The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | Israeli Survivor of Palestinian Terrorism Raises Alarm Over Radicals in the US

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

David Rubin, former mayor of Shilo, the modern settlement close to the ancient site of Israel's Tabernacle Tel Shiloh, survived a Palestinian terror attack and urges the U.S. to take the axis between radical Islam and the American Left seriously. He sits down with The Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neil at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, May 24th. I'm Samantha Sherris. Tyler O'Neill sat down with David Rubin, former mayor of Shiloh, the modern settlement close to the ancient site of Israel's tabernacle, tell Shiloh, at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. Rubin survived a Palestinian terror attack and urges the U.S. to take the axis between radical Islam and the American left seriously. We'll get to their first. We'll get to conversation right after this. We get it. With big media bias, it's hard to find accurate, honest news. That's why we've put together the Morning Bell newsletter, a compilation of the top stories and conservative commentary. To subscribe, just head todailysignal.com slash morning bell

subscription or visit DailySignal.com and click on the connect button at the top of the page. This is Tyler O'Neill, managing editor at the Daily Signal, and I'm joined by David Rubin, former mayor of Shiloh. Yes, that is the Shiloh in Israel and the Bible, and founder of Shiloh Israel Children's Fund. It's an honor to have you. Well, thank you, Tyler. Good to be with you. So, David, I'd like to ask, you know, just to clear things up at the beginning, you were the mayor of Shiloh. What I understand is a modern city near TEL Shiloh, the ancient site of Israel's early sanctuary where the tabernacle rested. How does the modern city relate to the ancient site?

And what did your tenure there teach you about anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and how the left operates across the world? Okay, well, that's a big question. The tabernacle didn't just rest in Shiloh. The tabernacle stood in Shiloh for 369 years, which is longer than just, just a bit of perspective longer than the age of the United States of America. So it was by far the longest capital for Israel other than Jerusalem. Having said that, jumping about 3,500 years ahead of in advance, we are now in in the rebuilt Shiloh

or as we call it by the Hebrew pronunciation of Shiloh and the rebuilt city of Shiloh was rebuilt 11 years after the 6th day war when Israel was attacked by all of the Arab armies from all sides and in six days we recaptured the biblical heartland of Israel

where Shiloh is located of the heartland of Samaria and Judea, otherwise often known by the fictional term the West Bank. And that is now a symbol of the rebuilding of the land of Israel, of the rebuilding of the people of Israel, and the overall change in Israel's status from being a secular socialist nation, which is how it was in 1948 when we were first reestablished, to being the true biblical nation that God chose for all of his glory.

And can you expand a little bit on that transformation, what it means, you know, because I often think of Israel as the Jewish state as, you know, naturally the people. people, but also impacted by that history, that deep culture, and being God's chosen people? Well, there's always been a bit of a conflict in the reborn state of Israel. The conflict between the Jewish state and the state of the Jews. And so the secular population has always wanted it to be the state of the Jews, just a place to escape anti-Semitism. The religious population, the religious Zionist population of which I am in part, has always

been determined to rebuild Israel, that we've returned to the land of Israel, according to the prophecies of Israel, the prophecies that we read about in Ezekiel chapter 36, Jeremiah, and others, that we are going to rebuild the land of Israel, according to prophecy, that the state of Israel was rebuilt and Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel in order to be alight unto the nations, according to prophecy. So that's what's happening in the land of Israel today. There is a conflict between those two poles. And so we, in Shiloh, and especially after what I've been through, I'm very passionate about it

because I was wounded by Palestinian terrorists. When I was driving home from Jerusalem, one day with my three-year-old son sitting behind me in the baby seat, the car was hit by terrorists on the side of the road, Palestinian terrorists from the Palestinian Authority with AK-47 assault rifles. I was shot in the leg, my son was shot in the head, and we were, the car was dead.

We couldn't get away from the terrorists. I hit the gas over and over, turned the ignition, tried to get the car to start, I couldn't get it to start. Then suddenly it started as if it had never had a problem starting before. I drove 110 miles an hour to get to the community up the road, where I got an ambulance, and we were taken to the hospital, and we survived, thank God. So as a result of that, I started the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund for the purpose of healing the trauma of the terror victim children

who've been so wounded emotionally, psychologically, by the terrorists. And we've created a magnificent therapeutic educational center in the heart of Shiloh for all of the children of Samaria that have suffered so much from the terrorism. Where do you see that terrorism coming from? What are the roots of it? And what should Americans look for? because, from what I understand, you view this threat as a global threat to some degree?

Oh, absolutely. And I've written about this in many of my books, including my most recent book confronting radicals, what America can learn from Israel. Look, the threat of Islamic terrorism comes from the core of Islam, which is with some notable exception. is very violent and very intolerant. Unlike Judaism and Christianity, which come from love and, you know, we have an expression in Hebrew. You should love your fellow as yourself.

And it's all about love. It's all about bringing people close to God with love. In Islam, it's different. In Islam, there is the violence. that they have to conquer the world by the sword, and that's what it comes from. So it's a very hard thing for Israel to deal with. It's a very hard thing for the West to deal with. But basically, we have this struggle happening,

and that's what I wrote about in confronting radicals, that we have a struggle going on between those on one hand who want to make the world secular, the hardcore leftists that you saw rioting during the George Floyd riots. And at the same time, you have it coming from the other side, from the Islamic radicals,

who want to bring down both of our houses, the Jews and the Christians. And when I say the Jews, I'm talking about those who are religious and who speak from Jewish heritage. They want to bring down both of our houses, and that's why it's important for us to be standing together in these times.

Well, and you talk about the prophecies in Ezekiel. I think of that tremendous, you know, extremely long prophecy. Every time I'm reading through it, I'm just like, all right, you're talking about the land dedicated to this tribe, this tribe, you know, and how it expands from the temple. How, you know, how do you see the fulfillment of these prophecies with the temple still not being reconstructed and some of those, you know, very in-depth visions that God gave to these prophets. You know, are those set to be fulfilled?

Later, were they partially fulfilled by the return of the Jewish state? How does that stand in your mind? Well, the prophecy in Ezekiel speaks about the first, the physical return. Actually, even before the physical return, it speaks about the exile. and how God is going to exile the Israelites from the land of Israel that were going to be scattered around the world, that we're going to know no peace, and that at the same time that the land of Israel will lay barren while we're gone,

which is what happened. Mark Twain visited Israel in the late 1800s, and he spoke about a barren forsaken land, where there was hardly a tree, hardly a person, hardly a plant. And now we see the land of Israel today in fulfillment of the prophecies of Ezekiel being rebuilt.

We see fig trees and pomegranate trees and that is the surest sign of the redemption of Israel in our times. And where is it going from here? Well, this is what's happening now is mostly the physical return of Israel, But Israel is also a country that, as opposed to the West right now, where a lot of the young people are leaving religion,

a lot of the young people are being given this gender confusion and this anti-God belief, the atheist religion, well, in Israel, we're just the opposite. In Israel, the traditional family is, stronger than ever. People are having more and more children per family. The return to God is palpable even among the secular populations where they're inquiring to us about God, about connecting to their heritage. And that's a big thing that's happening in Israel today. So it is totally aligned with the prophecy of Ezekiel because he talks about how he's going to put

his spirit in us. And that comes after the physical in gathering the exiles. Then he's going to put his spirit into us, his spiritual light, and that will help us to rebuild Israel. That powerful spiritual light will be so strong that the whole world will be demanding that we rebuild that temple. And then all of the nations, in the continuing fulfillment of prophecies like in Isaiah, all the nations will come to the land of Israel. They will want to help the Jewish nation. They will want to stand with us, and they will proclaim the name of the Almighty God.

And we're going to do that proclaiming we're going to do altogether. Wow. Well, that's inspiring. I want to see it happen. You talk about that difference in education, where in Israel the family is thriving. And I want to know, you know, we've seen a lot of turbulence in Israel recently with the protests against Netanyahu's government and the judicial reforms with, you know, the alliance between Iran and Russia and engagement with China as well. How do you see things on the ground, you know, at the 75th anniversary? there's a lot of really amazing stuff and then a lot of turmoil. Would you break that down a little bit what you're seeing there?

Sure. Well, in the writings of the prophets, it's very clear that it doesn't happen in one day. Okay? The Holy Temple doesn't come down from the sky just like that and everything, all of a sudden everyone's proclaiming God's name. It doesn't work like that. We have a concept of the redemption coming, of the Messiah coming on a donkey. Okay, it happens slowly.

It's a process that is revealed through our day-to-day lives. So when I was talking about the trends, I was talking only about trends. I'm not talking about how Israel is this. God-loving, family-loving country. I mean, we are, but it's a process. So while we have the overall trend towards the traditional family, while we have the overall trend towards God, we also have a parallel trend, which is pulling away,

and moving further to the left. And there you have the anti-family. movement and the LGBT plus movement. And so there is that at the same time. And you have the Jews who don't really identify strongly as biblical Jews. But it's a process. And it's a process which we are winning. It's going to happen over time.

But it's amazing to see the process. process happening in real life in Israel, and at the same time to read about it in the prophecies. It's amazing because it's happening, it's real, and ultimately it's for the whole world. And how has your experience with the Shiloh Children's Fund shine a light on those trends, on combating the terrorism and perhaps giving you hope for the future? Well, the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund is all about healing. There are basically two things that I point to. One is that it's all about healing.

It's about redeeming. We're a faith-based family-based operation. We're not an orphanage. We work very closely with the families, even children who have had both parents killed in terrorist attacks. we get them into either uncles and aunts or grandparents' families or foster families. We do not ship them off to an orphanage. We work together with the families. So by helping Israel to return to its roots of the traditional family,

to return to its roots of faith in God, where at the same time, redeeming Israel and redeeming, the world. Now, we have people who are involved with us. I get so many donations from Christians. And if you look back to another period in Shiloh, at the end of the Book of Judges, there was a lot of division. We had this refrain, and there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Well, in our times, after I established the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund, and at that time, there was a lot of division. in the rebuilt Shiloh.

There was division. There were people with a lot of talents pulling in different directions. No, we need to do this. We need to do that. We need to try and build this project and that project. And I started the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund. I said, all of you are going to have to work together.

And I considered that to be a biblical correction as well. That no longer is there. No king in Israel and everyone doing what's right in his own eyes, but there is a king in Israel. Okay, it's called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and everyone who partners with the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund, including Jews and many Christians in America who stand with us and around the world, frankly.

They are doing a biblical correction by that working together. Well, thank you so much for joining me. where can the people follow you and support the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund? Well, for that, the best thing is to go to my website, which is Shiloh or Shiloh, S-H-I-L-O-H-I-L-O-H-Chail-Childron.org. Shiloh-I-L-I-L-I-L-R-E-L-I-L-L-E-L-R. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Daily Signals interview edition. If you enjoyed that interview and want to hear more, make sure you subscribe

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