Steve, inasmuch as Jerusalem is at the heart of the disagreements, ignoring the role Christian Zionists play, is to mis-understand the Palestinian, Israeli, and Arab situation completely. For that reason, I object to your cherry picking Zionists to make your case, without any mention of the other Zionists involved (who happen to be self-identified Christian Zionists).
Maybe numbers will help explain my views.
Today, there are less than 16 million Jews on the entire planet. Almost 7 million Jews live in Israel and less than 6 million Jews, including 1.8 million children, live in America (less than one-half of one-percent of the American population).
The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has 3-million members (which include both Christians and Jews). However, with more than 10-million members, the NON-Jewish, Christians United for Israel organization is the largest, wealthiest and most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States. Clearly, Christian Zionists play a powerful role in Israeli politics and daily life.
For example, in 2021, Naftali Bennett replaced Netanyahu as prime minister. In response, Mike Evans – an American Christian Zionist/evangelical leader and close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, and Donald Trump – published an open letter to Bennett in the Times of Israel newspaper. Mike Evans also held a press conference, standing in front of a huge “Trump Make Israel Great” banner. Here is the Evan’s letter, verbatim:
Dear Mr. Bennett,
What a disgusting disappointment you turned out to be. You and I spoke on behalf of the settlers at APAC at a hotel because they packed APAC wouldn't let him in. I always thought Begin was your hero. You've disgraced his very name. Shame, shame, shame on you. Don't ever call yourself a defender of Zion. You're not.
You betrayed the very principles that a generation gave their blood for and died for. You want to be in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood and Leftists. God have mercy on your soul. Such a bitter little man that your obsession to damage Benjamin Netanyahu has convinced you that damaging the State of Israel is a worthy cause.
I've given my life building evangelical support for the State of Israel, not only with 77 million of my followers but with more than 20 world leaders. I assure you, I will fight you every step of the way. You have lost the support of evangelicals 100 percent. I don't know how you can sleep at night. It would have been so easy for you to have gone with a conservative government. We gave you four years of miracles under Donald Trump. We evangelicals delivered it. You delivered nothing. What appreciation do you show us? You sh** right on our face. How dare you!
To say I'm disgusted with you is an understatement. You should hang your head in shame. You care more about your own damn ego and your bitterness than you do the State of Israel.
Sincerely,
Mike Evans
Right now, the interests of American oil corporations are still aligned with Christian Zionists (aka Christian Nationalists, and Christian evangelicals) who support Israel financially and politically, and go to Israel to proselytize and politicize in furtherance of their beliefs about the end times (Revelations). But Protestants have turned against Jews many times, a fact that, cannot be forgotten because it continues in current events (to wit Mike Evans, among others).
For example, when the protestant reformer, Martin Luther, lost patience with efforts to convert Jews, he argued for Jewish synagogues and schools to be set on fire, prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, Jewish homes burned, property and money confiscated, no mercy, no kindness and no legal protections be given to Jews, and "these poisonous envenomed worms" be drafted into forced labor or expelled forever and finally writing "we are at fault in not slaying them".
Fast forward 300 years to April 1903, in what Russian authorities would describe as “protests” when the congregations of Kishinev were dismissed from church services on Easter Sunday and went to plunder the Jews. The mob was led by priests, and the general cry, 'Kill the Jews' was taken up all over the city. The Jews were taken wholly unaware and were slaughtered like sheep. The scenes of horror attending this massacre are beyond description. Babes were literally torn to pieces by the frenzied and bloodthirsty mob. Many were murdered, many women and their daughters were brutally raped in front of their families, synagogues were destroyed, holy schools of the Torah were desecrated, 700 houses were destroyed, and 600 stores were pillaged. The Kishinev slaughter lit the fuse that drove political and practical Zionism into Jewish circles.
And then, there was the Holocaust, in which some consider Luther’s preachings a contributing influence.
I will address your Exhibit A in a separate comment.
