David Brog

Brog graduated from Princeton and Harvard and subsequently entered political life in Washington.[1] A 2006 profile described him as a distant relative of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.[1]

For roughly seven years he served as a senior assistant and consultant to Senator Arlen Specter.[1] That role brought him into sustained contact with evangelical Christians, including constituents in rural Pennsylvania.[1] Brog later recalled that when events occurred in Israel, evangelical acquaintances would call him, express concern, and ask how they could help.[4] He described those encounters as a personal turning point that redirected him from Capitol Hill work toward advocacy among Christian Zionists.[4]

CUFI was founded in February 2006 following a founding conference in Texas attended by approximately 400 Christian leaders summoned by pastor John Hagee.[4] Brog became its first executive director and was also described as one of its founders; by 2016 he served on its executive board.[2][3] He described CUFI as designed to add a mass grassroots presence alongside established Jewish pro-Israel organizations, encouraging Christians to support Israel through large Israel-focused events in major U.S. cities.[4]

Brog articulated the theological basis for Christian Zionist support through a contrast between replacement theology — which he characterized as treating the Church as having superseded the Jewish people — and Christians who read biblical references to Israel as referring to the Jewish people and their connection to the Land of Israel.[1] In his account, the former theology had historically been linked to the persecution of Jews, while the latter provided a foundation for Christian support for the Jewish state.[1] He argued that evangelical Zionism was driven by the biblical promises of Genesis rather than by end-times prophecy, stating: "Their Zionism comes directly from their theology. But, as opposed to what most people think, this theology is driven by the biblical promises of the Book of Genesis, not the biblical prophecies of the Book of Revelations."[7]

Brog was consistent in rejecting the claim that evangelical support for Israel was a strategy for converting Jews. He stated directly: "The important question is this: Is evangelical support for Israel merely a tool in the effort to convert the Jews? Is this merely some scheme to soften the Jews up so that they can better sell Jesus to them? And the answer to this question is absolutely not."[8] He also argued that Christian friends of the Jewish community often became more sensitive to Jewish concerns about conversion after learning about those concerns.[9]

On the question of Jewish communal hesitation about accepting Christian support, Brog offered a pragmatic frame: "Christians are going to be involved in the issue whether we are comfortable or not. The question is whether they're going to be on Israel's side or not."[10] He also contended that Christian Zionists had largely followed AIPAC's lead in supporting Israeli government policies across the political spectrum, and described Christian supporters who disregarded Palestinian rights and Zionist moral traditions as a "lunatic fringe."[7]

In 2010, Brog published an opinion piece in Washington Jewish Week arguing that J Street had made false claims about CUFI's policy and about Christian theology.[11] He alleged that J Street had pressured public figures — including then-Senator Joseph Lieberman — not to speak to CUFI members, though he said that effort involving Lieberman was unsuccessful.[11] In 2014, Brog represented the United States at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism's World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, where he participated in a plenary session on countering terrorism propaganda and Israeli advocacy.[12]

At CUFI's national conference in Washington, D.C., in July 2018, Brog spoke in favor of H.R. 6451, the "UNRWA Reform and Refugee Support Act of 2018."[13] He called for limiting U.S. contributions to UNRWA "to the amount necessary to provide aid to those Palestinians who meet the standard definition of refugees," while supporting the redirection of withheld funds through USAID for populations in need.[13]

Brog's first book, Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State, was published by Charisma House in 2006, the same year CUFI was founded.[14][2] Its stated aim was to explain Christian support for Israel and encourage the Jewish community to accept that support; CUFI founder John Hagee wrote its foreword.[2] The book enumerated several reasons for Christian solidarity with Israel: belief in the Jews as God's chosen people and in an enduring biblical covenant; recognition of Christianity's Jewish roots and repentance for historical Christian treatment of Jews; the belief that Israel's establishment fulfills biblical prophecy; Israel's value as a strategic American ally; and shared values including democracy and liberty.[15] Evangelical clergy including Hagee praised the book.[15]

Brog also wrote Reclaiming Israel's History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace, which argued for Jewish historical continuity in the Land of Israel and for Israel's rights.[16] The book engaged with the history of the name "Palestine," the development of Palestinian identity, Jewish immigration, and Palestinian responses to statehood proposals — presenting these as arguments in defense of Israel's historical and legal position.[16]

In 2013, Brog published "The Failure of the American Jewish Left" in Middle East Quarterly, in which he argued that pro-Israel outreach to liberals was most effectively conducted by liberals themselves.[17]

Brog led the Maccabee Task Force (MTF), a campus anti-BDS initiative launched in 2015 by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.[5][6] Under his leadership, MTF's campus presence grew from six campuses to twenty and then forty.[5] In the 2017–18 academic year, the organization brought 746 mostly non-Jewish student leaders from 34 campuses it considered especially hostile to Israel on trips to Israel.[5]

MTF initially funded existing pro-Israel organizations on campus, but after approximately six months Brog said the organization was dissatisfied with the return on that investment and shifted to direct engagement.[5] Staff assembled pro-Israel students, Hillel directors, Israel fellows, Chabad rabbis, and other campus participants to identify unfunded initiatives, share ideas across campuses, and develop campus-specific action plans.[5] Brog described the model as empowering students to lead and take credit for their own work rather than having the organization impose activities or claim credit.[5]

MTF's approach combined Israel trips, relationship-building, advocacy training, and visible pro-Israel events.[5] Brog said the Israel trips were designed to bring a small number of pro-Israel students together with non-Jewish campus leaders, and included visits and meetings with Palestinians so participants could hear perspectives from the other side.[5] The organization focused on opposing BDS and Israel delegitimization rather than engaging in internal divisions within the pro-Israel community.[5] MTF was funded principally by Sheldon Adelson, and Brog described its overall budget as reaching into the millions to tens of millions of dollars.[5]

A separate controversy arose when the David Horowitz Freedom Center ran a campaign distributing "Stop the Jew Hatred on Campus" posters targeting student BDS activists. Brog said MTF had approved a modest grant to the Horowitz Center to examine pro-BDS organizations but had not requested or approved the poster campaign and was unaware its money had been used for it.[18] MTF stated publicly that the posters were not an appropriate or effective way to combat BDS.[18] A subsequent clarification indicated that Task Force funds had not in fact been used for the posters.[18]

In 2022, Brog entered electoral politics, running in the Nevada Republican congressional primary to challenge incumbent Democrat Dina Titus.[6] He finished second in the primary with just over 17% of the vote, behind Mark Robertson, who received approximately 30%.[6]

By 2016, CUFI reported an active Zionist membership of 3.1 million, compared with 400 Christian leaders at its founding conference and 3,500 participants at its first Washington gathering. Brog, then a director of its executive board, described CUFI as the successor to earlier evangelical political movements and said the September 11 attacks had made Israel a more prominent issue for evangelicals who perceived shared threats.[3]

Brog's later leadership of the Maccabee Task Force extended his advocacy from Christian grassroots mobilization to campus organizing against BDS. The organization's reported expansion from six to forty campuses illustrated the scale of that shift.[5][6]

Jewish unease about Christian Zionism also extended to territorial policy.[8][4] In 2006, Brog said many evangelical supporters opposed territorial concessions and considered the Gaza disengagement a mistake, but would continue supporting Israel and would not protest decisions made by Israel's democratic government.[4]

Brog argued that antisemitism was not the primary driver of Christian anti-Israel activism.[10] He attributed that activism instead to Palestinian Christians who used theology to advance an anti-Israel political message, and to Christians in North America and Europe who allowed liberal politics to take precedence over their Christian beliefs.[10] He also warned that anti-Israel activists were making inroads into the evangelical community, particularly among younger generations, stating: "Anti-Israel activists are making surprising inroads into the evangelical community, especially among the Millennial generation. They are telling lies about Israel. But their lies are hitting the right moral notes and they are making progress. We ignore them at our peril."[19]