transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] The thing that really struck me the most about the ceremony was the first singer that was brought on had long tzitzit all the way down to his ankles, but he wasn't wearing a kippah. And he's like, no, I'm just living by the Torah, I want to live this way. And he's opened up a whole new way of secular Israelis kind of like identifying, living, being religious, being more observant in their own way. And he was the lead singer that opened up the whole ceremony.

Speaker 2:
[00:24] What I'm trying to say is I don't like Jew on Jew violence. And I couldn't help but to think that this soldier is taking a sledgehammer to a Jewish guy, a statue of a Jew. And I know that that's like crazy sounding to think that. But at the same time, I do see that he was a Jew. And from my perspective, and maybe this is a hot potato, but I look back at what he said, and I think about Deuteronomy chapter 14, Ba'nim Hashem l'alekachem, we are the children of God. I can imagine him saying, we are the children of God, I'm the son of God. I can picture him saying that. And some people, as he's teaching the non-Jewish world, just like we are, just like we tried to share and to teach and connect also, they could take that and misunderstand that or whatever it is.

Speaker 1:
[01:08] I mean, there's so much influence right now and so much money that's being poured in order to try to break up the alliance between Jews and Christians. That's right. Israel, that's so, this was just a perfect opportunity to try to kind of put a wedge between the world. But I'm saying, if there needs to be a wedge, let it be over idols.

Speaker 3:
[01:24] What does that international body that wants to separate, which I think you're right on it, Jeremy, this is the point that the world is so, they're in glee about this moment because they want to separate these two partners in this redemption process. And what we're sitting around on this show, they're taking the fringe and they're trying to use it to divide.

Speaker 4:
[01:46] Welcome to The Israel Guys, where we believe that in a world of anti-Israel propaganda and Jew hatred, you should always be connected to the land and to the people of Israel. Happy to be with you guys here with Joshua Waller, rabbis, Aryeh Bramowitz, Jeremy Gimpel, all the way from Judea. And we're back two weeks in a row.

Speaker 2:
[02:03] We finally nailed the opening, Luke.

Speaker 4:
[02:04] Yeah, it's because I didn't say my own name. I can pronounce everyone else's name, just not my own. So anyways, very good to be back two weeks in a row. And before we dive in, so much happening, happy Independence Day, by the way, yesterday. So before we dive in, guys may have noticed some people are commenting, can't see your videos, can't find your content every week. Been down a little bit this week. I don't always know what's going on, algorithm, news cycles, whatever it is. But if you are watching or listening, you can help us out by subscribing and following and sharing, literally sending this podcast to your friends and your family and everyone you know, that helps us out a ton.

Speaker 2:
[02:43] I think comments do also, by the way.

Speaker 4:
[02:45] Comments do help, yes. And we do read them, even if we don't always respond to them. And Ari loves the comments.

Speaker 2:
[02:51] Love them, especially when it's about the aesthetic qualities of my face.

Speaker 4:
[02:54] That's right. So I want to dive in with some statistics. Israel's population, Independence Day 2026, which was yesterday, April 22nd. Israel's population total, 10.244 million people, 7.79 million are Jewish, that's 76% of Israel's population, 2.157 are Arab, that's 21% of Israel's population, and 296,000 foreigners, of which I guess, Josh, I guess you and I are in that number. So we're part of the 2.9% of Israel's population. That's up 146,000 from last year, 1.4%.

Speaker 3:
[03:33] I wonder how many foreigners are actually pro-Israel, like the Arab number as well. Foreigners inside of Israel are actually pro-Israel.

Speaker 2:
[03:39] I think probably most of them.

Speaker 3:
[03:41] You think so?

Speaker 2:
[03:42] Yeah. When I meet people from the Philippines or from Sri Lanka, they all love Israel.

Speaker 3:
[03:47] The foreigners, what about the 21% Arab?

Speaker 2:
[03:50] Oh, you're talking about the 2, I doubt, I don't think so. I think that we have this thing like, oh, Israeli Arabs, and then Arabs that aren't Israeli, and they're in Judea and Samaria, that are known as the Palestinians. A lot of that is foreign imposed identities. And to them, they are jihadists. So many of them.

Speaker 3:
[04:08] Can I tell you a quick story? I went to the zoo.

Speaker 4:
[04:10] I went to the sun. I'll let you argue about it in a second. Just let me finish. Just for people who are interested, 177,000 newborn Israelis since last independence day. That feels like a lot to me. 48,000 people died, and 21,000 people making aliyah into Israel, immigrating into Israel.

Speaker 1:
[04:28] How many people?

Speaker 4:
[04:29] 21,000.

Speaker 1:
[04:29] 21,000. It's interesting because the first aliyah was like, I have a little right here, from 1882 to 1903. That was the beginning of the modern return to the land of Israel. There were 25,000 Jews that made aliyah in 10 years. And you see like in one year now, it's already like almost 25,000 was accomplished in 10 years, is now being accomplished in one year. And so Israel is just like on a tear. It just keeps on growing. It keeps on getting stronger. And it's interesting because all over social media, you see like Israel's being destroyed. It's being rocked by rockets. And I feel like Israel's economy has never been stronger. Israel's military has never been stronger. And while the world is like watching Israel or speaking about it like as if it's falling apart, we keep on getting stronger and stronger.

Speaker 4:
[05:10] That's right. Josh, you had something to say.

Speaker 3:
[05:12] Well, what I was gonna say was, it's Ari's comment. I'd love to hear what you think about this. I went to the safari. There's an awesome safari in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv there. And just awesome.

Speaker 1:
[05:21] Super fun.

Speaker 3:
[05:22] Super fun place. So I went with the family. Well, a lot of Arab Israelis actually go there. It was a Friday. A lot of Arabs go place on Friday. So anyway, I'm there. And I see a completely obviously Muslim Arab family. And you would think, you know, the settler look, just like you got your gun in your back. He had a pistol stuck in the back of his pants. And I thought, at first I was like, hmm, you know, cause you're like, I mean, we're living in Judea and Samaria. You never see that here. That's something you would never see in Judea and Samaria because unless you're actually in a full blown fight somewhere that's what the IDF deals with.

Speaker 1:
[05:59] It's pretty rare to see that in Ramadgana also.

Speaker 3:
[06:01] Right. So, but to your point, there are some that are awesome fighters for Israel. There are some.

Speaker 2:
[06:08] Yeah, yeah. That's what I wanted to say. I felt like the rest are jihadists. And then I was like, but there are others. It's important to focus on that because I've met so many of them. And I think there's probably a lot more than we imagine, but there's so much fear involved in them actually expressing that. That's right. That they have to say, no, of course I'd vote for Hamas. Of course I've just met so many of them that see the value of living in a Jewish Israel. Just for them personally, for their families, the peace and the calm and the rights and the privilege. They have more rights and privileges. Where else in the entire world can the Middle East, can an Arab woman drive other than in Israel?

Speaker 3:
[06:46] I think about that a lot.

Speaker 2:
[06:47] So that's an important thing. But it's cool, the 21,000 number, at the times of Ezra, there were 42,360 Jews that came back. That's exactly half of, not exactly half, but we don't know. It said 21,000, did it say an exact number?

Speaker 4:
[07:04] This is what I got from the times of Israel, 21,000.

Speaker 2:
[07:07] 21,000, because I like to be specific about it. The exact number, because it was like that in the Book of Ezra, and it's important to know every single Jew counts.

Speaker 3:
[07:15] Well, how many donkeys do you see?

Speaker 2:
[07:16] Yeah, there were exactly.

Speaker 3:
[07:17] Because he says that too, right?

Speaker 2:
[07:20] 7,337 servants and 200 singers.

Speaker 3:
[07:24] How many donkeys do you see?

Speaker 1:
[07:25] The donkeys counted also.

Speaker 2:
[07:26] Donkeys were counted too?

Speaker 1:
[07:28] I think the Book of Ezra was like, wow, only 42,000. That's like, okay, well, how many horses? How many donkeys? How many servants? We got to like, bop, bop, bop off the numbers a little bit.

Speaker 2:
[07:36] Right, well, I'll tell you who would know the answer to that. Ravital Cohen, the girl that just won the international contest for the Tanakh in Israel, that happens every single Independence Day. It's our family tradition that on the way to our family barbecue, where all of the different family from all the different backgrounds come together to celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut. We listen in the car to this contest, where Jews from all the nations around the world and within Israel come together and they're asked questions about the Bible. And I'm saying the most specific minutiae, they are asked, you know, what is the name of the town in Gilead that Jeftach went to? I mean, the most specific nuance, and you see the adherence and the love for the Bible that the nation has. And this girl would have nailed that, no question. How many donkeys, boom, she would have nailed it.

Speaker 3:
[08:27] You know, I'm laughing, because you remember this time exactly last year, we were doing the show together, and former Ambassador David Friedman just happened to be watching.

Speaker 1:
[08:34] Do you remember this?

Speaker 2:
[08:35] I do remember. We talked about it.

Speaker 1:
[08:36] I'm not going to roast the individual.

Speaker 3:
[08:38] But one of us on the show accidentally said a verse that did not even exist in the Bible.

Speaker 2:
[08:42] It was hilarious.

Speaker 3:
[08:44] A chapter.

Speaker 1:
[08:44] It was like Leviticus 28.

Speaker 2:
[08:46] I remember it was Deuteronomy 21 or something like that.

Speaker 3:
[08:49] It was hilarious that Master Friedman was watching. It was like he just cracked up. Because here it sounded like it was true.

Speaker 2:
[08:56] No, but the reason I wanted to sort of pivot to that subject with your permission, because I know you're usually at the wheel here. But just yesterday from the entire day, from the moment Yom Haatzema'ut began, this Independence Day, every piece of it was so overwhelmingly infused to its very essence with the Bible, with prophecy, with the Jewish identity of the nation, from the prime minister down to every single person. All it was, was one singing of the praises of God, gratitude to Hashem, prophecy fulfilled. And then to see these Jews from around the world, people are like, oh, the secular people, it's a secular country. Talk about missing the boat here.

Speaker 1:
[09:37] You're talking right now about the national ceremony, where they light the torches and it's like the national celebration.

Speaker 2:
[09:42] I'm not as specific about the Chidon HaTanach, but we could talk about that also.

Speaker 1:
[09:46] Well, I'll tell you, for the first time, I'd always seen clips of the national ceremony, but for this was the first time I went to my father's house, we watched on this big screen TV, me and all my kids, and the national ceremony was shocking, how Jewish it was, how godly it was, because I remember seeing clips of it 10 years ago, there are girls skimming around in bikinis and dancing, it was so secular.

Speaker 2:
[10:06] That's why I never watched it, I was depressed.

Speaker 1:
[10:08] Last years, this year it was so spiritually oriented. And then every time someone lighted a torch, and they would say, well, this is in honor of the soldiers, and this is in honor of the doctors, or this is in honor of whatever they represented at that time. And they would say, this is in honor of God. The whole audience would erupt in applause. Like God got more cheers than every other topic that was honored. And they kept on honoring God over and over again. It was such a religious ceremony, I've never seen anything like that. The thing that really struck me the most about the ceremony was the first singer that was brought on had long tzitzit all the way down to his ankles, but he wasn't wearing a kippah. And that's kind of his style. He's like, listen tzitzit, that's like from the Torah. A kippah, that's kind of like a tradition that was brought on a little bit later. Like Abraham wasn't wearing a kippah. And he's like, no, I'm just living by the Torah. I want to live this way. And he's opened up a whole new way of secular Israelis, kind of like identifying living, being religious, being more observant in their own way. And he was the lead singer that opened up the whole ceremony.

Speaker 2:
[11:11] It's called tzit tzit le lo kippah. It's an actual movement of like, yes, we wear the fringes on the garments that the Bible says, but no kippah. Meaning that there's, to someone looking from without even an orthodox Jew from the exile could with exile diaspora eyes look and say, oh, they're secular because they're not keeping the abstract rituals that have sustained us in the exile for thousands of years, but there's a deeper integration. The Bible tells us, the Torah tells us, when I return you to the land, I will take from you a heart of stone and put within you a heart of flesh. You'll have a circumcision of the heart that there's something deeper happening. And when you see this generation of kids, you can't see them through the same eyes. There's something so much deeper and more primal and integrated and infused within them that they are living, breathing their Judaism. Who was this chef, the chef guy? Do you know who I'm talking about? There's a world-renowned chef, a multimillionaire. He's all around the world. He's an Israeli chef. October 7th happened. He came back to Israel, joined the army as a medic in the front lines, nearly died, and he lit one of the lights. And then there was Ari Spitz, right? His parents were born in America, made aliyah to Israel. He lost an arm, two legs and fingers from the other hand. And he walked up there with his prosthetics. And just sung the praises of God in Israel. It was just so moving. I couldn't help but to just cry the whole time.

Speaker 1:
[12:41] 80% of Israelis that are watching television are watching that national ceremony. And they built the national ceremony in a way that's obviously appealing to the nation. And it's just showing that that's where the nation is at. The nation is becoming more and more connected to God.

Speaker 2:
[12:56] And for the cynical people out there, because I can't remember now the last public address that the prime minister has made where he hasn't said at some point, Bezrat HaShem, please, with the help of God, with HaShem's help. And people are like, oh, he says that, it means that elections are coming, right? Because he's like pandering to the nation. First of all, I think that's overly cynical. But even if it's true, it shows something about the nation, that that's the way to pander to the country is by talking about God and how much we rely on God.

Speaker 4:
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Speaker 3:
[14:46] Can I share another miracle? Or Jeremy, you had something else.

Speaker 1:
[14:48] Well, I'm just gonna say one other story that I just saw in The Times of Israel, that the head of the Shabbat, which is like Israel's internal agency, the FBI of Israel, his first day in office, changed all of the screensavers in background pictures to be, instead of the logo of the Shabbat, to be a picture of the Temple Mount on all of the computers in the office. And there's something about it that is really fundamentally changing Israel because the Shabbat, that's really a stronghold of the deep state. And he's like going right into the belly of the beast. And he's like, no, we're putting up the Temple Mount now. That's on the computers of all the offices.

Speaker 2:
[15:21] And what did everybody say? A lot of, not everybody, but a lot of the deep staters in the deep state, they were like, that just shows he's messianic, he's messianic. And like, as if that's some sort of bad word, right? But in the end of the day, the entire nation is like, when I say messianic, I mean like yearning for the arrival of Mashiach.

Speaker 3:
[15:39] Well, yeah, who is the whole, everybody in the world is fighting against Israel and the real haters, who do they hate the most? They hate Ben Gavir and they hate Smoltrich. The two guys that are focused the most on the Temple Mount, they're focused on religious Israel, God-fearing Israel. So again, pointed in this direction.

Speaker 4:
[15:55] Josh, I think you should share the story, you might share it better than I can, about the farm that's being established here, on the Mount of Blessing, like where we're sitting and the soldier that it's being established in memory of.

Speaker 3:
[16:04] Sure, yeah, so the Aton Farm has just been created here. There was a soldier that, it was a really hard story, but this is another example of what Israel does in hard, hard times. Aton was an amazing young man, very cheerful, amazing young guy. He actually carried, it's actually not normal for Jewish people to do this, but he was a very special fellow. He carried atonach, a Jewish Bible, in his pocket wherever he went. It was kind of a phenomenal thing. Like that's not common, right?

Speaker 1:
[16:29] No, not at all.

Speaker 3:
[16:30] Not at all.

Speaker 1:
[16:30] Right.

Speaker 3:
[16:32] He had just gotten married. He was part of the IDF. He was just basically got off his honeymoon, went to the war and was killed in Gaza. Horrific.

Speaker 4:
[16:40] From the Jewish community where we're sitting right now.

Speaker 3:
[16:42] He was our neighbor. And just now they're starting a new farm in memory of him. And again, this is just so incredible to me to see the, the power of what the Jewish people do with hardship. You're taking it and then they're going to settle the land. They're doing something in his memory to remind people, you know, this amazing young man. And so far, it was being established. It was just amazing to see the land coming back to life. But yeah, and we're obviously a part of that and excited to see that.

Speaker 2:
[17:12] Yeah. I'll just tell you, you spoke about him passing away, him dying in war during the siren. I had a lot of experiences I'm not going to spend all of the time. But during the day, I walked outside onto my balcony, overlooking the hills of Judea all the way to the Dead Sea. I could see Masada and the siren sounded. Like many others, I closed my eyes, I was whispering Psalms and I was thinking about my friends and the people I know and just that have died. I was just picturing being there by their side, giving their lives for the state of Israel, for the Jewish people, for the nation. Then I opened my eyes and I saw the mountains of Judea spread before me. I said, this is what it was for. This is just to be able to see that right before me. It's hard to explain how vivid and transcendent that experience was, but it was a one-to-one. That's the thing. I think about it, Jeremy and I went out, we put it all on the line settling the hills of Judea. There's many times where we almost lost everything and we still may. But I think people lost everything with bad investments and at least we've put it all on the line for the same thing that you guys have.

Speaker 3:
[18:16] When the siren went off, I was actually in the middle of a vineyard. We were planting vines, thousands, literally thousands and thousands of vines in Shiloh, the Shiloh Valley, an incredibly beautiful spot. A 30 dunum, something vineyard, just the most incredible. That's when the siren went off. Again, it was that moment where I'm thinking back over the year, and we've lost friends, we've lost people that were close to us. But then seeing that the Jewish people, the life of the nation, you're sitting in the middle, it's like this balance between the harsh and the hard things that we're dealing with, with this redemption process that's unfolding before us. We're planting vines, like the Prophet said, you will yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria, Jeremiah 31, and the land's gonna come back to life, Ezekiel 36, and so much of the prophetic word of God is coming to life, and we're witnessing it right in the midst of the challenge. The alarm goes off, you're touching the miracle of Israel, at the same time, you're remembering the lives that were lost to achieve that.

Speaker 2:
[19:15] I just want to say, you're not just witnessing it, it's happening through you. Very often, I hear you guys speak as if you're just so honored to be witnessing what's happening, and you missed it, like, if the Bible were to be written right, and I believe chapters are being written as we speak, you guys are a massive central part of it, and a tremendous source of light for the Jewish people.

Speaker 3:
[19:34] I know my fingers are absolutely sore as they can be. We were digging in the amazing soil of Israel.

Speaker 2:
[19:40] I was a shovel, Waller.

Speaker 3:
[19:41] I was literally digging into the rocks.

Speaker 4:
[19:43] The amazing soil of Israel has a lot of amazing thorns.

Speaker 3:
[19:47] The land of Israel settled through hardship. That is actually a...

Speaker 1:
[19:50] You know, this is just a thought that came to me. I was talking to Tiel, and she pointed this out to me. I'm, like, leading the prayer service now three times a day, so I'm kind of paying a lot more attention to the prayer service. And there's one part in the Amidah, the silent prayer, where you give thanks to God, and there's one part where it says, We give thanks to you, God, for giving thanks to you. The fact that we're able to give thanks to you, we want to thank you for that. And I was thinking, Yom Haatzmaud and Yom HaZikaron, it really brought that out to me. And I was, like, you know, Israel is sort of, like, divided into these, like, movements. They're seculars, and they're, like, loving Independence Day. They recognize, well, there's a Holocaust, and we have a new state, we have independence, we have a strong, God's not a part of that. Then on the other side, there's Haredi ultra-Orthodox Jews that see God in everything. But they look at the state of Israel, and they're like, oh, accept that. I'm not a Zionist, I'm an ultra-Orthodox Jew. And they're saying, wow, we're so lucky that we get to see the miracles of God and recognize what time we're living in. And in that way, that's really what brings us around this table today, that we're actually seeing God alive, the miracles unfolding, the prophecies being fulfilled. And it's really to give thanks to God, but that we're able to thank Him for that, that we have the eyes to see the miracles of Israel and to be a part of it.

Speaker 3:
[21:02] On this note, though, while you're talking about the miracles, I have to thank God. I don't know if you guys have heard this or not, but Israel, just 2026, right? The wars are starting and the year and all the things that are happening right around us right now. Did you know Israel sold, made the largest sale of a company in Israel's history, $32 billion sale.

Speaker 1:
[21:25] When did that happen?

Speaker 3:
[21:26] The company Wizz.

Speaker 1:
[21:27] Oh, sure.

Speaker 3:
[21:28] So the Israeli tech company, massive company, $32 billion sale, largest in history. Now, why is this important that it happens right now? Well, Israel's fighting a war that cost a ton of money. Do you know just the, just the, the sale of that company and what came into the Israeli government from that, has boosted.

Speaker 2:
[21:45] Through taxes, you're saying? Through taxes.

Speaker 4:
[21:46] From the high Israeli taxes.

Speaker 3:
[21:47] From the high Israeli taxes. I mean, that's the way it is. It's a startup country. I mean, like you got, it's unreal that the whole war has been affected by the largest sale in Israel's history simultaneously. Talk about the miracles. How the hell does that come? How did that happen?

Speaker 4:
[22:03] You know, the shekel is higher than it's been in like three decades or something like that too. Yeah, stronger, yeah.

Speaker 3:
[22:08] And so this is a part of it. It's the mirror, it's absolutely miraculous timing.

Speaker 4:
[22:12] I haven't looked up the stats, but like Israel's stock market, like the investments in the Israeli investment economy has like skyrocketed in the last two and a half years, in the last two and a half years of wars.

Speaker 3:
[22:23] Which again, we have to thank God. We have to just thank God.

Speaker 4:
[22:25] Well, I think on that, kind of on that note, we can transition a little bit. And what we've all been talking about and recognizing is that we are recognizing the miracles of what's happening in Israel while the rest of the world is like recognizing and calling out the negatives. And, you know, so like it's war and Israel's oppressing people. And, you know, there's this story of this Jesus statue being smashed and that's all the world could focus on, right? But like we're saying, all of Israel, not all of Israel, but the majority of Israel now recognizing that the Gaiolot is happening, like redemption, God's kingdom is literally happening in the land of Israel and the people of Israel. And people are turning more religious and becoming more faith oriented. And it doesn't look exactly how we probably would have predicted it's going to look, right? Like it's all these different types of people. And I think that kind of goes right into the story because we do want to talk about this, the statue being smashed, but it's probably not the perspective that you guys are expecting to hear.

Speaker 3:
[23:24] Well, I think they expect us not to talk about that.

Speaker 4:
[23:25] Well, if you're watching this or listening to this, then yes, you are expecting something like this.

Speaker 2:
[23:28] It's such a dangerous issue for us to bring up here on the show that we should all have to go in a circle and weigh in and just take it. What do you think?

Speaker 4:
[23:35] So, but the reality is like, it's what happened. But all of us have this perspective that is so different than how the rest of the world is looking at it. Because I was watching clips of our mutual friend, Yishai Fleischer, on Piers Morgan. Like Piers Morgan is like, but what about this statue? But what about this statue? And you know, 60% of America is now doesn't support Israel. And it's because of things like this statue. And what about this? You know, the military is known for smashing statues. And what about this? And it's like that the world is obsessed over an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus. That's like one-off incident. And now the guy's like gonna get 30 days in prison or that's like being investigated and disciplined. And they've already replaced the statue and all this stuff. Not normal, right? And it's universally condemned across Israel, right? Act, Jewish, all circles. But the world is like, well, what about this? This represents Israel oppression and genocide and apartheid and occupation and all this kind of stuff. And that's not what's happening. So anyways, Josh, do you wanna start?

Speaker 3:
[24:37] The real simple thing is that Israel condemned it, of course, and the highest levels and they've already restored. Well, what happened? A soldier, there was a statue of Jesus.

Speaker 4:
[24:44] In Southern Lebanon.

Speaker 3:
[24:45] In Southern Lebanon, a soldier.

Speaker 4:
[24:46] Christian village.

Speaker 3:
[24:47] Knocked it down and smashed it with a sledgehammer. Okay.

Speaker 4:
[24:50] Statue of Jesus.

Speaker 3:
[24:51] Obviously offensive. And no one in Israel said, oh, that's a great thing. That it should be done. No, nobody said that. And then it was dealt with and there's actually a process being a legal process now going through that happens in a country that has law and order. And that's what's happening in Israel. Now, what I wanna point out before, just to kick us off here is that, why is the world? I just typed it in, you can't type anything. Statute, type it in, you know, Jesus statue, boom, every media network, you know, BBC, Dialga, Zero, the haters are loving it. This is what they want to project to the world. This is what Jews equal. They equal persecution of other minority groups. They equal persecutors of Christians, you know, Arabs, you know, whatever. Jews just hate the world. That's what they're trying to paint. Now, I want to contrast that with the actual truth of what's happening. And the test will be done right here because, did you know, just this week, that a mob of 200 Muslims attacked Christians in Bangladesh and injured six, cut down trees in a Christian cemetery, Catholic cemetery, and absolutely destroyed a Hindu temple just this week? No. You know that? No. And are any news agencies promoting that except for, where I found it, was the Catholic World Report. That's the only place you're going to find it. Like, no one is talking about the extreme Islamic persecution of minority groups, specifically Christians, since this topic is Christian. No one's talking about it. Nearly some report as many as 22,000 Christians killed by Islamists in Africa alone since 2024. We can talk about Syria, and we've talked about that before on the show. Many people are not talking about the Christian situation in Syria. But in 2011, there was some 1.5 million Christians living in Syria. And today, there's only like 300,000. What happened? Well, it's obvious. They were massacred, and we all know that. But is anyone talking about it? No, there's not massive news. Nobody's talking about it. Damascus, I'm just going to run through these, because this is what the world needs to understand, is the war actually is. There's an Islamic war against all, if we talk about minorities, we talk about Christians, we talk about Jewish people. This is the actual attack that this soldier was actually fighting to free the world from. And of course now, this is complicating it and making people think, oh no, Israel's the bad guy. No, Israel is freeing the world. And yes, they're going to deal with these small situations, but don't be confused about what's actually happening on the ground. Islamic attacks in Damascus, 22 people killed, 63 wounded. That just happened in 2025. Did anybody know about it? No. Afghanistan, crazy attacks happening. Istanbul, crazy attacks. Spain, Russia, all across America, for goodness sakes. There's even statues, the exact same situation as what happened on the IDF front with a soldier, has happened across America. Look at these pictures. This happened in America and no one even knows who did it. Doesn't matter. Nobody cares.

Speaker 4:
[28:09] Is it true that on average one Christian church is burned every week in the Muslim world?

Speaker 3:
[28:15] Yes. That is, our researchers put that stat together and I think that just says it the best. That says what I'm really trying to say. One church a week in the Islamic world is burned, destroyed. You talk about Christian persecution at its mass. And yet, the world is trying to max that and say, you know what, these Islamists aren't the real problem. It's the Jews. Look at this guy who took a sledgehammer and destroyed this Jesus statue in southern Lebanon. No one in Israel supports that. And yet, that force, everything is backwards from the actual reality of what Israel stands for and what Israel is giving its life. The whole nation has been in war against this evil regime that is persecuting and burning. And, you know, you talk about absolute massacres against the Christian and free world. And Israel is the front line of fighting it.

Speaker 1:
[29:13] I think it's really remarkable that the Jews are 0.2% of world population. Not 1%, it's 0.2 of 1% in the amount of attention that the Jews draw. Because a random soldier somewhere did something, it's all over every news outlet while people are being massacred, slaughtered and killed, and no one's talking about that at all. To me, that is really noteworthy.

Speaker 2:
[29:37] I'd like to dig just a little deeper on this front and go a little out of the box. First of all, a diplomatic answer to that, that an editor at the jewishedition.com said, I'm just going to read it. It said, Here in Israel, we hear ourselves being relentlessly attacked by Christians like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, and the Pope with their millions of Christian followers. Yet we know there are also millions of Christians who love Israel. So, how about we won't judge all Christians who hate us by your outliers, and you won't judge Israel by one soldier who destroyed an idol? So, that's a nice answer. But I want to dig a little deeper because one of the reasons I love Samson so much, again, Prophets of Israel Daily were in Samson, so I see everything through that prism. I got a lot of feedback from our last show like, are you really digging in on these? But that's what Jeremy and I spent tremendous amount of our time doing that. Samson, when the 3,000 men from the tribe of Judah handed him over to the Philistines, he said, I'll let you do that as long as you don't try to hurt me. He wasn't worried about them hurting him. He was worried about hurting them. And that was refreshing to me after all of the Jew on Jew. What I'm trying to say is I don't like Jew on Jew violence. And I couldn't help but to think that this soldier is taking a sledgehammer to a Jewish guy, a statue of a Jew. And I know that that's like crazy sounding to think that. But at the same time, I do see that he was a Jew. And from my perspective, and maybe this is a hot potato, but I look back at what he said, and you know, I think about Deuteronomy chapter 14, Ba'nim Hashem l'alekachem. We are the children of God. I can imagine saying, we are the children of God. I'm the son of God. I could picture him saying that. And some people, as he's teaching the non-Jewish world, just like we are, just like we tried to share and to teach and connect also, they could take that and misunderstand that, whatever it is. The point is, I think it's not right for us to accept third-hand slanderous things, although millions of Jews were killed throughout history in his name, for us to besmirch his name. I don't think most Jews in Israel have a negative association with who he was as a person. And so to take a sledgehammer to the face of a Jewish guy that was killed by the Romans, that sort of was disturbing to me. But also on a deeper level, it sort of exposed the underlying idols that so many of us have. You know, it's one thing for us to say, you know, we should be destroying idolatry, but what about our own idolatry? People are like, the soldier that did that, he's going to ruin everything. What is America going to say? What's the world going to say? We need the world, we need America, we need… And then you hear people's idols coming out about all the things that we need the support of, that this could undermine. If someone has an argument about the actual principle of the matter, then I want to hear that. I want to hear that, but it's just a pragmatic issue that we're going to lose all of the idols that we think are the reason we continue to exist. We should, like those who in glass houses, right, shouldn't throw stones, right? If you see someone else's blemish of your own, we should really be looking within and say, what are our real reasons for being against this? Now, you quoted something, right? What were you saying about it?

Speaker 3:
[32:36] About a Bible verse or something?

Speaker 2:
[32:38] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[32:38] Oh, you're talking, well, I was just thinking about it. I don't know if you read my thoughts here, but what my thought was is that in the Bible, it says don't make images and don't have these things, right? So there is a big difference in Christianity between the Catholics and the Protestants, and I mean, how many, what is there, 60,000 something different denominations, but an all broken up along these lines of some believe that it's okay to have these statues, others, I mean, even Christians themselves would be destroying things like this in an internal fight to say, no, you're not allowed to have these statues, you're not allowed to have this kind of stuff. So from a Jewish perspective, you shouldn't have these images.

Speaker 4:
[33:17] And from some Christian perspective.

Speaker 3:
[33:19] And from some Christian perspective.

Speaker 1:
[33:20] From a Ten Commandments perspective, you're not allowed to have idols.

Speaker 3:
[33:25] Right, so you're not allowed to create an image and then worship it. Well, that's exactly what, if a Jewish person walked into, let's just give an example. If you walked into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, there's hordes of, you know, images around and people are bowing down. There's a rock when you first walk into there that's absolutely smooth, as people are bowing down, they're kissing it, and they're wiping their tears on it. And like this, it's the picture of what a Jewish person would describe as idolatry. That's just the picture of it. It's the Catholic version of Christianity that we've all seen. So in some ways, if you were to just to give the benefit of the doubt for someone, that like Ari is saying, I loved your argument there for this. But at the other hand, I remember talking about very sensitive issues here that of course, everyone should feel free to state their opinions. But at the same time, what if this Jewish man just said, what if it wasn't so entrenched? What if he was just saying, you're not allowed to have, create images? I mean, okay, that's actually Jewish command. So they're going in war. Of course, I'm not saying that he should do this or shouldn't, but what if it was like you're saying, it was a 10 commandment kind of thing. And there'd be thousands and millions of people around the world that would agree with that. But because of the backdrop of this situation, of course, it's being misrepresented. Because of the hostile form that the whole world is taking against Jews, people are looking at the Jewish people in a bad light and not giving any sort of, trying to understand, why would a Jewish person do this?

Speaker 2:
[34:57] No generosity here.

Speaker 3:
[34:57] There's no generosity.

Speaker 2:
[34:58] No benefit of the doubt. Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. We're at a place right now where we need to be shining light.

Speaker 3:
[35:04] That's right.

Speaker 2:
[35:04] That's just the era that we're in. And I think, why aren't we, I mean, there's an argument to make. Lebanon is not, right now, under the jurisdiction, there's not Jewish sovereignty in Lebanon. So, there's not that commandment at this point to go do that. And why isn't there Jewish sovereignty? Because we're so terrified of what the world would say. Instead of doing what we, how many times in my own service, we go into Lebanon, we have to occupy southern Lebanon, so because they start murdering Jews and shooting missiles at us. And then we have some sort of leftist prime minister that gives it away. And then there's new attacks, and more blood, and more Jewish murder. And then we go back into Lebanon. Why aren't we just saying, Lebanon is part of Biblical Israel, it's part of the nation of Israel now, because we're afraid of what the world is going to say. If we focus on building the temple, if we focus on destroying the idols in our own hearts, the light that will shine from that, other nations will start to take apart their own idols without us needing to smash it with a sledgehammer. That's where I'm at. So I didn't feel good about that. It wasn't a good feeling in my heart. Right or wrong, I don't know, but it didn't feel... Jeremy?

Speaker 1:
[36:08] Yeah, the way that I feel about it is that everything that happens to Israel happens for Israel. This event that happened, it's clarifying things, meaning there's like a swath of Christians in the world. If there's one Christian that turns against Israel now because a soldier destroyed an idol when he wasn't commanded to, that was condemned by the whole country, then okay, that person can turn against Israel for Israel destroying idols. Meaning I don't feel like the people that are truly seeking after God, that are really reading the Bible, that are really looking for the truth in the world, that are seeing the evil that's out there, and the fact that Israel is standing alone against this evil, that's not really going to change one's heart one way or the other. And if it does change their heart, then they were never really with us from the get go.

Speaker 3:
[36:52] They were looking for an excuse to.

Speaker 1:
[36:53] Totally. I mean, there's so much influence right now and so much money that's being poured in order to try to break up the alliance between Jews and Christians. Israel, that's so, this was just a perfect opportunity to try to kind of put a wedge between the world. But I'm saying, if there needs to be a wedge, let it be over idols. Okay, let that be a wedge. That's not like...

Speaker 3:
[37:11] If you will just go with us for a minute here. What does that international body that wants to separate, which I think you're right on it, Jeremy. This is the point that the world is so, they're in glee about this moment because they want to separate these two partners in this redemption process. And what we're sitting around on this show, the people that can help to bring light to help support, the Christian community that's supporting Israel, there is a good that's happening there. But every time, you will see this, they're taking the fringe and they're trying to use it to divide. If it's the church in Gaza that was hit in a, of course Hamas was using the church and whatever, and the, you know, this situation happens, boom, everybody locks in on it because it's important to them to divide. They've got to, there's international people that support Israel. Religiously, that is an issue, and we're going to use every single thing, and that's why even these small instances of this random event that happens is going to be highlighted and thrown to the front of the stage for the entire world to then, you know, pick apart and try to push off, because there will be, unfortunately. There'll be people that didn't have enough belief, not enough faith, they didn't understand God's purpose in Israel, they didn't understand the situation, didn't understand the redemption process that's unfolding before our eyes, and they will flake off because of the situation, just like you talked about, Jeremy. And that's unfortunate to me. But just to understand the battle that's being waged and the enemy that is fighting to divide any kind of support, to try to make Israel stand alone, which will happen, it's going to happen, but hopefully, my prayer is, there's gonna be a couple people from the nations, hopefully a couple more than just a couple, that are going to stand with Israel against this tide of anti-Israel propaganda, Jew hatred, all of these evils that are coming at the Jewish people from everywhere. They're going to see very clearly the truth and the lies, and they're gonna side with Israel, and they're gonna see through this stuff as clearly just propaganda.

Speaker 1:
[39:14] See, I think it all actually boils down to, in some ways, Independence Day. I mean, for me, there's something about that this holiday, I kept on thinking about Chanukah. I kept on thinking about Chanukah because Chanukah is not a holiday that's in the Torah. It's not a holiday that's even in the Tanakh, in the Hebrew Bible, but it's like a recognized holiday that everyone around the world celebrates. Even Christians recognize Chanukah. It's like, she just went to celebrate at the temple, the Feast of Dedication. That's Chanukah, but it's not in the Torah. It's not in the Bible. So what is that? There was a time that the Jewish people that were living a relationship with God, and they defeated the Greek-Syrian armaday. We're making a holiday for God. And then what's happening right now in Independence Day is that just with these stats that we were reading, there's about to be a majority of Jews in the world that are living in the land of Israel. That hasn't happened since the first temple. I mean, that hasn't happened in a long time. And the fact that people are celebrating that now as a religious holiday, I mean, they're going to synagogue and they're making special prayers for that. It's like, this is the holiday of our generation. And the people that see that the Torah is alive, that God is alive, that we're a part of the unfolding story, just like the people of Hanukkah back then, the people of Israel are today. And that's really, that's going to be the dividing line. Is the Bible alive? Is God alive? And those that are living in a living relationship with God, they're not going to let one soldier over there make one difference to them, right or left.

Speaker 2:
[40:39] Can I just read something that your wife sent out because there's a new Seedur, a special prayer book, all for the day of Independence Day, because there's liturgy that has somehow been calcified and solidified thousands of years ago, and there's certain segments within Judaism, particularly diaspora, that refuse to even entertain the thought of touching that or touching it up or making something new. But at the same time, here in the land, it's impossible not to see the miracles. And so, there's a new insertion into the actual liturgy of Israel for that day of Independence Day. And with your blessing, I'm just going to read it. And if it's too long, you could just edit it out, the whole thing, whatever. It says, We thank you for the miraculous deliverance for the heroism and for the triumphs of our ancestors from ancient times until our time. In the days when your children were returning to the borders, at the time when our people took root in its land as in days of old, the gates to the land of our ancestors were closed before those who were fleeing the sword. When enemies from within the land, together with seven neighboring nations, sought to annihilate your people, you, in your great mercy, stood by them in the time of trouble. You defended them and vindicated them. You gave them courage to meet their foes, to open the gates to those seeking refuge, and to free the land of its armed invaders. You delivered the many into the hands of the few, the guilty into the hands of the innocent. You have revealed your glory and your holiness to all in the world, achieving great victories and miraculous deliverance for your people Israel to this day. That is about the War of Independence. We say it and it's part of our prayers because we see that miracle of God, there's no way we would be here without God's direct intervention in a thinly veiled mask of nature. But really the hand of God has been leading us the way until this very day, until this very war.

Speaker 1:
[42:25] What's really beautiful about that is that the first couple of sentences are the same sentences that we say in our liturgy for the holiday of Purim, for the holiday of Chanukah that we've been now saying now for thousands of years, and now that same liturgy is being infused for what's happening for our generation now. And, you know, after the miracle of Chanukah, the Hezbonian dynasty lasted a sovereign nation of Israel for 77 years. And now it's the 78th year here in the land of Israel. And I just find that remarkable that we are not only not going away, but we're getting stronger. And it's just time to give credit to where credit's due and to give praise to God. And so I love the fact that there's that new prayer that people are saying now on synagogues all over the country.

Speaker 3:
[43:07] I don't know if anybody knows this, but Neftali Bennett put out a tweet that said, twice, Neftali Bennett, we're not so sure what's going on with him, but we'll see. Twice in history, he put out a tweet on our next post here. He says, twice in history, we had a Jewish state here in this land. Twice we failed to pass the 77th year, brought down by internal strife and baseless hatred, and we're sent into exile. What is the twice?

Speaker 1:
[43:40] I don't know.

Speaker 3:
[43:41] I was a little bit stumped by that as well.

Speaker 1:
[43:43] Twice, meaning the time of Ezra, we lasted here for several hundred years, and the Hezbollah kingdom, we lasted 77 years. Maybe that's just like a mistake by Neftali Bennett.

Speaker 3:
[43:52] That's what I was wondering.

Speaker 4:
[43:54] Not many of us here. I have a very good view.

Speaker 3:
[43:58] But anyway, I think a lot of people may have seen this, and I was scratching my head, I was wondering if there was any quick answers to this. But that is really awesome, what you said though. It's passed, we've passed, like it's just a milestone.

Speaker 4:
[44:11] I just want to say two things to wrap up this whole topic. And I have one more topic for us potentially here before we wrap up today. And regarding this Jesus statue, number one, there's two sides. There's just like a basic principles side, like military ethics and things like that, which obviously this violated the IDF, moral code and everything. They dealt with it. It's a one-off situation. Israel should not be judged on it. And from a faith perspective, even though like Josh was saying, for someone like us, I guess we'd be considered Protestant Christians, definitely not Catholic. Like the idea of icons and idols in general is offensive to us, but we wouldn't go out and smash idols.

Speaker 3:
[44:52] And then there's a third, Luke.

Speaker 4:
[44:53] Not independently, right? So on both counts, we would consider it wrong. But I just wanted to piggyback on that before you say that. I think it was what Jeremy said. At the end of the day, and Yishai said this very strongly on Piers Morgan, Israel is winning. And God's hand is at work. And the people of Israel are turning back to God. And this one-off situation should not be considered as like, it should not represent Israel, and it doesn't. It's just the left-wing media and those who hate Israel, who are using that to represent Israel. And I think it was you, Jeremy, saying, why do we care about those people anyways? They already didn't stand with Israel. And so at the end of the day, if you love God and you love the Bible and you love Israel, then stand with Israel because Israel's winning. And Israel is moving towards redemption. And so if you want to get on the bandwagon, get on the bandwagon. And if not, then see ya. Who cares? Like it, right? So anyways, I have one more topic, but did you have a third opinion on that? Well, is it controversial?

Speaker 3:
[45:51] Yes, so I'm just saying there's a third group of, or there's a third opportunity. Like you outlined two politically correct kind of things. But then there is the Bible that outlines, and that's where some people are taking very literally. And there's so many stories throughout the Bible that are just not politically correct. And that's just a fact. And there is that third opportunity for people to understand a situation like this in a biblical context of Gideon or things like that. So that is just outlined. There is another group.

Speaker 4:
[46:29] When Israel is restored and living under a God honoring...

Speaker 3:
[46:33] Well, the Sanhedrin, I was talking to a Jewish guy about this. The Sanhedrin.

Speaker 4:
[46:36] When the temple is restored, then there will be the proper biblical authority for biblical order to be restored in the land of Israel. We'll get back to the podcast in a second. If you guys haven't heard about the new initiative here at The Israel Guys, we have a brand new newsletter that is going to 90,000 people Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's called The Israel Guys Show Notes. It is the news and the stories you need to know from the Middle East, from the land of Israel, from Judea and Samaria, biblical connections and encouraging verses from scripture, all packed into one easy to read newsletter. It comes out Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It takes about five minutes to read. I even read these because our team does such an amazing job with the research and the writing, putting that content together. And it's absolutely free. All you got to do to sign up is click the link in the description below. The Israel Guys Show Notes join 90,000 people and growing that are getting this brand new newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Absolutely free. Stay up to date with what's happening in the Middle East, Israel and Judea and Samaria and what's happening through the lens of scripture. Today, just click that link in the description below. Join the movement. Now, back to the podcast. All of the land of Israel. But I have one more topic, and this might be a little controversial too, and I'm interested to hear you guys' thoughts because there was a ceasefire. I know we made it 45 minutes without talking about Iran, but there was a ceasefire that was supposed to expire last night and the world was watching to see if war would restart, right, with Iran. And Trump comes out, I think, yesterday, and I just want to read it because it feels like such an admission of defeat. He says, based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so, and upon the request of Field Marshal Assim Mounir and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, we've been asked to hold off our attack on the country of Iran until such times as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal. And then he said, so we're extending the ceasefire indefinitely. No, not even, he didn't even put three, they said three to five days and they said, that's not true. But basically he's like, okay, it's not working. There's a pretty funny AI video of Trump talking about how, you know, we're negotiating with Iran, there's nobody there. And we're bringing them to the table and there's nobody there, right? Like he's presenting this as a victory, but it really feels like a defeat.

Speaker 3:
[49:01] So, and what does Pakistan have anything to do with it?

Speaker 4:
[49:04] Right. So, but I was looking at it this morning. It's interesting because Israel is at war with Hamas and Gaza. There was a ceasefire and right now Hamas is refusing to disarm and give up their weapons. That feels like a defeat. There was a war with Iran and then there's a ceasefire and Iran's refusing to give up their enriched uranium and their missile launchers and the ballistic missiles. There's a video of ballistic missile being paraded through the Tehran Square yesterday. And there was a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. And then there was a ceasefire and Hezbollah is refusing to disarm and get out of Lebanon. It feels like defeat in three different places. I read some information this morning that I am now becoming of the opinion that it's more of a victory than appears on the surface, but I'm interested to hear you guys' opinion. This is why. In all three of these situations, Israel has gone farther than they've ever gone before. And right now, Israel is holding a large chunk, I forget the percentage of the territory of Gaza, and they're refusing to back off. In Lebanon, Israel is holding a large percentage of the southern territory of Lebanon, south of the Latani River, refusing to back off until Hezbollah disarms or is obliterated, right? In Iran, Trump and the United States, in coordination with Israel, is holding the Strait of Hormuz and blockading the coast of Iran and blockading the Karg Island, refusing to let any oil out, and they're refusing to back off. So obviously, it remains to be seen. We're in a whole waiting pattern here to see will they eventually back off, and it's very possibly they might be that they might, but we've never seen this before. We've always seen war ends with Gaza, they retreat, they withdraw, and then that goes back to normal. Same thing with Lebanon, they retreat with the draw, goes back to normal. Right now, Israel is holding a large part of the Gaza Strip, holding a large part of Lebanon, and Israel and the United States are keep, are blockading Iran, literally, and crippling their economy. They're saying they're losing $500 million a day. Government might fall apart at any moment because just from an economic standpoint. So anyways, that was encouraging me, but I'm curious to hear you guys' pessimistic opinions of that.

Speaker 1:
[51:16] I think that the war isn't done yet. I think that we are in the middle of a long war, and this is just like peaks and valleys. And it's good to point out that Israel's never been in a stronger position, and Hezbollah has never been weaker, and the Hamas has never been weaker, and the Iranian regime has never been weaker. So in that way, Israel is winning, but have we won yet? Is there a victory declared? No way. But the fact that we've taken land, that's a good sign. Until we actually build Jewish communities in southern Lebanon and build Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip, then we do not have victory yet. And so it's kind of just a process, and I don't think that this ceasefire is going to last forever. I think that it's just a matter of time until the next thing breaks, and eventually we will go back to war.

Speaker 2:
[51:58] Yeah, I'll just say this, because I have to say something. There's battles, and these are different battles. Are we winning this battle, losing this battle? Until we actually win the war, and it's not even the war against our enemies. It's war against the idols in our own heart. Until we win the war, which is to build the temple on the Temple Mount, on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, the rest of it is battles. That's what it's really about. And when we shine that light, it's going to be so beautiful and so blinding that it will shift the entire fabric of reality, of humanity, and we'll be beating our swords into plowshares. We won't learn war anymore. And that's what we need to keep our eyes focused. Everything else is just background noise. That just like in the days of the judges and in the days of Joshua, where God says, I keep the enemies in the land to test you, to test your hearts. Are you following my word? Are you following me? We've just continued. We were back in the land and where the story is continuing. And so let's not get lost on the enemies and understand that it is there as a deeper gauge for our own hearts.

Speaker 1:
[52:59] Well, I do think that it's important to recognize that like the stories of the Bible are a prophetic template. They're not just stories of our history, but they are prophecies of what the future, their representations of what the future will be. And this famous story that Saul had Agag on his knees and didn't finish the job. That's kind of a template for where we're at right now, right before the arrival of King David. We are exactly in that Saul period. And so the fact that we haven't finished the job in Gaza, we haven't finished the job in Lebanon, and we haven't finished the job in Iran, even though they're on their knees, all three of those entities are just barely surviving, and we haven't actually cut off the head of Vagag, that's because that's where Israel's at right now, and we're just kind of waiting for the leader to rise up to actually finish the job.

Speaker 3:
[53:44] You know, I think if we want to see where we're really winning, we have to look at the areas that the whole world's not focusing on. The three areas that you just mentioned is what everybody's fairly, you know, just enthralled with. They're looking into those zones. What you haven't seen in the media is anything about Judea and Samaria for quite a long time. Used to be they were completely just enthralled with that, it was all about Hebron and East Jerusalem and up here in Samaria. Did you know, while everyone else is thinking about everything else...

Speaker 4:
[54:14] It's an indicator of really positive news.

Speaker 3:
[54:15] It's an incredible thing. I was just talking to one of the leaders here in Samaria just last week. Just for Samaria, I don't know what the stats are for Judea, but just in Samaria, there's a hundred new communities being established. That is humongous, I mean, massive. That is way out of proportion from what we've seen. The advancement in this way is humongous. We've not seen that in, I don't know, since the founding of the country, a hundred new communities being established. The establishment of Jewish presence back in the homeland is at an exponential rate right now. The farms on top of these small Jewish communities being established, the farms on top of that, it's hundreds more. Like we're talking about Jewish presence being established again, and it's miraculous. You know, only the prophets of Israel saw this thousands of years ago and tried to put it into words, did put it into words, and beautifully, and we're now seeing that happen.

Speaker 4:
[55:12] You know, in 2006, no, 2005, right, when Gaza was, when they, when Gush Katif happened, the disengagement from Gaza, there was Jewish communities in Northern Samaria that were also uprooted, didn't really make the news as much, cause like, you know, it was all, the focus was all in Gaza. But right now Jewish communities, some of the same ones are being reestablished in Northern Samaria with full backing from the IDF, full backing from the Israeli government. The head of the Samaria Regional Council was, lived in that community and was pulled out in 2005. Now he's, he and his family are being reestablished there. But I read something really interesting that, that was kind of shocked me on the Jerusalem Post this morning saying that a lot of this expansion happening in Judea and Samaria is actually happening with full coordination from the American government and president Trump, which is definitely not something that the mainstream media is going to tell you, but it's pretty encouraging if it's true.

Speaker 2:
[56:08] See, I find it a little bit discouraging if it's true. I would love it.

Speaker 4:
[56:12] It's encouraging that there's an American president that is standing with Israel to the point, not, I would say it's discouraging if you view it as, oh, they got permission from America and so they're expanding Judea and Samaria. But if you view it as they're expanding Judea and Samaria, and as a result, America's supporting them, then I think that's encouraging.

Speaker 2:
[56:31] It's encouraging for America.

Speaker 4:
[56:32] It's probably a little both.

Speaker 2:
[56:33] It's encouraging for America. I think blessing will come to America. I also thinking about Trump that he's just such a good businessman, that he looks and says, okay, I'm not up for election again. I don't need to worry about people think, but he's thinking about his legacy in this world and the next. And he's making a very good investment right now, standing against the Tucker Carlson's and against this very loud voice from within his own party, saying, you're supposed to be your slave to BB. He could be reactive to that and say like, oh, no, I'm not. And I'm going to do this. But instead he is acting with integrity and with courage. And he said, my whole life, I believe that you think BB is making me do that. It's a crazy thing. But I would like it if Israel was doing this without needing to have a pro-Israel. Because what about the next administration? It begs that question. The next administration, whether it's Republican or Democrat, that doesn't support that, are we going to stop? So that's really the thing that alerts me the most.

Speaker 4:
[57:30] I'm also curious how much they are depending on permission or support from the United States. Because it feels like there's more support inside of Israel than there's ever been before. You have Betzel Smoczak, who's the Finance Minister, but he's also the Minister for Settlement Affairs or something. And then you have the IDF, who we've actually met a lot of the heads of the commands in these areas. These guys are like, I think he was out here again yesterday, right? Supporting the establishment of a farm. But there's incredible support from inside of Israel as well.

Speaker 3:
[58:02] The head of the Central Command came and gave a Torah lesson at the synagogue at the Yeshiva, the Jewish learning for what would be a Yeshiva, like a religious school, like a Bible school. Here in the Mount of Blessing, gave a 45-minute lecture to the students of the Mount of Blessing Yeshiva. This was the head of the IDF command for this whole area. Is that not redemptive? Is that not surprising? Before today, this would just go right along, Jeremy, with all the amazing, this awakening that's happening in the land of Israel. Before, you did not see religious people at the top command of the IDF. That's new.

Speaker 2:
[58:39] There was always a glass ceiling. It felt like there was a glass ceiling that if you had a keepa on your head, if you had tzitzit, if you were religious, there's only so high they're gonna let you go up before the deep state is like, no, no, no. We gotta keep it in the family here.

Speaker 3:
[58:51] I feel like that's been busted. And these guys, because these guys are God-fearing, incredible, they're given Bible lessons at the Bible school.

Speaker 4:
[59:00] There's several senior ranking IDF officers that work under the chief of staff and the defense minister over all of the different regions and commands in Israel. Two of them were sitting right here at this table in the last month and both of them were religious Jews. And one of them read, he read to all of us and all of his soldiers the letter that he wrote to go in the introduction for the IDF Haggadah that they put out for Passover. He had written it in the car on the way here and he's like, I wanna read this to you guys and get your feedback. It was like his letter for Pesach for Passover.

Speaker 3:
[59:30] And it was amazing. Luke, I know we have to close up, but here's one last thing that I wish to all the haters of Israel, that they would be like the man, I think of King David's words, let all those who hate Zion be turned back and put to shame. There's an epic video of what I wish on all of those haters. This guy, he runs up to try to yank an Israeli flag off of this thing where all the nation's flags are up on this wall. He runs up to grab the flag and yeah.

Speaker 4:
[60:01] He's going for the Israeli flag.

Speaker 3:
[60:02] He almost gets it.

Speaker 4:
[60:03] He fails. And flat on his back.

Speaker 3:
[60:06] And so yes, this is my prayer for an entire world that would choose, if they will, to hate Israel, that that would be their, that's my desire for all of them, is to be so similar to this man. But my hope is that they would choose opposite and that they would come alongside and join and be a part of the blessing.

Speaker 4:
[60:24] I think it's a good message. Like Israel's winning. If you want to get on the bandwagon, you better get on because at some point the option and the opportunity is going to disappear, at least biblically speaking. I'm talking a lot about the Bible today and they're pretty clear.

Speaker 1:
[60:37] We have like a clear barometer, like who's winning this war. The more that we continue to settle and reclaim the land of Israel, that's all you need to know. They don't need to have like strategies and what are the statistics and how many ballistic missiles and that, just the land. It's all about the land. And as we reclaim more and more land and settle more land, plant more vineyards, then we know that we are winning.

Speaker 2:
[60:56] I can't help but to hear the words of, you know, Isaac Abraham Doug Wells and the Philistines filled them in, right? And then Isaac redug the wells of his fathers. That's what I think about when in 2005, when for some reason, the government coupled the destruction of settlements in Samaria to the transfer of Jews out of Gaza and single-handedly handing it over. Which by the way, when you think about Tucker Carlson, and everyone's like, oh, this is all a pretext. October 7th, there's a pretext for a land grab. Let's not forget we had the land, and we gave it over in hopes of having peace unilaterally for nothing. But the point is, we are re-digging the wells of our fathers. And that's a beautiful biblical way to see it.

Speaker 4:
[61:37] Beautiful. That's right. Well, guys, make sure you're following along. Make sure you're subscribed. Make sure you check out thelandofisrael.com, the Land of Fellowship, also the Prophets of Israel Daily. We'll put a link down for Jeremy and Ari's website in the description below, but it's super easy, thelandofisrael.com. Make sure you are, leave us a comment so that Ari can be encouraged this week. He needs your encouragement. But no, I think all of us do read the comments from time to time and definitely appreciate you guys watching and listening wherever you are all over the world. Thank you for standing with Israel because you're standing with God and you're standing with the Bible and the kingdom, the redemption that's happening here in the land of Israel. As always, stop listening to the lies and propaganda and connect with the truth of what's happening in Israel. We'll be back soon here at The Israel Guys.