The Daily Signal - Life in Israel 1 Year After Oct. 7

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Wearing high heels or flats to work is a small thing most women don’t give too much thought to, but when seconds matter while running to a bomb shelter, a simple decision over footwear becomes critical.  Most women in Israel don’t wear heels because, when the sirens sound, Israelis have only about 30 seconds to make it to a bomb shelter, Yael Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, explains.  “Just the other day, four days ago, we woke up at 5 a.m. to a siren sounding,” said Eckstein, who lives in Israel with her husband and four children. “We had 90 seconds to wake up our four kids and get them to our shelter in time. Thank God we have a shelter in our home, but even 90 seconds to wake up the kids, get them down to the shelter, we didn’t have time to bring our puppy, and so my kids were crying that the puppy was outside, and I had to make the decision of keeping my kids safe or going out and getting the puppy and risking our lives.”  For people living in Israel, these are “everyday situations,” she says.  Eckstein joins “The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss Iran’s recent attack on Israel and commemorate the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, October 7th. I'm Virginia Allen. Today marks one year since Hamas terrorists attacked and killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and took more than 240 hostage. Today, there's still about 100 individuals that remain hostage in Gaza, including multiple Americans. Kristen I, Kammer of the Heritage Foundation and I recently had the opportunity to talk with Yale Eckstein on the Daily Signal's problematic Women Podcast. Yale is the president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and she shared with us on the Problematic Women podcast about what life has been like in Israel since that October 7th attack one year ago. Well, I'm so pleased that we can share that same conversation with you on the show today as we dig into what this anniversary means

for the people of Israel, how it's going to be remembered in Israel today. We also dig into Iran's recent attack on Israel and likely response. She shares about life running into bomb shelters and just how different common day life is for folks in Israel right now and really has been for years as they face threats from all around their country. Stay tuned for Chris and I, Cammer and I's conversation with Yale Eckstein after this. Pro-life, pro-women conservative and feminist were problematic women. The radical left has no box for strong independent women who believe in traditional values and love America. So you might say we're problematic to the left narrative of what a woman should be. Here on problematic women, we sort through the news to find the stories you care about.

Join Problematic Women on the Daily Signals YouTube and Rumble live every Wednesday or listen on your favorite podcast app. Well, I am so honored and excited now to welcome to this show, Yale X-Dien. She heads the awesome organization, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and Yale. You have joined us on the Daily Sledal podcast several times, but this is your first time joining us here on problematic women. Thanks for being with us. Yeah, it is my honor. Thank you so much for hosting me. I am excited for this.

Absolutely. Well, there's so much to talk about with Monday being the one-year anniversary of October 7th. And, of course, just yesterday with Iran firing about 180. 80 ballistic missiles at Israel. Let's start there. You're actually in the States right now, but you live in Israel. Your husband and I believe one of your children are still in Israel. So they were there during that attack yesterday. Did you get to talk to them on the phone while that was happening? Yeah. Well, me and three of my children landed in America just a few hours before the Iranian attacks. And what's really interesting was actually kind of following it from America. I've

Never in the previous Iranian attack, I was in Israel in the shelter with the rest of my people. We've been in the shelter many times. There's been rocket attacks from Hamas in the Gaza Strip or from Chazbalah and northern Israel from Lebanon. But in this second Iranian attack, it was very strange being in Chicago, actually. And what was interesting was actually seeing my children's reaction. You know, my 12-year-old daughter, she was crying and saying, Mommy, I just want to go home. I can't believe we're not there with our people right now. It was hard for them to be apart.

My eldest daughter, who's almost 18, all of her friends are doing their mandatory army service. And so they're there protecting the borders. They're not necessarily in the shelters as the rockets are falling because we need to make sure terrorists aren't infiltrating while the Code Red Sirens are going off. And so my eldest daughter was praying for her friends. We were praying, of course, my husband and my son are our family who's there in the bomb shelter. going through this. It's a time that we realize prayers are our strongest weapon, that everyone has to use the weapons that they have. And prayers of our hearts is the weapon that God gave us. And so we used it very intensely as those rockets were headed towards Israel. And I believe that

those prayers joined with millions of others, Christians around the world, who were praying for the peace of Jerusalem. And we saw miracles yesterday. nothing short of biblically proportionate miracles. Because there were actually no deaths within Israel, correct? It's unreal. It was the most amount of missiles that have ever been launched from any country at another country at once. Over 180 ballistic missiles launched at once towards tiny Israel,

which again, it's important to point out as the size of New Jersey. Like, we're a tiny country that you hear about us so much on the news and people are obsessed with Israel as they say, no Jews, no news, and this is the Jewish country. So they're always talking about Israel, but Israel's the size of New Jersey. We're fighting a war on seven different fronts, the size of New Jersey. So, yeah, it is an absolute miracle. There's a joke in Israel that sometimes when the rockets land, they land in open spaces. And for anyone who's been to Israel, number one, you know, Israel's very expensive, because so much of our GDP goes to defense that we always have to be one step ahead of all.

of our neighbors. We have to invest so much money in security. And so the price of housing in life there is very expensive. And the second thing you know is that it's very crowded. There are so many houses and apartment buildings up against each other. There isn't much open spaces. So the joke in Israel is when rockets fall, all the real estate developers are following the rockets because they never knew there were so much open spaces in Israel. So God is performing miracles for us that those rockets are finding a place that are doing and no harm. Well, and you talk about these bomb shelters as if it's, you know, a part of your everyday life. You all know where they are. And I don't think we have that reality in America

because like you said, New Jersey is a very small state for our country. Can you walk us through, though? Does everyone have a bomb shelter in Israel? Or like, what are the logistics to that? Because I mean, I can't run my head around it. It's a really great question. In Israel, Israel, not everyone has bomb shelters because it's only recently that you needed a bomb shelter in Israel on every single inch of the land. So there are public shelters from, for example, the Gulf War when Iraq sent scud missiles to Israel. There were public shelters built that were meant to keep people secure for a short amount of time, an hour, two hours. No one could have imagined that people would have to be essentially living in their bomb shelters for weeks on end. And so a day in Israel is, for example, when I wake up in the morning and get dressed for work, there are no women who wear high heels in Israel because you have 30 seconds to run to shelter once that siren sounds.

So you have to wear comfortable shoes to make sure you can make it to the shelter in time. My eight-year-old son went out riding his bike the other day, and when you're riding your bike, you're not near a shelter. And so I said to him, Shimi, if the code red siren sounds, what do you do? He said, I get off my bike and I lay on the ground with my hands over my head. and I make sure that I'm not in the middle of the street so it won't be dangerous. When my daughter went to the mall the other day, I said, you know, at every second, make sure you know where the closest shelter is. Just the other day, four days ago, we woke up at five in the morning to a siren sounding. We had 90 seconds to wake up our four kids and get them to our shelter in time.

Thank God we have a shelter in our home. But even 90 seconds to wake up the kids, get them down to the shelter, we didn't have time to bring our puppy. And so my kids were crying that the puppy was outside. And I had to make the decision of keeping my kids safe or going out and getting the puppy and risking our lives. And these are everyday situations that us and Israel are facing. Wow. Well, and that miracle of protection, you talk about Israel has this powerful tool called the Iron Dome. Just explain a little bit about how that works, if you would.

It's a wild thing because I was just telling my. kids how like it's such a given for us. Oh, there are hundreds of rockets fired and the Iron Dome will take out most of them. This is something that's like from the movies. It's Star Wars situation that when a missile is launched, the Iron Dome is able to use mathematical projections to see exactly where the missile is going to land. If it's going to land in a populated town, then another missile from Israel is actually launched into the sky in order to knock it out before it lands in the residential area. If it shows that it's not going to land in the residential area, they actually just let it fall. And so this is all within split seconds because the Iron

Dome is actually for pretty close range missiles. There's another level of protection we have from rockets, the David's Sling that's used for higher missiles that we could destroy them in the atmosphere. But it doesn't have 100% success rate. And so there are huge risks, huge dangers. But I think the other side of that is the investment that Israel has made in providing protection and security to the people. The education, the investment in infrastructure to protect life is the highest value. And it's something that I actually get to see every day through my work with International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, that we've placed thousands of bomb shelters,

specifically around children's school bus stops, that we realize children are very, very vulnerable. When they're waiting for the bus stop or getting off at a bus stop, there's no shelters there. That we've placed bomb shelters on every single school bus stop from zero to nine kilometers from the northern border that have saved dozens of, if not hundreds of lives of children. That's crazy. And I want to talk more about your organization, the fellowship of Christian and Jews.

Can you just give us a little bit more on the missions, why you're here in America, what y'all are doing in Israel and in the Middle East? Sure. Well, we're an organization that believes, first and foremost, in unity, in brotherhood, that we are called not just to fight the darkness, but to bring the light.

and to be the light. We're an organization that believes Jews and Christians after 2,000 years of animosity and misunderstanding and hatred that we have more in common that we have a part. And we can go through the list. Those Judeo-Christian values are the foundation of both of our faiths. And so our vision and mission is to stand together in the biblical mandate, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, to be the watchmen on the wall, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the poor.

And so we're constantly working on this brotherhood, on strengthening and building this brotherhood between Christians and Jews, and using that partnership and shared voice and prayers to see the outcome of lives saved through looking again at the scriptures that tell us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the poor,

through this historic prophetic unity of Christians and Jews, we've become the largest philanthropic organization in all of Israel, which means that we've helped over two million people a year to get the basics that they need to survive. So, I mean, these numbers are huge, but for me, it all goes down to the individual. I was in Sterot not too long ago. It's a southern Israel town that was invaded by terrorists on October 7th. Many people killed. many people kidnapped from that town and everyone in the town experienced the trauma and horrors of October 7th. And the town was evacuated because it wasn't safe to be in, but the elderly specifically

decided to stay. They said, I'd rather die in my home from rocket attacks and live as an evacuee. And so I went to visit an elderly Holocaust survivor. And she was in this town that she saw her friends get killed from outside of her window. and she saw elderly be gunned down by Hamas terrorists. And she was alone, completely alone, because everyone left the town. She didn't have neighbors. She didn't have stores open, no banks open, no social services.

And I went in to bring her a meal. And I sat down to speak to her. And I said, this is from Christians who love you. And she started crying. And she looked at me and she said, yeah, I'm a Holocaust survivor. I've always felt like everyone hated the Jewish people. And then I saw a Hamas terrorist invade and kill my friends. And again, it confirmed everyone hates the Jewish people.

And I look at the mainstream media and everyone's against Israel. And it makes me remember everyone will always hate the Jewish people. And this food box that's from Christians, that as everyone has forgotten me, Christians have remembered me and have sent me this food box. Suddenly the future looks bright, not dark. And for me, that says the whole story. something I see every day on the ground, that despite the darkness around us, despite the rise in anti-Semitism and the rise in anti-Christian sentiment, we're in this together. I mean, it's something that I say as a given, but so many people don't realize the darkness and the evil in the world,

they say themselves. First, they go for the Saturday people, the Jews, and then they go for the Sunday people, the Christians. First, they go for the little Satan, Israel, then they go for the big Satan, America. We're in this together. And so for the people of Israel to know that, the silenced majority, millions of Christians are standing with Israel and love Israel and are praying for Israel. That's a message of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. And it's something that I am so honored to be able to see and be part of. And that's a message that brought you here to the States this week. Talk a little bit, if you would, about why you're in America right now.

Well, I'm in America now, and it was very, very difficult, actually, to leave Israel because there's so much work to do on the ground there. And every day, there are more soup kitchens we need to build and food boxes to distribute and shelters to place. It was a hard decision to leave. But I felt like it was important because the fellowship has this incredible new project. It's called Flags of Fellowship that on October 6, which is the Sunday before October 7th, the one year anniversary of this horrible attack on Israel, where more Jewish people were killed in this terror attack any time since. the Holocaust. And so in the past year, we've seen a rise of anti-Semitism. We've seen students and everyday people burning Israeli flags and just anti-Semitism that we never thought that we would experience in our lifetime. And so the Fellowship started this Flags the Fellowship Program where churches across America in every state of America are planting 1,200 Israeli flags in their front yard, one flag to represent every life lost in Israel on October 7th. And it's their declaration of, I won't be scared by the hatred.

I'm going to proudly declare that I stand with Israel. I'm not going to go with the trends of anti-Semitism. I'm going to proudly pray for the people of Israel and lead my church in knowing the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. And so across America, you might see it. There's churches who are planting 1,200 Israeli flags. And this is their response to those. people who are very loud, but I see here in America are a minority who are burning the Israeli flags. For them, they're planting it and standing with Israel.

Wow. Powerful. How will October 7th be remembered in Israel this year on that one-year anniversary? It's so hard to come up to the one-year anniversary of October 7th for many reasons. First of all, we still have our people kidnapped hostage in Gaza. from baby Kfir, Bebas, one years old, who's been kidnapped for, he was kidnapped when he was just a few months old. And now he's not even one and a half. And he's spent an entire year in Hamas captivity to 85-year-old great-grandfathers. We've over a hundred of our people there still hostage in Gaza.

It's hard to believe that they're still not home and it's been a year. So that's where all the people of Israel. That's where our hearts are. I'm just bringing our people, our children, our babies, our elderly home. And it's also remembered as a day that the world was forced to look at evil in the eye to realize that we are being held hostage by Islamic terrorists who are not allowing the world to advance, not allowing the light of freedom to shine. In Israel, for example, I've traveled to Morocco. I've seen the UAE, these Muslim countries that want peace, that want advancement. And I've spoken to people from Saudi Arabia who say, if it weren't for Iran threatening us,

there would be peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel and so many other Muslim countries as well. And so I think October 7th was a wake-up call to anyone who cherishes freedom, who believes in freedom, who believes in the sanctity of life. that we can't be held hostage by these terrorists anymore. You see the Houthis even in Yemen who are threatening and attacking one of the main shipping routes. This affects Americans. This affects Europeans. This affects the entire world.

And so I think October 7th was a wake-up call that Israel is on the front lines of putting our very lives between the Western world, America and Europe and the terrorists. but it doesn't stop with Israel, that if we don't fight this evil, it will take over. We don't have the luxury of staying silent anymore. We don't have the benefit anymore of closing our eyes and pretending like it doesn't exist. If we don't root out this evil, it will get there to us, to our children, to America, to Europe, and we've seen that in the past year. So I think October 7th was a call for people of faith, of freedom, people who value life, who believe in these godly. values that we have to come together, that we're fighting the same threat, the same evil, and we have to stand for life, stand for prayers, stand for belief in a God who values and cherishes life.

We have to stand together because otherwise, the darkness will take over. Yeah. It seems common sense, right? What everything you just said. And you kind of alluded to this before, but the media definitely plays a role in misrepresenting what's happening in Israel, what's happening within the conflict itself. And like you said, there's multiple, I mean, you've got the north conflicts. You've got everything southwest.

All of your borders are under attack, essentially. What is the biggest thing that the media has gotten wrong? What could you tell our viewers, this just isn't right? You need to pay attention to this. Wow. Thank you so much for that question. And there's so much. I think I would say, I would say, I would,

would say if I had to summarize kind of what the media has gotten wrong, what people misunderstand about Israel, it's that Israel is the minority. Israel does stand for all the values that you hope for for a minority. It's what Israel stands for. Israel is the only Jewish country in the entire world, and yet we have 25% of our population, non-Jews, Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Bedouins, Drues, who involve, in, They have full freedom, full rights. They have free health care just like me and my children, free education, just like me and my children. They're represented in the government. Israel takes up around 0.4% of the landmass of the Middle East.

99.6% are Arab countries. There are 22 Arab countries in the Arab Union. There's one Jewish country in the entire world. There are around 40,000 Jews in the entire Middle East outside of Israel. there are two million Arabs inside of Israel who have full rights and full freedoms. And it's not because we're trying to appease anyone. It's because we believe in freedom. We believe in diversity.

We believe in democracy. We believe in equal rights. We believe in all of the values that America was founded on. And so Israel is a tiny nation scattered for 2,000 years, persecuted in every single country we've ever been in, from Spain to Germany to. to every country we've ever been in. We've been persecuted, kicked out, killed. Still today, the Jewish people have not reached in number, the number of Jews that there was before the Holocaust.

We still haven't made up those six million Jews, including much of my family, who were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and concentration camps. And so I think what the world is missing is that everything Israel is being accused of is actually what our enemies are doing to us, what we stand for, what we yearn for, What we fight for is peace. And every single country that has reached out their hands in peace to us, we've accepted it.

Every single country. The only thing we ask is don't try to kill us. Don't try to destroy us. If you are willing to recognize tiny Israel has a right to exist, we will work with you to develop your infrastructure, your farming, your medical systems, all of the blessings that Israel has enjoyed will work to give it to the world. And the only thing we ask is recognize our right to exist. Yale, tell everyone how we can follow your work, keep up with what you're doing on your website, through social media. Thank you so much. So we are on the ground throughout Israel every day. Wherever there is a need, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is there.

So it is exciting work. We're placing bomb shelters. We're delivering food. We're on the front lines to those heroic first responders distributing life-saving, bulletproof vests and helmets. We have bulletproof and trapnel proof ambulances that we're distributing so they can go on the front lines and save lives. Wherever you go, in Jerusalem, in Tiberius and northern or southern Israel, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is there. So you can follow our work one of two ways. One is on our website, www.ifcj.org. And that's a great way to get involved and know the huge impact that we're doing. And on a day-to-day basis, you follow my work and everything I'm doing on the ground by following me on all social media platforms

Jael Eckstein and I would love to hear from you. Amazing. Yeahel, thank you so much for your time today. I know you're traveling back to Israel next week. So safe travels and I hope your time here in the States is really, really fruitful. But so appreciate the work that you and all of your colleagues are doing on the ground in Israel and the voice that you get to be as well for Christians across the world who are standing with Israel. Thank you. It is the greatest honor. Everything I do across the holy land, every second of every day, every visit I have, every project I visit, every prime minister or elderly woman that I meet, what I represent is millions of Christians who stand with Israel. And I'm their voice, and it is the greatest honor to tell everyone in Israel, you're not alone,

we're not alone. Christians stand with us. We have friends. We have prayers. And I believe that is our greatest weapon and together we will get through this. Yeah. Powerful. All right, Yale, we'll see you soon. God bless you. Thank you. We're going to leave it there for today's show. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal podcast. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Yale Xstein. Don't forget to hit that subscribe buttons. You never miss out on any of our shows from The Daily Signal, whether our morning interview edition or our afternoon top news. And if you would, take a minute to leave the Daily Signal podcast, five-star rating and review. It really helps us so much to spread the word to new listeners when

you take five minutes just to let us know what you think about the show. Have a great rest of your day. We'll see you right back here around 5 p.m. for top news. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Louis and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Popp and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.