When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with more than a dozen evangelical Christian leaders on Monday at the Blair House — just steps away from the White House — young evangelicals were not present, an Israeli source in attendance noted.

Recent surveys found that support for Israel among evangelicals under 30 has declined. 

Netanyahu addressed the issue, according to an evangelical Christian attendee, Mike Evans, founder of The Friends of Zion Heritage Center. “The prime minister said the two most important things are ‘speaking up with your voice’ and ‘the next generation of young people; to mobilize them to support Israel.’ So I know he understands that very clearly,” Evans told Jewish Insider.  

The meeting — which one attendee said came at a “historic time to make decisions” — was organized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, one day before the prime minister’s meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. No meeting with American Jewish leaders had been scheduled yet for Netanyahu’s six-day visit. 

A source in Netanyahu’s entourage told JI that topics addressed in the 90-minute meeting also included Iran, the hostage deal and support for strengthening Trump — whose heart, Netanyahu said, is “in the right place,” according to the source.  

Christian leaders in attendance — who traveled to Washington from cities including Dallas and San Diego for the meeting — also included: Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel; Pastor Jentezen Franklin, who leads the Free Chapel; Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition; and Pastor Paula White, who was recently reappointed to serve as Trump’s lead faith advisor. 

“Our group of evangelicals believe in sovereignty for Judea and Samaria,” Evans said, referring to the West Bank. But the meeting focused on “bigger issues we’re concerned with right now,” he told JI. 

“The highest priority we have is the hostages” being held in Gaza, he said. “Second priority is that Israel can stop Hamas. They cannot have an exit strategy where they can rebuild and do this again. The third is Iran. Iran is the head of the snake.” 

During the Q&A session, an attendee said that it was “terrible” that the hostage deal included the release of Palestinian terrorists. “Netanyahu said he agrees and that he’d ‘deal with it,’” Evans said. 

“There’s one person on the planet right now who unites the evangelicals globally and that’s Benjamin Netanyahu,” Evans said. “They think the world of him and he has enormous support among evangelicals, especially here in the U.S.” 

Evans noted that everyone in the room was a “major evangelical player that President Trump listens to and respects,” as well as “incredibly strong supporters of the State of Israel.” 

In a statement to JI, Hagee said, “It is always an honor to meet with the Prime Minister, and now even more so, as his nation defeats our shared enemies and defends our shared values. He knows, as should all of Israel, that the 10 million members of CUFI stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish state.” 

Franklin wrote on X that he and other leaders “told the Prime Minister of our commitment to further strengthening the relationship between Israel and America during the Trump administration, and that we are praying for a sustainable, regional peace and the release of all remaining hostages while making it clear that there is no issue more important to us than America’s support of Israel.” 

White said on X that she spent “over four hours [on Monday] at the Blair House w/ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his lovely wife, Sara,” calling both the meeting and a separate “extensive interview” an “incredible honor.” 

An Israeli source in the meeting said that Christian Zionist attendees expressed excitement about Huckabee’s appointment, seeing it as an achievement that “one of their own” will be the ambassador. 

According to the source, it was also discussed that evangelicals may take on a more active role in the White House in the future, but right now there doesn’t appear to be a need as “things are going well.” 

Netanyahu, who arrived in Washington on Sunday and was initially scheduled to return to Israel on Thursday, extended his trip through Saturday night, his office said, leaving potential for a meeting with American Jewish leaders on Friday. Netanyahu briefly met American Jewish leaders in September when he visited New York for the United Nations General Assembly, though the meeting was kept short as the premier rushed home after the Israeli military killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The year before — at the peak of the turmoil in Israel over the government’s judicial overhaul plans — Netanyahu held an extended meeting with American Jewish leaders, in which he presented his case for the measures and heard their criticisms.

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Managing Editor Judah Gross contributed reporting.