- Christian cowboys aid Israeli settlements
- Parallel between US and Israel
- Critique of settler colonialism
A photograph of four white men wearing cowboy hats at JFK Airport was shared on social media in early November with the following caption: “These ranchers from Arkansas and Montana were at JFK today en route to Israel to assist on the farms. They lack Jewish heritage.” Jerusalem Post commentator: “They were already a social media sensation” before the cowboys arrived in Tel Aviv.
They’ve received thousands of likes and comments, including “God bless Israel!” “I shall perpetually support her, and the Jewish people are incredibly appreciative to have companions.” Through interviews and updates regarding their work and time in Har Bracha, a Jewish settlement in “Judea and Samaria” (the term for the West Bank as used by those who believe the land belongs to the Jewish people), Israeli and American media outlets have also lauded the cowboys.
Conversely, the cowboys also serve as a conduit for comprehending a fundamental similarity that exists between Jewish Israeli and white American society: the pursuit of eradicating dehumanized “natives” by their respective colonial projects.
Christian Zionist Cowboys in Israel
The men engage in volunteer work via the Christian Zionist organization HaYovel, which translates to “The Jubilee” or “A Day of Worldwide Redemption and a Complete Restoration of the Land of Israel,” as stated on the organization’s website. The cowboys and their Christian Zionist patrons believe God promised the Jewish people the land four millennia ago. They expect the Jewish people to rule the region until the rapture and Christ’s second coming. This scenario will save Christians and send them to heaven, while other faiths will be doomed.
Although Christian Zionism may not be held by all evangelical Christians in the United Kingdom (approximately a quarter of the population), the vast majority, according to polls, considers the modern state of Israel and the assembly of millions of Jews there to be “fulfilments of biblical prophecies that indicate the return of Jesus Christ is approaching.” Additionally, numerous Christian Zionists adhere to the “prosperity gospel,” which posits that bestowing blessings upon Israel leads to individual and financial prosperity. Like cowboys, Christian Zionists must fund, lobby, and work for Israel’s settlements and expansionist policies.
Evangelical Masculinity and Israel
HaYovel has annually dispatched hundreds of volunteers to assist in settlement agriculture for the past two decades. Since Hamas’s attack on October 7, numerous foreign workers have fled. Palestinians are prohibited from working in settlements, and Jewish Israelis are being conscripted for military service. As a result, the cowboys and other Christian Zionists are increasingly populating the area. An American worker told i24, “Since I am unable to fight in Gaza, I will assist on the farm.” Christian volunteers call themselves “boots on the ground” during Israel’s crises, calling their work a military operation.
Scholar Kristin Du Mez analyzed this prevalent white, militaristic masculinity among evangelicals in her 2020 book Jesus and John Wayne. Du Mez examines the trajectory of white evangelical history in the United States over the past seventy-five years. She traces how evangelicals have substituted Jesus with an “idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.” This includes prominent figures from popular culture and politics, such as Donald Trump and George W. Bush, who embody the evangelical values of patriarchy, authoritarian rule, belligerent foreign policy, and fear of Islam.
Although Du Mez’s research does not centre on Christian Zionism, she has referred to the evangelical stance of endorsing Israel. “It’s a sort of infiltration into the United States as if it were Israel again,” she stated in an interview from 2021. In this passage, Du Mez seemingly alludes to the notion that early American colonists fled religious persecution in England. They envisioned America as the new Israel, a promise made by God to the settlers.
Mythical Archetypes and Dehumanization
The aforementioned conflation of America and Israel as a form of colonialism mandated by God, wherein righteous colonizers replace barbaric natives, is exposed in the rhetoric employed by Christian Zionist cowboys. Media interviews with Montanan John Plocher emphasize the dehumanization of natives. They highlight the archetype of good Indians versus evil Indians – tropes that apply to Israeli Jews and Palestinians.
In a December Israel Now News interview, Plocher was asked why Israeli Jews love him and his fellow ranchers. Plocher replied, “It has been said that seeing the cowboys is like seeing the good guys.” “It’s merely an encouragement to those individuals who stand up for the right thing—consider all the Westerns, John Wayne, and others like them.”
Even though American settlers massacred and terrorized unarmed Native civilians, including women, children, and others, and appropriated their land, the archetype of good white cowboys versus evil Indians has recurrently surfaced in popular culture in the United States. Michael Yellow Bird, an academic, has analyzed this narrative “as an element of the colonial canon that promoted white supremacy and Indigenous inferiority.” He describes how Western films and television portrayed the Indigenous people not only as irrational savages who wreaked havoc. They were also depicted as screaming, grunting, and unreasonable beings.
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Dehumanization and Parallel Violence
While proponents of Zionism and Christian Zionism may assert that Jews are indigenous to the land, the Palestinian people, who were indigenousized by Israel through settler colonialism, are frequently portrayed as primitive and regressive. They are referred to as “beasts walking on two legs,” “little snakes,” and “human animals.” Plocher compared Hamas and Palestinians to grizzlies in a November Israel National News interview. He lamented the necessity to eradicate them from the land.
He said the “original people” (European settlers) of Montana exterminated grizzlies. “Everywhere” is where people want the grizzlies is the current dilemma, he continued. He stated, “Let us do what is necessary to defend ourselves, which is to eliminate the grizzlies.” “The same applies to you all; it’s Hamas… We are cognizant of the fact that you must pursue and eliminate that.”
Given the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, which is backed by the United States, the escalating number of Israeli killings of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the increasing prevalence and brutality of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, it is imperative that we confront the overt parallels between settler colonialism, aggressive militarism, and white supremacy that exist between Israel and the United States. Encourage an increasing number of individuals to confront the parallel systems of violence and dominance. Yellow Bird says “seek justice on behalf of those colonised” given the similarities between the two states.
