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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Beloved by Christians for generations, Corrie ten Boom has sustained and inspired millions with her wisdom. One of those sayings is: “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

Her book The Hiding Place, published in 1971, tells the story of her family, watchmakers in Haarlem, the Netherlands, during the Holocaust. She was a heroine in the Dutch resistance and survived imprisonment in a concentration camp after Nazis arrested her and her sister for hiding and saving Jewish families.

Both Christians and Jews esteem Corrie. Israel’s Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority honored Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) as “Righteous Among the Nations.” Strolling along the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, Christian visitors make sure to stop at Corrie’s tree, which was dedicated on December 12, 1967. I have walked the avenue many times. Her tree has grown tall.

My interest in Israel began when I married my Jewish husband, Paul. When we heard Corrie speak at a church, her testimony motivated our advocacy for Israel. Reading The Hiding Place, seeing the movie, and visiting the Ten Boom House Museum in the Netherlands has remained with both of us, a Gentile and Jewish couple.

Following the horrors of October 7, 2023, I have written every week about Israeli traumas in the aftermath. Israel had instituted trauma treatments in the past, such as the Israel Trauma Coalition and its 12 resilience centers that provide multidisciplinary intervention before, during, and after emergencies. However, with an entire nation traumatized the need is massive.

Avida Bachar, a farmer from Kibbutz Be’eri, watched Hamas terrorists murder his wife and son on October 7. He also lost his leg and makes an observation that the United States and every other country need to understand: “Palestinians must be moved from Gaza … transfer them to other sovereign states.” Since no other nation is willing to relocate them, it leaves Israel under intense pressure to solve the problem amid terrorists threatening them every day and well into the future.

After October 7, Israel quickly began expanding every trauma treatment avenue in its government and in private institutions—joined by Jewish institutions globally and Christian charities, as well. For example, CBN Israel, Regent University, and the Israel Trauma Coalition developed a unique approach to train Russian-speaking Israeli counselors to help Russian-speaking Israelis, who comprise 15 to 20 percent of the Israeli population. The trauma therapy techniques they implemented were learned by counselors during Ukraine’s war with Russia.

Jewish Israelis are attempting to embrace their histories of resilience, yet their process is compounded by antisemitic demonstrations invading the world with shouts of “kill the Jews.” It is shocking that protestors refuse to understand why Israel is forced to defend its nation in the seven-front war it’s currently engaged in.

Jewish traumas are historically deep-seated and brutal amid echoes of expulsions, pogroms, and the Holocaust. My husband Paul’s parents, like millions of Jewish refugees to America (1880-1924), fled Russian pogroms as children with their parents. They stepped into freedom through Ellis Island, later met and married in Bronx, New York, worked hard, and raised five children. His “pops” served in World War II, drove a taxi, and ran a newspaper stand in Manhattan. They rarely if ever spoke about that period, but Paul vividly remembers his mom describing her childhood traumas “hiding in haystacks” to escape the Russian czar’s pogroms against Jews. Paul is a proud first-generation American, a Navy veteran, and has adopted Fiddler on the Roof as his family’s story.

In addition to Israel’s national trauma, it seems that mental health struggles are hovering like a cloud over our world. Here in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reported that we are facing a “mental health catastrophe.”

Our response to this catastrophe is three-fold. Paul and I coauthored the recently published book, Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. We wrote it to help others hold on to hope, as we had amid our own personal dark clouds and blue skies. We have been married for 48 years, and Paul’s lifelong bipolar condition was finally diagnosed 25 years ago. Second, Paul began volunteering in 2022 as a weekly co-facilitator with the national Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA). Finally, and most significantly, as believers we felt compelled to share our own pain to comfort others with the comfort God has repeatedly given to us in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

Corrie ten Boom’s testimony grew even more foundational from years ago, capturing our hearts for Israel, and now when we began writing and formulating messages of hope and help. Her quote, which I mentioned above, is included in our prologue. The train theme became descriptive for our book! Mental Health Meltdown is a reader-friendly book, a traveling companion that pierces the darkness with light—through first-person stories of 35 others who share their sorrows and successes with depression, bipolar, PTSD, and other mental health issues.

We invite readers to ride what we call the hope train through their individual tunnels and to sit with us and our storytellers to gather practical tools and look ahead for Light and trust the Engineer. In voicing wide-ranging life experiences—ours and others’—we want the stories to help readers grasp insights about differently wired brains from a variety of people.

Public perceptions are changing and hopefully erasing stigmas. No one chooses a physical disability or illness, and no one chooses a mental illness. When the public views mental illnesses with the same kindnesses offered to those with physical illnesses, it will serve to reduce the reality that “no one takes my status seriously because no one can see the disability.”

We have discovered that pastors are often at a loss about how to approach mental health support within their congregations. We included a chapter with one inspiring and insightful pastor’s sermon where he kindly and honestly spoke about mental illnesses. He clearly emphasizes that “God works through miracles and medicines,” and adds, “If you are in Christ and suffer with mental health issues, it does not mean you are less of a Christian nor is it a sin to have a mental illness.” He illustrates King David’s depression in Psalm 139:7-12. His chapter is incredibly helpful!

Personally, knowing others with mental illnesses—and knowing Israelis are determined to survive amid profound grief and traumas—let us recall the prophet Elijah falling asleep under a juniper tree due to emotional, spiritual, and physical exhaustion. In 1 Kings 19:3-4. Elijah asked God to take his life, yet God responded with comfort, encouraging him to rest and providing food and water for him. When it comes to Israel and anyone you know grappling with mental struggles, following God’s example of focusing on prayer, with help and comfort as your watchwords.

You may order our words in Mental Health Meltdown on Amazon.

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

• Pray for an outpouring of help for Israelis in their daily national trauma.
• Pray for the hostages imprisoned by Hamas amid traumas we cannot even imagine.
• Pray for families of hostages suffering emotional pain and grief.
• Pray for Americans and their families who are facing mental health crises.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Two glorious celebrations converge on December 25, 2024: Christmas Day and the first day of Hanukkah. Also called the Festival of Lights or Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah lasts eight days. The first candle is lit at sundown on December 25. Although it is a time of gift-giving in the Jewish community, its significance is spiritually splendid. 

The Feast of Dedication marks two compelling events. First, an unexpected military victory when the brave Maccabees, beginning in 164 B.C., reclaimed their desecrated Second Temple from the Syrian dictator. Secondly, the Maccabees discovered one small cruse of Temple oil that proved to last eight days—far beyond its normal capacity—while a batch of specialized olive oil was made by Temple priests for the candelabrum. These miracles transpired 165 years before Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) birth. 

We will return to Jesus’ profound words as He walked in Soloman’s Portico during the Festival of Lights, as written in John 10:22-23. You may ask, how does the United States Congress fit into my Hanukkah perspective? And what is the connection between the Festival of Lights and Christmas?

It has to do with Judea and Samaria, Israel’s biblical heartland. For 369 years the Tabernacle, located in ancient Shiloh, served as Israel’s capital and thrives today! Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Judaism’s two Temples were located in Judea.

These historic credentials were reinforced a few short days ago, on December 5, 2024 (Hebrew month Kislev). Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (R-A.R.) and House Member Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) introduced legislation to dismiss using the term West Bank in federal documents. The short title of the bill is the “Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act.”

The bill requires using only “historically accurate terminology” to align U.S. policy language with the geographical and cultural significance of the region. Senator Cotton emphasized, “The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.” Sen. Cotton and Rep. Tenny recognized Israel’s ancient and modern sovereignty by proclaiming the facts. Congresswoman Tenny added, “At this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this.” 

How did the senator and congresswoman come to their historically correct conclusion? It goes back to 1967. It is commonplace among Christians worldwide to refer to Jesus’ birthplace as Bethlehem. However, it is easy to overlook the fact that Bethlehem and its fields were and are in Judea. After Arab armies instigated the 1967 Six-Day War against Israel, part of Israel’s victory took place when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recaptured Judea and Samaria and reunited Jerusalem, also located in Judea. 

Since then, however, much of the world refers to Bethlehem as being in the West Bank and refuses to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital. The description “West Bank” simply refers to the region west of the Jordan River. After Israel’s modern independence was announced on May 14, 1948, Jordan had occupied Israel’s biblical heartland for 20 years before the IDF liberated it from Jordanian occupation. Like so many other dismissals of the heritage of Jews in the land of Israel for thousands of years, the West Bank nomenclature has overtaken the true geography called Judea and Samaria, Israel’s biblical heartland. Jews are historically the indigenous people of Israel. 

It is not surprising that the Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act is already creating controversy. The idea of a two-state solution, one for Palestinians and one for Jews, has served as a sacred cow for decades and was promoted by successive U.S. administrations (both Democrat and Republican), the United Nations, and the European Union. President-elect Trump briefly considered the idea in his first administration, but it is crystal clear now that after the October 7 war was launched, Israelis will not consider it. Nor should they. The inhuman nature of terrorists and oppressive Islamic ideology and actions are in plain view everywhere the Israelis turn. No “peace” partner exists.

Cotton and Tenny are following in big footsteps. During President elect-Trump’s first term he opened doors wider for Israel’s biblical heartland, populated by 500,000 Jews, when he announced that what the world calls “settlements” are not illegal, nor are they a violation of international law. Returning the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem (in Judea) marked the implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, when most of the Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, passed the law to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv back to Jerusalem. 

Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden bypassed the congressional decision in a loophole that allowed them to delay the embassy move every six months. Then and now, some members of Congress are opposing Cotton and Tenny’s legislation. Let us pray for success in this important legislation—as a Hanukkah gift to Israelis in their time of war.

When it comes to the eternal plans of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, no amount of opposition will hinder His timetable. When Jesus attended the Feast of Dedication, walking in the Second Temple, He made Himself clear. John 10:22–42 are the only verses in the Bible about Jesus celebrating the victorious Festival of Lights. Questioned by crowds pressing in to tell them “plainly” if He was the Messiah, Jesus created an uproar with his answers. He declared Himself to be both Messiah and Son of God (10:24) and added, “I and the Father are one” (v. 30). Jesus already knew His destiny as the Light, the Redeemer. 

In this particular passage, Jesus does not declare Himself in the phrase, “Light of the world.” Nevertheless, the Apostle John emphasizes that Jesus had proclaimed earlier in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life.” While the Maccabees recaptured, then restored, the Temple from the darkness of evil, Jesus’ birth in Judea fulfilled prophecies and brought Eternal Light to our world. His light cannot—will not—be extinguished. 

Jesus is the eternal Hero that John declares in John 1:5, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John goes on to write later in Revelation 21:23 that “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” 

Just as Jesus attended the Feast of Rededication, let us take a moment to rededicate ourselves and our families to Him in this 2024 season of Light with luminous candles, Advent, and Hallelujah choruses. May Israel miraculously experience The Light during their eight days of Hanukkah. 

Our team welcomes you to celebrate with us while reflecting on Yeshua’s assuring words in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life.” 

Prayer Points:

• Pray for more Christians to rediscover the Jewish roots and foundation of our faith. 
• Pray that Israeli Jews will be able to observe Hanukkah 2024 in peace. 
• Pray for the hostages and all Israel that Light will shine into their traumas. 
• Pray for Israel’s IDF, the new Maccabees, for victories and security. 
• Pray that the Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act is passed.

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

Attending a sing-along of Handel’s magnificent Messiah is one of my favorite traditions during Christmas. Singing carols in our church choir is also a fresh reminder of the past and a hope for the future. Our decorated tree and our simple, gently used manger scene are displayed. On Christmas Eve we will open my 80-year-old family Bible and read about Messiah’s birth in Luke, Chapter 2.

I choose to keep those traditions. However, exploring Genesis 35:21 and Micah 4:8—and doing research about the Tower of the Flock and the professional role of Bethlehem shepherds—add the richness of the Jewish context.

Recognizing the Jewishness of the Bible is more necessary than ever due to Israel’s defense of its ancestral homeland and the resulting tsunami of accusations against it. Christmas 2024 is an excellent opportunity to quietly emphasize Messiah’s birthplace in Bethlehem, Israel, and His Jewish background through Mary. God chose the young Jewish virgin, the only woman in history to receive this singular miracle. Emphasize the fact that our Christian faith was birthed in Israel, and we honor God for enlisting His Jewish scribes to preserve His words in our Bibles.

Neither war nor antisemitism can erase Messiah’s birthplace. Yet, hating Israel is by association a hatred for our Messiah (Y’shua). God in human form chose to come to a little land in a humble act of world-changing redemption as noted in the Bible, which is distinguished by Guinness World Records as the best-selling nonfiction book of all time. In research by the British and Foreign Bible Society, their best estimate is that between 5 and 7 billion copies have been printed since the printing press was invented in the mid-1400s. 

In a recent column, I mentioned research suggesting that King David and Jesus were born in or near Migdal Eder (Micah 5:2), where Levitical shepherds raised and oversaw the births of Passover lambs. Today I’d like to more deeply explore. In ancient times, Migdal Eder (the Tower of the Flock) stood on the road between Bethlehem Ephrath (Bethlehem’s ancient name) and Jerusalem. Migdal Eder no longer stands, but it was known long before Messiah was born.

Genesis 35:19-21 informs us that Jacob (renamed Israel) cast his tent at Migdal Eder, where he buried Rachel, the love of his life. “So, Rachel died and was buried on the way to Bethlehem Ephrathah. Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb and Israel moved on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.” Today it still marks Rachel’s tomb.

Micah 4:8, a prophecy written around 700 years before Jesus’ birth, reveals, “As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold of Daughter Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.” God offered His planned intervention into humankind for Messiah’s coming birth at Migdal into the established Jewish ancestry.

Fast forward to Caesar Augustus’ imperial census decree that set the stage for Joseph to lead Mary, sitting astride a donkey, on the 90-mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Caesar ordered all Jews to their ancestral home for a census. Bethlehem was the couple’s destination, as Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father, was in King David’s lineage.

It was part of God’s plan that Mary would give birth to Jesus in Bethlehem—within or near the Tower of the Flock. Micah 5:2 reiterates, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel, Whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” The Tower of the Flock, where sacrificial Temple lambs were born, seems the perfect place for The Perfect Lamb’s birth, which signified His sacrifice for us 33 years later.

Jewish sages writing in the Mishnah (Jewish oral tradition) and the church historian Eusebius (deemed the Father of Church history) confirm the existence of the Tower of the Flock. Eusebius lived from about 260–339 A.D. The tower’s existence was also reinforced by shepherds retelling stories around campfires for hundreds of years before a Byzantine monastery was built over Migdal Eder in the fourth century.

For millennia, shepherds were familiar with the Tower of the Flock. The tower and the Bethlehem fields were their workplace. The Sadducees, in charge of Temple sacrifices, chose the Bethlehem shepherds, who were experts in animal husbandry. Sadducees viewed them as Levitical Shepherd Priests—because the lambs they helped birth and tended among the hay-filled stone mangers were lambs destined for Temple sacrifices.

Migdal Eder was a two-level stone structure, allowing the Chief Shepherd to look out over the flock for predators. At birthing time, shepherds led the ewes from the fields to the tower. The ancient veterinarians reached into the ewe’s womb to pull out the newborns, then snugly wrapped the lambs in strips of swaddling cloths. If the lambs harmed or scarred their limbs, Sadducees rejected them at Passover as Temple sacrifices. Exodus 12:5 instructs, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.”

After the Levitical shepherds herded the lambs into Jerusalem, the Sadducees examined them at the Lamb’s Gate on Palm Sunday (called the Day of Lambs in ancient times). Perfection was the rule in the Temple hierarchy.

When the angel and heavenly host appeared to shepherds in the Bethlehem fields, although stunned the shepherds immediately understood the lyrical directions in the angelic birth announcement. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a Baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Shepherds knew that Bethlehem Ephrath meant the fields and “town of David.”

As a shepherd boy, David was surely familiar with Migdal Eder, too. We do not know how far the shepherds ran to see the promised Messiah, but no GPS was needed. The Tower of the Flock was their ancient veterinary office.

These glistening threads of ancient Jewish history connect Jesus’ birthplace with the Tower of the Flock where the Temple lambs were born. It is a richer context for Messiah’s destiny as the Sacrificial Lamb. Imagine the glorious songs the Levitical shepherds heard in the night skies, then running toward Migdal Eder to see baby Jesus all in one night! Is it possible that 33 years later, they marveled again while herding that year’s scampering lambs for Messiah’s final Passover as He rode among them?

May this ancient insight into Messiah’s birth shine far brighter in 2024, dispelling darkness now and always! The Lord is our Perfect Lamb and Shepherd!

Our CBN Israel Team welcomes you to join us in celebration focusing on Luke 2:14, Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the Highest!

Prayer Points:

• Pray gratefully for any personal blessings received since last Christmas.
• Pray for various Christian denominations in Israel for their safety in war.
• Prayers and praises for Israel’s commitment to freedom of religion.
• Prayers and praises for Christian freedoms in Israel, the safest place for them in the Middle East.
• Pray for increased unity among believers in the Christian, Arab, and Messianic Jewish communities.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Often lost in the pages of American history was that 41 pilgrim fathers signed the Mayflower Compact, with their endorsement coming even before our Pilgrim fathers and mothers disembarked from their ship, the Mayflower. The Compact became the first document of the New World’s government. It was signed on November 11, 1620. At the first Thanksgiving, some historians believe the Pilgrims fashioned their celebration after the Jewish fall festival of Sukkot.

Our early founders derived many of their best concepts from a Judeo-Christian perspective. Since May 14, 1948, when the modern Jewish state declared its independence, our alliance has combined into massive blessings for both nations.

As citizens of the United States, we have endless reasons to thank God for our freedoms, family, and friends at our Thanksgiving tables. For Israeli families, weekly Shabbats (a day of rest) are like Thanksgiving each week! Despite their current seven-front war, Israelis have proven the observation of an early 20th-century Zionist, Ahad Haam: “More than the Jews kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.” Rabbi Abraham Heschel described Shabbat as a “palace in time.”

The array of mutual blessings for our two nations is wide-ranging. I have chosen a few, to celebrate our mutual ideals of freedom, economic prosperity, equality, rule of law, and security. With Israel described as the start-up and genius nation, Jews—with a small population, living in their small strip of land—have made profound contributions to our world. First and foremost, it is not surprising when we recall God designating Abraham as the first Jew. He then fashioned the Jewish culture and tasked His chosen vessels in ancient times to reveal the Old and New Testaments in a 66-book Bible that has transformed the world with truth.

In exploring the modern contributions of the start-up, genius nation, I begin with two of my favorites. I witnessed these Israeli inventions at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conferences during my nine years on AIPAC staff. Thousands of us watched as a paraplegic walked onto the stage in a “ReWalk,” a robotic exoskeleton. Moments of astonishment and an extended applause filled the Washington Convention Center. Available to the public since 2014, ReWalk uses a wrist-mounted remote control to give movement signals from a backpack of batteries, enabling its user to stand, walk, and take stairs—rather than sitting in a wheelchair. 

Creating water out of air? We gasped as we watched an amazing demonstration at another policy conference inside the Washington Convention Center. Someone held a glass up to the WaterGen machine and pushed a button. We watched the glass fill, then the product demonstrator drank the high-quality water extracted from the air. Now in 65 countries and backed by a 24/7 tech support team, WaterGen invites you to “Enjoy a Sip of Fresh Air.”

Thank Israel for the Flexible Stent. You or a loved one may have benefited! It has saved millions of lives. Physicians use the tube-shaped device to open arteries up to treat coronary heart disease and blockages. Its use can significantly reduce the need for open-heart surgery.

Technology we rely on to protect mobile phones and computers is a security invention through Israel’s cornerstone firewall, Check Point—the original protection from cyber threats across the digital world. From pioneering firewalls to our AI-powered, cloud-delivered security solutions, they are committed to safeguarding organizations with an industry-leading 99.8% prevention rate.

Israelis invented another important water-related technology in 1967: Netafim’s drip irrigation, using pipes that drip water onto crops, thereby reducing water usage. This boon to crops is now used in 110 countries, including the USA, where it helps farmers “Grow More With Less”!

In TIME magazine’s 2024 best products, 10 of Israel’s products are included. Here are a few: Nuvo’s wearable Invu remote pregnancy monitor performs non-stress tests on babies before birth. OrCam Hear is an upcoming AI-powered hearing amplification tool for those needing focused hearing help. BeeHero, a beehive management system. InnerPlant’s CropVoice, where plants inform farmers about funguses. NanoxAI helps identify undetected chronic conditions by analyzing CT heart scans of the heart, liver, and bones.

Looking at some sectors of our valuable partnership with the Jewish state, Israel invests in our economy, creates American jobs, and promotes our innovation. Their partnership supports more than 255,000 American jobs. Likewise, the U.S. is the largest foreign investor in Israel, a business hub for more than 2,500 U.S. companies. Our free trade agreement with them since 1985 has provided billions of dollars for Israelis and Americans.

Our two nations are pioneering together in future challenges in cybersecurity, healthcare, artificial intelligence, water scarcity, food security, climate change, and renewable energy. When you board a flight or use your computers, be aware that Israeli technology and expertise help protect American airports, cities, cyberspace, and other infrastructure from terrorist threats.

Israel can be described as our “aircraft carrier” in the Middle East. Israel is our eyes and ears in the region. With its military strength, location, and our shared intelligence cooperation, it helps our homeland security and American soldiers. Our annual congressional approval of security investments in Israel directly increases our security and safety here at home. Unlike other U.S. allies, Israel insists on defending itself by itself. They rely on our help only to guarantee Israel’s added ability to defend itself with U.S. funding, most which is spent here in America. 

Christian advocacy for Israel in the United States makes a huge difference in influencing congressional appropriations for Israel’s security. Those decisions in turn increase our security. Our partnership also protects our American troops with military technology, helping us to counter missiles, tunnels, and drones. Israel is also a leader in helping soldiers from both nations cope with PTSD—a much-needed service.

At your Thanksgiving table today and in the future, you may place a prayer in the Western Wall (Kotel) for Israel and its people especially during war. AISH.com, which overlooks the Western Wall Plaza, will print your prayers. The AISH staff gathers all the prayers, takes the short walk to the Kotel, and places them in the crevices: [Submit your prayer here].

Our CBN Israel team wishes our readers and supporters a most blessed Thanksgiving 2024! Together let us recite Psalm 107:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for the ongoing emotional traumas suffered by Israelis.
• Pray for upwards of 6,000 wounded IDF soldiers.
• Pray with thanks for senior medical officers stationed with each company.
• Pray for the 101 hostages still captive in Gaza and their heartbroken families.
• Pray with thanks for our longstanding friendship with Israel.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

On December 6, Netflix is releasing its Christmas movie called Mary. The title character is played by 21-year-old Noa Cohen, with 22-year-old Ido Tako as Joseph. Legendary actor Anthony Hopkins in the role of Herod is sure to weave a star-powered combination in the trio. However, BDS and anti-Israel groups are outraged! Why? The actors portraying Mary and Joseph are Israeli Jews—not Palestinians.

When Palestinians instigated boycotts in 1995, they assumed Israel would breathe its last if strangled with economic warfare, terror, and propaganda. Clearly, they were mistaken. BDS—Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—targets Israel, the world’s only Jewish nation. Now, BDS is manifesting further madness about the film, Mary.

Bottom line: BDS adherents aim at erasing the Jewishness of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus—our Jewish Messiah—born in the fields of Bethlehem Ephrathah near the Tower of the Flock (Migdal Eder). In a fascinating side note, some research suggests that King David and Jesus, the Perfect Lamb, were born in or near Migdal Eder (Micah 5:2), where Levitical shepherds raised and oversaw the births of Passover lambs.

Trying to erase 2,000 years of world history, BDS is aimed not only at Jews but also levels its slander into the minds of 2 billion Christians. Unfortunately, some Christians have swallowed these lies as if they were truth. Satan has resurrected Hitleresque propaganda by invading the world through social media warfare and savagery.

Frankly, I do not know if the film Mary will please the Christian community with regard to its portrayal of Jesus’ mother. I have not previewed it. But I respect Director D.J. Caruso’s comments in October’s Entertainment Weekly. “It was important to us that Mary, along with most of our primary cast, be selected from Israel to ensure authenticity.” Filmed in Morocco, Caruso added that the film’s writing and production were done with “great care” to create “a story that feels both sacred and modern.”

For decades the Palestinian Authority, as well as pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists, have called the Holy Family “Palestinians.” Author and theologian Eitan Bar writes about those who claim, “Jesus was a ‘Palestinian freedom fighter,’ suggesting Jesus led a revolt against—you guessed it—the Jews!”

Bar adds that some Muslims and radical liberal Christians have adopted the Palestinian freedom fighter narrative in trying to justify violence against Jews. It is a fairly recent construct, dating back to 2018, when a university campaign in the U.S. claimed that Jesus was Palestinian. If you wish to go deeper into this controversy, click here.

The movie denigrators represent millions of people in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities who have adopted violence as a tool, recently evidenced by Muslim gangs launching a vicious attack against Israeli fans attending soccer games in Amsterdam and Paris.

Some social media agitators are “offended” by Israeli actors portraying Jewish Mary and Joseph. Here’s an example of such comments: “A film [about] a Palestinian woman played by actors from the settler state [Israel’s biblical heartland] that is currently mass slaughtering Palestinian women. Oh, the disgusting audacity.”

Proponents of BDS are taking the word of Hamas and its evildoers and treating them like heroes. Those with minds persuaded by lies are calling for a boycott against the film Mary, which is not only offensive to Christians but also denigrating to the Jewish people seeing that Mary, Joseph, and their children were all Jewish, historical figures who lived in biblical Judea.

Nevertheless, despite the October 7 genocide and escalating dangers globally, Israelis remain dedicated and determined to win their defensive war of justice. Unsurprisingly, Israel Defense Forces are finding Arabic translations of Hitler’s handbook Mein Kampf in the tunnels under Gaza. When an IDF unit in Lebanon found a copy of Mein Kampf in a living room, one soldier observed that “parts were underlined and highlighted inside, as if someone had studied it line by line.” In fact, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the degenerate gangs funded by the Islamic Regime imitate Hitler’s strategies that led to the genocide of 6 million Jews.

Sadly, in the U.S. and beyond, BDS includes churches, labor unions, universities, and grassroots groups that BDS recruits internationally to inflict financial and propagandic havoc on Israel. In fact, just a scant few days after October 7, 2023, a hateful global intifada exploded among university students—and professors—sitting in prominent campus locations.

These groups now mourn the mounting deaths of Hezbollah leaders instead of October 7 victims and hostages, among them seven Americans. At Columbia University, the mindless shouts of “We are Hamas” and “Hamas make us proud” fill the air. Thirty-six percent of protestors deem violence as acceptable.

No matter what is happening in our personal lives and the Jewish world, Zephaniah 3:17 assures us that “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior Who saves. He will take great delight in you … but will rejoice over you with singing.” 

I daresay that one of the biggest crises in our world today is that too many are boycotting the Judeo-Christian faiths and the Bible—both the Old Testament, which clearly prophesied our coming Jewish Messiah, and His fulfillment in New Testament.

The world may use its evil energy to devise every boycott, divestment, and sanction it can against the God of the Universe, yet He is the everlasting King.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to pray with us for Israelis and the 15.8 million Jewish people globally.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s safety from incoming drone attacks against his private home.
• Pray for the IDF’s great successes to defeat Hezbollah.
• Pray for IDF families with increasing IDF deaths in Gaza and Lebanon.
• Pray for Christians to repost truthful social media.
• Pray thanking God from Deuteronomy 7:6, “The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.”

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 musical Fiddler on the Roof is an emotional display of romance, sorrow, tradition, and joy in a small Russian village. Offering a glimpse into the Russian Jewish culture of 1905, the movie script and songs brim with the stories of Tevye the milkman, Golde his wife, and their five daughters. The matchmaker, rabbi, and poor families had strong hearts, hopes, and humor as they lived in a robust way based on their Jewish faith.

Amid these unforgettable songs, romances, and dancing the hora, it is sometimes easy to forget that the 1971 Fiddler on the Roof movie is based on the true stories of the Russian czar’s Cossacks—and the attempts to destroy the Jewish culture and its people.

The Cossacks were a quasi-military force that guarded borders and performed police duties. Remember the movie scene where they violently broke into the joyous wedding celebration of one of Tevye’s daughters? Last week, on the night of November 7, 2024, Jew-hating violence broke out in Amsterdam—violence that has been, and is, spreading more aggressively in Europe.

This time, it’s not the Cossacks on horseback of 120 years ago but murderous Muslims, using knives, car rammings, beatings, and throwing Jews into the canals. Their well-organized plan against Israeli soccer fans meant the new Nazis were waiting as Israelis exited a match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Miraculously, no Israeli was murdered, but Israel called it a pogrom, and that is exactly what it was.

What is a pogrom? This Russian word means “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently”—particularly in the context of local attacks on Jews. The term pogrom originated during the Russian Empire and became commonly used in anti-Jewish riots from 1881 to 1884, starting after Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. The term was first used in English in 1882.

Non-Jewish Cossacks and local populations planned and conducted deadly attacks up though the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Tens of thousands of Jews were murdered between 1918 and 1920. Between 1881 and 1924, massive waves of Jewish refugees fled Russia and Europe for America, which they called “the Golden Land.” Arriving by ship, they first sailed past the iconic Statue of Liberty and disembarked onto Ellis Island for processing.

My husband Paul is a proud first-generation American because each of his parents fled Russian pogroms as children with their parents. They walked into freedom through Ellis Island. His parents later met and married in Bronx, New York, worked hard, and raised five children. His father served in World War II, drove a taxi, and ran a newspaper stand in Manhattan. His parents rarely if at all spoke about the old country, but Paul remembers his mother describing her fear-filled childhood—hiding in haystacks to escape pogroms against Jews. Our family has watched Fiddler on the Roof countless times since Paul adopted it as his family’s story.

In 1903, a tablet with Emma Lazarus’s words in her poem, “The New Colossus”—“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—was affixed to the Statue of Liberty’s base. Lazarus is considered America’s first Jewish-American poet. Patriotic songs in Yiddish also expressed the immigrants’ love and loyalty. A popular song from the bygone era was raised by the Jewish voices of new arrivals, which included his parents. The opening lyrics proclaim, “To express loyalty with every fiber of one’s being, to this Land of Freedom, is the sacred duty of every Jew.” 

Now, in response to the Amsterdam attacks in the Netherlands, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aptly called them a pogrom and sent civilian planes to rescue over 2,000 Israeli citizens. Christians in the USA and worldwide would do well to listen to Netanyahu’s warnings: “Attacks of this kind threaten not only Israel but endanger the entire world.” He commented on historical proof that “Wild attacks that start against Jews, never end with the Jews.”

He emphasized that free nations face the same savage murderers seeking to “destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror.”

In the famous movie, Tevye himself gave intriguing comments in an answer about his home village. “A fiddler on the roof! Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask, ‘Why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous?’ Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!”

And biblical tradition is immersed in facts that Jews are God’s chosen people and Israel is His chosen Land—the birthplace of our Savior and our Christian faith. In Fiddler on the Roof, pogroms forced Tevye to flee from Anatevka, an example of centuries of Jewish dispersion living in other homes and lands across the world.

After Israel announced its modern independence on May 14, 1948, the Jewish people have been returning in record numbers to their ancestral homeland. This massive wave of Aliyah—the immigration of Jews to Israel—was clearly foretold by the ancient prophet Ezekiel, who, writing at the time of the Babylonian captivity, proclaimed this message: “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. … Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:24, 28 NIV).

The modern State of Israel echoes a message that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared when he spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, 2024. “Generations after generations in which our people were slaughtered, remorselessly butchered, and no one raised a finger in our defense, we now have a state. We now have a brave army, an army of incomparable courage.”

He referred to the book of Samuel about Israel defending itself, affirming: “The eternity of Israel will not falter. In the Jewish people’s epic journey from antiquity and our odyssey through the tempest and upheavals of modern times.” And in conclusion: “The torch of Israel will forever shine. … The people of Israel live now, tomorrow, and forever.”

To be sure, Tevye the actor and Netanyahu the prime minister both expressed the vibrant spirit and strength of the Jewish people. In God’s plans, the pogroms will end!

Pray with our CBN Israel team with ongoing prayers for Israel and Europe.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s safety and decision-making.
• Pray for European nations to enact security for their citizens.
• Pray for the European Union to make wise, not weak, decisions.
• Pray with thanks that Jews were not murdered in the Amsterdam pogrom.

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 

Leading into the U.S. election, the main highway into Tel Aviv, Israel, projected a large pro-Trump billboard reading, “Israel Votes Trump.” Donald J. Trump’s victory offers increased hope for Israel fighting on the front lines of freedom for the United States and the free world in a seven-front war sponsored by Iran.

The Islamic Regime funds not just its anti-Israel surrogates in the Middle East but also globally, via its arsenal of hate—a hatred that goes beyond the Jews to anyone, any country, that Iran leaders consider an “infidel.” In fact in 1979, when the ayatollahs forced their Shia Muslim dictatorship onto Iran (Persia), their stature as the world’s biggest terror threat increased. It’s all about their dominance and hatred for Israel and the United States of America—Israel’s most significant ally.

By 1984, the U.S. had designated the regime as the “foremost state sponsor of terrorism.” The ayatollahs describe Israel as the Little Satan and the U.S. as the Great Satan. Proof of their hatred toward the U.S. has become evident in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria during the last few years. Around 2,500 U.S. troops were stationed in Iraq and another 900 in Syria to prevent Iranian weapons and personnel from crossing through Iraq and Syria to supply Hezbollah in Lebanon. In June 2024, the Biden administration increased U.S. troops to 3,813 in Jordan—a nearly 20 percent increase. Iranian drone strikes are killing and injuring our American troops!

Just consider the toll. Hezbollah, better armed than most NATO countries, is Iran’s top proxy. Its horrific history goes back for decades before our troops were stationed on the ground. Hezbollah’s 1983 truck-bomb attack murdered 241 soldiers at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Additionally, Hezbollah murdered 63 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon (1984) and 19 at the Khobar Towers U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia (1996) and held meetings with established sleeper cells in the United States.

The Islamic Regime is the biggest funder of Hezbollah, yet it does not stop there. A 2017 report outlines Hezbollah’s lucrative fraud network in at least 10 states, including Michigan, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, and West Virginia. It is easy to guess that since this report came out, coupled with our wide-open southern border since 2021, Hezbollah’s presence and businesses in the United States are even more profuse.

For example, Hezbollah operatives pay cash for used cars and ship them to Africa for their toxic terror activities. Even a perfume company helps launder and finance terror money.

The U.S. Justice Department in 2023 offers us another example of criminality, when it prosecuted an intricate web of companies illicitly seeking to obtain valuable artwork from U.S. artists, art galleries, and diamond businesses. It amounted to around $160 million in profits for the Hezbollah fundraiser who posed as a legitimate businessman. All the covert terror funds were transacted through the U.S. financial system. 

It is a glimmer of hope that Hezbollah’s criminal activities are on the U.S. Congress’s radar. One congressional hearing highlighted Hezbollah’s multimillion-dollar criminal network—including human trafficking, drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, and counterfeiting in the U.S. and on a total of four continents. Congress also passed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act to track and halt Hezbollah’s financial transactions.

A Treasury official declared that the 2015 Act put Hezbollah in “the worst financial shape in decades.” However, in the same year, under the Obama-Biden administration, Congress also agreed to the flawed Iran nuclear deal. Iran received billions that helped to resupply terrorists. This decision made no sense, which has particularly been proven this past year by the Iranian-funded October 7 invasion and massacres as well as the ongoing multifront war Israel has faced with Iran and its terror proxies. 

Based on information from the U.S. intelligence community, Hezbollah has a number of sleeper cells in the United States. Simone Ledeen, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, issued this warning: “Hezbollah is a very real threat to us here in the United States. They have sleeper cells in the U.S., in many cities across the country. This has been documented in multiple court cases, and we have reason to believe that they also have caches where they have stored materials around the country in the event that someone hits the go button to start attacks, I believe they are pretty well prepared—they have been sitting in wait for an order to go for many years now.”

Israel’s war against Hezbollah, called Operation “Northern Arrows,” began on September 23, 2024, in response to the terror group’s unrelenting rocket attacks on northern Israel since last October, and is a significant indicator both of Hezbollah’s relentless hatred toward the U.S. decades ago—and its dangerous intentions now. We are, after all, Israel’s greatest ally.

Despite Israel’s brilliant strategies and victories aimed at eliminating most of Hezbollah’s top terrorists, Hezbollah began the war with 150,000 rockets. Tens of thousands of rockets remain in terrorist hands. They must be destroyed, since 100 rocket strikes a day and numerous drones indicate enough firepower to be launched against Israel for months on end.

When Israel reaches its military goals against Hezbollah—and it will—a grim fact remains for the world’s only Jewish state. The Iranian proxies seek not only to murder every Jew, but to erase every symbol and structure of Judaism and Jewish culture in the Holy Land. The hatred runs deeper than most of our American Christian imaginations can comprehend. However, we must pray for and help our Jewish friends in our spiritual homeland, the ancient birthplace of our faith.

In the Arabic language, Hezbollah means “party of god.” This party of god is the antithesis of the true God of the Universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Despite evil and lawlessness manifesting in too many places, we trust the One who cannot be defeated, who has preserved a strong remnant of His people, and will reign forever.

For us as believers, by faith we are under His tallit (prayer shawl), we dwell safe and secure, and our hiding place is sure! Though life is full of struggle, our joy is fuller still. Under His tallit, we are in His sovereign will! 

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer this week remembering Isaiah 45:7-9:

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?”

Prayer Points

• Pray for Christians to overcome anxiety by donning our spiritual armor.
• Pray for IDF safety and success to discover and defeat evil in Lebanon.
• Pray for the rescue of each living hostage and the bodies of loved ones.
• Pray with thanks for U.S. military assets in the skies and on the water.

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

Trivia games—still enormously popular today—first came into vogue on college campuses in the 1960s. Later, TV game shows like Jeopardy! caught on, followed by the Trivial Pursuit game that was officially released in 1981. Numerous trivia apps now generate hours of enjoyment.

The United States leads the trivia world of facts, with 1.3 billion downloads in 2022 alone. One of the best things about playing trivia is that doing so can help increase our knowledge, our team building, and our memory. That is why many corporations, like Spotify, Nike, and Amazon, use trivia applications.

As Israel advocates, we can have fun while utilizing Israel-focused trivia facts to increase our knowledge and oppose the unabating torrent of lies against Israel. Here are a few sample questions, before we explore historical facts about the world’s biblical heartland.

The answers for these trivia questions appear at the end of my column. Enjoy challenging yourself first!

1. What are the two geographic names of the biblical heartland?
2. What is the name of the walk in Jerusalem that takes visitors through the 14 stations of the cross?
3. What year did the Romans destroy the Second Temple? 
4. How many ancient synagogues have archeologists discovered in Israel’s Golan Heights? 
5. What is the name of Israel’s legislative body?
6. What is the Hebrew name for the Western Wall?
7. What does the acronym IDF describe?
8. What year did the Israeli government order 8,000 Jewish citizens to leave Gaza, turning it completely over to Palestinians?
9. How many Arabs are Israeli citizens?
10. After which war did Israel reunify its capital, Jerusalem?
11. What year was the U.S. Embassy returned to its capital?
12. What is the term for Jewish people immigrating to Israel?  
13. Who is referred to as the Father of Zionism? 
14. Who is credited with re-establishing ancient Hebrew into Israel’s modern language?
15. Who is the current prime minister of Israel?

Whether or not you scored well, persistence will reward your knowledge. Prayers plus facts are needed now more than ever for the biblical heartland, Judea and Samaria, located in Israel since ancient times.

The Islamic Regime and its proxies remain intent on wiping Israel and her people off the map. That is why the Israel Defense Forces have expanded protection for Judea and Samaria—due to enclaves of Hamas terrorists in the Palestinian-occupied cities and villages. These terrorists use cars, knives, guns, IEDs, and highly sophisticated weapons they have smuggled into the heartland to murder Jews and anyone else in the way. 

An article in August 2024 from the Jewish News Syndicate reported that since January, more than 3,000 terror attacks in Judea and Samaria have killed 14 people and wounded 155 others. The IDF has changed the status of Judea and Samaria, now classifying it a “combat zone”—and Israel’s most critical front after the Gaza Strip.

The world calls the biblical heartland the West Bank. A quick trivia question: “Why and when did the name West Bank originate?” Answer: About 75 years ago, the name given to describe land on the west side of the Jordan River.

Facts about the biblical heartland have a far more significant value than the dictionary meaning of the word trivia, which is “unimportant facts or details that are considered interesting rather than serious or useful.” Based on the spoken word of God penned by ancient Jewish scribes, the Old and New Testaments are one book—and proclaim Judea and Samaria as the bedrock of Judaism and for our Christian faith. Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, is in Judea.

Looking at a map of Israel, we see that the heartland is still loaded with names from the Bible. Add your own trivia list of facts to several I have included here.

God told Abraham, the first Jew, to pitch his tent in Hebron, near the tree of Mamre, around 1,800 B.C. In Judea, Hebron is considered the oldest Jewish community in the world!

Judea and Samaria correspond to the ancient Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Judea lies south of Jerusalem, and Samaria to the north.

The Old Testament foretold the Bethlehem field in Judea as the birthplace of Jesus. The New Testament confirmed it.

Shiloh, in Samaria, was the religious and military capital of Israel for 369 years in the 12th and 11th centuries B.C. It was the location of the Tabernacle housing the Ark of the Covenant. In Shiloh today, walking in the ancient steps of Hannah, Elkana, Eli, Samuel, and King David is an archaeological and holy experience connecting the 3,500-year Jewish history to their ancestral homeland.

The memorable New Testament story of Jesus and the woman at the well with her joyful encounter with the Messiah happened in Samaria.

In the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel was attacked, the Jews triumphed and won their ancient heartland from Jordanian occupation (1950-1967). Upwards of 500,000 religious and secular Jews now live throughout Judea and Samaria. Click here to explore many more facts both ancient and modern. 

Although most call Judea and Samaria the “West Bank” it does not change the fact that this is the biblical heartland. Threats from the terrorists of the Islamic Regime and its ungodly understudies will not triumph over the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you [Jacob], and I will give this land to your descendants after you” (Genesis 35:12). Israel’s Independence Day, May 14, 1948, certified God’s ancient promises.

This is the Holy Land where Jesus will return, rule, and reign forever! 

Enjoy another Israeli game! Trivia: Are You Smarter Than DBG? Who was DBG? Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion! He originated the “Bible Quiz” Chidon HaTanach, a worldwide competition for all ages. The final quiz is annually televised in Jerusalem on Israel’s Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut. 

Trivia Answers:

1. Judea and Samaria
2. Via Dolorosa
3. A.D. 70 
4. Thirty
5. Knesset
6. Kotel
7. Israel Defense Forces
8. 2005 
9. Approximately two million
10. Six-Day War, 1967 
11. 2018 by President Donald Trump
12. Aliyah 
13. Theodore Herzl
14. Ben Yehuda
15. Benjamin Netanyahu 

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team to pray from Jeremiah 32:17—“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” 

Prayer Points: 

• Pray for citizens’ safety in modern-day Judea and Samaria. 
• Pray for many small businesses such as Lev Haolam, which makes beautiful products that can be ordered and shipped.
• Pray for the IDF as they protect Israeli communities in the biblical 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.

However, a genuine problem is looming in the United States. An October headline shouted, “Apathy Among Christian Voters Could Be ‘Gamechanger’ in 2024 election.” The Barna Group’s research notes that out of 104 million people of faith, an estimated 32 million self-identified churchgoers who regularly attend church will not cast their ballots. As you will see, it is seriously time for us to follow the examples of Moses and Esther.

Comparing the U.S. percentage to Israeli voting habits, 70 percent of Israelis vote for their Knesset (Parliament) for their parties, which leads to the coalition for a prime minister! Israelis closely engage in vigorous, often contentious politics and discussions in their homeland. 

Politics in the U.S. has regressed into toxic verbal landscapes not seen in decades along with two assassination attempts against former President Trump. Many prefer to turn off the media and wrap themselves in a cocoon of disengagement.

Sharp divisions between American Democrats and Republicans show up in new uncharted issues—plus COVID-19 aftermaths, climate disasters totaling $93 billion in 2023 alone, and now traumas due to devastating hurricanes in the last two months. These catastrophic events—and more—add further complexities and questions for Americans.

Israelis fighting their justified seven-front war are reeling with grief from October 7 in their brave, exhausting, and ongoing war against the Islamic Regime and its proxies. IDF soldier deaths are increasing amid the ground war in southern Lebanon—and then last week’s Hezbollah drone targeting Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home increased Israeli anxieties.

All to say, the challenges for the United States and our ally Israel are problems that only God can and will solve, in His timing. 

Meanwhile, what is our role as Christians? Do we sit idly by in disgust and disillusionment amid constant breaking news disruptions? Are we angry most of the time? Have we retreated from our freedoms?

Let us replace our outrage with outreach, and our apathy with action, to engage effectively with our culture by honoring our freedom to vote, especially here in the United States. Israelis honor their freedom with high voter turnout. Let us imitate them!   

You may be surprised to know that the Bible provides us with outstanding role models and expectations as citizens. With the research indicating that as many as 32 million church-going Christians may not vote, it is important to learn from biblical leaders engaged in politics.

If you are choosing not to vote, I want to point you toward four biblical leaders in the hope that you will overcome your reluctance to cast your ballot in this upcoming election and make your voice heard in the political context.

God used Joseph in lifesaving ways by positioning him in his role as Pharaoh’s prime minister. Joseph accepted his future with wise decisions and brilliantly carried out his prominent position in politics, resulting in his Jewish family surviving the famine. Similarly, around 400 years later, God placed Moses in a key position in Egypt, not on Pharoah’s staff but as an ancient lobbyist. In his role, Moses appealed to Pharoah many times to “let my people go.” Finally, his appeals were answered and the Jewish people set out on their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. 

Queen Esther also functioned as an ancient lobbyist. God placed her, a young Jewish orphan, in an influential position as a wife to King Ahasuerus. With prayer and courage, she made requests to him that saved the Jewish people from Haman’s genocidal plans.

And yes, although Babylonians captured Daniel and his friends from Jerusalem, God elevated Daniel to a highly esteemed position on King Nebuchadnezzar’s staff. Daniel served as the king’s premier counselor and held devotedly to his Jewish faith in a foreign, idol-worshiping land. He overcame his fear with faith even in the lion’s den.

Joseph, Moses, Esther, and Daniel deserve a second look into how God used them in a political context to change history.

A fact not widely known is that Israeli-Americans—dual citizens—number up to 500,000. They vote by absentee ballot in U.S. elections. Like those in the United States, when it comes to Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, they will vote for their favorite candidate. Republicans and Democrats have branch offices in Israel with their get-out-the-vote campaigns. Israel’s U.S. Embassy provided voting guidelines on January 26, 2024, emphasizing the importance of absentee ballots and detailing the instructions for the process.

Regarding perfect candidates and governments on earth, these do not exist. That is, until Isaiah 9:7 is reflected upon. “Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”

While earthly governments oppress and operate in a quagmire of self-interests, even in a democracy, Heaven’s country will outshine them all. God Himself will be our government. Perfection will overtake imperfection. Love will overtake hate. Joy will overtake sorrow when the government rests upon His shoulders.

A few bullet points to consider: Voting is a privilege. Our military has sacrificed for our freedoms so let’s not take those freedoms for granted. No candidate is perfect. Before you vote, pray and consult the Lord. Be aware that propaganda is at an all-time high. Be cautious about what you read and hear.

Vote for the candidates that reflect your values the most. Consider the quality of life for you, your family, and your friends. Closely examine candidate policies.

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team this week to pray with lofty expectations about a perfect government in Isaiah 9:6: “And the government will be upon His shoulders.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for U.S. elections and protection for Presidential, House, and Senate candidates.
• Pray that Christians will abandon their apathy and choose to vote.
• Pray that all vote counting will go smoothly.
• Pray for Israeli civilians, the IDF, and Lebanese Christians in the war against evil.

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

Candidates running for President, House, and Senate seats in the 2024 United States elections are saturating the country with ads and appearances on airwaves, social media, events, and conversations. Scores of texts and emails are overwhelming our mobile phones and computers, and our mailboxes are stuffed with duplicate fundraising letters for political donations.

In less than two weeks—on November 5—Americans will finish their early and final voting, which sets the stage for the next four years in our nation and the world.

However, a genuine problem is looming in the United States. An October headline shouted, “Apathy Among Christian Voters Could Be ‘Gamechanger’ in 2024 election.” The Barna Group’s research notes that out of 104 million people of faith, an estimated 32 million self-identified churchgoers who regularly attend church will not cast their ballots. As you will see, it is seriously time for us to follow the examples of Moses and Esther.

Comparing the U.S. percentage to Israeli voting habits, 70 percent of Israelis vote for their Knesset (Parliament) for their parties, which leads to the coalition for a prime minister! Israelis closely engage in vigorous, often contentious politics and discussions in their homeland. 

Politics in the U.S. has regressed into toxic verbal landscapes not seen in decades along with two assassination attempts against former President Trump. Many prefer to turn off the media and wrap themselves in a cocoon of disengagement.

Sharp divisions between American Democrats and Republicans show up in new uncharted issues—plus COVID-19 aftermaths, climate disasters totaling $93 billion in 2023 alone, and now traumas due to devastating hurricanes in the last two months. These catastrophic events—and more—add further complexities and questions for Americans.

Israelis fighting their justified seven-front war are reeling with grief from October 7 in their brave, exhausting, and ongoing war against the Islamic Regime and its proxies. IDF soldier deaths are increasing amid the ground war in southern Lebanon—and then last week’s Hezbollah drone targeting Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home increased Israeli anxieties.

All to say, the challenges for the United States and our ally Israel are problems that only God can and will solve, in His timing. 

Meanwhile, what is our role as Christians? Do we sit idly by in disgust and disillusionment amid constant breaking news disruptions? Are we angry most of the time? Have we retreated from our freedoms?

Let us replace our outrage with outreach, and our apathy with action, to engage effectively with our culture by honoring our freedom to vote, especially here in the United States. Israelis honor their freedom with high voter turnout. Let us imitate them!   

You may be surprised to know that the Bible provides us with outstanding role models and expectations as citizens. With the research indicating that as many as 32 million church-going Christians may not vote, it is important to learn from biblical leaders engaged in politics.

If you are choosing not to vote, I want to point you toward four biblical leaders in the hope that you will overcome your reluctance to cast your ballot in this upcoming election and make your voice heard in the political context.

God used Joseph in lifesaving ways by positioning him in his role as Pharaoh’s prime minister. Joseph accepted his future with wise decisions and brilliantly carried out his prominent position in politics, resulting in his Jewish family surviving the famine. Similarly, around 400 years later, God placed Moses in a key position in Egypt, not on Pharoah’s staff but as an ancient lobbyist. In his role, Moses appealed to Pharoah many times to “let my people go.” Finally, his appeals were answered and the Jewish people set out on their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. 

Queen Esther also functioned as an ancient lobbyist. God placed her, a young Jewish orphan, in an influential position as a wife to King Ahasuerus. With prayer and courage, she made requests to him that saved the Jewish people from Haman’s genocidal plans.

And yes, although Babylonians captured Daniel and his friends from Jerusalem, God elevated Daniel to a highly esteemed position on King Nebuchadnezzar’s staff. Daniel served as the king’s premier counselor and held devotedly to his Jewish faith in a foreign, idol-worshiping land. He overcame his fear with faith even in the lion’s den.

Joseph, Moses, Esther, and Daniel deserve a second look into how God used them in a political context to change history.

A fact not widely known is that Israeli-Americans—dual citizens—number up to 500,000. They vote by absentee ballot in U.S. elections. Like those in the United States, when it comes to Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, they will vote for their favorite candidate. Republicans and Democrats have branch offices in Israel with their get-out-the-vote campaigns. Israel’s U.S. Embassy provided voting guidelines on January 26, 2024, emphasizing the importance of absentee ballots and detailing the instructions for the process.

Regarding perfect candidates and governments on earth, these do not exist. That is, until Isaiah 9:7 is reflected upon. “Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”

While earthly governments oppress and operate in a quagmire of self-interests, even in a democracy, Heaven’s country will outshine them all. God Himself will be our government. Perfection will overtake imperfection. Love will overtake hate. Joy will overtake sorrow when the government rests upon His shoulders.

A few bullet points to consider: Voting is a privilege. Our military has sacrificed for our freedoms so let’s not take those freedoms for granted. No candidate is perfect. Before you vote, pray and consult the Lord. Be aware that propaganda is at an all-time high. Be cautious about what you read and hear.

Vote for the candidates that reflect your values the most. Consider the quality of life for you, your family, and your friends. Closely examine candidate policies.

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team this week to pray with lofty expectations about a perfect government in Isaiah 9:6: “And the government will be upon His shoulders.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for U.S. elections and protection for Presidential, House, and Senate candidates.
• Pray that Christians will abandon their apathy and choose to vote.
• Pray that all vote counting will go smoothly.
• Pray for Israeli civilians, the IDF, and Lebanese Christians in the war against evil.

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

Last week, during Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day of the year, Hezbollah fired another barrage of rockets into Israel from its southern Lebanon stronghold. One million Israelis rushed into bomb shelters to wait out the intermittent but heavy attacks. A day later, an Iranian drone armed with a missile crashed into the roof of an IDF dining room south of Haifa—murdering four Golani Brigade soldiers and injuring dozens more. Israel’s defensive war has resulted in yet another level of intense anguish for its beleaguered people.

Early on, Israel discovered how Hamas used UNWRA (TheUnited Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) as a cover for terror. Now, with Israel’s fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon, compelling evidence is also emerging about UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon), the so-called “peacekeeping” force. It seems that the Islamic Regime’s twin terror proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, have repurposed the United Nations’ roles in UNRWA and UNIFIL as tools of hate against Jews and their homeland.

Because of Iran’s backing and support, Hezbollah is the most well-armed terrorist organization in the world. They use UNIFIL soldiers as well as men, women, and children as human shields in yet another violation of international law. (Consider how that practice contrasts with Israel’s policy of protecting civilians.) Right beside UNIFIL soldiers, Hezbollah built bunkers and tunnels designed solely for attacks and invasions into Israel. UNIFIL ignored these deadly projects in total violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, intended to resolve the 2006 Lebanon War by withdrawing Israeli forces and disarming armed groups—including Hezbollah.

Sound familiar?

Acclaimed author and journalist Douglas Murray, embedded in Gaza with the IDF and now in southern Lebanon, reports his eye-opening firsthand experiences: “How is it possible that the kind of heavy digging needed to create these tunnels could have happened literally right under the noses of the UN? Were they not looking? Did they even care?”

They decided not to look, Murray says, “The international peacekeeping force has been a joke for years.”

As the Israel Defense Forces have sought to destroy the Iran-financed arsenals, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has broadcast a strong message to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “The time has come to remove UNIFIL from Hezbollah’s strongholds and war zones.” Guterres’s repeated refusals have resulted in Hezbollah using UNIFIL as human shields. “Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers,” emphasizedNetanyahu, “turns them into Hezbollah’s hostages. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers.”

Thus far, UNIFIL soldiers have been injured during the fighting. Netanyahu assures Guterres that Israel is intent on preventing harm but directly challenges the secretary–general, “Remove them [the UNIFIL soldiers] from the area. This needs to be done immediately, now.” We must understand that leaving UNIFIL in place means more injuries and deaths among these (supposed) peacekeepers and gives the biased United Nations more reasons to blame Israel.

Israel’s defensive measures are exposing the moral corruption of two misguided United Nations programs: UNWRA and UNIFIL. They have grown into diseased operations undermining Israel under the purview of the United Nations, including the UN Security Council. Ten percent of UNWRA’s staff were affiliated with Hamas, and on October 7, 2023, according to a Telegram channel, 3,000 UNRWA staff celebrated Hamas’s massacres. The Biden administration rightly canceled U.S. tax dollars funding UNRWA; the U.S. had been its biggest donor.

Most of us are familiar with Hamas and UNRWA by now. However, why is UNIFIL stationed in southern Lebanon with a contingent of 10,000 soldiers from 50 countries?

In 2006, the UN Security Council voted on Resolution 1701 to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon for a permanent ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel after the Second Lebanon War. UNIFIL was tasked with monitoring southern Lebanon, especially along the almost 70 miles of the Lebanon/Israel “border.” Called the Blue Line, it is not a border; it is only a temporary “line of withdrawal” set by the UN.

UNIFIL “peacekeepers” were intended to be temporary overseers to enforce these lofty ideas, noting that any crossing of the Blue Line violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Significantly, they were assigned to prevent any “sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon.” However, Hezbollah has made sure that UNIFIL completely failed. During a period of more than 20 years, Iran shipped billions of dollars’ worth of weapons into southern Lebanon by land, sea, and air.

You may wonder why Israel is now warning civilians to leave their homes in southern Lebanon. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett informs us: “Many Shiites in Lebanon have a unique revenue stream: In their home they have a special ‘Rocket Launcher Room.’ They’re paid monthly rent by Hezbollah to host this launcher and be prepared to shoot rockets at Israel communities on demand.”

Bennett goes on to express his astonishment while serving as a company commander fighting Hezbollah in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. “Who the heck turns their home into a terror base? The IDF is now systematically destroying these death machines. Any man who turns his home into a death launch pad puts his family in severe danger, and only he is responsible for the consequences. Enough is enough!”

Estimates for missiles and rockets range from 40,000-120,000. Professor Andreas Krieg at King’s College London warns that, although the IDF has destroyed many short- and mid-range missiles, “The crown jewels of its [Hezbollah’s] missile capability are not stored overground but underground.” Larger missiles with bigger warheads and longer range put Israel in greater danger, and Krieg adds that “the damage in Israel will be so considerable that there is no stepping back from the abyss anymore.”

Use his quote as a prompt for our prayers and faith, referring to Isaiah 9:7, where God assures Israel’s future no matter what is happening today: “Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”

Resolution 1701 makes us wonder: is the United Nations a direct accomplice for UNRWA and UNIFIL—not simply to repeatedly verbalize accusations of Israel as the only problem in the Middle East? Moreover, are they so morally corrupt that they not only allow but support Jew hatred with rampant violence against the world’s only Jewish state?

Furthermore, how strong is the Islamic Regime’s hold on the UN? Why are Iran’s presidents—currently Masoud Pezeshkian—welcomed each year to the UN General Assembly? Why is Pezeshkian allowed to freely come and go in New York City while the Ayatollahs endanger former President Trump’s and others’ lives with illegal gangs of Iranians welcomed into our nation’s southern border? It is long past time for the United Nations to abandon its toxic bias. Might the USA invite the UN to leave our country?

Most of the United Nations is a hornet’s nest of evil that enables the Shia Islamic Regime to press on and resurrect a modern caliphate. The Ayatollah’s apocalyptic goal is to rule the world with impunity like they oppress their own population now. They will not stop until they are stopped.

Those of us who are grateful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus also owe a debt of gratitude for God’s people and His land defending themselves and all freedom-loving people.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer this week, trusting God’s intervention on behalf of His chosen people by remembering Isaiah 49:16: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me.”

Prayer Points:

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.