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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

On December 6, Netflix is releasing its Christmas movie called Mary. The title character is played by 21-year-old Noa Cohen, with 22-year-old Ido Tako as Joseph. Legendary actor Anthony Hopkins in the role of Herod is sure to weave a star-powered combination in the trio. However, BDS and anti-Israel groups are outraged! Why? The actors portraying Mary and Joseph are Israeli Jews—not Palestinians.

When Palestinians instigated boycotts in 1995, they assumed Israel would breathe its last if strangled with economic warfare, terror, and propaganda. Clearly, they were mistaken. BDS—Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—targets Israel, the world’s only Jewish nation. Now, BDS is manifesting further madness about Mary.

Bottom line: BDS adherents aim at erasing the Jewishness of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus—our Jewish Messiah—born in the fields of Bethlehem Ephrathah near the Tower of the Flock (Migdal Eder). In a fascinating side note, some research suggests that King David and Jesus, the Perfect Lamb, were born in or near Migdal Eder (Micah 5:2), where Levitical shepherds raised and oversaw the births of Passover lambs.

Trying to erase 2,000 years of world history, BDS is aimed not only at Jews but also levels its slander into the minds of 2 billion Christians. Unfortunately, some Christians have swallowed these lies as if they were truth. Satan has resurrected Hitleresque propaganda by invading the world through social media warfare and savagery.

Frankly, I do not know if the film Mary will please the Christian community with regard to its portrayal of Jesus’ mother. I have not previewed it. But I respect Director D.J. Caruso’s comments in October’s Entertainment Weekly. “It was important to us that Mary, along with most of our primary cast, be selected from Israel to ensure authenticity.” Filmed in Morocco, Caruso added that the film’s writing and production were done with “great care” to create “a story that feels both sacred and modern.”

For decades the Palestinian Authority, as well as pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists, have called the Holy Family “Palestinians.” Author and theologian Eitan Bar writes about those who claim, “Jesus was a ‘Palestinian freedom fighter,’ suggesting Jesus led a revolt against—you guessed it—the Jews!”

Bar adds that some Muslims and radical liberal Christians have adopted the Palestinian freedom fighter narrative in trying to justify violence against Jews. It is a fairly recent construct, dating back to 2018, when a university campaign in the U.S. claimed that Jesus was Palestinian. If you wish to go deeper into this controversy, click here.

The movie denigrators represent millions of people in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities who have adopted violence as a tool, recently evidenced by Muslim gangs launching a vicious attack against Israeli fans attending soccer games in Amsterdam and Paris.

Some social media agitators are “offended” by Israeli actors portraying Jewish Mary and Joseph. Here’s an example of such comments: “A film [about] a Palestinian woman played by actors from the settler state [Israel’s biblical heartland] that is currently mass slaughtering Palestinian women. Oh, the disgusting audacity.”

Proponents of BDS are taking the word of Hamas and its evildoers and treating them like heroes. Those with minds persuaded by lies are calling for a boycott against the film Mary, which is not only offensive to Christians but also denigrating to the Jewish people seeing that Mary, Joseph, and their children were all Jewish, historical figures who lived in biblical Judea.

Nevertheless, despite the October 7 genocide and escalating dangers globally, Israelis remain dedicated and determined to win their defensive war of justice. Unsurprisingly, Israel Defense Forces are finding Arabic translations of Hitler’s handbook Mein Kampf in the tunnels under Gaza. When an IDF unit in Lebanon found a copy of Mein Kampf in a living room, one soldier observed that “parts were underlined and highlighted inside, as if someone had studied it line by line.” In fact, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the degenerate gangs funded by the Islamic Regime imitate Hitler’s strategies that led to the genocide of 6 million Jews.

Sadly, in the U.S. and beyond, BDS includes churches, labor unions, universities, and grassroots groups that BDS recruits internationally to inflict financial and propagandic havoc on Israel. In fact, just a scant few days after October 7, 2023, a hateful global intifada exploded among university students—and professors—sitting in prominent campus locations.

These groups now mourn the mounting deaths of Hezbollah leaders instead of October 7 victims and hostages, among them seven Americans. At Columbia University, the mindless shouts of “We are Hamas” and “Hamas make us proud” fill the air. Thirty-six percent of protestors deem violence as acceptable.

No matter what is happening in our personal lives and the Jewish world, Zephaniah 3:17 assures us that “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior Who saves. He will take great delight in you … but will rejoice over you with singing.” 

I daresay that one of the biggest crises in our world today is that too many are boycotting the Judeo-Christian faiths and the Bible—both the Old Testament, which clearly prophesied our coming Jewish Messiah, and His fulfillment in New Testament.

The world may use its evil energy to devise every boycott, divestment, and sanction it can against the God of the Universe, yet He is the everlasting King.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to pray with us for Israelis and the 15.8 million Jewish people globally.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s safety from incoming drone attacks against his private home.
• Pray for the IDF’s great successes to defeat Hezbollah.
• Pray for IDF families with increasing IDF deaths in Gaza and Lebanon.
• Pray for Christians to repost truthful social media.
• Pray thanking God from Deuteronomy 7:6, “The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.”

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide. In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The musical Fiddler on the Roof is an emotional display of romance, sorrow, tradition, and joy in a small Russian village. Offering a glimpse into the Russian Jewish culture of 1905, the movie script and songs brim with the stories of Tevye the milkman, Golde his wife, and their five daughters. The matchmaker, rabbi, and poor families had strong hearts, hopes, and humor as they lived in a robust way based on their Jewish faith.

Amid these unforgettable songs, romances, and dancing the hora, it is sometimes easy to forget that the 1971 Fiddler on the Roof movie is based on the true stories of the Russian czar’s Cossacks—and the attempts to destroy the Jewish culture and its people.

The Cossacks were a quasi-military force that guarded borders and performed police duties. Remember the movie scene where they violently broke into the joyous wedding celebration of one of Tevye’s daughters? Last week, on the night of November 7, 2024, Jew-hating violence broke out in Amsterdam—violence that has been, and is, spreading more aggressively in Europe.

This time, it’s not the Cossacks on horseback of 120 years ago but murderous Muslims, using knives, car rammings, beatings, and throwing Jews into the canals. Their well-organized plan against Israeli soccer fans meant the new Nazis were waiting as Israelis exited a match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Miraculously, no Israeli was murdered, but Israel called it a pogrom, and that is exactly what it was.

What is a pogrom? This Russian word means “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently”—particularly in the context of local attacks on Jews. The term pogrom originated during the Russian Empire and became commonly used in anti-Jewish riots from 1881 to 1884, starting after Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. The term was first used in English in 1882.

Non-Jewish Cossacks and local populations planned and conducted deadly attacks up though the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Tens of thousands of Jews were murdered between 1918 and 1920. Between 1881 and 1924, massive waves of Jewish refugees fled Russia and Europe for America, which they called “the Golden Land.” Arriving by ship, they first sailed past the iconic Statue of Liberty and disembarked onto Ellis Island for processing.

My husband Paul is a proud first-generation American because each of his parents fled Russian pogroms as children with their parents. They walked into freedom through Ellis Island. His parents later met and married in Bronx, New York, worked hard, and raised five children. His father served in World War II, drove a taxi, and ran a newspaper stand in Manhattan. His parents rarely if at all spoke about the old country, but Paul remembers his mother describing her fear-filled childhood—hiding in haystacks to escape pogroms against Jews. Our family has watched Fiddler on the Roof countless times since Paul adopted it as his family’s story.

In 1903, a tablet with Emma Lazarus’s words in her poem, “The New Colossus”—“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—was affixed to the Statue of Liberty’s base. Lazarus is considered America’s first Jewish-American poet. Patriotic songs in Yiddish also expressed the immigrants’ love and loyalty. A popular song from the bygone era was raised by the Jewish voices of new arrivals, which included his parents. The opening lyrics proclaim, “To express loyalty with every fiber of one’s being, to this Land of Freedom, is the sacred duty of every Jew.” 

Now, in response to the Amsterdam attacks in the Netherlands, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aptly called them a pogrom and sent civilian planes to rescue over 2,000 Israeli citizens. Christians in the USA and worldwide would do well to listen to Netanyahu’s warnings: “Attacks of this kind threaten not only Israel but endanger the entire world.” He commented on historical proof that “Wild attacks that start against Jews, never end with the Jews.”

He emphasized that free nations face the same savage murderers seeking to “destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror.”

In the famous movie, Tevye himself gave intriguing comments in an answer about his home village. “A fiddler on the roof! Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask, ‘Why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous?’ Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!”

And biblical tradition is immersed in facts that Jews are God’s chosen people and Israel is His chosen Land—the birthplace of our Savior and our Christian faith. In Fiddler on the Roof, pogroms forced Tevye to flee from Anatevka, an example of centuries of Jewish dispersion living in other homes and lands across the world.

After Israel announced its modern independence on May 14, 1948, the Jewish people have been returning in record numbers to their ancestral homeland. This massive wave of Aliyah—the immigration of Jews to Israel—was clearly foretold by the ancient prophet Ezekiel, who, writing at the time of the Babylonian captivity, proclaimed this message: “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. … Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:24, 28 NIV).

The modern State of Israel echoes a message that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared when he spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, 2024. “Generations after generations in which our people were slaughtered, remorselessly butchered, and no one raised a finger in our defense, we now have a state. We now have a brave army, an army of incomparable courage.”

He referred to the book of Samuel about Israel defending itself, affirming: “The eternity of Israel will not falter. In the Jewish people’s epic journey from antiquity and our odyssey through the tempest and upheavals of modern times.” And in conclusion: “The torch of Israel will forever shine. … The people of Israel live now, tomorrow, and forever.”

To be sure, Tevye the actor and Netanyahu the prime minister both expressed the vibrant spirit and strength of the Jewish people. In God’s plans, the pogroms will end!

Pray with our CBN Israel team with ongoing prayers for Israel and Europe.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s safety and decision-making.
• Pray for European nations to enact security for their citizens.
• Pray for the European Union to make wise, not weak, decisions.
• Pray with thanks that Jews were not murdered in the Amsterdam pogrom.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide. In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

Leading into the U.S. election, the main highway into Tel Aviv, Israel, projected a large pro-Trump billboard reading, “Israel Votes Trump.” Donald J. Trump’s victory offers increased hope for Israel fighting on the front lines of freedom for the United States and the free world in a seven-front war sponsored by Iran.

The Islamic Regime funds not just its anti-Israel surrogates in the Middle East but also globally, via its arsenal of hate—a hatred that goes beyond the Jews to anyone, any country, that Iran leaders consider an “infidel.” In fact in 1979, when the ayatollahs forced their Shia Muslim dictatorship onto Iran (Persia), their stature as the world’s biggest terror threat increased. It’s all about their dominance and hatred for Israel and the United States of America—Israel’s most significant ally.

By 1984, the U.S. had designated the regime as the “foremost state sponsor of terrorism.” The ayatollahs describe Israel as the Little Satan and the U.S. as the Great Satan. Proof of their hatred toward the U.S. has become evident in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria during the last few years. Around 2,500 U.S. troops were stationed in Iraq and another 900 in Syria to prevent Iranian weapons and personnel from crossing through Iraq and Syria to supply Hezbollah in Lebanon. In June 2024, the Biden administration increased U.S. troops to 3,813 in Jordan—a nearly 20 percent increase. Iranian drone strikes are killing and injuring our American troops!

Just consider the toll. Hezbollah, better armed than most NATO countries, is Iran’s top proxy. Its horrific history goes back for decades before our troops were stationed on the ground. Hezbollah’s 1983 truck-bomb attack murdered 241 soldiers at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Additionally, Hezbollah murdered 63 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon (1984) and 19 at the Khobar Towers U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia (1996) and held meetings with established sleeper cells in the United States.

The Islamic Regime is the biggest funder of Hezbollah, yet it does not stop there. A 2017 report outlines Hezbollah’s lucrative fraud network in at least 10 states, including Michigan, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, and West Virginia. It is easy to guess that since this report came out, coupled with our wide-open southern border since 2021, Hezbollah’s presence and businesses in the United States are even more profuse.

For example, Hezbollah operatives pay cash for used cars and ship them to Africa for their toxic terror activities. Even a perfume company helps launder and finance terror money.

The U.S. Justice Department in 2023 offers us another example of criminality, when it prosecuted an intricate web of companies illicitly seeking to obtain valuable artwork from U.S. artists, art galleries, and diamond businesses. It amounted to around $160 million in profits for the Hezbollah fundraiser who posed as a legitimate businessman. All the covert terror funds were transacted through the U.S. financial system. 

It is a glimmer of hope that Hezbollah’s criminal activities are on the U.S. Congress’s radar. One congressional hearing highlighted Hezbollah’s multimillion-dollar criminal network—including human trafficking, drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, and counterfeiting in the U.S. and on a total of four continents. Congress also passed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act to track and halt Hezbollah’s financial transactions.

A Treasury official declared that the 2015 Act put Hezbollah in “the worst financial shape in decades.” However, in the same year, under the Obama-Biden administration, Congress also agreed to the flawed Iran nuclear deal. Iran received billions that helped to resupply terrorists. This decision made no sense, which has particularly been proven this past year by the Iranian-funded October 7 invasion and massacres as well as the ongoing multifront war Israel has faced with Iran and its terror proxies. 

Based on information from the U.S. intelligence community, Hezbollah has a number of sleeper cells in the United States. Simone Ledeen, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, issued this warning: “Hezbollah is a very real threat to us here in the United States. They have sleeper cells in the U.S., in many cities across the country. This has been documented in multiple court cases, and we have reason to believe that they also have caches where they have stored materials around the country in the event that someone hits the go button to start attacks, I believe they are pretty well prepared—they have been sitting in wait for an order to go for many years now.”

Israel’s war against Hezbollah, called Operation “Northern Arrows,” began on September 23, 2024, in response to the terror group’s unrelenting rocket attacks on northern Israel since last October, and is a significant indicator both of Hezbollah’s relentless hatred toward the U.S. decades ago—and its dangerous intentions now. We are, after all, Israel’s greatest ally.

Despite Israel’s brilliant strategies and victories aimed at eliminating most of Hezbollah’s top terrorists, Hezbollah began the war with 150,000 rockets. Tens of thousands of rockets remain in terrorist hands. They must be destroyed, since 100 rocket strikes a day and numerous drones indicate enough firepower to be launched against Israel for months on end.

When Israel reaches its military goals against Hezbollah—and it will—a grim fact remains for the world’s only Jewish state. The Iranian proxies seek not only to murder every Jew, but to erase every symbol and structure of Judaism and Jewish culture in the Holy Land. The hatred runs deeper than most of our American Christian imaginations can comprehend. However, we must pray for and help our Jewish friends in our spiritual homeland, the ancient birthplace of our faith.

In the Arabic language, Hezbollah means “party of god.” This party of god is the antithesis of the true God of the Universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Despite evil and lawlessness manifesting in too many places, we trust the One who cannot be defeated, who has preserved a strong remnant of His people, and will reign forever.

For us as believers, by faith we are under His tallit (prayer shawl), we dwell safe and secure, and our hiding place is sure! Though life is full of struggle, our joy is fuller still. Under His tallit, we are in His sovereign will! 

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer this week remembering Isaiah 45:7-9:

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?”

Prayer Points

• Pray for Christians to overcome anxiety by donning our spiritual armor.
• Pray for IDF safety and success to discover and defeat evil in Lebanon.
• Pray for the rescue of each living hostage and the bodies of loved ones.
• Pray with thanks for U.S. military assets in the skies and on the water.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide. In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Trivia games—still enormously popular today—first came into vogue on college campuses in the 1960s. Later, TV game shows like Jeopardy! caught on, followed by the Trivial Pursuit game that was officially released in 1981. Numerous trivia apps now generate hours of enjoyment.

The United States leads the trivia world of facts, with 1.3 billion downloads in 2022 alone. One of the best things about playing trivia is that doing so can help increase our knowledge, our team building, and our memory. That is why many corporations, like Spotify, Nike, and Amazon, use trivia applications.

As Israel advocates, we can have fun while utilizing Israel-focused trivia facts to increase our knowledge and oppose the unabating torrent of lies against Israel. Here are a few sample questions, before we explore historical facts about the world’s biblical heartland.

The answers for these trivia questions appear at the end of my column. Enjoy challenging yourself first!

1. What are the two geographic names of the biblical heartland?
2. What is the name of the walk in Jerusalem that takes visitors through the 14 stations of the cross?
3. What year did the Romans destroy the Second Temple? 
4. How many ancient synagogues have archeologists discovered in Israel’s Golan Heights? 
5. What is the name of Israel’s legislative body?
6. What is the Hebrew name for the Western Wall?
7. What does the acronym IDF describe?
8. What year did the Israeli government order 8,000 Jewish citizens to leave Gaza, turning it completely over to Palestinians?
9. How many Arabs are Israeli citizens?
10. After which war did Israel reunify its capital, Jerusalem?
11. What year was the U.S. Embassy returned to its capital?
12. What is the term for Jewish people immigrating to Israel?  
13. Who is referred to as the Father of Zionism? 
14. Who is credited with re-establishing ancient Hebrew into Israel’s modern language?
15. Who is the current prime minister of Israel?

Whether or not you scored well, persistence will reward your knowledge. Prayers plus facts are needed now more than ever for the biblical heartland, Judea and Samaria, located in Israel since ancient times.

The Islamic Regime and its proxies remain intent on wiping Israel and her people off the map. That is why the Israel Defense Forces have expanded protection for Judea and Samaria—due to enclaves of Hamas terrorists in the Palestinian-occupied cities and villages. These terrorists use cars, knives, guns, IEDs, and highly sophisticated weapons they have smuggled into the heartland to murder Jews and anyone else in the way. 

An article in August 2024 from the Jewish News Syndicate reported that since January, more than 3,000 terror attacks in Judea and Samaria have killed 14 people and wounded 155 others. The IDF has changed the status of Judea and Samaria, now classifying it a “combat zone”—and Israel’s most critical front after the Gaza Strip.

The world calls the biblical heartland the West Bank. A quick trivia question: “Why and when did the name West Bank originate?” Answer: About 75 years ago, the name given to describe land on the west side of the Jordan River.

Facts about the biblical heartland have a far more significant value than the dictionary meaning of the word trivia, which is “unimportant facts or details that are considered interesting rather than serious or useful.” Based on the spoken word of God penned by ancient Jewish scribes, the Old and New Testaments are one book—and proclaim Judea and Samaria as the bedrock of Judaism and for our Christian faith. Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, is in Judea.

Looking at a map of Israel, we see that the heartland is still loaded with names from the Bible. Add your own trivia list of facts to several I have included here.

God told Abraham, the first Jew, to pitch his tent in Hebron, near the tree of Mamre, around 1,800 B.C. In Judea, Hebron is considered the oldest Jewish community in the world!

Judea and Samaria correspond to the ancient Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Judea lies south of Jerusalem, and Samaria to the north.

The Old Testament foretold the Bethlehem field in Judea as the birthplace of Jesus. The New Testament confirmed it.

Shiloh, in Samaria, was the religious and military capital of Israel for 369 years in the 12th and 11th centuries B.C. It was the location of the Tabernacle housing the Ark of the Covenant. In Shiloh today, walking in the ancient steps of Hannah, Elkana, Eli, Samuel, and King David is an archaeological and holy experience connecting the 3,500-year Jewish history to their ancestral homeland.

The memorable New Testament story of Jesus and the woman at the well with her joyful encounter with the Messiah happened in Samaria.

In the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel was attacked, the Jews triumphed and won their ancient heartland from Jordanian occupation (1950-1967). Upwards of 500,000 religious and secular Jews now live throughout Judea and Samaria. Click here to explore many more facts both ancient and modern. 

Although most call Judea and Samaria the “West Bank” it does not change the fact that this is the biblical heartland. Threats from the terrorists of the Islamic Regime and its ungodly understudies will not triumph over the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you [Jacob], and I will give this land to your descendants after you” (Genesis 35:12). Israel’s Independence Day, May 14, 1948, certified God’s ancient promises.

This is the Holy Land where Jesus will return, rule, and reign forever! 

Enjoy another Israeli game! Trivia: Are You Smarter Than DBG? Who was DBG? Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion! He originated the “Bible Quiz” Chidon HaTanach, a worldwide competition for all ages. The final quiz is annually televised in Jerusalem on Israel’s Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut. 

Trivia Answers:

1. Judea and Samaria
2. Via Dolorosa
3. A.D. 70 
4. Thirty
5. Knesset
6. Kotel
7. Israel Defense Forces
8. 2005 
9. Approximately two million
10. Six-Day War, 1967 
11. 2018 by President Donald Trump
12. Aliyah 
13. Theodore Herzl
14. Ben Yehuda
15. Benjamin Netanyahu 

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team to pray from Jeremiah 32:17—“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” 

Prayer Points: 

• Pray for citizens’ safety in modern-day Judea and Samaria. 
• Pray for many small businesses such as Lev Haolam, which makes beautiful products that can be ordered and shipped.
• Pray for the IDF as they protect Israeli communities in the biblical heartland.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide.  In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.

However, a genuine problem is looming in the United States. An October headline shouted, “Apathy Among Christian Voters Could Be ‘Gamechanger’ in 2024 election.” The Barna Group’s research notes that out of 104 million people of faith, an estimated 32 million self-identified churchgoers who regularly attend church will not cast their ballots. As you will see, it is seriously time for us to follow the examples of Moses and Esther.

Comparing the U.S. percentage to Israeli voting habits, 70 percent of Israelis vote for their Knesset (Parliament) for their parties, which leads to the coalition for a prime minister! Israelis closely engage in vigorous, often contentious politics and discussions in their homeland. 

Politics in the U.S. has regressed into toxic verbal landscapes not seen in decades along with two assassination attempts against former President Trump. Many prefer to turn off the media and wrap themselves in a cocoon of disengagement.

Sharp divisions between American Democrats and Republicans show up in new uncharted issues—plus COVID-19 aftermaths, climate disasters totaling $93 billion in 2023 alone, and now traumas due to devastating hurricanes in the last two months. These catastrophic events—and more—add further complexities and questions for Americans.

Israelis fighting their justified seven-front war are reeling with grief from October 7 in their brave, exhausting, and ongoing war against the Islamic Regime and its proxies. IDF soldier deaths are increasing amid the ground war in southern Lebanon—and then last week’s Hezbollah drone targeting Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home increased Israeli anxieties.

All to say, the challenges for the United States and our ally Israel are problems that only God can and will solve, in His timing. 

Meanwhile, what is our role as Christians? Do we sit idly by in disgust and disillusionment amid constant breaking news disruptions? Are we angry most of the time? Have we retreated from our freedoms?

Let us replace our outrage with outreach, and our apathy with action, to engage effectively with our culture by honoring our freedom to vote, especially here in the United States. Israelis honor their freedom with high voter turnout. Let us imitate them!   

You may be surprised to know that the Bible provides us with outstanding role models and expectations as citizens. With the research indicating that as many as 32 million church-going Christians may not vote, it is important to learn from biblical leaders engaged in politics.

If you are choosing not to vote, I want to point you toward four biblical leaders in the hope that you will overcome your reluctance to cast your ballot in this upcoming election and make your voice heard in the political context.

God used Joseph in lifesaving ways by positioning him in his role as Pharaoh’s prime minister. Joseph accepted his future with wise decisions and brilliantly carried out his prominent position in politics, resulting in his Jewish family surviving the famine. Similarly, around 400 years later, God placed Moses in a key position in Egypt, not on Pharoah’s staff but as an ancient lobbyist. In his role, Moses appealed to Pharoah many times to “let my people go.” Finally, his appeals were answered and the Jewish people set out on their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. 

Queen Esther also functioned as an ancient lobbyist. God placed her, a young Jewish orphan, in an influential position as a wife to King Ahasuerus. With prayer and courage, she made requests to him that saved the Jewish people from Haman’s genocidal plans.

And yes, although Babylonians captured Daniel and his friends from Jerusalem, God elevated Daniel to a highly esteemed position on King Nebuchadnezzar’s staff. Daniel served as the king’s premier counselor and held devotedly to his Jewish faith in a foreign, idol-worshiping land. He overcame his fear with faith even in the lion’s den.

Joseph, Moses, Esther, and Daniel deserve a second look into how God used them in a political context to change history.

A fact not widely known is that Israeli-Americans—dual citizens—number up to 500,000. They vote by absentee ballot in U.S. elections. Like those in the United States, when it comes to Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, they will vote for their favorite candidate. Republicans and Democrats have branch offices in Israel with their get-out-the-vote campaigns. Israel’s U.S. Embassy provided voting guidelines on January 26, 2024, emphasizing the importance of absentee ballots and detailing the instructions for the process.

Regarding perfect candidates and governments on earth, these do not exist. That is, until Isaiah 9:7 is reflected upon. “Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”

While earthly governments oppress and operate in a quagmire of self-interests, even in a democracy, Heaven’s country will outshine them all. God Himself will be our government. Perfection will overtake imperfection. Love will overtake hate. Joy will overtake sorrow when the government rests upon His shoulders.

A few bullet points to consider: Voting is a privilege. Our military has sacrificed for our freedoms so let’s not take those freedoms for granted. No candidate is perfect. Before you vote, pray and consult the Lord. Be aware that propaganda is at an all-time high. Be cautious about what you read and hear.

Vote for the candidates that reflect your values the most. Consider the quality of life for you, your family, and your friends. Closely examine candidate policies.

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team this week to pray with lofty expectations about a perfect government in Isaiah 9:6: “And the government will be upon His shoulders.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for U.S. elections and protection for Presidential, House, and Senate candidates.
• Pray that Christians will abandon their apathy and choose to vote.
• Pray that all vote counting will go smoothly.
• Pray for Israeli civilians, the IDF, and Lebanese Christians in the war against evil.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide.  In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.