And it’s actually worse than that. The evangelicals think that there are two conditions that need to be met before Jesus returns.
The first is that Israel is run by Jews. Check.
The second is that Israel suffers a huge attack. I’d say check, but apparently none have been “Jesus returns” big.
But that second part is important. What would happen if some diplomatic genius achieved Middle East peace tomorrow. Somehow, this guy did the diplomacy version of waving a magic wand and now everyone in the region is hugging each other. Great, right?
Well, not for evangelicals. Peace in the Middle East means the chances of an attack on Israel plummet. Certainly any “Jesus returns” level attack.
So the evangelicals NEED the conflict to rage on. They are major contributors to the settlers - who illegally take over Palestinian land because their reading of the Torah says it should be Jewish land. (It doesn’t say that, but people will often decide a religious text says what they want it to say.) The evangelicals also help support the right wing politicians in Israel.
In short, evangelicals are basically taking an existing raging fire, tossing kindling on top of it, and then pouring a few gallons of gasoline on top of that.
Oh, and one final note about “Jesus returning.” They believe that, after Jesus returns, he’ll take them to heaven and toss everyone else - especially all the Jews - into hell. So their “support for Israel” is just delayed anti-semitism (as well as immediate Islamophobia).
And it’s actually worse than that. The evangelicals think that there are two conditions that need to be met before Jesus returns.
The first is that Israel is run by Jews. Check.
The second is that Israel suffers a huge attack. I’d say check, but apparently none have been “Jesus returns” big.
But that second part is important. What would happen if some diplomatic genius achieved Middle East peace tomorrow. Somehow, this guy did the diplomacy version of waving a magic wand and now everyone in the region is hugging each other. Great, right?
Well, not for evangelicals. Peace in the Middle East means the chances of an attack on Israel plummet. Certainly any “Jesus returns” level attack.
So the evangelicals NEED the conflict to rage on. They are major contributors to the settlers - who illegally take over Palestinian land because their reading of the Torah says it should be Jewish land. (It doesn’t say that, but people will often decide a religious text says what they want it to say.) The evangelicals also help support the right wing politicians in Israel.
In short, evangelicals are basically taking an existing raging fire, tossing kindling on top of it, and then pouring a few gallons of gasoline on top of that.
Oh, and one final note about “Jesus returning.” They believe that, after Jesus returns, he’ll take them to heaven and toss everyone else - especially all the Jews - into hell. So their “support for Israel” is just delayed anti-semitism (as well as immediate Islamophobia).