New documentary ‘Til Kingdom Come examines the ties between American evangelical Christian Zionists and Israel’s right wing

The documentary ‘Til Kingdom Come, directed by Maya Zinshtein, an Emmy-award-winning Israeli filmmaker, follows an evangelical community in Middlesboro, Kentucky, a small town in a belt of former coal towns. The film examines what it describes as a poorly understood and often underplayed bond between the Israeli right and American Christian evangelicals.

In one scene at the Evangelical Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, Reverend Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian, speaks with Pastor Boyd Bingham IV of Binghamtown Baptist Church in Middlesboro. Isaac says evangelicals have contributed very negatively to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because they are obsessed with prophecy. The source describes Bingham as a hardline Christian Zionist.

Isaac describes what he sees as the prophetic understanding held by many American evangelicals, in which Jews will either be converted to Christianity or, if they refuse, be massacred. He says this is sometimes perceived as a theology that supports the Jewish people, which he calls a twisted logic. He adds that the Palestinian presence is often missing from such discussions, “as if you speak of an empty land,” and that some theology has told Palestinians they do not belong in their homeland and are second-class citizens there.

According to the source, Christian evangelicals make up a quarter of the American electorate, and around three-quarters of the wider evangelical population are white. Many are Christian Zionists who believe Israel is a manifestation of biblical prophecies and that Jews should be supported in returning to their spiritual homeland. The movement’s theology, as the article describes it, holds that once Jews are assembled in Israel, Jesus will return and bring about the mass conversion of some Jews and the death of the rest.

Zinshtein said the election of Donald Trump in late 2016, and the public enthusiasm of his evangelical base, made it seem an appropriate time to explore a subject that she felt few in Israel understood or cared about, but which she believed would have major influence over the region. “When I started looking into this issue, I understood that there is huge power under the surface that influenced my life, the life of Palestinians who lived next to me… and I wanted to bring it to light,” she told Middle East Eye.

The film spends time in Middlesboro, which the source describes as a microcosm of the larger US evangelical community. Despite 40 percent of its population living in poverty, the community is among the biggest contributors to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). At a packed church there, IFCJ president Yael Eckstein received a cheque for $25,000 and told the congregation, “The destiny of the Jewish people is the destiny of this church. And the destiny of this church is the destiny of the Jewish people.”

The documentary also gains access to events beyond the town. In Los Angeles, Zinshtein follows Eckstein to a fundraising event for the Israeli military, where Hollywood celebrities such as Gerard Butler attend alongside figures including the late Sheldon Adelson, described as a billionaire patron to Trump and a supporter of Israel. Butler is later seen taking a selfie with Israeli soldiers, flanked by Rona-Lee Shimon, a star of the Israeli TV series Fauda. The source says Zinshtein allows her characters to let their words and expressions carry the story, and even to challenge the film’s main protagonists.

Source: Read the original report