Israel has appointed veteran diplomat George Deek as its first-ever special envoy to the Christian world, a newly created position within the Foreign Ministry designed to strengthen Israel's relationships with Christian communities globally, especially in the United States and Europe amid declining backing for the Jewish state.
In practical terms, Deek is expected to engage with church leaders, Christian organizations and pro-Israel advocacy groups while promoting dialogue and improving Israel's standing within global Christian communities.
Israel Team Advocates International President Aaron Fruh says the Israeli government sees the importance of this voting bloc.
"Israel is aware that it has a serious need to strengthen allyship, especially with the evangelical community as well as the Christian global community," he notes.
Evangelical Christians remain one of the few groups of Americans that still show strong support for Israel, although that support has softened somewhat in recent years, influenced in part by the framing of Palestinian humanitarian conditions in college and on social media, growing skepticism of U.S. foreign policy commitments, and a broader shift toward more human rights–focused and progressive political views.
Meanwhile, former conservative podcasters have started embracing conspiracy theories, and antisemitism has been front and center among them.
"Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene, all three from the right that … are speaking inflammatory accusations against the state of Israel, against Jewish people, accusing them of genocide," he relays.
Fruh, who served as the lead pastor of Knollwood Church and headmaster at Knollwood Christian School in Mobile, Alabama for 24 years, says some other factors are coming into play among younger Christians.
"Many young evangelicals are deconstructing their faith," he observes. "They're rejecting fundamentalism. They're rejecting Zionism."
Woke has also not quite died among young evangelicals, and Fruh says there is a very small percentage of evangelical millennials and Gen Z that are reading their Bible on a consistent basis.
