President Donald Trump meets with the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on May 23, 2017. (Photo: The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

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When President Donald Trump arrived in Israel on Monday, he was greeted by billboards, proclaiming: "Trump is a Friend of Zion," and requesting "Trump Make Israel Great." In a Haaretz story titled "Who's Behind the Dozens of pro-Trump Billboards Around Jerusalem?" Judy Maltz pointed out that the "42 billboards featuring intertwined Israeli and American flags" are sponsored by Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, an enterprise founded by Christian Zionist Mike Evans.

The Friends of Zion Museum honors the Jewish people and those Gentiles who protected them from persecution.

In a November Jerusalem Post story, Jeremy Sharon called Evans "one of the most prominent Christian Zionist leaders in the world today." He is a well connected, if not-so-well-known Christian Zionist, who has written numerous books, produced more than a dozen documentaries and one of the entities he heads up is called the Jerusalem Prayer Team. According to Right Web, which maintains at its website that it is "an independent online publishing project that assesses the work of prominent organizations and individuals—both in and out of government—who promote aggressive or militaristic U.S. foreign and defense policies, with a special focus on the 'war on terror' and the Middle East," the Jerusalem Prayer Team aims to "enlist one million people in America to pray daily and 100,000 houses of worship praying weekly for the peace of Jerusalem."

Evans has consistently opposed a two-state solution, backed Israel's right-wing Likud Party, vehemently opposed to the nuclear deal with Iran, and has unswervingly advocated that the U.S. take a much more muscular stand against Iran. One of Evans' books, Jimmy Carter: The Liberal Left and World Chaos, was a sharply worded screed against the former president's involvement in working toward a peaceful solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

In a 2007 piece called "A New General for God's Army?," I pointed out that Evans's "prose is pugnacious, a style you might expect from a writer who claims that he is giving the US its 'final wake-up call.' In the book [The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While The World Sleeps], and in its promotional materials, such terms as 'appeasement,' 'secular humanist God-haters,' and 'pro-Islamic radical sympathizers' are tossed around as easily as if he were playing catch in the back yard."

So what does Evans hope to achieve with his billboards? Essentially, he wants to remind Trump that it was Christian evangelicals turning out in large numbers that helped elect Trump. And, according to Maltz, -- who [full disclosure] quoted from my earlier piece on Evans – he "wants Trump to know that he intends to ensure that the president makes good on his campaign promises."

An Evans statement said: "Donald Trump won the election because of a historic evangelical voter turnout – the largest in American history. Evangelicals tend not to be monolithic except on two issues – the Supreme Court and Israel. President Trump promised us he would recognize Jerusalem and move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. We wholeheartedly believe that this promise is non-negotiable and will happen while he is president."

In November, a Friends of Zion Heritage Center issued a Press Released noting that, "the Friends of Zion Heritage Center (FOZHC) – with its campus located in the heart of Jerusalem and consisting of the internationally renowned Friends of Zion Museum visited by over 100,000 guests last year – hosted more than 80 distinguished guests representing more than 30 nations on Wednesday November 23rd, 2016 to mark the commencement of Phase II of its Ambassador Institute development initiative. The Ambassador Institute is focused on combatting anti-Semitism through partnership with the Christian community."

Over the years, Jewish leaders have accused Evans of attempting to convert young vulnerable Jews, as well as the "hijacking of Jewish symbolism." In the Summer of 1977, Present Tense Magazine pointed out that Evans, "a handsome, modishly dressed young man, is the major force behind Operation Gideon, an intensive three-month recruitment and training session to improve missionizing techniques among Hebrew Christian proselytizers, which he started in May. He sponsored Shechinah '77, a national gathering of Hebrew Christians from all over the country, in June in Stony Brook, climaxing an eight-week drive (Messiah '77) to convert Long Island's Jews."

Evans' message is amplified by a number of websites, including Jerusalem World News, Jerusalem Prayer Team, the Evans Institute for Middle East Studies, and Save Jerusalem, as well as corresponding book-specific websites.

He has apparently also caused some friction within the evangelical community. According to 2013 story in charismanews.com, "Many charismatic leaders are quick to say Evans has burned relational bridges with them—often by threatening to sue."

A savvy Christian Zionist, Evans is careful enough these days not to stoke fears among Jews about such popular Christian views as the need to encourage to return to the Holy Land in order to trigger a succession of prophetic events that will lead to the second coming of Christ. Instead of stoking those fears, he has glommed onto, and paraphrased, one of Trump's enduring memes: "Trump Make Israel Great."