Tucker Carlson’s recent castration of Texas senator Ted Cruz produced several notable moments, one of which came when Cruz asserted that the Bible commands Christians to support Israel—by which he meant the political entity established in 1948 as the State of Israel.

To many Christians of Arab origin, this interpretation of biblical writ is simultaneously amusing and frustrating, eliciting more questions than scripture can answer. As arguably the oldest community of Christians in the world, are they called upon to embrace anything that could be interpreted as “support” for Israel, even if that means misguided intervention that kills innocents and leads to their displacement and destruction? One need not cite canon to know that the answer is “no.”

Were this an internal belief held widely by American politicians—affecting only their private lives and philanthropic habits—perhaps there would be little need for analysis. But this is not the case. Using specious affiliations between Christianity and Zionism, American pols eagerly enact policies that often prioritize Israeli aims over American.

But what of the impact of such policy on actual Christians in the Arab world? What is the practical result on this group, of the sum total of intervention, military exploits, and steadfast support of Israel—seemingly without question or reciprocal responsibility—taken by the US over the last hundred years and, in particular, over the last thirty years?

What is an “Arab Christian”?

To put Arab Christianity in context is a difficult task. The emergence of the broader Arab Christian community dates back to the centuries between the death of Jesus and the pre-Islamic era, with prominent Christian kingdoms and administrative areas taking shape in the Levant as early as the 2nd century AD, and others emerging during the later Roman period.

Further complicating the matter, some Arabic-speaking Christian groups often eschew an Arab identity, or at least de-emphasize it, preferring to view themselves as distinct and separate Christian pockets within the Arab world. Nevertheless, for the sake of discussion, I refer broadly to Arab Christians as those living in Arabic-speaking countries or their diaspora, who generally speak Arabic. …

Among other things, events in Iraq, Syria, and Palestine are a reminder of the tremendous evil that occurs when the state and institutional religion combine powers to execute a political agenda.

Numbered Days

The days of the native Christian Arab may soon be entirely behind us. Outside of Egypt and parts of Lebanon, healthy and thriving Christian Arab communities are no more. What remains are vestiges of a two-thousand-year-old heritage now rapidly disappearing. Notwithstanding Ted Cruz’s Sunday school lessons, US intervention in the Middle East has done significant harm—probably irreparable—to the Christian community there. The neocons will no doubt chalk that up to collateral damage.