Israel's Biggest Enemy on The Right Is Not Hatred, But Apathy

Evangelicals are Losing Faith

“Why Israel Should Declare a Unilateral Cease-Fire in Gaza” declares a headline in the neoconservative Washington Institute for Near East Policy on May 1st.

“Young Evangelical support for Israel plummets” says the Jerusalem Post on February 12th.

“AIPAC targets Republican Israel critic in rare GOP primary play”, reported Axios on April 3rd

It has long been conventional wisdom that the majority of Israel’s popular support in the US is made up of Evangelical Christians. Various geopolitical realignments, religious prophecies, and business deals have solidified this status quo. But then why is status quo being challenged from the right? Despite the prevalence of figures like Nick Fuentes and others on the far right, antisemitism has little to do with it. The answer is surprisingly nuanced, but comes down to a combination of both apathy towards some people and sympathy for others from younger Evangelicals.

This trend has started to coalesce as the political landscape of the United States has started to view the country’s international role with more scrutiny. As more Democrats start to call Israel’s military aid into question, an equal if not larger contingent of Republicans have openly derided aid to Ukraine and even threatened to sink the Speaker of the House over it. If a large part of the party of American Evangelicals is now ready to flip this easily on foreign policy, the direction that their constituents are trending should concern the Israel lobby far more than what a handful of Democrats are saying.

But why are Evangelicals the largest bulwark of Israel’s support? An obvious reason for this would be Islamophobia, especially since sympathy for Israel rose after September 11th, 2001 and was carried mostly by the support of traditionally Evangelical Republicans. Israel was able to roll its ongoing conflicts into a fight against ‘terrorism’ and use this justification to gain standing with the American public. This was explicitly supported by