There are reasons why Michael Bard, writing for the ideologically Zionist Jewish News Syndicate, says that “Public opinion for Israel shows an alarming trend”:

Sympathy for Israel peaked at 62% between 2010 and 2019 but has dropped every year since, falling to just 46% in 2025—the lowest since 2001. Meanwhile, sympathy for the Palestinians hit a record high of 33%.

Israel’s favorability ratings have also plunged, reaching just 54% in February 2025—down from a high of 79% in 1991 after the Gulf War. Israel now ranks 12th out of 22 countries, trailing behind Egypt. By contrast, the Palestinian Territories’ favorability … climbed to 32%, a record high.

Gallup has also taken notice, reporting that “Less Than Half in U.S. Now Sympathetic Toward Israelis.” Professor David Lazer, speaking of a different poll that his own Northeastern University was involved in, notes that the shift is largely generational, and that, while support for Israel is higher in the GOP, still, younger Republicans as well as younger Democrats, are less likely to support Israel than their elders are. The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz laments that “The Next Generation of Republicans Is Turning Away From Israel.” A University of Maryland poll has noted more negative than positive views of Zionism, while the Pew Research Center informs us that 53% of US Catholics now have an unfavorable view of the State of Israel, as opposed to 45% who have a favorable view. The BBC bluntly declares that “Americans used to be steadfast in their support for Israel. Those days are gone.”

An episode that puts flesh on the bones of those polling numbers and newspaper reports is Tucker Carlson’s recent Turning Point USA speech in Florida, where the popular conservative commentator openly declared — to great applause — that the elite financier and honeypot operator extraordinaire, Jeffrey Epstein was,

…working on behalf of intel services, probably not American … And moreover, it’s extremely obvious to anyone who watches that this guy had direct connections to a foreign government. Now, no one is allowed to say that that foreign government is Israel because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that that’s naughty.

I realize that this quick summary mixes up Israel’s lowering popularity with the question of Zionism (and its evil offspring, Christian Zionism), and that the two things can be distinguished. But, while distinguishable, support for Israel and adherence to Zionism are closely related. Their favorability metrics will likely rise and fall together. From my own survey of the landscape, I can also say that, while Zionism of a sort is still popular among older conservative Catholics, there is a growing backlash against it in the younger generation, especially among traditionalists. Indeed, there is a growing consciousness of principled, religious opposition to Zionism that I am happy to be a small part of, with two Reconquest episodes I recorded on the subject getting over 340,000 views on YouTube (not including other venues).

My objections to Zionism are theological, and this entire matter rests upon theological premises.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Now, the growth of mistrust of the modern State of Israel and opposition to Zionism is a good thing given that Zionism, of whatever sort, is an error. But we Catholics do not define ourselves merely by what we are opposed to; we define ourselves by what we profess, what we confess, what we positively rally around for God’s glory and the salvation of souls. Traditionalism is, after all, an affirmation.

There are anti-Zionist Jews, observant Orthodox Jews, who are opposed to Zionism on religious grounds, but they believe in the Talmud with its blasphemies; and there are anti-Zionist liberal Jews, mostly not religious, who are anti-Zionist on progressive political grounds because they are anti-colonial, and the nation-state created in usurped Palestinian territory in 1948 is a foreign colony occupying other people’s land. In addition, there are, of course, Arab and non-Arab Muslims who are anti-Zionist on both religious and political grounds. None of these folks — neither the Orthodox Jews, nor the liberal Reform Jews, nor the Muslims, can be saved in their religions. So, this encouraging “inflection point,” if left where it is, will get people no closer to salvation if they are content merely to oppose Zionist ideologies and atrocities. Something more is needed: the Faith. Furthermore, on such neuralgic questions, non-Christian ideologies can advance themselves and gain a foothold — and I mean genuinely hateful, racist, malign and violent ideologies. Catholic truth and Catholic charity avoid these false reactions and the false dialectics they engender.

We Catholics need to read the signs of the times and avail ourselves of this moment for Jesus Christ the King, ever mindful of our duty in charity to evangelize our neighbor and spread the Gospel to Jew and Gentile alike. Here are some thoughts in that regard.

‘The True Israel’

The Christian Church — that is, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church we profess in the Nicene Creed — is Israel. Christian Zionism erroneously conflates Biblical Israel — the people of God of the Old Testament — with the modern State of Israel created from whole cloth in 1948. Put simply, this is a case of stolen identity. We are Israel, and our God-given identity was hijacked in 1948 and appropriated by a newly created European colony in Palestine, one born in deception and violence — and one which has nothing in common with the historical, divinely established theocracy known as Israel: nothing, that is, other than overlapping real estate and a usurped name.

In his article, The Catholic Church is the Kingdom of Israel, the convert, Shane Schaetzel, takes aim at “Dispensationalism” and argues against the Zionist “errors of Evangelical preacher John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) and his study notes, found in the margins of the Scofield Reference Bible, published by Cyrus I. Scofield (1843-1921).” Mr. Schaetzel assembles a vast array of scriptural quotes showing how certain appellations for the people of God of the Old Testament were inherited by the Catholic Church, passing through Jesus Christ from one covenant into the next: We are Israel, the Children of God, the Kingdom of God, the Priests of God, the People of God, the Vineyard of God, the Children of Abraham, the Bride of God, Jerusalem, the Chosen People, the circumcised (spiritually!), the Olive Tree; we are, even — as incredible and impolitic as it may seem — “the Jews” (cf. Rom. 2:29). One sentence, at least, of Mr. Schaetzel’s article deserves to be quoted here: “Under the Kingship of Jesus Christ, Israel has expanded from a tiny Roman province in the Middle East to a worldwide empire, reigning through the hearts of men in a way earthly kings and rulers can only envy.” Well said.

We can add that if the Church, by Will of God, inherited all those Old-Testament names, the Catholic Church is also Zion. If you are a Catholic, and you are shocked to learn that we are the true Zion, then ask yourself why Saint Thomas Aquinas’ masterful sequence for the Feast of Corpus Christi is called the Lauda Sion Salvatórem (“Praise, O Zion, [thy] Savior”). The “Sion” in the title is the Church, who is being summoned to adore her glorious Eucharistic Savior.

The ‘True Zion’ vs. Zionism

In his Challenge of Faith, Brother Francis wrote the following little meditation on “Zionism” — which, he held, stands in stark opposition to the Catholicity of the Church:

Mount Sion is where the Blessed Sacrament was instituted, and where the Holy Ghost descended on the first community of believers to make them the beginning of the Church. The seers of the Old Testament talk enthusiastically about Sion because they saw these realities in prophetic vision. To give to those old prophecies the Zionist interpretation is to inflict the maximum distortion on God’s merciful plan for the good of all nations.

The passing of the true religion from the Ancient Alliance to the Church of the New Testament is not a “replacement,” of Jew by Gentile, nor is it a question of “race,” or of superior or inferior bloodlines. The Precious Blood of Jesus — the only blood that matters supernaturally — has redeemed Jew and Gentile alike, any and all of whom are welcome to enter the true Israel by Faith, Baptism, and subjection to our Davidic King’s vice-regent, the pope. As we know, Jews will ultimately convert en masse, but the conversion of the Jews is not merely an eschatological event; in every age, the Church has received converts from Judaism, and she still does today. (There is, in fact, a Patriarchal Vicar for the Hebrew-speaking Catholics in the Latin Patriarchate of Jersualem — an office currently occupied by the Rev. Fr. Piotr Zelazko, SSD. So the same Latin Patriarch of Jersusalem who offered to exchange himself for Israeli hostages and who visited the besieged Christians of Gaza, and who speaks fluent Hebrew as well as Arabic — that same Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa has a special vicar in charge of Catholics in the Holy Land who speak Hebrew. Who are these people? Hint: They’re not Arabs.)

Christian Zionists read Genesis 12:3 in a way that no Christian ever read that passage until well after the Protestant Revolution. This heresy interprets the words spoken to Abraham — “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed” — as if they apply to his physical offspring who reject Jesus Christ, so that in blessing the State founded in 1948 we are blessed, and in cursing it — which, to them, is practically to oppose it in any way — is to incur a curse. (This alone explains a lot of America’s warmongering foreign policy, as Christian Zionist influence is very powerful in our government.) But this fatuous reading of Genesis ignores such New-Testament passages as Romans 9:6-8 and Galatians 3:26-29, where we learn that the “children of the flesh” are not to be confused with the “children of promise” and that those who believe and have been baptized into Christ are “the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.” Again, this is a case of stolen identity.

In debunking Christian Zionism, we want to advance the orthodox Christian alternative to heresy, and that alternative is the Catholic notion of the Continuity of Religion — the idea that there has been, for all history, only one true religion. The Old Testament was a preparation for the New, and the Kingdom of Israel was a preparation for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is the Catholic Church, whose mystical Head is the Son of the Most High, who is seated on the throne of David His father, and who reigns in the house of Jacob forever (cf. Luke 1:32). There is here not a “replacement,” but a continuity and a fulfillment.

The Man, Christ Jesus (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5), is the apex of creation. All that has been made was created for Him. An eternal Person, He came down to Earth to be what He was predestined to be — the Supreme Glorifier of the Blessed Trinity — and the glory of God is the very purpose of creation. All who are predestined to eternal beatitude are predestined in Him and, therefore, in His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church (Rom. 8:29-30). All of revelation centers on Him: the Old Testament is Christ in type and prophecy; the New, Christ in reality and fulfillment. “All things were created by him and in him. And he is before all, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:16-17).

This is the true alternative to the false religion of Ted Cruz and so many others.

The Fathers Know

The Church Fathers were certainly not Zionists, for they saw the Church of the New Testament as Israel. In its commentary on Ephesians 2:12, the online Catena Bible cites the fourth-century Latin writer, Gaius Marius Victorinus, saying, “The true way of Israel consists in living according to the Spirit, thinking according to the Spirit and being circumcised from unworthy desires.” But Victorinus is not alone. Here is a mini-florilegium of passages I culled from patristic sources online:

Saint Justin Martyr (c. 100 – c. 165 AD), Dialogue with Trypho: “For the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham…, are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ, as shall be demonstrated while we proceed.”

In that same work of Saint Justin’s, we also find these chapter headings: “Ridiculous interpretations of the Jews. Christians are the true Israel” and “Christ is king of Israel, and Christians are the Israelitic race.”

Origen (c. 185 – c. 253), in his Commentary on the Gospel of John (Book I), refers to Christians as “the Spiritual Israel.”

Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310 – c. 367), On the Trinity (Book V), 28: “He proceeds, For you shall leave your name for a rejoicing unto My chosen, but the Lord shall slay you. [Isaias 65:15] These words… are addressed to the carnal Israel, which is taunted with the prospect of having to surrender its name to the chosen of God. What is this name? Israel, of course; for to Israel the prophecy was addressed. And now I ask, What is Israel today? The Apostle gives the answer:— They who are in the spirit, not in the letter, they who walk in the Law of Christ, are the Israel of God (Romans 2:29).”

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347 – 407), Homily 6 on Galatians: Commenting on Gal. 6:15-16, he says, “Tell me not then, he [Saint Paul] says, of circumcision, which now avails nothing; (for how shall it appear, when all things have undergone such a change?) but seek the new things of grace. For they who pursue these things shall enjoy peace and amity, and may properly be called by the name of Israel. While they who hold contrary sentiments, although they be descended from him (Israel) and bear his appellation, have yet fallen away from all these things, both the relationship and the name itself. But it is in their power to be true Israelites, who keep this rule, who desist from the old ways, and follow after grace.”

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430), On the Spirit and the Letter: “For thus do they become of the house of Israel, when their uncircumcision is accounted circumcision, by the fact that they do not exhibit the righteousness of the law by the excision of the flesh, but keep it by the charity of the heart. If, says he, the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? (Romans 2:26) And therefore in the house of the true Israel, in which is no guile, they are partakers of the new testament, since God puts His laws into their mind, and writes them in their hearts with his own finger, the Holy Ghost, by whom is shed abroad in them the love (Romans 5:5) which is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:10)”

Theodoret (c. 393 – c. 457), Letter 151: “Since, therefore, after many efforts, I have failed in persuading them to recognise the truth, I have returned to my own churches, filled at once with sorrow and with joy… Gather us one by one, Your new Israel, building up Jerusalem and gathering together the outcasts of Israel. Let us be made once more one flock and all be fed by You; for You are the good Shepherd ‘Who gives His life for the sheep.’”

The Seventh Ecumenical Council of the Church, Nicea II (787): The fathers of this Council, in Session 4, call the Church Israel, invoking the language of Saint Paul in Galatians 6: “peace shall be upon the Israel of God.”

The above is barely a scratch at the surface of the patristic evidence. A veritable avalanche of such passages could be produced from Fathers of the East and West.

‘Dispensationalism Must Be Destroyed’

As I was writing this piece, Joshua Charles (of Eternal Christendom) providentially posted something on X that could not have been more timely for my purposes. Drawing to my conclusion, I quote his excellent statement in full, making his thoughts my own:

The Church did not “replace” Israel. “Replacement theology” is another one of these absurd terms intended to bring thought to an end and scare people into submission to heresy.

Far from “replacing” Israel, the Church became Israel. Israel became the Church. Israel was, for millennia, waiting in expectation that it would be fulfilled, and finally it was: in the Church. The Church fulfilled Israel, because it is, in the fullest sense, Israel.

Ethnic ties to Abraham, and following an old law that prophesied/commanded that the Messiah and the New Law He would promulgate should be obeyed, will not get you to heaven.

Becoming a child of Abraham by the grace of adoption, through regeneration wrought by the Holy Spirit, will. That same standard applies equally to Jews and Gentiles. Absent a rebirth and recreation of your human nature, no man will enter into eternal life. The circumcision of the flesh doesn’t do this. The circumcision of the heart, found only in the New Covenant, does.

Jews are not only welcome in this Church toward which Moses and their entire national existence pointed prior to Christ, they were its foundation! All the promises to Abraham are fulfilled in Christ, and thus in His Body, the Church, in which the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been destroyed, forever. The two are now one, through the Messiah.

No “replacement.” FULFILLMENT.

Dispensationalism delenda est.

Witnessing to the reality that the Catholic Church is the True Israel is the only acceptable way to assure that Dispensationalism is, as it ought to be, destroyed. And, in doing this, we will thereby glorify the eternal King of Israel and save souls, too!