News, economy and analysis from across the Middle East
Long before American televangelists, the idea that Christians should help restore the Jews to Palestine took root in nineteenth-century Britain, among evangelical preachers, aristocrats and imperial strategists.
Tens of millions of Christians believe that supporting the State of Israel is a biblical duty. Critics within the church argue that this belief rests on a misreading of scripture, and has real consequences for the Middle East.
As Syria's uprising turned into full-scale war in 2012, countries from Asia to the Gulf pulled out their citizens and shut their embassies in Damascus.