The Israeli Government Is Spending Millions to Court American Evangelicals Amid Plummeting Public Support

https://washingtonspectator.org/israeli-government-is-spending-millions-to-court-american-evangelicals-amid-plummeting-public-support/



Last September, an obscure California public relations firm called Show Faith by Works, LLC quietly registered with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent for the government of Israel. Its mission was not to lobby Congress or buy television ads. Instead, it proposed to use sophisticated technology to digitally target millions of Americans at their houses of worship with pro-Israel messaging—funded by a foreign government. The plan was part of a multi-pronged influence campaign aimed squarely at evangelical Christians in the American Southwest, a core component of Donald Trump’s coalition. It marked a new phase in the Israel government’s influence campaigns in the US, one that fuses state-funded public diplomacy with data-driven tools and artificial intelligence.

So far, there are at least three major components to the operation financed by the Netanyahu government. Show Faith by Works is designed to bring his government’s messaging directly to the sanctuaries and parking lots of American megachurches. The 1000 Pastors project offered 1070 American evangelical clergy an expense-paid trip to Israel in December to equip them to serve as “ambassadors for Israel” on their return, and proposes to invite thousands more in the coming year. The third component, Clock Tower X, is a social media campaign run on Artificial Intelligence and headed by Brad Parscale, who has run various digital media operations for Donald Trump and his campaigns since 2011. Together, they represent a dramatic expansion of the alliance between the Christian Zionists of the Religious Right, MAGA media operatives, and the Israeli government. Foreign governments routinely engage in public diplomacy, but it is unusual to encounter the scale, religious targeting, and technological sophistication of this campaign. Still, the projects have not always run smoothly, and in some instances they’ve veered abruptly along the way.

The campaign has been under discussion for well over a year. On July 24, 2024, the JNS (Jewish News Syndicate) reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had met with some 15 to 20 American evangelical leaders the previous day in Washington, D.C. to discuss how to amplify their support. The gathering included Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, televangelist Paula White, and Texas pastor John Hagee, founder and chair of Christians United for Israel (whose support for Israel incorporates the prediction that come Armageddon, Israel will be covered in “a sea of human blood”).

Other notable participants included Ralph Reed, head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a key partner in the operations; Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel; and Jack Graham, pastor of the Prestonwood Baptist Church (who counts White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as a friend and the daughter of a congregant). The pastors were greeted by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who proclaimed that he also serves as “an ambassador for the kingdom [of God.]” Reed and Staver are members of the Board of Governors of the Council for National Policy, the influential right-wing coordinating body whose members have played a crucial role in Trump’s rise to power. Graham and Huckabee, friends of the organization, have spoken at various CNP events.

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