The Jerusalem Summit, which took place between June 9 and 11, was a three-day gathering to discuss Israel, the Church, and antisemitism. By the time it opened, the regional crisis was no longer background noise. It was part of the atmosphere. But the speakers who took the stage were not focused only on Iran, missiles, or flight schedules. Their warning was that another crisis was taking shape inside parts of the Christian world itself, where support for Israel is being challenged by biblical illiteracy, political resentment, social media narratives, and renewed forms of replacement theology.
Organized by one of the world’s best-known pro-Israel Christian organizations, the gathering offered a view from inside the Christian Zionist movement at a moment of unusual anxiety. Speakers repeatedly argued that anti-Israel sentiment is no longer confined to the political left, Muslim communities, or secular activist circles, but is also emerging from parts of the American and European Christian right.
That concern gave the summit a different tone from a standard Christian Zionist conference. It began with music, formal greetings, and a message from Israel’s president, but the language quickly turned urgent. President Isaac Herzog, addressing the summit by video from the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, described antisemitism as a global challenge that required law enforcement, legal action, and education.
“We are witnessing a very disturbing surge of antisemitism all over the world,” he said. “This is a major challenge for humanity. This is the age-old, perhaps the oldest plague in humanity.” The president told the Christian leaders that countering antisemitism requires “law enforcement, adjudication, and education,” adding that it cannot be accepted that people “erase Israel off the map, the only nation state of the Jewish people.”
For Bühler, the concern was not only the rise of antisemitism after October 7, but also the fact that anti-Israel arguments are finding space inside conservative Christian circles. He pointed to voices such as Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes as “the tip of the iceberg,” but said the deeper problem was silence from pastors and church leaders.
“They’re not silent because they are antisemites or they are against the Jewish people,” he said. “I believe most of them, from the bottom of their heart, they have some warm feelings towards the Jews at least. But I believe it’s blatant ignorance and illiteracy by most pastors about Israel. They don’t dare to speak.”
David R. Parsons, ICEJ’s senior vice president and spokesman, told The Media Line that the summit was born from a sense that Christian Zionists could no longer treat the problem as external. “After October 7, you’ve had this surge of antisemitism growing around the world, and it was not only on the left and then radical Islam, but it was quite shocking to start seeing it come from the American right and especially the American Christian right,” he said. Parsons said some Christians who still hold a favorable view of Israel are now afraid to say so publicly. “There are actually Christians there who have a heart for Israel, a favorable view of Israel, but they’re afraid and intimidated into speaking out.”
That fear, Parsons said, now has practical consequences. He pointed to a recent episode in Dublin, where a planned pro-Israel Christian gathering was canceled after pressure on the venue. “We had a big meeting. They expected 1,000, 2,000 people in this big stadium in downtown Dublin, where I was going to speak,” he said. “All of a sudden, my little graphic poster of me is being spread on the internet that I’m a supporter of genocide, and we want to cancel this event.” For Parsons, the lesson was clear. “I don’t think we have any choice but to start fighting back as Christians against this intimidation,” he said. “If you want to stand with Israel today and be identified as a Christian Zionist, the word Zionist has become, you know, such a negative term. We have to redeem that term.”
The summit’s sharpest internal debate focused on replacement theology, also known as supersessionism, the belief that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s covenant. Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, executive director of Israel365 Action, told The Media Line that the issue is no longer merely academic.
“In the Christian world today, we have a situation where there are actors who are trying to drive a wedge between Jews and Christians, and they’re weaponizing theology,” he said. “And young Christians are not biblically literate. It’s a very big problem.” Wolicki said young Christians who go to church but do not read the Bible are vulnerable to old theological ideas now being used for political purposes. “What we’re seeing now in the last few years is this resurgence of supersessionism, replacement theology, with a political angle to it, saying that the Jewish people really have no right to be in this land, and that it’s not Christian to support Israel.”
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