The Daily Signal - Should Christians Support Israel?

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Long before Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Jewish homeland was already a flash point of controversy on college campuses and among an increasingly anti-Israel segment of younger Americans who make up Gen Z. Jeff Myers, president of Summit Ministries, had taken note of the troubling trend and embarked on a trip to Israel just about 100 days after the Oct. 7 attack to meet with Jews and Arabs, peace activists, and soldiers. He’s now written a new book, “Should Christians Support Israel? Seeking a Biblical Worldview in an Impossible Situation,” which Summit Ministries is making available for free with a donation. “Jews have a physical presence in the land of their history,” Myers said. “Whether you agree with how it happened or how they are stewarding it, this is the reality. It is also a reality that Israel is under attack from every quarter in a battle between competing worldviews. The history of Palestine, the religion of Islam, and the aims of the apocalyptic rape-and-death cult called Hamas all figure in a larger struggle for truth. This is what we urgently need to understand.” Myers spoke with The Daily Signal at the Road to Majority Policy Conference last week about why he’s dedicating his time to helping Christians understand the Israel-Palestine conflict. Listen to our conversation on today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast.” 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 Tuesday, June 25th. I'm your host, Rob Lewy. Long before Hamas' horrific October 7th attack on Israel, the Jewish homeland was already a flashpoint of controversy on college campuses and among an increasingly anti-Israel segment of younger Americans. Dr. Jeff Myers, president of Summit Ministries, had taken note of the troubling trend and embarked on a trip to Israel just about 100 days after the October 7th attack.

He's now written a new book, should Christians support Israel, seeking a biblical worldview in an impossible situation, which Summit Ministries is making available for free with a donation. Myers and I spoke at the Road to Majority Policy Conference last week about the book and why he's dedicating his time to helping Americans understand the Israel-Palestine conflict. Stay tuned for our interview right after this. For over 35 years, the Heritage Foundation Job Bank has been helping conservatives at all professional levels, find employment in key positions in Washington, D.C. and across the country.

We can help you connect with positions in the administration on Capitol Hill, in public policy organizations, and in the private sector. To learn more about the Heritage Foundation Job Bank, go to heritage.org slash job dash bank. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast by Jeff Myers, author of the new book, Should Christians Support Israel? seeking a biblical worldview in an impossible situation. Jeff, thanks so much for being here at the Road to Majority Conference. Rob, I'm happy to be here with you. I just got in from Colorado. I don't even have my suit on yet, but man, this is an amazing event. It sure is. You're going to have a mainstage opportunity to tell folks about the book. You're actually providing copies to

attendees. Tell us why you decided to write this book. Well, last November, I saw a poll from Harvard saying that 51% of Gen Z thought that the rape and murder and torture and mutilation by Hamas of Israeli citizens was justified because Israel is an oppressor. I thought, man, that has got to be an aberration. Nope, by December it went up to 60%. How did Gen Z get so indoctrinated by pro-Hamas propaganda? That led me to an exploration talking with those were in Gen Z, even traveling to the war zone to meet with citizen soldiers, talking to people who were survivors, hostages, touring some of the places of devastation. And it was easy to conclude that Christians should in fact support Israel, that Israel has a right to exist, that Hamas must be

destroyed, and that God has a plan for the Jewish people. And that is something that Christians need to understand that they did not understand in the run-up to World War II that actually allowed millions and millions of Jews to be killed. Let's come back to that point, but I want to pick up on what you said about that poll in Gen Z. I take it that previous generations did not exhibit these same feelings. What makes Gen Z unique in this respect? Well, anti-Semitism is at its highest level

in the United States of America since the 1930s. The Anti-Defamation League says it's the highest they've ever recorded since 1979 when they began. How did we get to that place? Well, what's taught in the classroom in one generation will be believed in practice in government and society in the next generation. What's happened to the rising generation is they have received what's essentially a neo-Marxist perspective that everything in the world is very, very simple. It can be divided into the oppressors and the oppressed. So whoever their professors say are the oppressed, those people can rightly use any means, even violence, even rape, even torture, to resist the efforts.

of the oppressors. And that is what young adults have grown up believing. Their parents didn't know that's what they believed, but it is what they believe. My 27-year-old son said, I'm really glad to be able to talk with you about these issues because I do not know a single person, liberal or a conservative, who supports Israel.

Wow, amazing. So now, you obviously are optimistic that you can change this trajectory that we're on. I would imagine that it's going to be difficult. What are some of the first steps that you would recommend, either parents take, aside from buying a copy of your book,

but what can they do to reverse this trend that we're on? Better than buying a copy of the book, I'll just give it to you. I want everybody to be able to get a copy of the book. And all you have to do is go to summit.org slash Israel and just sign up for it. And I will send you the book.

If you want extra copies to give to friends and family, do that. Why is it so important to have a book at this moment? Because TikTok and Instagram and other social media channels, are so noisy on this that they become background noise. We're finding Gen Z wants to read a book. They want to look at the footnotes. They want to have the documentation.

And here's the crazy thing, Rob. When they study it, they're actually persuaded by the facts. I'll give you an example from a poll that Summit Ministries did with Scott Rasmussen. We asked the question, do you believe that Israel's cause is unjust because Israel is militarily superior and wealthier? And the vast majority of young people said, yes, I think Israel's cause is unjust. Then the very next question, we asked them, do you think that Hamas's cause is unjust because all of the top Hamas leaders have become

millionaires and billionaires by skimming international aid designed for destitute Gazans? Within one question, the majority of them changed their mind. If you give people the facts, they can orient toward the truth. But you have to be able to do it in a sense. a concerted way with some kind of a resource that's very hard to argue with that gives you the chance to have the discussions we need to be having. Well, we're grateful for this discussion we're having with the Daily Signal. What other steps could you take or would you like to take with other media outlets?

Because it seems like that is part of the problem. You have the New York Times, Washington Post, the broadcast networks, all taking a fairly anti-Israel position right now. is there a way to change that or at least apply the pressure that would prompt them to report the facts? You know, Rob, I've done a number of media interviews since the book came out, which was only a week ago. So we've already distributed 20,000 copies of this book in the last week. I've done some media interviews. I will tell you right up front, nobody in the media has asked as tough of questions as the 600 students that I've trained so far through Summit Ministries this summer.

They are straightforward. They ask the brutal questions. And isn't that what we should encourage? If you think about it, if you shut down people's questions, they still have the questions. They just know you're not a reliable person to talk to. If you ask the questions right up front and they feel safe to talk about them, then you can begin the persuasive process. So we're reaching not only the mainstream media or whatever people call it these days.

We're talking to the young Gen Z influence. on the internet because they reach more people than you can possibly imagine. Some of these influencers reach more people an hour than CNN or Fox News reaches. And nobody knows about them because we're all paying attention to what's happening on television. Yeah, Gen Z doesn't do that. That's an excellent point and a great reminder. Thank you. We are talking to Jeff Myers, author of the book, Should Christians Support Israel?

You mentioned through your work at Summit Ministries that you've faced some very tough questions. Share with our listeners, you know, a few that come to your mind that stand out and maybe the responses that you've given to those students. Well, depending on whether somebody's coming from a liberal or a conservative perspective, their questions will be different. If they're coming from a liberal perspective, they're primarily asking about proportionality. 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7th. Possibly 35,000 Gossans have died in Israel's response. How is that possibly fair? Isn't that unjust retribution? conservatives are asking the question, why should America support Israel? I mean, why should we support the militarily, financially? Aren't we just involving ourselves in another Middle Eastern

war that's going to cost trillions of dollars and cost a lot of lives and create human misery? So the two different kinds of questions are out there. Let me start with the proportionality question for a minute. The first thing you have to realize is that Hamas, the terrorist group that committed the October 7th attacks, is an enemy. of the Palestinian people as well as the Israelis. They are an evil group of people who do not care whether the Gossans live or die. And I prove all of this in the book should Christian support Israel. Their main leader, Khalid Meshaw, has gained a net worth of $5 billion,

lives in five-star hotels in Qatar and flies around on private jets, and he says, we don't care how many Gossans die. All we want is the annihilation of the state of Israel. So given the fact that Hamas cannot, it is literally incapable of telling the truth, then we have to ask the question, how is it that so many people have died? And you know, urban warfare is a tricky thing. No matter whether you're pursuing it justly or unjustly, it's very tricky. Typically, in an urban warfare situation, nine civilians are killed for every one combatant who is killed.

Nine. Guess how many it is in Gaza? One civilian for every combatant killed. John Spencer, who is America's leading expert on protecting non-combatants in a time of war, says that Israel has done a better job protecting non-combatants than any nation in history, including the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. So if Hamas released the hostages, the war would be over today, who is continuing it? Hamas is continuing it because they want to see the annihilation of the state of Israel.

No other aim of theirs is anywhere near that level of importance. for them. As far as whether America should support Israel with financially and with military, you know, it's my sense that after I visited the war zone, Israel's not asking for us to send troops. What they're asking for is the equipment that they need to defend themselves from 100,000 Hezbollah fighters in the north, 25,000 Syrian fighters in Syria, somewhat hostile nations in Jordan and Egypt, and all of the Hamas fighters and those in the Palestinian Authority, about 40,000 who want to take up arms against Israel. That's pretty overwhelming.

We could be having troops in that nation for forever. The Israelis do not want that. They just want the equipment. And the United States' willingness to give it to them is the one thing that prevents the United Nations from foreclosing every opportunity for Israel to succeed. It is in many ways the United States' relationship with Israel that prevents the United Nations from becoming a dominant left-wing global world government.

Thank you for that answer. I appreciate hearing those perspectives and how you have responded to those questions. You mentioned earlier that you visited Israel during this war. What were your observations from a firsthand point of view? Well, one of the observations is when you go to Israel, you fly into Tel Aviv. You kind of have to talk your way in a little bit because in the time of war, nobody else is visiting. Then you go to Jerusalem, you spend the night, and within an hour drive, you are in a war zone. You're in a literal war zone, artillery flying overhead. When you get

out of the car, you're putting on a Kevlar helmet and body armor. But the key was talking with the people who are there. They're defending their borders, even the ones who aren't taking up arms. I visited with one journalist who admittedly is a left-wing journalist who works for a left-wing newspaper. And I asked him, so you live in one of these communities? He said, yes, a mile from the Gaza border. I said, are you going back? Because I don't know any Americans who would go back. It's too dangerous. He said, I'm going back because it's my mission. This is not a believing individual. He's a secular Jew who is left wing. So I asked him, why is this your mission? Well, I'm fighting on behalf of my country, but you're not taking up arms. How do you fight?

And he said, we fight with our presence. We show up. We live peaceful lives. We help. all of our neighbors, including the Gossans, and that's how we demonstrate what it means to be human and why we need to have a Jewish homeland that is a safe place for Jews from all over the world. You had also mentioned a comparison to World War II, and maybe how Christians didn't respond quickly enough to the tragedy that happened to Jews with the Holocaust. Can you share your observations from that period of time and why we need to take a lesson from that? for today. Well, my work as an academic is in philosophy, not in history, but I've studied the history pretty carefully. Did you know that George Gallup, the guy who invented Gallup polling,

started polling just prior to World War II? So we actually have evidence of this. It turns out that the majority of Americans, about two-thirds, felt sorry for the Jewish people because of the attacks that they were receiving from the Nazis. But eight out of ten Americans said they did not. not want Jews immigrating to the United States, eight out of ten. So Americans put pressure on their leaders to not allow Jews to escape from Germany and Poland and other European countries where they ultimately ended up dying by the millions. We cannot make that same mistake again. We cannot let the forces that are arrayed against Jews today have that same kind of influence. And, you know, Jews have one homeland.

There are 57 Muslim countries in the world. There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world and 15 million Jews or 120 Muslims for every one Jew in the world. It's not like these people are a threat because they're somehow a majority. But there are a lot of conspiracy theories out there that people still tend to believe today if they don't carefully study the facts that cause them to not support and defend and protect the human rights of people who need our help. One final question for you, Jeff. We are at a conference here, the road to majority, where there are a number of policymakers, political leaders, people who are seeking office in this election year.

What is your message to them? What do you want them to take away from the book? Well, a lot of people at this conference are focused on the next election. That's obviously why they're here in Washington, D.C. at this event. I want to give the message that it is significant to think about Gen Z's response to Israel, because the progressive left has essentially revealed in the way they've responded to Israel their playbook for how they intend to take down Judeo-Christian civilization. It's that stark.

But if you know young adults and you know how indoctrinated they are, you know I'm not exaggerating this. I am telling the truth about where the rising generation is. We have to connect with them across generations. and we can be assured that if we do, they respond to the fact. Not all of them. They're always going to be those who, no matter what you say, they're going to believe whatever they want to believe,

whatever their professors told them. But the majority of them will change if we will engage them in the conversation. That's right. Facts are powerful. Thank you, Jeff Myers. We appreciate the work you do. Again, the book is called Should Christians Support Israel, seeking a biblical worldview in an impossible situation. Can you tell us one more time that website,

where people can get a copy. You can get a copy of the book for free from Summit Ministries. Just go to summit.org slash Israel and pick up a copy of the book there. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it. Thanks, Rob. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. Twice a day, we keep tabs on the biggest stories shaping American culture. Each morning learns from leading conservatives about what's happening in Washington, and every weekday afternoon, stay informed of the day's top headlines at 5 p.m. Also, if you want to hear more interviews from the Road to Majority Policy Conference, be sure to subscribe to The Daily Signal

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