Prominent evangelical leaders are celebrating President Trump’s decision to recognize Israeli West Bank settlements as not illegal under international law, a determination that reversed decades of official U.S. policy left in place by Democratic and Republican presidents.
The decision, announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is “the latest in the Trump administration’s consistent and considerable support” for Israel, said Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel. The organization boasts more than 7 million members and is the largest pro-Israel group in the United States.
A fixture of the president’s base, white evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016, in proportions above 80%, according to exit polling data. Trump will need to keep the religious right in his corner in order to win key swing states in 2020.
The move “will solidify the president’s base of support going into 2020,” said Kevrick McKain, of the faith-based Douglass Leadership Institute. “Anytime that you see a return to the biblical lands, you are going to find support for that among evangelicals.”
Trump’s decision reversed the Carter administration State Department legal opinion known as the Hansell Memorandum, which held that Israeli’s West Bank settlements were illegal.
The change formalizes what has “largely been the de facto policy,” Ralph Reed, who chairs the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. Nevertheless, “Millions of evangelical Christians and Jews are extremely grateful for the decision,” he said.
Reed, one of several evangelical leaders known for their vocal support of the president, said Trump was “the most pro-Israel president in modern American history,” noting the administration’s Middle East policy and its acceptance of Israel’s right to self-determination.
The policy change comes at a time of tumult for the president, with an impeachment effort underway in the House, a general election on the horizon, and vocal criticism from Trump allies — including evangelical leaders — over his decision to withdraw American troops from the Turkey-Syria border last month. Some viewed the troops’ departure as a threat to religious freedom in the region.
“The legal judgment of the settlements by the State Department, and more recently by the EU, is an example of what many Christian Zionists think is a foreign policy establishment that is unfairly biased against Israel, and they are very happy to see any example of that bias resisted,” said Dr. Samuel Goldman, professor of political theory at George Washington University and the author of a forthcoming book on Christian Zionism in American political thought. “Clearly, this is a policy that will make happy some of the people who were unhappy with the president’s decisions about Syria, Turkey, and the Kurds.”
“Foreign policy is not very important to voters as a rule, so it’s hard to imagine that this decision will have a very great impact on the president’s electoral success one way or the other,” said Dr. Goldman. “That said, this is an issue that is very important to some of his most enthusiastic supporters. Not only ordinary voters, but activists and donors, and I think that many of them will be thrilled.”
The decision bolsters Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, an important Trump ally, as the country inches towards yet another election. “One of Netanyahu’s main objectives was to secure a legacy achievement to accomplish the extension of Israeli sovereignty over” the West Bank settlements, Reed said.
