Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - When Does Criticism Cross the Line? [Featuring Samuel Smadja]

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

Is anti-Zionism simply antisemitism in disguise? In this episode, Pastor Allen and Israeli Pastor Samuel Smadja explore how anti-Zionism (often viewed as political or cultural) is deeply spiritual, and it mirrors something seen throughout history: a supernatural hatred for the Jewish people. The language may have changed, but the spirit behind it has not. The Jewish people are living evidence that God is who He says He is, and His Word is true. Scattered, persecuted, and regathered—Israel's survival is more than historical. It’s prophetic. The same spirit that hates the Jews also hates the Church, and we need to learn to recognize that spirit so we're prepared for what's ahead.—"Simple Man" by Charlie Daniels - UMPG License #262673It’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=6805fe488cf64a6d Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Welcome to Culture and Christianity. My guest today is a friend for full disclosure. He's Israeli. Israeli businessman is the way I have known Samuel for the majority of our friendship. His father was a pastor in Jerusalem. He began a congregation, a Hebrew-speaking congregation in Jerusalem in the 1960s. When his father passed away, the elders in that church asked Samuel if he would take the leadership role. So for several years now, Samuel has also been a pastor on top of of his business interest and activities. So he is an Israeli businessman, and now a pastor of a church has been existence in Jerusalem since the 60s.

He has about as much clarity and understanding of the believing, the group of Israelis that believe in Jesus of anybody I know. He also has one of the largest privately owned tour companies in Israel. So his contact list includes just about everybody you could imagine. But to help us kind of unravel what's happening in Israel and the Middle East, I couldn't think of a better voice, a more reasoned voice, a more thoughtful voice than Samuel Smajas. So I'm delighted that he can be with us. There's some things he's going to share that I want you to listen for.

He's going to make an argument or at least present a case that there is both a supernatural hatred and a supernatural love at work in the Middle East. I don't think you can understand what's happening in Israel and the larger Middle East, only in terms of nation states or geopolitics or ideologies or even. religious confrontations. I think the only way to truly understand it is in terms of spiritual forces. And the reason that's relevant is those same spiritual forces are pulling our nation apart. Israel is as divided and polarized as the United States is. And in the states, I don't think it's Republican or Democrat. I think there are really spiritual forces behind it, and that's true in the Middle East as well. I believe we have a debt to the Jewish people. Without them, we have no story. We would have no faith. We would have no prophets. We would have no scripture. We would

no law, we would have no Messiah. The New Testament, all of our heroes in the New Testament, almost with that exception, are Jewish. And I think there's a profound lack of awareness amongst that amongst Christians. The Christian Church has been the primary sponsor of the hatred of the Jewish people through all of the centuries across all the different empires and nations and things. That is a shameful chapter of the church's history. So I think my friend Samuel Smodja will help you unpack what's happening and help you overcome a lot of the hatred of Israel and the Jewish people that right now is so prevalent on our celebrated college campuses and tragically even in much of the conservative media. God's moving in the earth and a part of that is what he's

doing in the midst of the Jewish people. Hope you enjoy the conversation with my friend Samuel Smaja. Samuel Smaja, welcome to our podcast. Thank you and shalom to everybody. Yeah, Shalom is a good way to start. You know, I got to know you as a businessman. You have a tour company in Israel, and your hospitality has made my life much, much easier when I bring groups. But we have come to be – we're co-laborers. Your father was a pastor with a congregation in Jerusalem since the 60s. And when he passed away, the elders asked you to lead the congregation.

So now you have – your business is your side hustle. and you are a leading voice to the Christians in the community. Unlike you, my elders didn't find anybody else, so they didn't have a choice. With you, there was choice and they elected you. With me, there was a lack of option and I was elected. We're so glad to have you back in Tennessee. I want to start, maybe we start with the obvious. October 7th, changed the Middle East, the Hamas attack.

But I think much to our surprise, it is bringing some, I believe some positive outcomes. There's no doubt that October 7 was the beginning, as terrible as it was, and we still are suffering from October 7. We have also just sitting there in the tunnels of Hamas. One of my secretary, your husband, is still in the tunnels. So it's a reality.

That's hard to imagine. It's a terrible thing. October 7 did not leave us, you know. Sometimes people talk on the media about October 7, about something that happened, but it's still going on. We have 50 hostages, 30 deads, and 20 still alive, still in the tunnels, and already close to two years. But there's no doubt that October 7 changed the whole Middle East.

The Middle East is not the same place that it was. And sad, but Israel became sad to the army. Arab world, but Israel became a superpower in the Middle East. I mean, Lebanon is not the same country, and Lebanon is talking about doing a kind of a ceasefire slash peace agreement with Israel. Syria, as we hear every day, the fights among the different races and the different groups in there is ongoing Assad who was terrorizing Syria for for the last 50 years is gone. The Syrian army is gone.

The Syrian air force is gone. The Syrian missiles equipment is gone. So Syria is literally gone. Now it's fights between gangs and Israel is trying to get in and out. And Hezbollah is gone. Yeah. Chisbalah, yeah.

Thank you. Chisbalah, who was a huge threat to Israel, surprisingly, was gone very fast. in the beginning of the war Israel did not want to open another front so they were dealing with Gaza although we received missiles from Chisbella

we were hoping that they will come back to their senses in a way and stop and once they didn't stop and they started attacking civilians Israel declared war on Chisbella but there's a piece of that excuse me for interrupting but most Americans wouldn't know but there were

many, many towns in the northern part of Israel that were evacuated. They were completely evacuated for months and months and months because of the rockets from Hezbollah. And that was the strategic. The government of Israel says, okay, we will evacuate the north of Israel.

We knew that they will fight. We had to allow them to fight in order to show solidarity with Hamas. But then they crossed the line. They started attacking attacking civilians and going attacking Haifa, which is way south. So once they did that,

that was the end of it. And Israel declared war on Hezbollah. And in a very, very surprisingly, really, Allen surprisingly, because Hezbollah was waiting for that moment. There are thousands and thousands of missiles. And after the Beeper attack, as we all remember, and after the death of,

of the Hezbollah's leader, they lost the war in a very, very short time, which I think is a miracle. Absolutely. Because the projections were there would be thousands of Israelis killed. Yeah, definitely. It would decimate communities. And he was, the leader of Hezbollah was chanting death for Israel

every day, every day, every day, every day. And when the real time happened, first of all, he was killed. The intelligence of Israel was unbelievable. And they killed him in his bunker. The guy, I don't know if our listeners understand. The guy didn't leave his bunker for years because he knew he had the death. He was a target. He was a target.

So Israel eliminated him and Hezbollah was gone. And now the Lebanese army is taking control. And we hope and pray that Lebanon will come back to what Lebanon was. Lebanon was a great country. It was the pearl. Lebanon and Beirut was called. called the peril of the Middle East. So we hope that they were going to go back to where they were.

And then you have Iran. You have Iraq, some northern Iraq, who had some Iranian militias and so on, attacking also Israel. But as soon as Chisbalah went down, they disappeared. And then you had Iran. Iran is a whole new chapter. I mean, we can talk about Iran and talk about Iran. I mean, for the last 20 years, we heard about the army of Iran.

They were marching. Every kid in Israel would see the Iranian marching in the streets of Tehran with their missiles and all that. Yes, they shot missiles on Israel, but they were surprisingly were finished in a very quick time. And nobody can understand how the reaction was not as they proclaimed to be. So the big picture, if I get this wrong, you stop me. But Hamas attacks Israel, more than a thousand people butchered. Yes. It was horrible.

And 200 kidnapped. And including children. I mean, they put children in ovens. I mean, it was unbelievable. It was a Holocaust. It was a real Holocaust. It really was. Modern-day Holocaust.

But out of that horror, Hamas has almost been eliminated in Gaza. Hezbollah. I'll tell you, Hamas is eliminated. What is still existing, the organization of Hamas doesn't really exist, the military organization. But there are still some groups who are holding the terrorists, and Israel can kill them, but we don't want to kill our own soldiers. Every Israeli life matters,

and he's valued, and we're willing to pay a thousand Palestinian for one soldier. Right. And you have. You've released hundreds and hundreds of trying to get your own hostages back. But Hamas has been removed. Hezbollah has been removed. Assad, president of Syria, the family had ruled there for 50 years. He's been removed. And then... And he was a vicious... He was a vicious. People don't know it, but he was a vicious man. he terrorized his people, terrorized the Christian in Syria. He was a bad news, first of all for his own people.

He belonged to a minority tribe, the Al-Owites. So he used poison gases on the population of his own people to maintain power. He's been removed, fled to Russia. And then Iran, which was really larger than life, dominated the Middle East, terrorized all the Middle East and the world. And sponsor all the...

Hamas and Hamas and... Hezbollah and all the other terrorists. And now they have been neutralized. Their nuclear program has been set aside. There's an entirely new Middle East. There's an entire tire. And the global

community, if it were just a logical conversation, the global community would say thank you to Israel. Yeah, should rejoice. Because the terrorist have been removed. And they didn't just terrorize Israel. They terrorized the whole free world. But because it isn't just a logical

conversation, it's a spiritual conversation. there's a whole new wave of hatred towards the Israel and the Jewish people. The fancy word for it historically is anti-Semitism, but there's a new expression that I think is taking a new form in anti-Zionism, which is really a hatred for the state of Israel. Can you talk about that a bit? First of all, the genie of anti-Semitism, after we, in Israel, we believe that it will never again,

that the Holocaust will never again. Anti-Semitism, you know, the slogan never again, never again was taught to every kid from first grade till 12th grade, never again, never again. The Holocaust would never happen again. Yeah, and that form of anti-Semitism, that volume in the Western Wall, and every country in Europe would also say never again

because Europe came out very badly with the Holocaust. and we see that this thing of anti-Semitism and now because it's not politically correct to say anti-Semitism so they say anti-Zionism

which means we're not against the Jews we're against Zionism we're against the return of the Jewish people to their country although they don't believe it's their country we are against the Zionism movement who suppress the

people around us and And they build story and stories and story. And I come to tell the world and to tell everybody to listen to us that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. You cannot separate the Jew from the land of Israel. And if you were, if you ever read the Bible, the land of Israel was promised to the Jewish people, was given to the Jewish people. All the prophecies and the stories are related one to another. the Messiah himself, if you're listening to us and you believe in the Messiah,

and I don't care what your political view is, Messiah is returning, according to the Bible, is not returning, not to Paris, not to New York, by the way, New York with your new mayor, who knows? Not even to Nashville. And not to Nashville. He's coming back to Jerusalem. So we cannot explain it.

It's not that a land is more valuable than another land, but God, in his words, chose that piece of land. And he chose it and he gave it to a specific, a small specific nation. And when you look around us and you compare to the Arab world, we're the size of a city,

we're the size of New Jersey. And when you look at the Arab world and you look all the countries, all the Arab countries around us and the land that they have, think about it. They're all against a small piece, tiny Israel. That's what bothers them.

So you see that something is wrong. Something is, I call it supernatural hate. There's a spiritual motivation for it. It isn't logical. No doubt. Israel occupies less than 2% of the landmass of the Middle East. All the other nations under Islamic Muslim control. And the global talking point is there can,

be no peace until Israel gives up land. It's insane. But you know, Alan, it's very interesting. If you would go now to Saudi, or if you go now to the Emirates or Bahrain, everybody's hell, they won't say it on the news, they won't say it on the media. But you can find on social media a lot of guys from Saudi and the Emirates and Bahrain who are cheering Israel for doing what they couldn't do. first of all, fighting with the

Hutis, that's another front that we never believe. Let's think about it. Who are the hooties? What did we do to the hooties? They're 3,000 mile away from us and they're bombing us. We didn't take land from them to show you that it's not an issue of land.

We didn't take any piece of grain of salt we didn't take from them and they're bombing us. So there's no doubt that it's a spiritual thing. But when you think, you know, the chutais and the and Iran were threatening the Saudis and the Emirates. They have money, but they're not real fighters.

And when you have a lot of money, you don't want to go into war. You have too much to lose. So all those countries were very, very happy. The Sunni normal world is very happy with what Israel did. Chisbalah, the Shiites, were bad news. Iran was bad news. and the fact that there is somebody that can fight them and can put them back in their place

is good news for the whole Middle East, not only for Israel. Well, I need to ask you some questions and they're awkward, but you'll tell us the truth because the American media says that the Israelis are starving the children in Gaza. Okay, first of all, telling you the truth, there is suffering in Gaza.

And we have to remember that I'll put it this way. If somebody would if the Mexican would attack Albuquerque, for example, okay, or California. I don't believe that your government

would sit and wait. Mexico would be... Gavin Newsom might sit and wait, but the rest of us wouldn't... I'm not sure even he would... You know what I'm saying? I'm not sure that even him would sit. But you cannot expect

shooting hundreds missile every day he cannot expect to come into our home and to listen very carefully into kibbutzim of people who were

pro peace people who would take children from Gaza into hospitals into in Tel Aviv they were murdered the lady that operate this

whole mission of taking children who suffered in Gaza from and needed heart surgery, all those complicated surgeries. She was murder. Her whole family was murder. She did only good for them

and that's the result. So you cannot expect to do what you did and continuing doing with shooting and that the service country won't defend itself and attack. Listen, it's a war.

They came to kill us. They came to murder us. We had to get rid of Hamas. We had to get rid of them. It's not even an option. You don't allow somebody who wants to kill you every day and say, okay, I'll sit at home and won't do anything. And when you bomb, bad things happen.

But I want to also remind our listeners that when, you know, people talk about, about the poor people in Gaza. And yes, they're suffering. No doubt, a kid of three, four years old is paying a terrible price. But let's remember. And I don't know if our viewers remember the day of the 7th of October

when 200 hostages were dragged in the streets of Gaza. The whole town was cheering. They were beating them as they passed. The whole time town was cheering. cheering. The whole town was supporting and very supportive for what happened. And the whole town is paying a price. And it's sad. But now Israel now concerning starving and all that. Let's remember also what's going on. Egyptians are sending trucks. Israel is sending trucks. Convoys.

Convoys. Whole lines of trucks. 70, 80 trucks a day. Yes. and Hamas jumps on those trucks with weapons and take those trucks, stores them, and sell something that was given for free. They kidnapped the thing and sell it in a very, very high price on the market. Now, you have to understand the people cannot afford to buy the food that Hamas is selling them, so they're starving. Israel, we've together with an American group, did a place in Gaza that Palestinians can go in to get food. Hamas is killing them on the way. Hamas is threatening them not to get to those places that they can get food. So blaming Israel, yes, there is a war, but blaming, putting all the blame that on starvation of Israel is far, far from the truth.

and just now remember the Americans you guys wanted to do you build a pier for food and I remember I mean I'm a part of

Samaritans purse in Israel are we were passing food food stuff from this peer that the American army

built and they were not cheering us up or cheering the American army up, they came and they did everything to destroy the thing. So they, you know, Golden Mayor said that unless they will love their kids more than they hate us, they won't be a peace in the Middle East. So they are very, very busy in trying to kill us and they're blaming us for the results.

Well, they can't defeat you on the battlefields or with technology, so they try to turn world opinion against you. And it's very easy when you show kids with small kids without shoes, without clothing, standing next to his house, which is demolished. It's a very hard fight to win on the media. And I'm not sure that the media also always want to know the truth. Yeah, I agree. I think everybody listening, or most of the people listening to this, would agree that the American media is not very often neutral. We've learned that the hard way.

But even this week, you with Samaritans Perth. Let me tell you, when you're talking about the American, I think American media is also fed by the European media, who have so-called journalist in Gaza, and things that Europe is bringing out is far away. Europe and Al Jazeera is far away from the truth. Well, they take news reports that are generated by Hamas, which big surprise, those aren't going to be pro-Israeli.

But even this week, I know you have worked with Samaritans' purse. They've been doing airdrops. Yes, Samaritans did aer drops with the Israeli army. And it's an opportunity, if you allow me to think, the Christian world for standing and praying and supporting Israel and supporting the Middle East. We're not there to kill people. The Jewish people are people who want peace, want to live in peace. We're not this.

And we are not here to conquer something that doesn't belong to us. Okay? If they wouldn't ever attack us, they could have had, Gaza could have been a beautiful place on the water. if they would use the money they received from Europe, instead of building down, under the ground, building up, Gaza would look differently, a totally different city. But all the help from the United Nations, from the different European organization,

humanitarian organization, all this money went to buy cement, and the cement was built for, they built a whole town, a whole city under the ground. Instead of building normal people, build above the ground. Well, I believe that just as God has defeated the enemies of Israel in this season, that the people in Gaza or Syria or Lebanon, they will choose what is right, that we will see God's going to bring something good out of these ashes. Amen. They need to choose life.

Yes. Instead of being busy with killing, they should choose life. And if they'll choose life, I believe the Middle East will be one of the nicest places to be and to live in. Hey, we have a tool that I think will help you overcome some of the chaos in the world and stay focused on the good things that God is doing. It's called Awaken Us. It's a 30-day plan. Each day's got a scripture, a little devotional, a prayer that goes with a specific topic to awaken us to God's promise and provision in this season. God's moving in the earth. I want to move with him,

and I believe this tool will help you be prepared to capitalize on God's invitations in your life. Awaken Us delivers 30 days of prayer, scripture, and insight from Pastor Allen on relevant topics. Each day is designed to sharpen your focus as you ask God to show you his heart and his truth in a new way. With the Holy Spirit's help, this book will awaken you to the impact your life

has on the world and those around you. Start your journey. journey today by requesting Awaken Us when you donate any amount at Alan Jackson.com. We're both pastors, so I'm going to play with that for a minute. Okay. We have an audience. No, I cannot compare myself to you. I have 150. My congregation is the size of the toilets here, so I'm not sure we're both pastors, but go on.

I can't compare myself to you as closer to the truth, but we both serve the same king. Amen. And it is popular in much of Christianity, particularly American Christendom. to say that the Jewish people don't have a unique place in God's plan, which I happen to think is very unscriptural. My Messiah is an observant Jewish rabbi. All of my heroes in the Bible were observant Jewish men and women. David was king in Jerusalem a thousand years before Jesus was born,

and 1,500 years before Muhammad was even born, there's no question that the Jewish people have a historical, they have a biblical right to the land and a historical connection to the land. But we don't stand apart from you. My prayer isn't that the Jewish people would become Christians, my prayers that the Jewish people would know their Messiah, which can be very different things.

So help me talk to an audience that maybe doesn't understand why there's so much determination to diminish the Jewish people, because we have no story. We stand together. Yes. Without your roots, we have no nourishment. I'll tell you, I think trying to separate the Jewish people from their heritage is something that started on the 3rd century.

You know, the first century congregation or church was totally Jewish. And as you know, the history, more Gentiles going, join the church. And in the third century, Constantine decided to adopt this faith and made it the faith of the nation. The Roman Empire. And the Roman Empire. And from there, there was a big question. What do we do with the Jewish people? and the idea of the church becoming the new Israel,

that's source of what we call today replacement theology in theology. And accusing the Jews for not recognizing Yeshua as their Messiah and telling them because he didn't recognize and therefore you lost all your rights and all the blessings that the Bible talks about it. But if we study the Word of God, when the Jews were elected, they didn't do anything to deserve their election.

When they received the first covenant, they didn't do, if you remember, they were memorizing on the way out of Egypt. From the day one, you see, the Red Sea was open. They crossed the sea. They got to the other side. They started crying to Moses.

Why did you bring us to this desert? Send us back to Egypt. because we don't have water. Moses had a tough job. Moses had a tough job. And the Jewish people, it's not that there was a revival and because they did something right

they got the Ten Commandments. Remember, Moses was on the mountain and they were doing the golden calf. But that's the beautiful thing about election. God elected them. And God elected them also to give Messiah through them and to them first.

and saying that because they didn't receive, they have no rights, they didn't receive anything. I mean, they didn't accept or surrender totally to God throughout the history. So what has changed? I mean, God never elected them. God never did for the Jewish people something because they did something. So he didn't give them the Messiah because they did something. On the contrary, he gave them Messiah because they needed a redemption and forgives us of sin.

and now saying because they rejected him, they lost their rights. I think it's a very, it's a huge lie that is being carried all the way till today and saying that, okay, they lost the right. They didn't bow down before Messiah and they lost the right. I think it's the wrong way. And we see it going on and people are still confused.

And I think that the source, I'm going to say something very, sad, but the source of anti-Semitism, or one of the sources of anti-Semitism, we can find in the church. When I say church in brackets, church with the capital C,

the historic church. There's no question. That's just a matter of history. And let's be honest, even Luther, which I admire his teaching, I think it was one of the greatest reformation, but he had to deal with the Jewish people and he did a huge

mistakes with the Jewish people. He himself, he didn't know how to deal with the Jewish people. And he's saying, if the Jewish people won't receive Christ, let's put them in concentration camps, and let's torture them until they'll bow down to Christ. So the issue of Israel brought confusion throughout history. It has. People did not, unless you really understand the word of God,

Israel can be a stumbling book. But it's very clear. It's in the book of Romans. Paul asked the question very bluntly, did God reject the Jewish people? And his answer is in the strongest possible way in the Greek language. He said, God forbid. He didn't reject them.

And that's just the facts on the ground. Yes. Alan, let me tell you something. And I'm sure many young people are listening to us. And if there's one proof that the Bible that if you listen to, if you're hearing me now, the Bible that you read is the real thing

is the Jewish people. I mean, because if you talk or that you believe in the God of Abraham Isaac and you believe in Jesus or you believe in the Messiah, Yeshua, because you have a supernatural experience, it's beautiful, it's important, I believe in a real encounter with God

is a must. But if you talk to a Muslim, he'll talk to you about a spiritual experience. We have to be very careful with So what makes your spiritual experience better than a Muslim or a Buddhist? So if our faith is based only on a spiritual experience, we have a big problem. But believing in the Bible, all the New Testament, the only proof, which is huge and strong that Quran cannot give you, any other book can give you, is the Jewish people. The Bible, the prophecies about that we read in the Torah and in the prophets are being fulfilled in front of our eyes.

The Jewish people is the best proof that this book is real. God keeps His Word. Amen. And Paul took the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. And from that, all around the Roman world validated the existence of Jesus' Messiah. So it's not just a New Testament story. No, no story. We have no story apart from the Jewish people because we would have no scripture, no law, no prophets, no Messiah. And let's be honest. How you define John chapter 1, you know, in the beginning was the word.

The word was without the Old Testament. Where do you get the idea of a Messiah without the Old Testament? You know, where do you get the idea of the book of Hebrews without the Old Testament about the sacrifice and all that, about the high priest, Messiah being the high priest? the Messiah as to all those ideas are fulfillment you know Paul is talking I love to quote that

he's talking about the Old Testament being the shadow of the New Testament there's nothing in the New Testament that can hold without the Old Testament

so I want to encourage people to start and dig in the Old Testament because it's very deep and it will encourage your faith and your understanding of the New Testament

I mean I'm sometimes I mentioned the book of ebos. I don't know how people read the book of Hebrews without understanding the Torah and the whole sacrificial system and the priest, the high priest, the families of the priests, and so on and so on.

And the altar and the tabernacle. You know? The New Testament makes absolutely no sense without the Old Testament. And God, I'm fond of saying when God finished Malachi, he didn't take a Prozac and write the

New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. Amen. So if on one side of the spectrum we have anti-Semitism and a hatred of the Jews and a hatred of Israel, and that even exists to a degree in the Jewish community, but on the other end of the spectrum are the Jerusalem crazies. And in their own way, they are damaging to the cause too because they think, you know, I tell people when you land at Ben-Gurion Airport, the airport in Israel,

you may not hear the flutter of angels' wings. No. That you will see all of the same things you see in the cities where you live. That God said he would gather the Jewish people back to the land of Israel, and then he would begin to clean them up, the same way he calls all of us into his kingdom and then begins to clean us up. So it's not that we say everything that the Israelis do or the Jewish people do is right. Israeli government makes mistakes,

just like the U.S. government. God knows, make mistakes. By the way, the Israeli government makes mistake. You have to understand this is Israeli is 70% secular, 30% Orthodox. And we say two Jewish people, three different minds. So I don't know if you ever saw a session in the Knesset, but it's something to see. It's rowdy. They cannot agree on anything.

and they scream and they yell one another. Knesset's their Congress. Yeah, they are Congress, yeah. But Israel has a total freedom. And by the way, in our Congress, in our Knesset, you have 20 Arab Knesset members, and they can speak. Imagine somebody standing in the Congress or in the Senate

talking against America. In the Knesset, we are such a democracy that people can talk against Israel in our own Knesset, which I think is unbelievable, but it exists. You can be saying whatever you want and nobody will, people will scream, will shout and all that, but then you'll meet them all drinking coffee in the coffee shop. Not everything that Israel does or do or will do is according to. to the Word of God. The government of Israel is not a government of born-again believers.

Its statements are trying to do the best that they can do in the reality that they live. There is a lot of conflicts among the Jewish people, among secularism and Orthodox Judaism. We have right wing, we have left wing. you have Democrats and Republicans. We have right wing and left wing, and we have right wing, extreme right wing, and so on. We have people who are believed that Israel should settle every corner of Israel. We have other people who says, no, let's not settle.

Let's try to be more tolerance and so on. So Israel, I think as every nation in the world have the same problem, We get up in the morning, we go to work, we tackle the day-by-day challenges. And the only thing is that we're the only nation in the world that people love to hate. You know, you can hate somebody, but I don't know if we think about nations around the world. I don't know that there is another nation in the world that people love to hate. Think about it. I don't know.

Maybe you know another nation. I don't think there's anything. It's a spirit. I don't think you can understand it. So something is wrong, exactly. And I'd like to talk to our viewers. We talked about anti-Semitism. Antisemitism is a supernatural hate that was implanted.

Like you said, it's a spirit. But on the other hand, there are people like you, Alan, and the beautiful church, I mean, sitting in your church, who loves Israel and many of our listeners love Israel. And I believe that the love for Israel is also a supernatural love. Nobody's set with you and we're sitting here

and we're trying to defend Israel, but you can defend till tomorrow. I will never convince somebody who hates us to love us. It has to be a touch of the Holy Spirit. So if you're listening to us and you love Israel, so first of all, thank you. But I want you to understand that that's a love

that God has implanted in your heart. That's a part of being filled with the Spirit of God. That's true. My parents took me to Israel when I was a boy. And it was still very much a developing country. The roads were all Tulane. Most of the agriculture was citrus. You know, the hypha oranges. And I had the privilege of studying at Hebrew University. But to see what God has done through the hard work and the sacrifices of the people. Without God's blessing, I don't think it can be understood. But it can't be understood without the hard work and the sacrifices and the of the people there. When your children graduate from high school, they all serve in the military, boys and girls, men and women.

It's not a theory. It requires constant vigilance. It's a sacrifice to live in the land of Israel. Yeah. I think for our viewers, they have to understand that although everything, all the negativity that you hear about Israel, Israel is a very, very positive country

and a very successful countries. I don't know if people understand, but when you talk about Israel, or you talk about the miracle of Israel, I call it the miracle of Israel, I don't know if people that hear us know that there are more Israeli companies on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in New York

than all Europe together. I mean, it's unheard of. We're a small country. We have more companies on the New York Stock Exchange than all Europe together. is unbelievable. When we talk about Nobel

and Nobel prices, we are less than 1% from the whole population of the world, and we hold more than 20% of the Nobel prices in the world. So, I'm talking about the miracle

of Israel. And I believe that when you talk about agriculture, bio-agriculture, medicine, cancer medicine, When we talk about cancer medicine, you know, Iran worked for years to create a bomb that will destroy Israel. And America. In America.

Israel worked for years to find solution for cancer that will help the rest of the world. That's the difference. And their missiles hit the Weitzman Institute, one of our scientists' centers, and hit a lab. that was working and had research and the damage for the whole world, one missile, ruin a work of 30 years. So I think it's sad when you take Israel and you take the Arab Shiites world, those who hate Israel, and you compare the two is sad. And, you know, I see young people chanting, you know, free Palestine from the

river to the sea. Sorry, guys, if you're listening to me now, sorry, it's total ignorance. It's a total ignorance. I want to invite you to Israel to come and see with your own eyes. Try to read some, try to change the source of information that you get because you are tapping into the wrong sources.

Because, yes, Israel does a lot of mistake, but when you think what this small country, 70 years old, donated to the world, it's only a miracle of God. Amen. You know, when Peter and John were arrested and before the Sanhedron, they were angry enough to kill them. And Gamaliel stands up and said, we should be careful because we might find ourselves fighting against God.

And that would be my message. Amen. You know, there may be things about Israel that we don't understand. But I have determined that God has decided to bless the Jewish people in that land. And I do not intend to fight against him. Amen. You know, I'll tell the truth when I see it. And we have, you and I have some rather robust discussions from time to time.

Yeah, and I'm here as I say, not everything, you know, in wars, there's mistakes, you know. let's be honest the soldiers are between the age of 20 to 24 and sometimes they do mistakes and there is hatred that is growing up

and I hope that God will help the Israeli soldier to detach from this hatred but if I'm going to tell the truth about the Jews and Israel I'm going to tell it about the church too the only way the Holocaust was possible

was the church of Western Europe had created, fomented so much hatred of the Jewish people that Christian Europe gave up the Jews. I mean, it's a very, it's not just an awkward fact of history.

It's a sad part of history. You know, we want to blame the Nazis, but it was Christian Europe that didn't defend the Jewish people. Yeah, it's sad, but let's be honest, the soldier, those who kept the camps in Auschwitz, on Sunday, they were all in church. and they were building churches close to the camp

in order that they will go to church on Sunday and on Monday they were throwing them into the burning and so it's not a small thing to sit in a church that tells you God has rejected the Jewish people or they're insignificant or worse that teaches you to hate them because you will forfeit the blessings of God God's moving in the earth Amen

He's delivering the nation of Israel and the Jewish people and establishing them and we're preparing for our Messiah's return. Yeah, and let me say another thing, guys. If you're listening to us, and there's no doubt that it's not easy to be a young man or young woman, believing in the God of Israel, believing in the Old and New Testament,

and trying to live a Christian life here and it's not easy. And you go from ups and downs, but let me tell you, if God was faithful to Israel and, is faithful to Israel, he'll be faithful to you. If God shows the love, and let me tell you, the Israelis, even the secular, understand that what we're going through, it's a totally miracle.

And if God does miracles today, almost 3,000 years after he elected them, God will make the miracle you need in your life. So I want to encourage you in your walk. I want to encourage you in, in, throughout whatever you're going through, be encouraged, the God of Israel, God Jehovah is alive. Messiah is alive. He's sitting on the right hand of the Father. And he says that he's praying for us.

He's praying for us that we don't lose faith. And we know that because when he tells Peter, he said, Peter, I'm going to pray for you that you're not going to lose faith. So he's praying for us. So I'm asking you, don't lose faith. Don't lose hope. Be encouraged. And God has a beautiful, beautiful role.

for each one of you. Maybe you closed this with a prayer Beavreit. You can pray in Hebrew? Both, yeah. I'm a father tonight severalot. El Rahum and Hanun, Erhapaiim, Raph Hesed and Emet. Elon,

God, Shalimshelahe. We're Tfileh, over Am Israel, Israel. We're Tfilea, Lordeem Shabh. You said, Shalom Bimoram, he'll say shalom on He'll say shalom al-Ehralhah, and on all

Israel, and Nomer, Amen. Father God, we come before you and we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you're a God that keeps your covenant. You're a God that keeps your promises. You're a God that loves, delivers, heal. Encourage. So, Father, I pray for everyone that listens to us today. Father, encourage them.

Heal them. Deliver them. Father, we have people who are listening who are bound. by spirit or habits that they cannot be delivered with the whole power. And no, you cannot. So, Father, I pray that by your spirit, you'll heal, touch, deliver people and encourage this young generation to be a voice, to be a light, to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

In Yeshua's mighty name, amen. Amen. Samuel, thank you. much. Thank you. It is always an honor to be together. 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 Ministries 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.