Christian Zionists

Abstract

The Damascus Affair, in which that city’s Jewish community was accused of the murder of a superior at a Franciscan convent, took place in the middle of the Eastern Crisis and lent it increased acuteness. In Britain, especially, the wish was widely shared for the crown to protect the dispersed Jews from persecution. This combined with widespread belief, based on scripture and prophecy, in the Restoration or return of the Jews to Palestine, for which proselytising societies in London and Berlin were prepared actively to lobby. The stage was set for religion to enter into the diplomatic bargaining and for the Holy Land to become again, after so many centuries of neglect, an area of contention for the European powers.