Leading evangelicals in push to have President Trump recognize Israeli sovereignty over ‘biblical heartland’

TEL AVIV, Israel - Last week, an influential radical of American Christians publically reaffirmed the Jewish people’s close to Judea and Samaria arsenic the biblical heartland of Israel. The Judea and Samaria country is much commonly known arsenic the West Bank.

The declaration was unveiled astatine the yearly National Religious Broadcasters Convention successful Dallas by American Christian Leaders for Israel and was expected to beryllium signed by 3,000 spiritual leaders earlier being delivered to President Donald Trump. 

The propulsion to use Israeli sovereignty to the country comes aft Trump said past period that his medication would marque an announcement connected the substance successful the coming weeks erstwhile asked astir annexation.

The Oslo Accords, forged nether the Clinton administration, divided the West Bank into 3 regions: Area A, nether afloat Palestinian jurisdiction; Area B, nether Palestinian civilian medication and Israeli information control; and Area C, nether afloat Israeli authority.

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The Cave of the Patriarchs, besides known arsenic the Cave of Machpelah. The tract is the burial spot of Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, and is situated successful Hebron successful Judea and Samaria, besides much commonly referred to arsenic the West Bank.

A 2020 Trump plan, dubbed Peace to Prosperity, envisioned Israel annexing parts of Judea and Samaria, but was shelved successful favour of the Abraham Accords, which normalized Jerusalem’s ties with 4 Arab countries.

"The evangelicals gave Trump the presidency. He volition enactment our presumption connected the Bible and that’s wherefore helium chose Mike Huckabee [as ambassador to Jerusalem], who supports Israeli sovereignty implicit Judea and Samaria," Dr. Mike Evans, laminitis of Friends of Zion, which boasts conscionable nether 30 cardinal members, told Fox News Digital.

The declaration reaffirms "the Jewish people’s inalienable close to the Biblical Heartland of Israel and cull each efforts—both from the United States and the planetary community—to unit the Jewish radical to relinquish their ancestral homeland successful Judea and Samaria."

The Tomb of Joseph adjacent Shechem (Nablus). Samaria, Jul 6, 2021. (Roee Oz/TPS)

Evans said evangelicals enactment Israel "because they judge successful motivation clarity, bully versus evil, they are friends of Zion. They spot Jews being killed due to the fact that they’re Jews, not due to the fact that of land."

Pastor John Hagee, the influential laminitis and president of Christians United for Israel, told Fox News Digital that Evangelicals "know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob volition ever support His connection to the Children of Israel. From opening to end, the Bible is simply a Zionist papers mandating that each believers basal with, and bless, Israel and her people.

"For astir fractional a century, I person been preaching the connection that Israel does not inhabit the land, Israel owns the land, the rubric deed of which is recorded successful the pages of the Bible. The onshore was endowed by God to the Jewish radical for each time," added Hagee.

Aerial presumption of Joshua's Alter successful Judea and Samaria, much commonly referred to arsenic the West Bank. (TPS-IL)

Earlier this week, Fox News Digital reported that immoderate Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) urged the president to admit Judea and Samaria arsenic Israeli territory. Their missive to the president expressed enactment for Jerusalem applying sovereignty implicit the area, which the lawmakers said was "the bosom of our shared Judeo-Christian heritage."

Israel’s Parliament Speaker Amir Ohana connected Feb. 23 urged the authorities successful Jerusalem to widen sovereignty implicit Judea and Samaria, saying afloat power implicit the portion was the "one and lone way" to execute lasting peace.

Another Likud lawmaker, Dan Illouz, told Fox News Digital that Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre "proved that immoderate withdrawal, immoderate concession, immoderate illusion of coexistence with those who question our demolition is not conscionable naive—it is suicidal … we withdrew from Gaza, and successful instrumentality we got Hamas and the massacre of our people. Judea and Samaria cannot go different panic state."

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President Donald Trump, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reply questions during a associated property league successful the East Room astatine the White House successful Washington, D.C., connected Feb. 4, 2025. ( REUTERS/Leah Millis)

"A propulsion for sovereignty successful Judea and Samaria would beryllium the extremity of Israel," Yossi Beilin, a erstwhile Israeli lawmaker and an designer of the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, told Fox News Digital. "If Israel were to go a number of Jews dominating a bulk of Palestinians, it would beryllium neither Jewish nor democratic. I don’t judge it could ever happen, but conscionable waving this [idea] is atrocious enough," helium said.

"The close successful Israel believes that Trump would enactment immoderate they demand. But 5 years ago, helium suggested determination could beryllium a two-state solution. As such, it is not arsenic clear-cut arsenic it seems," helium added.

Late past month, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to behaviour a "massive" counter-terrorism cognition successful Judea and Samaria aft three buses exploded adjacent Tel Aviv, and bombs were recovered connected 2 others successful what is being investigated arsenic a coordinated attack.

Israeli soldiers instrumentality portion successful an cognition successful Jenin, arsenic it seeks to instrumentality retired Iranian-backed panic groups. Feb. 24, 2025. (REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta)

"This brutality and forceful displacement of civilians successful the West Bank… was ne'er astir self-defense, but alternatively a assemblage enlargement strategy and an taste cleansing campaign," Ahmad Fattouh, a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s ascendant Fatah faction, told Fox News Digital.

"Annexing the West Bank volition acceptable america backmost to 1948 and destruct immoderate aboriginal stableness oregon prospects for peace. Every rational dependable understands excessively good that determination is nary mode guardant but the two-state solution; otherwise, it volition pb to endless havoc," helium added.

Israel Ganz, caput of the Yesha Council, the umbrella radical representing Israeli communities successful Judea and Samaria, is moving successful conjunction with the authorities successful Jerusalem to propulsion for sovereignty.

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Pastor John Hagee speaks during "March For Israel" astatine the National Mall connected Nov. 14, 2023 successful Washington, D.C.

"We started a run to propulsion for it, but we won’t bash it without the enactment of the U.S.," helium told Fox News Digital. "Many successful the Trump medication are precise connected, they cognize the area, and they judge successful our close to this place. They recognize that if they privation to stabilize the situation, we indispensable person sovereignty successful Judea and Samaria."

"For Israel to beryllium capable to proceed to past and thrive on the coastal plain, which produces astir 80% of the country’s GDP, past it indispensable support power of the precocious grounds successful Judea and Samaria," Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (ret.), a erstwhile IDF planetary spokesperson and present a elder chap astatine the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.

"If immoderate different entity, Palestinian oregon otherwise, holds that, it would beryllium utilized arsenic a mode to endanger Israel’s security; its halfway infrastructure, including Ben-Gurion Airport, and besides its population– concentrated successful a constrictive portion betwixt Haifa [in the north] and Ashdod [in the south]--approximately 15 kilometers wide," helium said.

Palestinian terrorists instrumentality up presumption during a confrontation with the Israeli service successful Jenin connected July 3, 2023. The Israeli service said it had launched drone strikes successful Jenin arsenic portion of an "extensive counterterrorism effort." (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)

Another element, Conricus explained, is that immoderate 500,000 Israelis presently unrecorded successful Judea and Samaria, and they request to beryllium protected.

"The trends of escalation successful Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem are highest present since Oct. 7. We spot important violent enactment successful astir each Palestinian cities and continued weakness of the P.A. successful exercising control," helium said.

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Ze'ev Orenstein, manager of planetary affairs astatine the Jerusalem-based City of David Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the Jewish people’s millenia-long transportation to the Land of Israel bestows upon them an inherent close to Judea and Samaria.

"The world is that determination is apt nary different radical connected the satellite contiguous with a deeper–and longer–connection to immoderate portion of onshore than the Jewish radical with the Land of Israel, successful general, and Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, successful particular; wherever the inhabitants proceed to worship the precise aforesaid G-d, talk the aforesaid language, signifier the aforesaid faith, observe the aforesaid festivals, and locomotion upon the precise aforesaid stones, arsenic their ancestors did truthful galore thousands of years ago," Orenstein added.