Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has resulted in more than 240,000 Palestinian casualties, including nearly 75,000 deaths, while displacing hundreds of thousands of people across the besieged enclave. Beyond the immediate conflict in Gaza, Palestinian Christians report a sharp increase in violence directed at their communities throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Church leaders and analysts have documented a rise in settler-led aggression, including the burning of Christian-populated villages that has forced many residents to flee. Observers describe these incidents as an expression of Israeli ethno-nationalism and an ideology of Jewish supremacy. Settlers, who are increasingly empowered, have been accused of engaging in persistent harassment, ranging from spitting on clergy to physical assaults and acts of terror against religious sites.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reliance on far-right coalition partners has left him unwilling to confront settler groups accused of these attacks. This political dependency has drawn growing concern within the United States, with major outlets like The Wall Street Journal and CNN reporting on the harassment. Long before these reports, social media footage showing Jewish extremists assaulting Christian clergy in East Jerusalem had already sparked widespread outrage.
Prominent US conservative figures, including commentator Tucker Carlson and former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have begun to question the necessity of continued Washington support for the Netanyahu government. Whether these criticisms signal a fundamental shift within the traditionally pro-Israel Evangelical movement remains a subject of intense debate.
Motti Inbari, a professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, suggests that the growing visibility of these attacks could gradually influence American public opinion. “It’s all accumulating,” Inbari notes. “I don’t think that one thing creates a change, but it’s accumulating, and it may result in some change in public opinion over time, and it started to be noticed that some Israelis are treating Christians in a way that is unacceptable.” He adds, “It may cause Israel a lot of damage, absolutely.”
Inbari contends that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has a clear political incentive to fuel tensions in the West Bank, hoping that Palestinian retaliation will bolster support for his hardline agenda. “That’s the strategy of Ben-Gvir,” Inbari says. “He’s living from violence.” Because Ben-Gvir is a key member of the governing coalition, Inbari argues that the ultimate responsibility for failing to curb this violence rests with the Prime Minister.
“Netanyahu sees the violence on the street. Netanyahu sees the violence everywhere, and he’s not firing him and he’s not doing anything about it,” Inbari asserts. “He’s letting it happen because Netanyahu benefits from it as well.” This reliance on far-right partners risks damaging Israel’s standing among American Christians as the plight of Palestinian Christians gains international attention.
Recent polling indicates that support for Israel among American Evangelicals is softening, particularly among younger generations. While Evangelicals have traditionally been among Israel’s most reliable supporters—often citing biblical claims to the Holy Land—this consensus is beginning to erode. A University of Maryland survey from last year revealed that sympathy for Israel had dropped to 51 percent among older Evangelicals, with support levels significantly lower among younger cohorts.
“We see the same results, and we’ve seen them for a long time, that the younger generation in the evangelical community is much less supportive of Israel than their parents and grandparents,” Inbari explains. He attributes this shift to a broader generational and political divide within the American evangelical community, noting that younger members tend to hold more centrist views compared to their elders.
The historical roots of this support are deep, with many scholars tracing American Christian Zionism to 17th-century Puritans who emphasized a biblical covenant between God and the Jewish people. This theological tradition, bolstered by pro-Israel lobbying, has long cemented the Evangelical community as a cornerstone of Israel’s support in the United States.
However, analysts like Omer Batu suggest that while the strategic importance of the Evangelical constituency is recognized by Israel, the question of whether these developments will lead to a decisive break remains complex. “For many Christian Zionists, support for Israel is rooted in a theological worldview often expressed through the belief that ‘God blesses those who bless Israel.’ Their faith is therefore tied to the very existence of Israel, making this relationship much harder to break,” Batu notes.
Batu emphasizes that Israel has made a concerted effort to maintain this support, leaving observers to wonder what specific threshold would be required to trigger a significant change in policy or public sentiment. “This leaves us with a difficult question: if everything that has happened so far has still not produced a decisive break, what would?” he asks, noting that many supporters remain insulated from these developments.
A University of Maryland survey published last year found that sympathy for Israel had fallen to 51 percent among older Evangelicals, while support among younger Evangelicals stood at just 24 percent, pointing to a growi
Their concept of nationalism excludes all who do not fit their definition of who belongs in a state they imagine as theirs alone,” Robert O Smith, an associate professor of Authentic Diversity, Justice, and Public Church at the Lutheran School of Theology, tells.
They have long employed thuggery to achieve their aims.
These attacks—both individual spitting attacks and assaults—and terrorist attacks on villages are extensions of longstanding patterns,” Smith says.
Videos of Jewish extremists assaulting Christian clergy in occupied East Jerusalem, alongside footage of an Israeli soldier vandalising a statue of Jesus Christ on the cross in the southern Lebanese border village of Debel, have drawn condemnation from prominent American commentators and politicians, particularly within Christian circles.
A University of Maryland survey published last year found that sympathy for Israel had fallen to 51 percent among older Evangelicals, while support among younger Evangelicals stood at just 24 percent, pointing to a growing generational divide.
“I can tell you that this generational divide is true for all Americans, not just evangelicals.
“Israel’s treatment of Palestinian Christians directly challenges the image of Israel that they have long defended.
Smith draws a similar distinction between support for Netanyahu and support for Israel itself.
“Christian Zionist support for the State of Israel is based on wildly diverging interests.
They see it as an apocalyptic playground.
