Blog

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) may not be a familiar name to everyone. However, amid a slate of world-changing initiatives launched by Christian media pioneer Pat Robertson (1930-2023), he and attorney Jay Sekulow founded the not-for-profit organization in 1990 after Robertson observed a steady decline of Judeo-Christian principles. Today, Robertson’s forward-thinking initiative is composed of legal warriors for justice who focus on constitutional and human rights law worldwide. The ACLJ’S calendar is crowded with weighty litigation that actively opposes irrational accusations against the Jewish state. Paramount among these cases post-October 7 are those representing Israeli hostage families.

ACLJ’s history of litigation on behalf of Israel in world courts includes establishing a Jerusalem office in 2011. After October 7, their workload increased dramatically. They immediately mobilized their Jerusalem office and other offices worldwide, sending legal briefs to the United Nations, European Union, Council of Europe, and key members of Congress—demanding action and making the case for Israel’s right to defend itself. At this writing, 134 hostages remain imprisoned in a concentration camp of tunnels.

Early on, ACLJ launched a petition demanding the release of all hostages. Then, via their affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice, Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow sent a letter to the UN condemning the attacks on Israel. In November, from their headquarters in Washington, D.C., they advanced essential conversations on Capitol Hill by setting up a series of meetings with Congress and media. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson formally recognized the hostages’ families as well as Jay Sekulow and his son Jordan Sekulow, ACLJ’s Executive Director. With great emotion, family members recounted with Democrats and Republicans how Hamas had kidnapped and brutalized their family members. Each story was wrapped in horror and heartbreak.

Doris Liber, the Israeli-American mother of Guy Iluz, related the story of her 26-year-old son, a musician abducted at the Supernova Music Festival. On October 7, when Doris first heard Israeli sirens, she called her son to check on him. He was driving home with friends for dinner. Then 30 minutes later, Guy’s father called, putting Doris on a three-way call with their son. Guy told them all his friends in his Jeep had been murdered, that he had been shot and was hiding in a tree.

Guy’s father told him, “Look around, try to find dead bodies—try to crawl under a dead body. Act like you’re dead.” Doris heard gunshots in the background and Guy said in a whisper, “Nobody is getting out of this alive, so I need to say my last words.” He told his mother and father that he loved them. And Doris said her last “I love you” to her son.

Doris learned later that Hamas terrorists had eventually spotted Guy and taken him hostage. Then came every parent’s nightmare: An Israeli group representing hostage families reported on December 1 that Guy had died in captivity after Hamas dragged him into Gaza. Since the attack that killed her son, Doris Liber has attended the funerals and sat shivas (Jewish mourning rituals) for her son’s dead friends. She has also traveled the world to raise awareness about her son’s abduction and to share her family’s story. 

ACLJ is pressing in with additional litigation as well as resources for Israel advocacy. Examples include a January case at the International Court of Justice where South Africa’s government accused Israel of genocide. ACLJ helped defend Israel by sending legal briefs to over 50 countries. Long before October 7, ACLJ was already presenting arguments at another court, the Hague’s International Court of Justice, to help protect Israel’s national security interests.

In January, ACLJ created a video titled The Myth of Palestine, an especially valuable tool now that the United States is leading a misguided demand for a two-state solution, which is an existential issue for Israel. ACLJ’s online presence is filled with additional educational tools, including A Brief Legal History of the Conflict, The Myth of Occupation, and The Myth of Israeli Apartheid, among other topics. While the U.S., Qatar, and other countries are pressing evil-minded Hamas to free the remaining hostages—and the bodies of those already murdered—ACLJ remains hard at work not only advocating for Israel but representing pro-life Christians in the United States. They are appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court to contest states trying to remove Former President Trump from ballots, litigating on behalf of persecuted Christians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and defending Jewish students on college campuses.

Since its 1990 founding, ACLJ has expanded exponentially in Israel, France, Kenya, and Zimbabwe—after those interested in religious rights asked the ACLJ to form these organizations modeled on the ACLJ-USA.

Sekulow, who is a Jewish believer, has engaged a team of experts that includes former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Richard Grenell, who served as Director of National Intelligence. ACLJ’s commitment rests on “ensuring the ongoing viability of freedom and liberty in the United States and around the world” by “focusing on U.S. constitutional law, European Union law and human rights law” to protect “universal, God-given and inalienable rights.”

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon (serving from 2002–2006) described Sekulow as “a true friend of Israel who has fought with us hand-in-hand in some of Israel’s most strategic, international battles.” Sekulow’s letter to the United Nations immediately after October 7 demonstrates his skill and commitment. Yet, it is indeed outrageous that in almost five months, the UN has done little of what Jay Sekulow’s letter outlined: Publicly condemn Hamas. Demand the immediate return of hostages to Red Cross/Red Crescent custody. Conduct a detailed review of all UN funds for Gaza. Publicly affirm Israel’s legal right to respond to the Hamas attack under the UN Charter and the laws of armed conflict. Renounce any equivalency between Hamas’s actions and those of Israel.

After reading Jay Sekulow’s essential points, we as Christians must seriously consider our commitment to stand with Israel amid the diabolical voices still assaulting Israelis with lies and accusations, the cruel game they are playing with hostage release, and the severe trauma that has beset our brave and determined Israeli friends. ACLJ is recruiting “Champions” to join them as they fight almost 24/7 for true justice. There are numerous ways to be a champion. Learn more at ACLJ.org.

And let us thank God once again for the visionary Pat Robertson, founder of The Christian Broadcasting Network. His legacy as a Christian statesman to bless Israel endures. Join our CBN Israel team this week knowing that the God of the Universe will triumph. Proverbs 21:15 says, “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for ACLJ in their critical efforts to stand with Israel in global courts.
• Pray for the families of hostages as they wait in agonized suspense for news of their loved ones.
• Pray that the U.S. will abandon any two-state solution proposals. 
• Pray for unity to remain between the Knesset, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the IDF.

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

The United States and five Arab countries are uniting in an unasked-for effort to push Israel into a worn-out and ineffectual two-state solution. The “reasoning” emerging from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates borders on the delusional. That’s because for decades, Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza have proven their aversion—their outright refusal—to negotiate with Israel.

Any blueprint for a Palestinian state side by side with Israel is also doomed, because Israel has already “been there and done that”—as witnessed by the disastrous, ongoing results of October 7. A look at the Hamas charter reveals that peace will never be an option for these terrorists, only violence. That is the only solution they will consider for Israel.

Let’s examine the implausibility of this six-nation “peace plan” in light of events during the last two decades. In 2005, Israel unilaterally—without negotiations or advice from any country—handed Palestinians a state in Gaza. At the time, Israel believed its departure would permit the rise of a well-functioning government, a “Singapore by the Sea.”

In making this magnanimous move, Israel forfeited years of hard work by its Jewish community living in Gaza. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (1928-2014) ordered Israel’s own soldiers to remove more than 8,000 Jewish citizens from the enclave. Thus, on August 15, 2005, the Israel Defense Forces began removing the Jewish community from Gaza. Jewish soldiers who were forced to evacuate the Jewish families and the families themselves shared the heartbreak as these Israelis left behind their homes, businesses, synagogues, and schools. By September 22, 2005, the last IDF soldier locked the gate to Gaza behind him.

Instead of putting this windfall to good use, the Palestinians immediately trashed everything left behind that could have provided them with jobs and food—and in 2007 they voted to put Hamas in power. Eventually, Hamas proved to be a destabilizing presence, unleashing a bloodthirsty culture of terror that roped most of the Gazan population into Jew-hatred, misery, and war.

Not one Jewish person has lived in Gaza for almost two decades.

It is imperative to recall the patience Israel has exhibited while living close to those who want to murder them. The intricately planned October 7 invasion, combined with almost two decades of life under constant threat, shows why Israelis do not now support a Palestinian state. The six nations’ leaders are morally wrong to compel Israel to a cease-fire instead of holding accountable the perpetrators—Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah, and Iran—and requiring Hamas to lay down its arms, destroy the tunnels, and release the hostages. Following the unspeakable evil and brutality of October 7, proposing any two-state solution or ceasefire is insulting, untenable, and unworkable.     

Evacuating its citizens in Gaza in 2005, Israel’s one-of-a-kind sacrifice for peace turned into a 19-year nightmare of rocket barrages. I have traveled to the kibbutzim many times and heard their stories of trauma. However, my admiration for their bravery and zest for life grew each time. Unbelievably, the world blamed Israel every time terrorists forced the IDF into protecting its civilians living along the Gaza Envelope.

Sderot kindergartners became accustomed to indoor play areas with reinforced concrete and steel doors. And try to imagine parenting in the context of falling rockets. Moms who are alone during the day with young children chose not to take showers for fear that the Red Alert would sound, where they could not quickly grab their children and run to their safe room. A dad driving in Sderot with his children in the backseat was forced to stop the car, jump out, open the back door, and throw himself over his children to protect them.

Palestinians devised all kinds of attacks. They destroyed Israel’s beautiful crops by launching what I call a balloon intifada, arming these innocent-looking toys with explosives that floated over to Israel and burned up crops. Parents were forced to warn their children against balloons, a formerly joyful sight, if they fell into their yards.

The class schedule for Shaar Hanegev High School in Sderot was constantly disrupted with Red Alert alarms and frantic sprints to bomb shelters. In 2012, Israel spent $27.5 million on concrete walls, reinforced windows, and architectural designs to absorb and deflect rocket fire. The necessary safety features meant students could stay put. One principal commented, “You can finally teach without constantly worrying about what to do when there is a rocket attack.” 

On October 7, Hamas murdered 50 of Sderot’s citizens. Most of the over 30,000 residents are now living in temporary shelters and lodging. Including Israelis on the Lebanon and Gaza borders, 125,000 people from kibbutzim, towns and villages are displaced. Yet the six nations are pressuring Israel, which was the target of evil, instead of the terrorists who perpetuated that evil.

Are these wrong-headed purveyors of peace pressing or arresting the top Hamas leaders who fly in private jets and appear for media interviews? No Arab countries are willing to resettle the Gazans. Yet, they expect Israel to live next to them again after years of dealing with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Further, what Palestinian can govern a state peacefully?

Amir Tsarfati, the Israeli founder of Behold Israel, succinctly describes the Palestinian mindset via his Telegram channel: “They don’t want to live next to us—they want to live instead of us.” Tsarfati does not envision either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas signing on to any new deal that recognizes Israel’s sovereignty, despite the settled biblical facts of both ancient and modern history.

I agree, since any two-state solution is akin to the Nazis’ “final solution,” which resulted in the Holocaust. Appeasing evil does not produce peace. In human terms, any such plan is a roadmap to disaster. In the past, present, and future the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob kept—or will keep—His promises to His Chosen people.

In the meantime, I support the clear, unanimous decisions on February 18 rendered by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his war cabinet: “Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.” On February 21, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, strengthened Prime Minister Netanyahu and his security cabinet’s unanimous decision by resolving to formally oppose any imposition of a Palestinian state. The vote: ninety-nine lawmakers in favor and only 9 against. Their unity is absolutely remarkable.

Before finalizing their latest foolish plan, the six leaders should not only take note of Israel’s unity but revisit the outcome of former President Clinton’s Camp David summit in 2000 with Yassar Arafat, founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister. Barak agreed to withdraw from 97 percent of the West Bank (the biblical heartland) and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip. Further, Barak approved a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem. Arafat, however, refused all offers, unwilling to accept any Israeli sovereignty anywhere.

Are the six leaders aware that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has yet to condemn the 10/7 massacres? The question of who would govern a Palestinian state remains unanswered. The question eludes the misguided two-state proponents and the polluted airways filled with Palestinian lies and evil.

Former Prime Minister Golda Meir said it best: “You cannot negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you.” As Prime Minister Netanyahu said last weekend, “There is no alternative to total victory. And there is no way to achieve total victory without destroying those battalions in Rafah, and we will do so.”

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team this week to pray with understanding that God’s covenants with the Jewish people are eternal. Deuteronomy 14:2 reminds us, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be His treasured possession.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray that other nations will stop meddling in Israel’s rightful decisions to defend its homeland.
• Pray for unity to remain within Netanyahu’s war cabinet and Israel’s citizens.
• Pray that Jew-hating voices will grow silent.
• Pray for Hamas to free all hostages or for IDF to miraculously rescue the remaining hostages.
• Pray for IDF preparing for a widened war to oppose Hezbollah’s attacks from Lebanon.

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

Following the inhumane infiltration of the Jewish homeland on October 7, an octogenarian Christian acted on a bright idea which is now shining lights into the lives of  thousands of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

Last weekend I interviewed the 81-year-old on the phone. As I had agreed in advance to her request for complete anonymity, I nicknamed her “Lady Bright” for this article. She has refused other media interviews, so I deeply appreciated her exclusive story. In journalism, we call it a scoop to report news of importance, surprise, excitement, originality, or—like Lady Bright’s story—secrecy.

I first found out about Lady Bright last fall when a friend called asking for a Zoom briefing, aware that I was offering updates in person or online to groups both large and small. Soon, a small group joined the Zoom meeting, where I updated them about Israel’s defensive war, an existential necessity against Hamas’s public and prideful statements about murdering every Jew. A few weeks after that Zoom update, my friend called again, this time to tell me about an exceptional mission initiated by one of the participants.

I learned enough about her remarkable acquaintance to seek a telephone interview, and my friend obliged. Kurt Kaiser’s 1969 song, “Pass It On,” expresses the heart of Bright’s mission: “It only takes a spark to get a fire going. And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love once you’ve experienced it. You spread His love to everyone; You want to pass it on.” 

In our interview, I learned that Lady Bright felt inspired to write letters to IDF soldiers. “I figured if Jesus asked me to do this,” she explained, “He’s got a way of making it happen to bless the soldiers.” And she certainly found a way. Considered the matriarch of a group of lifelong childhood friends for 70-75 years, Lady Bright reached out to them about a letter-writing campaign. Five of her friends caught the spark to pass on love—and got to work as members of Lady Bright’s private group with “just the girls that are committed to help me.”

They composed a short letter assuring the IDF of prayers to God for their safety, and that they were simply sending love and encouragement from “people in the United States who support them”—a team of women in their 70s and 80s.

Lady Bright suffers from arthritis, so handwriting is difficult. She uses her home printer, places three letters to a page, then cuts them apart. Each letter is signed with handwritten initials to make it more personal. The team spends time and energy to sign their initials and stuff envelopes—and also helps defray costs for postage, envelopes, and outside printing. 

After one team member included her two weekly Bible study groups in this enterprise, she passed on 2,500 letters to Lady Bright. They had stuffed envelopes while studying the Bible!

In her small church in small-town America, Lady Bright is a choir member and mentioned a hymn they recently sang, “Til The Storm Passes By.” She is deeply engaged in the latest information about Israel through CBN News and prays for Israel “until the storm passes by.”

Lady Bright reached out to the Jewish Federation of North America and Friends of the IDF, asking how to send letters to the IDF. Both responded with help—and now the New York Jewish Federation has been inundated with thousands of letters to Israel’s soldiers. The federation also sends letters when staff and friends are traveling to Israel.

When the Jewish Federation asked Lady Bright why Christians are writing letters to IDF soldiers, she replied, “You are God’s chosen people. We’re just ‘step kids’ and the only way we get to God’s family is through Jesus Christ, who grafted us into your land. So, we’re honored to try and help in some way. And that’s how we feel.” Prayers are also added for the letters’ safe travel to New York’s Jewish Federation and beyond to IDF units on the ground.

Lady Bright’s mission reached the Jewish community in the United States, too. On November 7, 2023, a Jewish family in metro Atlanta was devastated by the news that Sgt. Rose Ida Lubin, a 20-year-old native of Dunwoody, Georgia, had been murdered by a terrorist while on duty as an Israeli Border Police officer in Jerusalem. Grappling with grief that hit so close to home, Sgt. Lubin’s family and Jewish community were touched when they received sympathy cards from Bright and her Christian team.

It is no surprise that Jewish organizations want to interview Lady Bright, with thousands of letters already in Israel. This amazing woman’s goal is to send 360,000 letters in all! When I asked how she arrived at that number she remarked, “Because that’s how many they called up from IDF reserves.”

However, Bright’s determination for anonymity remains firm, and it’s based on her most important goal: “We want God to get all the glory. I don’t want anything to come to me. I’m not doing it for attention or anything except these boys and girls,” says the 81-year-old.

Lady Bright revealed another way publicity could interfere with the team’s task. She shrouds her identity and the letters in secrecy because “I want to get by with as many letters as we can before anybody tries to stop us. If the wrong people find out, somebody will try to shut us down.” She mentions that the people who would be opposed to the mission outnumber her team, and she wants to keep the letters just between the soldiers and her small group who are “praying for them and asking God to keep them safe and bless them.”

Lady Bright is very aware of and attuned to the Jew hatred breaking out worldwide and here in the United States. She and her team understand that covert operations might enable the small group to better reach their goals.

President Ronald Reagan once phrased it well: “They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.” Fighting a war simultaneously above and below ground in Gaza is the most complex terrain ever encountered by any army. However, each simple letter of prayer sent to IDF soldiers is sure to light sparks of encouragement when it is opened.

Bright and her team anticipate their final, eternal destination as they conduct their covert operation here on earth. However, Matthew 25:23 heralds a glorious truth when Jesus exclaims, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” The Bright team is now in charge of hundreds of thousands of letters! And her mission is still expanding, still growing.

How many of you reading the story of Lady Bright and her team of active senior citizens will ask the Lord what you can add to your prayers for Israel? Many options await you to send practical lights of help to the IDF, to 100,000 Israeli citizens displaced from their homes, or to help organizations aiding Israel’s elderly Holocaust survivors.

In our phone interview, Lady Bright referenced Genesis 12:3, “If you bless my people, I will bless you. If you curse my people, I will curse you.” She adds, “As Christians, we have absolutely no choice but to bless God’s people, and that’s the Jews.”

We welcome you this week to join our CBN Israel team to pray and meditate on this truth in Psalms 18:28—You, LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

Prayer Points:

• Pray with thanks for small beginnings that grow into big blessings for others.
• Pray for God’s Holy Spirit and protection for IDF members as they fight evil in dark places.
• Pray for IDF spouses and children for shalom and strength during these deployments.
• Pray that Hamas will release all hostages into freedom.
• Pray that intel coming from captured terrorists will help IDF in the complex war. 

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.