Summit Ministries president Jeff Myers has seen evangelical attitudes toward Israel shift over the three decades he has spent working with young adults. In the early years, the high school and college age students attending the Christian nonprofit’s worldview training conferences rarely mentioned Israel unless it was in the context of biblical prophecy.
Today, students have strong political opinions about the Jewish state.
“Young adults are not with you,” he told an Israeli intelligence officer over dinner during a trip to Israel three months after the Hamas attacks. “Not even young Christians.”
The American evangelical church has long supported Israel, with Jerry Falwell Sr. once saying the Bible Belt is Israel’s “safety belt.” Yet in recent years, polls reveal that the safety belt is fraying among evangelicals under 35. As pro-Palestinian groups work hard to widen the tear through influence campaigns, Israel is likewise seeking to put out a positive image to their once-reliable allies.
Arab countries with ties to Hamas, such as Qatar and Iran, have amplified anti-Israel news and headlines. Qatar is one of the foreign entities financing anti-Israel propaganda through its media site Al Jazeera. The publication repeats Hamas talking points while suppressing alternative perspectives. It refers to Hamas-led attacks as “resistance operations” rather than as terrorism.
Meanwhile, Israel is also spending $150 million USD worldwide on multiple projects to challenge competing narratives, in what some Israeli officials are calling the “eighth front” in the regional war.
In late September, the Israeli government hired a San Diego–based firm to launch a marketing campaign aimed at US evangelicals. According to a Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filing, the $4.1 million campaign seeks to reach Christians in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado by using “biblical arguments to highlight the importance of Israel and the Jewish people to Christians.”
A newly formed company, Show Faith by Works, will spearhead the initiative. The original FARA filing lists multiple avenues of outreach, including hiring Christian celebrities and launching “the largest Christian church geofencing campaign in US history.”
Geofencing is a marketing tool that creates an invisible “fence” around an area, identifies phones entering the zone, and sends ads or messages through apps, social media, or websites.
Chad Schnitger, founder of Show Faith by Works, said his organization has made significant changes to the project since the filing, focusing more on grassroots efforts and scrapping the proposed geofencing campaign, which received public backlash from secular and church groups. He said he regrets how the original FARA disclosure was handled, noting that the group’s lawyers recommended disclosure of all possible ideas, including those unlikely to be implemented.
“Our hope is to educate the Christian church and to equip them with the tools to think critically about the conflicts in the Middle East and about our ally Israel,” Schnitger said.
In general, support of Israel among US evangelicals has remained steady in the past four years, with about half saying they believe Jews are God’s chosen people, according to a recent survey by Infinity Concepts and Grey Matter. Yet among evangelicals under the age of 35, that percentage drops to 29.
This trend is reflected in the wider society: According to a recent Harvard poll, 60 percent of registered US voters aged 18–24 support Hamas over Israel, with half saying they believe Israel has committed genocide. Meanwhile, one-third of young adults deny Israel’s right to exist—more than three times the percentage among the general population, according to a 2024 Summit Ministries / RMG research poll.
Christian scholar and apologist Sean McDowell said the growing antagonism toward Israel matches what he’s observed on high school and college campuses he’s visited for speaking events. He believes the prevalence of anti-Israel voices on social media, mainstream media, and college campuses contributes to the trend.
“The university system, as far as I can tell, leans heavily against Israel and shapes many young minds,” McDowell said.
Alan Gover, an attorney with more than 50 years of experience working with US and international clients, said he believes Show Faith by Works’ FARA filing is legally compliant. “In principle, we are best off with disclosure, as was the case here, versus opacity, which surrounds the foreign financing of those who are well organized in opposition to Israel,” Gover said.
In 2020, the Department of Justice ordered Al Jazeera’s social media arm, AJ+, to register under FARA for engaging in political activities in the United States on behalf of Qatar. The DOJ order claims AJ+ invites audiences to question what constitutes terrorism, adopt a positive view of Iran, show support for the Palestinian cause, and question US support for Israel. It quotes a leading Qatar official’s statement that “the media represents an element of soft power for the State of Qatar.”
The notice affirmed Al Jazeera’s ability to continue producing “any content it chooses” after the FARA filing, noting that registration simply allows “the consumer to be fully informed regarding the foreign principles” behind the product. Al Jazeera has refused to comply with the mandate.
The Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank that researches Middle East policy, is investigating nearly a dozen US financing networks with alleged “ties to dangerous foreign Islamist regimes,” including charities associated with the Amin family, which is linked to the Iranian government.
The family’s foundation has given money to multiple anti-Israel organizations, including Friends of Sabeel, Electronic Intifada, and the WESPAC Foundation, the fiscal sponsor for Students for Justice in Palestine. One SJP chapter depicted the Hamas attacks that murdered 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage as a prison break and a “necessary step.”
Last year, then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned of Iranian government actors providing logistical and financial support to anti-Israel protesters. Haines said it is “important to warn of foreign actors who seek to exploit our debate for their own purposes.”
Other organizations have less questionable ties to foreign money but promote similar narratives. The Anti-Defamation League, a New York–based nonprofit that combats antisemitism, has tracked more than 20 major anti-Israel campaigns since 2012 in dozens of cities across the United States. The initiatives include advertisements on billboards, buses, and subways portraying Israel as an illegitimate and hostile nation.
After taking a trip to Israel last year to meet with Israelis and Palestinians, Myers addressed his concerns about the propaganda war in a book titled Should Christians Support Israel? He argues that while some groups present themselves as pro-Palestinian, their real agenda is anti-Israel and includes efforts to boycott, divest from, and end free trade agreements with Israel.
Myers believes the propaganda campaign by pro-Hamas groups has been successful: “It’s easy to persuade people who already hold your fundamental beliefs.”
He has witnessed young adults becoming increasingly focused on victimization, even in their own lives, and has also noticed increased antisemitism. “The only group of people in 193 nations of the world that you can condemn, where everybody agrees, is the Jewish people,” he noted.
Myers identified two categories of anti-Israel beliefs among young evangelicals: progressives who hate Jews because of perceived colonialism and conservatives who claim Jews are behind a global conspiracy. “They might have a theology behind it, but they start with their politics and back their way into a theology,” he added.
Schnitger believes the Israeli-funded project will help Christians know more about Israel and its conflict with enemies “who explicitly call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of nearly all of its Jewish inhabitants.”
The team plans to file new FARA documents in the next few weeks outlining a finalized proposal for digital ads, church visits, conversations with young Christians on college campuses, educational materials for pastors, and a “mobile museum” with information about the October 7 terrorist attacks.
Myers believes that if the material helps Christians “develop a true biblical theology of Israel” and pushes against antisemitic beliefs, “it could be a good thing,” noting that young adults have a less comprehensive understanding of the Holocaust than older generations.
In his chapter about the propaganda war, Myers explains that he does not believe any allegations leveled against Israel should be “dismissed out of hand,” but rather encourages readers to “dig deep and ask difficult questions.”
He also encourages organizations to be transparent about their sources of funding: “I would be much more comfortable if people who are anti-Israel or pro-Israel, either one, be honest about where they’re receiving their funding.”
