Far-right Confusion Over Israel's Actions in Gaza
27 July 2024
Introduction
On the morning of 7 October 2023, the militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Heavily armed men breached fences separating Israel and Gaza, entering southern Israel. At least 1,400 people were killed, many of them civilians, including children, according to Israeli officials, and hostages were taken from Israel by Hamas. Following these attacks, Israel has responded with thousands of airstrikes on Gaza. These airstrikes have killed at least 30,000 at the time of reporting, (2) with 70% of the deaths being that of women and children under 18, according to Gaza’s health ministry. (1) A senior UN official stated at the end of October that almost 3,200 Palestinian children had been killed in just three weeks. (3) Armed groups in Gaza have also continued to fire rockets into civilian areas of Israel. (1)
Israel has maintained its closure of the Gaza strip since 2007, and the state’s systematic repression of Palestinians has continued for decades. The intentional targeting and killing of civilians is prohibited under international law. (1) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in Near East (UNRWA) said, “The current siege imposed on Gaza is collective punishment” and “forced displacement”. After two weeks of siege, basic services such as medicine, water, food and fuel were crumbling and running out. At the time of writing, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza continues, with evidence presented by Human Rights Watch of repeated, alleged unlawful attacks on medical facilities, transport, and personnel by the Israeli military. UN experts have warned that the actions of Israel in Gaza since 7 October constitute a genocide in the making, and have urged the international community to prevent a second Nakba – an ethnic cleansing event in which Palestinians were expelled en masse from their homes. The UN also estimates that half the civilian infrastructure in Gaza has now been destroyed, in a way that threatens to make it impossible for Palestinian life to continue in Gaza in the future. (2)
The grave humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, and the continued Israeli military action, has stoked fire throughout political spectrums around the world, but particularly on the far-right. While there are many different brands of far-right thought throughout the world, some have closer ties to – or more suspicion towards – Israel than others, and this factioning presents a fascinating insight into the various entities at play in extreme right-wing politics internationally.
The history of Christian support for Israel in the US
Shortly after the news broke of the Hamas attacks on 7 October, many Christian groups showed their support for Israel. (4) Christians United For Israel (CUFI), an evangelical lobbying group, posted a message saying “to the terrorists who have chosen this fight, hear this, what you do to Israel, God will do to you.” (5) Soon after, an “Evangelical statement in support of Israel” was also issued by the ethics and religion liberty commission, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention; the statement was from 2,000 evangelical leaders, voicing support for “Israel’s right and duty to defend itself against further attack”. The statement made explicit reference to the Bible, using Gen. 12:1-3 and Romans 13 as justification for Israel’s self-defense, saying that the latter “grants governments the power to bear the sword against those who commit such evil acts against innocent life.” (4) Gen. 12:1-3 states of the Jewish people, “I will bless those who bless you, / and whoever curses you I will curse”, taken by evangelicals to mean they gain in blessings by defending the Jewish people, conflated with Israel partly through the other key line in Gen. 12:1-3: “I will make you into a great nation.” (6) Romans 13 is often used to further the evangelical movement’s attachment to Israel, making a treatise on the importance of submitting to authority: “if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason.” (4)
These statements are born out of a deep historical and theological context: to evangelicals, it is greatly important that there is an Israel inhabited by Jewish people, as one main tenet of evangelical theology asserts that the return of the Jews to this region begins the countdown to the seven-year armageddon, after which the return of Jesus Christ will occur. The first explanation for this view is the apocalyptic interpretation of the Bible, which expounds a certain role for Israel in the “end times” and second coming of Christ. This is part of an American theological tradition called dispensationalism, which centers on adherence to a system of interpreting history in terms of a series of God’s dispensations, (7) or eras. Adherents to these views see Israel as key for fulfilling Biblical prophecies: namely, that the Jews will travel to Israel, and wage a war against the rest of the world, which they will lose. This apocalyptic interpretation of Biblical text is therefore often mapped onto current events, producing a right wing that becomes excited by rumblings of conflict in Israel, Palestine, and nearby countries.
There is also a growing alternative to this theological avenue: a Christian Zionism that gives a literal interpretation to Abraham’s words when he says, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” This is taken to mean that supporting the Jewish people helps one accrue blessings from God, and this is again interpreted to mean supporting the Israeli state. (4) The founder of CUFI, Pastor John Hagee, is also the founder of Hagee Ministries, a televangelist organization that broadcasts his teachings across the US and internationally; it has also donated over $100,000 to humanitarian causes in Israel, according to the Hagee Ministries website. (8) Hagee gave a sermon in 2005 where he stated that the Nazis were divine agents sent by God to chase Europe’s Jews towards Palestine. He also states that anti-Semitism, and thus the Holocaust, was the fault of the Jewish people, and the result of a divine curse once incurred by the ancient Hebrews due to their worshiping of idols. (9) This rhetoric appears jarring considering the presence of Hagee and other evangelicals at the March for Israel in 2023, however in this brand of theological politics, anti-Semitism is entwined with support for Israel due to the apocalyptic nature of the Jewish people’s importance to Biblical prophecy. Christian Zionism is thought to have first taken root during the early 20th century, as Christian theologians rallied around the growing secular ideology of Zionism.
The US Republican Party & Christian Zionism
This blend of theology and politics has become entrenched in the US political establishment. The Republican Party relies heavily on Evangelical support as one of its main voting blocks, with research from the Pew Research Center finding that 82% of Republicans or Republican-leaning voters surveyed were Evangelical Protestants. (10) The new speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, is a board member of a Christian publishing house. (11) Speaking at the March for Israel event in Washington DC on 14 November 2023, Johnson quoted the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the country’s actions in Gaza, “a fight between good and evil, between light and darkness, between civilisation and barbarism.” He also stated that calls for a ceasefire were “outrageous”. (12) Further Pew research conducted in 2022 discovered that 39% of all American adults surveyed – and 63% of those that were American protestant evangelicals – believe that humanity is “living in the end times,” (13) showing the enduring ramifications of apocalyptic Bible readings on the US political landscape.
When a standalone bill providing $14.3 billion in US aid to Israel was introduced in the House of Representatives, the only Republicans who voted “no” were Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. (12) Greene’s own statement on the funding package vote actually begins, “today I took a hard vote as a Christian who supports Israel”, and explains she voted against the Bill because “I’m unapologetically America First” and she instead wanted funding allocation to prioritize “America’s border.” (14) Massie also asserted in his statement on the vote that “I affirm Israel’s right to defend itself”, and noted his opposition to elements of the Bill, not the principle of funding Israel. (15) Republican support for Israel is therefore clear, as is its historical roots. This support has become only more important as Evangelical Christianity has become more and more prescient within the Republican mainstream in recent years.
Splintering over anti-semitism and Islamophobia
While support for Israel is firmly embedded into the politics of the US Republican Party, there is visible tension within far-right movements in the US and internationally over anti-semitism vs. Christian Zionism, vs. Islamophobia. These tensions can be seen in the Telegram posts of Nick Fuentes, who through extreme anti-semitism often stumbles into supporting Gaza, saying “it is pretty transparent that the Zionists are pushing American conservatives to identify Israel’s problems with their own problems only so that they will rally behind the cause of Israel.” (15) Fuentes also says “the political Left (including Jews) will rally against Whites once again”, despite the only mainstream criticism of Israel in US politics being from Democrats. (16)
This incoherence of position is mirrored in the UK’s far-right, where fascist counter-protesters took to the streets during a march organized on 11 November 2023, the UK’s Armistice Day, to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. While hundreds of thousands of protesters marched peacefully through London to protest against Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza, there were clashes between the far-right and police, including one of 150 right-wing protesters in Parliament Square. The BBC reported that an offensive chant about Allah was heard while a Palestinian flag was ripped up; nine officers were hurt during these clashes, (17) and there were 145 arrests made, with the vast majority being counter-protesters. (18) The counter-protesters also went to the Cenotaph, a war memorial that was not on the planned route for the Palestinian solidarity march. The far-right presence at the memorial is thought to have been due to the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, stoking tensions by referring to expected violence the week prior to the march. Braverman was eventually removed in her role as Home Secretary, with the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak citing her as responsible for the violence seen at the Cenotaph over the weekend. Tommy Robinson, the founder and former leader of the far-right English Defence League, was also spotted among the crowd. (17)
The Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner, Matt Twist, said the counter-protesters “arrived early, stating they were there to protect the monuments, but some were already intoxicated, aggressive, and clearly looking for confrontation.” Officers protecting the Cenotaph were told by the far-right, “you’re not English anymore.” Police searches discovered the counter-protesters had brought weapons such as a knife, a baton, and a knuckle duster, as well as class A drugs. (18) Video footage demonstrates not only the violent potential of these counter-protests, but also the lack of coherent planning at their heart: the far-right were seemingly encouraged to ‘protect’ the Cenotaph by a tension-stoking Home Secretary, however the publicly released route for the Palestinian solidarity march did not include the memorial. With nothing to fight on their arrival, it therefore seemed that the anger of the right-wing turned towards the police.
Kahanism and far-right extremism in Israel
In Israel, the far-right has long been energized by increases in violence between Israel and Hamas. Since 7 October, communications can be seen from Kahanist groups on Telegram, with one dedicated to “the teachings of Rav Kahane”, posting about their anger towards the Palestinian people. (19) Meir Kahane was an American-born Israeli political extremist and rabbi, who campaigned for the self-protection of the Jewish people. In 1946, when he was just 14, Kahane joined a right-wing youth movement, before later going on to become an Orthodox rabbi and then form the militant Jewish Defence League (JDL). Moving to Israel in 1971 after time in a US prison for making bombs, Kahane founded the Kach Party. He gained a seat in the Knesset but Israel banned the Kach Party, with its views being described as antidemocratic and racist, ending his term. Kahane was shot to death in New York by an American of Egyptian descent, and his burial in Jerusalem was held to cries of “death to the Arabs!” (20)
Today, Kahane is considered something of a prophet by many in Israeli right-wing politics. He advocated for expelling all Palestinians from historic Palestine land, calling it “the land of Israel.” In a 1981 manifesto called They Must Go, Kahane wrote: “There is only one path for us to take: the immediate transfer of Arabs from Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.” (21) Following the disbanding of the Kach Party, the ideas of Kahane persisted in a Kahanist movement. The Kahane movement and the JDL enacted minimal activity throughout the early 2000s, but then came the founding of Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) in 2012, marking the start of a resurgence of Kahanist thought within Israeli politics. Otzama Yehudit is a far-right descendant of Kach, and is focused on the annexation of the West Bank, and for complete Israeli rule between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The party also opposes there being a Palestinian state, supports cancellation of the Oslo accords, and wishes to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount. (22)
In their first campaign, the 2013 election, Otzama Yehudit failed to pass the minimum threshold to win any seats in the Knesset. They continued to campaign, forming alliances with other far-right parties; then, before the 2022 election, Netanyahu brokered a deal for Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party to run together with Otzma Yehudit to win Knesset seats. This agreement was planned to prevent splitting of the right-wing vote, which Netanyahu worried would interfere with his chances of forming a ruling coalition. (21) While the attacks of 7 October have likely damaged Netanyahu’s chances at the ballot box beyond repair, it remains to be seen what effect recent events will have on the far-right coalescing within Israel. Historically, conflict has brought the right-wing together and encouraged nationalistic fervor against Palestinians.
Yet, around the world, Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza presents a point of splintering for many far-right movements: their hatred of Jews is pitted against their hatred of people of color, and against their hatred of protesters or the left, leaving them in an ideological quagmire that results in acts of violent confusion such as the UK’s incident on 11 November 2023. The US far-right remains steadfast in its support of Israel, but without the religious direction of Christian Zionism, many right-wing extremist factions are caught in indecision – or incoherence.
Works Cited (Chicago-style)
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Human Rights Watch. “Israel/ Palestine: Videos of Hamas-Led Attacks Verified”. 18 October 2023. Accessed 15 November 2023. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/18/israel/palestine-videos-hamas-led-attacks-verified
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‘How many Palestinians have died in Gaza? Death toll explained’. Reuters. 9 December 2023. Accessed 10 December 2023. ​​https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-have-died-gaza-war-how-will-counting-continue-2023-12-06/
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Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, United Nations. “Civilians in Gaza Must Not Be Collectively Punished for Atrocities Committed by Hamas, Speakers Tell Security Council, Urging Ceasefire.” 30 October 2023. Accessed 15 November 2023. https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15473.doc.htm
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Gabbatt, Adam. ‘This war is prophetically significant’: why US evangelical Christians support Israel’. The Guardian. 30 October 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/us-evangelical-christians-israel-hamas-war
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Christians United For Israel Statement. Twitter. Accessed 10 December 2023. https://twitter.com/CUFI/status/1710587781859119613
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‘Genesis 12:1-3 NIV - The Call of Abram’. The Holy Bible, New International Version. Bible Gateway. Accessed 10 December 2023. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2012%3A1-3&version=NIV
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“Dispensationalism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Accessed 15 November 2023. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dispensationalism
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Hagee Ministries website. Accessed 15 November 2023. https://www.jhm.org/bios/pastor-john-hagee
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Hagee Sermon
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Pew Research Center. Religious Landscape Study. 2014. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against
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Lippman, Daniel. ‘Mike Johnson is a board member of a Christian publishing house that called ‘monkeypox’ a penalty for being gay’. Politico. 15 November 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/15/mike-johnson-living-waters-publishing-00127264
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Zurcher, Anthony. ‘US evangelicals drive Republican support for Israel’. 15 November 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67422238
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Diamant, Jeff. ‘About four-in-ten U.S. adults believe humanity is ‘living in the end times’’. Pew Research Center. 8 December 2022. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/08/about-four-in-ten-u-s-adults-believe-humanity-is-living-in-the-end-times/
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Taylor Greene, Marjorie. ‘Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Issues Statement Following No Vote on Israel Aid Package”. 2 November 2023. Accessed 27 NOvember 2023. https://greene.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=589
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Massie, Thomas. @RepThomasMassie. X. 25 October 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1717270096710603198
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Fuentes, Nick. @Nicholas J. Fuentes. Telegram. 14 November 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://t.me/s/nickjfuentes
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Townsend, Mark; Thomas, Toni; Syal, Rajeev, and Helm, Toby. ‘Hundreds of thousands rally for Gaza in London as police arrest far-right protesters’. The Guardian. 11 November 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/11/hundreds-of-thousands-rally-for-gaza-in-london-as-police-arrest-far-right-protesters
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Mackintosh, Thomas; Atkinson, Emily. ‘London protests: Met condemns ‘extreme violence’ of' far-right’. 12 November 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67390514
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Telegram. @benziyongopshtein. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://t.me/s/benziyongopshtein
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‘Meir Kahane’. Encyclopedia Britannica. Updated 1 November 2023. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meir-Kahane
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‘Kahanism is now Israel’s mainstream’. Middle East Monitor. 13 February 2021. Accessed 27 November 2023. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210213-kahanism-is-now-israels-mainstream/
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‘Platform of Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength)’. Otzma Yehudit website. Accessed 10 December 2023. https://ozma-yeudit.com/the-platform-of-otzma-yehudit-jewish-strength/