Why American Christians Must Rally To Israel’s Defense

All over American college campuses, students are chanting anti-Israel slogans, backing Hamas, and accusing Israelis of war crimes. Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib accused President Joe Biden of “supporting genocide” by supporting Israel.

The chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has echoed in town squares and on social media screens around the world for the past month. This anti-Semitic rallying cry has long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations like Hamas. Fundamentally, it’s a call for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which would mean the dismantling of the Jewish State of Israel and amount to genocide. 

Frankly, it’s absurd — and alarming — to have to make this point at all: Israel is not perpetrating a genocide; it is defending itself from a terrorist group that wants to annihilate it.

It also deserves our unreserved support for several reasons. 

Israel is the historical home of the people God chose to covenant with and the land where Jesus walked — two things American Christians, in particular, should never forget. Israel is also an irreplaceable geopolitical ally and asset. Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East, a region otherwise turbulent and, in many cases, actively hostile to Western forms of liberty.

Some Iranians consider the U.S. the “Great Satan” and Israel the “Little Satan.” These radical voices want nothing more and nothing less than the total annihilation of America and Israel. And the sentiment is, unfortunately, not uncommon.

Israel provides stability and military insight into a geopolitically important and ideologically complex zone where the U.S. has few friends. Without a strong Israel, the U.S. and the Middle East would both suffer.

The political volatility of the area is part of what made the Abraham Accords such a striking victory for former President Donald Trump: Normalizing relations between Israel and four Arab countries over the course of a few months brought the Middle East closer to relative peace, economic freedom, and regional interdependence than it has been in a very long time. The explicit hope of the Accords was to foster peace and justice by expanding diplomatic, economic, and cultural exchange between former enemy states.

That is a bold goal — and it was close to being reached. Rumors began to circulate prior to the brutal surprise assault by Hamas that Israel and Saudi Arabia were close to normalizing their relationship. If that happened, Saudi Arabia would likely gain significantly in regional and global standing. Iran, Saudi Arabia’s chief rival, couldn’t bear to see that happen.

And so, they employed one of their regional proxies, Hamas, to disrupt the process of attaining peace. On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists slaughtered children and infants, raped and kidnapped women, and killed or displaced entire Israeli communities. Rockets totaling in the hundreds hurtle toward Israel now, every day.

If Americans value global stability at all or fear the spread of terroristic, genocidal hatred, we owe Israel our support in this war.

And for that support to happen in Washington, D.C., American Christians must rally to Israel’s defense. If it weren’t enough to gesture at our shared religious heritage in the region — after all, it is the land of Christ’s life and work — then you need only look to God’s promises to the Israelites in Scripture.

God makes a remarkable promise to Abraham, the father of Israel, in Genesis:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Later, in Zechariah, Israel is called the “apple of [God’s] eye.” It’s abundantly clear throughout the Scriptures that Israel and the Jewish people have a unique covenant with God. What, then, would be the Christian justification for standing idly by while Israel is dealt grave, horrific blows by her enemies in the region? There is none. 

American Christians are bound by religious heritage as well as geopolitical self-interest to come to her aid. Israel must be allowed to defend herself, and we must do what we can to make such defense possible.

This level of aid is also America’s historical norm. It is neither a recent nor a fringe position to support Israel in the United States.

We’ve had a strong relationship with Israel economically, politically, and militarily since Harry Truman’s presidency — a Democrat. We formally recognized Israel’s statehood on May 14, 1948, when Israel declared its independence, and we haven’t backed down since. We’ve contributed over $130 billion to Israel’s defense since its founding.

And this support has also been — until quite recently — a solidly bipartisan effort. Under an Obama-era agreement, Israel receives $3.8 billion each year for defense systems.

That’s why the radical leftist embrace of Hamas is nearly unbelievable. Pro-Hamas protesters and politicians are choosing to back a terrorist regime whose own charter calls for the genocide of one of our most strategic and long-standing allies. Importantly, that ally is committed to defending some of our own most vital political principles: The dignity of each human being, the sanctity of life, the value of self-governance and of democratic justice.

And Israel defends these principles more or less alone, against myriad nations that reject their right to exist at all. We must not turn our backs on Israel now. It’s obscene that there are those among us who would consider doing so.

Timothy Head is the executive director of the Faith & Freedom Coalition.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.