LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Jerusalem Times article talks about the consequences to Israel if they withdraw from Gaza.

An Israeli withdrawal from the territories could lead to an anti-Semitic backlash among evangelical Christians who are today among Israel's strongest US supporters, said Herbert Zweibon, an American Jewish activist with close ties to the evangelical community.

Zweibon, chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel, a US Jewish organization fighting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, explained that evangelical Christian support is based on a deep belief that God has a covenant with Israel that includes the Jews' return to the biblical Land of Israel.

"If the Jews give up on their part of the covenant," said Zweibon, "I think the Christians will walk away from their support for Israel. Why should they stand by it, if the Jews don't?"

Zweibon said that if the "road map goes through as stated, and Israel withdraws from Judea, Samaria and Gaza, I think you will see anti-Semitism in America like you have never seen.

These people will see it as a betrayal of their own trust."

Asked what good the support of this community is if the relationship could so quickly turn from love to hate, Zweibon said, "Every divorce turns from love to hate, often because of a feeling of betrayal."

Zweibon was behind an effort last year to place evangelical Christian pressure on US President George W. Bush to ditch the road map initiative. His organization sponsored the placement of some 130 billboards, at a price of $75,000, in the US Bible Belt calling on people to phone the White House to tell Bush to "honor God's covenant with Israel."

The covenant mentioned is part of an interesting tangle of dogma and speculation that blends the Biblical promises of God to the Hebrews with 20th Century postmillennial beliefs. Basically, all the Jews in the world have to return to Israel and reclaim it in order to set the stage for Christ's return. This is why certain Christian sects are so tightly involved in Israeli actions. And this is why the backlash would be so severe if Israel were to turn from that course.