AHC/WI: A Modern Crusade

The challenge is to create a modern-day Crusade - an attempt to use armed force to establish a Christian state in the Holy Land. No POD before 1949, so the target of said crusade will be the State of Israel.

Here's the most plausible scenario I can devise: the US and UK end up leaning towards the Arabs, resulting in an Israeli-Soviet alliance. This in turn gives new life to the "Jewish Bolshevik" canard, with the corollary that Christianity is associated with capitalism. A movement among American Christians to establish a "Free Christian Republic" in Israel emerges.

Any thoughts? Or would Israel simply become another member of the Soviet bloc (albeit one that remained a functioning democracy)?
 
IIRC Lebanon, or at least some of it, is usually considered to be a part of the "holy land". So Lebanon could explode into a civil war earlier, and the western Christian states could plausibly decide that a military intervention to create and support an Arab Christian state is in their best interests. Especially as Maronites in the Lebanese government had ties to the West, while some of their Muslim and pan-Arab opponents had ties to the Soviet Union.

This probably doesn't fit the spirit of the AHC, though, even if it fits the letter.
 
Top