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One of Steve Bannon’s greatest strengths as Donald Trump’s 2016 strategist was his ability to think outside the box, and that’s also why his podcast has become must-watch for many in the MAGA Movement. However, his latest idea of creating a Christian ethnostate in the middle of Israel isn’t just outside the box, it’s on an entirely different planet.
On the Friday episode of podcast, The War Room, Steve Bannon called for the creation of a “Christian state of Jerusalem,” arguing that the conventional two-state formula does not suffice in the Levant. “If you’re going to have a two-state solution, you have to have a three-state solution … one of those states has to be the Christian state of Jerusalem,” he said.
Bannon framed his proposal as a safeguard for Christian holy sites and heritage: “Why did we not have a Christian state in the Levant that oversees and can protect the Christian sites?” he asked.
While he did not designate a specific seat for this state, the idea implicitly links to the city of Jerusalem and its environs observed the editors of Israel365 News.
In proposing a third state – beyond Israel and a Palestinian entity – Bannon frames it as a protectorate for Christian heritage and as a geopolitical buffer.
But the proposal faces immediate practical and ideological hurdles, not least the lack of a clear territorial basis and the challenges of sovereignty, demographics, and legitimacy. One could imagine the seat of such a state being in the Bethlehem – Beit Lechem – area, given its historical Christian significance, though Bannon himself did not specify that location.
However, many of the Holy sites Bannon seems to identify as justifying the necessity of such a state are in Jerusalem – the acknowledged capital of Israel.
Setting aside the obvious difficulty of convincing the Israelis to give up their religious, ethnic and historical capital city, there’s the question of who exactly would populate this “Christian state of Jerusalem”?
Understanding this proposal requires some grounding in the numbers observed Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Senior Reporter for Israel365 News.com. Within Israel proper, Christians number approximately 185,000, representing about 1.9% of the total population as of 2022. Of that figure, roughly three-quarters are Arab Christians.
Mr. Berkowitz quotes data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel) show that the Christian population in Israel — Arabs and non-Arabs combined — has been growing. For instance, the number of Christians in Israel rose by roughly 1.3 % in 2022. A report for Christmas 2024 placed the figure at about 180,300, up from previous years. The same sources note that in many neighboring territories, Christians are declining, making Israel unique in the region in this respect.
By contrast, in the areas administered by the Palestinian Authority (and formerly by Hamas in Gaza) the Christian presence is far smaller and shrinking. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, about 46,850 Christians lived under PA jurisdiction in 2017, representing roughly 1% of the population. In Gaza, the decline has been dramatic: from several thousand to around 1,000 or fewer today.
This contrast reinforces the point that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country where Christian numbers are noticeably increasing rather than decreasing – and it puts in stark relief the dramatic population disparity between Christians and other religious minorities, Jews, and Muslims in the greater Middle East.
It’s also worth noting that 800 years ago there was a Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Middle East. The fruit of 200 years of continuous warfare it lasted from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until the fall of Acre in 1291.
At its height in the mid-12th century, the kingdom encompassed roughly the territory of modern-day Israel, Judea and Samaria, and the southern half of Lebanon, including Beirut. From the Mediterranean Sea, the kingdom extended in a thin strip of land from Beirut in the north to the Sinai Desert in the south; into modern Jordan and Syria in the east, and towards Egypt in the west.
Crushed under the weight of the Muslim populations of the surrounding states, today little remains of the first Christian State of Jerusalem except a few placenames and abandoned fortresses, such as Krak des Chevaliers, conquered by the resurgent Muslim armies of the Mamluk Sultanate in 1271, and reoccupied by Syrian Islamists today.
Steve Bannon has often criticized Israel as an American “protectorate” or “vassal state” so we are completely baffled by his idea of creating a “Christian State of Jerusalem” with such a tiny population and no economy that it could only exist as a “protectorate” of a superpower, presumably the United States.
Since Acre fell in 1271 the Jewish people are the only force that has been able to roll back the Muslim tide and establish a nation built on Biblical values in the Middle East. Today, Israel is the safest place in that part of the world for people of all faiths; Christians, Druze and other minorities, and Jews… as well as for Muslims who choose peaceful coexistence with their neighbors of other faiths.
Initially, I figured this was clickbait or Steve was trolling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom he has a well known antipathy, but if you listen to the whole thing, he’s serious or at least putting on a good act of being serious. Either way, Bannon’s idea of a “Christian State of Jerusalem” should be ridiculed into oblivion for the nonsense it is.
- Steve Bannon
- Christian State of Jerusalem
- American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
- Cenk Uygur
- Hostage release
- President Donald Trump
- Rabab Abdulhadi
- Oct 7 Hamas Terror Attack
- Trump foreign policy
- Rebuilding Gaza
- Ceasefire
- Knesset
- Gaza peace plan
- Trump diplomacy
- Sharm el-Sheikh summit
- Inbar Hayman
- Hamas terrorists
- Disarming Hamas
- Hamas mobilization
- Israel existence
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