Trump: king of Israel

In the news: Trump's bizarre comments about American Jews and their voting habits, and his assertion that he is seen by Israelis as "the king of Israel" (The bigot-in-chief slimes American Jews).

As I've written in the past (Jerusalem: Trump and the Evangelicals), any warm feelings about Trump by Israelis is based on a misconception on their part ... Trump doesn't care about Israel or Israelis, he cares about the US Evangelical vote.

Here's a bit from an article in The Washington Post that explains what I mean ...

Trump sees all U.S. Jews as Israelis because his Christian Zionist allies do, too

[...] Christian Zionism — specifically, the millenarian eschatology that has gained significant popularity on the evangelical right in recent decades — is a potent force in U.S. domestic and foreign policy. The strongest supporters of an uncritical, anti-Palestinian foreign policy are white evangelical Christians — the most politically mobilized segment of the president’s base. Their support for Israel is grounded in the Book of Revelation, which dictates that Israel must be “restored” to the Jews before the Jews convert en masse, redeeming themselves for having once rejected Jesus. This redemption comes in fire, and at the cost of complete erasure of any distinct Jewish identity; it is a hallmark of the end of history, a time of tribulation that will exterminate the faithless.

The bipartisan sacrality of Israel in American discourse, in which even the mildest criticism of the state is treated as a third-rail issue, has far less to do with the delicate sensibilities of a tiny (if loud) Jewish minority than with this strain of Christian theology. This has been true since the efflorescence of Christian Zionist preaching on the religious right in the 1980s, dispensed by figures such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. But Trump has once more displayed his gift at saying the quiet part aloud. It takes a bold man to pull back the curtain on evangelical, Bible-based foreign policy and declare himself King of Israel.

Among the many adherents of the Christian Zionist worldview, which seeks to steer Jews as pawns toward a future mass conversion, is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo, a fervent evangelical, has openly discussed his longing for the Rapture; speaking to a reporter from the Christian Broadcasting Network in March, he said it was possible that Trump had been sent by God to protect Israel from the Iranian threat, adding that he believed “the Lord is at work here.” That interview took place in Jerusalem, where Trump had just relocated the American embassy .....

Here's a bit from Wikipedia's article on Dispensationalism: US Politics (check Wikipedia for the sources) ...

Israel has allied with U.S. evangelicals and dispensationalists to influence U.S. foreign policy, including protection of the Jewish people in Israel and continued aid for the state of Israel. Israel's alliance with televangelist John Hagee began in the early 1980s as he met with every Prime Minister of Israel since Menachem Begin. Since the mid-2000s Israel has been in commercial alliance with televangelist and sometimes-politician Pat Robertson, and in 2005 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "we have no greater friend in the whole world than Pat Robertson."

Political commentator Kevin Phillips claimed in American Theocracy (2006) that dispensationalist and other fundamentalist Christians, together with the oil lobby, provided political assistance for the invasion of Iraq during 2003.

Dispensationalists typically endorse the modern state of Israel, consider its existence as a political entity as God revealing his will for the Last Days, and reject anti-Semitism.