Why Stand With Israel? A Global Christian Perspective
The September 2026 issue of Israel and the Church brings together Indigenous, African, European and Arab perspectives on Israel, challenging Christians to respond with biblical faithfulness, historical understanding and genuine love for all people.
Why should Christians stand with Israel? In an age of rising hostility, competing historical narratives and deep human suffering, the question demands more than a slogan. This issue of Israel and the Church invites readers to consider the enduring relationship between the Jewish people, the land of Israel and God’s purposes in history.
Perry and Sheree Trotter begin with an Indigenous perspective. Drawing particularly on Māori experience, they examine the very different attitudes Indigenous communities hold towards Israel. Their article highlights striking points of connection between Indigenous identity and the Jewish story, including attachment to ancestral land, the importance of genealogy and the preservation of language. They argue that Jewish people should be recognised as Indigenous to the land of Israel, not dismissed as foreign colonisers.
Turning to Africa, Dr Victor Kamugisha explores why the continent’s rapidly growing Christian population does not always translate into support for Israel. He traces Africa’s ancient connections with the biblical world and the apostolic Church while examining how later missionary theology sometimes imported supersessionist assumptions that diminished Israel’s continuing place in God’s purposes. His article calls African Christians to recover a deeper understanding of the Jewish foundations of their faith.
Dr James E. Patrick addresses Europe’s long and painful history of hostility towards Jewish people. He presents anti-Zionism as the latest expression of an old prejudice and offers a positive case for supporting Israel. Israel’s innovation, security role, democratic institutions and place as a refuge for Jewish people all receive attention. Yet Patrick’s final and greatest reason is theological: God continues to love Israel, and Christians who have received Israel’s spiritual blessings owe the Jewish people a debt of gratitude and love.
Support for Israel, however, must never become hostility towards Palestinians. Rev Cornelis Kant argues that biblical solidarity with Israel is entirely compatible with concern for Palestinians and other minorities. Scripture calls God’s people to protect the stranger, practise hospitality and pursue peace. Faithful Christian support for Israel must therefore reject both antisemitism and contempt for Israel’s non-Jewish neighbours.
The issue concludes with Kees de Vreugd’s review of Hussain Abdul-Hussain’s provocative book, The Arab Case for Israel. From within the Arab world, Abdul-Hussain argues that cooperation with Israel offers a more hopeful path than entrenched hostility, opening possibilities for peace, stability and shared prosperity.
Together, these contributions call Christians beyond fashionable slogans and inherited assumptions. To stand with Israel is not to claim that the modern state is beyond criticism. It is to take God’s covenant faithfulness seriously, resist hatred and falsehood, and seek the good of both Jews and their neighbours. This is a conversation requiring courage, humility and the love of truth.