Evangelical Leaders Back Trump and Israel as U.S.-Israel Operation Against Iran Intensifies

(SeaPRwire) –   Even as attempts are made to divert evangelical Christian support from Israel, several top leaders in the community assert that it has remained steadfast in backing the Jewish state ever since the U.S.-Israel joint operation against Iran began.

When the ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday, Dr. Mike Evans—founder of Jerusalem’s Friends of Zion Heritage Center and a key evangelical supporter of President Donald Trump—shared his thoughts on the conflict. Evans traveled to Israel on February 26, as tensions rose in the lead-up to the operation.

During his trip, Evans visited areas hit by enemy missiles, spoke with injured civilians and Holocaust survivors, and gave $50,000 in financial aid to a family that had lost loved ones.

“I knew the war would start, so I flew to the area. I have been in 41 wars. I go there intentionally when people are hurting to help them,” Evans told Digital.

On March 1, an Iranian missile hit Beit Shemesh, a city near Jerusalem, resulting in nine deaths. Evans arrived at the site alongside first responders not long after the strike. Later, he went to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, where he met Pnina Cohen—who was injured and lost both her husband and mother-in-law in the attack.

“I have been doing this for half a century. This is my life—combating antisemitism and helping the Jewish people,” Evans said.

Operation Epic Fury—the U.S.-Israel joint military campaign (known as Roaring Lion in Israel)—kicked off on February 28. Per a White House briefing, its stated objectives include “obliterating Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and production capacity,” undermining Iran’s military infrastructure, and stopping it from obtaining nuclear weapons. The operation’s first day saw the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel’s Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that since the war started, 7,183 individuals have been taken to hospitals, with 118 still receiving care there.

Evans characterized the U.S.-Israel alliance as unparalleled. “No one could have imagined an American president partnering so closely with Israel against radical Islam,” he stated, referring to the campaign as “historic.”

Evans noted that evangelical support for Israel stems from religious convictions. “The Bible is a Jewish book, and evangelicals believe in a Jewish person, Jesus,” he explained. “They view Israel as the biblical homeland and trust that God fulfills his promises.”

Evans added that the U.S. Evangelical Christian community—comprising roughly 52 million people—supported Trump’s presidency under the condition that he would stand with Israel.

In addition to political support, Evans said evangelicals are engaged online. “We’ve had 127 million views on social media in the last eight weeks,” he shared. “We are pushing back against misinformation and antisemitism because lies can lead to loss of life.”

Evans stressed that their support is also tangible. “We don’t just offer prayers — we provide financial assistance to those who lost their homes and belongings.”

Evans admitted that some younger evangelicals have moved away from the traditional support for Israel. “A segment has been influenced by universities and online voices,” he noted, putting the shift at around 22% to 23%. “We are making efforts to connect with them, and I think we can succeed.”

American Pastor John Hagee—founder and chair of the Christian Zionist group Christians United for Israel—told Digital that the evangelical community backs Trump’s decision to put an end to Iran’s threatening and violent actions.

“We will be backing his request to Congress to fund this effort, and we will ensure our elected officials represent the will and morality of the American people by seeing this righteous endeavor to its righteous end,” he said.

Hagee said that “as Americans, we have a right to defend ourselves against the Islamic Republic’s half-century of terror. As Christians, we are mandated to defend ourselves against evil, to stand with the oppressed against the same, and to stand with the children of Israel at all times.”

“Evangelical Christians who’ve been raised in the church and are biblically literate are Christian Zionists,” he said.

“The rise of antisemitism on the ‘woke right’ is not a product of evangelical churches, but rather a product of the false doctrine of Replacement Theology, repurposed and used as clickbait,” he continued.

Any pastor or priest, politician or podcaster, who charges that the modern children of Israel are anything other than the direct descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the beneficiaries of God’s unbreakable covenant with Israel, Hagee said, is not preaching the word of God.

“Operation Epic Fury is making the world a safer and better place for all its inhabitants; stay the course, Mr. President,” he said.

Franklin Graham—president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, a global evangelical Christian disaster relief group—stated that Iran has pledged to eliminate the State of Israel entirely, and with nuclear weapons, it would be capable of doing so.

“If President Trump had not stopped them, this is something this fanatical Islamic regime might have done within the next few months,” he said.

“My message to the American people would be to remember Israel is the only truly democratic nation in the Middle East — the only one. And they have been our nation’s closest ally in the region. I urge Americans to ‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ as the Bible instructs us,” he continued.

Graham noted that Trump supported Israel in a manner unlike any previous U.S. president.

“We’ve never had a president like President Trump in my lifetime. If he says he’s going to do something, he’ll do it. He warned Iran that if it continued to develop nuclear weapons, the U.S. would intervene, and that’s exactly what he did.”