America is divided on many issues but none more so than on support for Israel, with Democrats led by the Biden administration increasingly turning on the Jewish state since Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Republicans continue to back it.
According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, the core of that support comes from conservative Christians. He is joined by former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who said Christian support is solid because it’s rooted in faith and belief in the shared values of democracy embraced by both Americans and Israelis.
Huckabee, who currently hosts a show on the TBN network, condemned U.S. President Joe Biden’s efforts to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas without demanding the release the remaing 133 hostages taken on Oct. 7 by terrorists into Gaza, including Americans. Huckabee says, “This is not a political, sociological or economic battle. This is a spiritual battle. This is as clear a definition between good and evil, as we have seen in our lifetime, and one of the most profound in all of history.”
He traces the decline in support for Israel among Democrats to their embrace of critical race theory and intersectionality, which has branded Israelis and Jews as “white oppressors”—something he considers to be both false and irrational. He also sees the influence of Iran, which the Biden administration seeks to appease.
For Huckabee and other evangelical Christians, their stand on the conflict is determined by their understanding of their faith and the Bible. He believes that “Israel is land that God Himself carved out for the Jewish people.”
He described himself as, “an unapologetic, unreformed Zionist because I do believe that the people of Israel deserve a homeland where they can feel secure, and it makes sense that that homeland be the homeland that they’ve had for the past 3,500 years.”
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