With a first-of-its-kind tender issued last week, Israel’s Foreign Ministry is now planning to bring 8,000 young Christian leaders to the Jewish State by the end of 2026, a strategic move that ministry officials are calling one of the most significant public diplomacy initiatives in the country’s history. And at least one of the American Christian leaders driving this effort is doing so under death threats.

The Foreign Ministry’s plan follows what was already a record-shattering 2025, when some 300 delegations, 12 times the historical average, arrived in Israel despite the ongoing wars in Gaza and with Iran. Approximately 6,500 opinion leaders from more than 80 countries came as part of those delegations. The new initiative raises the stakes dramatically. Participants will spend eight intensive days on Israeli soil, five days touring the country from north to south, including mixed Jewish-Arab cities, historical sites, and areas damaged by war, followed by three days of in-depth briefings on the key issues shaping daily life here.

The ministry’s stated purpose is pointed and unambiguous: “to remove young people from the influence of social media discourse and bring them together with Israel in real life — not through a feed or a headline, but through personal encounters, space, and people.” The Foreign Ministry frames this as a long-term strategic initiative to build “a global network of influential young people” who will return home with what officials call a “deeper, more direct, and more grounded understanding of Israel,” equipped to serve as ambassadors against the simplistic, often malicious narratives dominating digital platforms.

The bet is simple: let people see what they see on their phones, and then let them see the reality on the ground. The ministry is wagering that reality wins.

Nowhere are the stakes of this battle clearer than in the story of Bishop Robert Stearns, leader of the Christian organization Wings of Eagles, who has brought no fewer than 35,000 Christian leaders to Israel over the course of his ministry. The exponential effect of those visits is staggering; two-thirds of participants returned home and then organized their own delegations, coming back five, six, even seven times, creating waves of pro-Israel engagement that money cannot buy and propaganda cannot manufacture.

But Stearns is now paying a personal price. Stearns told Hebrew language news site Israel Hayom that after delivering a pro-Israel speech at a Jerusalem Post conference in Florida, a speech he describes as entirely positive, without a single negative word about anyone, the backlash was immediate and vicious. The speech went viral, reaching over 15 million people. Then came the neo-Nazis. They found his home address, photographed his house, published his children’s names, and issued death threats. Three of those threats were assessed as credible. Stearns was targeted with the claim that he was a Mossad agent, a classic antisemitic smear designed to brand Christian Zionists as traitors to their own communities.

Police intervened. Arrests were made. Stearns continues his work.

“There must be a just alliance between the Jewish community and the Christian community, to uphold Western values,” Stearns told Israel Hayom. “Israel is the spearhead of the war on Western civilization as we know it.”

Israel is acting to strengthen its relations with its Christian faith allies. Two weeks ago, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar moved to shore up one of Israel’s most important international relationships by appointing veteran diplomat George Deek as Special Envoy to the Christian World, a newly created role aimed at strengthening ties with Christian communities amid growing tension and scrutiny. 

The appointment places Israel among a very small group of countries that have created a formal governmental structure focused on relations with the global Christian community. 

Israel’s decision to invest in bringing thousands of Christian leaders here physically is not just smart diplomacy. It is a recognition that the battle for truth about this land will not be won in comment sections. It will be won or lost on the ground, which is precisely where God told Abraham to look in the first place.