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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Passover 2024 began on Monday, April 22. With Passover now in its fourth day, Jewish families worldwide celebrate their freedom festival retelling Moses’ rallying cry to Egypt’s Pharoah: “Let my people go.” In Israel this year, Passover’s rallying cry is “Let our hostages go!” However, the rallying cry on many prominent university campuses glorifies Hamas, the new Nazis. Their hostile shouts, such as “We are Hamas!” reverberate on campuses across the United States with help and funding from their unashamed anti-Israel and antisemitic backers.

Alas, the tsunami of Jew-hatred on American college campuses is not new. In the lead-up to World War II, Hitler handed a far-reaching propaganda portfolio to Joseph Goebbels, his head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. The 35-year-old Goebbels wielded unlimited power over schools, universities, film, radio, and propaganda. When Hitler became dictator in 1933, Goebbels shut down Germany’s free press. The long arm of this 5-foot-5-inch propagandist, who was nicknamed the “poison dwarf,” stretched across the Atlantic to mainstream anti-Semitism into the minds of American college students.  

The “public relations” machine of the demonic duo, Hitler and Goebbels, took hold in the mid-1930s. Their plan included broadcasting Nazis in a good light, drawing German-Americans into their web, using ways to divide Americans, and when war broke out in Europe, Nazis sought to keep Americans out of it at all costs. Fortunately, the Nazi strategy did not appeal to all Americans. Three responses emerged: active opposition to Nazism, disinterest, and yes, on American soil, sympathy for the Nazis.

Examples of pre-World War II anti-Semitism on elite campuses such as Columbia and Harvard are easy to find. Administrators welcomed Nazi leaders to campus, enrolled Nazi-trained German exchange students, and promoted the idea of American students studying in Germany under Nazi oversight. Some returned to the United States mesmerized into supporting Hitler’s “New Germany.”

Today’s ineffectual tolerance of the outbreak of Jew-hatred for the last six months at Columbia University was preceded by a steady, ongoing assault. This blatant antisemitism can be traced all the way back to 1933 with former President Nicholas Murray Butler’s welcome to Nazi Germany’s ambassador, Hans Luther. Butler, like other Ivy League presidents, perhaps naively wished to connect with German universities in the mid-1930s—when Goebbels gradually turned halls of learning into halls of Nazi propaganda. A 2008 Jerusalem Post article pointed out that Stephen Norwood, Ph.D. from Columbia University and author of The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower, said at a conference that “Butler was morally indifferent to Nazi crimes during the critically important early years of Nazi rule.”

Not all American university students accepted the Nazi line. Robert Burke, who was chosen as president of the class of ’38, was expelled from Columbia in 1936 for leading one of the largest anti-Nazi demonstrations on campus. Afterwards, a series of strikes and protests at New York City colleges grew into what would become the longest student free-speech fight until the 1960s. These students demonstrated on the right side of free speech against an enemy, Hitler. The administration’s determined blindness to America’s higher education elites took place even with Nazi atrocities already marching against Jews in kidnappings and murders. 

The pattern of anti-Semitism on college campuses continued into 2007 when Columbia invited then-President of the Islamic Regime, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to speak. Columbia President Lee Bollinger and his administration were aware of Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and genocidal threats against Israel—including his statement, “The world powers established this filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the nations in the region like a wild beast.” Ahmadinejad had a dangerous knack of turning the Islamic Regime’s own evil into lies against Israel. Keep this in mind when you hear the Islamic pharaohs and their proxies’ “facts” against Israel. They always describe themselves.

Here’s another example. In 1934, Harvard’s administration and alumni were delighted to receive Ernst Hanfstaengl, the Nazi party foreign press chief arriving from Germany for his 25th class reunion at Harvard. He was regaled at the dinners and meetings where he interacted with prominent alumni in corporate business, banking, and higher education. Just try to imagine the meetings and dinners where Hanfstaengl was quoted as saying, among other such pronouncements, that Jews were “vampires sucking German blood.” Yet Harvard’s student newspaper, The Crimson, had described Hanfstaengl as one who should be honored for his “high position in the government of a friendly country.”

Again, 1930s students bravely rose up at Harvard’s graduation ceremonies. They filled Harvard Square to oppose Hanfstaengl’s presence, demanding that the administration should instead give him a “Doctor of Pogroms” award. University police ripped down the anti-Nazi signs posted on campus. They also arrested some of the protesting students and imprisoned them for six months—without Harvard President James Bryant Conant speaking a word on their behalf.  

History repeats itself with a questionable ambivalence about the safety of Harvard’s Jewish students today. On January 2, 2024, President Claudine Gay resigned after her Congressional testimony, in which she did not clearly condemn anti-Semitism on campus. When asked if calls for genocide against Jews following the Hamas war were in violation of Harvard’s code of conduct, this was her tepid response: “It can be, depending on the context.”  

Regarding Columbia University’s protesting students, the unpeaceful encampment protests were organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest and joined by dozens of student-led organizations. Where are the brave students of yesteryear who opposed Germany’s Nazis? Where are the students standing up for both Jews and Christians on campus to oppose the inhumane new Nazis? Where are the 600 million pro-Israel Christians worldwide who are massively spreading facts and education about Israel, our spiritual homeland?  

Is this where our universities are now? Are they merely elevated institutions for Hamas—the beastly murderers of Jews who imitate Hitler, Goebbels, and the Islamic pharaohs (and their surrogates) cruelly oppressing freedoms within their own populations?

Century upon century—scattered across the world in the Jewish Diaspora—the Jewish community worldwide has celebrated Passover, its oldest festival, which originated more than 3,000 years ago. Jews have steadfastly remembered their exodus from Egypt amid wars, pogroms, persecution, in concentration camps, and now during the first Passover in their modern homeland following the barbaric October 7 attacks. Admittedly in their own words, the Islamic Regime’s new pharaohs recently confessed and boasted about what we knew: their planning of last year’s horrific assault.

Until April 30, Israelis sit with empty chairs at their Passover tables, traumatized and grieving as they think about those they have lost, yet resolute to survive as they always have under the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israelis and Jews worldwide celebrate their history—while clearly understanding shouts from American campuses and worldwide. They all mean death.

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” “Arab blood is not cheap, for the martyrs we will speak.” “Resistance by any means necessary.” “Globalize the intifada!”  “Go back to Poland.” “We are Hamas.” And from a 1930s chant, “Let us all be American Hitlers.”  

An important note! If any readers personally know of Jewish or Christian students intimidated on a university campus due to protestors’ hate speech or physical assaults, contact the American Center for Law and Justice at www.ACLJ.org. Upon reviewing the situation, they are willing to represent college students for free. It is part of their ongoing outreach to stand for freedom!

We welcome you to join our team at CBN Israel this week on behalf of all university students under threat who are standing on the truth of God’s promises. As stated in Isaiah 41:11-12 NIV, “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you  will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.” 

Prayer Points: 

• Pray for wisdom for all parents of students in threatening contexts on campuses.
• Pray for Christian students to stand beside Jewish students in prayerful, protective ways.
• Pray for university administrators to make strong decisions to protect students at risk.
• Pray for university presidents to reject pressures to tolerate Jew hatred on their campuses.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

It is time to take a factual refresher course using an age-old question asked of children at the dinner table and on playgrounds: Who did what—who started the bullying? It’s time, because violations between nations require the same investigative questions, followed by enacting common-sense consequences.

Here’s a 2005 fact: Israel unilaterally withdrew 8,000 Jewish citizens from Gaza, forcing them to abandon their homes and businesses. This painful but generous decision in effect gave Palestinians land to found a state. In 2007, Palestinians voted in favor of Hamas rule. Instead of creating a Palestinian state, Hamas created the largest terror enclave in the world—constructing 300 miles of tunnels and firing rockets into Israel day and night for years. 

Facts About Hamas Ceasefires

Leading up to October 7, Hamas and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire. However, the terrorists are notorious for their violations. Hamas makes an agreement and then ignores it. Any such promise is nothing but words and lies. In 2014, for example—during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge—Hamas broke the ceasefire by killing two soldiers and kidnapping a third, Hadar Goldin. Hamas still holds the remains of Goldin’s body today, 10 years later! Time has shown that Hamas’s ceasefires with Israel merely set the stage for more violence. For years, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets toward Israelis and attempted to infiltrate and murder them—with body cams triumphantly adding horror to their barbaric resume after the October 7 attacks.   

Hamas is outrageously untrustworthy. Any leader calling for a ceasefire disregards a long resume of evil in hiring Hamas to re-arm and restart its murderous rampages.  

Facts Post-October 7

Beautiful spring flowers still bloom in the land of milk and honey, initially cultivated by Jews more than 100 years ago. Yet the Holy Land—inhabited by its rightful owners and further developed after its 1948 modern founding—is suffering. Non-natives never cared about the land. Although Israelis are amazing and resilient, the deep, ongoing trauma also resides in their minds and hearts.

Jewish traumas stemming from October 7 run as deep as Israelis process the unspeakable barbarity of that day. As they brace for the next ordeal, they cannot forget the hostages imprisoned by violent terrorists. Just the mention of a two-state solution creates even more trauma for Israelis. Israel has been there and done that … many times.  

The solution: Cut off the head of the poisonous Islamic snake—Iran. This serpent and its offspring will keep slithering until this evil is decapitated. The Shi’ite Islamist theocracy poisons its own population, which longs for freedom. If you understand the desperation of the wonderful Persian people also suffering traumas, you can grasp what the world would look like if the Iranian snake ruled the world in an oppressive, reincarnated caliphate.  

Facts About the “Iranian Embassy”

Most world media reported that on April 1, the Israeli Air Force bombed the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria. This is inaccurate. The Iranian Embassy still stands and is open. Instead, the Israelis’ airstrike destroyed another building—an annex next door to the embassy serving as a base for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iranian leadership called the embassy a consulate, which was also misleading; consulates are branches of an embassy and are located elsewhere. The annex was given a diplomatic name—because if any embassy or consulate is attacked, that strike is considered a direct attack on a country. These deceptive name changes gave the Islamic Regime excuses to avenge seven IRGC members for the Israeli airstrike on Iran’s embassy.

Why did Israel launch an airstrike on Damascus? Israel had accurate intelligence that a senior Quds Force commander of the IRGC, Brigadier General Mohammad Zahedi, was the point-man for Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel. Zahedi and seven other IRGC officers were in the annex during the airstrike. In other words, justice was served with accuracy from the nation of Israel defending its people from evil. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces, closely aligned with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised Zahedi for his “strategic role in forming and strengthening the resistance front as well as in planning and executing the [October 7] Al-Aqsa Storm.” This admission was significant since the Ayatollah had denied any involvement with October 7.

April 14, 2024, is the first time Iran attacked Israel since its modern founding in 1948. In fact, a positive relationship had existed between Iran and Israel until the Shia Islamic Regime took over in 1979. Another first: The entire airspace in the Middle East was empty, allowing Israel’s F-35 aircraft to operate. The U.S. military stated that most of the 100-plus ballistic missiles Iran fired were shot down by Israel.

Former President Trump’s leadership in enacting The Abraham Accords in 2020 increased defense cooperation among partners that help deter enemies of the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Bahrain—Iran key among those enemies. Iran’s attack from its own soil is the first time that the Abraham Accord signatories had an opportunity to cooperate with intelligence, security, and any actions necessary to deter Iran. Former President Trump deserved a Nobel Peace prize. The Times of Israel reported that Iran’s April 14 attack included 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles—99 percent of which were intercepted by air defenses. According to the IDF’s top spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, “All the drones and cruise missiles were downed outside of the country’s airspace by the Israeli Air Force and its allies, including the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, France, and others.”

Nevertheless, those calling for Israel to use restraint don’t realize that would not be a victorious approach to vanquishing evil. Rather, Israel must behead the Islamic snake. My questions at the beginning were: “Who did what—who started the bullying?” The bully is Iran, the biggest terror bully on the globe. World leaders must back off telling Israel it has won a victory. Israel’s accomplishments thus far are fantastic, yes—but stopping at this point will not stop a bully. At some point, Israel, the United States, and their allies must finish the job and end Iran’s poisonous influence on its citizens, Israel, and the world.

In the meantime, beware. The Islamic Regime’s propaganda spreads into every crevice of naïve minds. At this moment in world history, it is our responsibility to pray and consult trustworthy media sources. Here are a few: The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, CBN Israel, CBN News, All Israel News, Erick Stakelbeck on TBN, Amir Tsarfati’s Behold Israel on Telegram, and Christian organizations you trust such as The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and Israel Allies Foundation.

Join our CBN Israel team this week to pray using God’s wonderful promise in Isaiah 31:5—“Like flying birds, so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it; He will pass over and rescue it.” 

Prayer Points: 

• Pray that world leaders will respect Israel’s sovereignty for victory over Iran and its surrogates.
• Pray that the Biden administration will renew sanctions against the Islamic regime.
• Pray that Israel will eliminate Iranian nuclear and drone sites.
• Pray that world leaders realize that Israel’s fight for freedom is a fight for all free nations. 
• Pray for Israel’s victories against Gaza, Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraq.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

After six months of justly defending against Hamas’s barbaric invasion into their homeland on October 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been accused of every evil that has been executed by the terrorists themselves. Iran and its terror proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis—are proficient propagandists.

Note the word “Defense” in the IDF’s official name. Israelis are not warmongers. Indeed, after its modern founding on May 14, 1948, Israel was invaded in 1948–49, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, and 2023. Not counting years of unrelenting rocket fire from terrorist enclaves and the two Palestinian-incited Intifadas—one beginning in 1987 and the other in 2000—unrelenting hatred has forced Israel to defend its population and develop into the most powerful, yet moral, military in the world.

Hamas tore pages out of Hitler’s still-popular 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) by using his strategies to murder 1,200 people last October. In this book, Hitler wrote about the “big lie.” He described this propaganda technique as being so “colossal,” no one would believe that his “impudence to distort the truth so infamously” would even be attempted. Re-enacted now by new Nazis copying advice from the almost 100-year-old book, this technique has obviously been successful. The world is easily swayed by twisted headlines and outright lies. The IDF has recently found Arabic copies of Mein Kampf in Gaza and in Lebanon and Palestinian Authority territories during past conflicts. As a guidebook, Mein Kampf points straight at terrorist mindsets based on their devotion to Hitler’s techniques and their implacable hatred of Jews.

Israel now faces the worst and most prolific propaganda I have ever witnessed as an Israel advocate. With Hitler’s demonic book and Holocaust era murders, Hamas and their sympathizers are using the same strategy: “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.” It is inconceivable that much of the world’s mainstream media puts its stamp of approval on terrorist lies that glorify Hitler’s strategies. In addition, the media have chosen to believe the Hamas Ministry of Health’s inflated numbers of civilian deaths. This is journalism? Many within the media have shifted from believing Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) facts to tearing the IDF apart and blaming them for their nation’s existential fight. They have erased truth and wisdom from their pages and broadcasts with the inflammatory, unsubstantiated facts they received from other sources.

Stop for a moment and absorb the following. To mark six months since the Simchat Torah massacre of October 7 and the outbreak of the Hamas War, the National Public Diplomacy Directorate and the GPO have summarized media statistics. In October and November 2023, the largest media events since Israel’s modern founding in 1948 took place. Over 4,000 foreign journalists gathered from all over the world. Five hundred hours of video were broadcast from the destroyed kibbutzim and Sderot. The GPO conducted 60 tours. Screenings of the October 7 “atrocities film” took place with an IDF spokesperson. (As a reminder, this disturbing footage was taken with the body cams and iPhones of the Hamas terrorists themselves.) My friend Nitzan Chen, director of the GPO, has worked in heroic efforts with his staff. Nitzan narrates this YouTube video.

Now, I am highlighting the IDF’s humanitarian policies that conform to the International Laws of War within their moral compass regarding civilians living in enemy territories. Unique to the Israeli military, these foundational policies toward civilians have guided the IDF for decades in defensive wars. However, due to the enormous challenges of urban warfare in Gaza’s crowded locations, the IDF is implementing an even more meticulous set of lifesaving standards to minimize civilian casualties.

The contrasts between Hamas and the IDF are stark. The IDF’s mission is to protect its population and provide security. By contrast, Hamas uses Gazan civilians—including women and children—as human shields. (Their top leaders are multi-millionaires and live safely in Qatar, over 1,000 miles away.) John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, served for 25 years as an infantry soldier with two tours in Iraq. This expert observed, “Israel has taken more measures to avoid needless civilian harm than virtually any other nation that’s fought an urban war. No military has ever implemented any of these practices in war before.”

What follows are some of the IDF’s long-time practices. Before impending strikes, Israel sends texts and pre-recorded phone messages and makes real-time phone calls. The Israel Air Force (IAF) drops leaflets urging civilians to vacate buildings where Hamas weapons are stored, warning them to move away from Hamas. The IAF uses a roof knock—dropping a loud but non-lethal bomb that warns residents to leave the building within the hour.

Another example is simply a comparison, not intended to demean our American forces that fought in the Iraq War. John Spencer reveals that the United States did not alert Iraq before its initial invasion in 2003, despite involving major urban battles in Baghdad, nor an alert for civilians in its first Battle of Fallujah. Before the second Battle of Fallujah, a civilian warning took place.

Hamas terrorists are an army of cowards. Rather than dressing in military uniforms to fight conventional warfare, they wear ordinary civilian attire and hide among the population. Israeli military policies to decrease Gazan civilian deaths via advance warnings increase the possibility of death and injury for Israeli soldiers. Alerted, Hamas terrorists pop up out of tunnel openings in Gaza armed and ready to kill, or to plant IEDs in tunnels where the IDF is searching for hostages or eliminating terrorists. The criticisms from world governments, violent demonstrators, and mainstream media are outrageous and hypocritical. Indeed, we live in a world in which the famous biblical prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 5, verse 20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

To expose today’s slanders against the IDF, the Christian community must remember and proactively share IDF policies, abandon apathy, and maintain vigilance. Choose to consult trusted media and organizations like CBN News, Chris Mitchell on Jerusalem Dateline, Stakelbeck Tonight on TBN, All Israel News, Amir Tsarfati’s Telegram, and Israel Defense and Security Forum. Dismiss denial and naivete, and most of all, share the facts.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join in our ongoing prayers for Israel, our spiritual homeland, and to recall John 1:5—“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for all men and women serving in the IDF in all positions for strength and hope.
• Pray for the families of 604* IDF soldiers who have died defending their nation.
• Pray for the total of 3,202* IDF soldiers mildly, moderately, or severely wounded.
• Pray for the soldiers traumatized by the deaths and injuries of their compatriots.
• Pray for Director Nitzan Chen and his heroic staff at Israel’s Government Press Office.    

*These figures were updated April 7, 2024, by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

One hundred and eighty days ago, Hamas ripped away a cloak of barbaric evil revealing Iran’s final, deadly goal. The evil that befell Israel on October 7, 2023, points to the Islamic Regime’s determination to establish a modern caliphate—an Islamic-founded, tyrannical government—across the world. For decades, Iran’s leaders have called Israel the “Little Satan” and the United States the “Great Satan.” Make no mistake—these hostile labels describe an ongoing religious war between the life-giving Judeo-Christian heritage and the death cult of Shia Islam.

Mainstream media promotes its anti-Israel biases with predictions and propaganda—accepting Iran proxy Hamas’s lies rather than the established facts of Israel’s defensive war. Rarely does secular media mention that the globe is undergoing a religious war. However, a recent Atlantic Council article highlighted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sounded the alarm about his extreme views.

The article revealed that Khamenei is determined to force-fit his oppressive Islamic Shia religion onto the world, in part by using and funding his Middle East trio of hate—surrogates Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In a recent speech, Khamenei arrogantly declared, “It was my tongue, but words of god (Allah).” Although Khamenei has long been considered the Supreme Leader (his media machine calls him the “implementer of god’s orders”), this latest pronouncement sent out shock waves in Iran. On X, one writer, a critic, said about Khamenei, “At 86, he claims to be a god.”

And a satanic false god, he is. He controls the regime’s nuclear ambitions, military, media, judiciary, and foreign policy. We need not look far to see Khamenei’s power-hungry principles enforced by his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at home and abroad. His mandate toward upwards of 89 million citizens is marked by harsh, oppressive laws and brutal violence. In 2021 he called street protesters “evil, corrupt … weeds, or insects.” In other words, “mow them down.”

Khamenei’s like-minded President—former judge Ibrahim Raisi, nicknamed “The Butcher of Tehran”—is committed to carrying out violence against any freedom protests breaking out, especially after the arrest of Mehsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman. The Iranian “morality police” arrested her in September 2022. Her crime? Incorrectly wearing her compulsory hijab (head covering).She was brutally murdered while in detention.

The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement was born as a result. The regime responded by murdering more than 550 citizens—including 68 children and 48 women—and arresting thousands. The Fact-Finding Mission established by the UN’s Human Rights Council recently reported (among many other violations) a pattern of blinding eye injuries, torture, and rapes in detentions—vicious crimes against humanity by anyone’s definition. 

I consulted with my dear friend Marziyeh (Marzi) Amirizadeh for her first-person explanation of the Islamic regime’s religious goals. Marzi grew up in schools that targeted children by brainwashing them against the U.S. and Israel. As a young woman, Marzi met her Savior Jesus in a series of dreams. She has been a grateful American citizen since 2011.

However, in 2009 she and her close friend were arrested and imprisoned for their faith in Jesus. Their crime? For three years, under the cover of nighttime darkness, they covertly placed 20,000 Bibles into mailboxes in Iran’s capital, Tehran. Eventually found out by the regime’s police, they were put in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. Sentenced to death by hanging, they miraculously survived nine months of horror, then were released after a letter-writing campaign from thousands of Christians provoked an international outcry.

Marzi is an author (Captive in Iran and A Love Journey with God), a speaker worldwide, and an activist for religious freedom. A devoted believer, she is an expert on the dangerous Islamic Regime and warns fellow Americans that freedom must be cultivated and defended. She speaks on behalf of Iranians who long for freedom, fully supports Israel, and treasures her first trip there last year. Some estimate that over a million Muslim-background believers are part of a growing Christian revival, yet they are forced to live under the Islamic ideology that Islam will conquer the world in the end times. The regime’s theocracy teaches that conquest will come either by war or by infiltrating Western countries through their Muslim population to destroy these countries from within. 

Marzi explains, “Radical Muslims teach that Islam is the perfect religion, sent through Mohammad. Everyone must convert to Islam. They await their 12th Imam Mahdi—the Islamic messiah—to appear in Jerusalem after the annihilation of all Israel and Jews.”  

She explains further, “Reading the Quran, it is obvious that they use various parts of the Bible and reverse everything. They demand that every Muslim join their Holy War to open the path for their coming Imam Mahdi. He will then start a series of military wars all around the world to convert infidels—Christians and other religious minorities, who are ‘pagans.’ The Mahdi will give them a chance to convert to Islam. If they refuse, Muslims have the right to murder them and confiscate their property.” 

Having encountered their apocalyptic leaders’ oppressive laws both outside prison and inside those grim walls, Marzi compares the Ayatollah’s Shia Islam and Christianity: “Christianity is all about love and forgiving, but their Islam is all about hate, violence, and anti-Semitism. If you ask, they say that Islam is a religion of peace, but it is a big lie to deceive people.” Marzi believes in religious freedom, but not at the cost of tolerating hatred and violence taught in other countries.

“Muslims know how to take advantage of religious freedom to brainwash people in Western countries,” continues Marzi. She knows firsthand that “in the eyes of their Allah, we are infidels and pagans, and it makes a way for Imam Mahdi to establish an Islamic government or caliphate.” Marzi wisely referred to Matthew 7:16, where Jesus observed, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” His wisdom is our measuring stick.    

I close by recalling great moments in many past trips to Israel. For my groups of Christian leaders on a geopolitical and spiritual journey, we received excellent briefings from the Israel Defense Forces. Before asking one of the pastors to pray for their safety, I took the opportunity to encourage them. “I am a Christian Zionist and thankful for your service. You are opposing evil on the front lines of freedom, not only for your Jewish homeland, but for us as freedom-loving Americans.”

Friends, first know that Hamas imitated and expanded the Islamic Regime’s brutality, barbarism, and hegemonic goals. Then remember, Israel’s war is like the adage about the canary in the coal mine. If Iran and its terror proxies are coming after Israel, realize that this conflict may eventually be at our front door.

Our team at CBN Israel welcomes you to pray with us this week and find hope in Isaiah 45:16-17: “All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together. But Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting.” 

Prayer Points:  

• Pray for the world to recognize the evil behind Iran’s military and religious goals.
• Pray for Christians worldwide to strengthen their Ephesians 6 spiritual armor. 
• Pray for Israelis to find a way to remain united, no matter what. 
• Pray for Christians to use wisdom in their media choices.
• Pray for Christians to press in fully to the truths of our Bibles. 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.