Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - The Massacre No One Saw Coming [Featuring Lt. Col. Keith Isaacson]

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

On October 7th, 2023, innocent lives were targeted and destroyed in ways most could never imagine. In this episode, Pastor Allen Jackson and Lt. Col. Keith Isaacson, chief of security for the Eshkol region on Israel’s Gaza border, reveal the untold horrors and the chilling reality of what took place. Shockingly, some of the worst atrocities were not carried out by the Hamas terrorists, but by their own neighbors—Palestinian civilians. Isaacson shares firsthand accounts of the unimaginable violence that erupted within the communities and the greatest loss the Jews have experienced since the Holocaust. Learn how the same spirit of antisemitism and hatred that fueled these attacks is still at work today and what you can do to stand against it.—It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective.Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you.Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6dListen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Welcome to Culture and Christianity. It's Thanksgiving weekend. This Sunday is the first Sunday of the Advent season. The four Sundays that precede Christmas have been celebrated in the Christian church for centuries as Advent, a very special time in the Christian calendar. We have prepared a little helpful tool for this Advent season for you and your family. It's really a family book. It's a 25-day devotional called Lead with Your Faith at Christmas, really intended for you. families. They're kind of their Christmas theme to devotionals. Maybe good conversation starters for your family at the evening table or when you're together with friends for the holiday. There's even some from games and some recipes. We're really designed to try to help bring faith a little more front and center into your family at Christmas. I hope it's a blessing. I'm sure they'll put it on the screen. You can go to the website if you want the details. You can get that. My guest today, I'm really excited and introduced to you, Colonel Keith Isaacson, he's Israeli, and he was responsible for a big part of the defense in the communities

along the Gaza border that suffered so grievously on October the 7th a couple of years ago. So that horrendous terrorist attack is not theoretical to him. Most of the men he led lost their lives that day. I think his story will be a blessing to you. I know Israel isn't, and the Jewish people are an increasingly controversial topic. That's unfortunate. It's especially unfortunate that much of the hatred is coming, or at least being supported from within the church. It's not a new thing. The Christian church has been the primary sponsor of Jew hatred through all the centuries. That's probably the subject of another podcast. I would just remind you that our Messiah is an observant Jewish rabbi. And that apart from the Jewish people, we would have no salvation, we would have no covenants, we would have no scripture, we would have no prophet. we wouldn't have a Messiah. Biblically speaking, we are deeply indebted to the Jewish people. That's not to say everything the state of Israel does is correct by any stretch of the imagination,

but those of us who are Christ followers are indebted to the Jewish people. I think you'll enjoy Colonel Isaacson. He has a remarkable story of triumph over tragedy. I think what you'll note, I know it's something that was so apparent to me, was that in spite of the great loss of life and the horrible suffering and heinous behavior, he's not captured by hate. There's a remarkable freedom in his heart, and I would extend that to you. That, you know, evil touches all of our lives, and we don't want to be consumed with hate and unforgiveness and resentment. The colonel certainly isn't, and I pray as you listen to his story, that it will bring freedom to you in the midst of your circumstances.

Well, this is Colonel Keith Isaacson, and I don't know your formal title, forgive me, you're the Director of Security for Eschkol, which is the region primarily, we would call it a county, bordering the Gaza area. This is your first visit here. Anything you want to say to our congregation? You've never been exposed to hillbillies quite like this before. You know, after flying for, well, took me 24 hours to get here. And the reason I'm doing, this is mainly two reasons. One, the fellowship asked me, and when they asked me, I do it. And the second thing is just to thank you to all the people that are here and that are listening to us that have been helping us for years. And when I sat with Pastor Allen, I understood he's been to Israel and he's been helping Israel for decades. So just to thank you. And And that we in Israel, we need this help.

We need this backing. We need the prayers. And you can see what's happening in the world. Many countries all of a sudden are voting against Israel. Anti-Semitism is rising. But I think we as Jews living in Israel, we know we have the backing. of people like you. Thank you very much.

Well, I'd like to start. Too many Americans get their news from unreliable sources. Places of great integrity like TikTok. Although I'm not sure that has less integrity than some of the more celebrated formats these days. So my apologies to TikTok. But October the 7th was personal to you. it was your assignment and you were in the midst of that

can you give us just briefly what happened and the impact of that I mean I have the numbers 216 killed that were under you but I mean can you give us a bit of an overview so my region is one of four regions that are around the Gaza border it's the biggest one 32 communities

out of 66 so I'm in charge of 32 communities the communities are small between 500 and 1,200 people living in a community. But it's very different to, you know, when I flew, when I came into Nashville, I said, wow, everything's open, trees, lakes. With us, everything's closed. Every community that I'm talking about is has got a fence, electric fence, a road, security guards, cameras, and everything.

We knew what was happening on the other side. on the other side. We knew that they're not our friends, but we didn't realize that for 12 years since plus minus 2012, they've been organized in this attack. And they surprised us. They surprised us in four different ways. One, the amount, we are talking between five and a half to six, six and a half thousand terrorists that penetrated the border. Two, a group that hit all our radar systems, cameras, radars and everything. They did it in a very professional way. At the same time, attacking 28 communities, 16 of my communities and the rest in the other region.

Altogether, 28 communities simultaneously. And the third thing, attacking all the bases. We have many bases, small bases like companies, platoons, battalions, brigades, divisions, they attacked all these units simultaneously. And the fourth thing that they did was very clever, is they did ambushes in every entrance to the 65-kilometer area. So anyone that tried to come and help us was attacked. So these four things simultaneously by six and a half thousand terrorists for the first 12 hours there's a lot of chaos no one knew what was happening and it was a surprise and hopefully it won't happen again but

we said that after the yom Kippur war and we said that after second world war so don't say never just make sure that you are ready October the 7th was the greatest loss of Jewish life in a day single day since the Holocaust exactly and it was personal you I heard you tell your story in another setting and your daughter was in another one of the communities and she was calling you for help well at the same time on Friday the 6th of October we had dinner together. It's I think very similar to you guys. We get

together. So I have two sets of twins. They all came for the dinner on Friday. One daughter went back to her small village, which is about 10 minutes away.

My other daughter lives in Tel Aviv, so she went back to Tel Aviv. The third daughter lives about five minutes away also in another community and my son lives also in another community also five minutes away. So after dinner they all went to their houses and my colonel who has been a colonel for a year and a half brought for the first time his young son to the base six years old

and he asked me for ATV. I said no problem I'll wake up early on Saturday and give you the ATV. I wake up very early. At 6.29, the attack starts. My kids are all in different communities. I leave the house very quickly. My colonel, who was killed at 7 o'clock in the morning already, but at 629 sent me a message and said,

get everyone into shelter. Everyone means the 17,000 people living in my community. So within three minutes, I sent a message to 17,000 people get into shelter. I went home because I was outside already, got dressed into a uniform because I belonged to the unit and I'm automatically recruited into the Israeli army. As I'm getting dressed at 640, he sent, another message. We have been attacked in multiple places. So I said to where, just tell me where, because we knew we were going to be attacked one day. Just tell me where, which community? He said, no, everywhere. So at 6.43 in the morning, I sent a message to all my officers. I have 33 officers. I said, get all your first responders out. We at war.

15 minutes later he was already killed and I was on my way to the base I lost 32 of my officers that day and everyone has a story behind him everyone is a hero because because losing those 32 officers we saved thousands they saved not me

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Go ahead and text them today. So in the midst of the chaos that morning, your daughter calls. She calls. I don't answer her. She says, I hear there's a lot of shooting in the community. I had no communication because I said the communication was a problem. So she phones, I'm already in the field, so she phones my operation room. She says, I hear a lot of shooting.

I didn't really know what was happening there. I first said, go to your grandmother's house, going to the shelter, and wait there. And that's what she did. At the end of the day, 17 terrorists entered that community. A lot of fighting. Five of my officers were killed, two injured, but no civilian. The fighting was so severe, and most probably a lot were killed and injured from the enemy. They just decided to steal two other cars, and all 17 with the injured and with the dead.

went back to Gaza. She stayed for 10 hours in the safe room until my brother, who before, since the morning, was fighting at the junction, not letting any terrorists enter the seven particular communities where I live, killed many terrorists that day. Only after 10 hours went to him. The other daughter with my grandchild, She also tried to get hold of me and wanted to get permission for me to leave the community and go towards a lot, far away. But unfortunately, I couldn't give her approval. The reason was everyone talks about the 7th of October,

but the last terrorists that were killed were the 21st of October. We were fighting for two weeks. No one talks about it. Yes, 95% of the fighting was the 7th of October. But there were many, many pockets of terrorists. They came very well equipped. They wanted to do much, much more what they did. And there was a lot, a lot of fighting for two weeks.

But we managed after two days by Monday. This happened on Saturday. By Monday to get all the 17,000 people out of the communities, to Eilat, to the hotels in Eilat and to the Dead Sea and to Tel Aviv. And only a small group of security officers and, of course, the army took over this area. After a year, 22 communities came back. After two years, about a month ago, another six communities came back. And we are still four communities that will take.

between a year to two years to rebuild their communities because they will hit the most. So we still have four communities that we are waiting for them to come back within a year to two years. You mentioned the shelters where everybody, you directed everyone to go. I think that's probably a little unknown to us. We have shelters for tornadoes. In Israel, they build shelters from attacks. many homes have them apartment buildings will have them and in communities will have larger shelters so when you said you sent all the people to the shelters it was to protect them because the

attack started with rocket fire for many years especially since 2001 we've been attacked sometimes once a month sometimes every couple of weeks every couple of months escalation Let me interrupt. Those communities along Gaza have lived under consistent rocket fire for many, many, many years. Yes, 24 years. So in my, we didn't expect a ground attack. We know rocket attacks. We used to rocket attacks.

Every house, first of all, there's a law in Israel since 1994 that you build a house, you have to have a bomb shelter. One of the rooms is a certified bomb shelter and who didn't have in our area after 2014 the government actually paid and built shelters so we were very used to these escalations these rockets falling on us for many times tens of thousands

I would like to put a question mark what would happen if Mexico or shoot one rocket into Arizona, into Texas, what will happen to Mexico. So these escalations have been going on for 21 years, 24 years in our area. So the instant of the 7th of October,

okay, another escalation, a lot of rockets, getting to the bomb shelters. But unfortunately, sometimes, This was very different because of the ground attack. And a lot of people also were killed in the bomb shelters because the terrorists came into the houses. These bomb shelters are not equipped against shooting into the doors.

It's not bulletproof doors. It's like a bulletproof building, concrete and everything, but the doors are not bulletproof. and it also is not against smoke. So what happened, they shot the doors and people were actually, many, many families were holding the handle because it doesn't really lock. You don't really need to lock it because of bombs falling.

So a lot of people were killed on the bullets from the other side and where the terrorists couldn't get into what they did, they just burnt the houses. There are hundreds of houses that were burnt and most of the victims were found after its dead or the remains of the victims. Almost everybody I know wants to feel better, have more energy. I mean, myself included, I went to a concert a few months ago.

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Thanks. There's two more points I want to be sure we make. And it's a congregation and I know you want to be respectful of where you are. But the truth is important on this. on this. I went to D.C. to the embassy to see some of the security video and such. And the attack began with trained terrorists, but it wasn't limited to that. The citizens of Gaza on their bicycles and their pickup trucks, I mean, it lasted for several hours, and they came in waves. And when they arrived with the treatment, it wasn't like you would expect from combatants.

I don't have language to describe it. It wasn't, there was nothing about it humane. You know, one thing, I learned, we have a new mayor, it's a lady. And I heard it said, you know, we say they're not human beings, they're animals, they're monsters. And she said, no. They're human beings that have learned to hate, kill, Now you write a few waves. For instance, kibbutz near Oz, that's a kibbutz that was hit the most in my area, most severe.

76 hostages from that community. There's only 400 people living in there. 39 were killed that day. First wave was 120, what we call the Nukba, the elite of the Hamas. But they were not the worst. The second and third wave, what we say, civilians, they did the worst atrocities, the civilians, they did not have the weapons to never train to kill.

They came whatever they had, slaughtered, raped, amputated, and whatever you can think of, it's the civilians that did the worst atrocities to our community. And what I'm trying to say, if there's 2.2 million, I don't know how many there are exactly, but more or less, Palestinians living in Gaza, everyone is Hamas. Everyone, because everyone is taught, unfortunately, since he goes from the moment he goes to kindergarten, three years old, he's taught to hate his, neighbor, to kill, to slaughter. And it's not written in any Bible, not in the Quran, not in the Bible, nothing. But this is how they are learned.

And even if we want peace one day, it will take decades and decades to get to what we want, which I don't believe, unfortunately. But yes, I have not seen those videos. I personally can't. It's not for me. The videos, unfortunately, I don't know why Israel should show the world those videos, but unfortunately, I know the world will say it's not authentic.

But they were so proud of themselves, the terrorists, they all had these cameras on the head. I know what you call them. GoPro. GoPro. that they filmed almost everything what they did. And we have everything. Because that day we killed 1,600 terrorists.

We captured more or less 400 out of the 6,000, 2,000. So we have all the footage that I haven't seen, but we have everything. I'm here sitting here and talking to you guys for two reasons. One, God, and you can't argue with that. And the second is actually the International Fellowship for Christians and Jews. In 2021, they came to me and said, what do you need? What is the, what do you really need? Something special.

And I said, I need an armored car because I can't do my job when there's missiles and I'm going from community to community. I need an armored car. it took about a year first of all that moment she said you'll have it it took about a year and at the beginning of 23 i got my armored car that day i was attacked twice on october 7th you were attacked twice yeah on october 7th i was attacked twice uh i still have uh the bullet holes in the in the car where it's not armored because not everything is armed And that car now is standing next to my house.

And I have two cars. When there's a reason I have to go with an armored car, I go for the armored car. And if I have to go with a regular car, I go. So it's a good place to thank the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. There's also a few other communities. Around America, they've been helping me, also like you. They've been helping for many years. They've been before October the 7th, during October the 7th,

and the hard times now, we haven't finished. We're still at war. We still have to rebuild. Well, some of you will remember right after October 7th, there was a number of people saying it was all a fabrication. It's the reason I went to look. But the other point I've heard you, make was that one of their objectives was to create enough terror that the Israelis wouldn't

come back to those communities? One of the hostages was a very good friend of mine, and she phoned me up at 8 o'clock asking for help, and then 10 o'clock asking again for help. At 12, she, herself, her husband, her two, her twins who were kidnapped. She came back after a month, 50-something days with her two kids. Her husband is still in Gaza. We know he's one of the 20-plus minor that is alive. And when she came back, I didn't call her.

It wasn't for me, but she phoned me and she said she wants to talk to me. and she said they kept asking her all the time are you going back she's from Neroz from that community that was suffered are you going to go back of course she's not stupid she says no I'm not going back but they asked many many times the Hamas there were a few groups

groups to kill groups to the main thing is to kidnap and capture. That was their main goal. And the third group was to destroy. And the idea to destroy doesn't also matter if they killed. There were about 40

or maybe a bit more Thai workers that work in our area that were killed. It didn't really matter to them. The idea was to destroy and kill and make sure that we won't want to come and live in that area again. But they don't know who they're dealing with. Not only that we're not coming back,

we are rebuilding, we're going to expand, and we are going to be better and better and better. Hey, thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministry's YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture.

I'll see you next time.