Why American evangelicals are a huge base of support for Israel

However the election in November turns out, there is one certainly: Support for Israel will remain strong in both Congress and the White House.

The reason for that has a lot to do with the strength of a pro-Israeli religious community with a strong grassroots political organization and fundraising arm — it just may not be the religious community that first comes to mind.

“Supporting Israel is not a political issue ... it is a bible issue,” pastor John Hagee, the founder and national chairman of Christians United for Israel, said in a speech last year.

Hagee, who heads the massive Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, founded Christians United for Israel a decade ago. It steadily became one of the strongest pro-Israel evangelical groups in the country, with more than three million members and 14 regional directors to help steer operations in different parts of the country.

The group’s organizational prowess is visible at its annual Washington Summit, where attendees do more than just listen to speeches.

“Every group goes to every senator and every congressman with the same talking points about things we want them to be concerned about in relationship to Israel,” Hagee explained in a Facebook video published in September. “And I can assure you that the strength of what we do has caused a political earthquake in Washington from time to time.”