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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The origins of chess are somewhat clouded. When trying to determine which country originated chess around 1,500 years ago, some say India, others credit Iran. Whichever is true, there’s no question that the ayatollahs who rule Iran with an iron fist of oppression are skilled players on the geopolitical chessboard.

For decades, Israel has remained vigilant about Iran’s strategic chess moves—and not only against its own small country. With a mere 970 air miles between Jerusalem and Tehran, Israel is on the front lines of freedom for all nations that treasure liberty. Its government and people understand the evil nature of the Islamic regime’s Imams and their enforcers, the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Israel has repeatedly sounded the alarm about this hostile regime as the world’s terror superpower. In the face of Iran’s serious game of deceit—witnessed in deft geopolitical chess moves of destruction and hatred—Israel’s warnings cannot be minimized.

Israelis have no doubt that Iran wants to destroy Israel, the United States, and any country that interferes with the Imams’ plan to spread their brand of government using the oppressive Shia branch of Islam. Iran’s terror maneuvers include an obsession to possess nuclear weapons, empowering their proxies against Israel, and ignoring their own victimized population. Israel itself is no stranger to geopolitical chess. In fact, the Israelis are experts at defending themselves, with their own moves to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens.

Under immense internal pressures himself, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week. Speaking for the ninth time as prime minister, he has repeatedly warned the UN about Iran and offered many proofs of its treachery. In a recent Sky News interview, PM Netanyahu reiterated that diplomacy between the two countries has failed and “Iran remains openly committed to … repeating the Holocaust.” He added, “We will do whatever we need to do to defend ourselves.”

As for Iran’s leaders, they have added to the suffering of that nation’s population since taking over in 1979. Exhausted (and constantly threatened) by the Islamic regime imprisoning, hanging, and shooting them, Iranian citizens took to the streets last September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested and then murdered by the “morality” police. Her “crime?” Not wearing a head covering correctly! Iranians are still protesting, although at a great cost.

In his recent article, “Iran’s Season of Judgment,” my Israeli friend Jonathan Feldstein interviewed our inspiring mutual friend Marzi Amirizadeh. The eye-opening article was published by the International Press Association. Born in Iran, Marzi related factual, first-person stories of living under the regime. In 2009 Marzi, now an American citizen, was arrested then imprisoned in Iran and sentenced to death by hanging. Marzi and her friend Maryam’s “crimes” were their three-year team efforts of covertly distributing New Testaments to 20,000 Iranians and starting two secretive house churches.

Miraculously released after nine months of trauma, Marzi eventually came to the United States. Her life’s calling is to warn the world about the evils of the Islamic regime. Now, seeing the Biden administration handing over $6 billion in frozen, sanctioned Iranian assets—ostensibly to be used for humanitarian purposes—she is appalled. “The regime must not be funded,” she declares vehemently. “The regime must be removed.” Iran’s President Raisi openly insisted that Iran will use the billions in any way it wishes. However, Raisi’s firm statement did not result in Biden canceling the deal. The American hostages boarded a flight in Qatar on Monday bound for the states with $6 billion paid in a ransom.

In contrast, Marzi’s release from prison was not a ransom payment. An international outcry arose from Christians, and God engineered a miracle. In many interviews during and after her prayerful longing to finally visit Israel last March, Marzi knows firsthand that the Islamic regime is an enemy of Israel, her own people, and her new country, the United States. After a year of protests by the Iranian people, Iran’s evil rule is in plain view for so-called crimes about what to wear, what to say, and how to worship.

Compassion for wrongful hostage imprisonment is heartbreaking. However, controversy still exists among varying U.S. administrations about ransoms. President Biden’s green light opens a disturbing revelation. In 2015, the Obama/Biden administration paid $1.7 billion to release four Americans as part of the unwise Iran deal it desperately wanted. Iran then took more hostages and levied bigger price tags. In between the Obama and Biden presidencies, former President Trump used only pressure and sanctions to free two hostages—demonstrating excellent chess moves of his own.

Now, the ransoms have proven even more costly under Biden. Looking at the numbers, Obama/Biden paid $425 million per American in 2015. Now, in 2023, President Biden agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil assets—thus releasing $1.2 billion for each of the five American hostages. A study by the Rand Corporation explains that for decades, American policy has been to refuse paying ransoms to terrorists, viewing such payments as deterrents for future cooperation.

At this rate, the Biden administration will never win a chess game with the Ayatollahs. Successfully playing geopolitical chess requires courage to apply strategic moves, informed by understanding the reality of evil. The Obama/Biden team’s set-up of millions (now billions) in ransom runs the risk of turning American citizens traveling abroad into potential hostages.

Heeding a quote from Andrey Sakharov (1921-1989) would help. The Soviet physicist, later a Nobel Peace prize winner and dissident, made a wise observation about negotiations: “A country which does not respect the rights of its own citizens will not respect the rights of its neighbors.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released its Homeland Threat Assessment for 2024. It contains warnings that foreign terror groups including al-Qaida could be rebuilding—and seeking to target the U.S. again. The huge numbers of what they call “migrants” from many countries have complicated border security. Homeland Security did not mention former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s report in 2017 that the Islamic Republic of Iran has given haven to al-Qaida, a fact established by the 9/11 Commission. With Biden’s wide-open border policy and his own Homeland Security warnings, we must ask ourselves if Iran will use Biden’s policy to harm Americans on our soil.

In his current inconsistent decisions toward the Islamic regime, Biden released a list of 29 sanctions for Iran’s human rights violations on September 15, a day before the first anniversary of the freedom protests (September 16) and in advance of the September 17 release of the five hostages. Ten sanctions are against Iran’s national police, while another eight are against officials of the IRGC.

In a single year, these two groups have murdered more than 600 peaceful Irani protestors and arrested another 22,000. The director of Iran’s prisons, Gholamali Mohammadi, oversees the torture and rape of jailed protesters. He is allegedly sanctioned. It is unclear how or if these sanctions will be enforced or if they are simply sanctions on paper. Protests have not stopped. They have grown since June, numbering more than 4,473 since they began on September 16, 2022.

Nevertheless, there are lights of hope and good news amid the terror against Iranian citizens. The Hudson Institute reported in 2018 that “Christianity is growing faster in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in any other country.” In 2019, an unnamed Iranian church leader commented that “mosques are empty inside Iran.” Author Lela Gilbert reported in The Washington Stand in June that “more than a million new converts—called Muslim Background Believers (MBB)—are reading the Bible for the first time, praying, gathering in small groups, and sharing their new faith … despite the risks.”

The trend is continuing, according to our expert friend Marzi Amirizadeh, who before her imprisonment took huge risks to distribute more than 20,000 Bibles covertly in the dark of night and helped begin several house churches. The seeds of faith that she planted are growing.

We may never know for certain what country invented chess. However, we do know we can count on the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus in these troubled times since He has already defeated the enemy of our souls.

Our CBN Israel team invites you to join us in prayer this week. Let us check our own hearts with these verses in Amos 5:14-15—“Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you just as you say He is. Hate evil. Love good. Maintain justice in the courts.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for strength and protection for Muslim Background Believers (MBB) as they live out their risk-taking faith under the current Iranian regime.
• Pray for the Islamic regime to fall and be replaced by a freedom- focused government benefiting all its people.
• Pray for Iran to again have a leader like ancient Persia’s King Cyrus, who blessed the Jewish people as a tool in God’s hands.
• Pray that the United States Commander-in-Chief will restore security on our southern border.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The Jewish community lights its candles for Shabbat tomorrow evening, September 15, signifying the arrival of the Jewish new year, 5784, for Rosh Hashanah (“Head of the Year”) celebrations. It also marks the beginning of the Days of Awe that end on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, 10 days later. 

Globally, millions of Evangelicals will express genuine greetings especially toward Israel, our spiritual homeland. Delicious apples and honey treats served at the dinner table reflect wishes for a sweet new year. We might adopt a few well-wishes in Hebrew, including Shana tova (“Have a good year”) and Gmar chatima tova (“May you be inscribed in the Book of Life”).

Entering 5784, Israel simultaneously inhabits two contradictory realities. The nation thrives with bold innovations, long-desired alliances in the Abraham Accords, and countries newly locating their embassies in Jerusalem. The covenant-keeping God of Heaven has kept His eternal promises, preserving a Jewish remnant for thousands of years and into their new year 5784. Unfortunately, the waves of hate—and those choosing to ignore facts about the world’s only Jewish state—are still intruding into the chosen people’s history, decisions, and privileged stature as a parliamentary democracy. And some of Israel’s most dangerous security challenges are escalating.

One such challenge can be found in the United States Congress. Last Friday, 15 Democratic senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requesting a phone call. They asked Blinken to stop granting visas to Israelis until Israel makes certain concessions for Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Recent (and long overdue) discussions have been ongoing for a Visa Waiver Program, and a September 30 deadline is looming. In July, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed that allows Israeli citizens to travel to the U.S. without a visa and remain for 90 days. 

In a lead-up pilot program, Israel agreed that Palestinian Americans in the West Bank, as well as Iranian Americans and other Arab Americans, could transit Israel to enter the United States for 90 days without background checks. Right now, Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas seem positive about approving the waiver. A last-ditch effort from a minority in the Democratic Senate caucus accuses Israel of a two-tier system when it comes to Palestinians. This particular group of senators tends to lean toward varying criticisms of Israel, claiming that the Jewish nation discriminates against Palestinian-Americans—ignoring essential facts about Palestinian policies. 

Israeli officials report that during the pilot program, over 12,000 Palestinian Americans living in the West Bank entered Israel under the new regulations within the last two months and several thousand Palestinian Americans who live in the U.S. used the new regulations to land at Ben Gurion Airport. 

However, if Israel must reconsider aspects of the MOU, it is because increased terror is emerging from Palestinian towns emboldened and supplied by Iran’s Islamic regime. As of August 21, 2023 is now the deadliest year for terrorism since the Second Intifada (2000-2005). Thirty-four Israelis—men, women, and children—have been murdered, some simply innocently driving along a highway. These 15 Democratic senators could certainly moderate their positions by recognizing the real terror threats on the ground and remembering that Israel has no Palestinian negotiating partner to help shape a peace plan.

Eighty-seven-year-old Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has refused direct negotiations with Israeli leaders since 2009. Yet Arab refusals began decades ago. For those too young to know or who have forgotten, on November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted for two states, one Arab, one Jewish. Arabs refused the two-state deal. Jews accepted it and established a modern Jewish state on May 14, 1948. Since then, PA leaders have refused several generous offers from some U.S. presidents and Israeli prime ministers. 

Do Palestinian leaders want peace? History says no. For them, it is all or nothing. Elected in 2005, Abbas is still president in his “four-year” term. His civilian population rightly considers him corrupt. He praises Palestinian terrorists as martyrs, names streets after them, donates money to their families, and approves a sewer of hate to flow through Palestinian state media.  

Despite these facts, the letter itself, penned by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), was co-signed by Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tom Carper (D-DE), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Tina Smith (D-MN).

The bottom line is, this letter brings into view Israel’s necessary security reality. First Yassar Arafat, and now Mahmoud Abbas—Arafat’s 40-year terror sidekick—have rejected Israel’s consistent efforts to restart stalled peace talks. Without fail, criticisms also emerge not only from segments of the U.S. Congress, but also from the United Nations, European Union, and others when Israel is forced to defend its civilians. 

In the meantime, I encourage readers to contact these senators to respectfully ask them to reconsider their support for our best ally in the region, Israel? 

Please join CBN Israel this week in prayer for the Jewish nation and people:

• Pray for the U.S. Congress to maintain its highest levels of support for the longstanding U.S.-Israel relationship.
• Pray for the safety of Jewish Israelis during the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
• Pray for vigilance on behalf of Jews in the United States and worldwide.
• Pray for Secretary of State Blinken to cautiously approve the visa agreement mindful of Israel’s security.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Both history and the sacrifice of U.S. military troops are vital proofs to help us understand threats in our world today. Although significant facts may have slipped from the minds of most Americans, our military, their families, and friends have not forgotten the direct, deadly attacks engineered by the Iranian regime for decades.

Forty years ago, a horrific terror attack killed 241 U.S. marines, soldiers, and sailors deployed to Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a multinational peacekeeping force during the Lebanese Civil War. The attack had the highest single-day death toll for the U.S. Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. That day—October 23, 1983—a Hezbollah terrorist financed and armed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps drove a 19-ton Mercedes truck into an American barracks near the Beirut airport. Marines standing guard outside were following the peacetime rules of engagement, which required their guns to be unloaded. The truck plowed through concertina wire and exploded at the barracks while our soldiers slept. Although our military came in peace, it mattered not to the Islamic regime and its proxies. Then, as now, terrorists’ rules of engagement do not value life and freedom as we do in the United States and in Israel.

The Iraq War (2003-2011) is still fresh and painful for American families whose loved ones died or suffered traumatic wounds to mind and body during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Iran’s border with Iraq, stretching for 994 miles, allowed easy access to our heroic American soldiers on the ground.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used “asymmetric (irregular) warfare” against our troops. Using a simply made, deadly mixture that utilizes homemade elements such as fertilizer, gunpowder, and hydrogen peroxide, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are quite versatile. Ranging in size from small pipe bombs to larger, sophisticated devices, IEDs can be hidden in the dirt, thrown from a distance, or placed in cars or inside innocent-looking packages. Tucked out of sight, they can exact massive damage. Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) are roadside bombs that penetrate even armored vehicles. Overall, Iran is responsible—either directly or indirectly—for nearly one out of every six American combat deaths in Iraq.

The number and severity of injuries—and the devastating loss of life—from Operation Iraqi Freedom are heartbreaking, with 4,492 U.S. service members dead and 32,292 wounded. During the Iraq war, American deaths were a cause for elation among Iranian leaders and their elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran has established itself more deeply now in Israel, within Palestinian-run towns right in Israel’s biblical heartland. Remember that the Islamic regime views the United States as the “great satan” and Israel as the “small satan.” Our freedoms and cooperation are closely tied together as targets of the biggest terror-sponsoring state on earth.   

Security threats are tightening around Israel. The Islamic regime’s surrogates surrounding the tiny Jewish State have now implemented the use of IEDs and EFPs to murder Israeli civilians and members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). On 24/7 alert, Israel is already fully engaged in tracking every inch of its borders due to terrorists in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria funded by Iran’s apocalyptic leaders.

Not since the Second Intifada (2000-2005), where terrorists murdered over 1,000 Israelis and injured thousands more, has Israel faced such a growing number of internal dangers. In that uprising, Palestinians enlisted human suicide bombers to kill and maim Israelis. Now IEDs and EFPs are becoming murder weapons for Palestinian terror groups that are banding together, united by hate. Among them are Hamas, the Jenin Lion’s Den, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, IRGC in Syria, and others—inside, outside, and alongside Israel.

Now, the deadly devices can be manufactured in Palestinian towns. Thus, in early July, the IDF were forced to carry out a two-day defensive operation in Jenin to find and remove weapons and manufacturing labs. An example of what they discovered: The IDF located a large weapons cache in tunnels dug within the al-Ansari mosque. During the 48-hour counterterrorism operation, Israeli Ambassador Mike Herzog tweeted: “Over the past two years, Jenin has become a major hub of terrorism and an Iranian stronghold close to Israeli population centers. Most of the terror attacks against Israelis originated from Jenin. No nation would sit idly by as terrorists strike its citizens.”

Stabbings and car rammings are already prevalent, with added cross-border weapons smuggled from terrorists to terrorists. Last week, an IED injured four IDF soldiers. It was set off while the soldiers were securing the entrance for Jewish pilgrims visiting Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem located in Samaria. 

However, two incidents last month make it clear that Iran is also activating its dangerous assaults anywhere possible. Israeli Arab citizens were caught smuggling explosives into Lod, a city in central Israel. Then two large explosives were stopped, this time coming in from Jordan.

Commemorations will take place once again in the United States marking the 40th anniversary of the 241 peacekeepers—service members who were murdered in Lebanon while they slept in their beds. Our great ally Israel has encountered (and will encounter still more) loss, trauma, and burials due to actions sanctioned by the evil Ayatollahs and their surrogates, who applaud when IEDs, EFPs, cars, knives, and guns enable the murder of innocents—even among their own desperate population.

In closing, the Biden administration’s appeasement plan to release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets via Iraq and South Korea empowers Iran. Although those funds are ostensibly to pay Iraq’s gas and electricity debt to Iran—so Iranian gas will keep flowing to Iraqi citizens—the Iranian regime will undoubtedly use that money to do what it’s always done: perpetrate hate and killings and imprisoning its freedom-starved population. For decades, Iran has annually provided roughly $700 million to Hezbollah, $100 million to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and hundreds of millions to IRGC in Iraq and Syria to attack Israelis and Americans. Does the Islamic regime need more money to murder Americans, Israelis, and others?

A fact: Mr. Biden is bypassing Congress despite their Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA). The legislation does not allow the president to issue any “statutory sanctions relief for Iran in connection with any broadly defined agreement … regardless of the form it takes … and regardless of whether it is legally binding or not.”

Although John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, stated that Iran is only using the money for “humanitarian purposes,” the Iranian foreign minister has declared, “The decision on how to utilize these unfrozen resources and financial assets lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Again, history shows American naivete. The relief money will not reach Iran’s desperate population. Instead, it will empower Iran’s terror and its unceasing quest for a nuclear weapon.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us this week to pray by holding fast to Psalm 46:1-3 NIV: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Gold Star families amid their tragic losses.
• Pray for American soldiers wounded in mind and body from traumas of war.
• Pray for Israeli families burying their loved ones to sense comfort and relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus.
• Pray for wisdom for the Biden administration.
• Pray for Americans and Israelis to remain strong together.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Israel’s citizens make up a colorful tapestry of religions and ethnicities, with some two million Arab citizens and more than seven million Jewish citizens who immigrated (made Aliyah) from 112 countries. Most formerly lived in the Diaspora region outside ancient Israel, which began in the sixth century B.C. after the Babylonian exile. Jews were forcibly scattered throughout the world for millennia.

When more Jews began trickling back into their homeland in the 1800s, they brought centuries of prayers with them. Due their deeply grounded spiritual DNA, even in exile they practiced Judaism as best they could and steadfastly proclaimed, “Next Year in Jerusalem.” Their varied languages, foods, and traditions from previous nations were bound together upon arriving in Israel, as they learned and acclimated to Hebrew. Now, they celebrate their freedom in the only Jewish country in the world.

Jews portray many colors of the world, coming as they do from Ethiopia, Asia, Russia, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, the Pacific, and beyond. In fair-skinned, black, or toffee skin tones, they gazed upon their ancestral homeland with blue, black, and brown and green eyes. The indigenous wanderers are home now, full of hopes and dreams that became reality—evidence of promises from the God of their ancestors: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Adding to Israel’s fascinating tapestry are the Druze, one of Israel’s minority social and religious communities. I have wonderful memories spent with Druze after a daylong visit in Bukata, one of 18 Druze villages in Israel’s Golan Heights. A friend arranged for a group of us to visit before the 2019 Government Press Office’s Christian Media Summit began in Jerusalem. So, we boarded a bus and traveled north.

Stepping off the bus after traveling up via breathtaking hairpin turns and taking in the beauty of the Golan, we were greeted warmly by the Bukata Local Council members. First, we celebrated by eating their delicious food spread out on a decorated table in their meeting hall. Then we walked over to the soccer field where they held a game in our honor and presented us with heavy, gold-colored medallions imprinted on both sides—one with Local Council Bukata in Arabic and their flag, and the other side with an Israeli and American flag with the Bukata name in Hebrew. The beribboned lanyard featured blue and white, the colors of Israel’s flag. When the leaders hung them around our necks as the soccer teams competed, I was delighted with their warm expressions of welcome.

The Druze emerged from Islam centuries ago. They speak Arabic but practice their own religion. The Druze are ethnically Arab but do not identify as Palestinians. They are monotheistic, do not proselytize, and allow no outsiders into their religion, contrasting with their open arms of hospitality.

Druze number about 138,000 in Israel. Others live in Lebanon and Syria. One English-speaking Druze commented that they live in the Golan Heights in three bordering countries yet near each other—within “shouting distance,” like an extended family. The Israeli Druze fare much better in Israel than under the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon and the Iran-controlled regime in Syria.

Israel has offered Druze citizenship since 1980. Nevertheless, Druze have maintained a strong relationship with Syrian Druze. In a Times of Israel article last year, “As ties to Syria fade, Golan Druze increasingly turning to Israel for citizenship,” it reports an excellent summary of the ins and outs of Druze dissatisfaction with Israel. Yet within their philosophy is a concept called taqiyya, which calls them to be loyal to the country in which they live.

Applications for citizenship are increasing though because Syria—since 2011—has fragmented into a disaster under President Assad and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The article mentions that currently 20 percent of Druze are Israeli citizens, and the remainder are Permanent Residents.

Israel does not require Arabs to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), although they may choose to do so. Like Jews, though, Druze are required to serve after reaching the age of 18 while Druze women do not serve. At Israel’s 75th Independence Day ceremony last April, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog honored 120 members from the three branches of the IDF and their families at the president’s official residence. In his speech, Herzog referred to pre-state Israel, saying, “We were, and still are, like dreamers,” telling the honorees that they represent the realization of that dream. He closed his heartfelt remarks by voicing the reality that “We could not have done any of this if we hadn’t done it all together!” Each soldier received medals, certificates, and scholarships, including Jews, Arabs, ultra-Orthodox, and yes, Druze who often serve in elite and combat units.

I enjoyed another encounter with a Druze representative in a memorable event also in the Golan Heights. Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) initiated a history-making proclamation ceremony for 120 of us in Christian media from 30 nations. The event was moderated by Eric Stakelbeck, TBN’s host of The Watchman, who highlighted the unity among three faiths: Christianity, Judaism, and Druze. Representatives included David Parsons, vice president and senior spokesman for International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, and Aharon Eisental, chief rabbi of Hispin Village. The trio also included a Druze representative, Sheik Salim Abu Salach.

One of the GPO staff offered her own, original heartfelt prayer: “Our Father in heaven, Rock and Redeemer of Israel and Jerusalem, bless the Golan Heights and those who seek its peace and send blessings and success to all their work. Envelop us in Your peace, bestow eternal happiness to the inhabitants of our land. Remove war and bloodshed from the world and bequeath a great and wondrous peace from heaven. ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore’” [Isaiah 2:4].

This prayer is currently very much needed, especially in the Druze community, as I conclude with a sorrowful, shocking event.

Last week, four Druze were shot to death in northern Israel’s Abu Snan, a majority-Druze town. One of the four victims was Ghazi Sa’ab, who was running for mayor and was a former IDF and Border Police officer. The quadruple murders come amid an internal Arab crime wave that has already taken the lives of 157 Arabs this year. One hundred forty-eight killed were Arab Israelis. Earlier this week, Israel’s Shin Bet and police met with Arab leaders who are demanding action in what is thought to be organized Arab crime.

I invite you to join our CBN Israel team to pray with hope for the day when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

Prayer Points:

• Pray for the Druze community who are suffering the grief of shocking murders.
• Pray for the Druze, a minority who are loyal to Israel, having sacrificed more lives relative to their small population than all the others. 
• Pray for practical solutions to stem the tidal wave of crime against Arab Israelis.
• Pray for Israel’s security personnel who are already under intense stress from enemies that have sworn to destroy them.
• Pray for Israel and our world to acknowledge the blessed hope that our Lord offers through His sacrificial love.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

Although there has been some friction in the past over issuing visas to Christian organizations and clergy, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) and Israel’s Ministry of Interior have quietly settled those issues behind the scenes. However, the Interior Ministry’s recent surprising move to deny essential visas to ICEJ—a prominent international Christian organization home based in Israel—is now out in the open. 

ICEJ’s Vice President and senior spokesman, David Parsons, explained that the Interior Ministry refused to issue visas during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he’s concerned because the rejections have now expanded into three years. Parsons comments, “We finally had to go public, and they are saying now we are not a religious organization.”

Since its founding in 1980, ICEJ has been registered as a religious organization. The hopes are that an upcoming hearing will expose a bureaucratic mistake, followed by a possible reversal. Israeli law clearly confirms that the decisions of the Ministry of Interior require that granting or denying visas must be based on correct, reasonable facts without bias.

Parsons described the results if the decision is not reversed: “We are slowly being squeezed out of existence by the Interior Ministry. We cannot continue our vital work to build global Christian support for Israel under these strict new rules.” No explanation is forthcoming yet to ICEJ. Moshe Arbel, interior minister in the Knesset, would do well to seriously reconsider several deeply troubling consequences of its damaging decision. Arbel must pay attention to the relational damage toward dedicated Christian staff and 600 million evangelicals worldwide who financially support a range of respected Christian ministries and media in the Holy Land. 

Using the concept of return on investment (ROI), the Shas religious party’s ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Arbel might consider an evaluation of the economic and humanitarian benefits to Israel from ICEJ and numerous other respected Christian organizations in Israel. One fact to note is explained in an article written by American Rabbi Dr. Daniel Friedman. He explores the concept, “Is It Permissible to Accept Charity from Christians?” He estimates that American Christians donate “hundreds of millions of dollars to both Christian and Jewish charities in Israel.”  

Here is what Interior Minister Arbel would discover about ICEJ if he were to examine its past actions:  

In 1980, ICEJ drove a stake in the ground through prayer and established a Christian embassy. The Knesset had officially declared Israel’s sovereignty over all of Jerusalem on July 30, 1980, enacting Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel. Abandoning biblical history and Israel’s sovereign decision-making rights, nations (including the U.S.) reacted by relocating their embassies from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. The minimally funded founders of ICEJ, who met in a small, cramped Jerusalem office, made the decision to stand with Israel in Jerusalem—Israel’s eternal capital. 

Now in its 43rd year, ICEJ has offices in 93 countries, and an immeasurable humanitarian imprint on the ground in Israel. Israel’s citizens—Jews, Arabs, Druze, Ethiopians, and more—benefit from ICEJ staff and volunteers in numerous outreaches throughout Israel. Aiding women in crisis, distributing food, and improving children’s homes, ICEJ’s merciful work with Holocaust survivors is also essential in the waning days of their lives.  

Sadly, a quarter of Israel’s 165,000 Holocaust survivors live in poverty. Ninety percent of survivors are above 80 years old. Illness and loneliness are rampant. ICEJ provides food and friendship with in-person visits—especially to those living alone. CBN Israel also carries out an active ministry to Holocaust survivors in need. In 2009 ICEJ—partnering with a local Jewish charity—founded the Haifa Home for Holocaust Survivors, which provides assisted living and a loving staff. ICEJ has also established an emergency call line for Holocaust survivors in crisis. 

Another lifesaving achievement implemented by ICEJ, with the financial commitment of churches and individuals worldwide, is the placement of more than 150 portable bomb shelters manufactured in Israel that protect Israeli civilians under fire from Gaza terrorists. ICEJ’s efforts have also resulted in more than 160,000 Jews immigrating (making Aliyah) to their ancestral homeland from all over the world. ICEJ works closely with the Jewish Agency for Israel and many other organizations in this massive effort. Isaiah 49:22 NIV captures the spirit of Aliyah—“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.” 

I daresay Rabbi Moshe Arbel, interior minister, would not want to slow down the arrival of Jews to their homeland based on God’s promises in Isaiah 49:22. But with visas presently denied, the number of staff and volunteers is reduced—and Israelis go wanting without the love and help that Christians provide. How will the Ministry of Interior overcome such a shortfall? 

Additionally, the Christian media presence inside and outside Israel is an important factor that Interior Minister Arbel hopefully will consider. As a Christian journalist, I have attended several Christian Media Summits hosted by Israel’s Government Press Office. At both summits, in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s keynotes, he praised Evangelicals and Christian media in glowing terms. He described Christian media as “Ambassadors of truth—you’re not merely the greatest ambassadors that Israel has around the world—you’re champions of truth.”

ICEJ is among respected Christian media worldwide that report news, educational resources, and truths about Israel. It also hosts tours, and annually implements the biggest tourist event in Israel, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). Upwards of 5,000 evangelicals worldwide travel to Israel each year for weeklong celebrations. Their presence is not only an economic boon; it is an outflow of encouragement to Jewish families lining Jerusalem’s streets during Israel’s Parade of Nations. This year’s celebration, held September 29 through October 6, has the theme King of All the Earth.

ICEJ—and many other fine Christian ministries in Israel, worldwide Christian media, and Evangelicals—are what I call “information armies of facts.” We stand as a bulwark—with God’s help, strength, and wisdom—to oppose the poisonous propaganda of Israel’s enemies. 

May Rabbi Moshe Arbel and Israel’s Interior Ministry view us all as friends who will continue to exert prayers and actions on behalf of Israel’s diverse population. 

CBN Israel staff welcome you to join us in prayer this week: 

• Pray for ICEJ and all Christian ministries in Israel for visa approvals. 
• Pray that Rabbi Moshe Arbel will accept the sincere friendship of Christians and restored cooperation.
• Pray that we as Christians will react to these challenges in a way that honors our Lord. 
• Pray for Christian ministry personnel, their strength, shalom, and blessings. 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

The United Nations General Assembly is prepping for its annual meeting, which opens on September 5. Israel remains high on its agenda—expressly in meetings conducted by the Human Rights Council and their star pupil, the Commission of Inquiry. Although the UN purports to be fair, the Human Rights Council has exhibited a clear pattern of singling out and targeting the world’s only Jewish state.

Israel receives “special” treatment from the Human Rights Council, since it is the only nation where a human rights inquiry lasts forever! Now with 193 members, the United Nations has undergone an unwelcome transformation—distorting truth with artificial “facts”—ever since it voted favorably for the Partition Plan on November 29, 1947. Six months later, this resolution resulted in votes for Israel’s modern statehood on May 14, 1948—which took place 75 years ago. History tells us that Israel’s leaders accepted the partition plan while Arab leaders rejected it. It is indeed unfortunate that Arabs rejected statehood for their population and instead chose hatred and war as a substitute. 

On the two dates mentioned above—November 29, 1947, and May 14, 1948—the United Nations played a critical role in helping to fulfill prophecy, voting to return their ancestral homeland to the Jews, its indigenous people. The UN had no idea that God in His sovereignty enlisted the Jewish people as vessels to enact Isaiah 66:8 NIV—“Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.” 

Let’s take a look at how the Commission of Inquiry (COI) was formed. On May 27, 2021, a Palestinian and Pakistani delegation requested a special session about “the Grave Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.” The delegation represented a coalition of Islamic states—the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—with a membership of 57 countries on four continents. 

Heading up the COI is South African Judge Navi Pillay, who lugs her anti-Israel biases into Commission meetings. She has frequently slandered Israel, calling it an “apartheid state,” and lobbied governments to “sanction apartheid Israel.” One of Pillay’s most glaring actions occurred when she convened the 2009 Durban II conference in Geneva, Switzerland. She welcomed former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to spew his anti-Israel poison. Thankfully most democracies boycotted the Durban II. Ms. Pillay saw apartheid firsthand in her home country, which was itself cruelly apartheid. 

I do not know if Ms. Pillay has visited Israel. If so, has she met with any of the thousands of Ethiopian Jews airlifted to freedom by Israel? Has she met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly to question his policy of establishing hate filled anti-Israel media? Has she visited factories in Israel’s Barkan Industrial Park to see thousands of Palestinians working alongside Jews, all who receive equal pay—and some holding management positions?

The COI’s latest report in a June 2023 session of the UN Human Rights Council reveals that not one Palestinian terrorist or terrorist organization was mentioned. Not one. Months later, after a contentious COI meeting in November, during an interview with Israel’s i24 News Ms. Pillay claimed, “I’m 81 years old and this is the first time I’ve been accused of anti-Semitism.” Her comment was aimed in part at Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, who vigorously questioned her impartiality and accused Pillay and the COI of “Jew hatred,” blatant anti-Semitism, and being part of a “terror-supporting Commission.” 

In meetings, Pillay seemed shocked that Erdan and 18 member states spoke out in a debate describing the Commission of Inquiry as biased against Israel after a COI Report. It was the first time in decades that such bias was leveled—a much-needed change! The United States weighed in, stating that it remained “deeply concerned about the creation of the Commission of Inquiry … [and its] unwieldy scope. We also reaffirm our condemnation of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias.” 

Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to hold the United Nations accountable to its founding principles. Appearing before the U.S. Congress last June, Neuer highlighted proofs of anti-Semitism. During that appearance, he eloquently pointed out: “While dictators are honored, a democracy is scapegoated. The only country in the world with a standing agenda item at the Council is not China, which denies basic human rights to 1.5 billion people, nor is it Iran which beats, blinds, and poisons women and girls for protesting. It is Israel.”

UN Watch is a valuable news source for those who want to learn more about the UN’s outright bias against the world’s only Jewish state. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was established in 2006 and its anti-Israel record is statistically revealing. As examples, they have passed 14 resolutions on Iran, 16 on North Korea, 42 on Syria, and fewer resolutions on other countries. Yet they denounced Israel in 103 resolutions—more than Iran, North Korea, and Syria combined.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) defines the COI as “wanting to launch a global dragnet for the guardians, builders, and defenders of the Jewish state.” Now more than ever, Israel needs its evangelical guardians and defenders at the United Nations. 

With facts provided by UN Watch, Christians have an opportunity to advocate for Israel. Using this link, Sign up | CiviCRM (unwatch.org), you will know what is happening and can act by signing important petitions disseminated by UN Watch from time to time. We cannot underestimate the small steps when thousands of us are united to oppose the Jew hatred rampant in the United Nations! 

Ultimately, we are often assured in the Bible that Israel rests in the sovereign Hands of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus. Nevertheless, we honor Him by acting on behalf of Israel—a land and a people that He chose to transmit the Old and New Testaments and come to earth through Jewish lineage. Let us stand with Israel, our spiritual homeland, in prayer, facts, and actions.  

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us this week to pray for Israel with hope by reading God’s promises in Ezekiel 37:21-22 (NIV): “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.” 

Prayer Points: 

• Pray for the current 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council, which includes China, Cuba, and Pakistan.  
• Pray for COI’s chairperson, Navi Pillay, to have a change of heart toward Israel. 
• Pray for Christians to actively pursue education on how to advocate for Israel, including UN Watch.  

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is one of Israel’s most important visitor destinations. Walking through the museum is a near-indescribable revelation, one that is displayed in heart-wrenching detail. Some might say “heart wrenching” because it is a walk-through hell—a hell that might be hard for non-Jews to fathom. Yet a visit to this place is fundamental to helping us understand the emotional DNA of the Jewish people. Millennia of Jew hatred manifested itself unspeakably in the Holocaust (Shoah)—and intensified Jews’ determination to live life to the fullest while guarding their ancestral homeland.

I visited Yad Vashem on nine separate occasions during the years I served as Southeast Regional Christian Outreach Director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC strengthens the mutually beneficial U.S.-Israel relationship with Congress on a bipartisan basis. Yad Vashem always appeared on AIPAC’s American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF) Educational Seminar itinerary. At the end of each guided tour, I gathered our Christian leaders to walk a few steps over to the railing that looks out over the beautiful Jerusalem Forest. The serenity of this lovely view and the fresh air helped them deal with the shock of what they had seen, their voices silent, some with tears falling, as they attempted to process what they had just heard and seen. 

Gently drawing them into a circle, I quietly mentioned the familiar watch phrase “Never Again,” which they could now deeply understand. I encouraged them to adopt this profound declaration into their prayers and actions. One of the pastors offered a prayer that I had privately requested earlier. Each person felt free to speak their hearts or pray. In the nine different Christian leadership groups I staffed, I also invited our Jewish tour guide to join the circle. Afterward, the guides expressed to me their heartfelt reactions to the Christians’ comments.

I prepared my groups as best I could for their next steps, which led to the nearby Children’s Memorial. They entered the space in silence, feeling for the railing as they walked along in a deep darkness lit only by simulated candlelight. With each step, a recorded voice read out names of 1,500 Jewish children whom the Nazis murdered. Their names echo in our memories, never to be forgotten.

Part of a Yad Vashem visit includes strolling along the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations (Hassidei Umot Haolam) honoring the courage, selflessness, and extraordinary risks of Gentiles who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Located on 45 acres of forest and groves in the Jerusalem hills, Yad Vashem was dedicated on Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 1, 1962. Foreign Minister Golda Meir (who later served as Israel’s Prime Minister) spoke on that occasion. She poignantly described the non-Jews as “drops of love in an ocean of poison.” Among the now more than 28,000 Righteous Gentiles are three Christians I especially want to mention: Corrie ten Boom of the Netherlands, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, and the only American soldier recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in World War II, U.S. Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds. 

Walking through Yad Vashem, I concluded early on that shock is a necessary wake-up call for Christians. At the least, an acquaintance with Holocaust history in a two- or three-hour tour of Yad Vashem is ample motivation to commit to proactive support for Jewish citizens both in Israel and worldwide—especially amid Jew hatred that is intensifying once again.

 Visiting Yad Vashem or learning about it online has enormous value; it is an essential resource for evangelicals to advocate for Israel. The Yad Vashem Law was officially passed by the Knesset in 1953, which voted “to collect, examine, and publish testimony of the disaster and the heroism it called forth.” For the heart of Yad Vashem’s name, ‘a name and a memorial,’ is drawn from Isaiah 56:5: “And to them will I give in My house and within My walls a memorial and a name … that shall not be cut off.”

The Yad Vashem Law was preceded by a horrific dream in 1942. Mordechai Shenhavi, a Zionist, had made Aliyah to pre-state Israel from Odessa on January 2, 1919. Although news about the Nazi deportation of Jews to death camps was scant during World War II, what little he knew kept Mordechai awake at night. In August 1942 he had a nightmare that made him determined to remember the names of those murdered in the Holocaust. In frequent meetings with various groups, he explained his vision with detailed ideas.

Four years later, Shenhavi recounted his dream to Vaad ha-Leumi at the National Council. “Fearing that my feelings might be mistaken, I saw all those millions in a dream. I didn’t know then that it was six million. Those millions walked toward Zion with monuments on their shoulders. Can you imagine the length of that chain, the faces of those people, carrying the flame of life? … They chose one place for themselves, lay down the monuments, and placed them there in an orderly or disorderly manner. The monument to their lives, the monument of testimony, was established.”

Shenhavi’s goal, “Remembrance of Our Suffering for Building Our Future,” finally led to the Yad Vashem Law in 1953. He lived to see his dream come true when the cornerstone of the Yad Vashem building was laid in western Jerusalem on July 29, 1954. Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek honored Shenhavi as a Distinguished Citizen of Jerusalem. Shenhavi died in 1983 at his kibbutz, Mishmar ha-Emeq, at the age of 82. The new expanded museum that I often visited was dedicated on March 15, 2005.

Today, may we emulate the shining, brave examples of Mordechai Shenhavi’s persistence to envision Yad Vashem and the heroic stories of the righteous non-Jewish rescuers. Around one million people visit Yad Vashem annually, and millions more visit its website, www.YadVashem.org, with content available in eight languages in addition to Hebrew and English. With prayer and action, let us educate ourselves to stand up for the rights of the Jews in their ancient homeland and recognize the Jewishness of our Savior who has redeemed us with His sacrificial love. 

Please join CBN Israel this week in prayer: 

• Pray that Christian advocacy for Israel would grow and expand to new levels.  
• Pray for every Christian tour group to add Yad Vashem to its itinerary. 
• Pray for determined believers to spread facts about Israel through trusted news sources like CBN News and CBN Israel.
• Pray for Christians to deepen their education through valuable experiences and resources offered through Yad Vashem. 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

A heat wave is hovering over many parts of the globe, and the words food insecurity are popping up like unwelcome weeds. Although we cannot control the weather, we can take sensible steps to protect the earth and help poor nations to survive. Israel pioneered survivor solutions even before God established its modern state in 1948. Jews began returning to their ancestral homeland in the 19th century—and when they stepped on the shores of their native land, they got underway with backbreaking work in the desolate, mostly arid region. The early Jewish pioneers faced daily battles with the adversaries of malaria, mosquitos, and minimal resources. 

Hanson Ely, a decorated World War I general, made a statement about military battles that also applies to Israel’s agricultural pioneering—and to all of life’s challenges: “Men must be trained that when they have been in battle for days and nights, when perhaps they have been badly handled by the enemy and have had heavy casualties, yet when the signal comes to go they will go again to the limit of their endurance. … It is the last five percent of the possible exertion that often wins the battle … not the first attack nor the second or the third, but it was that last straggling fourth attack. … Battles are won by remnants, remnants of units, remnants of material, remnants of morale, remnants of intellectual effort.” 

The Bible’s Old Testament frequently mentions the word and concepts of a remnant. Isaiah 37:31-32 predicted that, “Once more, a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” 

Against all odds, the early Jewish remnants of the Diaspora—the five percent, so to speak—resulted in Israel (despite its small size) creating outsized food and water innovations for its own population and providing food and water solutions worldwide. Today, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv rank an enviable fourth in the world for agriculture technology (AgTech) startups. 

The following examples show that Israel simultaneously makes its own land bloom and benefits other countries and businesses. Dganit Vered, CEO of Smart Agro Fund, explains that 350 Israeli ag-tech startups lead the world in precision irrigation, wastewater reuse, and seed breeding. The CEO’s name is fitting; dganit is a flower that grows near grain fields, and vered is a rose. 

CEO Vered cites PepsiCo, which uses N-Drip—an Israeli gravity-powered micro irrigation system in 60 countries to grow 25 different crops. Among other benefits, N-Drip improves the efficiency of water in PepsiCo’s seven million acres of farmland and gives jobs to more than 250,000 people in its agricultural supply chain. This applies both to farmers with one-acre plots and those with huge farms. 

Founded in 1965 and pioneered at Kibbutz Hatzerim, Netafim irrigation took hold across the world, with 5,000 employees in 110 countries. Its drip irrigation has been used in over 10 million hectares (nearly 25 million acres) of land. Before it was sold in 2017, Netafim had produced over 150 billion drippers. More than two million farmers benefitted across the globe, whether with potatoes in Italy, sugar cane in Mexico, tomatoes in Azerbaijan, melons in Vietnam, or corn in the United States. General estimates indicate that Israeli drip irrigation technology uses 70 percent less water and increases harvests by 150 percent over traditional irrigation methods.

Another innovation addresses the endangered bee population. Israeli beekeepers developed BeeHero, matching beekeeping with technology. Using year-round SmartHive sensors, it vastly improves pollination and thus naturally aids in the growth of trees and flowers. Estimates show that the SmartHives have pollinated more than six million trees and 90 billion flowers over 45,000 acres. As pollinators, bees are essential for the world’s food supply. 

Nuri Awel, an Ethiopian farmer, shares a superb story about Israel’s Fair Planet, a project that provides seeds, cutting-edge technology, and training to small farmers. The Ethiopian farmer at first hesitated to take advantage of the offered training, but after the seeds produced high-quality plants, the Israeli non-profit won a big fan! Nuri’s tomato crop doubled on his 1,000-square-meter plot (about a quarter of an acre). The increase and training enabled him to fix his home and send his son to college. He now buys his own seeds and has tripled the output of his crop. 

When pioneers first immigrated (made Aliyah) to pre-state Israel to farm the land, they populated it with agricultural communes (kibbutzim). Kibbutzim remain important today. Israel’s desert farmers have cultivated their land with peppers, flowers, olive trees, and more. Uri Yogev, at Kibbutz Revivim in the southern Negev, decided to use brackish water to grow olive trees, which usually grow in plentiful rain and rich soil. After five years, his olive grove is the biggest in Israel and the only one in the world that’s cultivated with salt water. It now yields 200 tons of olives annually. 

Israeli ingenuity is thriving in agricultural innovations both large and small. Their resourcefulness is proof of what Albert Einstein once said: “In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity.” Israelis have used their “share” of 24/7 crisis and now lead the world in opportunities and innovation. It is my hope that Israel’s accusers and detractors will join the many communities and countries across the world that are grateful for Israeli agricultural and water innovations. 

Join our CBN Israel team this week by reflecting on Zephaniah 2:7 NIV, which affirms this fact: “That land will belong to the remnant of the people of Judah; there they will find pasture. In the evening they will lie down in the houses of Ashkelon. The LORD their God will care for them; he will restore their fortunes.” 

Prayer Points: 

• Pray with thanks for the Israeli example of using a crisis to create something good.
• Pray for leaders to use wise, productive ways to manage God’s beautiful earth.
• Pray especially for the world’s poor, who suffer the most from lack of food.   
• Pray that helpful agricultural techniques might be managed with integrity. 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

“I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists. … I will tear their bodies into little pieces and cause them more pain than they will ever know.” 

–Palestinian Arab boy, age 11 

How did such deep hatred become lodged in the mind of a child—a boy whose goal in life is to become a suicide bomber? The answer is chilling: Starting at an early age, Palestinian Arab youth are intentionally filled with the lethal mindset of victimhood and glorified martyrdom. Although not every Palestinian subscribes to such a hateful mindset, the culture is overflowing with disturbing role models. 

Palestinian teachers assign students to write poetry that glorifies slaughter. Community leaders and parents use their children as political pawns. The goal is twofold: To encourage these young people to commit violence against Israel and all Jews. And to blame Israel for any Palestinian deaths, thus fomenting worldwide hatred toward the Jewish state. 

Global mainstream media sustains its biased outlook, which repeatedly ignores context and history and seems to ignore articles and documents that appear in Arabic. 

Nevertheless, other respected organizations help remedy this problem with facts. Founded in 1996, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) is a non-profit Israeli institute that closely monitors Arab sources via a team of fluent Arabic translators, then researches and publishes the facts in English. Their research institute features in-depth exploration of the entire Palestinian culture.

For that reason, I am including several examples of PMW’s translations from Arabic sources. Reading the viewpoints of Palestinians themselves confirms how relentless hatred can influence thoughts, emotions, choices, and behaviors. The words and beliefs expressed are chilling:

A mother: “My son, we were not created for happiness. In my eyes, you are meant for Martyrdom! … Our weapon is our Islam, and our ammunition is our children. And you, O my son, are meant for Martyrdom.” Official Fatah Facebook page, November 22, 2019.

A boy: “For you, Yasser Arafat [1929–2004, former PLO chief], for you we shall die. … Our blood is food for the revolution.” Official PA TV, Jan. 6, 2017.

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: “Palestinian women are not like any other women in the world. … They view their children as insignificant compared to the homeland.” Abbas Zaki’s Facebook, April 29, 2021. (Note: Fatah is the political and military organization within the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It is led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.) 

Father of “Martyr” Muhammad Mar’i: “My son died as a Martyr, and Allah be praised that he died as a Martyr. I am proud of his Martyrdom-death.” Official PA TV, June 29, 2022.

Palestinian journalist Muhammad Al-Baz: “Today we [the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate committee] are sending a message that the top priority of the Palestinian journalist is loyalty to all the Martyrs, loyalty to our people’s just cause.” Official PA TV News, May 23, 2023. 

It is important to note that authoritarian Palestinian leadership often threatens journalists to follow its propaganda protocols. One Arab journalist bravely wrote, “What kind of independence is built on the blood of children while the leaders are safe and so are their children and grandchildren? Are only the miserable destined to die in the spring of their lives?” 

Finally, here’s an example from a girls’ high school in the Palestinian town of Qalqilya in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Schoolgirls held a ceremony of remembrance for Khairy Alqam, the 21-year-old Arab terrorist who on January 27 of this year murdered six Israelis and a Ukrainian national and injured five others. A Jerusalem resident, the terrorist shot the civilians as they exited their Ateret Avraham synagogue on Shabbat in Jerusalem. Alqam jumped in his car and raced away, shooting at Israeli police—who then made sure he had no other murderous opportunities. This senseless slaughter occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

On October 24, 2018, PMW founder Itamar Marcus wrote an op-ed titled, “The Worst Chapter in Palestinian Schoolbooks.” This chapter, which promotes terrorism by sending the message that murderous young Palestinian “heroes” are never forgotten, is read by fifth graders. Five years later, nothing has changed. Nothing, despite repeated requests from the EU and the U.S. to remove hate from Palestinian schoolbooks. 

In his op-ed, Marcus mentions the individual he considers one of the worst terrorists listed: a female mass murderer, PLO terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. In 1978 she led her squad in the Coastal Road Massacre, hijacking a bus filled with civilians—murdering 25 adults and 12 children. The PA Ministry of Education honored Mughrabi by naming five schools and sporting events after her. 

Marcus ends his op-ed with this heartbreaking reality for Palestinian children: “If it weren’t scary enough for the children to be told they must go out and kill, PA educators teach them that ‘heroes’ are willing to fearlessly die as martyrs.” The educators add that if students don’t enact this heroic behavior, they will be scorned as cowards. In the mind of a child, it translates thus: “If I am not willing to kill Israelis and be a martyr, then I am a coward.” Now the “martyrs” live on in school curriculums, summer camps for children, Palestinian universities, and streets named after them.

In the past four years, the European Union Parliament has passed resolutions against the incitement to terrorism that’s contained in Palestinian textbooks. The Times of Israel reported that for the first time—on May 11, 2023—the EU resolution directly linked PA textbooks and “attacks by young people” with funds for Palestinian terrorism. The EU demands removal of anti-Semitic content, indicating that the Palestinian Authority otherwise faces EU’s reduced support. As the EU is the Palestinian Authority’s largest donor, that got their attention.

Then, on May 12, 2023, the U.S. Congress reintroduced and passed a bipartisan bill requiring the U.S. Secretary of State to submit detailed annual reports regarding anti-Semitic content in Palestinian educational material. 

Previously, in 2018, the U.S. Congress passed the Taylor Force Act to prevent the Palestinian “pay for slay” payments to the families of terrorist “martyrs.” In March 2023, the Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act was expanded for the Treasury Department to stop foreign banks from servicing and promoting payments for acts of terrorism. Particular thanks to Republican House member Doug Lamborn and to Senator Tom Cotton, who introduced companion legislation in the Senate, followed by bipartisan support for this significant action to disable the evil Palestinian Pay for Slay policy.

In closing, slowly read a devastating message of child abuse from Hamas, an Iranian proxy. In Israel’s biblical heartland, Hamas has set up schools beginning at the preschool level. Posters appear in the hallways announcing, “The children of the kindergarten are the shaheeds [Arabic martyrs] of tomorrow.”

As Christians, we must guard our own hearts, even when we feel righteous anger about evil, as we read in Ephesians 4:31 NIV—“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”

Please join CBN Israel in prayer this week:

• Pray for Palestinian children who are abused though hatred.  
• Pray for Palestinian leaders to remove Jew hatred from their schoolbooks.
• Pray for Christians to reach out to Arab Christians who suffer under the PA rule.
• Pray for the United States, EU, and United Nations to reduce or remove funding from the PA if they do not remove hatred from their textbooks. 
• Pray for Palestinian Media Watch for their important work to save Palestinian children from their leaders. 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

He’s not usually known for truthfulness, but in June Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei tweeted an honest, straightforward statement about what he considers the golden key for his homicidal proxies in Israel. “The continually growing authority of resistance groups in the West Bank is the key to bringing the Zionist enemy to its knees, and this of course must be continued.” 

That’s a statement we should take seriously. Also in June, a more than two-billion-dollar work-around by President Biden came to light. It amounts to a windfall for Khamenei to bolster Iran-backed terror in Jenin, a lawless Palestinian city located in Israel’s biblical heartland. Reuters reported on June 10 that in secret, Biden worked to unfreeze an economic sanction and authorized the transfer of $2.7 billion to Iran via Iraq, which owes Iran for electricity and gas imports, in order to secure the freedom of American prisoners held by Iran.

Although the Islamic regime’s Khamenei possesses his terror key, our U.S. Congress uses its powerful key of legislation to unlock doors of opposition to the world’s biggest terror-sponsoring nation. For decades, both Democrats and Republicans have implemented successful legislation that has benefitted both the U.S. and Israel. Current and past members of Congress are sounding the alarm. Among them is former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who is now the chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran. He remains a champion of Israel’s safety. 

Lieberman wrote a blistering article on July 10 that called Biden’s Iran policy “a dangerous folly.” He urged Congress to intervene, describing Biden’s reckless diplomacy as “trying to bargain with a poisonous snake” and stating it “will not end well.” Lieberman referenced a 2015 piece of legislation giving Congress the authority to stop senseless agreements with Iran. 

He highlighted passage of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), which a big bipartisan majority in Congress voted in support of—400 in the House of Representatives and 98 senators. The simple explanation is that a president—within five days after reaching an agreement with Iran about its nuclear program—must submit a series of reports to Congress for review by leaders and lawmakers on the key committees. Congress then has power to prevent the president from suspending existing statutory sanctions against Iran. Clearly, Biden has already violated INARA by unfreezing a sanction, which then allowed the recent Iraqi payment to Iran. 

Lieberman explains that part of the Biden work-around is to call any Iran outreach an “understanding,” not an “agreement.” Apparently, Biden thinks this gives him an out. However, INARA is written to cover any language, whether an understanding or an agreement. Mr. Lieberman commends House Republican Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul for sending Biden and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, public letters warning them to comply with INARA and requiring Biden negotiators to answer questions in a congressional hearing.

However, Biden’s Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, is being investigated for mishandling classified information. Malley’s security clearance is presently suspended, and he is on unpaid leave. He was disastrously deceived—along with former Secretary of State John Kerry—into thinking that Iran is trustworthy amid the Obama/Biden negotiations for the 2015 Iran deal. Biden then chose to keep Malley on board to pursue yet another deal using the same failed viewpoints and strategies. 

In addition to Mike McCaul’s letter, 26 Senators—14 Republicans, 11 Democrats, and one Independent—sent a letter to Biden. The bipartisan group is urging the president to drop any useless agreements that reward Iran and focus instead on robust deterrence of the terror-promoting Islamic regime. 

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is busy working with the U.S. Congress in a Summer Policy Blitz. It includes legislation to pressure the Islamic regime with sanctions on Iran’s oil sales to China and its drone and missile shipments to Russia. The blitz also focuses on passing legislation that could directly threaten the U.S. Iran has the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. The expiration date for the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 2231 missile restrictions) expires in October 2023. Eventually, ICBMs could reach the U.S. homeland. Christians who care about U.S. and Israel’s safety can make a difference by contacting AIPAC, which makes it quick and easy to email your members of Congress with an Action Alert for these two vital laws to protect United States and Israel, our spiritual homeland.

Since 2021, Biden’s zeal for another Iran deal has already wasted energies in various meetings held in Vienna, Oman, and other locations. The European Union brokered some talks on behalf of the U.S. since Iran refused to meet directly with Americans. The perceived weak leadership on the part of the U.S. only further emboldens the Islamic regime’s Ayatollahs. Iran donates $100 million yearly to Jenin’s terror enclaves in Gaza and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). 

Israel’s military was forced to act after it was determined that Iran’s terrorists were murdering a rising number of Israeli civilians. Unless and until the Biden administration realizes that Iran routinely lies, its members may not listen to the U.S. Congress, which is ultimately in charge of approving or denying spending. The history of U.S. negotiations with the Islamic regime is proof enough that Iran’s governing body is unreliable. Isaiah 5:20-21 is a fitting description for those who do not recognize evil. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”

In closing, I quote a perspective by former Senator Lieberman: “The brave [Iranian] protesters are not chanting for a nuclear deal with the United States. They are calling for the end of the Islamic Republic. The freedom fighters in Iran are America’s allies.” Amen, Mr. Lieberman!

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us for this week’s prayers for Israel and the U.S., applying this psalm to congressional leaders working together to advocate for Israel. Psalm 133:1 reminds us, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”

Prayer Points: 

• Pray with thanks for the U.S. Congress’s laws that benefit the U.S.-Israel relationship. 
• Pray that the Biden administration will heed congressional warnings about Iran.
• Pray that the U.S. Congress remains a staunch ally of Israel, the land God calls His. 
• Pray with thanks for leaders like Joe Lieberman who remain wise and committed. 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her part-time as Outreach Director for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, guest columnist at All Israel News, and has frequently traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a board member for Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on Facebook.