Antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric is rising from both the right and the left, with some voices mirroring the extremism of the 1930s, according to Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA).
At the same time, he warns of a broader jihadist movement seeking the emergence of a new global Islamic order.
“We need soldiers who are willing to fight to expose our common enemies in the jihad that they are prosecuting against all of us,” Diker said in an interview. “Jihad targets Christians as it targets Jews, as it targets people from other faith communities and ethnicities. We are facing a common existential threat. That’s why we have to come together, to destroy that threat.”
Diker spoke from the United States following a recent trip to Washington, DC, where he helped launch the first-ever Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress (JCZC). He described the initiative as a response not only to the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre but also to the coordinated global surge of pro-Palestinian and pro-Islamist activism on college campuses in the media and in major American and European cities.
“The Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress is to leverage Israel’s vital security and foreign affairs policies and messaging through an army of Zionists, the vast majority of which are not Jewish,” Diker said. “For many years, the Zionist conversation was limited to the core Jewish community, primarily in Israel, and those in America and in the West whose eyes were directed toward Jerusalem.”
He continued, “Since Oct. 7, what we learned is that we [the Jews] are severely outnumbered and under great threat from what’s called the eighth front, which is the nonmilitary assault that we face—the diplomatic assault, the media assault, the social network assault, the economic assault, and the educational assault. We’re being assaulted on so many fronts that require an army that goes way beyond Israel and the Jewish community, to the non-Jewish Zionist community.”
What makes the JCZC different from previous efforts to connect Christian Zionists to Israel based on biblical ties is that the focus is now on strengthening the security of Judeo-Christian values, with the Jewish state at their core.
JCZC co-founder Calev Myers said the conversation has shifted from a shared biblical appreciation for the Holy Land to a unified effort to counter what he described as a state-backed, highly funded, well-organized campaign to undermine Western civilization, both online and offline.
“If we don’t win on this front, the future of the state of Israel will be very difficult,” Myers said.
"Paris is falling, London is falling, other places have fallen. We need to make sure that America will not go in the same direction"
In other words, JCZC remains a faith-based initiative. Its mission extends to bringing together Christians and Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, as well as people from other like-minded, Zionist faiths. The goal is to take coordinated action in defense of Western values and Israel.
Around 20 leaders officially launched the congress in Washington just before Thanksgiving. Participants included representatives from American Christian Leaders for Israel, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA, Myers’ ARISE (Alliance to Reinforce Israel’s Security and Economy), JCFA, and additional groups, including the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel, led by Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut Mayor Haim Bibas.
The JCZC is modeled on Theodor Herzl’s First World Zionist Congress in 1897.
“Timing is everything in life,” said co-founder Sagiv Asulin. “Paris is falling, London is falling, other places have fallen. We need to make sure that America will not go in the same direction.”
Asulin, an Israeli and new JCFA staff scholar, continued: “This is not just our struggle, and we need to make sure that the free world understands that it’s mainly about them. That’s the narrative that we are trying to change.”
Myers explained that the JCZC will focus on five sectors: government and policy; media, including social media; education; sports and entertainment; and faith communities. In each industry, the group plans to engage influential leaders, hold meetings and events, and organize delegations to Israel to deepen alignment and collaboration.
Momentum is already building. Myers said that there is support from the 45 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, the 86 million-member Assemblies of God Church, and the 25 million-member United Pentecostal Churches International. There are also representatives from Hispanic and Black pastors’ networks. Altogether, the JCZC steering committee represents 280 million people worldwide.
“We’re not just engaging small independent organizations that exist because of the Israel issue or the antisemitism issue,” Myers said. “We’re engaging with the largest platforms of influence.”
"We’ve been losing terribly, and we’re way behind in the game. We’re decades behind in the game."
At the First Zionist Congress in 1897, there were 280 delegates, including 10 from the Christian community, meaning the overwhelming majority were Jewish. Today, the new congress is flipped, with most representatives non-Jews, since the vast majority of Zionists worldwide are not Jewish.
“We are opening Zionism out of Judaism,” Asulin said. “That’s something that’s never been done.”
Myers added that by building a broader coalition to defend Judeo-Christian values, antisemitism will be curtailed as well.
Programming is expected to launch in early 2026, although Myers said he could not yet reveal specifics.
He noted that the partnership with the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel aims to help Israelis understand that they are not alone and that hundreds of millions of Zionists worldwide stand with them.
“We’ve been losing terribly, and we’re way behind in the game,” Myers stressed. “We’re decades behind in the game.”
He said he believes money funneled from Iran, Qatar, Russia, and China has led to the protests, the media propaganda, and even the unexpected win of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“This is a very, very, very well-coordinated campaign to destroy our way of life,” Myers concluded.