While Israel’s national camp has been up in arms over the pending formation of a “change government” led by Naftali Bennett (Yamina) and Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), the most vehement critic seems to be Mike Evans, head of the evangelical Christian “Friends of Zion Heritage Center” and a longtime ally of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud).
The relationship between Netanyahu and the American evangelicals – who have consistently offered political and financial support to him and his governments – is one of the darkest stains on his otherwise impressive record of maintaining Israel’s relative independence despite pressures from the United States.
Whether escalating tensions in light of the perceived hostility of Barack Obama, or placating Donald Trump with empty words despite Trump’s “great friendship,” Netanyahu has demonstrated a savvy slipperiness when it comes to defending Israel from US efforts to partition our land.
But for decades, Netanyahu and his administration have cozied up to Christian Zionists, with his former ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, even suggesting that Israeli policy in the United States should pivot to prioritize courting evangelicals over America’s Jewish population.
In 2017, Netanyahu proudly declared, “When I say we have no greater friends than Christian supporters of Israel, I know you’ve always stood with us.”
Netanyahu’s accommodating attitude has led to Christians gaining a stronger presence in Israel and has been especially concerning in light of recent revelations of undercover missionary cells across the country, even operating among Israel’s ḥaredi communities, with complete impunity.
It is unlikely, with the makeup of his current coalition and his own proclivity towards lauding the American Christian Right, that Naftali Bennett has any plans to change direction on this issue. After all, he was one of the first Israeli politicians to express great excitement over the election of Donald Trump in 2016, a victory that rested heavily on the shoulders of evangelicals.
Even in the face of Trump’s “Deal of the Century” that aimed to partition Eretz Yisrael into two separate states, Bennett waffled between open opposition and cautious acceptance.
But in a spirit of their zeal to avenge what they see as a betrayal of Netanyahu, Christian Zionists may be forcing Bennett into a confrontation that Israel has until now avoided.
Mike Evans wrote in an open letter to Bennett on Thursday, “You’re a pathetic, bitter little man so obsessed on murdering Netanyahu that you’re willing to damage the State of Israel for your worthless cause.”
Such unhinged vitriol for a prospective prime minister, considered by most to be decisively more nationalist than Netanyahu, seems truly shocking at first glance, yet this is only the tip of the iceberg.
In a blog post at Times of Israel on Friday, Evans enlisted shamefully anti-Semitic Holocaust imagery, writing “How shameful this seduction is! I can smell the ashes of Auschwitz and see the blood of a multitude of souls who gave their lives to birth the Jewish state.”
He further doubled down on the anti-Semitic tropes with the oldest Christian screed against Jews, seasoning it with some “Elders of Zion” conspiracy theories.
“It’s not an election to improve the lives of Israelis or the nation. It’s an election to crucify a man they hate and they’re willing to destroy the nation to do it. Rome burns and they fiddle while leaders are laughing at these amateur nobodies. They’ll never be a member of a club that rules and runs the world. They can only be the clowns that entertain Israel’s enemies.”
Evans even appears to have threatened direct retaliation against Bennett and his coalition partners.
“If they keep up this pathetic, political striptease act, this theater of the absurd, I’ll spend the rest of my life fighting them all, mobilizing millions of evangelicals to join me in the fight. I understand how the Holocaust happened. German Jews were busy insulting each other, drunk on the wine of pride. They did not see the smoke of Auschwitz rising because they were more German than they were Jews.”
He didn’t spare any words asserting his version of the supersessionist Christian doctrine, based on the rebelliousness of the children of Israel, and sprinkling in the Belle Juive trope of the Jewess as an object of lust for Christian men.
“They’re willing to carve up the bird, the soul of the nation, simply to vent their spleens on one man they despise and God who chose him to be prime minister. God knew from the beginning to the end. He knew Bibi then and Bibi now. I haven’t heard God choose any of these fools. These amateur nobodies are making a mockery of the beautiful woman I love, Israel.”
There are two potential explanations for such a completely unhinged outburst from Evans. The first is that he’s not actually a supporter of Israel, and the Jewish people’s self determination in our own land, but rather of the Netanyahu government that he can rely on as a staunch ally and naive enabler for covert missionary activities. He’d much prefer to maintain the status quo than risk any disruption to his constituencies ongoing efforts to link Israel’s rebirth with Christian messianism.
The second possible explanation lies deeper. With Netanyahu, Evans can be sure that Israeli society will remain deeply divided between its different “tribes” and thus dependent on American aid to keep it afloat.
But if Bennett’s unity government is any more than a coalition to remove Netanyahu from power, if the cross-society coalition proves to be a truly unifying force for Israeli society, and can calm the flames of division that many have blamed Netanyahu for stoking, the US-Israel relationship may become far less stable than anyone assumed.
It still remains to be seen what, if any, success the “change government” will have in healing those deep divisions. Furthermore, it would be naive to believe that such a reconciliation is possible without the participation of the national-religious and ḥaredi sectors. But if American evangelicals are this jumpy, there may just be hope for Israel to finally get free from the West and begin moving towards the next chapter of Jewish history.
