Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before a gathering of America’s leading evangelical figures in Palm Beach, Florida, and delivered a stark message: Israel is fighting an eighth front, and this battle will determine the future of Western civilization.
“We’ve fought, as you know, a seven-front war, and we’ve come out in many ways victorious, but there’s an eighth front, and that’s the front for the hearts and minds of people, especially young people in the West,” Netanyahu told the church and university leaders. “I think it’s not just Israel’s battle. I think it’s our common Judeo-Christian civilization’s battle.”
The meeting, hosted by Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem, brought together figures including Jonathan Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church; Dr. Dondi Costin, president of Liberty University; Dr. Thomas Heath, president of Oklahoma Baptist University; and Jay Strack, founder of Student Leadership University.
Netanyahu framed the ideological struggle as existential, warning that defeat on this front would impact not only Israel but America and the entire Western alliance. “This is a theater that has to be engaged with great force,” he said.
Netanyahu did not mince words about the enemy. “There are some people who believe that faith should be silent, and terrorism should be understood,” he said. “No, faith should speak its voice, and terrorism should be confronted, not understood, confronted and defeated.”
The Prime Minister identified two primary threats: “radical Shiite Islam and radical Sunni Islam. That means the axis that is led by Iran, much battered, admittedly, but still there, and the Sunni axis led by the Muslim Brotherhood, which permeates everything.”
Evans, who has known Netanyahu for 46 years, brought 1,000 U.S. pastors to Israel last month and plans to bring 3,000 more next year, along with 1,000 university students. He told the gathering that evangelical support for Israel rests on biblical conviction, not political calculation.
“Their support is not driven by partisan loyalty or nationalist sentiment, but by biblical belief and the conviction that you cannot love Jesus without loving the Jewish people because Jesus was Jewish,” Evans said.
Netanyahu acknowledged the role Christian Zionists played in the establishment of the Jewish state. “You are representatives of the Christian Zionists who made Jewish Zionism possible,” he said. “It’s hard for me to conceive of the emergence of the Jewish state, the re-emergence of the Jewish state, without the support of Christian Zionists in the United States, also in Britain, but the main thrust was in the United States in the 19th century.”
The Prime Minister introduced a new initiative that surprised many observers. “Israel is joining an effort to have basically a united nations of countries that support Christian communities around the world, beleaguered communities who deserve our help,” he announced. “In Africa, with intel, in the Middle East, with a lot of means that I won’t itemize each one.”
Netanyahu called out specific nations where Christians face persecution. “We are conscious of the fact that Christians are being persecuted across the Middle East, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Nigeria, in Turkey and beyond,” he said. “We’re also aware of the fact, as you are, that one country protects the Christian community, enables it to grow, defends it, and makes sure that it thrives, and that country is Israel. There is no other. None.”
Evans described the scale of the ideological battle facing Israel and its evangelical allies. His Jerusalem Prayer Team Facebook platform, which had 77 million followers, was flooded with millions of fake accounts during a previous conflict, resulting in 47 million pro-Israel followers being removed.
“This is not merely technological warfare but is a coordinated effort to sever the church’s connection to Israel,” Evans told Netanyahu.
He warned that anti-Israel narratives disguised as human rights language have normalized claims that “Zionism is racism,” allowing antisemitism to flourish under the guise of political critique. Evans identified funding from Gulf states, particularly Qatar, as fueling this campaign on university campuses and through social media.
Evans singled out what he called a “woke right” movement that mirrors the tactics of the woke left, using guilt, shame, moral inversion, and intimidation with Israel as the primary target. He argued that media figures who frame opposition to Israel through “America First” reasoning recycle antisemitic tropes portraying Israel as manipulative or disloyal.
The numbers tell the story of evangelical significance. Evangelicals represent more than nine percent of the world’s population. By contrast, only 12 out of every 10,000 people worldwide are Israeli. This demographic reality makes evangelical Christians Israel’s most powerful strategic allies in ideological and digital battles.
Evans responded sharply to critics of Christian Zionism. When asked about Christians who oppose Israel, he called them “fake Christians.” He cited Tucker Carlson, who said he hates Christian Zionist pastors more than anyone on earth.
“You can’t love Jesus from Zion without loving the Jewish people,” Evans said. “Love is not something you say; it’s something you do. I know all about fake Christians. My father was one. He was an antisemite. He strangled me at 11 when I tried to defend my Jewish mother from his abuse.”
Evans also addressed theological opposition to Israel. “Claims God has broken His promises to the Jewish people amount to an attack on the Bible itself,” he said. “If God can break His promises to Israel, He can break them to Christians.”
The 1,000 pastors Evans recently commissioned have already published more than 33,000 posts, viewed by over 22 million people. “We are truly fighting a war,” Evans told Netanyahu. “It is an ideological war. Demons don’t care about customs.”
Netanyahu met with President Trump earlier this week, a meeting that a senior Israeli official described as “the best” of the six meetings they have held since Trump returned to office. Later that evening at The Shul of Bal Harbour, Netanyahu told the parents of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last slain hostage in Gaza, “We shall return him. He will be back.”
“When the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel have no daylight between them, wondrous things can happen,” Netanyahu told the synagogue crowd.
Evans praised Trump as “the greatest U.S. president in Israel’s history” and is widely regarded as Trump’s strongest American supporter in Israel. During Trump’s last visit, Evans launched a billboard campaign featuring messages such as “Cyrus the Great Is Alive” and “Trump, Make Israel Great Again.” He also hosted the U.S. Embassy Gala and presented Trump with the Friends of Zion Award, which has been given to 28 world leaders.
The meeting concluded with Netanyahu wishing the evangelical leaders a belated happy Christmas and happy New Year. “May it be a year of prosperity, peace and security for all of us, but especially for the Christian communities around the world,” he said.
Evans closed with a declaration of confidence. “Israel’s future is bright because both God and Donald Trump have kept their promises to the Jewish state.”
The battle for hearts and minds has begun. The question is whether those who claim to stand for faith will remain silent or speak their voice.
