Christian Zionism and Western Foreign Policy
Christian Zionism and Western Foreign Policy
Christian Zionism is a religious and political tradition that connects Christian interpretations of the Bible with support for Jewish restoration to Palestine and, in its modern forms, political support for the State of Israel. The material collected here traces Christian Zionism from British Protestant restorationism and nineteenth-century evangelical theology through its development as an organized political force in the United States and other countries. It also documents debates over how much Christian Zionism has influenced Western policy toward Israel, Palestine, Jerusalem, Iran, settlements, and broader Middle Eastern conflicts.
The sources represent sharply differing perspectives. Supporters portray Christian Zionism as an expression of biblical conviction, solidarity with Israel, opposition to antisemitism, and support for shared Western and Israeli security interests. Critics argue that some forms of Christian Zionism encourage territorial maximalism, marginalize Palestinian rights and Palestinian Christians, or introduce particular theological interpretations into foreign-policy decisions. Academic and historical sources place these arguments within the broader interaction of religion, domestic politics, strategic interests, lobbying, and international relations.
Historical Origins of Christian Zionism
The political history of Christian Zionism predates the establishment of Israel in 1948. British Protestant restorationism developed the belief that the Jewish people would return to Palestine, and these ideas became part of nineteenth-century evangelical religious and political culture.
The collected scholarship examines figures and movements associated with British Christian restorationism and considers the relationship between religious ideas, imperial strategy, and Britain's eventual support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 consequently occupies an important place in debates about Christian Zionism. Some historians emphasize the role of Protestant restorationist ideas in creating an intellectual environment favorable to Zionism, while others stress that British wartime strategy, imperial interests, diplomacy, and other political considerations must also be considered.
Christian Zionism subsequently developed differently in the United States. Dispensationalist interpretations of biblical prophecy helped popularize interest in Jewish restoration and the Holy Land among American Protestants. During the twentieth century, however, Christian Zionism increasingly moved beyond prophecy and theology into institutional relationships, political organizations, tourism, lobbying, electoral politics, and direct relationships between American evangelical leaders and Israel.
The American Evangelical-Israel Alliance
The establishment of Israel and subsequent Arab-Israeli conflicts helped transform evangelical interest in Israel into an increasingly important American political relationship. Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War was particularly significant for many evangelical Christians who interpreted Israeli control of Jerusalem through biblical history and prophecy.
By the late twentieth century, Israeli political leaders increasingly recognized American evangelicals as a potentially powerful constituency. Evangelical leaders associated with the emerging Religious Right likewise made support for Israel an important element of conservative Christian political identity.
The relationship became intertwined with Republican politics during the era of Ronald Reagan and continued to develop through subsequent administrations. Organizations, churches, conferences, ministries, political networks, and advocacy campaigns created an infrastructure through which theological support for Israel could become organized political activity.
This history also complicates explanations that attribute evangelical support for Israel exclusively to end-times prophecy. The collected material identifies numerous motivations, including biblical covenant theology, attachment to the Holy Land, concern about antisemitism, strategic arguments about Israel as a democratic ally, conservative political identity, personal relationships with Israelis, and interpretations of American national interests.
Christians United for Israel and Political Lobbying
Christians United for Israel (CUFI) represents one of the most visible institutional expressions of contemporary American Christian Zionism. Its conferences, congressional lobbying, advocacy campaigns, political organizing, and relationships with elected officials illustrate how religious convictions can be translated into conventional interest-group politics.
CUFI and related organizations have advocated strong American support for Israel while addressing issues including military and diplomatic cooperation, Jerusalem, Iran, antisemitism, Israeli security, and regional conflict. Senior American political leaders have regularly addressed Christian Zionist gatherings, demonstrating the movement's importance within conservative politics.
Supporters describe this activity as democratic participation by millions of Christians whose religious and political convictions lead them to support Israel. Critics contend that Christian Zionist lobbying can encourage American policymakers to support Israeli territorial or military policies without giving sufficient consideration to Palestinians, Palestinian Christians, diplomacy, or competing American interests.
The debate illustrates a broader question concerning religion in democratic foreign policymaking: Christian Zionist organizations operate alongside numerous other ideological, religious, ethnic, economic, and strategic constituencies attempting to influence American policy.
Jerusalem and the Trump Administration
Donald Trump's first administration became a particularly important period in the modern history of Christian Zionist political influence. Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the relocation of the U.S. embassy became defining achievements for many evangelical supporters of Israel.
Christian Zionist organizations had advocated such a move for years. Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, and other administration figures maintained close relationships with evangelical and pro-Israel organizations, while speeches to Christian Zionist audiences repeatedly emphasized Jerusalem, Israeli security, Iran, and the strength of the U.S.-Israel alliance.
Trump's policies generated debate over the degree to which evangelical pressure actually determined American policy. Some analyses describe Jerusalem recognition as a major victory for evangelical politics. Others caution against attributing the decision primarily to Christian Zionists, pointing instead to a combination of presidential politics, Republican policy preferences, Israeli-American relations, strategic calculations, donor and constituency politics, and Trump's broader approach to the Middle East.
The administration's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and its positions on settlements, Iran, and regional diplomacy further intensified debate about the relationship between evangelical politics and American foreign policy.
Iran, War, and Regional Security
Iran has become another major intersection between Christian Zionist advocacy and American foreign policy. Christian Zionist organizations frequently identify Iran's government, nuclear ambitions, regional alliances, and threats against Israel as major dangers to both Israeli and American security.
The collected sources show evangelical leaders supporting strong pressure on Iran and, in some cases, interpreting confrontation through biblical or prophetic frameworks. Supporters generally frame such policies in strategic terms as well, arguing that Israel and the United States face overlapping security threats.
Critics question whether theological interpretations of Israel and biblical prophecy can encourage unnecessarily confrontational approaches toward Iran. Recent disputes surrounding military conflict have highlighted divisions among Christians themselves, with some evangelical voices supporting intervention while others emphasize nonintervention, humanitarian concerns, diplomacy, or Christian peacemaking.
These disagreements demonstrate that evangelical Christianity does not produce a single foreign-policy position, even when Israel occupies an important theological role.
Israel, Settlements, and Palestinian Christians
Christian Zionist relationships with Israeli settlements in the West Bank have become particularly controversial. Some Christian Zionist organizations and individuals provide political, financial, or humanitarian support to Israeli communities beyond the pre-1967 boundaries, sometimes interpreting Jewish settlement in biblical Judea and Samaria through religious commitments.
Critics argue that such support contributes to settlement expansion and undermines Palestinian territorial claims and prospects for a negotiated settlement. Palestinian Christians have been especially prominent in challenging Christian Zionism, arguing that Western evangelical narratives can overlook the experiences of Christian communities that have lived in the Holy Land for centuries.
This conflict has produced an important theological debate within global Christianity. Palestinian Christian leaders and their supporters frequently emphasize Palestinian rights, equality, peace, and opposition to occupation. Christian Zionists respond that Christian support for Jewish national restoration and Israel does not inherently require hostility toward Palestinians and that biblical support for Israel can coexist with concern for Palestinian welfare.
The resulting debate involves theology, nationalism, human rights, territorial claims, security, historical identity, and competing understandings of Christian responsibility in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Changing Evangelical Attitudes Toward Israel
One of the most significant developments documented in the material is generational change among American evangelicals. Polling and reporting indicate that younger evangelical Christians are often less uniformly supportive of Israeli government policies than older generations.
Some younger Christians express greater sympathy for Palestinians, greater skepticism toward military intervention, or less attachment to the political assumptions of the Religious Right. Others continue to support Israel but distinguish that support from unconditional endorsement of Israeli government policy.
These changes have generated concern among Israeli officials and pro-Israel organizations because American evangelicals have constituted one of Israel's most reliable political constituencies in the United States.
The evidence does not necessarily demonstrate the disappearance of Christian Zionism. Rather, it suggests that evangelical political attitudes are evolving and that support for Israel cannot automatically be assumed to remain unchanged across generations.
Christian Zionism Beyond the United States
Christian Zionism has increasingly become an international political phenomenon. The material documents its growth throughout Latin America and other regions of the Global South, particularly among evangelical and Pentecostal communities.
Brazil provides an important example. Evangelical political constituencies became influential within the coalition surrounding Jair Bolsonaro, whose government pursued closer relations with Israel. Debates over moving Brazil's embassy to Jerusalem illustrated both the influence and limitations of evangelical foreign-policy preferences, as economic and diplomatic interests sometimes competed with religious political demands.
Guatemala provides an even clearer example of the relationship between evangelical politics and Jerusalem diplomacy. President Jimmy Morales openly connected his evangelical faith with Guatemala's relationship with Israel, and Guatemala followed the United States in moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
Honduras, Paraguay, and other Latin American states have also developed closer relationships with Israel. Scholarship examining these developments suggests that Christian Zionism can influence foreign policy outside the United States when evangelical communities become sufficiently important within domestic electoral politics.
Competing Christian and Political Perspectives
Christian attitudes toward Zionism remain diverse. Christian Zionists themselves encompass different theological traditions and political positions, while many evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant, Palestinian Christian, and other Christian voices challenge aspects of Christian Zionist theology or politics.
Some critics reject the idea that modern territorial sovereignty should be derived from biblical promises. Others support Israel's existence while opposing settlements or particular Israeli government policies. Still others emphasize reconciliation and equal concern for Israelis and Palestinians rather than aligning Christianity with either national movement.
Supporters of Christian Zionism similarly dispute portrayals of the movement as primarily apocalyptic or inherently hostile toward Palestinians. They argue that Christian Zionism can be grounded in biblical theology, opposition to antisemitism, recognition of Jewish historical connections to the land, and political support for Israel as a sovereign state.
The material therefore presents Christian Zionism not as a single uniform ideology but as a contested religious-political tradition whose meaning varies considerably among supporters, critics, countries, churches, and historical periods.
Christian Zionism and the Future of Western Foreign Policy
The long-term political influence of Christian Zionism will depend partly on demographic and generational developments within Christianity. In the United States, younger evangelicals appear less predictable as a uniformly pro-Israel political constituency. At the same time, Christian Zionism is expanding politically in parts of Latin America and the Global South.
Israel has responded by cultivating relationships with evangelical communities internationally, reflecting the diplomatic importance attached to these constituencies. Christian Zionist organizations likewise continue to mobilize supporters around Israel, Iran, Jerusalem, antisemitism, and Middle Eastern security.
Future influence will also depend on changes within conservative politics. Debates among American conservatives over foreign intervention, military aid, nationalism, and an "America First" approach have created tensions between traditional evangelical supporters of Israel and conservative noninterventionists.
Christian Zionism consequently remains an important but evolving component of Western politics rather than a fixed political force.
Conclusion
The history of Christian Zionism demonstrates how religious ideas can move from theology into political organization and ultimately become one influence among many shaping foreign policy. British restorationism contributed to the religious and intellectual environment surrounding early Western support for Zionism, while American evangelical Christianity later developed extensive political, institutional, and personal relationships with Israel.
In the United States, these relationships became particularly influential within conservative and Republican politics. Christian Zionist organizations have mobilized voters and lobbied policymakers on Jerusalem, Israel's security, Iran, settlements, military assistance, and regional diplomacy. The Trump era made the political significance of this constituency especially visible.
Yet the collected material also demonstrates the limits of treating Christian Zionism as a complete explanation for Western policy toward Israel. Strategic interests, domestic politics, military considerations, diplomacy, Jewish political advocacy, presidential preferences, regional alliances, and historical relationships all interact with religious constituencies.
Christian Zionism itself is also undergoing change. Palestinian Christian criticism, competing Christian theologies, younger evangelical attitudes, conservative debates over interventionism, and the international expansion of evangelical politics are reshaping the movement. Understanding its influence therefore requires examining both its theological origins and the political institutions through which religious beliefs are transformed into foreign-policy advocacy.
Christian Zionism and Contemporary U.S. Foreign Policy
| Staff | Christianity Today | July 22, 2026
Reports declining favorable attitudes toward Israel among American evangelicals and considers what generational change could mean for a constituency long important to U.S. support for Israel.
| Staff | Responsible Statecraft | July 8, 2026
Examines Christians United for Israel's annual lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill and the growing religious opposition challenging CUFI's influence on American policy toward Israel.
| Daniel G. Hummel | Christianity Today | June 30, 2026
Reviews the history of dispensationalism and Christian Zionism while challenging historical claims circulating in the contemporary conservative debate over U.S. support for Israel.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | May 12, 2026
Explains Christian Zionist theology, its development among evangelicals, and the movement's continuing impact on American politics and relations with Israel.
| Reuters | Reuters | March 28, 2026
Describes the widening divide between traditionally pro-Israel evangelical Republicans and younger conservative noninterventionists questioning military commitments to Israel.
| Freddy Brewster | Jacobin | March 20, 2026
Argues that Christian Zionist organizations and political allies helped build American support for confrontation and regime-change policies toward Iran.
| Staff | Religion News Service | February 25, 2026
Examines competing evangelical approaches to Israel and Palestine and the increasingly visible theological debate over what American Christian foreign-policy advocacy should promote.
| Staff | The Guardian | February 21, 2026
Analyzes the confrontation between Mike Huckabee's Christian Zionist defense of the U.S.-Israel alliance and a growing America First critique of foreign aid and intervention.
| Staff | The Washington Post | February 20, 2026
Covers a debate between U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Tucker Carlson over biblical territorial claims, American aid, and whether theology should influence U.S. Middle East policy.
| R. R. Reno | The Washington Post | February 20, 2026
Presents a Catholic defense of political Zionism based on history, theology, Israel's security, and the author's understanding of American strategic interests.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | February 17, 2026
Critiques the interaction between conservative Christianity, Christian Zionism, and the foreign-policy worldview surrounding Donald Trump's administration.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | January 25, 2026
Criticizes Mike Huckabee's Christian Zionist interpretation of Israel and argues that it conflicts with the positions of historic Christian communities in the Holy Land.
| Staff | Religion News Service | January 20, 2026
Reports Jerusalem church leaders' condemnation of Christian Zionism and discusses the ideology's growing prominence within Israeli-American political relations.
| International Christian Embassy Jerusalem | ICEJ | January 20, 2026
Provides a Christian Zionist response to criticism by Jerusalem's patriarchs, defending biblical Zionism as a religious conviction rather than merely a political program.
| Staff | The Washington Post | January 3, 2026
Reports Israeli efforts to strengthen ties with American evangelical pastors as younger conservative Christians become less uniformly supportive of Israel.
Israel's Cultivation of Evangelical Political Support
| Staff | Middle East Eye | December 17, 2025
Criticizes Israeli outreach to American evangelical leaders and argues that Christian Zionism marginalizes the perspectives of indigenous Palestinian Christian communities.
| Staff | Christianity Today | November 25, 2025
Investigates efforts to influence American Christian opinion regarding Israel and Palestine as support for Israel becomes increasingly divided by generation.
| Associated Press | AP News | October 9, 2025
Reports on more than a thousand evangelical Christians gathering in Jerusalem and explains the biblical and political convictions sustaining Christian Zionist support for Israel.
| Staff | Religion News Service | October 3, 2025
Describes evangelical Christians in the Middle East who reject politically centered Christian Zionism in favor of reconciliation, peacemaking, and greater attention to Palestinian Christians.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | September 11, 2025
Covers American Christians organizing around Palestinian solidarity as a counterweight to the traditionally powerful Christian Zionist movement.
| Staff | Religion News Service | June 5, 2025
Profiles evangelical leader Johnnie Moore and discusses the role of pro-Israel evangelical networks in American diplomacy and Middle Eastern political relationships.
| Staff | Religion News Service | February 11, 2025
Examines declining attachment to Israel among younger evangelicals and the implications for the long-standing evangelical foundation of American pro-Israel politics.
| Tiffany Stanley | AP News | February 5, 2025
Explains why conservative evangelicals remain among Israel's strongest American supporters and describes their influence during Donald Trump's second administration.
| Staff | Le Monde | October 14, 2024
Examines Donald Trump's courtship of Christian Zionists and connects evangelical political support to policies including Jerusalem recognition and recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
| Staff | Contending Modernities, University of Notre Dame | September 26, 2024
Examines Christian Zionism as a geopolitical and public-theological force in Latin America and its connections with conservative politics and identification with Israel.
| Staff | Religion News Service | June 3, 2024
Summarizes survey research showing how attitudes toward Israel vary among American religious groups and between younger and older evangelicals.
| Reuters | Reuters | March 22, 2024
Examines evangelical media portrayals of Donald Trump and notes that supporters frequently cite his Jerusalem embassy decision among the foreign-policy accomplishments earning their loyalty.
| Staff | Religion News Service | February 28, 2024
Describes Israeli government outreach to evangelicals as international criticism of Israel's Gaza campaign intensified.
Evangelical Politics After October 7
| Staff | Sojourners | November 9, 2023
Critiques the apocalyptic beliefs that have historically motivated some American evangelical support for Israel and considers their political consequences.
| Staff | Christianity Today | October 12, 2023
Traces the changing history of evangelical attitudes toward Israel, including both organized Christian Zionism and evangelical movements sympathetic to Palestinians.
| Staff | Al-Shabaka | October 3, 2023
Offers a Palestinian policy critique of Christian Zionist theology and argues that it contributes to Western political support for Israeli control of Palestinian territory.
| Associated Press | AP News | October 2023
Explores Israel's emergence as a major voting issue among Iowa evangelicals during the Republican presidential campaign after the October 7 Hamas attack.
| Tiffany Stanley | AP News | July 18, 2023
Reports Republican presidential candidates competing for support at the Christians United for Israel summit, demonstrating CUFI's importance within Republican foreign-policy politics.
| Shibley Telhami | Brookings Institution | July 18, 2023
Uses public-opinion data to compare evangelical attitudes toward Israel, Zionism, democracy, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with those of other Americans.
Evangelical Foreign Policy Beyond the United States
| Maria Carpenedo et al. | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Introduces research on the expansion of Christian Zionism and philo-Semitism throughout the Global South and their growing importance in international politics.
| S. Dadoo | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Investigates Christian Zionist theology among politically influential Pentecostal churches and its relationship to foreign-policy preferences.
| Paul Freston | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Analyzes the rise of politically mobilized Christian Zionism in Brazil and its connection to evangelical participation in national politics.
| Maria Carpenedo | Academic Research | 2025
Explores Brazilian evangelical engagement with biblical Israel and discusses the broader development of an evangelical foreign-policy orientation.
| Academic Authors | Austral: Brazilian Journal of Strategy & International Relations | 2025
Examines Brazilian policy toward Israel during the Bolsonaro government and the role evangelical constituencies played in changing Brazilian diplomatic priorities.
| Staff | Arab Center Washington DC | August 24, 2022
Examines relationships among American evangelicals, Gulf Arab governments, Israel, the Abraham Accords, and the strategic alignment against Iran.
| T. Ziv | Politics and Religion | 2022
Uses comparative quantitative evidence to test whether countries with larger evangelical populations exhibit greater diplomatic support for Israel.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | August 17, 2020
Reports Christian Zionist enthusiasm for the Israel-UAE normalization agreement and considers evangelical influence on the Trump administration's regional strategy.
| Staff | Foreign Policy | April 6, 2019
Examines Jair Bolsonaro's attempt to deepen Brazil's relationship with Israel while satisfying the evangelical constituency central to his political coalition.
| Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | May 17, 2018
Explains how Guatemala's evangelical and Pentecostal political culture contributed to President Jimmy Morales's decision to move Guatemala's embassy to Jerusalem.
| Mark Tooley | Providence | February 12, 2018
Discusses the globalization of Christian Zionism and highlights evangelical influence on pro-Israel diplomacy in Guatemala and other countries.
Jerusalem and the Trump Administration
| Philip Bump | The Washington Post | May 14, 2018
Reviews polling on evangelical support for Israel and discusses the importance of Jerusalem and biblical territorial claims within Christian Zionist thought.
| Staff | Institute for Palestine Studies | February 9, 2018
Examines Mike Pence's views on Israel as part of a longer Protestant Christian Zionist tradition and considers their consequences for American Middle East diplomacy.
| Staff | The Washington Post | January 28, 2018
Traces Israel's long political alliance with American evangelicals while examining signs that younger evangelicals may be less committed to unconditional support.
| Staff | Times of Israel | January 24, 2018
Investigates how Mike Pence's evangelical faith shaped his attachment to Israel and asks how directly those religious convictions translated into administration policy.
| Associated Press | AP News | January 22, 2018
Reports Palestinian Christian criticism of Vice President Pence's evangelical Zionism during his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
| Robert O. Smith | Contending Modernities | January 8, 2018
Situates Trump's recognition of Jerusalem within the history of American Christian Zionism and examines competing explanations for evangelical political influence.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | January 8, 2018
Traces CUFI, John Hagee, evangelical electoral politics, and the development of the Christian Zionist alliance surrounding the Trump administration.
| Maher Muna | Middle East Research and Information Project | 2018
Examines the political background of Trump's Jerusalem recognition and identifies evangelical Christianity and Christian Zionism as significant domestic influences.
| Melani McAlister | Georgetown University Berkley Center | December 20, 2017
Evaluates how much evangelical political pressure contributed to Trump's recognition of Jerusalem and cautions against reducing the decision to a single cause.
| Célia Belin | Brookings Institution | December 15, 2017
Presents Trump's Jerusalem decision as a major victory for evangelical politics and traces Christian Zionist influence within Republican foreign policy.
| Harvard Kennedy School | Harvard Ash Center | December 4, 2017
Discusses historian Daniel Hummel's research on Christian Zionism, the Religious Right, U.S.-Israeli relations, and Donald Trump's political coalition.
| Staff | Time | December 2017
Reviews the diplomatic consequences of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the domestic political environment surrounding Trump's decision.
| Christians United for Israel | CUFI | December 2017
Primary-source statement celebrating Trump's Jerusalem policy and describing CUFI's lobbying campaign urging the administration to move the American embassy.
Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, and Evangelical Statecraft
| Associated Press | AP News | November 20, 2020
Reports Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to a Jerusalem museum honoring Christian Zionists during a trip that also emphasized the Trump administration's support for Israel.
| Staff | The Washington Post | August 25, 2020
Examines Pompeo's religious worldview and the prominence of Christian Zionist symbolism in his approach to Israel and American foreign policy.
| Staff | The Washington Post | June 30, 2020
Warns that the growing political mainstreaming of Christian Zionism could shape policy toward Jerusalem, settlements, Iran, and other Middle Eastern conflicts.
| Nancy LeTourneau | Washington Monthly | January 7, 2020
Argues that Mike Pompeo's rhetoric about Israel and Iran closely reflected the agenda and worldview promoted by Christians United for Israel.
| John Fea | The Way of Improvement Leads Home | January 7, 2020
Considers possible connections between Pompeo's evangelical worldview, Christian Zionism, Israel policy, and the Trump administration's confrontation with Iran.
| Jack Jenkins | National Catholic Reporter / Religion News Service | July 9, 2019
Covers speeches by Pence and Pompeo to CUFI and the close relationship between senior Trump officials and America's largest Christian pro-Israel organization.
| Ron Kampeas | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | July 8, 2019
Reports Pence and Pompeo's appearances before Christians United for Israel and explains what their participation indicated about White House relations with evangelical Zionists.
| Mike Pence | White House Archives | July 8, 2019
Primary-source speech showing how the Trump administration presented Jerusalem, Iran, Israel's security, and U.S.-Israeli relations directly to Christian Zionist activists.
| Staff | The New Republic | March 25, 2019
Examines the role of evangelical Christianity in the Trump administration's diplomacy, including policy toward Israel and recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
| Staff | The Guardian | January 11, 2019
Investigates evangelical influence inside the Trump administration, focusing on Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, conservative Christian networks, and strong political support for Israel.
| Mike Pence | American Presidency Project | July 17, 2017
Primary-source address demonstrating Pence's longstanding political relationship with John Hagee and Christians United for Israel.
CUFI, Lobbying, and U.S. Middle East Policy
| Mohd Afandi Salleh and Hafiz Zakariya | Intellectual Discourse | 2012
Academic case study of Christians United for Israel examining how religious beliefs, lobbying, political activism, and interest-group organization influence American Middle East policy.
| M. Kupferberg | Brandeis University | 2009
Studies John Hagee and Christian Zionism as a political movement seeking to influence American elected officials and foreign policy toward Israel.
| D. Friedman | Religion and Society | 2009
Examines Christian Zionism as a religious-political force and assesses its impact on American foreign policy and geopolitical thinking.
| William N. Dale | American Diplomacy | 2004
Analyzes the theological foundations of Christian Zionism and assesses how the movement has affected American policy debates concerning Israel and the Palestinians.
| Staff | The Washington Post | January 25, 2002
Examines Israel's outreach to American evangelicals and raises questions about Christian Zionism's capacity to influence U.S. foreign policy.
| Christians United for Israel | CUFI | Current
Presents CUFI's official position on Iran, connecting opposition to the Iranian government with the defense of Israel and American strategic interests.
| Author | Logos Journal | 2000s
Offers a strongly critical examination of Christian Zionist groups including the Christian Coalition, Moral Majority, and pro-Israel lobbying organizations.
Iran, War, and Regional Security
| Staff | The Washington Post | January 28, 2020
Critiques Christian Zionist philo-Semitism and its relationship to the Trump administration's unusually permissive approach toward Israeli territorial policies.
| Staff | YubaNet | August 12, 2019
Connects Christian Zionist political support with Trump's Jerusalem, Golan Heights, settlement, and annexation policies.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | July 8, 2019
Covers Christian Zionist leaders celebrating Trump's Israel policies at a Washington conference while critics protested outside.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | March 24, 2019
Profiles a Christian political movement supporting Trump and Israel and examines claims that evangelical Christian Zionism significantly influences Republican policy.
| David Brog | Foreign Policy | September 16, 2009
Presents a defense of Christian Zionists and discusses their support for Israel, sanctions against Iran, and resistance to American pressure on Israeli governments.
Scholarship on Christian Zionism and International Relations
| Maryam Jamilah | Journal of Law and Social Transformation | 2026
Critically analyzes Christian Zionism as an ideology influencing Western support for Israel and evaluates its implications for Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
| Yusuf Mandacı | Academic Journal | 2025
Provides a detailed analysis of Christian Zionist influence during Trump's first administration, including Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Iran, settlements, and the Abraham Accords.
| Academic Authors | Academic Journal | 2023
Studies encounters between evangelical Christian Zionists and West Bank settlers and the political and theological relationships created through these networks.
| Academic Author | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics | 2019
Surveys the role religion has played throughout U.S.-Israel relations, including Christian and Jewish political constituencies and domestic influences on foreign-policy decisions.
| Tristan Sturm | Queen's University Belfast | 2015
Analyzes Christian Zionism as a form of religious nationalism and describes the movement's development of a distinct evangelical approach to American foreign policy.
| Academic Author | Oxford University Press | Academic chapter
Examines evangelical attitudes toward Israel and explains the multiple theological, cultural, democratic, strategic, and moral arguments evangelicals use to justify political support.
| Academic Authors | Bar-Ilan University | Academic
Examines Christian Zionist relationships with Israeli settlers and how these alliances reshape longstanding boundaries between evangelical Christians and religious Jews.
British Christian Zionism and the Origins of Western Policy
| Roberto Mazza | Filistin Araştırmaları Dergisi | December 31, 2025
Examines Christian Zionism, British Israelism, imperial strategy, and crusading rhetoric surrounding Britain's First World War conquest of Palestine.
| Roberto Mazza | Academic Journal | 2025
Explores the religious dimensions of British wartime policy toward Palestine and argues that theology formed part of the conceptual framework of British imperial decision-makers.
| Staff | Britain Palestine Project | 2020
Collects perspectives on Christian Zionism, the British Mandate, the Balfour Declaration, and competing Jewish and Christian interpretations of Israel.
| Philip Alexander | Jewish Historical Studies | March 7, 2018
Investigates Arthur Balfour's reasons for supporting Zionism and places religious conviction alongside strategic, political, and imperial considerations.
| Staff | Britain Palestine Project | December 19, 2017
Examines evangelical Christianity, British restorationist thinking, and the religious background surrounding British support for Zionism and the Balfour Declaration.
| Gershon Shafir | Fathom Journal | 2017
Argues that British Christian Zionism preceded organized political Zionism and helped create an imperial framework favorable to the idea of Jewish restoration in Palestine.
Theological Debate and Competing Christian Perspectives
| Staff | Christianity Today | April 6, 2020
Discusses Daniel Hummel's scholarship arguing that Christian Zionism developed through theology, Cold War diplomacy, politics, tourism, and Jewish-evangelical relationships rather than apocalyptic prophecy alone.
| Staff | Christianity Today | June 22, 2017
Presents arguments for a revised Christian Zionism that supports Israel while attempting to take Palestinian rights and Christian ethical concerns more seriously.
| Ryan Rodrick Beiler | Sojourners | March 2015
Describes evangelical movements challenging reflexively pro-Israel politics and seeking greater engagement with Palestinian Christians and peacemaking.
| Staff | Sojourners | March 2015
Critiques both uncritical Christian Zionism and uncompromising anti-Israel activism while arguing for an evangelical approach centered on justice and reconciliation.
| Staff | Christianity Today | January 2014
Argues that evangelical foreign-policy attitudes cannot be explained solely by prophecy and Christian Zionism and calls for recognition of Palestinian self-determination.
| Gary Burge | Christianity Today | June 26, 2012
Reviews the historical evolution of Christian attitudes toward Zionism and the changing divide between evangelical and mainline Protestant approaches.
| Glen Stassen and David Gushee | Sojourners | September 20, 2011
Evangelical critics argue that Christian Zionist advocacy pushes American policy toward settlement and territorial positions that obstruct peace and Palestinian rights.
| Staff | Sojourners | April 16, 2009
Calls on evangelicals to reject deterministic forms of Christian Zionism and to pursue a Middle East policy centered on justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.
| Staff | Sojourners | March 1977
An early evangelical critique of theological Zionism written as American Christian support for Israel was becoming increasingly politically organized.
Historical Development of the American Evangelical-Israel Alliance
| David Remnick | The New Yorker | August 27, 2007
Reviews the broader debate over organized support for Israel in American politics, providing context for understanding Christian Zionists as one component of the U.S. pro-Israel coalition.
| Academic Author | Academic Journal | 2007
Examines Christian relationships with Zionism and the expectations surrounding political cooperation between evangelical Christians and supporters of Israel.
| Staff | The Washington Post | March 26, 2004
Traces evangelical support for Israel from nineteenth-century restorationist theology through 1948, the Six-Day War, and contemporary American politics.
| William Claiborne | The Washington Post | March 22, 1981
Documents Israeli officials' early recognition that the rapidly growing American evangelical movement could become a powerful political ally against hostile Arab states.
Changing Evangelical Attitudes and the Future of the Alliance
| Staff | Foreign Policy | July 19, 2021
Examines the future of Christian Zionism after Trump and Netanyahu and asks whether demographic and generational shifts will weaken evangelical support for Israel.
| Staff | Religion News Service | July 19, 2021
Argues that evangelical support for Israel is historically contingent rather than inevitable and describes emerging generational and theological changes.
| Staff | Religion News Service | May 27, 2021
Calls on evangelicals to reconsider Christian Zionist assumptions and discusses the movement's historical role in British and American policy toward Palestine and Israel.
| Shibley Telhami | Brookings Institution | May 26, 2021
Uses polling to document falling support for Israel among younger evangelicals and considers what this could mean for the future of Israeli-American political relations.
| Staff | Sojourners | May 26, 2021
Examines increasing Christian concern for Palestinian rights and criticism that Christian Zionism has separated American evangelicals from Palestinian Christians.
| Staff | Middle East Eye | March 22, 2021
Discusses the documentary Til Kingdom Come and argues that evangelical Christian Zionism has had significant consequences for American Middle East policy.
Christian Zionism, Settlements, and Palestinian Christians
| Staff | Jerusalem Post | August 3, 2026
Reports Palestinian Christian leaders' criticism of American Christian Zionists for supporting Israel and providing assistance to West Bank settlements.
| Staff | The Guardian | April 5, 2026
Investigates threats faced by Palestinian Christian communities in the West Bank while examining Israeli outreach to American evangelicals who support settlement expansion.
| Fares Abraham | The Washington Post | January 22, 2026
Argues that American Christian Zionist politics have overlooked dangers faced by Palestinian Christians and urges greater attention from U.S. Christians.
Broader Political Interpretations
| Staff | New York Magazine | 2025
Surveys the radical history and contemporary political power of Christian Zionism, from dispensational theology to the Religious Right, Netanyahu, Trump, and modern conservative politics.
| Academic Author | Milel ve Nihal | December 31, 2024
Examines American support for Israel through Christian Zionist theology and evaluates its influence on policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Presents an Israeli discussion of evangelical support and addresses common criticisms that Christian Zionists support Israel primarily because of end-times theology.
| Staff | Religion News Service | July 8, 2019
Presents a critical theological interpretation of Christian Zionism, focusing on Jerusalem, territorial maximalism, conversion, and the political consequences of end-times beliefs.
| David Remnick | The New Yorker | January 2013
Profiles the rise of Israeli religious nationalism and the settlement movement, providing political context for the Israeli constituencies that have built alliances with Christian Zionists.
Religion and American Foreign Policy in Broader Perspective
| Staff | Yale Journal of International Affairs | May 1, 2018
Evaluates the Trump administration's emphasis on persecuted Christians and contrasts Pence's rhetoric about Middle Eastern Christians with broader regional policies.
| Staff | The Washington Post | May 24, 2017
Explains why Trump's first presidential visit to Israel mattered politically to American evangelicals, particularly activists pressing him to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
| Staff | Christianity Today | 2017
Examines efforts to mobilize Hispanic evangelicals politically around Israel and encourage voters to make U.S.-Israel relations a factor in electoral decisions.
| Brookings Institution | Brookings Institution | 2003
Discusses religion's role in American foreign policy and identifies evangelical concern with Israel and Middle Eastern politics as a distinct modern influence on policymaking.
Contemporary Christian Zionism and American Foreign Policy
| Staff | Al Jazeera | May 17, 2026
Examines evidence that Christian Zionism may be losing influence among younger American conservatives and considers the implications for future U.S. support for Israel.
| Reuters | Reuters | April 8, 2026
Examines evangelical support for the Trump administration's war against Iran and the use of explicitly biblical language connecting Iran, Israel, prophecy, and American military policy.
| Staff | Arab Center Washington DC | December 31, 2025
Analyzes declining evangelical support for Israel and Israeli efforts to preserve one of the most important religious constituencies supporting U.S.-Israeli relations.
| Staff | Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs | November 11, 2025
Presents a strongly supportive case for Christian Zionism as an international political force capable of strengthening Israel and American strategic interests.
| Staff | Le Monde | July 18, 2025
Examines the Trump administration's alignment with hardline Israeli policies and discusses the influence of Christian Zionist ideas within the president's political coalition.
| Alberto Priego Moreno | Araucaria | June 10, 2025
Academic study of Christian Zionism's relationship with Israel and the ways evangelical theology has contributed to the formation of U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine.
| Staff | The Guardian | March 23, 2025
Investigates the interaction between Christian nationalist politics, support for Zionism, antisemitism policy, Israel advocacy, and contemporary American government policy.
Evangelicals, Iran, and Middle East War
| Staff | Christian Post | 2026
Surveys evangelical reactions to conflict with Iran and illustrates how theological commitments to Israel continue to affect attitudes toward American military intervention.
| Staff | Christianity Today | 2026
Explores evangelical interpretations of conflict involving Israel and Iran and distinguishes prophetic readings from humanitarian and noninterventionist Christian perspectives.
| Staff | Jerusalem Post | 2025
Reports Christian Zionist support for Israel amid confrontation with Iran and highlights evangelical arguments connecting Israeli security with broader Western security interests.
| Christians United for Israel | CUFI | 2025
Provides CUFI's official advocacy materials supporting strong American pressure on Iran because of its nuclear program, regional activities, and threats against Israel.
| Christians United for Israel | CUFI | 2025
Shows how Christian Zionist activists are encouraged to contact members of Congress about Israel, Iran, military aid, antisemitism, and other foreign-policy issues.
| Staff | Foundation for Defense of Democracies | 2025
Discusses American evangelical views of Israel and Iran within debates over deterrence, regional security, and U.S. Middle East strategy.
| Staff | Times of Israel | 2025
Reports statements by evangelical leaders defending Israeli military action and urging continued American strategic support.
| Staff | Jewish News Syndicate | 2025
Presents Christian Zionist arguments for confronting Iran and describes evangelical support as an important component of Israel's international diplomatic coalition.
| Staff | Religion News Service | 2025
Explores disagreement among American Christians over whether conflict between Israel and Iran should be interpreted through biblical prophecy.
Christians United for Israel and Political Lobbying
| Staff | Religion News Service | July 2024
Reports on CUFI's annual Washington summit and the involvement of congressional leaders and conservative political figures.
| Staff | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | July 2024
Covers Christian Zionist political organizing and the messages delivered by American lawmakers to evangelical supporters of Israel.
Examines Christian Zionist lobbying in Washington and tensions between evangelical support for Israel and growing criticism of Israeli policy.
Examines political spending and lobbying associated with pro-Israel constituencies, including organizations supported by conservative evangelical Christians.
| Staff | Times of Israel | 2024
Reports evangelical activists lobbying members of Congress in support of military aid and diplomatic backing for Israel.
| Staff | Jerusalem Post | 2024
Covers CUFI political mobilization and its efforts to preserve bipartisan congressional support for Israel.
| Christians United for Israel | CUFI | Current
Describes CUFI's mission, organizational structure, membership, and objective of mobilizing American Christians to support Israel politically.
| Christians United for Israel | CUFI | Current
Lists the major foreign-policy issues around which CUFI mobilizes supporters, including Iran, Israel's security, Jerusalem, antisemitism, and U.S.-Israel relations.
| CUFI Action Fund | CUFI | Current
Describes the organization's political advocacy arm and its efforts to influence legislation, elections, and American foreign policy.
| Christians United for Israel | CUFI | Current
Provides primary-source statements showing how Christian Zionist leaders respond to American legislation and diplomatic developments involving Israel.
Generational Change Among American Evangelicals
| Staff | Religion News Service | July 9, 2026
Reports new polling showing declining American approval of the Israeli government while white evangelicals remain substantially more supportive than most religious groups.
| Saafya Alnaqib | Chicago Council on Global Affairs | September 30, 2024
Uses survey data to demonstrate the unusually high levels of support Israel receives from American evangelicals compared with other American religious groups.
| Staff | Pew Research Center | March 21, 2024
Provides public-opinion data showing how white evangelical Protestants differ from other Americans in their attitudes toward Israel and the Gaza war.
| Staff | Pew Research Center | May 26, 2022
Documents religious and partisan differences in American views of Israelis and Palestinians, including unusually strong evangelical attachment to Israel.
| Staff | Christianity Today | June 2021
Reports polling showing younger evangelical Christians becoming substantially more sympathetic toward Palestinians than previous evangelical generations.
| Staff | Times of Israel | June 2021
Reports evidence of declining attachment to Israel among younger evangelical Christians and discusses Israeli concerns over the trend.
Examines generational differences within evangelical Christianity over Israel, Palestinian rights, and American foreign policy.
| Staff | Jerusalem Post | 2021
Discusses Israeli efforts to understand why younger evangelical Americans appear less attached to Israel than older generations.
Christian Zionism in Latin America
| Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Government of Israel | June 30, 2026
Primary-source account of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar addressing evangelical leaders from Latin America and emphasizing their importance to Israel's diplomacy.
| Staff | Genesis Prize Foundation | June 23, 2026
Discusses Israel's efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties across Latin America and the role evangelical and conservative political networks can play in that strategy.
| Staff | Electronic Intifada | May 22, 2026
Critiques efforts by Israeli officials and Latin American Christian Zionists to build a new regional diplomatic alignment modeled on the Abraham Accords.
| Ana Maria Monjardino | Mondoweiss | May 19, 2026
Examines changing Latin American politics toward Israel and the role evangelical and conservative political constituencies play in pro-Israel foreign-policy shifts.
| Paul Freston | Religion, State & Society | September 2025
Examines Brazilian churches in which Christian Zionism has moved from a religious orientation into political activism and foreign-policy preferences.
| Paul Freston | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Studies the rise of politically mobilized Christian Zionism in Brazil and connects it to Pentecostal participation in national politics.
| Staff | The Guardian | March 31, 2019
Reports Bolsonaro's Israel visit and the political tensions surrounding his evangelical supporters' demand that Brazil recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
| Reuters | Reuters | March 28, 2019
Explains the domestic evangelical pressure behind Bolsonaro's proposed Jerusalem embassy move and resistance from Brazilian agricultural interests.
| Reuters | Reuters | March 2019
Examines pressure from Brazilian evangelicals for Jair Bolsonaro to relocate Brazil's Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, and Jerusalem Diplomacy
| Associated Press | AP News | December 12, 2024
Reports Paraguay's decision to reopen its embassy in Jerusalem and places the move within a wider group of pro-Israel governments in Latin America.
| Reuters | Reuters | June 24, 2021
Covers Honduras's decision to open its embassy in Jerusalem and the religious and political relationships contributing to closer Israeli-Honduran ties.
| Reuters | Reuters | May 16, 2018
Reports Guatemala's Jerusalem embassy opening and discusses President Jimmy Morales's evangelical background and close relationship with Israel.
| Staff | Times of Israel | May 16, 2018
Reports Guatemala's embassy relocation and the country's historic religious and diplomatic ties with Israel.
| Staff | Haaretz | May 16, 2018
Covers Guatemala's Jerusalem decision and Israel's diplomatic courtship of evangelical-majority countries.
| Associated Press | AP News | 2018
Explains Guatemala's decision to follow the United States in moving its embassy to Jerusalem and the strength of evangelical Christianity in Guatemalan politics.
| Staff | Jerusalem Post | 2018
Reports President Jimmy Morales explicitly connecting his evangelical Christian beliefs to Guatemala's decision regarding Jerusalem.
British Christian Zionism and Imperial Foreign Policy
| Mary Grey | Britain Palestine Project | 2017
Surveys competing explanations for the Balfour Declaration, emphasizing the interaction of religious ideas with British imperial interests.
| Philip Alexander | Jewish Historical Studies | 2017
Reassesses Balfour's religious beliefs and their possible contribution to his support for a Jewish national home in Palestine.
| Gershon Shafir | University of Haifa | 2017
Provides a detailed historical examination of British Christian Zionism and the political environment surrounding the Balfour Declaration.
| Academic Authors | Cambridge University Press | Academic
Examines the Christian intellectual environment in Britain that preceded and accompanied official support for the Zionist project.
| Academic Author | Oxford University Press | Academic
Places Protestant restorationism within the wider history of British religious culture, imperialism, and political Zionism.
| Academic Author | Manchester University Press | Academic
Discusses Christian restorationist thought within British political culture and its relevance to imperial policy in the Middle East.
Nineteenth-Century Christian Restorationism
| Academic Author | Church History | Academic
Traces nineteenth-century evangelical beliefs about Jewish restoration and their movement from biblical interpretation into political discourse.
| Academic Author | Oxford Academic | Academic
Examines Protestant restorationist advocacy before the emergence of organized Jewish political Zionism.
| Academic Author | JSTOR | Academic
Places Victorian Christian Zionism within the broader religious and imperial culture of nineteenth-century Britain.
| Staff | Jewish Virtual Library | Current
Provides a historical overview of Christian restorationist thought, Lord Shaftesbury, dispensationalism, and later evangelical political support for Israel.
| Staff | My Jewish Learning | Current
Explains the origins and varieties of Christian Zionism and its political significance for modern Jewish-Christian relations.
| Editors | Encyclopaedia Britannica | Current
Gives an overview of the theological and historical development of Christian Zionism and its relationship to modern Israel.
Dispensationalism and American Political Culture
| Motti Inbari, Kirill Bumin and M. Gordon Byrd | Oxford University Press | 2024
Uses extensive survey evidence to analyze contemporary evangelical views of Israel and the political durability of Christian Zionism.
| Association for Israel Studies | Association for Israel Studies | 2024
Reviews scholarship measuring American evangelical opinion toward Israel and the changing political foundations of Christian Zionism.
| Daniel G. Hummel | Cambridge University Press | 2019
Studies the transformation of Christian Zionism from prophecy-oriented theology into organized political and diplomatic support for Israel.
| Academic Author | Yale University Press | Academic
Examines American evangelical perceptions of Israel and their significance for politics, theology, and American public life.
| Academic Author | Academic Journal | Academic
Explores dispensational theology and its transition into organized political advocacy for the modern State of Israel.
| Academic Author | Religion and American Culture | Academic
Examines how evangelical theology toward Israel became embedded within American conservative politics.
Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan, and the Religious Right
| Staff | The New York Times | August 1981
Examines the emerging political alliance between Israeli officials and American evangelical leaders during the Reagan era.
| Staff | Christianity Today | 1981
Reflects contemporary evangelical debate about Israel, biblical prophecy, and American policy during the early Reagan administration.
| Staff | The Washington Post | 1980
Discusses Jerry Falwell's growing political advocacy for Israel and the rise of the Christian Right as a foreign-policy constituency.
| Jewish Telegraphic Agency | JTA | 1980s
Reports on Jerry Falwell's relationships with Israeli leaders and the political mobilization of conservative Christians around Israel.
| Staff | Jewish Virtual Library | Current
Reviews Falwell's relationship with Israeli political leaders and his role in transforming evangelical support for Israel into organized political advocacy.
George W. Bush and Evangelical Middle East Politics
| Staff | The New York Times Magazine | October 2003
Explores the interaction among Christian Zionist voters, the Bush administration, Israel, and broader American Middle East strategy.
| Staff | The Washington Post | June 2002
Describes evangelical political pressure on President George W. Bush not to demand Israeli territorial concessions during the Second Intifada.
| Staff | The Guardian | April 18, 2002
Discusses American evangelical backing for Ariel Sharon and its possible influence on George W. Bush's Middle East diplomacy.
| Staff | Christian Science Monitor | April 16, 2002
Reports evangelical pressure campaigns designed to convince the Bush administration to take a more strongly pro-Israel position.
| Staff | The New York Times | April 2002
Examines conservative Christian mobilization around Bush administration policy toward Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Critiques evangelical prophecy beliefs and their potential effect on American policymaking toward Israel and the Palestinians.
Palestinian Christian Critiques
| Staff | Middle East Eye | 2024
Explores Palestinian Christian objections to American evangelical support for Israeli policies and settlements.
| Staff | Religion News Service | 2024
Describes Palestinian Christian efforts to persuade American evangelicals to reconsider theology that they believe ignores Palestinian rights and experiences.
| Staff | Christianity Today | October 2023
Reports Palestinian Christian appeals to Western evangelicals during the Gaza war and the theological disagreement surrounding Christian Zionism.
| Kairos Palestine | Kairos Palestine | Current
Presents a Palestinian Christian theological critique of occupation and of Christian interpretations that provide religious justification for Israeli control over Palestinian land.
| Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center | Sabeel | Current
Collects Palestinian Christian critiques of Christian Zionism and its effects on theology, international advocacy, and Western policy.
| Kairos Palestine | Kairos Palestine | Current
Provides Palestinian Christian statements addressing international policy toward Israel, occupation, Gaza, Jerusalem, and Christian Zionism.
Israel's Strategic Outreach to Evangelicals
| Government of Israel | Government of Israel | Current
Provides official information about Israel's engagement with Christian communities, an increasingly important component of Israeli public diplomacy.
| Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Government of Israel | Current
Describes Israel's diplomatic outreach toward Christian supporters and the importance attached to evangelical relations.
| Staff | Jerusalem Post | Current
Provides continuing coverage of Israeli relations with evangelical churches, Christian Zionist organizations, tourism ministries, and Christian political leaders.
| Staff | Times of Israel | Current
Collects reporting on Christian Zionist organizations, Israeli political outreach, evangelical leaders, and American foreign-policy debates.
Collects reporting and commentary on Christian Zionism, Israeli politics, American evangelicals, settlements, and diplomatic outreach.
| Staff | Jewish News Syndicate | Current
Provides predominantly supportive reporting on Christian Zionist engagement with Israel and its role in international political advocacy.
Christian Zionism and Western Strategic Thought
Presents a conservative Christian argument that Western support for Israel serves both religious commitments and broader strategic interests.
| Staff | Foundation for Defense of Democracies | 2024
Connects American evangelical support for Israel with arguments concerning Iran, terrorism, regional deterrence, and American national security.
| Staff | Providence | October 2023
Discusses Israel, Hamas, war, and Christian foreign-policy ethics from a Christian realist perspective distinct from purely prophetic Christian Zionism.
Considers the legitimacy of Christian support for Israel as part of a broader Christian approach to international affairs.
| Staff | Heritage Foundation | Current
Presents strategic arguments for strong U.S.-Israel relations that overlap significantly with the policy preferences of conservative Christian Zionists.
Christian Zionism and the Second Trump Administration
| Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | July 8, 2026
Reports an interfaith protest against the Christians United for Israel summit in Washington and examines criticism of Christian Zionism's influence on American foreign policy.
| Staff | Religion News Service | February 26, 2026
Presents a Palestinian American evangelical critique of Christian Zionism and its influence on American Christian perceptions of Israel and Palestine.
Contemporary Academic Research
| Motti Inbari, Kirill Bumin and M. Gordon Byrd | Oxford University Press | November 23, 2023
Investigates why American evangelicals support Israel and distinguishes theological explanations from political, cultural, ideological, and demographic factors.
| Motti Inbari and Kirill Bumin | Oxford University Press | November 23, 2023
Examines evangelical attitudes toward the Arab-Israeli conflict using public-opinion research and explores how those attitudes translate into foreign-policy preferences.
| Motti Inbari and Kirill Bumin | Oxford University Press | November 23, 2023
Presents extensive survey research on evangelical opinion toward Israel, Palestinians, theology, and American foreign policy.
| Sean Durbin | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion | September 20, 2023
Surveys Christian Zionism in the United States from 1930 to 2020 and connects evangelical activism to lobbying, donations, tourism, Jerusalem recognition, West Bank policy, and withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement.
| Leena Ballout | Diplomatic History | 2022
Traces American evangelical activity in Israel during the twentieth century and shows how Israeli officials developed relations with evangelical activists.
| Motti Inbari, Kirill Bumin and M. Gordon Byrd | Politics and Religion | 2021
Uses survey evidence to test competing explanations for exceptionally high evangelical support for Israel.
| Daniel G. Hummel | Church History | 2018
Reinterprets the origins of the Jewish-evangelical alliance and shows how popular culture, tourism, and political organization strengthened American support for Israel.
| Daniel G. Hummel | Church History | 2018
Examines the film His Land and its role in creating a cultural and political evangelical constituency for Israel.
| Tristan Sturm | Political Geography | 2017
Analyzes Christian Zionism as a form of religious nationalism whose adherents understand political support for Israel as a religious obligation.
| Daniel G. Hummel | Religion and American Culture | 2015
Studies G. Douglas Young and the development of practical evangelical activism in Israel before Christian Zionism became a major force in Republican politics.
| J. Williams | Journal of Church and State | 2015
Examines the Pentecostalization of Christian Zionism and the increasingly experiential identification of charismatic Christians with modern Israel.
| Ronald R. Stockton | Middle East Journal | 1987
Uses public-opinion data to investigate prophecy beliefs, attitudes toward Jews, and political support for Israel among Christian Zionists.
Religion and American Foreign-Policy Formation
| Daniel G. Hummel | Modern Intellectual History | 2020
Reviews scholarship on Protestantism, evangelical internationalism, American power, and the difficulty of measuring religious influence on specific foreign-policy decisions.
| Omar Ahmed Hamdi | Asian Affairs | 2018
Reviews strategic, domestic-political, religious, and ideological explanations for American support of Israel.
| Sandra Scanlon | Journal of American Studies | 2017
Reviews scholarship on how historians can assess religion as a causal influence on American diplomacy and foreign-policy decision-making.
| Paul Charles Merkley | American Foreign Policy Interests | 2005
Discusses the religious components of American Middle East policy and the importance of biblical interpretations of Israel in U.S. political culture.
| Martin Durham | Patterns of Prejudice | 2004
Examines evangelical Protestant influence on American foreign policy, particularly regarding Israel, Islam, the Iraq War, and the George W. Bush administration.
| Jeremy D. Mayer | Public Opinion Quarterly | 2004
Analyzes evangelical public opinion toward Israel and explores whether conservative Protestants constitute a distinct foreign-policy constituency.
Evangelical Lobbying and Political Organization
| Daniel G. Hummel | Journal of the American Academy of Religion | 2019
Reviews research on John Hagee and Christians United for Israel while considering religion, identity, mythology, and political mobilization.
| Jonathan Rynhold | Cambridge University Press | February 5, 2015
Assesses evangelical influence over American policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict and relationships between evangelicals, Jewish organizations, and the broader pro-Israel lobby.
| Jonathan Rynhold | Cambridge University Press | 2015
Contrasts evangelical Zionist mobilization with mainline Protestant activism critical of Israeli occupation and settlement policies.
| Steven Fink | Islamophobia Studies Journal | 2014
Analyzes anti-Muslim discourse within American Christian Zionism and connects John Hagee and CUFI to foreign-policy advocacy.
| Stephen Spector | Oxford University Press | 2009
Examines prophecy, the Bush administration, Christians United for Israel, John Hagee, territorial compromise, and competing evangelical approaches to Israel.
Origins of the Evangelical-Israeli Political Alliance
| Academic Author | Anthem Press | 2025
Traces Jerry Falwell's relationship with Menachem Begin and the transformation of evangelical sympathy for Israel into an organized conservative political alliance.
| Yaakov Ariel | Church History | 2006
Surveys the historical significance of Christian Zionism and its transformation from theological expectation into political activism.
Christian Zionism, Jerusalem, and Territorial Policy
| Sarah Posner | The Washington Post | August 22, 2019
Examines how Christian Zionist ideas shaped Donald Trump's rhetoric concerning American Jews, Israel, loyalty, and biblical politics.
| Samuel Goldman | The Washington Post | February 12, 2019
Argues that Christian political traditions and non-Jewish organization have played a major role in sustaining American support for Zionism and Israel.
| Stephen Spector | Journal of Church and State | 2019
Examines prophecy, evangelical politics, and the Trump administration's decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem.
Evangelical Politics Under George W. Bush
| Mark Silk | Religion News Service | April 25, 2014
Discusses scholarship questioning the assumption that prophetic theology alone explains evangelical attitudes toward Israel and foreign policy.
Christian Zionism and Iran
| Jason Wilson | The Guardian | April 10, 2026
Examines competing evangelical theologies surrounding American military policy toward Iran and their relationship to Christian nationalism and support for Israel.
| Jason Wilson | The Guardian | March 12, 2026
Traces Pete Hegseth's longstanding religiously framed hostility toward Iran and his support for Israeli territorial claims.
Prophecy, Apocalypticism, and Foreign Policy
| Tristan Sturm | Geografiska Annaler | 2021
Investigates Christian Zionist prophetic interpretations of Gaza and the ways imagined future events influence political understandings of contemporary conflict.
Palestinian Christians and Christian Zionism
| Academic Author | Oxford University Press | November 14, 2025
Examines the Christ at the Checkpoint movement and its critique of Western evangelical theology that Palestinian Christians argue facilitates occupation and political inequality.
| Staff | Religion News Service | March 19, 2025
Reports senior Middle Eastern Christian leaders criticizing Christian Zionism for theological and political consequences affecting Palestinian Christians.
| H. Shehadeh | Journal of Modern Jewish Studies | 2025
Reconsiders Christian and Jewish Zionism from a Palestinian perspective and critiques approaches that leave Palestinians outside dominant historical narratives.
| P. Wilson | International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church | 2022
Reviews an evangelical critique arguing that Christian Zionism represents both a theological and ethical failure concerning Palestinians.
| Michele Chabin | Religion News Service | June 18, 2018
Reports evangelical tours designed to expose American Christians to Palestinians and occupation, challenging conventional Christian Zionist pilgrimage narratives.
Israeli Outreach and Religious Soft Power
| T. Ziv | Politics and Religion | 2024
Studies religious soft power and the ways relationships with Israel can motivate evangelical Christians toward political, charitable, and diplomatic action.
| Staff | Religion News Service | March 11, 2021
Discusses the documentary Til Kingdom Come and Israel's strategic cultivation of American evangelical political and financial support.
Tourism as Political Mobilization
| Academic Authors | Current Issues in Tourism | 2008
Examines Holy Land tourism as a site where Christian Zionist and Palestinian Christian narratives compete for the political loyalties of visiting Christians.
Christian Zionism in the Global South
| Donald Lewis | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Proposes a research framework for understanding Christian Zionism as an increasingly global rather than primarily American movement.
| Paul Freston | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Challenges common assumptions about Christian Zionism by emphasizing its historical depth, geographical reach, and theological diversity.
| Yotam Gidron | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Examines Christian Zionist discourse in Uganda and the ways support for Israel contributes to domestic political legitimacy.
| Maria Carpenedo | Religion, State & Society | 2025
Studies political mobilization of Christian Zionist and philo-Semitic sentiments within Brazilian Pentecostal evangelicalism.
Britain and the Origins of Christian Zionist Foreign Policy
| William Vance Trollinger Jr. | Church History | December 17, 2014
Reviews scholarship tracing Christian Zionism from early Protestant restorationism through its modern political form.
| Donald M. Lewis | Cambridge University Press | 2010
Traces evangelical lobbying for Jewish restoration in Palestine and demonstrates that religious advocates attempted to influence British foreign policy before modern political Zionism.
| Donald M. Lewis | Cambridge University Press | 2010
Introduces a historical study documenting evangelical campaigns directed at British political leaders in support of Jewish restoration.
Christian Zionism as Religious Nationalism
| Yaakov Ariel | Church History | 2020
Reviews the historical development of American Christian Zionism and its emergence as an influential political force.
| James L. Guth | Perspectives on Politics | May 13, 2019
Reviews Goldman's history of Christian Zionism and considers the future political strength of its evangelical constituency.
| Samuel Goldman | University of Pennsylvania Press | 2018
Traces Christian Zionist ideas through American political thought from Puritanism to the twenty-first century.
Jewish-Evangelical Coalition Building
| Academic Author | Oxford University Press | June 17, 2026
Examines Jewish-Christian political cooperation over Israel and the conservative interfaith alliances strengthened during the War on Terror.
| Academic Authors | Cambridge University Press | 2024
Places Christian Zionism within the broader expansion of Jewish-Christian relations and reviews competing theological approaches toward Israel and the land.
| Academic Reviewer | Academic Journal | 2021
Examines the internationalization of evangelical Christian Zionism and the changing institutional relationship between Christians, Jews, and Israel.
| Dov Waxman | Academic Review | 2020
Reviews Daniel Hummel's history of evangelical-Jewish relations and emphasizes that Christian Zionism rests on political and historical arguments as well as prophecy.
| Michael Berkman | Political Science Quarterly | 2020
Reviews the development of evangelical-Jewish cooperation and its connection to major Trump-era changes in American Middle East policy.
Christian Zionism and Public Opinion
| Academic Reviewer | Arab Studies Quarterly | 2024
Reviews recent survey research documenting changing evangelical attitudes toward Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Competing Evangelical Approaches to Israel
| The Conversation | Religion News Service | April 3, 2025
Explains how Protestant positions toward Zionism changed over time and why Christian Zionism cannot be reduced to a single conservative evangelical tradition.
| Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post | December 14, 2015
Reports evangelical leaders challenging unconditional political support for Israeli government policy.
Israel and the American Religious Right
| Adam Gabbatt | The Guardian | October 30, 2023
Explains the prophetic and political foundations of evangelical support for Israel following the October 7 attack.
| Chris McGreal | The Guardian | March 6, 2023
Reports evangelical activists seeking Republican presidential candidates committed to strongly pro-Israel foreign policies.
| Ed Pilkington | The Guardian | February 17, 2017
Examines enthusiasm among Jewish and Christian right-wing Zionists after Trump cast doubt on the longstanding American commitment to a two-state solution.
Strategic Versus Religious Explanations
| Academic Author | Cambridge University Press | December 23, 2021
Identifies religion, shared political values, and historical experience as major foundations of American support for Zionism and Israel.
The Broader Historical Literature
| Göran Gunner and Robert O. Smith, eds. | Fortress Press | 2014
Collects multidisciplinary perspectives challenging overly simple explanations of Christian Zionism based solely on premillennial dispensationalism.
| Victoria Clark | Yale University Press | 2007
Examines the powerful American Christian Zionist coalition surrounding Israel, prophecy, lobbying, and Middle East politics.
