Moral Support, Strategic Reasoning, or Domestic Politics: America's Continual Support to Israel

Since Israel came into existence in 1948, the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv has been unique and controversial. Conventional wisdom suggests that the relationship between the United States and Israel is driven by moral affinities and strategic interests. In March 2006, John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt suggested that Jewish interest groups (the "Israel Lobby") and their persuasive tactics are the only reason for continued U.S. support to Israel. This thesis describes the various reasons that have been hypothesized to promote close U.S.-Israel relations and identifies a competing explanation based on evangelical ideology. The author maintains that evangelical Christians are major supporters of U.S. support to Israel. He suggests that as long as Christian communities in the United States remain strong supporters of Israel and pro-Israel organizations, America will most likely continue to provide Israel with foreign aid and other support. Support for Israel is openly suggested in the dogma of many Christian groups and is a theme that runs through the belief system of the evangelical Christian society and in Catholic theology, which sometimes alludes to Christianity as a Jewish "sect." The evangelicals believe Israeli support must continue in order to fulfill certain prophetic claims made in the Bible. Although there are some discrepancies among different evangelical denominations, the majority of evangelicals agree that Israel's presence is a prelude to the second coming of Christ. This thesis demonstrates that evangelical Christian support for Israel is a sufficient condition for American support to Israel. The author first describes the moral, strategic, domestic, and Christian arguments for supporting Israel, and then tests these competing hypotheses against the historical record to identify which explanation can best account for events.