The Little-Known History of Evangelicals’ Changing Israel Views
(should be titled "The Roots of Zionism")
In 1973, a relatively small circle of leaders commanded most of the institutional and media influence when it came to speaking for “evangelicals” on the Middle East. That media environment centered on a small and fledgling Christian Zionist network forged in the early years of Israeli statehood. This network grew in prominence after the seismic Six-Day War in June 1967, wherein Israel decisively defeated its Arab neighbors.
Many of these spokesmen had one or two degrees of separation from CT founder Billy Graham, the proverbial sun around which much of postwar evangelical-Jewish relations orbited. Graham played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in October 1973 (during the Yom Kippur War), encouraging President Nixon to greenlight the largest airlift in US history to aid Israel.
In the following decade, an entire class of Christian Zionist organizations would emerge and eclipse, at least in numbers, those evangelical authorities of 1973. The movement started by figures like Olson and Young, who were relatively closely aligned with Graham, would soon be displaced by a new crop of fundamentalist and Pentecostal-run organizations.
These were more ideologically (and eschatologically) driven conservatives who commanded far more resources and members than Olson’s denomination and Young’s grad school. Not only that, but their alignments would extend beyond theological stances—and prescriptions for US policy regarding Israel—to support emerging right-wing Israeli politicians like Menachem Begin.
Jerry Falwell Sr., Pat Robertson, and a young John Hagee engaged in dedicated pro-Israel activism beginning in the late 1970s. In 2006, Hagee founded Christians United for Israel, a lobbying organization, with Falwell serving on the board of directors.
>https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/10/israel-hamas-war-palestine-evangelical-christian-zionism/