I haven’t read enough about this phenomenon to know, but do the Christians in support of Israel consider it a Jewish state? I’m just trying to understand whether they are supportive of Israel as a Jewish state or as the future home of the messiah who they expect to arrive… and presumably convert everyone. There are enough religious extremists with inflexible positions on Israel as it is, and my primary concern is that their support not mushroom into a sense of entitlement.

There is no one “Evangelical movement”. Not all right-wing Christian supporters of Israel could be properly described as “evangelical” (and not all evangelicals are right-wing Christian supporters of Israel). It’s a complex phenomenon, with a great deal of diversity even within small sub-groups (sound familiar?).
As best I can tell (and I’ve put some effort into trying to figure this out), the actual attitudes towards Israel among these people varies greatly, running the gamut from EV’s description above to people who have a vague notion of apocalypse in which Israel figures prominently to a more benign belief that Jews have some special significance and should be helped (just by way of example; I think there are literally dozens of differing beliefs out there, from very frightening to very admirable).

In my hometown, an evangelical umbrella group organized A Night to Honor Israel, where I’m told hundreds of Christians–many of whom probably never met a Jew before–show up, join the Jewish community in opening their checkbooks for Israel-related causes, and generally try to get to know each other and the Israelis who schlep out to sell tchochkes and whatnot. It’s all very positive and genuine, even if there is a Judaism-unfriendly apocalyptic theology behind it.
Despite my theological and political differences with many evangelicals, I welcome opportunities for two very different groups of people to find common, positive ground. I don’t think we’re going to change too many evangelical minds as to whether Jews are going to hell or not. But I rather like them supporting and affirming our Jewishness and our Jewish state now and deferring the whole convert-or-else thing to the “end times.” At the least, it’s better than getting beaten up for “killing Jesus” or being subjected to conversion scams like J4J. And in a way, it’s a refreshing sort of tolerance coming from a historically intolerant segment of society.

while i welcome the whole common ground thing, i wonder if their vision of israel is not antithetical to mine – i.e. the america that they are trying to fashion/constitutionalize is certainly not one that i am comfortable with. this applies to everything from gay marriage, to choice, to zero tolerance policies to labor rights to prison and health care reform. whereas it is nice that they support the existence and theory behind israel, it is difficult to support a community’s stance on another country where i fundamentaly disagree with how they view the laws and rights in the one where we are both citizens together.

I live in deep South TX. EV’s are in our daily lives. They ONLY care about Israel as it fits their “end times” theories. The Federation /JCC in Houston continues to kiss “pastor” Haggee’s ass and put out the red carpet for him. Even when he just said a few weeks ago that all non-christians will go to hell.
But there is a huge group pretending to be supporters of Israel…they are really Messianic “jews” trying to pick us off.
And BTW, I don’t care if they think I am going to hell. I don’t care if they like Brussles Sprouts. The two are the same to me. who cares what they think? I don’t.

themica,
as long as I don’t believe I’m going to hell, I don’t see how their belief will ever affect me
See, this is what confuses me. I don’t believe that I’m going to go to hell, but I don’t want to associate with people who do believe it. It’s the ultimate form of invalidation. I don’t understand it not bothering someone. It doesn’t make me right – I just don’t get it. Associating with them seems monstrously inappropriate to me. Also, I have abandonment issues.
If I mean so little to them that it’s fine with them if I suffer forever, with no hope of release – then f**k them, I don’t want to have anything to do with them. Their theology is so obscene that it just puts them beyond the pale of civility.
(BT , do you think that Israel should be taking money from them?)
you’ll have another chance when Jesus comes back
The thing about end-time theology, as I understand it, is that there won’t really be an opportunity for most Jews to convert. We’ll all be here after the Rapture, along with unbelieving gentiles, and most of us will die horribly during a seven year period of immense suffering – then we’ll go to hell for all of eternity. Only a few will survive long enough to see Jesus – then they get to decide whether or not to convert (presumably, everyone will). Yeah, that’s fair.
The above represents, I believe, the “pre-millennial” scenario. The “post-millennialists” have a somewhat different one.
The thing to remember is that there are a lot of “moderate” Christians who believe this as well – although their vision of what happens in the “last days” isn’t as clearly defined. They generally don’t bother much with the Rapture, but they still think we’re going to hell. A lot of evangelicals who don’t consider themselves to be conservative – but are not quite “progressive” a la Jim Wallis – fall into this category.

formermuslim says “cause no secular person who has fully thought the issue trough would support Israel”.
Not so. There’s a great deal of support for Israel in the US by conservatives (who may or may not be serious Christians but who don’t rely solely on religion for their policy choices), centrists and some old-style liberals. And I think they have thought through the issue. There are solid secular arguments in support of Israel. There’s a general fairness argument – that Jews ought to have a state, and that the history of the land shows that it’s inaccurate to claim that the place was “stolen” from the Palestinians. There’s a practical argument – that the US should support civilized countries against barbaric ones so as to demoralize and diminish the barbaric (or at least maintain the status quo).
As for apocalyptic visions, I don’t recall anything in the Jewish Bible about Jews converting to Christianity or Jews going to hell. And the Rabbinic view is (generally) that the harsh end-times scenarios are only a possible future.
I do agree with you that Jews and Israel should accept and encourage Christian support. As a small group with many and serious enemies, we don’t have a choice. However, while some of these Christians are true friends, it would be wise to be wary respecting some of the others.

If given the choice, I would not choose the support of right-wing evangelicals. But since the sane, humanistic people of the world have abandonned Israel, I don’t see what choice we have. Israel does not have the luxury of choosing it’s allies, particularly as the US population seems increasingly to care very little about Israel. It’s a shame (given the Evangelicals’ views on other matters), but Israel can’t afford to reject their support. The “liberals” of the world have driven Israel into these peoples’ arms.

I’ve been told, repeatedly, that Israel needs their monetary and political support. It may be true; I don’t feel that I understand the situation well enough to hold a firm opinion. If that’s the way it is, I hate that it has to be that way.
I’m not in a position to tell someone to ignore pragmatic necessity out of deference to my personal preferences. However, there is a tremendous difference between saying, “Yeah, they’re lunatics, and their theology is obscene, but we need them” and saying, “I don’t care what they believe. Who cares if they think I’m going to hell?” I hear the latter constantly; I almost never hear the former.

“However, there is a tremendous difference between saying, “Yeah, they’re lunatics, and their theology is obscene, but we need them” and saying, “I don’t care what they believe. Who cares if they think I’m going to hell?” I hear the latter constantly; I almost never hear the former. ”
I don’t think their theology is obscene. But I don’t beleive in it. And while the Jews all convert or die in the final act of their narrative, they are committed to protecting and strengthening Israel until that day comes. Since I don’t think that day will ever come (i.e. I, as a Jew, don’t beleive in their end-of-days scenario), why shouldn’t I accept their support in the meantime?
The mass slaughter/conversion that will supposedly befall us will come at the hands of their alleged messiah, not at their hands. While Israel’s enemies are actively perpetuating the slaughter themselves. The choice is clear to me.

As a reformist Christian, I don’t understand how anyone can really support any type of religious institution. The views I adopted would see it as a contradiction. I’m few and far between though.
I can confirm first hand, that even ‘liberal’ Christians show support for Israel because of issues that relate to revelations, end times, or whatever you want to call it. To them, it’s irrelevant what Israeli life is like, but instead a religious obligation like tithes, an offering.
Personally, I’m appalled when it comes to fervent religious folk who call for war and death in the name of G-d, seems such a contradiction to me. Nowadays, every religion is guilty of such sin.