At a recent conference in Israel, Ron Dermer, a former Israeli Ambassador to the US, was asked to respond to the criticism that during his tenure in Washington he focused more on courting conservatives than liberal Americans. In response, Mr Dermer noted that he had, indeed, devoted attention to conservatives – in particular, the "religious right" – because, he said that at the present time, "the backbone of support for Israel in the US is evangelical Christians." He went on to make a few additional observations to develop this point.
Firstly, he noted that liberals, including the majority of the Jewish community, had many competing concerns, and that Israel was not at the top of their list of priorities. For evangelical Christians, on the other hand, Israel was central to their faith.
Additionally, he pointed out that the gap between Republican and Democratic support for Israel was not a new phenomenon, it was a four decades old – going back to when televangelists like James Hagee, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell led their followers to embrace the Republicans.
