ARTICLES

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prayer Points:

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

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

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She could not contact any of her friends in Iran. 

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

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

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

Prayer Points:

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

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

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

A tsunami of accusations against Israel, the Jewish ancestral homeland, is crashing ashore across the globe. Misleading headlines are flooding in, saying Israel is “Accused of the gravest war crimes in Gaza” (the BBC) and charge Israel with ethnic cleansing. Evil is valued and goodness is devalued. The brilliant prophet Isaiah, who today could be awarded the Nobel prize for literature, eloquently described this reversal in Chapter 5, verse 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. We live in an upside-down world. It is frightening for our Jewish friends in Israel, the United States, and beyond.

Furthermore, strengthening our own faith is indispensable right now. Most evangelicals I know befriend Israel and the Jewish community because we value the entire Bible. Its clarity informs us that our Christian faith was born in the ancient cradle of Judaism. God, in His sovereign plans, created and chose Jews to write 65 books of the Bible—except for Luke, who was considered in ancient traditions to be a Gentile. The Jewish apostle Paul, a murderer-turned-believer in Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) on the Damascus Road, carried the Good News about our Jewish Savior to non-Jews.

Up until the time of Paul’s Damascus Road encounter with Yeshua, the early church for about eight to ten years was populated by Jewish believers, as well as some Gentiles. When the disciples traveled to the known world with the Gospel news after Jesus’ ascension, His Great Commission reached Jews and began seeping into the Gentile community. However, it was the brilliant Apostle Paul, commissioned by God, who would spotlight the Good News to the Gentiles. 

The Old and New Testaments were written by Jews, for Jews, and to Jews. Evangelicals do not support the Jewish people in America, Israel, or any other nation because Jews are perfect. They are not perfect; we are not perfect. We are all imperfect. But God has codified His words in a legacy written through the hands and minds of the Jews. The legacy remains today and for eternity with its world-changing redemption story. Guinness World Records documents the Jewish-written Bible as the bestselling nonfiction book of all time. In its research, the non-denominational British and Foreign Bible Society estimates that since the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s, between 5 and 7 billion copies were printed.

I took a few moments to highlight the Bible as our foundation in our personal lives and in reference to our support for Jews. Because too much of the world is undergoing unwitting disregard for biblical facts about God’s love for His people, the Jews. Daily reading of our guidebook, the Bible, is a spiritual survival habit, lets us learn more about our relationship with the God who made us.

Take a small tour with me to connect with examples globally where anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiments are fomenting. Israeli American Hillel Fuld, a respected Orthodox Jewish Zionist and tech advisor, was scheduled to speak in Australia at fundraising events for Magen David Adom (Israel’s Red Cross). Fuld’s visa was canceled when false accusations labeled him a “merchant of Zionist hate.” Fewer than 120,000 Jewish people live in Australia—out of an estimated 27.5 million. Yet Jew hatred manifested in more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2023 and September 2024—an astonishing number given the small size of its Jewish population.

Moving on to France, their Ministry of National Education reported 1,670 antisemitic acts in schools for the school year 2023–2024. Jewish children, as young as 9 and 10 years old, are badgered at school and do not talk about the Jewish holidays they celebrate at home. Even in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, which views itself as a neutral nation, anti-Jewish social media is rapidly escalating. There were 1,789 incidents in 2024—an increase of 89.5 percent over 2023. Forty-two physical attacks include some schools—all too accurately described as the “new hotbeds of hatred.”

In Germany last November, an under-17 youth soccer team in Berlin from TuS Makkabi, a Jewish sports club, was chased by a crowd from the opposing team wielding sticks and knives. They yelled “Free Palestine” and spat on the Jewish team.

The United States, in the last few weeks, has felt the shock of two Israeli Embassy staff being shot dead by a terrorist, and then reeled from another horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, when members of a peaceful Jewish group were set on fire. One-third of American Jews report that they have experienced antisemitism, in person or virtually, at least once in the past year. Fifty-six percent mention they have changed their behavior—men choosing not wearing their kippahs and women not wearing their Star of David necklaces. Only 6.3 million Jews live in the U.S.—not even 2 percent of the total population.

This week, the 2025 Israel Summit scheduled for June 9–11 in Dallas, Texas, was canceled due to the threat of violence. Commented former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman: “This is America in 2025. A pro-Israel conference,” he said, “was forced to cancel because of threats from violent jihadists. Law enforcement was completely cooperative, but the threats were of a nature that required cancellation.”

In closing, our short tour now leads to one more terror tunnel discovered below yet another hospital in Gaza—this time, the European Hospital. It offers more proof that Hamas leaders weren’t just hiding underground; they were running their terror network from beneath a hospital. IDF spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin describes the weapons, cash, and ammunition stored in the tunnels under the hospital’s emergency room. Standing in the tunnel, Defrin says, “We found here in this infrastructure a lot of funds, a lot of money, cash used by Hamas—of course, not for the people but for terror activities, weapons.” Here is the link if you wish to watch or share it: [view here].

Given the mindset of those described in Isaiah 5:20 who call “evil good, and good evil,” they would likely refuse to believe facts about this under-the-hospital-terror-post or the massive amount of visual evidence that has been available since October 7, 2023. 

Let us be among those who dwell on biblical hope and then commit to honoring God by supporting His chosen people.

Our CBN Israel team invites you to join us in prayer this week recalling Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” 

Prayer Points: 

• Pray for Jewish communities worldwide to discover shalom to calm their fears. 
• Pray for the safety of Jewish schoolchildren living outside of Israel.
• Pray for members of the IDF in their highly dangerous search for hostages in terror tunnels.
• Pray for Israeli families whose adult children in the IDF bravely sacrificed their lives. 

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.