1980s- Present The U.S. Christian Right and the Pro-Israel Movement

Aside from public advocacy by evangelical leaders, the real story in the last 20 years is the founding of scores of small, grassroots, pro-Israel organizations that rarely get into the headlines. Some have rather specialized missions. Many help Israel by teaching Christians about the Jewish roots of their own faith. The Restoration Foundation of Atlanta puts on seminars, colloquia, and retreats to promote "the restoration of all believers to their rightful heritage in the Judaism of the first century church" and love for Israel and its people. The Arkansas Institute of Holy Land Studies in Sherwood, Arkansas, advertises itself as a "specialty college" and offers unaccredited bachelor's and master's degrees in "Middle East History."

Some of the pro-Israel evangelical groups are more humanitarian than educational. The Tulsa-based Bridges for Peace is a charitable organization working in Israel. Its "Operation Ezra" provides food, blankets, kitchen and school supplies, home-repair items, and the like to new immigrants and others in need. It claims its food bank is the only one currently operating in Israel. Its pitch for support says, "Don't just read about prophecy when you can be part of it!"

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1998 Israel and U.S. Evangelicals

In its fiftieth anniversary year, the State of Israel had no better friends than American evangelicals. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Voices United for Israel Conference in Washington, D.C., in April 1998. Most of the 3,000 in attendance were evangelicals, including Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, Kay Arthur of Precept Ministries, Jane Hanson of Women's Aglow, and Brandt Gustavson of the National Religious Broadcasters. (Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson supported the conference but did not attend.) Netanyahu told the conference: "We have no greater friends and allies than the people sitting in this room." In January 1998, Israel brought at its own expense a large contingent of American evangelical seminary presidents and deans to the Holy Land.

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1998 Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the Politics of Israel

Falwell is a major player in the evangelical-Israel connection. When Netanyahu visited the United States in January 1998, Falwell pledged to mobilize the evangelical community against the Clinton administration's pressure on Israel to give up more land to the Palestinians. "There are about 200,000 evangelical pastors in America, and we're asking them all through e-mail, faxes, letters, telephone, to go into their pulpits and use their influence in support of the state of Israel and the prime minister." Pat Robertson likewise used his vast connections and his Christian Broadcasting Network to promote Israel. He featured news stories about the Holy Land on his 700 Club and invited Israeli officials to appear.

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