ARTICLES

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

Recently, the topic of gaslighting has been gaining enormous interest worldwide. In fact, in 2022 the Merriam-Webster Dictionary chose gaslighting as its Word of the Year—based on an increase of 1,740 percent over internet searches the year before. That increase reflected widespread concern about wild conspiracy theories, “fake news,” and rampant misinformation being disseminated.

The term comes from the 1944 suspense film Gaslight, in which a man uses diabolical techniques to convince his wife that she’s going mad. And, after Hamas’s horrific invasion on October 7, 2023, instances of gaslighting have continued to explode across social media accessible worldwide—lies reaching approximately 5.24 billion people, or nearly 64 percent of the global population.

Interestingly, the Gaslight film was released during Hitler’s reign of terror. Hitler’s appointed media architect, Joseph Goebbels, controlled all the media that existed at the time—radio, newspapers, and film. Goebbels’ official title, German Reich Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, was not obscure; the word “propaganda” proclaimed his purpose. Nevertheless, Germans did not grasp reality—or the fact that Goebbels had gradually manipulated them with lies about Germany’s and Europe’s Jewish population. 

Hitler coined the phrase “the big lie” during his 1924 imprisonment, while writing Mein Kampf. He described the big lie as “so colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” And indeed, Hitler and Goebbels—with too few brave exceptions—deceived the public. As experts in gaslighting the German population, they watched their lies eventually shape the culture into allowing or denying the Holocaust (Shoah).

Too many in our modern world are imitating most Germans 80 and 90 years ago—people who readily swallowed Goebbels’ dangerous lies against Jews. As a case in point: For nearly two years, Hamas media has successfully manipulated facts about the events of October 7. The world’s mainstream media cooperates in this travesty by disseminating Hamas-created “facts.” 

They do no research, nor do they question Gazan press releases—and so the staged photos of emaciated children from other countries play on public emotions rather than credible facts. Those emotions transition into irrational rage against Jews and Israel worldwide. Moreover, millions of minds packed with Jew-hatred choose not to question the fact that they are ingesting so-called “news” promoted by the evildoers themselves. Gaslighting reverses accusations against the perpetrators and blames the victims instead. The Nazi demonic spirit is overactive today. 

Reviewing the film Gaslight helps us understand various strategies. A psychological thriller, Gaslight featured superstars Ingrid Bergman (Paula) and Charles Boyer (Gregory) as newlyweds. Gregory’s romantic pursuit of Paula concealed his real plan. Gregory had murdered her famous opera-singer aunt years before. His marriage to Paula, the now-wealthy niece living in a Victorian London home that she inherited from her aunt, enabled him to continue his search for her aunt’s hidden jewels. He manipulated his unsuspecting wife into questioning her own sanity by creating peculiar happenings in their home. His elaborate strategies began in simple ways, such as when the home’s gaslights dimmed and then brightened repeatedly, thus the film’s name. 

Whenever Paula noticed odd events, Gregory convincingly charmed her into thinking she was imagining things—time after time. Gregory escalated by adding bullying to his deception. In her presence, with a smile, he placed small objects in her purse like his mother’s “alleged” brooch. He later removed it and then accused Paula of losing it. The deceptions climaxed dramatically when a perceptive detective reopened the Scotland Yard cold case. He investigated Gregory, discovered his crime, and arrested him. Paula was not losing her mind. She had been gaslighted. 

Countries and broad swaths of people are also targets deceived about Jews and Israel. Globally—in streets, on campuses, and at various events—psychological methods designed to manipulate facts are rampant. The method takes various forms—whether outright lying, blaming Israel for starting the Hamas war, or denying the October 7, 2023, massacre and atrocities despite massive evidence. Even when confronted with proof, gaslighters will deny their actions outright. Those wielding power, whether in mainstream media, Hamas terrorists, institutions like the United Nations, or politicians, can use their power for good or evil. Back in the eighth century B.C., the prophet Isaiah described our prevalent strategic chaos in Chapter 5, verse 20: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. 

One example of gaslighting is denying reality when proof exists. Nowhere is this better explained than after Hamas terrorists used their body cams to record their own brutality on October 7, 2023—footage that later came to light. Israel’s Government Press Office and the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson’s unit invited over 100 members of international media—among them French, British, American, Australian, Indian, and Argentinian—to view the horrific Hamas recordings. The graphic footage was so sickening, some viewers left quickly because they found the brutal footage to be nauseating. Yet what was the outcome of that presentation? Where are those irrefutable facts now? In a dustbin of denial and neglect. 

Blaming Israel for Hamas evil is isolating Jews anywhere possible—questioning the credentials of supportive Jewish and Christian Israel advocates, as well as our perceptions. Another example of such gaslighting lies in the frequent photos from reliable sources that show tons of food for Gazans sitting inside Gaza, not distributed by the United Nations, which was tasked with delivering it. Accusing Israel of preventing food delivery? That’s gaslighting again, this time from the UN.

Psychologists deem gaslighting to be a learned trait. The hatred exhibited by the Islamic Regime, as well as by its surrogates like Hamas and among the Palestinian Authority, is a destructive lesson in brainwashing a population with loathing, which is then used to gaslight a naïve world. 

Clear-eyed individuals and certain nations are generally not vulnerable to gaslighting, but vigilance is essential. Bible-believing Evangelicals who view God’s covenants with Jews and Israel as eternal, embrace God’s biblical truths and trust His redemptive plan when it comes to Israel. Although not a perfect nation or a perfect people, Israel is the nation God chose to birth the Christian faith in the cradle of Judaism. After all, God is the original Zionist. 

Ingrid Bergman won an Academy Award for her performance in Gaslight. Her scene where Paula fully comprehended Gregory’s murder of her aunt and his ongoing deception was brilliant. In the end, filmmakers exposed Gregory’s convoluted schemes. 

After reading more about gaslighting, I encourage you to ask yourselves questions about the source of news you are reading. If it is the Gazan Health Ministry or Al Jazeera, the Qatar TV network, dismiss it. Remember that mainstream media’s sources are highly questionable. 

Consult reliable media based on facts, such as CBN Israel, CBN News, Jerusalem Dateline, Allisrael.com, The Watchman on TBN, and International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. I hope that all who have fallen under the spell of gaslighting will imitate Ingrid Bergman when she woke up to deception.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer and to share this article with anyone you believe may have been a victim of gaslighting—or who might benefit from its insights.

Prayer Points 

• Pray for more Evangelicals to share reliable news about our spiritual homeland, Israel.
• Pray for the Israel Defense Forces in their current operations in Gaza City.
• Pray for 60,000 reservists deployed to Gaza to free hostages and bring Gideon’s Chariots II to a successful conclusion.

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

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.

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.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Syria’s summer turned deadly for the Christian community in Damascus. On Sunday, June 22, a suicide bomber, driven by hatred and warped ideology, opened fire on the historic congregation of Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church. As the faithful gathered in prayer, the attacker unleashed his violence, and then triggered the explosives strapped to his chest. The brutal assault claimed the lives of 25 worshipers and left 63 others wounded, shattering a sanctuary that held 350 people in solemn worship.

Just weeks later, on July 16, a targeted act of brutality took the life of Pastor Khaled Mazher, a resident of Sweida in southern Syria. The violence did not end with him. Jihadist militants went on to slaughter his entire extended family—20 Druze followers of Jesus—including his siblings, children, and parents. An entire household of believers was erased in a single, merciless attack.

Devastated by the massacre, members of Pastor Khalid’s congregation at Good Shepherd Evangelical Church fled their homes in fear and anguish. Many have found temporary refuge with local Orthodox and Catholic Christians, who have opened their arms and doors despite already being stretched thin. These courageous friends are doing all they can—but they are overwhelmed and urgently need support.

But first, some context.

The latest wave of violence began when members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida set up an illegal checkpoint and assaulted a Druze man, robbing him and setting off a chain of retaliatory attacks and kidnappings. Tensions quickly escalated, unleashing a reign of terror against the Druze community. Within a single week, jihadist forces brutally murdered 1,265 Druze civilians.

The perpetrators include extremist Bedouin militias now aligned with Syria’s new president—formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Once a prominent figure within Al-Qaeda and ISIS, he now goes by Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, presenting himself in a Western suit and tie in a calculated charm offensive. Despite his violent past, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and France appear to show little skepticism or restraint in dealing with him.

In an interview with Jonathan Conricus, Israeli Druze attorney and advocate Anan Kheir described the assault in stark terms. He reported that “a thousand Jolani soldiers entered in and committed atrocities,” labeling the events as “ethnic cleansing.” He underscored that Jolani’s Islamist militia views the Druze as infidels—targets for elimination.

Here is a brief overview of the Druze community. This unique religious and ethnic group traces its origins back over a thousand years. Today, fewer than one million Druze live primarily in four Middle Eastern countries: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. While they speak Arabic, their dialect and cultural identity set them apart from other Arabic-speaking communities.

The Druze faith is highly secretive and deeply spiritual, blending elements from various religious traditions. Their beliefs honor Jesus and the Virgin Mary, while also venerating Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, as a central prophetic figure and spiritual patriarch.

When I began writing my column early this morning, I felt prompted and perhaps even divinely nudged to reach out to my friend Daryl Hedding, chief operating officer of the Shai Fund. This Christian non-profit organization—“shai” means “gift” in Hebrew—serves vulnerable populations in high-risk environments around the world. In Syria, the Shai Fund has earned a strong reputation for its compassionate and effective work among religious and ethnic minorities, including Christians, Druze, Kurds, and Yezidis.

I asked Daryl whether the Shai Fund was mobilizing to assist the besieged Christian community in Sweida. He replied, “In June, Shai aided the Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus just 36 hours after the Christian murders.” He added, “We coordinate with trusted local partners to distribute immediate aid. Then we follow up with support for expanded needs like medical care and funeral costs.”

I was overwhelmed with gratitude. What I believe was a Spirit-led prompting had opened a channel of response. Daryl immediately began contacting his network in Sweida. Moments later, a message arrived from one of those connections: a member of the late Pastor Khalid Mazher’s Good Shepherd Evangelical Church. The message carried an urgent headline:

“Christian Communities Call for International Protection.”

It continued: “Orthodox and Catholic Christians in Sweida have become a refuge for most of the displaced. The churches are overflowing, well beyond their capacity. The Catholic Church has issued a multilingual statement in English, German, French, and Arabic.” Their plea was clear and desperate: A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in our region. Open the humanitarian crossings. Help us end the siege. We remain on this mountain until the very end, asking the Lord for swift relief.

The Shai Fund’s immediate goal is to raise $5,000, an attainable sum that can bring tangible help and hope. By giving, we can become part of the answer to urgent prayers for “swift relief.” My own donation wasn’t large, but whether small or substantial, every gift sends a clear and compassionate message to Syria’s persecuted Christians: you are not forgotten in your suffering.

You can make a gift of any amount here: TheShaiFund.org.

Galatians 6:2 exhorts us to Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.

On Sunday, Israel quietly launched an overnight humanitarian mission to Sweida, delivering first aid kits, food, and medical supplies to support the embattled Syrian Druze community. Remarkably, Israel was the only nation to respond with tangible aid. The operation was carried out by Israeli Air Force helicopters, with additional support already en route.

Israel’s response reflects its deep and enduring commitment to its own Druze population—approximately 150,000 citizens—who share close familial and cultural ties with the Druze in Syria. Israeli Druze are known for their steadfast loyalty to the state. They serve with distinction in the Israel Defense Forces and national police, and many have made meaningful contributions in politics, business, and academia.

On my many trips to Israel, I’ve had the privilege of meeting members of the Druze community, sharing heartfelt conversations, unforgettable experiences, and generous meals offered with their signature warmth and hospitality. The Druze are a remarkable people, and I feel a deep personal bond with them.

This is a time not merely for reflection but for action. While images of the recent atrocities have not surfaced, the descriptions alone are harrowing. On Monday morning, Jonathan Conricus, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), interviewed Israeli Druze attorney Anan Kheir outside Majdal Shams, often considered the informal Druze capital in Israel’s Golan Heights. With visible emotion, Kheir recounted: “We have seen three-month-old babies killed, women raped and then set on fire.” Choking up, he continued, saying he could hardly breathe after witnessing a video of “a man tied to a chair, burned alive in front of his family.”

Anan also shared a WhatsApp exchange with the general manager of Sweida Hospital, a chilling confirmation of the horror unfolding. When asked what was most urgently needed, the GM replied: “The terrorists murdered patients sleeping in their beds. They cut off body parts, tried to kill our staff, and vandalized our equipment. Our hospital can no longer take care of our patients.” Kheir, himself Druze, emphasized the importance of verified sources amid widespread misinformation on social media: “In this age of fake images and recycled footage, personal verification on the ground is critical. The hospital’s GM is a trusted source.”

It is worth remembering that Pastor Khalid Madher, whose murder was part of this wave of violence, was a Druze believer in Jesus. Years ago, he encountered Christ and embraced Him as Savior. Rather than leave his Druze community behind, he chose to remain in Syria, founding the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church under the Assemblies of God, where he faithfully ministered to his people until his death.

Charmaine Hedding, President of the Shai Fund, offers a sobering reflection: “This is a targeted campaign to erase one of Syria’s oldest religious minorities. What is happening in Sweida is a test of whether Syria can become a nation that protects the dignity and rights of all its people. If Syria loses its minorities, it loses its soul. We must act—not only with aid, but with courage, compassion, and resolve.”

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer for Syrian Christians:

• Pray for massive aid to go quickly and successfully to Syrian Christians.
• Pray with thanks for the strong two-way loyalty between Israeli Jews and Israeli Druze.
• Pray for each Syrian minority: Alawites, Christians, Druze, and Yazidis
• Pray for Syria’s Christians who have lost family members to jihadist terrorists. 
• Pray for wisdom and caution for all leaders meeting with Syrian president Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

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

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has faced accusations about conducting a genocide against Gaza’s Palestinian Arabs. This apartheid accusation, which has been around for decades, includes a favorite lie: that the Jewish population is all white and oppressive. Whether you’re traveling to Israel or viewing online photos, let your eyes tell you the truth about Israel’s diverse citizenry.

A case in point is that upwards of 170,000 Ethiopian-Israelis can be found among Israel’s current population. This inspiring Ethiopian statistic reflects a singular fact: Israel is the only nation in the world that has transported black Africans to freedom instead of to slavery. Allow that fact to sink in—and pass it on, if you will.

In 1973, Israel’s Chief Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled that Ethiopian Jews were, according to Jewish law, “Sons of Israel” (Bnei Israel). Facing religious persecution and oppression at home, these Africans began the perilous 2,000-mile trek to Israel in relatively small numbers—numbers that ballooned in the early 1980s with Israeli-initiated airlifts undertaken in response to the thousands of Jews dying along the way. What factors drove them to first undertake their dangerous walks through hostile territories?

Similar to all Jews, in the global diaspora Ethiopians held Judaism in their hearts. Their Judaism harkened back to their belief that the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon resulted in a son, their ancestor Menelek I. Their tradition says that King Solomon gave Menelek a Torah scroll instructing him to teach Ethiopians about biblical Judaism. You may be inclined to dismiss the story, but facts on the ground in Ethiopia prove the ancient Jewish practices in their culture called Beta (House of) Israel.

Encyclopedia Britannica affirms their Jewish Torah culture in Ethiopia. With a Bible and prayer book written in Geʿez—an ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia—they observed the Sabbath, circumcision, synagogues with priests (kohanim) of the villages, offered animal sacrifices, and kept some of the major Jewish festivals. They followed Jewish dietary laws as best they could despite generations of Ethiopian poverty and famine in that nation.

Danielle Mor, a vice president at the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), explains that Ethiopian Jews were among the most ancient Jews in exile. “They are actually believed to be from the tribe of Dan, exiled by the Babylonians.” She further observes that, living in Ethiopia’s northern rural, mountainous region, they were “cut off from the rest of the Jewish world [and] followed more ancient, biblical traditions, not the traditions of the last 2,500 years.”

Fighting famines and persecution in Ethiopia under dictator Mengistu Hail Mariam—and longing for their homeland, Israel—the Ethiopian Jews first headed north to neighboring Sudan. It was not an easy journey. Suffering from starvation, dehydration, and violence meant Ethiopians died by the thousands. Yet the group maintained its cultural determination to reach their ancestral homeland. Thousands of Ethiopians walked into Sudan. They were then housed in strained, sometimes violent conditions in refugee camps.

Israel, learning of the vast number of deaths, decided to get involved. In 1984-1985, the Ethiopian Jews’ dangerous foot journey was transformed into Israeli flights. Via Operation Moses—the first of three clandestine military undertakings—Israeli pilots airlifted an estimated 7,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudanese refugee camps to Israel. But leaks and political pressure forced Sudan to end the lifesaving airlift prematurely, leaving many people stranded.

In 1985, the U.S. launched Operation Joshua to evacuate the Ethiopian Jews remaining and bring them to safety in Israel. Three countries cooperated in the complex covert logistics: Israel’s Mossad, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and Sudanese State Security. However, this enterprise, too, came to a halt when leaks about Operation Moses became public knowledge and Sudan was pressured by Arab countries to stop.

Operation Solomon, the third masterful operation, was carried out on May 24-25, 1991. Launched to airlift Jews threatened by an escalating civil war in Ethiopia, this remarkable 36-hour enterprise is considered one of the most extraordinary rescue efforts in modern history.

Thirty aircraft were utilized for Operation Solomon, including the Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules. Seats were removed to maximize passenger capacity and plastic sheeting was laid down for improved hygiene and disease prevention. One El Al 747 airlift set a world record: 1,122 passengers—and the miracle of two babies born during the flight.

During Operation Solomon, doctors and paramedics were on hand for malnourished Ethiopians, providing water and food. A summation from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the operation’s execution was flawless: planes took 14,087 Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Israel in one weekend. Once, 25 planes were in the air simultaneously, including planes chartered from Ethiopia’s state airline.

So, when you hear cries of “apartheid in Israel,” or “genocide,” or “lack of diversity”—that’s nothing but propaganda! Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics recorded that between 1980 and 1992, Israel repatriated upwards of 44,766 Jewish Ethiopians. History books, websites, social media, and videos are replete with diverse facts and stories of Israel’s decision to airlift black Ethiopian refugees to their homeland.

In fact, Israel is alone in its dedicated, complex efforts to rescue Africans instead of enslaving them. The United States and Great Britain, for example, cannot make such claims, since their horrific slave trade lasted for several hundred years. Mercifully, both countries long ago abandoned the deadly slave trade, yet true freedom remained ahead in slow legal and activist advocacy for equality.

The Ethiopian Jews’ transition into Israel was indeed complicated and challenging for both Israelis and Ethiopians. As an example, the first years of integrating Ethiopians—who had lived in huts with no electricity—into contemporary Israeli society meant teaching them how to turn on a stove and perform other tasks required for living in a modern culture. Israelis had to make their own adjustments regarding the culture of Ethiopians. Israel, though, has made frequent transitions—receiving people making Aliyah from nations such as India, China, Mexico, and South America—each bringing their own unique cultures.

In frequent trips to Israel, I have met and talked with many wonderful, exceptional Ethiopian citizens. Among them was Shlomo Molla, former deputy speaker of Israel’s Parliament Knesset, who in 1984 arrived in Israel barefooted. Today, Ethiopians serve in the Israel Defense Forces and attend Israel’s Ono College, which champions multiculturalism and where they earn degrees for prestigious positions as attorneys and in the tech sector.

Israel’s enemies have no regard for Psalm 34:13— Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. I encourage you to put these facts in your truth-telling toolbox and pass it on as one way to oppose lies by expressing your support for Israel.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer this week: 

• Pray for those blinded by hate to open their eyes to truths about Israel’s diversity.
• Pray for lingering challenges for Ethiopians to gain added influential roles in Israel.
• Pray for Ethiopian families grieving for deceased family members among the IDF.
• Pray for all Ethiopian family members still in Ethiopia who await their Aliyah.

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

The Islamic Republic of Iran is home to some 10,000 to 15,000 Jews, who remain as the modern remnants of ancient Jews captured in Jerusalem and forcibly deported to Babylon in 587/586 B.C. While it’s not common knowledge, even now Iran’s Jewish population is the second largest in the Middle East after Israel. Also not well known is the existence of the Cyrus Cylinder, an archaeological treasure dating from the sixth century B.C. and displayed in London’s British Museum.

Discovered in Babylon (modern-day Iraq) in 1879, the clay cylinder draws a straight line from ancient Persia to Jewish people and their history with inscriptions from King Cyrus. In part, Cyrus observes in the cuneiform text, “I took up my lordly abode in the royal palace amidst rejoicing and happiness. … My vast army marched into Babylon in peace; I did not permit anyone to frighten the people.”

Scholars often call Cyrus’s decrees for the Jews the “first charter of human rights.” Cyrus, a pagan king, allowed all the people he conquered—including Jews—to keep their religions and cultures. Today, in exploring the destiny of modern Iranian Jews we find another Middle Eastern set of complicated facts and questions.

Let’s take a moment to revisit the 70-year Jewish exile in Babylon. The annals of biblical and archaeological history recount Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Solomon’s Temple and eventually the rise of Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C. Why is Persian King Cyrus described as “great?” Apart from his military achievements, tolerant rule, and political astuteness, God tapped this secular ruler to liberate the Jewish exiles by repatriating Jews to their homeland.

Some 50,000 exiled Jews undertook the grueling 900-mile journey to Jerusalem. Most remained behind, however, possibly because many felt they were too old, or they preferred their good lives in Cyrus’ kingdom. The prolific prophet Isaiah mentioned Cyrus by name in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1—some 150 years before Cyrus freed and financed not only the return of the Jews but also the wherewithal to rebuild the second Temple!

Cyrus’ words are not only inscribed in the Cyrus Cylinder but also in Ezra 1:2-3 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them.”

This link gives added historical insights: [view here].

In modern times, millennia after the human-rights King Cyrus, the Islamic Regime conquered what was called Persia in 1979 and rebranded the country with its Shia Islam. Its apocalyptic ayatollahs are bent on welcoming the so-called Twelfth Imam to rule the world in the end times, an oppressive, one-sided religious governance. Their theology is light years away from the freedom-loving historic King Cyrus.

That said, surprisingly the Jewish community has lived a somewhat unrestricted life under the Islamic Regime. With 30 synagogues, Jewish schools, youth sports, kosher butcher shops, restaurants, and a matzah factory, Jews are an official religious minority and hold one seat in the Iranian parliament. Nevertheless, with upwards of 100,000 Jews living in Iran in 1979, numerous individuals and families fled to Israel and the United States before and after the revolution in waves of mass immigration.

The continuation of comparative calm for the Jewish community is now highly questionable since the Twelve Day War started on June 13. The Iranian Jewish community’s concerns are multiplying by the day. The Regime is arresting dozens of Jews, and some are held without any outside contact. Detainees include rabbis and other Jewish leaders amid a sobering headline in Israel’s Ynet Global News: “Anyone Can Disappear.”

The Regime is focusing right now on Jews with relatives in Israel. The Persian Human Rights News Agency HRANA mentions a November 2011 law that had already restricted family ties between Israeli and Iranian Jews. The Iranian Parliament banned Iranian Jews from travel to Israel. The punishment is up to five years in prison and passport ineligibility. A leader in the Tehran Jewish Association commented anonymously, “We’ve seen limited summonses during previous crises, but the current scale is unprecedented and has raised serious concerns about the psychological and social well-being of our community.”

As the world’s largest sponsor of terror, the Islamic Regime has a track record of fostering horrific evil outside its borders. But it also holds another world record: the second-highest number of executions inside Iran, according to Amnesty International. Only China outpaces Iran in that regard. I daresay all Iranians are aware of the prisons, public hangings, and hateful cries against Israel and the United States even now—in their parliament and funerals after their recent widespread losses in weapons, nuclear sites, and leadership.

I am puzzled now about the Islamic Regime’s leaders amid their war losses. When I recall the total defeat of Japan and Germany in World War II, I have concluded that Iran’s culture is so vastly immersed in cruelty and domination that it has transitioned into more than its Shia Religion. It is a literal Religion of Evil. They will not give up. Even now.

The 2,700-year-old Jewish community is walking an incredibly fragile tightrope. Some diaspora Iranians tend to think Iran’s Jews voicing support for the Regime is a survival strategy. On the other hand, the Central Jewish Committee of Tehran states that “Judaism is a religion, not a political ideology,” adding that Iranian Jews are completely separate from the Zionist (Israel) regime.

Yasmin Shalom Mottahedeh, an Israeli who made Aliyah in the 1980s, put it this way in an interview a few years ago: “The country can never be empty of Jews. It’s a community that has survived since the Babylonian exile after the destruction of the First Temple.” Yasmin concluded, “Jews have had the opportunity to leave, but those who are there have chosen to stay for a reason.”

It is impossible for us to know or understand why every Jew did not flee Iran both leading up to and following 1979. But we do know that the Islamic Regime is a deadly one. Prayers for the Iranian Jews are necessary, as the oppressive leaders attempt to rebuild the country by murdering anyone who stands in their way, Jews and non-Jews. And the ultimate prayer: That all Iranians will rise in freedom to rebuild their beautiful Persian country.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayers for Iranian Jews by reflecting on King Cyrus’ quote in Ezra 1:3—“And may their God be with them.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will reveal His fullness to the Jews of Iran.
• Pray that God’s heavenly armies will surround the Iranian Jewish families with safety.
• Pray that the Islamic Regime will release the Jews they arrested back to their families.
• Pray Iranian Jews will not suffer the evils leveled against Israeli Jews on October 7, 2023. 

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 Thursday afternoon, June 12, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walked to the Western Wall (Kotel) with his prayer shawl draped over his suit and the customary kippah on his head. He wedged a note from Numbers 23:24 into the crevice, “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion.”

The note in the Kotel was made public the next day—after Netanyahu’s address during Israel’s Operation Rising Lion ascending out of ancient Jewish history before the air strikes on Iran early the next morning. Indeed, the Lion is rising with God’s Hand—evident in extraordinary plans and miracles, despite the faltering Islamic Regime that deliberately targeted Israeli civilians and infrastructure.

Days passed during which Israel fought alone with extraordinary success against the Islamic Regime, the world’s largest terror threat. Global news outlets and commentators declared that division existed between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Would the U.S. commander-in-chief utilize our B-2 stealth bombers to drop the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), often dubbed the “bunker buster” bomb—on Fordow, Iran’s deepest underground nuclear production site?

The answer exploded into headlines in the early hours of Sunday, June 22. Our commander-in-chief, President Donald J. Trump, who earlier gave the Islamic Regime a final two-week ultimatum for diplomacy, acted militarily after the Regime’s pointed refusal. The United States B-2 Spirit stealth bombers struck Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The operation was code-named Midnight Hammer, and President Trump enacted his covert maneuvers with his words and schedule. He spoke in nonspecific terms, presented a calm demeanor, and maintained a normal schedule—that is, until right before Midnight Hammer began.

Planned diversionary flights by U.S. stealth bombers headed east in an aerial fake. Other B-2s flew west toward Iran, their true destination to destroy three nuclear sites. In a cooperative goal to disable the terror regime, Midnight Hammer and Rising Lion implemented their own specialized skills and weaponry. Israel never asks the United States for boots on the ground, and during the B-2 attacks, Iran fired no missiles at our U.S. Air Force and no military personnel were harmed. The precision of the Israel and American air forces in targeting only military sites and Islamic Regime terrorists is admirable. In contrast, Iran’s leaders directly attack Israeli civilians, which is unsurprising since that is how Iran’s proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have functioned during decades of evil.

At this writing, a ceasefire is in place between Iran and Israel, brokered by President Trump. Currently described as the Twelve Day War, Israel extraordinarily met its goal to disable Iran’s nuclear dream of destroying the world’s only Jewish state. Since 1979, the Islamic Regime and its surrogates have attacked and killed Americans upwards of 45 times. In the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, 66 Americans were held captive for 444 days in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In 1983, Iran-backed Hezbollah drove a truck bomb into a U.S. Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 220 Marines. In the Iraq War, Iran-backed terrorists killed at least 603 American soldiers. In 2020, an Iranian ballistic missile hit an American air base, leaving 100 American soldiers with traumatic brain injuries. President Trump not only aided Israel with our precision stealth bombers, he enacted justice for our country!

Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and our State Department have issued domestic and global alerts for our vigilance, it seems the U.S., Israel, and the world can rest a little easier for now. 

Oppressed Iranian citizens are celebrating the possibility of freedom after more than four decades of Islamic tyranny. Nevertheless, almost immediately, outrage against President Trump was voiced by Democrats, leftists, and Islamist imams in the United States. President Trump has remained consistent since he first ran for president, repeatedly declaring, “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” He added on May 13, “Iran can have a much brighter future—but we’ll never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or a nuclear attack. The choice is theirs to make. We really want them to be a successful country.” Although he preferred demonstrated diplomacy smartly done, he acted on peace through strength as the only solution to disarm Iran’s goal of destroying Israel and America to gain worldwide dominance.

President Trump’s stance is the opposite of past American leaders’ appeasement. Their disastrous 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Joint (JCPOA) was based on their inability or refusal to recognize the difference between evil and good. During the Obama and Biden eras, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry directed an operation of deception to foist it onto Americans. Obama made a $400 million cash transfer to the Ayatollahs. Biden as president gave huge sanctions relief that amounted to $16 billion. When John Kerry ran the State Department, he blocked FBI arrests of Iranian operatives in the U.S. to protect the misguided JCPOA agreement.

When you hear less-than-reliable versions about the decisions of President Trump or Prime Minister Netanyahu, recall these examples of free speech hatred in the United States. Yasir Qadhi—a Muslim cleric in Plano, Texas, who is considered the “architect of Islamization in Texas”—pushes American Muslims to unite against non-Muslims, whom he refers to as Kaffir—“filthy unbelievers.” Praising the Islamic Regime, he is against Muslims who do not agree with his ideological warfare.

Say what you will, it does not change the fact that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu know the vast difference between evil and good. They have acted in a war they did not ask for but which was necessary to gain peace for our world through strength. They are rational leaders seeking peace by disabling the irrational Islamist Regime instigating hate through terror. Polling varies, and while Americans are anxious about what’s next, three in four voters now see Iran as a real security threat.

On June 21, when President Trump gave his speech after the U.S. Air Force’s precision strikes to cut off the head of the Iranian snake, he declared in closing: “I want to just say we love You, God.” On June 22, PM Netanyahu returned to the Kotel to give thanks for President Trump and pray for the IDF. Again referring to Numbers 23:24, he commented: “Today I return to the same place—and there is a new note: ‘And a nation rose as a lion.’”  

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us with prayers reflecting on this verse: 

Revelation 5:5: “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. 
• Pray for Israeli civilians under fire from Iranian ballistic missiles.
• Pray for displaced Israeli families and for Israel Defense Forces.
• Pray for Iranians longing for freedom.

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

We are witnessing world and biblical history in the making. Like David bravely confronting Goliath in 1012 B.C., Israel in A.D. 2025 is crushing the world’s deadly threat from the Islamic Regime—3,037 years later. Despite Iran deliberately directing its ballistic missiles toward Israel’s civilians, Jews are incredibly resilient. Yet they are painfully aware of the incredibly high stakes of victory amid deaths, injuries, and frequent dashes to bomb shelters. 

Israel has been fiercely engaged in a defensive war since October 7, 2023—fighting not only for its own existence but also on the frontlines for the United States and the free world. The rallying cry Am Yisrael Chai (“The people of Israel live”) expresses gratitude to God for His eternal, redemptive plans enacted through the Jewish people.

Today, via worldwide media, millions of people on planet Earth have a front-row seat to Israel’s Operation Rising Lion—the daring military operation targeting Iran’s military and nuclear strength. However, Marziyeh (Marzi) Amirizadeh, born and growing up amid the oppressive Islamic Regime for 33 years, suffered in another kind of front-row seat in 2009. After their radical conversion to Jesus, Marziyeh and a friend ran a covert operation giving out 20,000 Bibles. They were spied on by the Regime’s authorities, then arrested—and brutally forced into Evin Prison, one of the worst in the world.

Sentenced to death by hanging, Marzi underwent punishing traumas before being miraculously released nine months later. She legally immigrated to the United States and obtained her American citizenship. Years later, she fulfilled a long-held hope by visiting Israel in 2023 for the first time. She has now visited Israel three times. Her most recent trip last fall was the inaugural tour sponsored by Jonathan Feldstein, founder of the Genesis 123 Foundation, and Marzi’s NewPersia.org.

These two remarkable people created the organization Root & Branch, which offers a meaningful way for Christians to connect with Israel. Jonathan, an Israeli modern Orthodox Jewish father and grandfather, and Marzi, a Christian author and speaker, pioneered this specialized tour. It combines an agricultural pilgrimage to harvest olives with spiritually uplifting activities along the Gaza border and interacting with the IDF.

Marzi’s life reflects her mission to promote understanding and freedom for her Iranian people and to stand firmly with Israel. A beautiful Iranian American, she loves her “Jewish Savior’s homeland.” I invite you to read about and connect with my remarkable friend at www.NewPersia.org  

Hers is a significant voice, now more than ever during Israel’s Operation Rising Lion. In 1979, when the apocalyptic Ayatollahs ousted the government of Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, the new government’s malicious nature expanded into a behemoth of worldwide terror that is more obvious now than ever before. 

Marzi is a sought-after speaker/author for interviews in Israel, America, and beyond. Sharing a few of her firsthand perspectives will illuminate both the Islamic Regime’s evil mindset and the hopes of the 90 million inhabitants still longing for freedom.

In a 2024 interview with Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz at Israel365, Marzi explains that prior to 1979, “Iran as a country was very pro-Israel, a big ally. Iran was one of the most advanced, enlightened westernized countries.” She added, “Iran is not an Arab country. It is Persian with Farsi as the language, not Arabic.” Iranians look to ancient “King Cyrus as their father” and “believe that their country has been taken hostage.”

Ezra 1:1-2 is a magnificent verse about Persians and Jews! In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The LORD put it into the mind of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing: This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.”

Marzi also addressed the Iranian hunger for learning about Jesus. During the years that she gave out 20,000 Bibles, she engaged in thousands of conversations about Jesus. Iran is considered the fasted-growing Christian community in the world despite the hard-line Islamic Regime’s ban on Persian Bibles, murdering pastors, and closing churches. In the last 20 years, more Iranians became Christians than in the previous 13 centuries.

On one of her X posts, Marzi shared short videos from Iranians that show the true nature of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) terrorists. They are haphazardly bombing buildings in Tehran to kill innocent civilians. A building in Tehran’s Narmak location is a recent example. The IRGC’s goal is to blame Israel, whose policy is the exact opposite.

The IDF targets only terrorist leaders, staff, and operatives. When Israel must eliminate known terrorists hiding on purpose in civilian neighborhoods, their policy is to notify civilians directing them to leave. Marzi warns, “Don’t be deceived by fake media.” She points out that the Regime knows how to play the role of victim and sell its lies to the world. 

Marzi’s Facebook posts hold many perspectives. In one post Marzi suggests that a regime change with Iran means “the elimination of the supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei and his four sons.” At this writing, with fast-moving news unfolding, Vladimir Putin has reportedly offered Ali Khamenei asylum in Russia.

In another post, Marzi shared a video from an Iranian man driving past the Imam Hasan military base in Kermanshah, Iran. He filmed it while the Israeli Air Force was destroying the base—and “praised PM Netanyahu for his bravery.” Marzi made it known in another post that the Islamic regime “has shut down the internet to stop Iranians from sending films and true news outside in order to spread their own lies and propagandas.”

She could not contact any of her friends in Iran. 

Although Elon Musk has activated Starlink for Iran, confirming that “The beams are on,” it is not yet accessible to everyone. The government opposes Starlink’s presence, and the logistical need for satellite dishes and ground terminals make access inconsistent. Hopefully, Starlink connectivity will grow more available with time.

A June 14 video showed Iranian people dancing in the streets—a form of civil disobedience and protest—while leaving the major cities after last week’s Israeli airstrike campaign began. Marzi commented, “They are celebrating the elimination of the evil Islamic regime and its followers.” 

Let us join with prayers that the celebrations will multiply across Iran, where Jews and Persians will once again revitalize their friendships in freedom, shalom, and joy!

Prayer Points:

• Pray thanking God for the flawless skill of the Israeli and American air forces. 
• Pray for Mossad implementing a complex plan on Iranian soil.
• Pray for Iranian and Israeli civilians seeking the end of Iranian terror.
• Pray for a quick and successful end for Operation Rising Lion.

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.