My racial background is Jewish (or Hebrew, if you prefer--I'm always fascinated how non-Jews are always up-in-arms on wanting to tell me what label to wear...amyway).
The modern republic or nation of Israel was never meant to be religious. It was meant to be secular--and at least on paper, it is. Following the model of the United States (and since there were various forms of Judaism), Israel promised freedom of religion.
But that flew out the window with the fanaticism that followed the Six-Day War of 1967.
For those who are unfamiliar with it, the Six-Day War was a June war in 1967 in which Israel fought against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan that ended with Israel gaining control of the territory that had religious significance for the Jews, namely the Temple mound, along with the Western Wall. The war didn't start out with that in mind (it began with Syrian and Egyptian military forcing UN Emergency Forces from the Sinai Peninsula). But today the story seems to be told in the Israeli mind as if the original goal was to regain the religious territories by the Israeli armies.
There is a difference between Israeli and Jewish too. Israeli refers to those who live in and have official citizenship in the modern country of Israel. Jewish refers to the entire civilization of peoples who are Hebrew, whether or not they officially belong to a Jewish denomination--this also includes Israelis.
After the Six-Day War, the religious clergy in Israel began to attribute the winning of the war to the fulfillment of prophecy. They gained greater and greater control in the country until only the Orthodox Jewish religion and their clergy became the religious voice in politics. With money and power, the Orthodox began to influence the government by getting their people elected.
Eventually, the Orthodox destroyed most other forms of Jewish religious belief in Israel (though they still exist, but in very small amounts). They did this with the help of the government political machine in Israel to the point that the generation following the Six-Day War now identifies itself in either one of two ways: religious or secular. The word "Orthodox" no longer needs to be used.
In the United States, Protestants (and even Catholics to a smaller amount) began to view this recapturing of the Western Wall and the Mound as a sign that God was indeed still with the Jews. This began the development of new theology, especially in Evangelical circles.
With the rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s, many political figures adopted this view and began to align with Israel's now religious-backed government. To the Religious Right, who believed that God had to restore the Kingdom to Israel before the Return of Christ, to vote against Israel politically was to "vote against God," you found American political figures aligning themselves with Israel for the most part.
But for the most part, in America and increasingly with the secular Israelis, Jews don't like how Isreal has been run since the Six-Day War. For instance, Jews can no longer make Israel their homeland unless they convert to Orthodox Judaism. That is currently law.
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is considered guilty of corruption, but he is backed by the Orthodox-run religious government in Israel. The religious Christian political force in American politics won't back down from supporting him because their churches keep teaching such odd teachings about Israel. In the meantime, many Jews still can't make Israel their homeland because they refuse to become Orthodox or even religious (many Jews are agnostic, atheist, or at least non-practicing or even of another faith),
It's a mess, but there you have it.
