ARTICLES

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

For Purim, the Feast of Esther, Israelis have already prepared for one of their most joyous holidays. On the Hebrew calendar year, 5784 in the month of Adar, the celebration will commence at sundown on March 24 and end at nightfall on March 25. Purim is greeted in religious and secular contexts with street parties, costumes worn by adults and children, and synagogues filled to capacity.

Israelis will take a festival breather from their ongoing national five-month trauma, whether reading the Megillah—Esther’s ten chapters—or fasting, feasting, attending parties and parades, and giving gifts to charities and children. Purim holds the promise of celebrating victories over enemies. It is a Jewish way to affirm life.

During the first Purim since October 7, 2023, the “Hamans” in the Middle East—Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran—should take notice. Israel is alive and standing strong!

Haman, of course, was the genocidal, power-hungry propagandist who hated the Jews exiled in the Persian empire. In the dramatic book of Esther, he was considered as a prime minister in the empire of King Xerxes (also called Ahasuerus) around 474 B.C. God in His sovereignty used the exiled Queen Esther and her kinsman Mordecai to change the course of Jewish existential history from death to life.

The Persian Empire was the largest ever, stretching across three continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia. Estimates suggest a population of 50 million—thus comprising 44 percent of the world’s people at that time.

Esther (Hadassah) truly lived the Persian meaning of her name, “Star.” This stunning woman stepped onto the runway of history when King Xerxes chose her in an ancient beauty contest to replace his deposed Queen Vashti. Esther grew up in obscurity under the protection of Mordecai, her kinsman and mentor. The numbers are lost to antiquity, but some scholars estimate the Jewish population to have been at 20 percent in the Persian Empire. Esther and Mordecai, a future Jewish heroine and hero, were among them.

We can easily assume that Mordecai was a righteous Jew as we read about his refusal to obey the arrogant Haman’s order to bow to him. When Mordecai refused, a fire of hatred lit inside Haman against the Jews as a whole. Haman’s hate manifested by using lies and propaganda against the Jewish population to persuade the King to issue a genocidal edict. Sounds familiar! Mordecai overheard Haman’s murderous plan and covertly passed it on to Queen Esther. He asked her to appeal to the King, although it was a risky request, even for a Queen, to disregard the royal protocols.

God spoke through Mordecai’s discerning challenge in Esther 4:14 NIV. “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Although Esther was hesitant, she responded courageously with a strategy of fasting and prayer and asked others to join her. When the King chose Esther as Queen of Persia, in wisdom Mordecai advised her not to reveal she was Jewish. When Esther later made the request to petition the King on behalf of her people, the timing was perfect. She openly declared her Jewish heritage and reported Haman’s genocidal plan. Furious at Haman, King Xerxes acted immediately by sending out a decree across the empire ordering the Jewish community’s rescue. He then sentenced Haman and his sons to hang on the very gallows Haman had built to hang Mordecai.

Presently, Hamas is the most notable example of genocidal anti-Semitism, promising to repeat October 7 again and again. However, Hamas closely imitates an ancient and modern line of evil Haman predecessors. Hamas’s attempts to wipe Israel and Jews off the map are no different than the Hitler’s Jew hatred that ultimately led to the systematic murder and genocide of 6 million Jewish men, women, and children. The top modern-day Hamans are the Islamist Imams who in 1979 took over Iran in a religious war to recreate a worldwide Muslim caliphate. Their key targets are the United States, Israel, Europe, and the Western world at large.

The Islamic Regime of Iran is not only forging ahead in its quest for a nuclear bomb; they also finance their own Haman-like prime ministers in Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis. It is no secret that the Islamic Regime and each proxy “prime minister” avows their goals—shouting in media, speeches, and now, the most barbaric murders and kidnappings in one day since the Holocaust.

The name Hamas appears in the Bible, defined not only as violence, but also as sin and injustice against God and others. Although scholars may not agree on exactly how many times that word appears—from as few as four to as many as 60—what is certain is this: Hamas instigated the first great destruction of all mankind where Genesis 6:11 records, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.” The Hebrew word for violence here is Hamas. Today, Hamas bears the identical character and definition from ancient to modern times against Jews, Christians, Muslims, and anyone blocking their evil intent.

One of the Purim traditions I like best happens during the reading of Esther. When a rabbi, leader, or family member reads Mordecai’s name, others shout, “Blessed be Mordecai.” When Haman’s name is read, people stomp their feet, make noise with groggers (rattles) and yell, “Cursed be Haman!”

Esther and Mordecai are our brave role models for today—to speak out on behalf of the Jewish people everywhere possible with truth. Israel is here to stay, confirmed by world history and the Bible’s sacred history. Will we in the Christian community heed God’s call to us through Mordecai and Esther? Or, with silence and inaction, will we become accomplices to Iran and its surrogates, similar to the German church prior to and during the Holocaust?

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to pray with us from a proclamation in 2 Samuel 7: 22-24:

“How great you are, Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you. … And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself … and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, LORD, have become their God.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Christians to stand firm in our resolve to spread truth about Israel.
• Pray for the American public to see the grave consequences of appeasement strategies with Iran that have been employed by the current and previous administrations.
• Pray for President Biden and his surrogates to relent from intruding into Israel’s governmental decisions.
• Pray for unity among Israelis as the war passes into another month and as Israel fights for its very existence.

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The unholy terror assaults of October 7, 2023, have generated a constant flow of humanitarian aid and prayers worldwide, including kindhearted outreaches toward Israelis from evangelical Christians. Due to Israel’s necessary existential war against barbaric trespassers, visits from overseas supporters have diminished. Our prayers, however, have not.

For both Jews and Christians, the Western Wall in Jerusalem is a sacred place to pray and insert our written prayers. The Western Wall is the retaining wall of the Temple Mount, which has been the most holy site in Judaism since Solomon built the First Temple, completed in 957 B.C.  The ideal way to leave prayers in the wall is walking up to it and wedging our prayers into crevices. Doing so is spiritually unforgettable. However, whether for those who have previously stood and touched the Kotel or those who long to go to Israel for the first time, the organization Aish HaTorah (“The Fire of Torah”) will place your prayer notes in the Kotel for you.

Founded in 1974, Aish is now a vast educational institution. Their building sits directly across—and above—the plaza from the Kotel. Simply use this link. Some years ago, advances in technology first opened this digital door for prayer. Once you send your email, Aish will print your prayer in a very small font on a very small piece of paper. One of the Aish students then quickly delivers it to the Kotel and stuffs your prayer in between the holy stones. In essence, we are participating in a centuries-long tradition through another human messenger!

I invite every reader to send supportive digital prayers now and as frequently as possible. In 2005, my dear friends Earl and Kathleen Cox organized a detailed 24/7 prayer vigil at the Kotel. Visitors from many nations signed onto the prayer schedule for the year. Earl and Kathleen wound up sitting for hours when some time slots weren’t filled. Earl is the Ambassador of Goodwill to Jews and Christians worldwide, appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their example sets a precedent for an easy digital effort.

Describing the Western Wall in Jerusalem, you may have heard the phrase, “All prayers are local.” By writing our prayers on paper, then placing the papers into a crevice, rabbis have added their perspective, observing that this action represents “having a continual prayer linked to the prime source.” Their estimate rings true with in-person prayers from millions of people a year—Israelis and visitors alike.

These moments are a reminder that no matter how deep and dark the crisis, we should offer up our highest praises for God’s sovereignty, love, and justice. Feel free to invite your children and others to add their prayers. Include personal prayers for your family and friends, as I have done many times over the years.

Here is one of the prayers I sent to the Kotel through Aish.com using this link. I chose and referred to Psalm 20 under the topic of Protection and Danger to Jewish People.

“Dear Heavenly Father, I praise You! Your unending love for Israel and for me and my family is a treasure! Please keep police and IDF safe on the Temple Mount and Kotel area during the threats for jihad during Ramadan. I pray that ‘You will grant support from Zion… May the enemies fall, and Israel rise up and stand firm. I will shout for joy over your victory and lift up my banners to You!’”

The Kotel, a symbol and reality for the worldwide Jewish community, is engraved into the Jewish DNA. Their prayers over thousands of years toward their ancient and modern capital, Jerusalem, have continued every day—whether the Jews were scattered all over the world, trapped in the Holocaust, or (as they are today) uniting against the evil Islamic Regime and its surrogates on their borders. In the Jewish ancestral homeland, we can be grateful that the IDF is fighting evil on the front lines, since Christians are also in the crosshairs, even in the United States.

In addition to delivering our digital prayers to the Kotel, another service provided by Aish is a 24-hour live webcam of activity at the Western Wall. You can view live feed at this link. The webcam offers opportunities to view the beautiful Jewish culture through both its celebrations and its sorrows. Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations for local and international Jewish families often take place at this site. Several IDF units hold their inspiring swearing-in occasions and other related events there, such as the opening ceremony of Yom Hazikaron—Israel’s Memorial Day for its fallen soldiers. For prayers since October 7, 2023, crowds gather on the Western Wall Plaza, which can hold some 400,000 people.

Standing as Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall Plaza contains the world’s largest synagogue, houses 153 Torah scrolls, and hosts 10 million people each year. A staff of around 150 people operate out of the central hub of the Western Wall Heritage Center next to the Kotel. One example among numerous logistics, before the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) 20 workers build a giant Sukkah at the back of the plaza. The shelter holds 400 people! The staff works in quiet excellence, in shifts around the clock, day in and day out. Every detail in their myriad tasks holds with it the sacred responsibility of the Kotel.

Under the direction of rabbis, the prayer notes are removed from the Kotel twice a year—at both Rosh Hashanah and Passover. They are reverently buried on the Mount of Olives (also sacred to us in the Christian community), where Jesus ascended to heaven. As Christians, we can be grateful for the welcome given to us at the Kotel where our Lord walked, and to know our own prayers are buried with care.

Let us stand together, more than ever, with all forms of prayer, at the Kotel—digitally, in our churches, in our homes, and in our Bible studies on behalf of our spiritual homeland and our unsurpassed ally, Israel. We welcome you to join our CBN Israel prayers from Psalm 103:19—“The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.”

Prayer Points

• Pray for our Christian commitment to continue our daily prayers for Israel.
• Pray for safety amid Ramadan, where Imams turn their main holiday into a jihad.
• Pray for hostages still alive or for Hamas to return the bodies of those murdered.
• Pray for Israeli fortitude to press on in unity to rid Gaza of evil.
• Pray for valiant IDF members fighting Hezbollah in the north and terror groups operating in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Americans view politics as though it’s the 11th plague! A 2023 poll will not surprise you with its findings. Sixty-five percent of Americans say that they “feel exhausted” just thinking about politics. Only 10 percent expressed hopefulness. Evangelicals are present in both camps. However, it is estimated that 25 million evangelicals who are registered to vote, do not vote in presidential election years. Valuing our freedom to vote and reviving our responsibility to vote are essential!

This column today is not designed to fuel division. May these words simply motivate you to re-read the stories of Moses and Esther from a fresh perspective, take them to heart, vote, and tell others to vote.

The stories are familiar. After Moses’ mother placed him in the bullrushes on the Nile River, he was found by and adopted into the Pharaoh’s family. Moses’s birth mother sacrificially saved his life after Pharoah ordered the murder of male Israelite babies. God then prepared Moses with a superb education and leadership capabilities, eventually placing him, at age 80, into his divine destiny to lead the Israelites from slavery to freedom. After embracing his Jewish identity, Moses laid aside his royal Egyptian credentials. Exodus regales readers with the dramatic story of Moses then appealing to Pharoah, “Let my people go.” Controversy still exists among scholars about the Pharoah’s’ identity; some say he was Ramses II and others, Seti I.

Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) and his brother Aaron (Aharon) were persistent in pleading with Pharoah throughout the Ten Plagues that God sent to unharden Pharoah’s cruel heart. In his role as an ancient lobbyist with Aaron as his chief of staff, Moses successfully carried out God’s plan with God’s empowerment. Pause to remember; because Moses obeyed God by accepting his role to lead hundreds of thousands of Jewish slaves to freedom, God’s redemptive plan through His chosen people remains a historical fact today, a symbol of God’s eternal promises.

The birth of Esther—as with Moses—was unremarkable, although her life was nevertheless transformed by God’s miracles. Esther (Hadassah) is described as an orphan protected by her kinsman Mordecai. Esther and Mordecai were among the Jews in Judah’s Southern Kingdom who were conquered by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C. They were exiled in Babylon from their Jewish homeland. After Persia later defeated Babylon, Esther’s political career began in an unusual and unexpected way.

Angry with his wife, Persian monarch King Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes I) ordered his staff to find the most beautiful women in Persia (modern Iran) to compete in a royal beauty contest where he would choose his next queen. Advised by Mordecai, Esther kept her Jewish identity secret, competed in the contest, and was crowned by Xerxes as his queen. She walked on the runway of history in prayer and bravery.

Esther’s story grows perilous when Haman, one of the king’s top officials, decides to murder the Jewish exiles—all because Mordecai, a religious Jew, would not bow to him. Mordecai secretly passed Haman’s murderous plan to Esther, wisely observing that she was born “born for such a time as this” to save their Jewish people. Esther prepared herself with a prayerful strategy and fasting. The Queen not only revealed her Jewish identity to King Xerxes, but she also reported Haman’s evil plot. Xerxes acted quickly and reversed Haman’s decrees. The Queen rescued the Jewish community scattered throughout the vast Persian empire!

God used Moses and Esther, who began life in crises, yet as His obedient vessels they lobbied powerful leaders in two different eras when Jews faced both slavery and genocide. Neither Moses nor Esther could have predicted that God would use them politically with the top leaders in Egypt and Persia. Their actions and bravery embody politics at its finest.

Theologian C.S. Lewis gave us his grand observation in Mere Christianity: “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.”

After reading about Moses and Esther advocating politically, will you commit to advocating and voting for issues dear to you in the U.S. and those that include Israel, our spiritual homeland?

The United States remains Israel’s strongest ally after October 7. God will supernaturally keep His promises to the chosen people; however, we have an opportunity to play a pivotal role in that process. Vote and advocate with your representatives in the U.S. Congress, letting them know your positions on weighty matters. Be among Christians who are an active part of hopes for our nation and for Israel—with all men, women, and ethnicities standing together. Nearly 80 years after the Holocaust, God is giving Christians a second chance to stand with the Jewish people at a turning point in world history. 

Let us follow Jesus, our Light in the darkness and obey God like Moses and Esther. May each of us take a stand here and now in our generation and advocate for what matters to God, because we were “born for such a time as this.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for the U.S. Congress, the U.S. administration, and Israel’s Knesset for unity on prominent issues.
• Prayerfully consider your role in U.S. political advocacy with Super Tuesday behind us.
• Pray for every Christian to register to vote and that every Christian registered will vote!
• Pray for Christians to consider whom to vote for based on biblical understanding.
• Pray for all hostages’ release, the Israeli Defense Forces, and for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his war cabinet.

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) may not be a familiar name to everyone. However, amid a slate of world-changing initiatives launched by Christian media pioneer Pat Robertson (1930-2023), he and attorney Jay Sekulow founded the not-for-profit organization in 1990 after Robertson observed a steady decline of Judeo-Christian principles. Today, Robertson’s forward-thinking initiative is composed of legal warriors for justice who focus on constitutional and human rights law worldwide. The ACLJ’S calendar is crowded with weighty litigation that actively opposes irrational accusations against the Jewish state. Paramount among these cases post-October 7 are those representing Israeli hostage families.

ACLJ’s history of litigation on behalf of Israel in world courts includes establishing a Jerusalem office in 2011. After October 7, their workload increased dramatically. They immediately mobilized their Jerusalem office and other offices worldwide, sending legal briefs to the United Nations, European Union, Council of Europe, and key members of Congress—demanding action and making the case for Israel’s right to defend itself. At this writing, 134 hostages remain imprisoned in a concentration camp of tunnels.

Early on, ACLJ launched a petition demanding the release of all hostages. Then, via their affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice, Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow sent a letter to the UN condemning the attacks on Israel. In November, from their headquarters in Washington, D.C., they advanced essential conversations on Capitol Hill by setting up a series of meetings with Congress and media. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson formally recognized the hostages’ families as well as Jay Sekulow and his son Jordan Sekulow, ACLJ’s Executive Director. With great emotion, family members recounted with Democrats and Republicans how Hamas had kidnapped and brutalized their family members. Each story was wrapped in horror and heartbreak.

Doris Liber, the Israeli-American mother of Guy Iluz, related the story of her 26-year-old son, a musician abducted at the Supernova Music Festival. On October 7, when Doris first heard Israeli sirens, she called her son to check on him. He was driving home with friends for dinner. Then 30 minutes later, Guy’s father called, putting Doris on a three-way call with their son. Guy told them all his friends in his Jeep had been murdered, that he had been shot and was hiding in a tree.

Guy’s father told him, “Look around, try to find dead bodies—try to crawl under a dead body. Act like you’re dead.” Doris heard gunshots in the background and Guy said in a whisper, “Nobody is getting out of this alive, so I need to say my last words.” He told his mother and father that he loved them. And Doris said her last “I love you” to her son.

Doris learned later that Hamas terrorists had eventually spotted Guy and taken him hostage. Then came every parent’s nightmare: An Israeli group representing hostage families reported on December 1 that Guy had died in captivity after Hamas dragged him into Gaza. Since the attack that killed her son, Doris Liber has attended the funerals and sat shivas (Jewish mourning rituals) for her son’s dead friends. She has also traveled the world to raise awareness about her son’s abduction and to share her family’s story. 

ACLJ is pressing in with additional litigation as well as resources for Israel advocacy. Examples include a January case at the International Court of Justice where South Africa’s government accused Israel of genocide. ACLJ helped defend Israel by sending legal briefs to over 50 countries. Long before October 7, ACLJ was already presenting arguments at another court, the Hague’s International Court of Justice, to help protect Israel’s national security interests.

In January, ACLJ created a video titled The Myth of Palestine, an especially valuable tool now that the United States is leading a misguided demand for a two-state solution, which is an existential issue for Israel. ACLJ’s online presence is filled with additional educational tools, including A Brief Legal History of the Conflict, The Myth of Occupation, and The Myth of Israeli Apartheid, among other topics. While the U.S., Qatar, and other countries are pressing evil-minded Hamas to free the remaining hostages—and the bodies of those already murdered—ACLJ remains hard at work not only advocating for Israel but representing pro-life Christians in the United States. They are appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court to contest states trying to remove Former President Trump from ballots, litigating on behalf of persecuted Christians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and defending Jewish students on college campuses.

Since its 1990 founding, ACLJ has expanded exponentially in Israel, France, Kenya, and Zimbabwe—after those interested in religious rights asked the ACLJ to form these organizations modeled on the ACLJ-USA.

Sekulow, who is a Jewish believer, has engaged a team of experts that includes former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Richard Grenell, who served as Director of National Intelligence. ACLJ’s commitment rests on “ensuring the ongoing viability of freedom and liberty in the United States and around the world” by “focusing on U.S. constitutional law, European Union law and human rights law” to protect “universal, God-given and inalienable rights.”

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon (serving from 2002–2006) described Sekulow as “a true friend of Israel who has fought with us hand-in-hand in some of Israel’s most strategic, international battles.” Sekulow’s letter to the United Nations immediately after October 7 demonstrates his skill and commitment. Yet, it is indeed outrageous that in almost five months, the UN has done little of what Jay Sekulow’s letter outlined: Publicly condemn Hamas. Demand the immediate return of hostages to Red Cross/Red Crescent custody. Conduct a detailed review of all UN funds for Gaza. Publicly affirm Israel’s legal right to respond to the Hamas attack under the UN Charter and the laws of armed conflict. Renounce any equivalency between Hamas’s actions and those of Israel.

After reading Jay Sekulow’s essential points, we as Christians must seriously consider our commitment to stand with Israel amid the diabolical voices still assaulting Israelis with lies and accusations, the cruel game they are playing with hostage release, and the severe trauma that has beset our brave and determined Israeli friends. ACLJ is recruiting “Champions” to join them as they fight almost 24/7 for true justice. There are numerous ways to be a champion. Learn more at ACLJ.org.

And let us thank God once again for the visionary Pat Robertson, founder of The Christian Broadcasting Network. His legacy as a Christian statesman to bless Israel endures. Join our CBN Israel team this week knowing that the God of the Universe will triumph. Proverbs 21:15 says, “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for ACLJ in their critical efforts to stand with Israel in global courts.
• Pray for the families of hostages as they wait in agonized suspense for news of their loved ones.
• Pray that the U.S. will abandon any two-state solution proposals. 
• Pray for unity to remain between the Knesset, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the IDF.

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Following the inhumane infiltration of the Jewish homeland on October 7, an octogenarian Christian acted on a bright idea which is now shining lights into the lives of  thousands of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

Last weekend I interviewed the 81-year-old on the phone. As I had agreed in advance to her request for complete anonymity, I nicknamed her “Lady Bright” for this article. She has refused other media interviews, so I deeply appreciated her exclusive story. In journalism, we call it a scoop to report news of importance, surprise, excitement, originality, or—like Lady Bright’s story—secrecy.

I first found out about Lady Bright last fall when a friend called asking for a Zoom briefing, aware that I was offering updates in person or online to groups both large and small. Soon, a small group joined the Zoom meeting, where I updated them about Israel’s defensive war, an existential necessity against Hamas’s public and prideful statements about murdering every Jew. A few weeks after that Zoom update, my friend called again, this time to tell me about an exceptional mission initiated by one of the participants.

I learned enough about her remarkable acquaintance to seek a telephone interview, and my friend obliged. Kurt Kaiser’s 1969 song, “Pass It On,” expresses the heart of Bright’s mission: “It only takes a spark to get a fire going. And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love once you’ve experienced it. You spread His love to everyone; You want to pass it on.” 

In our interview, I learned that Lady Bright felt inspired to write letters to IDF soldiers. “I figured if Jesus asked me to do this,” she explained, “He’s got a way of making it happen to bless the soldiers.” And she certainly found a way. Considered the matriarch of a group of lifelong childhood friends for 70-75 years, Lady Bright reached out to them about a letter-writing campaign. Five of her friends caught the spark to pass on love—and got to work as members of Lady Bright’s private group with “just the girls that are committed to help me.”

They composed a short letter assuring the IDF of prayers to God for their safety, and that they were simply sending love and encouragement from “people in the United States who support them”—a team of women in their 70s and 80s.

Lady Bright suffers from arthritis, so handwriting is difficult. She uses her home printer, places three letters to a page, then cuts them apart. Each letter is signed with handwritten initials to make it more personal. The team spends time and energy to sign their initials and stuff envelopes—and also helps defray costs for postage, envelopes, and outside printing. 

After one team member included her two weekly Bible study groups in this enterprise, she passed on 2,500 letters to Lady Bright. They had stuffed envelopes while studying the Bible!

In her small church in small-town America, Lady Bright is a choir member and mentioned a hymn they recently sang, “Til The Storm Passes By.” She is deeply engaged in the latest information about Israel through CBN News and prays for Israel “until the storm passes by.”

Lady Bright reached out to the Jewish Federation of North America and Friends of the IDF, asking how to send letters to the IDF. Both responded with help—and now the New York Jewish Federation has been inundated with thousands of letters to Israel’s soldiers. The federation also sends letters when staff and friends are traveling to Israel.

When the Jewish Federation asked Lady Bright why Christians are writing letters to IDF soldiers, she replied, “You are God’s chosen people. We’re just ‘step kids’ and the only way we get to God’s family is through Jesus Christ, who grafted us into your land. So, we’re honored to try and help in some way. And that’s how we feel.” Prayers are also added for the letters’ safe travel to New York’s Jewish Federation and beyond to IDF units on the ground.

Lady Bright’s mission reached the Jewish community in the United States, too. On November 7, 2023, a Jewish family in metro Atlanta was devastated by the news that Sgt. Rose Ida Lubin, a 20-year-old native of Dunwoody, Georgia, had been murdered by a terrorist while on duty as an Israeli Border Police officer in Jerusalem. Grappling with grief that hit so close to home, Sgt. Lubin’s family and Jewish community were touched when they received sympathy cards from Bright and her Christian team.

It is no surprise that Jewish organizations want to interview Lady Bright, with thousands of letters already in Israel. This amazing woman’s goal is to send 360,000 letters in all! When I asked how she arrived at that number she remarked, “Because that’s how many they called up from IDF reserves.”

However, Bright’s determination for anonymity remains firm, and it’s based on her most important goal: “We want God to get all the glory. I don’t want anything to come to me. I’m not doing it for attention or anything except these boys and girls,” says the 81-year-old.

Lady Bright revealed another way publicity could interfere with the team’s task. She shrouds her identity and the letters in secrecy because “I want to get by with as many letters as we can before anybody tries to stop us. If the wrong people find out, somebody will try to shut us down.” She mentions that the people who would be opposed to the mission outnumber her team, and she wants to keep the letters just between the soldiers and her small group who are “praying for them and asking God to keep them safe and bless them.”

Lady Bright is very aware of and attuned to the Jew hatred breaking out worldwide and here in the United States. She and her team understand that covert operations might enable the small group to better reach their goals.

President Ronald Reagan once phrased it well: “They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.” Fighting a war simultaneously above and below ground in Gaza is the most complex terrain ever encountered by any army. However, each simple letter of prayer sent to IDF soldiers is sure to light sparks of encouragement when it is opened.

Bright and her team anticipate their final, eternal destination as they conduct their covert operation here on earth. However, Matthew 25:23 heralds a glorious truth when Jesus exclaims, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” The Bright team is now in charge of hundreds of thousands of letters! And her mission is still expanding, still growing.

How many of you reading the story of Lady Bright and her team of active senior citizens will ask the Lord what you can add to your prayers for Israel? Many options await you to send practical lights of help to the IDF, to 100,000 Israeli citizens displaced from their homes, or to help organizations aiding Israel’s elderly Holocaust survivors.

In our phone interview, Lady Bright referenced Genesis 12:3, “If you bless my people, I will bless you. If you curse my people, I will curse you.” She adds, “As Christians, we have absolutely no choice but to bless God’s people, and that’s the Jews.”

We welcome you this week to join our CBN Israel team to pray and meditate on this truth in Psalms 18:28—You, LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

Prayer Points:

• Pray with thanks for small beginnings that grow into big blessings for others.
• Pray for God’s Holy Spirit and protection for IDF members as they fight evil in dark places.
• Pray for IDF spouses and children for shalom and strength during these deployments.
• Pray that Hamas will release all hostages into freedom.
• Pray that intel coming from captured terrorists will help IDF in the complex war. 

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Israeli Jonathan Feldstein felt compelled with an idea in late October 2022 that may surprise you. This modern orthodox Jew living in Efrat, Israel, decided to create a book highlighting present day pro-Israel Christian leaders as one way to celebrate Israel’s upcoming 75th anniversary in 2023. He began fully exploring the idea in late November 2022.

He mentioned it to a friend—a bestselling author—who exclaimed, “Jonathan, this is an impossible timeline to have a book of this scope printed for Israel’s 75th anniversary year!” Jonathan knew his friend was more knowledgeable yet had no idea if he was right or wrong. Unable to abandon the idea, he easily admits that he had “no understanding of what was involved” at the time and described himself as “too naive and just ran with the project because I didn’t know any better.” However, he moved forward, perceiving it as based on his faith in God.

Although Jonathan is the founder of Genesis 123, a foundation that builds meaningful relationships between Jews and Christians working together on projects to bless Israel, Jonathan had never thought of book publishing. Yet, based on his already successful track record of envisioning unique, successful projects, the new idea proved to be another good fit for his compassionate and practical ideas for drawing Jews and Christians together.

Jonathan swept into action, settling on the number of Christians that would most fittingly define Israel’s modern anniversary. He asked 75 pro-Israel Christian leaders to each write a personal essay for this special book project. He set about contacting those he knew to be committed to the Jewish state. Their essays arrived between January and March, and then the process of editing, getting photos, art, and layouts began with his excellent publisher in the United States.

The proof copy arrived in May 2023, just in time for Jonathan to attend the National Religious Broadcasters convention in the United States. As Jonathan walked the halls of the world’s biggest gathering of Christian authors, speakers, and media, he described the immediate response to his book as “incredible.” June and July passed by, packed with a myriad of details. Plans were falling into place, along with unforeseen challenges as Jonathan worked and waited.

Then it happened, a miracle within the miracle of Israel! By August 2023, Jonathan and his publishing team were able to send the files to the printer. The book’s birth, a miracle “baby,” took place nine months from conception to delivery. A father of six, Jonathan now knows that the nine-month timeline is unheard of in the publishing industry. God proved Himself once again to be the ultimate Publisher. Jonathan’s exquisite coffee table book—one to share with family, friends, synagogues, churches, and children—came off the press in September amid the autumn biblical festivals and Jewish holidays.

However, following the Hamas invasion and massacre on October 7, like every Israeli, Jonathan quickly turned his attention totally toward his Jewish homeland. The joy of Israel The Miracle book transitioned into another focused project, a divine surprise! Originally, Jonathan had directed the book’s proceeds to the Genesis 123 Foundation’s 12 supported projects. Among them were emergency medical care for Israelis from all backgrounds, feeding the hungry, embracing Holocaust survivors, and protecting unborn babies.

Overnight, Jonathan created the Genesis 123 Israel Emergency Campaign. All those proceeds have helped fund projects including civilian security, soldiers’ welfare, trauma sufferers, Israelis’ destroyed homes, and emergency medical needs.

Jonathan had originally scheduled a U.S. book tour for November 2023. Nevertheless, he quickly abandoned his schedule—not only to oversee the Israel Emergency Campaign, but because several family members were called into Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reserve units. However, even without the formal book launch and media tour last fall, the pre-sales and recent spike in orders show that Israel The Miracle is flying off the shelves. On Amazon, it became an immediate “top new release” in its first week. Jonathan is ordering an additional printing.

Yet, the redirection of funds from the upcoming book sales traveled to another divine destination. Jonathan made a targeted decision to expand the book’s significance beyond its September 2023 birth date as a beautiful coffee table book. Now, Israel The Miracle holds an important dual purpose. Although the book brims with gorgeous photos of the land and its people and inspires us with 75 essays as a symbol of Christian support for Israel, it has expanded far beyond a wonderful personal purchase.

Jonathan explains the other half of the book’s updated purpose: Through an incredible printing connection, the book also serves as an instrument of blessing “for humanitarian aid to one of the hardest-hit kibbutzim on October 7.” The book is being printed in conjunction with Kibbutz Be’eri, which ran a successful, prominent printing company, Dfus Be’eri. (Dfus means print; be’eri means belonging to a fountain or expounder.)

Kibbutz Be’eri was among the hardest hit on October 7, with 120 homes destroyed and dozens of its 1,200 residents murdered, many kidnapped, and some still imprisoned in a dark concentration camp tunnel. The survivors’ determination to retain the purposeful meanings of its name and somehow continue its printing business is a true example of Israeli resilience.

Worldwide, each individual or group purchase of Israel The Miracle book transitions profits into a direct donation through the Genesis 123 Foundation for the restoration of Kibbutz Be’eri. Here is how to be part of this humanitarian kind of miracle: www.IsraeltheMiracle.com.

Jonathan made another decision, one that paid respect to Pat Robertson before his homegoing at age 93 on June 8, 2023. Robertson, a Christian media pioneer and founder of The Christian Broadcasting Network in 1960, symbolized an unmatched commitment, influence, and support of Israel. Jonathan honored Dr. Robertson by placing his essay first in what is called his “final testament” on Israel.

I am honored that my endorsement is included in Israel The Miracle: “Essays from seventy-five devoted advocates share gleaming insights about our spiritual homeland during its 75th Sapphire anniversary year.” God reveals His design for Jerusalem in Isaiah 54:11 to use blue sapphires for its foundation. Israel is the only place on earth where rare, deep-blue Mount Carmel sapphires are found. Israel itself, shining as a rarity, is the only nation where God declares in Leviticus, “the land is mine.”

I welcome you to our CBN Israel team this week to personally consider Psalm 45:1 (NASB): “My heart is moved with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” This verse not only reflects the 75 beautiful essays within Israel The Miracle. It is also an invitation to you from me to honor our King Jesus by sharing truth and facts in person or on social media about Israel from trusted sources such as CBN News.

Prayer Points:

• Pray with expectation that profits from Israel The Miracle will grow into a financial miracle for Kibbutz Be’eri.
• Pray for 136 hostages trapped and abused in Hamas’s underground concentration camp.
• Pray for family and friends of hostages, those already released, and especially for those deeply traumatized.
• Pray for Prime Minister Netanyahu, IDF leadership, and Israeli citizens to remain united.
• Pray for Israel’s Government Press Office, which interacts with all international media personnel.

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

More stunning facts about Hamas—the new generation of Nazis—are coming to light. The latest exposé is that many staff members of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) helped Hamas attack Israel on October 7, when 3,000 terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children and kidnapped around 250 hostages.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the agency has already fired 12 of their “employees” named among the 13,000 Palestinian staff in Gaza. Overall, UNRWA has a combined 30,000 employees strewn across Israel’s  West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The WSJ estimates that 10% of UNRWA workers are directly implicated, which could mean 3,000 are Hamas accomplices. Meanwhile, Israel views 190 UNRWA staff as “hardened militants,” some who are teachers and others who have turned their professions into terror platforms.

Now UNRWA, Hamas’s main accomplice, is losing donations right and left after operating for 74 years. Why? The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports on the two organizations’ deadly, Jew-hating collusion. 

UNRWA’s mandate since its establishment in 1949 by the UN General Assembly was “to carry out … direct relief and works programmes” for Palestine refugees. However, its operations have gone rogue since Palestinians elected Hamas in 2007.

The list of countries already suspending their donations is growing—including the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, Romania, Switzerland, as well as various nations in the European Union, such as Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Estonia, and Finland. The U.S. is the biggest donor annually with $343,937,718. By comparison, South Africa—which accuses Israel of genocide—donated a measly $171,600 in 2022 to help Gazans. Hamas is the biggest employer in Gaza, with its collaborator UNRWA right behind it. As donor countries learn about UNRWA as Hamas accomplices, they are realizing how they likely helped fund tunnels and terror.

Arab nations are criticizing the monetary suspensions although they barely contribute to UNRWA—nor are they willing to resettle any Palestinians in their own countries. That of course includes Iran, which conveniently amasses propaganda via Hamas and its other surrogates through the global mainstream media.

With donations UNRWA receives—and Hamas’s financial portfolio of investments rife with illegal hidden accounts, $100 million annually from Iran, another $100 million from Qatar)—it is proof that Palestinians who face 47 percent unemployment with 80 percent living in poverty have been robbed by terrorists to promote hate and destruction instead. The United Nations itself reports that around $250 is the estimated monthly income for ordinary Gazans. In 2022, UNRWA reported that more than $1 billion was pledged from its “voluntary contributors.”

Clearly, sanctions are necessary. Former U.S. President Donald Trump canceled aid to UNRWA, understanding its links to terrorism and anti-Semitism. The Biden administration restored U.S. aid to UNRWA in 2021 while it also declared “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism.

The acronym UNRWA is hard to pronounce but easy to understand. Based on its published policies, this is the only UN agency designed to care for a specific refugee group, the Palestinians. On UNRWA’s website, it shows a staggering statistic: 110 million people are forcibly displaced in our world due to persecution, violence, and human rights violations. Nevertheless, 2 million Palestinians have been treated differently since 1949.

This selection of facts from the excellent Aish.com and the recent Wall Street Journal article describe some of the agency’s policies. The facts are emerging in a dossier of intelligence information. A senior Israeli official commented, “A lot of the intelligence is a result of interrogations of militants who were arrested during the October 7 attack.” In addition to taking part in the attacks, which included sexual violence, torture, kidnapping, and murder, UNRWA employees used UNRWA vehicles and buildings on October 7. Some employees held hostages and moved them from point to point in UNRWA facilities shared by Hamas. Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s Ambassador to Great Britain, observes that, “Every school, every mosque, every second house” conceals a Hamas entrance, weapons depot, or both.

Gazan schools use UNRWA textbooks to teach Jew hatred. They make terrorists into heroes, brainwash children into martyrdom, and demonize Israelis. The UNRWA slogan for children should be “Victimize with lies.”

One of the most egregious mind games perpetuated by UNRWA is that being a “refugee” is a permanent state of being. UNRWA identifies all the world’s more than 7 million Palestinians as “refugees,” with a right to return to Israel based on the Arab-initiated War of Independence against Israel in 1948. Among them is Mohamed Hadid, father of two famous Palestinian-American models. He lives in a 4.5-million-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills. Hadid has been a refugee since birth. He is now more than 70.

UNRWA accuses Israel of killing 150 of its employees. Even if the number is accurate, in buildings identified as Hamas-run with tunnels and weapons, it prompts the question of why “employees” were there. UNRWA has mentioned Hamas tunnels in past years, but those comments seemed to fall on deaf ears. When humanitarian aid began arriving in Gaza, the agency tweeted that Hamas was looting UNRWA food and fuel supplies. While that claim is true, unfortunately UNRWA deleted the tweets. Whether willingly or coerced, UNRWA, an arm of the United Nations, was protecting Hamas and its 17-year military buildup after Palestinians voted for them in 2007.

Characterizing Hamas as the “new generation of Nazis” is a fitting description. In 2007 Hamas began building a new kind of headquarters repurposed into hatred—300 miles of weaponized tunnels, a literal underground suburb for Hamas. In December, the IDF discovered the biggest weapons depot to date filled with large stores of rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles, explosives, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

One hundred thirty-six hostages remain imprisoned in the deadly Hamas suburb. For them, it is an underground concentration camp. Yocheved Lifshitz, an 85-year-old hostage freed on October 24, described the tunnel network as a “spider web.” And a spider web it is, with UNRWA now identified as an accomplice with Hamas in the October 7 attacks.

The world public easily forgets disaster after disaster. When another horror comes along, the past is erased. It is imperative that we not erase the hostages and their families from our hearts and minds. In our community of Christian believers, we are the ones inclined toward compassion. Let us take command of facts on social media, with groups, friends, and our churches to counteract the massive barrage of lies worldwide. May we choose to be ambassadors for hostages by posting their photos and stories.

As we stand with Israel together, join our CBN Israel team drawing hope from Isaiah 2:4 NIV: “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray daily for the 136 hostages and their brave, yet traumatized families.
• Pray for the IDF to locate all hostages amid the dangerous, complex tunnels.
• Pray for Prime Minister Netanyahu, military leaders, and the Knesset to remain unified.
• Pray for Christian commitment to spread facts about Israel.
• Pray for the endurance of Christian media like CBN News, TBN, and All Israel News operating 24/7 to report the facts.

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Anti-Israel individuals and institutions continue to widely disseminate false information as fact. AI’s timely use is escalating propaganda by turning words into weapons that act like a dangerous mind-altering drug—one that is already manipulating millions of minds globally. 

Israel is not only fighting for its existence on land, sea, and air. It is also fighting the information warfare of lies—a formidable barrage that is poisoning opinions on a global scale. As we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day—January 27—the Iran-backed October 7 massacre is now seared into Jewish minds and hearts. The World War II Holocaust and the genocidal purposes of Hamas were inseparably iron-clad on October 7, 2023.

Incredibly, suggestions of a two-state solution—whether voiced by the United States, Europe, or Arab countries—are emerging. Everyone must realize that Israel has no peace partner with Hamas nor with the Palestinian Authority. As Khaled Mashal, a senior Hamas official, bluntly exclaimed on January 20, “We are not interested in a two-state solution… there should be only one state, a Palestinian state, from the river to the sea, and from the north of Israel to its south.” 

The Hamas founding charter has not changed: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them.” And as former Prime Minister Golda Meir so eloquently stated: “You cannot negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you.”

During the Nazis’ genocidal Holocaust (Shoah), the regime murdered 6 million Jews—long before AI existed. It only required Hitler’s satanic mind, occupied with evil, to hypnotize Germans through media run by his Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was skillfully mentored by Hitler, who observed: “Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.” 

In fact, much of the world did not know the extent of evil until General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered photographic evidence of the concentration camps and survivors when liberated in 1945. Eisenhower explained, “The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. … I made the visit deliberately to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’” 

After Eisenhower and the Allies encountered tens of thousands of Jewish prisoners who survived, the forward-thinking general directed General George C. Marshall to bring members of the U.S. Congress and media to see for themselves. They came, they wrote, and they published the photos. Almost 80 years later, despite the evidence, Holocaust denial and/or its twisted versions grew acceptable over time. 

Lamentably, the same phenomenon is happening with Israel today. Hundreds of media giants, international leaders, and members of the U.S. Congress—too many are believing the outrageous lie that Hamas did not invade Israel on October 7, 2023. Despite massive amounts of evidence from Hamas itself, the unthinkable reverse is true: Israel is actually being blamed for instigating the attacks.

As a past example, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, completed his dissertation in 1982 in the former Soviet Union. He titled his doctoral thesis “The relationship between Zionists and Nazis, 1933-1945.” This piece of fiction alleged that Nazis and Zionists shared a close connection about racial superiority: Aryan for the Nazis, Jewish for the Zionist. Abbas accused Jews in pre-state Israel of collaborating with Nazis in the Holocaust. Today, warped narratives like these motivate minds filled with the mind-altering drug of hatred. 

Propaganda proliferates from governments, saboteurs, mainstream media, the United Nations, and demonstrators busy writing another sinister chapter of Jew hatred that resurfaced just a few days after October 7, 2023. One of the most shocking and offensive lies is that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Unlike General Eisenhower’s order for photographs after the fact of the Holocaust, Nazi-like Hamas triumphantly took photos of its brutality in real time on October 7 with their body cams and the mobile phones stolen from Jewish victims. They have provided the world with tangible proof as to who the aggressors were.

It is my prayer that as you read the next story you will use it as a reality check to determine just who is genocidal. Pass it on to uninformed family, friends, and churches: 

Last week mainstream media outlet CNN reported the confession of a Hamas terrorist who tried to sell the head of a decapitated IDF soldier for $10,000. Yes—from the terrorist who cut off Cpl. Adir Tahar’s head, stuffed it in his backpack, and returned to Gaza planning to make money. 

That CNN itself reported this atrocity should grab the attention of Jew haters as a fact about the depths of evil manifesting in Hamas’s minds. CNN had also aired October 7 footage taken by the terrorists as they sawed the necks of dead Israelis.

Adir Tahar’s family story unfolded with David Tahar, father of the 19-year-old soldier who was murdered on October 7 when he faced the Hamas terrorists. He said that Adir’s body was confirmed by DNA tests and his identity tags. At Adir’s burial on Israel’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, David insisted on seeing his son in the coffin. 

The bereaved dad then experienced what he called “a miracle” after spending two months watching endless hours of Hamas’s massacre videos, which saboteurs proudly posted on social media. David had identified his son’s body, and when captured later, the vicious terrorist gave the location of an ice cream store where he had put Adir’s head in a bag inside a freezer. 

An elite IDF unit, backed up by tanks, entered central Gaza and retrieved Adir’s head, which was also abused. DNA and dental records verified Adir’s identity. It is unimaginable what the IDF unit experienced themselves and even more profoundly Adir’s father as he suffered through a second burial. To think that Israeli Defense Forces, the most humane army in the world, is conducting genocide against Gazans or anyone is 100 percent irrational.

If history is an accurate indicator, the genocide label and other lies against Israel will continue. Nevertheless, amid the current information warfare it remains essential that we in the evangelical community do our part to pass on facts. Truth-telling, part of our own spiritual DNA, is birthed in Old and New Testaments and passed on to us through the Jews under God’s inspiration. 

If you wish to take part in a volunteer action, the Arolsen Archives invites you to volunteer for #everynamecounts to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 now or in the future. Click here to choose which topic you wish to digitize. It takes only five minutes to complete one document. 

May we be motivated like never before to fight against information warfare on behalf of Israel and her people. Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to join us in prayer this week meditating on Proverbs 12:22, “The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in people who are trustworthy.” 

Prayer Points

• Pray that Christians will be motivated to share facts about Israel frequently.
• Pray that the IDF will finally discover the remaining hostages’ whereabouts.
• Pray that families know that IDF is doing everything possible to locate their family members.  
• Pray that Israeli Jews and Jews worldwide receive blessings from our genuine prayers and assistance.

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The Islamic Republic of Iran has successfully ramped up more anarchy from yet another proxy, the Houthis. Based in Yemen, this organization has joined the regime’s favorites—Hamas and Hezbollah—to generate worldwide shipping delays on the Red Sea since November. Houthis have turned the ancient Israelites’ miraculous Red Sea crossing into a modern nightmare that is already affecting some 44 nations, including the United States and Israel.

The Houthis’ terror tools include drones, small boats, missiles, hijackings, and now anti-ship ballistic missiles. Their attacks generate multilayered problems for huge commercial cargo ships and create a slowdown in world markets. On December 1, 2023, the UN Security Council issued a feeble, inconsequential 120-word statement to the Houthis. A coalition of 14 world leaders released a joint statement on January 3, published by the White House. That statement laid out these critical statistics: “Nearly 15 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea, including 8 percent of global grain trade, 12 percent of seaborne-traded oil and 8 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade.”

The statement warned that “malign actors” will be held accountable for “unlawful seizures and attacks.” However, neither the UN nor the White House press release mentioned Iran, the Houthi enabler—the government behind every invasion, murder, weapons supply, attack, and oppression of its own citizens in the Middle East and beyond. The only way to stop Houthis backed by their Iranian merchants of death is to deploy multinational warships and aircraft carriers to use military force against the Houthis in Yemen.

The Muslim Houthis live in a Middle Eastern country that is strategically located on Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait at the southern entrance of the Red Sea that connects the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. At the northern end, Egypt’s Suez Canal connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, making it one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Interestingly, in Arabic Bab-el-Mandeb means “Gate of Lamentation, Grief, or Tears.” Iran and its Houthi proxies are reinvigorating the Arabic definition—giving grief to the world in a potential global catastrophe affecting food, crude oil, natural gas, and consumer products.

The alternative for shipping through Bab-el-Mandeb is to re-route ships to the southern tip of Africa, which significantly increases time and shipping costs. For instance, for oil shipped from Saudi Arabia to the United States, navigating around the southern tip of Africa adds 2,700 miles and 8 to 10 days to the journey.

The Islamic ayatollahs have been demonstrating their aggression for years on the Strait of Hormuz, located next to Iran itself. Around 30 percent of crude oil sails through what is considered the world’s most important chokepoint. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) describes world oil chokepoints “as narrow channels along widely used global sea routes.”

Considering the strategic points Bab-el-Mandeb (the Gate of Grief) and the Strait of Hormuz, it is easy to see the Islamic regime’s geographical reach of terror and how it can easily reshape the global economy. The Strait is the quickest way for oil to be shipped to other countries from the Middle East. While this is a conversation for another time, if the United States returned to the energy independence we enjoyed under former President Trump, neither of these chokepoints would concern us.

It is no surprise then that Iran, the largest state sponsor of terror worldwide, violates the international Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) mandated in 1982 and ratified by more than 150 countries. LOSC serves as a “constitution for the oceans.”

Here’s one example of the seriousness of shipping disruptions. Fearing violent aggression, A.P. Møller-Mærsk—one of the biggest global shippers—decided to stop their ships from transiting the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. That one decision diverted $200 billion in trade.

Speaking of billions of dollars, the U.S. House of Representatives acted against Iran by passing legislation in December to refreeze $6 billion in oil revenue sanctions against Iran. President Biden had ordered that a South Korean account release the sanctioned $6 billion to Qatar (home of several top Hamas leaders). It was designated for “humanitarian purposes” in exchange for five Americans.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken then emphasized to Congress that the money could only be used for the “humanitarian trade.” Our history with Iran since 1979 has vividly demonstrated that Iran’s ayatollahs operate only on Shia Islam’s oppressive standards while pretending cooperation. Since the Islamic regime overthrew the Shah of Iran almost 45 years ago, then stormed the U.S. Embassy and kidnapped 66 American citizens, their regime has grown into the largest terror-sponsoring country in the world. 

The “No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act,” was passed in the House by a vote of 307-119. Ninety Democrats voted with Republicans. Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, a Republican, voted NO. In my research I consider this statement as double-speak in a December POLITICO article, especially considering the October 7 invasion of Israel: “Even though there’s no evidence Iran was involved in the attack, the country is a known backer of terrorist group Hamas.” How much evidence does Politico need? Evidence is strewn across southern Israel and now among hostages imprisoned in the wicked tunnels of subterranean Gaza. Fact: Without Iran’s ideology, financing, and actions, much of the world’s terror would not exist. The evidence is clear. 

On necessities like food and water, rising prices from disrupted shipping affect families globally. Gas prices will also rise and supply chains will break down. Just since November, Houthis have used missiles, drones, and fast boats 20 times in the Red Sea. However, when it comes to safety, the current American administration must open its eyes to the dangerous character of Iran’s leadership where diplomacy is viewed as weakness and makes way for manipulation. Iran is an enemy of the United States, Israel, and its own population. Our open southern border is an invitation for Iranian saboteurs to walk into the United States of America, disappear, and plan their next act of terror—this time on American soil. 

The Biden administration is procrastinating and currently saying NO to several military options proposed by the Pentagon to completely stop Iran and the Houthis’ takeover of the Red Sea. Naval vessels are present in the region but not currently proactive against and inside terrorist Yemen itself. While Biden wavers, the world economy will lessen, Iran will keep supplying Houthis at the Bab-el-Mandeb chokepoint, and Iran will capitalize on its Strait of Hormuz chokepoint.

Mr. Biden is also pressuring Israel to end its defensive war in Gaza and refrain from defending against Hezbollah’s warfare in northern Israel. However, 136 hostages (including Americans) remain unaccounted for, and they have not been visited by the International Red Cross since October 7. Let that sink in for a moment and you will understand why Israel cannot and will not relent. The Allies’ war against Hitler and the Nazis in World War II is a case in point. The Nazi evil demanded a response, the response of a just war. Israel is fighting a just war. 

We must pray for a modern miracle for the Red Sea yet affirm our trust for the Creator of the oceans to intervene with His purposes and according to His timeline.

Join our CBN Israel team this week reflecting on the apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:7-9 NIV—“And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” 

Prayer Points:

• Pray for wisdom for the U.S. government to uphold Israel’s safety.
• Pray for IDF soldiers who have faced more than 90 days of trauma.
• Pray for God to silence the critical voices and lies against Israel.
• Pray that Christians will join the information warfare by sharing facts that disprove terrorist claims.
• Pray that IDF can miraculously locate the hostages and bring them to safety.  

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The exhilarating power of 1,000 Israeli singers and musicians rang out across Israel on December 18, filling hearts worldwide with hope. The “Homeland Concert” in the Caesarea Amphitheatre along the Mediterranean Sea not only beckoned Israelis to remain resilient and strong. Anyone who listened was touched by the power of its eloquent messages, a triumph of the spirit over tragedy.

The concert communicated a profound message for me, for the world, and for 2024—to renew our dedication to truth, remembering how the great prophet Isaiah transmitted God’s promise that, in the future, “the government will be on His shoulders.” Today, we do not know the day of Israel’s forever government. Until then, Israel must press on in the Gaza battlefield—the terror-infested cities in Judea and Samaria—and in northern Israel to defend their homeland against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel’s Christian friends worldwide must take up arms on another important battlefield, the information battlefield, to expose Jew-hating lies with clarifying facts.

The famous Caesarea Amphitheatre, site of last month’s concert, echoes with ancient history. Built by King Herod in 22 B.C., this “entertainment” arena featured the mass executions of Jews who revolted against Romans between A.D. 66 and 70. Producer Talya Yarom planned her musical idea “to warm everyone’s frozen hearts” with its “Bring them Home” theme about the remaining 129 hostages. The ancient amphitheater’s more than 2,000-year-old structure is indeed more architectural evidence that Israel is the Jewish homeland. It serves as a reminder to the world that Israel has lived, does live, and will live despite any evil! Am Yisrael Chai, the Nation of Israel Lives!

When some of the hostage families arrived and joined in the singing, their presence deeply reinforced the “Bring Them Home” message. Producer Yarom had envisioned “something that felt universal, national” and without any “big names.” When Yarom sent out the call for volunteer musicians, nearly 2,000 responded. She ended up with 1,000 musicians—professional, amateur, all ages and instruments—with backgrounds in musical genres ranging from orchestral to rock.

A medley of lyrics from beloved songwriter and poet Ehud Manor combined his famous classic song, “Home” or “Bring Them Home” (HaBayita) with “The Hope,” Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem. The elevated atmosphere—expressed in tears, joys, grief, and power—moved the hearts of everyone sitting in the ancient amphitheater and internationally. Not knowing the Hebrew language did not hinder the power of the concert. The voices and instruments conveyed transformative prayers. Here are the English lyrics from Ehud Manor (1941-2005), which Manor wrote in the 1980s:

Another Hour has passed
Another Hour of madness
The weeds have grown in the path and garden
The wind sighed
Opening the shutter
Banging the old wall
As if calling

Home, Home
It’s time to return
From hills and foreign fields
The day is fading and there’s no sign

Home, Home
Before the light is dimmed
Cold nights, bitter nights
Closing in
Until the dawn I pray for you
Bound in the grip of fear
I hear steps

Home, Home
Because it hasn’t yet been given
As was promised long ago.

Conductor Eran Mitelman, maestro Mark Wollach, directors Shilo Gallay and Danny Casson, orchestral arranger Ron Klein, and composer Yair Klinger joined senior producer Talya Yarom for the Bring Them Home Concert, the biggest concert ever held in Israel.

Music has not been confined to the Caesarea Amphitheatre. Various well-known Israeli stars are visiting the wounded in hospitals, families in mourning, and IDF troops. Ishay Ribo held concerts at IDF bases, including a concert along the Gaza border to “lift up their spirits.” He encouraged them with his music and words: “May God succeed through you and your tasks, and may you return home safely and unharmed.”

Ben Ari, a religiously observant singer and father of seven children, served in the army and is not currently called up for reserve duty. After writing a song called Birthplace, he remarked, “This song is dedicated to my nation. … Not the one that was here a week ago [October 7], the one that we’ll create again when all this is over.” He now sings with people, “the best thing I know how to do.” In Birthplace he sings, “You are the special unit, You will always be my homeland. Even on the brink of an abyss, Even in hell, you are heaven, Paradise.”

I’ve looked at video clips where various Israel Defense Forces units are singing to lift their spirits. During Hanukkah they sang their traditional songs as they lit their menorahs on the battlefield or at bases. Other clips include IDF singing the prayer Shema Yisrael, the key affirmation of Judaism—that God is One, and incomparable. It echoes from Jewish hearts as a love song to God.

As part of Israel’s Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries (FIRM), believers have also united in concerts. Acclaimed Messianic artist Joshua Aaron, who leads Gather the Nations worship conferences based in Jerusalem, organized a concert in Israel during Hanukkah. Earlier, on October 21, 2023, Joshua Aaron and Aaron Shust held a benefit concert in Wildwood, Florida, to raise money through ticket sales and additional donations.

Let us remember throughout 2024—during Israel’s war against unleashed evil—that Isaiah 9:6-8 ends with a precious proclamation: “And the government will be on His shoulders. … 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.”

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

• Pray that IDF’s military leaders will make wise decisions that eliminate Hamas.
• Pray that Arab nations will decide to resettle Gazans within their own (Muslim) borders. 
• Pray for an outpouring of commitment from Christians to spread illuminating facts about Israel. 
• Pray for strength and breakthroughs for hostages and their families.
• Pray with thanks to God for endowing humanity with songs and music.

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 on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.