For those out of the loop/who have forgotten: A lot of Christians got really into “Israel” around the turn of the century because of the weird end times native they liked. In the “rapture” idea (like the “Left Behind” books), Israel has to exist as a state (maybe with all the territory Palestine was made up of) before the rapture could happen. So they got really into Israel as a foreign policy objective, and this included the Bush Jr administration.
To be clear, though: Israel has to exist and there can’t be any Jews in it before the second coming of Jesus can happen. But the Palestinians have to die first.
The Israeli government understood this but figured they may as well take advantage of it while it was popular.
For those out of the loop/who have forgotten: A lot of Christians got really into “Israel” around the turn of the century because of the weird end times native they liked. In the “rapture” idea (like the “Left Behind” books), Israel has to exist as a state (maybe with all the territory Palestine was made up of) before the rapture could happen. So they got really into Israel as a foreign policy objective, and this included the Bush Jr administration.
To be clear, though: Israel has to exist and there can’t be any Jews in it before the second coming of Jesus can happen. But the Palestinians have to die first.
The Israeli government understood this but figured they may as well take advantage of it while it was popular.