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In a show of growing confidence and political influence, pro-Israel Christian leaders gathered at the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem on Tuesday to celebrate the Israel launch of the Conference of Presidents (COP) of Christian Organizations in Support of Israel.
The event, a follow-up to a similar gathering in Washington, DC, last September, comes just two months into U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration—a time when Christian Zionist voices believe they have more power than ever to shape U.S. policy in Israel’s favor.
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Mario Bramnick, president of the Latino Coalition for Israel and a co-founder of the Conference of Presidents
(Photo: Maayan Hoffman/The Media Line)
The coalition aims to advance pro-Israel policies at the executive, legislative, and state levels while mobilizing grassroots efforts to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations and combat rising antisemitism in North America, explained Mario Bramnick, president of the Latino Coalition for Israel and a co-founder of the Conference of Presidents.
Other co-founders include Rev. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Michele Bachmann, dean of the School of Government at Regent University and former U.S. congresswoman; and Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project.
“We believe that not one organization alone is able to accomplish it,” Bramnick said in his opening address. “We will encourage all of the great work of so many different organizations that are helping Israel now in America. But we believe that a united voice will be a strong voice with the Trump administration, legislatively and on a state basis.”
Bramnick stressed the need for unity, pointing to the way Israel’s adversaries align their efforts. “Enemies of the West know how to unite,” he said, citing alliances between progressive leftists and Islamists in the United States and Europe, as well as coordination among terrorist groups. Now, he added, it’s time for Christian supporters of Israel to do the same.
The Christian Conference of Presidents is modeled after the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations led by William Daroff. That organization unites more than 50 Jewish groups to address the Jewish community’s most pressing issues.
However, Moon noted a key difference. “There is probably less internal conflict,” he said, explaining that the Christian coalition has fewer ideological divisions.
“We just feel the need to sing from the same songbook,” he told The Media Line.
The Christian COP plans to push several key issues, chief among them Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Judea and Samaria are Hebrew names, with biblical roots, for the area commonly referred to by the international community as the West Bank, a term first applied to the territory by the Jordanian government.
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Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition
(Photo: Maayan Hoffman/The Media Line)
Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said his organization has consistently supported sovereignty because it sees Judea and Samaria as the biblical heartland—Israel’s own “Bible Belt.”
“That’s where Hebron is. That’s where Bethlehem is. It’s the birthplace of Jesus, the home of King David,” Reed told The Media Line. “There is a lot there; it’s the country’s spiritual heartland.”
Reed added that he and his supporters have always believed the land belongs to the Jewish people. But beyond that, he argued that the land-for-peace formula—once seen as a viable path—has failed. He pointed to rising radicalization among the Palestinian population, noting that a Ramallah-based think tank found that a majority of respondents supported Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack.
Palestinian control of any areas in Judea and Samaria, Reed warned, “poses a long-term danger to the security not only of the Israelis who are living in Judea and Samaria and legally doing so, but it poses a long-term security threat to the whole country. It’s not quite on the level of the powder keg that Gaza was prior to October 7, but it’s very close, and it’s the next thing to blow,” he told The Media Line.
Reed said he supports a stepped-up IDF presence in the area and Israel’s right to extend sovereignty over the land for its own protection. He admitted it remains unclear how the Trump administration will approach the issue, but he believes the U.S. president will be supportive.
When asked at a press conference last month, President Trump said he would announce his administration’s stance on the annexation of Judea and Samaria within four weeks. That press conference took place on February 5, meaning an announcement is expected within the coming days.
Perkins also attended the event and has spent much of his current trip—his third visit to Israel since the current Israel-Hamas War began—in Judea and Samaria.
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Rev. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
(Photo: Maayan Hoffman/The Media Line)
“I believe this is a moment in which we need to educate the evangelical community about what’s at stake here, and this is the ability of Israel to protect itself, but also to rightfully exercise authority over the land that God has given to them,” Perkins said.
He recalled attending meetings in 2004, ahead of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, when more than 8,000 Jewish residents were forcibly removed from Gush Katif in an effort to make peace with the Palestinians. Instead, he noted, Israel endured 18 years of terrorism and rocket fire, culminating in the October 7 attack.
“Judea and Samaria is 16 times the land mass of Gaza,” Perkins told The Media Line. “It’s unworkable.”
Perkins said his goal is to spend more time in the biblical heartland, meeting with residents, religious leaders, and officials. He hopes to bring back firsthand experiences to share with his followers.
Several Israeli politicians have already taken steps in that direction.
Last month, MK Ohad Tal introduced a bill to apply Israeli sovereignty throughout Judea and Samaria. In December, new legislation was proposed stating that establishing a Palestinian state in these territories would require either the approval of 80 Knesset members or a national referendum.
At the B’Sheva Jerusalem Conference last month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told ILTV News that Israel has already been implementing de facto sovereignty in these areas for the past two years. He said Israel is building houses and roads and helping to establish a reality on the ground that would make it difficult to give up the land.
‘God is giving Israel a blank check’
In the evangelical Christian community, President Trump is widely seen as the most pro-Israel president in the country’s 77-year history. Many participants at Tuesday’s event described his presidency as Israel’s window of opportunity.
“The Biden administration was not a friend of Israel,” said Bramnick. “It was literally trying to undermine Israel at every stage and pushing the atrocities, pushing a two-state solution, which would only benefit the genocide and reward the genocide. I am so grateful to God that there is a new sheriff in town and that God gave us President Donald Trump—not only to make America great again but to make the world and Israel great again.”
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US President Doanld Trump with captivity survivor Eli Sharabi in the Oval Office
(Photo: The White House)
Bramnick said he was among a select group of evangelicals who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit to Washington. That meeting took place just before President Trump suggested relocating Gazans and building a Gaza Riviera under U.S. authority.
“I literally feel God is giving Israel a blank check to begin to write upon, to dream again,” Bramnick said. “God’s hand is upon Israel, and this is your opportunity to arise in what God has for your nation.”
Reed echoed Bramnick’s sentiments, adding that Christians fully support whatever actions Israel needs to take to eradicate terrorism from its borders.
U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in the region in the coming days to push forward an extended Phase I of the hostage-for-ceasefire deal. But Reed dismissed diplomatic solutions, arguing that past negotiations have failed.
“I don’t see any other solution based on their track record other than hitting them high and hard militarily,” he said.
Reed added: “I am here to say that if Israel feels like it needs to take further military action in Gaza or anywhere else in order to protect its legitimate security interests, it will have our full support.”
Many analysts argue that the Trump administration’s plan is unrealistic, if not illegal. Meanwhile, the Arab world has dismissed the proposal, putting forward its own alternatives.
‘US and Israel are intertwined’
Reed explained that Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection strengthened America’s conservative and faith-based communities. He said the Republican candidate’s victory clearly showed Americans wanted Democrats out.
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Evangelical Christians march in a demonstration of support for Israel in Jerusalem in 2016
(Photo: AFP)
“You could debate which contributed the most: Was it inflation? Was it the high cost of housing and groceries? Was it just a general feeling that the economy and the country were on the wrong track because those numbers were historically high? Was it the border? Was it all these radical woke policies, including the gender agenda or the trans agenda? I think the answer is that it was sort of all of the above. It was the radical social agenda combined with an amazing level of incompetence in both foreign affairs and domestic policy,” Reed contended. “I think the American people had enough.”
Evangelical Christians were a key voting bloc for Donald Trump, and Reed believes President Trump will reciprocate their support. He noted that American Christians—especially evangelicals—have a deep, biblical connection to Israel, and the president understands that.
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However, beyond faith, Reed said, the U.S. and Israel are intertwined for strategic reasons.
“Israel faces Iran on the threshold of obtaining a nuclear weapon and its military proxies, which are designed to eliminate the State of Israel off the face of the earth and to drive Jews into the sea. And they may be crazy, but they have to be taken seriously. You know, as with Hitler, you should believe what they say. They hate Jews. They hate Christians. Israel is the little Satan. America is the big Satan,” Reed told The Media Line. “Since the fall of the Shah in 1979 and the establishment of an Islamist dictatorship in Tehran, Iran has been the most destabilizing force, not only in the Middle East but arguably in the world.”
“We’re here to simply say to the Israeli people and to their government that we stand with them,” Reed continued. “We fully support them in this struggle. We will provide whatever they need. There is no substitute for victory.”
Perkins added that evangelicals are not fair-weather friends. He emphasized their unwavering support as “people of the book”—meaning people of faith.
“We want to make it unequivocally clear that we stand with the Jewish people and Israel,” Perkins said.