also raising $150,000 to purchase an armour plated bus to transport settlers in and out of the West Bank from Efrat settlement[27].

4. Jerusalem : Lobbying for International Recognition

At the core of Christian Zionist support for Israel’s claim to the Occupied Territories lies the conviction that Jerusalem is, and must remain, the exclusive and undivided Jewish capital. Attempts to reach agreement in the wider Arab-Israeli conflict have so far stalled or stumbled over the final status of Jerusalem. Christian Zionists are strongly opposed to any proposal for joint sovereignty or the creation of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

As early as February 1984, the ICEJ sent a representative, Richard Hellman, to testify before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in Washington to urge the US to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognise the city as the capital of Israel[28]. Jerry Falwell and the AIPAC lobby also spoke in favour of such a move. Senator Bob Dole later introduced legislation in the American Senate which required the US Embassy to be rebuilt in Jerusalem by 31 May 1999, and authorised $100 million for ‘preliminary’ spending[29]. In October 1995 he stated, ‘Israel’s capital is not on the table in the peace process, and moving the United States embassy to Jerusalem does nothing to prejudice the outcome of any future negotiations.’[30] Lamenting the failure of the US President to ratify the Senate decision, Dole commented:

‘Jerusalem is today as it has been for three millennia the heart and soul of the Jewish people. It is also, and should remain forever, the eternal and undivided capital of the State of Israel ... The time has come ... to move beyond letters, expressions of support, and sense of the Congress resolutions. The time has come to enact legislation that will get the job done.’[31]

In 2002, Falwell controversially linked the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre with Israel’s exclusive claim to Jerusalem, calling upon his supporters to petition the US President to ‘Keep Jerusalem Free.’[32] Christian Zionists have therefore been resolute in their efforts to get the international community to recognise Jerusalem as the de facto capital of Israel.

5. The Temple : Identifying with Religious Zionism

Dispensational Christian Zionists, are convinced the Jewish Temple must be rebuilt because, based on their futurist eschatology from Daniel, the anti-Christ must desecrate it just prior to the return of Christ.  Brickner claims that the preparations for rebuilding the Temple began in 1967 with the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem[33]. Lindsey is equally sure that, ‘right now, as you read this, preparations are being made to rebuild the Third Temple.’[34] Contemporary Christian Zionists are working to achieve this.

5.1 Promoting the Temple Mount Movement

Randall Price is the leading dispensational expert on the imminent plans to rebuild the Jewish Temple. In ‘The Coming Last Days Temple’, he provides comprehensive details of all the Jewish organisations involved in attempts to seize the Temple Mount, destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, rebuild the Jewish Temple and re-institute Temple worship, priesthood and sacrifices. These include the Temple Institute and Temple Mount Faithful[35]. Gershon Salomon is the controversial figurehead of the movement and founder of The Temple Faithful.  Zhava Glaser, of Jews for Jesus, praises Salomon for his courage to talk about ‘the most important subject in the Jewish religion.’

Speaking as a guest of the ICEJ, at the Christian Zionist Congress in 1998, Salomon insisted:

‘The mission of the present generation is to liberate the Temple Mount and to remove - I repeat, to remove - the defiling abomination there ... the Jewish people will not be stopped at the gates leading to the Temple Mount ... We will fly our Israeli flag over the Temple Mount, which will be minus its Dome of the Rock and its mosques and will have only our Israeli flag and our Temple. This is what our generation must accomplish.’

[36] Between 1967 and 1990 there have been over 100 armed assaults on the Haram Al-Sharif by Jewish militants, often led by rabbis. Grace Halsell regrets that ‘in no instance has any Israeli Prime Minister or the chief Sephardic rabbi or the chief Ashkenazi rabbi criticized these assaults.’[37]

5.2 Facilitating the Temple Building Programme

In order to sustain a fully functioning Temple it is also necessary to identify, train and consecrate priests to serve in the Temple. According to the Book of Numbers, the ashes of a pure unblemished red heifer, itself previously offered by a ritually pure priest, must be mixed with water and sprinkled on both them and the Temple furniture. With the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD the ashes used in the ceremony were lost and the Jews of the Diaspora have therefore been ritually unclean ever since.

In 1998, however, Clyde Lott, a Pentecostal Mississippi rancher, formed Canaan Land Restoration of Israel, Inc. for the purpose of raising livestock suitable for Temple sacrifice[38]. According to Newsweek, in 1997, the first red heifer for 2000 years was born at the Kfar Hassidim kibbutz near Haifa and named ‘Melody’[39]. Unfortunately she eventually grew white hairs on her tail and udder. Undaunted, Chaim Richman, an Orthodox rabbi and Clyde Lott, the Pentecostal cattleman, have teamed up to breed red heifers in the Jordan Valley, in the hope of saving Israel’s cattle industry as well as producing a perfect specimen for sacrifice.[40] 

The design and construction work, furnishings and utensils, the training of priests and breeding of sacrifices all require funds and in large measure, like the red heifer, these are being provided by Christian Zionists. According to Grace Halsell, Stanley Goldfoot, a former member of the Jewish Stern Gang, raises up to $100 million a year for the Jerusalem Temple Foundation through American Christian TV and radio stations and evangelical churches.[41]

6. The Future : Opposing Peace and Hastening Armageddon

6.1 The US-Israeli Alliance

While Christian Zionists in general are committed to standing with Israel, there is a particularly close relationship between Israel and America. Jerry Falwell offers a simple explanation. God has been kind to America because ‘America had been kind to the Jew.’[42] Gary Bauer, president of American Values and a republican presidential contender in 2000, put it like this. “Terrorists don’t understand why Israel and the United States are joined at the heart.”[43] Mike Evans, founder and President of Lovers of Israel Inc. describes the special relationship between Israel and America:

‘Only one nation, Israel, stands between ... terrorist aggression and the complete decline of the United States as a democratic world power ... Surely demonic pressure will endeavour to encourage her to betray Israel … Israel is the key to America’s survival … As we stand with Israel, I believe we shall see God perform a mighty work in our day. God is going to bless America and Israel as well … If Israel falls, the United States can no longer remain a democracy.’[44]

6.2 Antipathy Toward Arabs

Ramon Bennett illustrates how such prejudices remain common today describing the modern Arab nations as ‘barbarous’.[45] ‘The customs of hospitality and generosity have changed little in 4,000 years,’ he claims, ‘nor have the customs of raiding (thieving, rustling), saving face or savagery.’[46] Bennett argues that the Arab ‘is neither a vicious nor, usually, a calculating liar but a natural one.’[47]

Comparisons between Hitler and the Arabs are now frequent in the writings of contemporary Christian Zionists.[48] Van der Hoeven of the ICEJ is typical. ‘Just as there was a definite ideology behind the hatred and atrocities of Hitler and the Nazis, there is one behind the hatred and wars by the Arabs against the Jews and people of Israel.’[49]

6.3 Justifying the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Frequently, defending Israeli security leads Christian Zionists to deny Palestinians the same basic human rights as Israelis. Some are even reluctant to acknowledge the existence of Palestinians as a distinct people. Dave Hunt is typical of those who equate Palestinians with the ancient Philistines, and use the term Palestinian in an entirely pejorative sense.

‘Central to the Middle East conflict today is the issue of the so-called Palestinian people... Palestinians? There never was a Palestinian people, nation, language, culture, or religion. The claim of descent from a Palestinian people who lived for thousands of years in a land called Palestine is a hoax!’[50]

 In May 2002, Dick Armey, the Republican Senate House Majority leader, made ground breaking news by justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories; by stating in an interview on CNBC on May 1^st 2002 that:

‘Most of the people who now populate Israel were transported from all over the world to that land and they made it their home. The Palestinians can do the same and we are perfectly content to work with the Palestinians in doing that. We are not willing to sacrifice Israel for the notion of a Palestinian homeland … I’m content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank … There are many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land, soil, and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian State.’[51] While such racist attitudes among Christian Zionists toward Arabs are common, as are the stereotypes that Palestinians are terrorists, it is more especially Muslims who are demonised.

6.4 Demonising Islam

Anti-Arab and Islamaphobic sentiments have become even more widely tolerated since 11^th September 2001.  Such views have recently been described as a form of new ‘McCarthyism’[52]. In February 2002, for example, Pat Robertson caused considerable controversy when he too described Islam as a violent religion bent on world domination. He also claimed American Muslims were forming terrorist cells in order to destroy the country. Robertson made the allegations on his Christian Broadcasting Network ‘700 Club.’ After clips showing Muslims in America, the announcer, Lee Webb asked Robertson, ‘As for the Muslim immigrants Pat, it makes you wonder, if they have such contempt for our foreign policy why they’d even want to live here?’ Robertson replied:

‘Well, as missionaries possibly to spread the doctrine of Islam ... I have taken issue with our esteemed President in regard to his stand in saying Islam is a peaceful religion. It’s just not. And the Koran makes it very clear, if you see an infidel, you are to kill him … the fact is our immigration policies are now so skewed to the Middle East and away from Europe that we have introduced these people into our midst and undoubtedly there are terrorist cells all over them.’[53]

6.5 Opposing the Peace Process

While Christian Zionists endorse Israel’s unilateral claim to the Occupied Territories, they oppose similar Palestinian aspirations to self determination since they believe the two are intrinsically incompatible.  Christian Zionists have been most vociferous in opposing the Road Map to Peace initiative of the US government, UN, European Community and Russia. Hal Lindsey, for example lamented “I am heartbroken over the latest stage of the “road map to peace”, describing it instead as an “Odyssey to Holocaust”[54] He went on to rebuke the US president.

“I was sickened to watch a well-meaning Christian American president talk incessantly about his vision for a Palestinian state and Jewish state living side by side in peace.”[55] At the Interfaith Zionist Leadership Summit, held in Washington May 2003, Jewish and Christian Zionist leaders met to consider how to turn the “road map” into a road-block. Gary Bauer, called the president’s initiative “a Satanic roadmap"[56].  Peace talks are not only a waste of time, they demonstrate a rebellious defiance toward God’s plans. Such infallible certitudes lead some Christian Zionists to anathematise those who do not share their presuppositions.

6.6 Forcing God’s Hand

Christian Zionists often attempt to silence critics with the threat of divine retribution. For example, Brickner warns evangelicals who do not share a Zionist perspective that they are fighting against God.

‘Peril awaits those who presume to say that God is finished with His chosen people ... Just as God judged the nation of Egypt for her ill treatment of His people, so will He judge nations today. Evangelicals who would understand the Middle East must pay close attention to the teaching of Scripture, and take note of the cosmic forces that now do battle in the heavens but will soon do battle on earth. They must choose carefully which side to uphold.’[57]

Such pronouncements coming from highly influential Christian leaders appear little different from those of Muslim fundamentalists who call for a ‘holy war’ against the West.  Dave MacPherson has noted that the danger of such Armageddon theology is not so much that it is fatalistic, but that it is so contagious[58]. Karen Armstrong is not alone in tracing within Western Christian Zionism evidence of the legacy of the Crusades. Such fundamentalists have, she claims, ‘returned to a classical and extreme religious crusading.’[59]

7. Conclusions: The Political Implications of Christian Zionism

We have seen how Christian Zionism as a movement has profound and lasting political consequences. Christian Zionists have shown varying degrees of enthusiasm for implementing six basic theological convictions that arise from their literal and futurist reading of the Bible:

1.      The belief that the Jews remain God’s chosen people leads Christian Zionists to a justification for Israel’s military occupation of Palestine.

2.      As God’s chosen people, the final restoration of the Jews to Israel is therefore actively encouraged and facilitated through partnerships between Christian organisations and the Jewish Agency.

3.      Eretz Israel, as delineated in scripture, belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, therefore the land must be annexed and the settlements adopted and strengthened.

4.      Jerusalem is regarded as the eternal and exclusive capital of the Jews, and cannot be shared with the Palestinians. Thus western governments are placed under pressure by Christian Zionists to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem.

5.      The Third Temple has yet to be built, the priesthood consecrated and sacrifices reinstituted. As dispensational Christian Zionists, in particular, believe this is prophesied, they offer varying degrees of support to the Jewish Temple Mount organisations committed to achieving it.

6.      Since Christian Zionists are convinced there will be an apocalyptic war between good and evil in the near future, there is no prospect for lasting peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, to advocate Israel compromise with Islam or coexist with Palestinians is to identify with those destined to oppose God and Israel in the imminent battle of Armageddon.

Clearly, not all Christian Zionists embrace each of these six tenets, and degree of conviction or involvement is varying. Nevertheless, the overall consequences of such uncritical support for the State of Israel, especially among American Evangelicals, is inherently and pathologically destructive, not least to the very Jewish people they claim to love.

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