Blog

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Israel is one of the few countries in the world that requires women to serve in the military, as defined in its mandatory draft law. After Israel’s independence was declared on May 14, 1948, a Women’s Corps was quickly initiated. And today, the IDF reflects the stature of women who proudly serve their country. Within Israel’s culture of equality and its need for absolute security, decades of hard-fought acceptance have expanded IDF positions for women.

Women in the IDF are using their highly developed skills to fight against Hamas and other terror groups in multiple roles. On the front lines, for instance, an all-female tank crew drove over terrorists to protect Israeli kibbutzim. They are operating as medical professionals in Gaza and in a battalion searching for weapons in buildings. Women serve in drone units like Israel’s Sky Riders and on the ground commanding an Iron Dome unit. 

The IDF reported in January 2025 that women are driving a recruitment boom, with Israeli combat units surging by over 20 percent. They are also setting records for combat intelligence and for search and rescue missions. Brigadier General (ret.) Meir Elran at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv gave examples of their remarkable progress in the Israeli military. “In the ongoing war,” Elran noted, “female pilots played a significant role in a major airstrike operation against Iran.”

The surge of female enlistments shows incredible courage considering full awareness of the Hamas savages who targeted, raped, murdered, and kidnapped women—both civilians and female IDF soldiers—on October 7 and beyond.

After months of discussions in Israel, investigations will continue about the weeks leading up to October 7, 2023. On January 25, Hamas released five female IDF soldiers: survivors Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Liri Albag, and Daniella Gilboa. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi met with four of them on February 14. Daniella Gilboa was not present.

Here is the back story for why IDF Chief Halevi met with them to offer his apologies for failing them on and before October 7. Before their 15 months of captivity, the five survivors served as surveillance soldiers (tatzpitaniyot) in the Combat Intelligence Collection Array (part of the Border Defense Corps) and were assigned along Israel’s borders and the West Bank.

Years before the atrocities of October 7, 2023, on one of my Israel trips I visited one of their surveillance units in northern Israel. These soldiers kept watch via computers on assigned sections of the border to track Hezbollah movements. Often called “the eyes of the army,” these trained observers report real-time intelligence information to soldiers in the field, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In a briefing where they were deployed, I learned that the IDF women are deemed better able to endure long hours at the computers, noticing every movement of the enemy they’re watching. If only the IDF high command had remembered that distinction.

Because for months prior to the horrific October 7 invasion, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Liri Albag and Daniella Gilboa—all surveillance soldiers—saw signs of disturbing increases in suspicious activity from the Nahal Oz base only a mile from Gaza. The women reported Hamas militants holding multiple training sessions daily, as well as digging holes along the border where they planted explosives. Astonishingly, the lookouts’ warnings were not heeded as strongly by the more senior officers and intelligence officials, who had received the reports.

The five hostages were among seven females kidnapped from the Nahal Oz army post during the Hamas-led massacre. Levy, Ariev, Albag and Gilboa were released on January 25, 2025, and Berger was released five days later. In the meeting, Chief Halevi said, “From me personally and in the name of the commanders in the IDF, I am very sorry for everything you have been through. It’s our responsibility, and we can’t go back and change.” According to leaked remarks, he added, “It was wrong to have not taken you seriously; you were amazing soldiers. I apologize for what you experienced in captivity.”

In continuing investigations, Halevi said the women should be “partners in the investigation” by giving their testimony so that the IDF can learn more about the failures. Halevi will resign from the military on March 5 over the military’s failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Although Liri Albag’s mother said that her daughter “has anger toward the army,” all five of the female soldiers have expressed a desire to return to the IDF.

I have added several more details with an IDF resource link that offers a wealth of information. Every Israeli citizen over the age of 18—man, woman, Jewish, Druze or Circassian—must serve. Israeli Arabs and religious women are not mandatory. Enlisted men are expected to serve for a minimum of 32 months and women for at least 24 months.

In 2022, the IDF expanded its protocol to include Christians in voluntary enlistment as they are not obligated to serve by law. At the time, about 100 Christians served as volunteers. Israel’s Christian population is only 2 percent of the total; however, CBN Israel is helping to sponsor a new training prep course for Aramean Christian enlistment. Aramean Christians were recently recognized as an official minority in Israel.

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for remaining hostages amid the torture, starvation, and psychological warfare.
• Pray for wise decisions by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet.
• Pray for effective mental health solutions to address the widespread trauma in Israel.
• Pray with thanks to the Lord for preserving the Jewish nation and people.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide. In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

On February 19, 2025, Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) will reintroduce the Master Sergeant “Roddie” Edmonds Congressional Gold Medal Act on Capitol Hill. They first proclaimed their Gold Medal bill on January 27, 2025—International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Let’s take a look at why this honor is long overdue, the remarkable story behind it all, and how you can help make it happen.

This year is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, marking the end of the Holocaust (Shoah) and World War II.

It is a fitting year to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal—the highest civilian honor in the United States—to Master Sergeant Edmonds. After the regiment that he commanded in the Battle of the Bulge was captured, Nazis marched the men into Europe’s biggest POW camp. Days later, MSgt. Roddie Edmonds saved the lives of the 200 Jewish men under his command. Epic heroism—and quite a legacy.

Since the end of the Second World War, the children and grandchildren born to the Jews spared by Edmonds’ courage number around 2,000 men, women, and children. They are a legacy born from the bravery and integrity of a hardworking, humble family man who saved the lives of his Jewish soldiers with five words.

A Christian from the hills of Tennessee, Edmonds stepped into history in 1944 with the 106th Infantry Division, 422nd Infantry Regiment—a regiment known as the “Golden Lions” for their insignia: a golden lion on a red background to symbolize courage and strength under fire. On a freezing morning in Stalag IXA, Nazis forced the prisoners into a lineup where Nazi Major Siegmann repeatedly demanded that Edmonds identify all Jewish soldiers. Every man knew that responding would mean death for the American Jewish soldiers. The night before, Edmonds had ordered his men not to surrender any of their regiment. Although Major Siegmann shouted and held a luger pressed to the Master Sergeant’s forehead, Edmonds, with calm, extraordinary courage firmly replied, “We are all Jews here.” He told Seigmann that he’d have to shoot everyone if he wanted to kill the Jews—and reminded him that the German would be hunted down, tried, and convicted for war crimes. The enraged Nazi walked away. A miracle of five words.

In those moments, Roddie Edmonds mirrored Psalm 106:3. “Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.”

How did Roddie Edmonds’ heroism finally reach the halls of the U.S. Congress? The amazing family story is written by Roddie’s son, Pastor Chris Edmonds, in his book No Surrender. After reading the summary below, you will want to be a part of assuring Congress’s decision to award the Master Sergeant’s posthumous Gold Medal.

It all began in 2005, when Chris’s daughter Lauren was assigned a college history project about World War II and her grandfather Roddie. Chris’s mom remembered his frayed WWII diary that he had hidden in a cigar box in his closet. Roddie had died in 1985 without ever mentioning his wartime heroism to his loved ones or friends. And when the family found and read his diary, it contained no hint of his bravery. 

Years later, Chris felt compelled to research his father’s World War II service. In a miraculous set of events, he found, met, and heard the stories about his father from four men under his command who were still living. The stories they shared are recounted in No Surrender and in a film: www.roddieedmonds.com.

Learning the stories from the soldiers his father saved, Chris declared, “I know that my father was willing to die to save Jewish men under his command because he believed a Jewish man, Jesus Christ, had died to save him.”

The February 19, 2025, mobilization on Capitol Hill is a big step for Chris. He had begun reaching out to Congress in 2016 with former Representative John Duncan, who introduced the original bill. Since then, members of Congress have reintroduced the bill six times in the House: the 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, and 118th. Now before the 119th Congress, the bill is led by Senators Blackburn and Schatz and Representatives Tim Burchett (R-TN) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).

Ezra Friedlander, the founder of Project Legacy, has added his collaboration. Friedlander is concerned “that many young people lack awareness of the Holocaust.” He cites the significance of awarding Roddie Edmonds’ Gold Medal to “commemorate the 80th anniversary of this pivotal moment in history.”

Presently, neither the Senate nor the House bills have passed. The Senate bill, introduced on January 27, was followed by a House measure on February 4. A Congressional Gold Medal requires two-thirds approval by both chambers of Congress before it goes to the floor for a final vote.

Christian citizens, we must participate in getting this important bill passed. Beginning on February 19, contact your members of Congress in the Senate and House. Simply call the United States Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. An operator will connect you directly with your Senators’ and House member’s offices. Their staff will take your call and add your requests to support the Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds Congressional Gold Medal Act. If you do not know the names of your members of Congress, click this helpful link.

If you wish, read The Congressional Record for Senate bill S.262 and House bill H.R.921 then pray and act!

Chris’s meetings with the men under his father’s command grew into deep friendships. He shared their stories about his father’s heroism for the first time at the invitation of Rabbi Avi Perets of Temple El Emanuel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Active in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Rabbi Perets asked Chris to speak on April 27, 2014.

When Chris repeated his father’s lifesaving words, “We are all Jews here,” tears were plentiful on the faces of men, women, and a few of their Christian visitors. After speaking in Myrtle Beach, Chris has received invitations for more than 400 inspiring and educational speaking engagements in both Jewish and Christian venues.

One of his most prominent speeches occurred on March 16, 2016, at AIPAC’s annual Policy Conference. That year, it was held at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. In an election year, following AIPAC’s bipartisan policy, the top-tier presidential candidates from both parties were invited to speak. That particular day, former Vice President Joe Biden spoke after Chris, and later Donald Trump who won as the 45th (now 47th) president. Two survivors from his dad’s Golden Lions, Sonny Fox and Lester Tanner, sat with Chris’s wife, Regina, in the audience with 18,000 others. I was still on AIPAC staff and watched as the entire arena was transfixed and often tearful as Chris spoke about his father’s valor.

Chris’s persistent journey to honor his beloved father grew into another purpose: to motivate Jews and Christians to work together to educate and inspire others on behalf of Israel. Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, commanding the 106th Infantry Division, 422nd Infantry Regiment, was recognized on February 10, 2015, by Israel’s Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations.” A tree is planted on the Avenue of the Righteous in his remembrance as the only American soldier so honored.

Chris offers a timely reminder for Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. “With antisemitism and hatred rising, there’s no better time to honor my father than this year, the 80th anniversary of his heroic actions, the liberation of Auschwitz, and the end of World War II.” Chris highlights his father’s moral courage as “timeless and transformative.”

Now, 80 years later, let us commit to shining a light on the Gold Medal to every member of Congress, asking them to join in as cosponsors. I pray that “We are all Jews here” is on our lips and in our actions to confront the world’s oldest hatred as one way to speak out and oppose 16 months of cruelty since October 7, 2023.

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

• Pray for Democrats and Republicans to effectively cosponsor this bill.
• Pray that Christians will call every member of Congress to make the request.
• Pray for the media to report facts about this inspiring World War II story.
• Pray that Israelis will find encouragement in knowing about a future successful vote.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide. In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

As if the tortures that began on October 7, 2023, were not enough, Hamas has been staging more versions of traumatizing evil. In the “ceasefire agreement,” the terror group is producing, directing, and filming hostage releases in a chaotic rampage of hate from thousands of Gazan “extras” seemingly overjoyed to be part of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad propaganda.

For 16 months now, the Jewish nation and people have undergone repeated traumas—including the brutal Hamas invasion and massacre on October 7, family members and loved ones taken hostage into Gaza, and the existential multifront war with Iran and its evil terror proxies. And if that were not enough, Jew hatred and hostility against the world’s only Jewish nation have been at an all-time high across the globe with toxic expressions everywhere—on public streets, college campuses, and social media newsfeeds.

The Red Cross vehicles dispatched to drive hostages out of Gaza inch their way to the location where the precious hostage passengers will disembark into safety at last. Unbelievably, the cars are considered objects of potential attacks from terrorists, both uniformed and civilian, who jump on the roofs enthusiastically waving their weapons.

Hostages are pushed, shoved, and taunted by waves of jubilant Palestinians holding their mobile phones high to record the event. Every Palestinian acting out such dangerous theatrics looks well fed and happy. There are no signs of mourning for the so-called genocide that Hamas claims and that much of the world believes. The crowds do not look starved, since Hamas has been hijacking tons of donated food and reselling it to their own people at exorbitant prices.

Despite the massive destruction of buildings that Hamas brought on its brainwashed population, the Palestinians seem addicted to whatever “high” they get from holding such hatred against their Israeli neighbors. When each hostage steps out of the cars, one can only wonder why the Red Cross is allowing the hostages to disembark into the seething, shouting crowds. Isn’t there another way to release them at the edge of Gaza into Israel?

In one instance, on February 1, 2025, Hamas released Gadi Mozes (80) and Arbel Yehoud (29). In photos taken by the Hamas Media Office/AFP, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) cars are well marked with the logo and the words “Comite International Geneve” (i.e., International Committee Geneve), with the well-known red cross in the center. But more about the Red Cross in a moment.

For 16 months, with hostages both alive and dead in Gaza, Hamas’s depravity and brutality roams in the darkness of Gaza’s underground city and is spilling out into the open again, with terrorists released from Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire “deal.” The terror group seems to know no bounds in their toxic hatred for the Jewish nation and people.

Under God’s inspiration, the famous prophet wrote in Isaiah 5:20, 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.

The Hamas terror group never allowed the Red Cross to check on kidnapped hostages’ conditions and health or provide much-needed medicines. The Red Cross claims it tried. Nevertheless, Israelis dismissively call this international humanitarian organization agency a “glorified taxi service,” while the ICRC comments that it “has little power beyond what belligerent parties afford it.”

Years ago, in a statement about their neutrality policy, the ICRC acknowledged their silence in World War II. They said they failed to speak out on behalf of the millions of people who suffered and perished in the death camps, especially the Jewish people targeted, persecuted and murdered under the Nazi regime. A former ICRC president said that it was their “greatest failure” since their founding in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1863. Now, their organizational silence has failed them once again.

The ICRC has made sure to condemn Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s hospitals, yet no mention at all is made about Hamas terrorists—disguised as doctors—purposely occupying hospitals and using those facilities as a terror base. Or how ongoing hostilities have obliterated the healthcare system in northern Gaza. Nor does the ICRC mention that Israel safely evacuates Palestinian patients to other facilities, even outside Gaza, before going after the occupiers. The Hamas-run media office has skillfully used the hospitals as propaganda. Those who are easily fooled cannot distinguish between good and evil.

In a recently released report, Israel’s Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children has created a new word, “kinocide”—the targeting of families. Experts from the Civil Commission, which was formed immediately after October 7, explained that Nazi genocide was directed against a group of people—“national, ethnical, racial or religious”—according to the UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention.

However, kinocide, another crime against humanity, is a specific assault against a group, “using the relationship between family members and their emotional, identity, cultural, symbolic, material and other bonds, as a way to maximize the intended harm of the attack.” Thus, the traumas on October 7, 2023—with the deaths of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 250 men, women, children, infants, the elderly, and disabled people—were triumphantly filmed by Hamas. The terror group has deepened their ongoing cruelty by not releasing the list of deceased loved ones. Uncertainty surely deepens trauma.

In reality, a series of events began in secret after September 22, 2005, when Israel evacuated its 9,000 Jewish residents from Gaza and donated it lock, stock, and barrel to Palestinians. They set about destroying everything Jews left behind to help them. Destruction is terror’s middle name. That is why Arab countries do not want to resettle Gazan Palestinians.

From 2005 until today, Palestinians have abandoned the dream of self-determination and creating a beautiful, productive Palestinian state for its children and grandchildren. Instead, they built a dark underground city filled with every weapon the Islamic Regime patron could smuggle into its terrorist operations. Nothing has changed. Hatred and destruction are still idolized.

The 79-page Israel Civil Commission’s report on October 7 is now in the hands of 300 very influential leaders at the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual summit for international government and military officials, academic experts, authors, and entrepreneurs, held in Nova Scotia, Canada. Will leaders affirm the findings recorded by Hamas villains beginning on October 7, 2023? Or will the world’s Jew haters once again ignore or vilify Israel and Jews worldwide?

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

• Pray for remaining hostages and their families while the horror movie is repeated.
• Pray for leaders and institutions to receive the Israeli 10/7 Commission report as truth.
• Pray for worldwide media to report the facts in the 10/7 Commission report.
• Pray that those seeking news will refer to trustworthy Christian media and other factual outlets.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide. In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.