\n<\/p>\n
United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has faced condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries after suggesting Israel has a biblical right to much of the Middle East.<\/p>\n
In an interview with prominent right-wing American commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee suggested that Israel has a God-given right to land stretching from the Euphrates River to the Nile, which would encompass Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201c<\/span>It would be fine if they took it all,\u201d he said, arguing that the geographical borders of Israel are rooted in the Bible, a belief shared by Christian Zionists.<\/span><\/p>\n The US diplomat, a self-professed Christian Zionist and staunch supporter of Israel, later walked back his comments, calling them \u201csomewhat hyperbolic\u201d and adding that Israel is not seeking expansion but has a right to security within its current borders.<\/p>\n But were his comments indeed hyperbolic in the Christian Zionist worldview? Or is that precisely what he and his fellow proponents of the ideology believe?<\/p>\n In 1878, William Blackstone, a student of the prominent American evangelist Dwight Moody and a believer in the biblical restoration of Israel, published a book titled Jesus Is Coming. The best-selling work popularised among Americans a belief held by some Christian leaders: that God had given the land of Israel to the Jewish people.<\/p>\n This conviction, often taken from a Protestant evangelical perspective, draws on the ancient biblical idea that, nearly four millennia ago, God promised the land to the Jews, who would rule it until the return of Jesus to Jerusalem for the rapture. According to this theology, Christians will be saved upon Christ\u2019s return while non-Christians who do not convert will face damnation.<\/p>\n The most commonly quoted Bible verse relating to this covenant is Genesis 12:3, in which God tells Abraham: \u201cI will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed,\u201d according to the Religion Media Centre.<\/p>\n According to ChristianZionism.org, a website run by professors, pastors and leaders of church-related organisations, four themes can be found in Christian Zionist thought: One, the founding of today\u2019s nation-state of Israel in 1948 marked the final human era and signals an end of times. Two, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East is a part of God\u2019s plan with a great and final war preceding the second coming of Christ. Three, God\u2019s covenant with Israel is eternal and unconditional. And four, failing to support Israel\u2019s political dominance today will incur divine judgement.<\/p>\n Writer and historian David Swift said that although many Christians \u2013 evangelical or otherwise \u2013 supported the creation of Israel before 1948, they cannot be called Christian Zionists in the modern parlance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is because Christian Zionism essentially fuses religious belief with a military, strategic and even economic programme,\u201d Swift told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cSpecifically, Christian Zionism is not just the belief that the biblical land of Israel is the ordained country of the Jewish people but that it is in America\u2019s strategic, military and economic interest to support the expansion of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Fathi Nimer, a policy fellow at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, described the movement as one that \u201ctranslates into absolute unquestioning support for the Israeli regime\u201d.<\/p>\n He described hearing a podcast about a Christian Zionist woman visiting Bethlehem who, after seeing the separation wall, Israeli soldiers and the harsh conditions in Palestinian refugee camps, remarked: \u201cI feel bad for them, but scripture is scripture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Scripture is scripture\u2019 \u2013 that overrides everything,\u201d Nimer told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s such a powerful tool for brainwashing.\u201d<\/p>\n According to author and academic Tristan Sturm, the largest population of Christian Zionists is in the US, and it numbers more than 30 million. Most are affiliated with evangelical churches in the southeast and south-central regions, often referred to as the \u201cBible Belt\u201d.<\/p>\n The biggest organisation is Christians United for Israel, which itself boasts 10 million members, Nimer said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, found mostly in the Bible Belt, but also other places in the United States, and they form one of the most formidable voting blocs in the Republican Party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Swift stated that only a few million from this group, however, are \u201cfully signed up to the political, military and religious aspects of Christian Zionism\u201d.<\/p>\n Nimer argued that Christian Zionists are \u201cdeeply intertwined\u201d with American politics. \u201cA lot of the major donors to the Republican Party and also the Democratic Party are Christian Zionists,\u201d Nimer said.<\/p>\n According to the analyst, Christian Zionists are a cornerstone of Israeli lobbying groups, ranging from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)\u00a0to the Anti-Defamation League, \u201cthat work to spread the Israeli narrative\u201d in American society.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a lot of members of the US Congress are \u201copenly\u201d Christian Zionist, Nimer said.<\/p>\n \u201c[Politicians like] Mike Huckabee, \u2026 they reached the highest echelons of the state. And they bring these beliefs into their politics, into their policies,\u201d the analyst said.<\/p>\n US foreign policy on Israel is, therefore, heavily influenced and shaped around the underlying biblical premise that the Jewish people are divinely destined to be restored to Palestine, he argued.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to Palestine and the region in general, as you see right now with the [potential] war in Iran, they\u2019re saying that the ballistic missile programme is now on the table,\u201d Nimer said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has nothing to do with the nuclear deal, \u2026 but the idea is that Israel must be able to maintain its superiority over every country in the region, and that\u2019s a decree by God because if Israel prospers, then that\u2019s another step towards the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Christian Zionist groups have also backed Israel\u2019s illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank and other measures that they see as reinforcing Israeli Jewish sovereignty.<\/p>\n Furthermore, for two decades, organisations such as HaYovel have been bringing in hundreds of American Christian volunteers to work in Israeli settlement agricultural projects, especially during the genocidal war on Gaza, when Jewish Israelis were called for military duty. Many also strongly endorsed US President Donald Trump\u2019s moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2017.<\/p>\n Swift, however, said Christian Zionists have played only a minor role in shaping US support for Israel and their influence is waning.<\/p>\n He argued that while Christian Zionism is integrated with a \u201cbroader neoconservative foreign policy agenda\u201d also tied to the \u201cUS defence industry and broader military-industrial complex\u201d, the group does not have much influence in American politics, and, in fact, it is declining.<\/p>\n Traditionally, US government support for Israel was driven by Cold War considerations and by pressure from the Jewish community within the US and lobbying groups like AIPAC. What played less of a role was support for Israel from evangelical Christians and the smaller community of Christian Zionists, Swift said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe US president is finally de facto abandoning the previous theoretical support for a two-state solution \u2013 although not for Christian Zionist reasons. When Trump talks of ethnically cleansing Gaza and turning it into a beach resort, he uses the language of real estate, not the Old Testament,\u201d the historian said.<\/p>\n According to the analysts, very representative.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is pretty representative: Christian Zionists derive their understanding of the proper borders of Israel from the same place as people like [Israeli National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir and [Israeli Finance Minister] Bezalel Smotrich: the Old Testament. Therefore, they think Israel should expand to include all of the territory of \u2018biblical Israel\u2019,\u201d Swift said, referring to the far-right Israeli cabinet members who have worked to expand and protect Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.<\/p>\n Nimer said Huckabee\u2019s statement is also not something that can be criticised within the Christian Zionist community.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not allowed to criticise that because it\u2019s like you\u2019re criticising prophecy and you\u2019re criticising God and the return of Jesus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Huckabee\u2019s comments, therefore, come as no surprise despite infringing upon the sovereignty of US allies in the Middle East, Nimer said.<\/p>\n On Monday, Smotrich said Israel would eventually occupy the Gaza Strip and establish a Jewish settlement there despite a \u201cceasefire\u201d that went into effect in October.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are giving US President Donald Trump the opportunity to do it in his own way. If he does not succeed in eliminating Hamas, the Israeli army will get international legitimacy and American support to do it,\u201d he said in statements to Israeli radio.<\/p>\n Mimi Kirk, the director of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism and the associate director of Georgetown University\u2019s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, writes that \u201cdespite the matter of their supposed end-of-times demise according to this view, Jewish Israeli leaders have embraced the money and influence on US foreign policy that Christian Zionists offer,\u201d especially as its adherents include top officials from the first Trump administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.<\/p>\n Nimer said it\u2019s a rather \u201ccynical relationship\u201d, given that the Christian Zionist worldview, which sees all non-Christians going to hell, is \u201canti-Semitic to the bone\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBut they support Israel, so it\u2019s fine,\u201d the policy analyst said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey care about what they can get out of them right now as the biggest support base in the West currently.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel is further banking on this support because it is quickly losing its \u201cprogressive facade\u201d of a \u201cliberal democracy\u201d with \u201call these progressive rights\u201d, Nimer added.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has completely faded over the last few decades, and especially since the genocide in Gaza, this has become completely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n Palestinian Christians have long voiced concern that the Christian Zionist position threatens their existence, further entrenching Israel\u2019s occupation while marginalising their community and undermining the historic churches of the Holy Land.<\/p>\n Just last month, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem said activities by local individuals advancing \u201cdamaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism\u201d \u201cmislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock\u201d.<\/p>\n The Christian leaders warned that these efforts could undermine the Christian presence not only in the Holy Land but across the wider Middle East.<\/p>\n The statement came amid growing concern among Palestinian Christians that Israel\u2019s policies \u2013 including land confiscation, settlement expansion and pressure on church property \u2013 are accelerating the erosion of one of the world\u2019s oldest Christian communities.<\/p>\n Criticism of Christian Zionists from within Christianity is abundant.<\/p>\n In the US, the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism was created to critique and combat the movement through liberation theology, seeking justice for Palestinians and a resolution to the ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n Swift pointed out that many of the world\u2019s most Catholic countries, from Ireland to those in South America and Southern Europe, \u201ctend to be quite pro-Palestinian\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Palestinian Christian scholars \u201chave written very detailed theological critiques of Christian Zionism\u201d, Nimer said, as have pastors from other parts of the Global South.<\/p>\n A prize awarded by the Nelson Mandela Foundation last year was explicitly aimed at initiatives working against Christian Zionism, and a conference next month in Turkiye is being organised to combat the ideology, Nimer said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world is waking up to how insidious this ideology is and how it creeps into societies and makes it impossible to have any kind of solidarity with Palestinians as long as they believe it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has faced condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries after suggesting Israel has a biblical right to much of the Middle East. In an interview with prominent right-wing American commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee suggested that Israel has a God-given right to land stretching from the Euphrates River to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
How did Christian Zionism begin, and what are its tenets?<\/h2>\n
How many American Christian Zionists are there?<\/h2>\n
What impact do Christian Zionists have on US policy?<\/h2>\n
How do Jewish Israelis view Christian Zionists?<\/h2>\n
How do Christians in Palestine view Christian Zionists?<\/h2>\n
Are there critiques of Christian Zionism among other Christians?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"