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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Israel celebrated its 77th Independence Day yesterday, May 14. Despite being engaged in a seven-front war, Israel continues to endure as a modern miracle—with its tall buildings, ancient structures, and archaeological finds—which continually prove that for 3,500 years Jews have been the indigenous people of this land: the rightful occupants, not occupiers.

Many of their achievements past and present are singular ones. I selected only a few facts from the many thousands of accomplishments. For instance, Israel is the only nation to revive its ancient language. On May 14, 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced Hebrew as Israel’s primary national language. At that time, only 806,000 people lived in Israel. In 2024, the population had risen to more than 10 million, with 74 percent of them Jewish, 21 percent Muslim, 5 percent Christian, and the rest foreign citizens.

Israel is a treasure trove of innovations and initiatives. It is a world leader in wastewater reuse—recycling 90 percent of its wastewater to beat their water crisis. The start-up FireDome deploys capsules containing fire retardant to combat wildfire devastation—combining proven defense tactics with cutting-edge AI technology. (The U.S. is using that technology this year to fight wildfires.) IceCure Medical developed a minimally invasive ProSense system that destroys benign and cancerous tumors by freezing them with liquid nitrogen. Israel also airlifted a record number of passengers on a commercial plane in May 1991, when it evacuated 1,086 Ethiopian Jews on an El Al Boeing 747.

In the aerospace industry, a critical sensing technology addresses the need for making flights safer amid increasing airline accidents. Odysight.AI (“odyssey,” “sight” and “artificial intelligence”) offers a system of computerized sensors that alerts pilots of any detected anomaly and also predicts potential failures.

Offering a rare opportunity, Israel is home to the only theater company in the world for deaf and blind actors, called Nalaga’at—or “please touch.” And here is an amazing quote from Astronaut Neil Armstrong when he visited Jerusalem: “I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.” Click here for more amazing facts about Israel.

Biblically, we know that a strong, healthy awareness of Jesus’ reality thrived through His Jewish disciples. The early church was populated for around eight years by Jewish believers. The brilliant Jewish apostle Paul, radically commissioned by God, engaged the known Gentile world with the Good News.

However, over the next centuries, the land lay forlorn and forgotten. But the Jews, the indigenous people to whom God deeded His Holy Land, never forgot their ancestral homeland. In dispersion, Jews lived in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South and North America, and beyond. Ever faithful, they stubbornly upheld the festivals and the five books of Moses (Torah), maintained their prayers facing toward Jerusalem, and with hope repeated “Next Year in Jerusalem” wherever they lived.

God makes it clear in Jeremiah 30:3: “’The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,’ says the LORD.’” That day began in one day: May 14, 1948!

Looking at Jerusalem’s storied history, we can extrapolate remarkable facts about the entire Holy Land. Consider that Jerusalem, Israel’s ancient and modern capital, was conquered more than 40 times—by the Persians, Romans, Ottoman Turks, British Empire, and others. The word Jerusalem is found over 900 times in the Bible. Jews have been the largest ethnic group in Jerusalem from 1840 to the present day. Jerusalem has more than 2,000 active archaeological sites, 50 Christian churches, 33 Muslim mosques, and 300 Jewish synagogues.

The question still arises: How did Christianity drift away from its Jewish roots? That’s a complex question, so please regard the following as a short list of answers. Constantine, Rome’s first Christian Emperor, recognized Christianity as the official state religion in A.D. 381. The Gentile church blossomed. Although Paul’s 30 years and 10,000 miles of travel lit Christianity’s fire for Gentiles roughly 350 years before Constantine, a precursor of already embedded omissions had crept in. It began with the church fathers around A.D. 150 neglecting Jews and Judaism as the midwife of Christianity.

In 1523 Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, wrote an informative pamphlet, “That Christ Was Born a Jew.” Yet, he steadily grew enraged that Jews refused to convert to Christianity. Two decades later, in 1543, he marred his otherwise profound legacy by writing a slanderous tract, “On the Jews and Their Lies,” where he called them “vermin” and incited horrific violence against them—such as burning synagogues and schools and destroying Jewish homes.

Then, in a dreadful manipulation of Christianity, Hitler drew his deadly Holocaust rationalizations from Luther’s 1543 pamphlet. In his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) Hitler wrote, “Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

Today, to us as believers in our Jewish Messiah and grateful for the Jewish men God engaged as scribes, the world is upside down. Israel is accused; terror is excused. Poison spills over from far and near into Israel and the Jewish community worldwide.

Is it too late for today’s Christians to help stem the tide of hatred? No! God has given us a second chance to show our goodwill toward the Jewish people as evidenced by friendships growing between our two communities in the last four decades. We compose one of Israel’s greatest allies against Jew hatred. We are, after all, grafted as branches on an ancient Jewish olive tree with the promises given to Jews by the grace of God.

We have seen Jew-haters marching through the centuries with boots, bombs, tanks, and terror. Now, social media concocts its own poison readily accepted by those who do not discern the lies or take time to find reliable sources.

Let us commit to sharing facts as one antidote for the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish poison. Reposting at least one fact a week on social media is helpful. CBN Israel and CBN News provide extensive resources and reports that you can share on social media and with your family and friends.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to pray with us this week:

• Pray with gratitude that God has preserved His chosen people and land.
• Pray for Christians to speak up and advocate on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.
• Pray for Israel’s leaders and government amid all the problems and challenges they face.
• Pray for the safe return of all remaining hostages being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Christians often enjoy tuning in to KBrite Radio and listening to co-hosts Ari Bussel and Norma Zager as they reach their listeners with fresh, relatable news and commentary. Their compelling combination of journalistic expertise and insightful commentary about Israel offer two important Jewish voices for Christians. Norma is an award-winning journalist, Ari is a foreign correspondent, and together they bring you their Eye to Eye broadcast each Saturday morning from southern California, home base for the long-standing Christian station.  

We reached out to Ari and Norma for an interview to explore how Norma, as an American Jew, and Ari, as an Israeli American, are processing the October 7, 2023, massacre. Its painful aftermath creates deeper implications and anxieties for our American Jewish friends, too. Many have family and friends who are Israeli citizens, serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), race to their bomb shelters at all hours, and wonder what the next day will bring.

Given the strong ethnic and generational ties between American Jews and Israeli Jews, I am indeed fortunate to know Ari and Norma as dear friends. We first met in 2018 at the Israel Government Press Office’s (GPO) Christian Media Summit for those the GPO considers part of worldwide Christian media. The GPO includes Ari and Norma in the Summit, inviting them as part of Christian media for their broadcasts featured on a Christian radio network.

During our interview, Ari and Norma exposed demonstrators and social media messages that are hiding behind literal—and figurative—masks here in the U.S. as protestors chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” The true meaning of that chant, of course, is wiping Israel and the Jewish people off the map.

Ari began his remarks by explaining that “Today’s antisemitism is different than what my parents experienced in Poland and Lithuania almost 90 years ago.” He went on to say that antisemitism was “formerly disguised as criticism of Israel, not the people of Israel, just the government of Israel. Now all pretense is gone. It is popular to be open about the conviction that “Jews Must Die.”

Norma adds, “At one time people were ashamed of being an antisemite, a racist. In today’s world, it seems like it’s something to be proud of.” She laments, “One thing that makes me the saddest is that it shows such a flaw in human nature, that is spreading throughout the world.”   

Both Ari and Norma observe that Jew-hatred is not considered a bad thing among many in our society. In fact, it is now glorified among demonstrators, on college campuses, and in propaganda on social media. Hating Jews is out in the open, as Norma articulated—“the right thing to do and the right thing to be.” 

Ari shared a story about taking a simple morning walk in his neighborhood. “A homeless person shouted at me, ‘We have to kill all the Jews! You rape our children!’ I look Middle Eastern, but not necessarily as a Jew.” He observed that in Israel, others “would be hard pressed to separate Muslims from Jews, Druze from Yazidis, Coptic Egyptians from Syrians or Iraqis.” As you can imagine, Ari left the street as quickly as possible.

In one incident, a group of Palestinians entered a restaurant nearby and demanded that all Jews stand up and identify themselves so the troublemakers could beat them up. Ari lives in an area populated with Jews and he relates that these extreme “hunts for Jews” are, at present, infrequent. However, anti-Jewish signs and notes in the streets are distributed, and name-calling at Jews is prevalent. For example, Orthodox parents walking with their children back from synagogue encounter such behavior all too often.

Jews are loved by God, not because they are perfect, just as we are not perfect. Yet, in Deuteronomy 7:6-8 God promises, “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure. … The  LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

Here, Ari quotes the satanic, opposite viewpoint of terrorists: “Do as you desire; Jews are not human beings. They were not created in the image of God. They are pigs and apes! Do not hide them, slaughter them!” He defines antisemitism as the essence of pure hatred, currently directed toward Jews, holding them to a different standard to eliminate and isolate them. He notes the importance of fighting against evil together: “Because this virus is not much different than any other, like the Ebola virus. It is highly contagious; there is no real, full cure for it; and as it spreads, it does not differentiate between a Jew and Gentile [non-Jew].” Sadly, people from all places, cultures, and religions can be susceptible to such blind and ignorant hatred. 

Ari declares that now, after October 7, 2023, Jews “will not go like sheep to the slaughter; in fact, they refuse to go away. We are not a death cult. We stubbornly remain as a light to the nations with utter determination and devotion while empires fall and disappear.”  

I know from personal experience that both Norma and Ari treasure their friendships and their advocacy together with Christians. Many non-Jews may ask why we should care about antisemitism. After all, we are not Jewish. Thus, antisemitism will not and cannot affect us—we are immune!  

Ari’s response: “Antisemitism is a disease via which evil is spread; a messenger. Those who succumb to it are guilty, as are those who stand and say not a word. Western civilization witnessed how ‘first they burned books, then they proceeded to burn people.’ When good people do not act, evil spreads merrily.” 

Norma rightly opines that “antisemitism is no longer forbidden.”  

Today, more than ever, sincere Christians—those who take the Bible seriously—compose one of Israel’s greatest allies against antisemitism. And here is inclusion at its finest: Christians are, after all, grafted into an ancient Jewish olive tree by the grace of God. We benefit from the eternal promises God bestowed thousands of years ago through Abraham!

We encourage you to write a kind note to any Jewish friend. If you live near a synagogue, visit a service, shake the rabbi’s hand and identify as a Christian with a supportive comment. Remain informed. Read and listen to trustworthy news such as CBN News, Jerusalem Dateline with Chris Mitchell, or The Watchman with Erick Stakelbeck.  

Our CBN Israel team invites you to join us in prayer for our American Jewish community this week: 

• Pray for the American Jewish community’s shalom (i.e., peace and wellbeing).
• Pray for those deciding about a move to Israel, their homeland.
• Pray for Jewish students still threatened on U.S. campuses.
• Pray for bravery to speak up for our Jewish community.

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  

To those who are reading this from Israel, know that all of us at CBN Israel were devastated to learn of the massive wildfires that broke out yesterday in the forests between Eshtaol and Latrun and forced evacuations as well as the cancellation of all Independence Day events.  

At sundown today, May 1, Israelis will conclude a trio of important anniversaries. These anniversaries began with Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 23-24 (Yom HaShoah) and include two back-to-back days, Memorial Day on April 30 and Independence Day May 1. Israelis remember their fallen soldiers and victims of terror on Memorial Day, then right away on May 1, joyous celebrations of Israel’s miraculous modern state break out. It may seem unusual to mark the solemnity of Memorial Day and high-spirited Independence Day one after the other. Then again, it is a portrait of Israel’s twin culture, where the strong bond between the sacrifices of the fallen and the miraculous establishment of the modern State of Israel are evident. 

Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) is set aside to express grief, yet Independence Day (Yom HaAtzmaut) is a time for joy. As is the custom on Memorial Day, the entire country comes to a halt for one minute after country-wide sirens blare. Vehicles stop on highways, drivers get out of their cars, and people stand in silent stillness in stores, on sidewalks, and in homes. The opening state ceremony for Memorial Day is held at the Western Wall. Military events occur to honor the national sacrifices, flags are lowered nationwide, and graves are visited. The end of Memorial Day is officially marked with a torch lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl, site of Israel’s national military cemetery named for Theodor Herzl, the father of the modern Jewish state. This solemn event signals the end of Memorial Day and officially opens the Independence Day celebrations. 

This year, the number of deaths from war and terrorism have increased dramatically amid ongoing terror assaults of every kind. The Defense Ministry’s annual reporting shows that since last Memorial Day, 316 soldiers have fallen and 79 civilians were killed in such attacks. These losses are annually noted in numbers dating back to 1851 and 1860! Since 1851, Arab terrorists have killed 5,229 Jewish civilians. Added together, 25,417 IDF soldiers, police officers, prison wardens, Shin Bet security service, and Mossad agents have been killed defending the land of Israel since 1860—the year that Jewish settlers ventured outside the walls of Jerusalem to build new neighborhoods. And when we include civilians killed in terror attacks since 1851, the total rises to 30,646! 

It is important to note that every Jewish Israeli—almost without exception—knows someone who has died in war, civilian terror, or both. Israel is one of the smallest nations in the world. Its Jewish population is currently estimated at 7.7 million Jews, with a total population of nearly 10 million citizens. Israel’s diverse citizens include 2 million Arab Israelis and minorities of Christians, Druze, and Bedouins who enjoy the same freedoms, including freedom of worship. 

Worldwide, the Jewish population stands at 15.8 million. With over 8 billion people in the world, compare these startling numbers: Muslims are estimated at around 2 billion people. Islam is the second-largest religion in the world, topped only by Christianity. A surprising and sad commentary about the world Jewish population is that right before World War II, it was 16.6 million. In 1948, when the modern State of Israel was established, the world Jewish population was 11.5 million.

Jews have slowly regained their pre-World War II population, but it has been difficult amid repeated attempts to wipe the Jewish nation and people off the map. Hours after Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, read their Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, Jews who had been dancing in the streets were quickly forced into defending themselves with inadequate weapons against Arab aggressions—aggressions that have never stopped. As evident by the biggest conflicts—1948/49, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, two Intifadas, Hamas rockets for decades, and the most devastating, October 7, 2023—Israel’s enemies still do not understand: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in His sovereign plans will win in the end, no matter what. Those enemies include the Islamic Regime—the world’s biggest exporter of terror.  

Despite their seasons of tragic history, the unstoppable resilience of the Jewish people is especially in evidence on Independence Day, with cookouts, music, and dancing. Each year of surviving Jew hatred and celebrating their freedom in their own land is a reminder to those who hate them: That the chosen people, the Jews, are here to stay. Despite runaway antisemitism and war, Israel is still a blessing to the world—with its massive innovations that make the quality of life better on nearly every continent. 

Deuteronomy 7:6 makes it clear: The LORD your God has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. What we owe the Jews is far beyond their modern innovations. God’s chosen scribes for the Old and New Testaments have told us that the pinnacle of God’s love is giving us salvation by sending His Son to earth through the Jewish people and culture, to pay our debt of sin on the cross. All who ask, receive this gift! 

 That, my Christian friends, is why we support Israel. This tiny nation figures large in God’s eternal plans for both Gentiles and Jews who believe in Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. While we Christians are often wrongly thought to idolize the Jews and Israel, they—like us—are imperfect. We care for Israel because God makes it plain that we are to stand with them, because God chose them in a world-changing role for every imperfect person ever born.  

Despite the Jew hatred, including the digital domain that unleashes its relentless spewing of accusations and lies, Israel still exists amid every attempt by her enemies to erase her existence. 

Meanwhile, Christian and Jewish Zionists must suit up in the mantle of biblical truth found in the Old and New Testaments. Let us make sure we rely on the facts of the Bible that Israel is the ancient and modern ancestral homeland and Jews are the indigenous people. Prayer and helpful advocacy go hand in hand. 

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you with appreciation to join us this week in prayer.  

Prayer Points: 

• Pray with thanks for God’s eternal promises for Israel. 
• Pray for our Christian community to maintain our hopes for Israel and the world.  
• Pray with praises for our Bible, the most factual, trustworthy document in history. 
• Pray for Israel’s examples of how to maintain resilience and hope amid tragedy.