From the Friends of Zion Museum website:
President Donald Trump, received the Friends of Zion Award from Dr. Mike Evans founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem. The event was attended by Vice President Pence, Senior Advisors Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump and faith leaders representing over 150 million Christians globally.
…During the ceremony Dr. Evans declared that: “No president in history has ever built such an alliance for the State of Israel and the Jewish people, and no president has courageously stood up for the State of Israel on the global stage as you had Mr. President. President Trump’s historic recognition of Jerusalem will secure his place in history as the first American president to take that step since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.”
The post comes with an official White House photograph, although the only detail on the White House website is a short notice from 11 December that is no longer available: “This afternoon, the President will participate in a presentation of the Friends of Zion award with Faith Leaders”. The photo shows that around 30 “Faith Leaders” were present – and as with the Oval Office photo-op in July, the attendees were overwhelmingly white men in suits, exclusively representing conservative evangelicalism and the Christian Right. The only woman present in the photo, other than Ivanka Trump in the background, is “Trump’s God Whisperer” Paula White, who is placed at the President’s right hand. Next to her is Gary Bauer, and a central place in front of Trump’s desk is given to the controversial fundamentalist Robert Jeffress, whose loyalty to Trump was recently rewarded with a Presidential book plug.
Along with the official posed photo, Trump’s Instagram account has a photo of the “Faith Leaders” laying hands on him while he adopts a pious pose at his desk. Some of those present afterwards made statements praising Trump’s various policies, as recorded by CBN (in a video curiously titled “Christian Leader Steakout”).
Evans has now followed up with an advertising campaign across Jerusalem, involving 110 “God Bless Trump” signs “throughout the city, on billboards, buses and even camels”. The press release text is accompanied by a gimmicky photo of a festooned camel, held by what appears to be an uncomfortable-looking Palestinian in traditional dress.
Evans has been based in Jerusalem for many years, and he he has built relationships with Israel’s political leadership. His various books include works warning of the inevitability of conflict with Iran, such as The Final Move Beyond Iraq (blogged here) and Showdown with Nuclear Iran: Radical Islam’s Messianic Mission to Destroy Israel and Cripple the United States (written with the assistance of Jerome Corsi, whose birther “investigations” inspired Trump).
In 2012 Evans brought out The Final Generation: Jesus is Coming Soon. According to the blurb:
…I have written almost two-dozen books on the Middle East and radical Islam, many of them discussing their relationship to the evens of the book of Revelation. I have studies the prophecies about the end of the age given by Jesus, the Old Testament prophets, and the New Testament apostles. I have read and reread books on Bible eschatology written by experts, teachers, and scholars. And in all my research and years of experience, there has been no other time when the signs of Jesus’ imminent return were happening with the intensity we are seeing today. Bible prophecy after Bible prophecy points to the likelihood that the last generation before Jesus’ return is now on the Earth, and the last lap for the Church has begun.
A few days ago, a member of the Florida Senate named Doug Broxton told a Trump rally that “Where our soon-coming King is going to return back to Jerusalem, it’s because of President Trump declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel”.
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