‘Whether the Word of God is True’: Christian Zionist Discourse and the Polarization of U.S. Support for Israel

Abstract

This Major Research Paper analyzes the ideology and discourse of American Christian Zionists in the post-Cold War period, to better understand the processes driving the growing partisan divide on support for Israel in the 21st century U.S. Drawing from secondary sources, I argue that the key discursive themes and rhetorical strategies of American Christian Zionists in this period have popularized a hawkish interpretation of what it means to be “pro-Israel” that is firmly associated with the American right-wing. Based on a religiously inspired worldview that frames politics in Manichean terms, Christian Zionists assert that those who put pressure on Israel to make peace with the Palestinians, or who otherwise do not unconditionally support Israel’s foreign and defence policies, are agents of Satan against God’s will. I further argue that Christian Zionist discourse has significant parallels with rhetoric increasingly found among the more “mainstream” portions of the Western far-right, particularly regarding Muslims, Jews, Israel, and conspiracy theories. While these similarities have been influenced by existing polarization in the U.S. and elsewhere on Israel and other issues, they also work to reinforce and amplify such divisions between the more “pro-Israel” right and a more critical left. If this gradual but real erosion of bipartisan support for Israel in the U.S. continues, it will have critical implications for the trajectory of the U.S.-Israeli “special relationship” and the Middle East more broadly. Keywords: Israel, U.S. foreign policy, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Christian Zionism, political polarization, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism.