ARTICLES

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

In November 2024, a one-of-a-kind story unfolded along the Gaza border during the first tour of Root & Branch. As you may recall, this amazing humanitarian organization has as its goal the promotion of Christian-Jewish unity, offering trips for Christians to harvest olives in Israel with Jewish people—and exemplify the ancient connection between Christians and Jews. Led in a partnership by Marziyeh (Marzi) Amirizadeh, CEO of NewPersia.org, and Jonathan Feldstein, creator of the Genesis 123 Foundation, their team on the 2024 trip harvested more than olives. On that occasion, a surprising and particularly profound moment awaited their group.

Root & Branch is a collaboration that is expanding the profound truth and symbolism of Israel’s ancient olive tree. The olive tree reflects the ancient Jewish faith described by the Jewish Apostle Paul in Romans 11, where he expressed that Christians are grafted into the covenant that God made with the Jewish people, that the root supports the branch.

The November 2024 encounter took place between Marzi and one of the elite units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). As part of the Root & Branch itinerary, Marzi, Jonathan, and their tour group hosted a meal for the IDF soldiers. Afterwards, as artillery fired in the background, Marzi told her esteemed guests, “As an Iranian woman, I know the evil nature of the Islamic Republic Regime.” She explained how Islam hijacked the land of her birth—and how she was arrested and sentenced to death “because of the ‘crime’ of converting to Christianity,” and for distributing thousands of forbidden Bibles.

The former death row inmate emphasized how “Israelis and Iranians have suffered at the hands of the ayatollahs, our common enemy.” Marzi described her imprisonment in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison: “I witnessed the execution of my cellmates and best friend, as well as the torture and abuse of countless innocent women. The regime killed my husband and destroyed my father’s life.” After nine horrific months in this place, she was miraculously released.

Marzi’s shocking revelation is possibly the first time that any IDF soldier heard statements of such weight and significance from an Iranian-born Christian, someone who could understand the deep trauma of being imprisoned as a hostage.

Her next words added heartfelt encouragement. “I want to apologize to you having to leave your families to fight the Islamic Regime. Please know that Iranians are not the Islamic Republic. Millions, like me, have been oppressed and held hostage in Iran. Like many Iranians, I have never hated you. Our cultures share similarities—kindness, hospitality, and a love for life.”

Marzi prays for the day that friendships between Israel and Iran are restored, in a shared history “going back as far as King Cyrus.” She expressed her hope that Israeli and Iranian tourists, pilgrims, and businesspeople will build a bright future together.

She then reached out for their hands. When the circle formed, she prayed for her Jewish guests. Afterwards the IDF commander, identifying as a Christian, thanked her. “What you said and prayed as an Iranian, my soldiers will remember as long as they live.”

I agree wholeheartedly with the IDF commander. Marzi’s story and prayers will last a lifetime. One way for Jews and Christians to be part of future hopes and prayers is the upcoming Root & Branch Unity Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Jonathan, a modern Orthodox Jewish-Israeli American, and Marzi, a Christian Iranian-American, have planned programming aimed at friendship and teamwork. Three main sessions over two days will harmonize with Friday’s Shabbat dinner, where guests will enjoy an uplifting time of worship with Marzi as the featured speaker. Learning what happened last November is an inspiring appetizer for gathering with fine speakers, panels, and conversations. People are already registering from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and Kentucky.

Jonathan, among his plentiful abilities, is a prolific writer who initiates cooperative entrepreneurial projects. He views the future with this observation: “Following Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June, our friendship, partnership, and the Root & Branch Unity Conference, are more vital than ever. Ours is a model of how things can and should be in prayers actively prayed that our unity will develop into the norm for us all.”

Although the conference is not meeting in Israel, the commitment to September collaborations in Atlanta makes Christians and Jews stronger together and moves toward action. Given the urgency of Jew-hatred accelerating in more forms and venues in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, the time is right to unite in the new Root & Branch partnership of specialized tours and September’s first conference. The theme Root & Branch has adopted is clear and expressive: “Building Bridges and Planting Roots in Israel & Among the Jewish People with Unconditional Love.” Psalm 133:1 expresses their aspirations, How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

Please use this link to register or learn more about the conference: [visit here].

The host committee welcomes you to invite friends, family, pastors, rabbis, and Jews individually—with a request to refrain from mentioning it on social media posts. Increased security measures for meetings among Jews and Christians have become the norm. After registering, you will receive the event venue and hotel location. For Sabbath-observant Jewish participants, there are special accommodations and discounted hotel rates for all out-of-town participants.

The symbolism and reality of the olive tree’s trunk and roots connecting the branches portrays God’s gracious sovereignty. As noted in Romans 11, God grafts Gentiles into the branches—those Christians who esteem Israel scripturally and celebrate the land that birthed the Christian faith. Israel is our spiritual homeland. God adopts us into the family and plants our spiritual DNA within us as recorded in the Old and New Testaments in His redemptive plans.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us this week in prayers for the new Root & Branch outreach reflecting on Psalm 133:1—How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Root & Branch directly connecting Jews and Christians together in shared projects.
• Pray for conference participants to learn from each other and from the experts who speak.
• Pray for Jewish and Christian organizations that deem Israel to be the Promised Land in compassionate outreaches.

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

“A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.” A quote often attributed to famous British preacher C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), its origin—as Spurgeon himself said—has actually been lost to time. Nevertheless, we as believers who stand with Israel have a choice: We must press on to share truth!

World news headlines detonate day after day with slanderous information and unfounded rumors about and against Israel. A cloud of despicable lies, accusations, actions, and ignorance continues to ignite the fires of Jew-hatred across the globe. It is past time for good news, and there is plenty of it. That’s because despite its seven-front war, Israel has not neglected one of its key foundations: “repairing the world,” or tikkun olam.

For centuries, the concept of “repairing the world” has repeatedly motivated the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Tikkun olam has no boundaries.

By educating ourselves through two excellent Israeli humanitarian organizations—IsraAID and MASHAV—we gain the facts and tools we need to share good news about Israel “repairing the world.” Although this catch phrase cannot actually be found word for word in Scripture, the concept flows throughout the Bible. The Hebrew verb TKN, which is used only four times in Scripture, is defined “to make straight, establish, arrange, or repair.” One example in Leviticus 19:9-10 calls for “leaving gleanings for the poor and the foreigner,” a way to share resources. Let’s look at the way this plays out in the two charitable groups just mentioned.

IsraAID, founded in 2001, is an international non-governmental humanitarian aid organization. Its teams have worked in emergency and long-term development settings in more than 60 countries globally. IsraAID also provides critical help inside the Jewish homeland. For example, they have been working with local municipalities in central Israel since June. These towns are hosting some 2,000 people whose homes were damaged or destroyed when Iran targeted Israeli civilians in missile attacks on residential buildings. IsraAID has been providing not only mental health support to those displaced, but help with education and logistics, as well.

In the company’s 2024 Annual Report, the list of IsraAID’s accomplishments globally is nothing short of astonishing, given that Israel is fighting a defensive war against the Islamic Regime and its terror surrogates. The report mentions IsraAID’s long-term humanitarian missions—which now face more emergencies, including Guatemala’s migration crisis, violence in Kenya, and refugees fleeing the Democratic Republic of the Congo into Uganda. When Cyclone Chido hit Mozambique last December, Israel’s emergency teams quickly responded with help.

This humanitarian organization also sent its rapid-response teams to Papua New Guinea after a devastating landslide in May. Already working in South Sudan, IsraAID noted that they frequently deal with a “crisis within a crisis.” One example highlights this reality. Over 500,000 people escaping Sudan’s next-door conflict were crammed into South Sudan’s refugee camps. The overcrowding set the stage for last December’s cholera outbreak. Here in the United States, IsraAID has often sent emergency teams to help communities devastated by fires, floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes.

Reading about Israel’s far-reaching commitment to tikkun olam shows us these facts dramatically reveal how outrageous are accusations that “Israel is an apartheid state.” Misinformed protesters grab the first headline they see despite the fact that Israel itself is a multi-colored country with Ethiopian, Asian, and Hispanic Jews. The apartheid designation is absurd. In addition, a look at the geographical locations of IsraAID’s humanitarian outreaches shows us that Israel treats all people in all crises with aid wherever possible. That includes Gaza.

IsraAID’s CEO, Yotam Polizer, quips: “We are FILO, First In and Last Out.” For Israel, wrongly defamed at every turn, IsraAID is a shining example of Israel’s commitment to helping others. IsraAID “repairs the world” regardless of religion or ethnicity. Its staff and volunteers view others simply as people in need.

MASHAV is another shining example of Israelis repairing the world. Its official name is “Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” This organization was created in 1958 by two Israeli visionaries: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, his foreign minister and later a prime minister herself. Ben-Gurion and Meir applied tikkun olam—a dynamic Jewish cultural value—to share Israel’s expertise, particularly in technology, with other developing countries. After only 10 years as a modern independent nation, Israel was already reaching out in friendship with development aid to other countries. MASHAV’s mission: to help developing nations achieve sustainable development and transformation within their own societies. On X, MASHAV calls it #HumanCapacityBuilding to empower those living in poverty to improve their own lives.

Cooperative projects combine with other nations in strengths, experience, and expertise in 10 different priority sectors, among them food security and agriculture, education for all, medicine and public health, and innovation and entrepreneurship.

MASHAV’s statistics are astounding. With more than 50 training centers and demonstration projects worldwide, each year the organization sees 5,000 trainees take part in 160 training courses in Israel and abroad. In addition, it is involved in 100 short-term consultancy missions and has 35 ongoing partnerships with donor countries and international organizations. In fact, MASHAV’s practical and compassionate programs have made an impact in 140 out of 193 nations in our world—with over 300,000 graduates from their training programs.

Jews in their ancestral homeland number around 7.7 million in a population of 10 million. Israel makes IsraAID and MASHAV even more miraculous in blessing the family of nations. Shining into the darkness of nations in disaster or need, Israeli Jews are beacons of light, despite being beset with hatred and war themselves.

Tikkun olam is an observable, treasured Jewish value designed by God. He Himself in His sovereignty will “make straight, establish, arrange, or repair” our world for all who honor and believe His redemptive sacrifice for sins. Truth and tikkun olam will someday erase the cloud of lies. Let us be sure to do our part to repair the cloud of lies with truth and facts!

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us this week to pray and to pass along facts about Israel reflecting on Matthew 5:16—“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray with praises for Israel’s extraordinary tikkun olam worldwide!
• Pray for friends, family, and social media to read this article due to your sharing.
• Pray for pastors and churches drifting away from Israel support to read the facts.
• Pray for Evangelicals to proactively share facts about Israel to spread good news.

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

On July 23, Israel’s Parliament (Knesset) passed a momentous resolution: a symbolic vote to advance the nation’s sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. This historic decision could well have a lasting impact—and reshape the Middle East. With the Knesset currently composed of 26 political parties, it is close to miraculous that a majority—71 of the 120 Knesset members—voted in favor of the non-binding resolution. It is unusual that the Knesset agreed in a majority bipartisan vote.

Dan Illouz, a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party, represented one of four Knesset parties that submitted the resolution for Israel’s sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. Illouz declared, “For the first time ever, the Knesset is expressing official support for the application of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.” He added that their message was clear: “Judea and Samaria are not a bargaining chip—they are the heart of our country.”

Israel’s 25th Knesset also made history in another profound way. Today, Israel’s citizenry is 80 percent secular—yet in the recent resolution, politicians framed the new resolution in Scriptural terms that emphasized and recognized Israel’s biblical roots. As the resolution declares: “Centuries and millennia before the establishment of the modern state, the forefathers and prophets of the nation lived and acted in these regions. Here, the foundations of Jewish faith and culture were laid. Cities like Hebron, Shechem (Nablus), Shiloh and Beit El are not merely historical sites—they are living expressions of the continuous Jewish presence in the land.”

Sovereignty discussions are not new. The dedicated Israel Defense Forces have fought for 21 months in a defensive war where its enemies continue intensifying the threat to Israel’s security. The unspeakable murders and kidnapping of hostages on October 7, 2023—not to mention refusing to free all living hostages and bodies of the deceased (still true at this writing)—fueled an earlier vote on February 21, 2024. At that time, the Knesset voted 99–11 to support Israel’s Cabinet and to reject “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.” In plain terms, another big vote: No Palestinian statehood in Israel.

For decades, Israel has extended overtures for peace with Palestinians in the biblical heartland—moves that proved futile. Each attempt resulted in opposition. Certainly now, in the face of Hamas’s brutal invasions and massacres, those days are over. Twenty years of proof bolsters Israel’s overwhelming opposition to what I call another Palestinian state. Why?

In 2005, Israel literally gave a state to Palestinians living in Gaza when it ordered its 8,000 Jewish citizens to relocate to another part of Israel from their homes and businesses. Termed the “Disengagement,” this move was Arial Sharon’s concept as prime minister (2001-2006). By withdrawing, Sharon hoped to accomplish a meaningful step toward peace. The deadline for voluntary compliance was August 15, after which date Israel’s military forcibly evicted its own Jewish citizens—an agonizing, heartbreaking period of some weeks. Yet when the IDF finally locked the gate at the Kissufim crossing between Israel and Gaza—its Jewish families no longer there—Palestinians began destroying every good opportunity the Jewish community left behind, including homes and thriving greenhouse businesses. Destructiveness and chaos are among the reasons that other Arab nations are hesitant to relocate Palestinian Gazans into their countries.

Twenty years later, Gaza is undeniably a disaster. Rather than aiming at developing a gorgeous, productive Palestinian state, when Palestinians elected Hamas in 2007, their new Islamic patron—Iran—Instead twisted a rare opportunity into a death trap, complete with a vast network of underground of tunnels. Hamas has been using women and children as human shields, filled minds with demonic hatred, and attacked Israelis with rockets, fires, and murders. Then the atrocities of October 7 happened. Yet, despite Palestinian abuse of Israel’s generous gift for a Palestinian state in 2005, condemnation is globally and unsurprisingly adding up against Knesset’s sovereignty resolution. Thankfully, our U.S. Congress has introduced the “Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act” in both the House (H.R. 902) and Senate (S. 384)—using the genuine historic name in official U.S. materials and eliminating the term “West Bank.”

The Knesset’s resolution is not yet legally binding, but it opens a door to enact Israeli law for its rightful sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The resolution does not call for an annexation. Annexation takes place when one country unilaterally, through force or by treaty, takes over another country’s territory—considered a violation of international law. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel liberated Judea and Samaria, which Jordan had occupied in an Arab war against Israel. Jordan had no interest to improve the land it seized and occupied for almost 20 years. As Jews began to move there again, with hearts and hands of love they made it beautiful and productive—and it now has upwards of 500,000 Jewish citizens.

Mainstream media and the uninformed often describe these citizens as “settlers” and call the region the West Bank—which is simply a geographical term meaning “west of the Jordan River.” I have visited many Israeli “settlements.” They are towns of varying sizes with businesses, schools, medical facilities, grocery stores, and synagogues. The most sacred marker of Israel’s ancestry is Shiloh, where the Tabernacle stood for 369 years housing the holy, treasured Ark of the Covenant. Shiloh was Israel’s first capital.

Some background for Knesset’s rightful resolution: More than 100 years ago, international law began codifying Israel as the national home of the Jewish people. That began the San Remo Conference in 1920 and the Balfour Declaration in 1922. On May 14, 1948, when the governing British Mandate ended, Israel declared its modern statehood based on previous international legal decisions. Yet those decisions are ignored now more than ever in the United Nations, where Arabs have rejected any previous plans or solutions attempted by the U.N.

These secular decisions, while not biblically based in international law, are outlined repeatedly in the Old and New Testaments by the God of Heaven’s Armies, the Premier Authority. In Amos 9:15 God declared HIS sovereignty: “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them.”

The Evangelical Christian community embraces all of Israel as our spiritual homeland, including Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley where Jesus walked. In 1948, the decades of seeds planted with hope ripened into the rebirth of Israel and its Declaration of Independence. Reading the text of that Declaration from the simple podium at Tel Aviv Museum, David Ben Gurion—Israel’s first prime minister—also announced the new nation’s official name, “Israel.” Reestablished as a modern country after two millennia, Israel survives—in promises kept by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Let us agree with Israel Ganz, chair of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of all the local authorities in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. “It is clear and undeniable evidence of the national will to realize our values and our right to our land,” he said.  “This vote is a significant milestone on the path toward advancing the strategic step that will fortify the security of the entire State of Israel.” Ganz then called on the government of Israel: “Turn this decision into reality on the ground.”

Our CBN Israel team invites you to pray with us this week and to be part of sharing this history-making Resolution for our spiritual homeland.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for the Knesset to quickly enact the sovereignty resolution into law.
• Pray with praise for the strong biblical references in the resolution.
• Pray that as the resolution advances, unity will grow even stronger.
• Pray for additional strength for the IDF to quell possible Palestinian protests in the 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.