Under Clinton’s successor, the born-again George W. Bush, the influence of the religious right became even more pronounced. In March 2002, after a suicide bombing in Netanya during the Second Intifada, the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian town of Jenin on the West Bank. After an international outcry President Bush was persuaded to send a message to Prime Minister Sharon to withdraw. Meanwhile Falwell and the other Christian Zionist leaders mobilised their constituency, which flooded the White House with emails and letters and jammed the telephone switchboard. After that, President Bush never again pronounced against Israeli policy or actions, and Falwell was able to tell large television audiences that President Bush would ‘do the right thing for Israel every time’ and that ‘the Bible Belt is Israel’s safety net in the US’.29

More recently, Binyamin Netanyahu, once again Israeli prime minister, has shown himself adept at judging how to get round political pressure from the US. In order to gain concessions in the PalestinianIsraeli peace negotiations in September and October 2010, Barack Obama tried to persuade Netanyahu to extend the moratorium on settlement building on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. The timing perfectly suited Netanyahu, not Obama. With the US mid-term Congressional elections taking place in early November no president would endanger his party’s chances by leaning too heavily on Israel and

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