Well, funny you should mention that. A lot of very skeptical, very fact-oriented people have wondered why conservatives--traditionally no huge fans of Jews--would suddenly get so FIERCE about supporting Israel. And many of us have come to an uncomfortable conclusion.

The seriously rabid, take-no-prisoners support of Israel by conservatives didn't really take root until about the 1980s. During that time, ultra-conservative Christians were quietly worming their way into that halls of power. Especially troubling was that a fair number of these people were actual end-timers, people who believe that we are literally in the End Times predicted in Revelations, and that Jesus is due back just any day now.

But there are rules. Before all this can happen, certain things have to happen. And one of those things--essentially--is that the Jews have to be in control of Jerusalem. You also have to sacrifice a particular type of red cow, and there is more than one conservative cattle rancher quietly breeding herds of these.

The Republicans excel at putting up a unified public front on party policy, but behind the scenes, they fight vicious, bitter steel cage death matches with each other over policy and power. But once the matter is decided, it becomes Official Party Dogma, and everybody gets in line, even if they don't know why.

And this is what many people who have studied the matter conclude happened: some end-timers fought and won a deathmatch, and absolutely unconditional support of Israel became policy. Of course, they didn't send out a memo saying "we support Israel unconditionally because Jesus is due back," they just said "we support Israel unconditionally." And appended a list of approved talking points that don't actually explain anything.

There is very little hard evidence for any of this (the invasion of the government by ulta-conservative Christians is well-documented, read up on the so-called "C Street Mafia" for just one example). But all the searching one can do for an alternate explanation--one that actually holds water--has turned up zilch.