Evangelical Christian leaders who gave votes to President Trump now press him to declare that Israel can request ownership of the West Coast, based on the promise God has given to the Jews in the Bible.
They are looking for a way to open the path to an annexation of the territory, which is widespread internationally as intended for the future Palestinian state. Israel seized the territory of Jordan in the 1967 war and has since occupied it. In recent years, the right -wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encourages Jewish settlers to build homes there.
The prominent evangelical supporters of Mr. Trump are more of a multiple approach to the President’s pressure – appearing in Israel, praying the White House, pushing their ideas to the key evangelical conference and the construction of congress support.
Some of the leading American evangelicals, including Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins and Mario Bramnick, visited Jerusalem on Tuesday to publicly return the sovereignty of Israel of the West Coast.
“I literally feel God gives Israel an empty check,” said Mr. Bramnick, president of the Latin coalition for Israel and The pastor of the church in Florida whose profile he balloned after hosted by prayer calls in support of his claim, from Mr. Trump, the presidential election was stolen in 2020.
These evangelical leaders are part of Movement He called Christian Zionism and believes that the earth was given to Jews in the Bible.
They refer to the West Coast with the Bible names of Judea and Samaria. They believe that Christians who help in Fulfillment of this biblical pledge is blessed and that the establishment of the State of Israel indicates others Biblical prophecies will follow. For some, though not all, it mostly includes an apocalypse that will lead to the second arrival of Jesus Christ.
“We Christians invite our beloved President Trump and his team to aggressively remove all obstacles to Israel’s sovereignty over the whole country, including Judea and Samaria,” they said Terri Copeland PearsonsAn influential pastor who produced his father’s television program, Tevangelist Kenneth Copelandand now serves as the president of his same name Bible Faculty In Texas. She presented remarks At the National Convention on Religious Emites in the country last Thursday.
The organizers at the event have encouraged a resolution that are sponsored by American Christian leaders for Israel refuses “all the efforts” to press Israel to give up the West Coast territory. This group, formed ten years ago, is described as a net of about 3000 Christian leaders “representing tens of millions of American Christians” who advocate “biblical truth” and unwavering support for Israel. The organizers at the Convention said they would present the application to the White House shortly after the conference. The sponsors did not respond to the request for comment on how many people signed a petition and whether it was presented to the president.
Demand should help build aid for controversial effort that some have promoted to Israel in favor of land that is home approximately three million Palestinians And now about half a million Israeli settlers.
Much of the world is considering Israeli settlements of the West Coast, which have quickly spread to recent years, a violation of international law. Israel disputes this characterization.
The Christian Zionist advocacy around the western coast comes because the appearance of an independent Palestinian state has become particularly muffled since the attack was guided by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, lit a war in the enclave, and also led to an increase in tension on the west coast, about 55 miles, about 55 miles away.
The pleas of Mr. Trump to support Israeli annexation of the West Coast say that they hope that such a declaration will end any further discussion of the future Palestinian state.
Their resolution comes because the extreme right of Mr. Netanyahu had the green light on the settlement and expansion on the West Bank faster than in the past and in the midst of intense military raids in Palestinian cities since January. They are tens of thousands displaced inhabitants.
The petition also joins the wave of similar initiatives of influential conservatives and Christians, in Congress and beyond, with the aim of inserting politics in the second Trump.
For days before American Christian leaders for Israel announced a petition, MP Claudia Tenney, a Republican from New York, which identifies as a presbyterian, sent a similar Letter to Mr. Trump With five other members of the “Friends of Judea and Samaria MPs”, it started this year. He called on his administration to “acknowledge Israel” to declare sovereignty over the territory, saying that it would be an integral part of the defense of “Judeo-Christian heritage to which our nation was founded.”
Asked in February at a press conference with Mr. Netanyahu about his position on the Israeli annexation of the West Coast, Mr. Trump said that “people love the idea,” and that “the announcement will probably be on that very specific topic in the next four weeks.”
Mr. Trump’s comments also helped to encourage the enthusiasm for the resolution of Israeli sovereignty over the western coast adopted last month at a conservative conference on political action, an annual conservative reunion of the agenda.
Mr. Trump supported the other initiatives of the Israeli end right: last month supported the massive displacement from Gaza, and in January he overpowered the executive order of Biden, which enabled sanctions for immigrants on the west coast that was considered to have violated human rights.
He chose the Evangelical Christian supporters of Israel for key positions in his administration, including televangelists Paula White-Cain as an older counselor a newly created office for faith in a white house that is loud to her Support for Israel on religious basicsand Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a former governor and Baptist minister who has Long -harmonized with Israeli settlersas his candidate for ambassador to Israel.
In 2017, Mr. Huckabee participated in a ceremony in a settlement on the west coast and said CNN He thinks “Israel has the right to Judea and Samaria,” adding that “there is no such thing as the Western coast” or “occupation.” Last year after he was appointed an ambassador for the role of the Ambassador, he told the Israeli army that he was annexation. “of course“Possibility.
Mrs. Tenney recently introduced a law to replace the Government references to the west coast and used biblical names instead. Representative Brian Mast, a Republican in Florida chairing the Home Foreign Affairs Committee, ordered employees to call the territory of Judea and Samaria, according to the first record of the Internal Committee reported to Axios Last Wednesday. .
Christians, however, are far from the uniform, and many support the solution of a two -sided conflict between Palestinians and Israelites. The attitude of evangelical leaders does not reflect the views of the entire community, even less perspective of all Christians or all Americans, as Israel’s support has fallen In the midst of her war with Hamas in Gaza, while supporting Palestinians raised and launched a protest movement at the college campuses.
“This is a long, lasting tension that Palestinian Christians have with brothers and sisters in the US, especially the Evangelicals,” “ said Daniel BannouraA doctoral candidate for theology in Notre Dame who hosts Podcast on faith and social justice called “through the division”.
Mr. Bannoura, the son of Baptist minister, grew up on the west coast, and later attended college and a graduate school in the United States. He said it was because his community on the west coast was “very small and solemn” – 50,000 people According to some estimates – and because their identity complicates prevailing narratives, “Palestinian Christians have not received a voice.”
In contrast, many evangelists have a direct line to the White House. Larry Huch, a Christian Zionist Minister and television show leaderShe boasted at a press conference promoting an annexation to the west coast that Mrs. White-Cain from the White House Office was in contact.
“The current administration is very aware that white evangelical Christians voted in large numbers and are deeply motivated to support Israel,” said David Katibah, who runs communication and a Christian engagement in Telos in Washington, a group founded in 2009 by Pauci and one evangelical and other education. “
Mr. Katibah said he grew up in the US evangelical community and noted that there was no monolithic perspective on annexation. More and more, younger evangelists accept the “more expansive view”, which emphasizes mutual flourishing, justice and human rights for both sides, he said.
Some studies restore this point. A 2021 survey Made the University of North Carolina in Pembroke a sharp shift in attitudes Among the younger Evangelicals between 2018 and 2021, with their support for Israel, he descended from 75 percent to less than 35 percent, along with the accompanying increase in the desire to see the policy of the United States that reflects Palestinian perspective.
