The Daily Signal - This Israeli Community Experienced a Miracle on Oct. 7

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

The agricultural Israeli community of Ein HaBesor experienced a miracle on Oct. 7. Located just 3 miles from the border with Gaza and home to 320 families, the people of Ein HaBesor were targeted by Hamas terrorists just like so many other communities along the border that day. But miraculously, not a single person from Ein HaBesor was killed or taken hostage.  The community had shortly beforehand activated its security team after some theft, which unknowingly prepared them for the events on Oct. 7, as they successfully fought off the terrorists.  But the people of Ein HaBesor have been evacuated from their homes because the community is in a war zone. About 60% of Israel's produce comes from the region, and without hands to care for and harvest the crops, all of Israel stands to be affected.  CityServe International, a nonprofit aid organization, is stepping in to help Ein HaBesor in an effort to ensure that more than half of Israel’s produce is not lost, and is inviting churches across America to join its efforts.  “Most people going to Israel that are of the Christian faith, they go there to take from Israel,” says Todd Lamphere, vice president of government relations at CityServe. “I don't mean that in a bad way. I just simply mean that they're there to look at the sites, to see where Jesus died, where He was buried, where He was baptized, to get baptized in the Jordan, to do all of those things.” “What we're saying is, let's continue to do those, but let's take three or four or five days, and let's go to the fields, and let's serve the nation of Israel by helping them harvest their crops,” he said.  Lamphere joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain how Americans can either join a trip to Israel to help harvest crops, or can be a part of partnering with the organization as it seeks to meet the needs of the Jewish people at this time.  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, December 20th. I'm Virginia Allen. We are slowly learning more about the events of October 7th in Israel and how communities across the nation were affected by Hamas's terrorist attack that day. The agricultural community of An Absor is not far from the border of Gaza. And on October 7th, they experienced a miracle. No one in their community was killed or taken hostage. And that's a story in and of itself. But the people who live there have been evacuated since it is a war zone. And so the crops that they grow in that agricultural community are being affected, which affects all of Israel.

The organization Cityserve is stepping up to help. And the vice president of government relations for CityServe, Todd Lamfear, he joins the show today to share both the amazing story of how An Absor defended itself on October 7th, but also how the American people can be a part of meeting the needs of that community, which is a community that through their agricultural work, serves all of Israel. So stay tuned for our conversation after this. Hi, this is Rob Louis, executive editor of The Daily Signal and co-host of this podcast. Each day we strive to bring you news you can trust. We see it as our mission to cut through the liberal media spin and provide honest, thorough, and responsible reporting on the most important issues of the day.

But we can't do it without your help. As we approach the end of the year, the Daily Signal is counting on donations from listeners like you. We are the nonprofit news outlet of the Heritage Foundation and rely on generous gifts from our supporters. Please help us by making a tax-deductible year-end gift. You can do so by visiting DailySignal.com slash donate. Your gift will ensure that we continue producing

cutting-edge journalism and investigative reporting. Again, that website isdailySignal.com slash donate. Thanks for listening. are grateful for your support. We are joined today by the Vice President of Government Relations at CityServe, Todd Lamfier. Thank you so much, Todd, for being with us today. It's an honor, Virginia. Thank you. Well, if you would, as we kick off, go ahead and talk a little bit about what you all do at CityServe and what your core mission is as you seek to empower the church to really be the church, to mobilize the church. Well, CityServe is a collaborative network of churches

whose primary goal, if I could put it in one word, is city serve exists to resource the local church so that they can become the heroes in their community. Wow, that's simple and powerful. But also, we know it takes a lot of work to achieve that mission and a lot of people. And so you all work in so many different capacities really all over our, are not only America, but the world. And one of those places you all are seeking to help. and to serve right now is in Israel.

City serve International is currently working to help in Israeli community that was targeted on October 7th when Hamas attacked Israel. Can you tell us about this, specifically, this agricultural community and what happened there on October 7th? Well, this community is a – it is an agricultural community. In fact, 60% of Israel's produce comes from this region. It's really, in biblical terms, it's the Valley of Eshkel. But Nabsur, which is the Moshev that called Nabsur, is actually a biblical town. And 1 Samuel 30, David and his 600 men defeat Zygdhaq. The Amkites come from behind, take all their wives, children, livestock.

And the 600 chase after the Amlokites, they stop at a place called the Valley of Boucher or modern-day Enabzur. and 200 of them said, you know, it can't go any farther. We're going to stage camp here. The rest of the 400 went, got all their livestock and their families back. And what NAMZOR has done is really lived up to its reputation from the Bible times. And they were attacked on the 7th of October, just like many of the kibbutzs around them were. but they're the only village not to sustain any casualties where Hamas attacked. In fact, they, with four handguns and one guy holding a rock, they thwarted the offensive attack of the Hamas terrorists and protected their Moshev protected their village.

I mean, that's just unbelievable. I was reading the story of how they did defeat. Hamas really to the point where, you know, the terrorists seem to walk away and say, well, it's not, it's not worth it to keep pressing forward, at least in this community. Talk a little bit when you have spoken to people from and absorbed this agricultural community that I believe is only about three miles from the border of Gaza. What have the people there told you about how they were able to fend off Hamas and what has been happening there since then? Well, Virginia, the protection of Enums who really is a series of miracles. So every Moshev or Kabuts or village is given five M16s by the Israeli Defense Force, the IDF. You can't own a rifle as a civilian in Israel.

And so they're grossly undergunned, as you would say. And on this particular day, a couple of things happened that were miracles. The Hamas had been coming across in the weeks prior and stealing their vehicles. So they were on heightened alert anywhere. Anyway, so where you would normally have maybe your volunteer civilian defense force, kibbutzs would have maybe 10 or 15, they had beefed up to about 70. Now, this is a moshaw that has 320 families, 1100 residents. 400 of those 1,100 residents are under the age of 12.

So it literally is a mocha of children. So they were on heightened alert anyways. the head of the volunteer defense force was at the music festival that Hamas attacked. He had left that music festival an hour early. And so they were prepped, primed, and ready to go. And the decision was made by Alon Gepner, one of the residents, to close the gates two minutes before the Hamas terrorists came. and started attacking an abjure.

So God was just protecting them all along the way. And this is one of the reasons why CityServe has picked an abjur. They've got that spirit of resiliency. They did defend. But because they didn't have any casualties and homes weren't burned and all the atrocities that happened in like Cabot's Neeraas, which is one mile away, or Cabot's Bari, which is another mile away, they get overlooked because they successfully protected their village.

So we thought, let's go ahead and let's invest in this community right here. And I've met with them. I flew in. I've been boots on the ground. I've seen the horrors and the kibbutz's next to end of Zohr. I've flown to a lot, which is where 90% of the village is staying, about three hours away in hotels. And they are a resilient people.

They know that they were protected by God. And they also understand their responsibility to help these other kaputzes rebirth and rebuild. So even though the people of Nabsor, excuse me, even though the people of Nabsor, their homes were not necessarily destroyed and praise God they survived, they still are not able because of the close proximity to Gaza, they are still not able to return to their community, correct? That is correct. No one in that region is living there in the southern part of Israel.

In fact, even more so now that the IDF has really pinpointed the southern tip of Gaza as their next strategy for eradicating the Hamas terrorists. Okay. And because you mentioned earlier that they grow 60% of Israel's agriculture, What does that mean for their greenhouses left there? Who's attending to those greenhouses? And I'm sure those crops that – excuse me, those crops that the Israeli people count on every year. So the field workers are – we're primarily Thai workers.

The Taiwanese government sent 6,000 of the field workers back home in to get them out of the region. So literally, they have no foreign field workers anymore. In addition to that, 300,000 have been called up to fight in this fight against Hamas. So literally, there's no one there to harvest the crops. And if people don't come in, don't help, don't assist. and, you know, these crops are going to die on the ground. The new crops aren't going to be planted as well. So you have the potential of food insecurity in the very near future in Israel.

So that's where, of course, where CityServe comes in, and I know you all are trying to be part of that solution to prevent that food insecurity. What does that look like? Talk about what you all are doing. And I know that you have made the decision. made the decision to bring a group of folks from and absorb over to the United States to talk to Americans about the issue and to share their own story. You know, we just finished up a small U.S. tour in Nashville, throughout Florida, Dallas, Phoenix,

on many of the television shows, The Huckabee Show, Daystar, TBN. And really just to tell the story. And the response has been extraordinary with people just wanting to come alongside them, help them. There are a few things that we are doing. And whenever you have a war, like we've been in Ukraine since the war started, you know, there's phases to what you do. And you have the immediate phase. And that is just to get them what they need in this town of a lot where they're staying.

So we've purchased washing machines for. them to just wash your clothes in the hotel to buying cabinets and things like that so they could start schooling and just try to get the kids back to some sense of normality even though they're three hours away. But the second thing that we wanted to do is if we want to say, listen, let's rethink how we send people to Israel. Most people going to Israel that are of the Christian faith, they go there to take from Israel. I don't mean that in a bad way. I just simply mean that they're there to look at the sites to see where Jesus died, where he was buried, where he was baptized, get baptized in the Jordan, to do all of those things. What we're saying is, let's continue to do

those, but let's take three or four, five days, and let's go to the fields, and let's serve the nation of Israel by helping them harvest their crops. And so that's our next phase going into it. There are things that we're going to be doing within Absur, you know, like replacing all of the doors in their safe rooms. You know, what we found out, and unfortunately, the majority of people that were killed on that day were killed while they were in their safe room. And the safe rooms were built for bombs, but not bullets. They weren't bulletproof, and they didn't have locks on them. And so just even the practical thing of let's come in and let's change those doors so that they are bulletproof and that they do have locks. And then from there to help their security,

that would be the last phase that we're really, you know, looking to do is to beef up their security. That's critical. When it comes to being the hands that are actually harvesting the crops, Are you all taking teams of Americans over to be a part of that in the near future? And for folks who would think, well, I would love to go do that, but also what are the safety concerns given proximity to Gaza? Yeah. Safety obviously is a concern. And right now seems this is where the IDF's military campaign is really focused right now. But there are also, there are farms that are a bit farther away that are out of that, that, that war zone in on the Gaza border, farms that are closer to Tel Aviv, for instance.

Obviously, any time you're in Israel, you know, you're going to be subjects to rockets coming over in bombs and things like that. but for the most part, once you get away from that Southern Strip, it's safe. And so we keep that as number one, safety first. But second is this is a great opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. You know, the reality is, and abseur, many of them had never met an evangelical Christian before. And the first time that they meet an evangelical Christian, myself and in a few others, it's like you're actually coming here to help us, to be part of us. Hopefully it just brings a positive reflection on the God that we serve.

Yeah. When you talk to the people of Enabzor and hear their stories, what are they telling you about how they're doing in the wake of October 7th? And what is the message that you think they really want the American people to hear? They're hurting, Virginia, in a big way. There literally isn't anyone in Absur who does not know multiple people who are either kidnapped or killed. You just two of the girls that we brought with their dad, Dr. Gepner and his two daughters, Ruth and Ella, they had 60 funerals of their friends, their teachers, or their coaches.

I mean, they're going to be impacted. The mental health crisis that is going to need to be addressed is beyond really our comprehension to really wrap our brains around it. But there are strong people, and they just want to help. Now, I will say this. What they want from America is to know that America stands by them. They are in solidarity in Israel when it comes to defeating Hamas and in doing whatever it takes so that this never happens again. Unlike Americans, they know their history. Now, it's just since 1948. They understand, you know, what they've been. been through and they understand what steps need to be taken so that this doesn't happen again.

And they have great resolve right now as a country to do whatever it needs to take. And the message they would love for Americans to know is, don't forget us. Yeah. Stand by us. Let us do what we need to do. So then as city serve partners within Absor, how can. We, everyone listening, myself included, how can we partner with city serve? What are the ways, whether it be financially or actually taking an opportunity if time allows to be able to go and be a part of the hands and feet on the ground who are, for example, helping to harvest crops?

Yeah, I think there are three things, Virginia. The first is prey. you know that we we we tend to say that and it sounds so trite but prayer really is the greatest asset the greatest weapon the greatest tool that we have as believers the first is to pray the second is to give there is we also i should have mentioned this before but we also are are helping a city serve is giving a the families of and absorb a stipend a month of a month or a month of stipend to help them because they're not working. And so bills still need to be paid. And although what we give them doesn't, won't cover all of their needs, what it does say probably is more emotional than

it is financial that where there, there are Christian believers in the United States who are financially helping them. And these people don't want to hand out. They are proud people. They don't want handout that they can use a hand up. And so that's what we're doing. So the first is to pray. The second is to give and the third is to go. If the time is right for someone to go, contact us at city serve. And you can go to city serve.us. You can hit the Israel tab there and you can join the efforts that we have with city serve Israel. We have city serve Israel. like we have city serve Europe with Ukraine and cities of Costa Rica and others. And 100% of what they give goes to the effort in Israel.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Todd Lamfear of Cityserve. Again, that website, if you want to learn more, is cityserve.us. But, sir, we really appreciate your time today. And we appreciate everything that you and all the folks at Citiserve are doing to help Israel and to be the hands and feet of Christ there. Thank you so much, Virginia.

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