WASHINGTON (news agencies) — One of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first meetings in the United States this week was not with American Jewish leaders but with evangelical ones.
The conservative Christians met with Netanyahu on Monday at Blair House, which is near the White House. The gathering came ahead of the Israeli leader’s meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, which led to Trump’s dramatic proposals about the future of Gaza.
“The fact that our meeting took place before his meetings with President Trump and U.S. elected officials is indicative of the strength of the historic friendship that exists between Israel and Christians in America,” said Pastor Jentezen Franklin, who leads a Georgia megachurch and has served as a Trump spiritual adviser.
Among those in attendance were former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor and Trump’s pick to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel, and Tony Perkins, president of the socially conservative Family Research Council.
Many of those in attendance were Christian Zionists, including Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, an evangelical organization that claims 10 million members.
“The Prime Minister is here – as his country begins to conclude its longest war — to effectively reset the U.S.-Israel relationship after the damage done by four years of, at best, lukewarm support for the Jewish state,” Hagee told media via email.
Christian Zionism is an ideology among some evangelical Christians, particularly in the United States, that interprets the Bible as promising the land of Israel eternally to the Jews and asserting that God would bless Israel’s supporters. Some proponents also interpret the Bible as predicting many Jews’ eventual conversion to Christianity.
The meeting was a reminder that evangelical Christian Zionists are among Israel’s strongest supporters in the U.S. – and they wield considerable influence as Trump begins his second term. They have also backed controversial sentiments expressed by Republicans and Trump this week over the territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
Trump, during a shocking news conference with Netanyahu on Tuesday, suggested that Palestinians from the Gaza Strip could be removed and resettled elsewhere, with the U.S. taking over the war-torn region.
The president, echoing his real estate developer past, said he envisions a Gaza that could be “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
“This could be something that could be so valuable. This could be so magnificent,” Trump said, adding that the people that live there would be able to live in peace.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a key White House adviser during his first term, has also praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property.”
“I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner said a year ago.
The national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, assailed Trump’s proposal.
“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people, not the United States, and President Trump’s call to displace Palestinians from their land either temporarily or permanently is an absolute non-starter,” Awad said in a statement.
