Speaker Johnson: Support for Israel Is 'Matter of Faith'

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was excoriated in an interview for citing the Bible in why the world should seek to defend Israel against terrorists.

And now House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., does the same in an interview with All Israel News' Joel C. Rosenberg, who issued this op-ed with excerpts of his Q&A with Johnson.

As printed in AllIsraelNews.com:

Mike Johnson is not only a Congressman from Louisiana's 4th District since 2017.

A conservative.

And a Republican.

He's also a devout Evangelical Christian.

Raised in a strong Christian home, he was baptized when he was just seven years old.

And he's a man who loves the Bible and believes it is the very Word of God.

That, he told me, is why he loves Israel and the Jewish people so deeply and why he is determined to do everything in his power to strengthen and deepen the U.S.-Israel alliance, despite an explosion of antisemitism and increasingly shrill attacks against the Jewish state from both the Left and the Right.

Last week, my wife, Lynn, and I — and one of our sons, Jacob — had the honor of meeting the Speaker at his office in the U.S. Capitol for our first time.

I also had the honor of interviewing him for nearly half an hour for both ALL ISRAEL NEWS and THE ROSENBERG REPORT.

WHERE DOES THE SPEAKER'S LOVE FOR ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE COME FROM?

I asked the Speaker about a range of current issues, from his perspective on President Donald J. Trump's dramatic decision to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities — in defiance of loud voices in the Right, such as Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, who bitterly attacked Trump for betraying the MAGA movement — to how worried he is about the threat Communist China poses to Taiwan and American supremacy in the Pacific.

I also asked him about his personal story, how he came to faith in Jesus Christ, and how worried he is about holding control of the House of Representatives as he approaches the mid-term elections in November 2026.

Over the next few days, ALL ISRAEL NEWS will publish excerpts from our conversation.

Today, I want to share with you what the speaker told me about what motivates his profound love for Israel and the Jewish people.

"It's a matter of faith for me," Johnson told me, saying his pro-Israel stance has been "very clear and it's been consistent my whole life."

The U.S.-Israel alliance, he said, is "a special alliance — it's unlike any other in the nation because we have a shared Judeo-Christian heritage."

"I mean, it [support for Biblical Israel and the Jewish people] was part of the founding of our very nation 249 years ago, and I don't think we can forget that."

SPEAKER JOHNSON: I TAKE THE BIBLICAL PROMISES ABOUT ISRAEL LITERALLY

The Speaker's own personal convictions on these matters "goes back to the opening book [the Bible] in Genesis."

He specifically referred to Genesis 12:1-3, which is widely known as God's covenant to Abraham, saying, "You know, blessed is the nation that blesses Israel and cursed the nation that curses Israel. There are all sorts of theological interpretations of how that applies to us today, but I take it literally."

"I understand that this Scripture is very clear," he said.

The Jewish people, the Jewish nation — the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — "this is God's chosen people and Christians around the world are supposed to have high regard for that."

"So, it's a matter of faith to me. But if you just set the faith issues aside and you just look at it practically — if you're just looking for America First as an agenda and the interest of America, it is clearly within our interest to have a close alliance with Israel as the only stable democracy in the region, which is a tinderbox for all the reasons we know, and to have a strong presence there."