Segments of Christian Zionists and dispensationalist evangelicals believe in the ‘ingathering’ of Jews in Israel and interpret conflicts in West Asia, including the 2026 Israeli-US war on Iran, through a prophetic lens, viewing them as steps toward a Messianic era in which Israel becomes the center of divine redemption
When US President Donald Trump picked Fox News commentator and military veteran Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary, much focus remained on his disdain for the woke policies and opposition to women in combat roles. Hegseth was expected to keep Trump’s campaign promise of ridding the US military of generals pursuing progressive policies on diversity in the ranks that riled conservatives. Hegseth called the US army the enemy within and pledged a war against it and to replace generals disloyal to Trump.
Beyond American shores, Trump’s nominations signaled he was unlikely to keep his promise to end all wars. The pledge held out hope for Palestinians at the receiving end of Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza that has left over 75,000 people, mostly women and children, dead and flattened much of the besieged strip.
Weeks before he was elected, Trump reached out to Arab American and Muslim voters amid anger among these communities over the US support for Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza and Lebanon. He visited Dearborn, often called the Arab American capital, to speak to Lebanese Americans. He talked about peace in West Asia during his first administration and promised to ensure it again.
Trump pledged to address the problems his predecessor, Joe Biden, caused and to stop the suffering and destruction. He claimed he wanted to see West Asia return to lasting peace. As expected, Trump did not keep his promise. In February 2026, the US and Israel attacked Iran, which is seen as a key stumbling block towards the ‘Greater Israel’ project for a Talmudic vision of a state between the Euphrates and the Nile, encompassing Egypt, Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, potentially Kuwait, and even the northwestern edge of Saudi Arabia. Israel has sought to occupy more land and expand its regional military dominance to realise the project, with only Iran standing in its way.
Israel has effectively annexed Palestinian territory under its occupation since 1967. It seeks to expand north, east, and south in line with the 1919 World Zionist Organisation’s plans to include parts of southern Lebanon and Syria, the left bank of the Jordan River (Jordan), and parts of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Gaza and Israel Through Biblical Prophecy
Christian nationalism and Christian Zionism overlap. Christian Zionists see the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Christian nationalism is about the US as a Christian state and does not necessarily prioritize Israel
Israel is supposed to be the focal point of the Kingdom of the Messiah for Christian nationalists, who believe that Jews will fulfill their calling to be the kingdom of priests and a holy nation when they are fully gathered in Israel. Israel will then be a holy nation under the Messiah King in the Messianic Era.
Segments of Christian Zionists and dispensationalist evangelicals presently see Israel partially fulfilling biblical prophecies about ingathering. It does not amount to complete redemption since Israel has a secular government that lacks control over key areas, notably the remaining Palestinian territories, and many Jews remain scattered.
The Messiah, the belief goes, would sound the shofar, gather the Jews, and establish his kingdom. Israel is, in its present form, seen as the first blossoming of redemption. Scripture is seen to have predicted the dispersion and return of the Jews to Israel.
Trump, Greater Israel, and the Religious Right’s Plan for Palestine
Trump has, since taking office, also pressed for permanently displacing Gazans under his plan for the US to take over Gaza despite the Saudi Arabia-led pushback for what is a fresh attempt to ethnically cleanse Palestinians. Trump’s plan involves moving Gaza’s scarred residents and transforming the territory into what he calls a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’. He has said Palestinians would not be able to return to their homes under his proposal in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which consider the arbitrary and permanent forcible transfer of populations a crime.
Trump’s insistence on executing the plan despite global opposition came against the backdrop of fresh calls for Greater Israel, echoing Christian Zionist interpretations and certain Israeli religious-nationalist currents, who believe Israel is meant for God’s chosen people.
Christian nationalists have opposed a two-state solution to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict and even backed the demolition of one of Islam’s holiest sites—the Al-Aqsa Mosque—in line with the goal of ultranationalist Israelis and some evangelical Christian Zionist groups.
Evangelical Denial of Palestine and the Politics of Annexation
Mike Huckabee, another Christian nationalist and Trump’s ambassador to Israel, has advocated for Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza and justified taking much of West Asia on Biblical grounds. In 2008, Huckabee declared that there is no such thing as a Palestinian. Huckabee visited an illegal Israeli settlement in 2017 and said Israel has the title deed to ‘Judea and Samaria’, or the entire West Bank, under Israeli occupation since 1967. He said there is no such thing as a West Bank and Israeli occupation.
Christian nationalist assertions fly in the face of facts. The UN has declared the Israeli occupation of the remaining Palestinians illegal. Israel occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights in 1967, two decades after it was created, with the expulsion of Palestinians. An influx of Jews from Europe swelled their proportion in Palestine from 9% in 1922 to 32% in 1947, when the UN partition plan was announced for Israel’s creation. The Jews were allocated 56% and Palestinians 42% of their land as per the plan, while Jerusalem was to be UN-administered.
The denial of Palestinian existence is associated with political figures and strands within Christian Zionism. Trump’s evangelical support base prompted his move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, which Bible literalists and conservative Christians believe has to be under Jewish control for Christ’s return, during his first term. White evangelical and Christian Zionists cheered the move as a righteous deed.
Segments within evangelicalism, especially Christian Zionists, see Trump as another Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who helped Jews reclaim the promised land, and support Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians to be part of divine work. The evangelical support for Israel enjoins the Jewish-Christian solidarity. Israel counts evangelicals committed to the divine provenance of the Jewish homeland among its most fervent supporters.
A 2006 Pew Forum survey found that 70% percent of white evangelicals agreed that God gave Israel to the Jews. The percentage rose to 82% in 2013. Sixty-three percent said yes in 2005 when asked if Israel had fulfilled Biblical prophecy. Israel is the largest recipient of conservative evangelical funding, estimated to range between $175 and $200 million annually.
Israel’s fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies entitles it to exclusive divine privileges. Christian Zionists and dispensationalist traditions conflate biblical Israel with modern Israel. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, an atheist like the father of Israeli Zionism, Theodor Herzl, studied and used the Bible to justify Israel’s divine claim to Palestine.
Huckabee, Hegseth, and the New Christian Fundamentalism in US Policy
Far-right extremists, including those in Trump’s inner circle, in the US see Israel as in a battle not so much between Israelis and Palestinians but between Christendom versus Islam. They see this as a holy war in which any step is justified in the name of God. Huckabee, who has led Christian pilgrimages to Israel since 1973 and whose daughter, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was the spokesperson for the first President Trump White House, brags about his special relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Right-wing Israeli governments see Christian Zionists such as Huckabee and Hegseth as better allies than American Jews.
Hegseth flexes his biceps on Instagram, showing off his white supremacist tattoos. He first got a cross with a sword running down the middle tattooed as a tribute to one of his favourite biblical verses—Matthew 10:34, taken by those wanting a war religion, and where Christ says, ‘I come to bring not peace, but the sword.’ Hegseth has spotted tattoos of a Jerusalem cross, a symbol of the Crusaders, and ‘Deus Vult (God Wills It). The imagery came into popular culture through the 2005 movie The Kingdom of Heaven. The right was emulating this movie and the idea of this crusader knight waging a holy war against Muslims and Jews.
