New Role For Religion in American Politics: How the Evangelical Church Is Shaping the Middle-Eastern Politics in Particular in the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Abstract

The longstanding political turmoil in the Middle East especially between Israelis and Palestinians attracts worldwide attention. A main player in the area is the USA. Their pro-Israeli foreign policies are highly visible especially during Republican Presidencies. Considering that the last five Republican Presidents were Evangelical Christians my concern is to clarify their religious beliefs and their relationships to the foreign policies implemented in the area. What started as a religious Puritan movement in the 16-17th centuries in England and moved to the USA later on turned into a far-right Christian political movement. Their literal interpretation of the Bible, including the belief that the Jewish people were given the land of Israel by God himself supported the Jewish Zionist movement at the turn of the century and developed their name into Christian Zionists around the 1980's. The current Trump Administration and their recent move of the USA embassy to Jerusalem, signifying the official acceptance of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the following change of discourse about the Palestinians, will be studied. I will first define and describe the two ideologies, that is, Jewish Zionism and Christian Zionism followed by their historical paths focusing mainly on Christian Zionism. I will conclude by analyzing the Christian Zionists' view of modern Israel and the resulting policies.