ARTICLES

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

If you are a fan of American Idol, you may also be a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest that’s been held for the last 69 years throughout Europe. Last Saturday—in a venue in Basel, Switzerland—Israelis at home and in the Israeli delegation joyously celebrated Yuval Raphael’s second-place win. The 24-year-old’s voice electrified listeners with her enthralling song “New Day Will Rise,” written by Israeli songwriter Keren Peles.  

Yuval speaks three languages, and the lyrics, mostly in English, also include Hebrew and French. She observes, “The song represents the healing that we all need and the optimism for the days ahead.”

The chorus reflects the enduring hopes amid tragedy and trauma that Israel continues to display, especially since October 7, 2023:

“New day will rise

Life will go on

Everyone cries

Don’t cry alone

Darkness will fade

All the pain will go by

But we will stay.”

Yuval had the backing of her nation after she won Israel’s “The Next Star for Eurovision” in January 2025. But the respect and admiration she enjoyed from Israelis was far deeper than fame. She is a survivor of the October 7 Hamas massacre at the Nova Festival near Re’im on the Gaza border.

When Yuval stepped onto the dazzling stage at the Eurovision Finale on May 17, she sang not as someone who had stepped out of a bullet-ridden deathtrap. She sang as a survivor—and for Israel, her beloved homeland.

In the months after October 7, the singer faced post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt. In an Israel Hayom interview, she nevertheless made her future clear. “I decided I wasn’t going to live my life with PTSD. I wanted to turn my pain into something meaningful.” That is what Yuval did by advocating for survivors of the Nova massacre. She traveled to the United States and Europe with a weighty goal. “People need to know what happened. They need to hear it from someone who was there.” 

Representing Israel in the Eurovision competition gave Yuval a worldwide stage—with “New Day Will Rise,” her interviews, and the merciless outrage from protesters, both before and during the weeks of rehearsal and the May 17 finale.

Reading part of her story below, you will understand that the anti-Israel, anti-Jew protestors are not done with their diabolic behavior, even at a famous music competition. Thousands screamed their hatred for Israel outside the venue. During Yuval’s performance, three British pro-Palestinian activists tried to storm the stage before being arrested by alert Swiss police. Despite plentiful applause, some booing broke out. Far worse, the event organizers had to evacuate the Israeli delegation to keep them safe.

Yuval knew she would face ongoing hostilities after the October 7 massacres. “But that’s exactly why I have to go,” she said. “I want to stand on that stage, wrapped in the Israeli flag, and make sure the world hears our story.”

Here is that story. When Hamas invaded the Nova festival and turned unbridled joy into waves of terror, Yuval’s harrowing experience was amplified by gunfire, screams, and death. She and her friends found refuge in a small roadside bomb shelter, where more than 40 had run for their lives.

But Hamas terrorists discovered the frightened group inside the shelter. As they began firing, Yuval called her father, Zvika Raphael, to tell him “I am alive.” Their conversation became part of a defining recording of the massacre.

Yuval whispered, “Dad, there are dead people on top of me. Please, send the police.” Zvika wisely replied, “Play dead. Do not move. If they think you’re dead, they’ll leave you alone.”

Yuval quickly passed her father’s advice on to the huddled group. “Every single time that we hear them coming, we have to play dead.” The terrorists came back many times, shooting anyone who moved and throwing grenades inside. Even after she was hit by shrapnel herself, she remained still and quiet.

Seven hours passed before security forces finally reached the roadside shelter. Yuval later described that she was “pinned under corpses and soaked in blood. I kept saying to myself, ‘Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dead.’” Only 11 of the people in that shelter survived. After the rescue, Yuval kept “looking at the sky and could not believe I was alive.” 

Some may wonder why Yuval and Israelis were thrilled with her second place win at Eurovision. Many factors were at play. For example, in the powerful ballad “New Day Will Rise,” the public voted the song into first place with 297 points, but in the jury vote she received only 14th place. The lyrics and meaning of the song permeated the public response. Hopefully, enemies will finally see the light.

In recent interviews, she emphasized that the “real victory’” will be won when the hostages are home. Yuval hopes that she gave Israelis a “moment of peace amid the madness of war and to make them proud,” adding that she will “be grateful for our nation every day of my life.” 

Austria’s singer JJ won first place at Eurovision, and Yuval noted his “incredible vocals.” She said, “I’m very proud of him. He deserves it.” 

Yuval Raphael may have been Eurovision’s second-place winner, but she won first place in the hearts of Israelis and the voting public for her passionate, flawless rendition of “New Day Will Rise.”

The singer’s inspiring outlook is indicative of a winner who has suffered trauma, then turned it into a testimony to bring hope to others. She feels she has “won at life!”

At the end of her performance, Yuval shouted, “Thank you Europe! Am Yisrael Chai.” We echo the same for our Israeli and Jewish friends worldwide:

Am Yisrael Chai, the People of Israel Live!

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team to pray for Israel. In 1 Chronicles 13:8, we’re reminded that David and all Israel were celebrating in God’s presence with all their might, with songs, with lyres, harps, tambourines, symbols and trumpets.

Prayer Points: 

• Pray that creative displays of music, art, and film will inspire more support for Israel.
• Pray that “New Day Will Rise” will top music charts worldwide.
• Pray for IDF members as they conduct Operation Gideon’s Chariot in Gaza.
• Pray that the hostages—whether alive or dead—will be found and brought back home.

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

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

The early connections, relationships, and responsibilities between the United States and Israel go deep, in a grand story mostly forgotten. That story starts in 1772—before we became a country—when a Polish-Jewish immigrant to the American colonies became a hero. At the request of General George Washington, Haym Salomon, a successful merchant, helped establish America during the Revolutionary War.

Although Salomon’s efforts were mostly unsung at the time, a commemorative stamp issued more than 200 years later, in 1975, described him as “responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse.” Despite a surge of antisemitism demonstrated by yelled insults, aggressive social media posts, and hostile actions, the ties that bind Israel and the United States together remain robust and mutually beneficial. As patriots—Salomon, a Jew, and Washington, a Gentile—the two men set the stage for the United States and Israel with a strong underlying bond of Judeo-Christian values.

Today, how is our relationship with Israel beneficial for the United States and vice versa? Let’s begin with the U.S. economy. The numerous deep connections between Israel and the U.S. are packed with trade benefits, including partnerships that support over 255,000 American jobs. Israel has contracts with over 1,000 companies in 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

The 1985 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Israel was the United States’ first FTA and created a bonanza for both countries. In 2024, for example, goods and services traded rose to an estimated $55 billion. Keep in mind that Israel is called the “innovation nation” for a reason. Although the goods and services into the U.S. from Israel are too numerous to name, they include electrical, optical, photo, and technical devices, as well as electronic equipment, precious stones, medical instruments, and pharmaceuticals.

Here’s a little-known fact that is part of our annual congressionally approved security assistance to Israel: Both Democratic and Republican administrations have approved Israel’s aid. Despite repeated and heated disagreements in both the House and Senate, the final outcome rests on the benefits that this security aid adds to the safety of the United States.

Such security aid is often challenged—but it is essential to America. Since Israel gained modern independence in 1948, its enemies have forced the world’s ancestral homeland onto the front lines of freedom—fighting their enemies, which are also our enemies, when the Islamic Regime established its oppressive dictatorship in 1979. The Regime, the purveyor of international terror, views Israel as the “Little Satan” and the United States of America as the “Great Satan.”

For the U.S., Israel is the only democracy we can count on in an explosive region with their shared intelligence and counter-terrorism cooperation. The necessary weaponry manufactured in the U.S. not only directly creates over 20,000 American jobs, but Israel spends 75 percent of that security assistance within the U.S.—purchasing weapons and military equipment exclusively from American companies.

The U.S. State Department lists various military exercises with Israel, such as Juniper Oak and Juniper Falcon, plus joint research and weapons development. Bilateral defense cooperation agreements from 1952 onward reflect strong cooperation, which is necessary in a progressively perilous world.

Our strategic relationship with Israel also reaches into other sectors. Israel is a world leader in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and works with the United States to help prevent and treat PTSD in American troops. It is essential to know that Israel’s policy is to defend itself by itself—with no U.S. soldiers fighting on the ground in Israel.

If you are on a tour flying non-stop from New York to Tel Aviv about 6,000 miles away, it may seem surprising to learn that more than 2,500 U.S. businesses are in Israel. It is likely not on your itinerary but driving by Israeli locations and seeing huge logos affixed on buildings for Intel, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, and others is an amazing example of Jerusalem’s ancient walls contrasted with modern U.S. corporations. Seeing these familiar names is a reminder that the mobile phones we hold in our hands depended on key Israeli components and advancements, even the ones used by Jew haters who have no idea that Israel had everything to do with this invention.

Collaboration with Israel isn’t limited to federal laws and initiatives. Individual states have enacted mutually beneficial agreements with Israel through organizations including the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD), established in 1977. BIRD provides grants to small businesses involved with software, instrumentation, communications, medical devices, and semiconductors.

Daniel 2:21 states that God “changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.” God’s sovereignty is unchanging. Nevertheless, we must do our part to follow Moses and Esther, biblical role models for political advocacy. Moses’ persistent appeals to the Pharoah freed the Jews after 400 years. Esther’s brave request to King Ahasuerus saved the Jews from Haman’s murderous goal.

Two much-slandered organizations are key to providing ongoing U.S. congressional security aid, which is mutually beneficial for the United States and Israel. Two American organizations—the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI)—represent millions of Christian and Jewish activists who contact and educate members of the U.S. Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, to vote for Israel’s security aid favorable in multiple mutual benefits to both nations. Yes, it is “politics,” yet for a high calling.

Our times demand our attention and our activism politically, for the land God calls His own and for His chosen people whom He has not and will not abandon. 

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer this week and to share “wisdom and knowledge” with others.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for more U.S. citizens to interact with Congress in the footsteps of Moses and Esther.
• Pray for wise decisions in our government benefiting the U.S.-Israel relationship.
• Pray for AIPAC and CUFI for their successes in educating U.S. Congress members about our ally Israel.

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.