Donald Trump’s Convention Speech Highlighted The Truth About America’s Decline - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Donald Trump’s Convention Speech Highlighted The Truth About America’s Decline Posted: 21 Jul 2016 Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG America is in decline.  There are some that still attempt to deny this, but the reason why Donald Trump’s campaign slogan has so strongly resonated with the American people is because deep inside most of us realize that America is not as great as it used to be.  Our economy is a mess, we are 19 trillion dollars in debt, our infrastructure is crumbling, crime is on the rise, moral decay is all around us, other countries don’t respect us as much anymore, and our nation is the most divided that it has been in decades.  Anyone that believes that America is better than it has ever been in 2016 is either completely delusional or simply has not been paying attention. As I write this article, the prepared text of Trump’s speech has already been released to the press.  So the following remarks may differ slightly from how he actually delivered them, but the differences are not likely to be too great.  At one point during his speech, Trump highlighted the rising crime and violence in our cities, and the numbers that he had to share were more than just a little bit alarming… Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this Administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement. Homicides last year increased by 17% in America’s fifty largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation’s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60% in nearby Baltimore. In the President’s hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And more than 3,600 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office. The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared to this point last year. Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens. And it is really hard to argue with Trump about this.  We have all seen what just happened in Orlando, in Dallas and in Baton Rouge.  As I have said so many times before, a spirit of violence and civil unrest is rising in America. Donald Trump thinks that he can fix this.  Unfortunately, I don’t think that any politician will be able to do that at this point. Our long-term economic decline is another puzzle that our national leaders have been unable to solve.  Gallup’s U.S. economic confidence index just hit the lowest level so far this year, and poverty levels continue to rise all over the country.  The following is another excerpt from the text of Trump’s speech… Nearly 4-in-10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58% of African-American youth are not employed. Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President took his oath of office less than eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely. Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000. Our manufacturing trade deficit has reached an all-time high – nearly $800 billion in a single year. The budget is no better. President Obama has doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing. Yet, what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in Third World condition, and forty-three million Americans are on food stamps. Even during Obama’s so-called “economic recovery”, the middle class has continued to shrink.  Right now, 62 percent of all Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, and millions upon millions of ordinary families find themselves desperately clawing and scratching as they try to survive from month to month. One very frustrated mother recently shared her feelings about her family’s ongoing financial struggles on scarymommy.com… I’m tired of my stomach flipping inside when my son mentions he’d like to take a computer class after school. Or when my other son wants to enroll in swim lessons, take an art class, or buy a new bicycle. I’m tired of wondering where on earth we’ll come up with the cash for our children to pursue their interests. I’m tired of never, ever going on vacations that don’t involve someone flying us out to see them or crashing at someone’s house for free. I’m tired of wondering how on earth we’ll be able to send our kids to college. I’m tired of renting, and the almost certain feeling I have that we’ll never be able to afford to buy a house. I’m tired of having to pretend I’m not worried about it all. I’m tired of my kids overhearing our worries, of knowing that money is a constant struggle for us. Before I wrap up this article, I want to share one more stunning example of America’s decline. Under Barack Obama, corruption and incompetence has spread throughout every part of our government.  Sadly, that even includes the Secret Service. Secret Service agents are supposed to be “the best of the best”, and they are charged with protecting our most important national leaders. But instead of doing their jobs with seriousness and professionalism, they have been acting like wild animals.  Documents that have just been made public reveal that the Secret Service has become an absolute disgrace in recent years… They highlight incidents in which agents had sexual encounters with underage girls, married agents took part in ‘wheels up, rings off’ parties, and a manager who sexually harassed female subordinates dubbed the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) the ‘Nice **** and *** Club.’ The documents contain a report about “a male agent who had his gun stolen by a male prostitute he solicited using his government computer in Puerto Rico“, and they also detail the behavior of one agency manager in particular that deserves to be immediately fired… The report says the manager kept alcohol in his office and forced employees to drink ‘so he could trust them.’ ‘He sexually harassed every female subordinate,’ the report says. The manager would ‘publicly’ male employees: ‘Where are my little whores/*******? Have you slept with them yet?’ If this is what is happening in the Secret Service, can you imagine what is going on in other federal agencies behind closed doors? America is a complete and total mess, and Donald Trump is completely correct when he talks about the need to make America great again. But is that even possible, and if so, what would that look like?

Who Is Russia in Bible Prophecy? - KELLY MCDONALD CHARISMA NEWS

Russian President Putin meets with U.S. Secretary of State Kerry in Moscow. (REUTERS/Vasily Maximov)

Who Is Russia in Bible Prophecy?

 7/21/2016 KELLY MCDONALD CHARISMA NEWS

Russia has been a major player in end-time world events starting with World War I. It was the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 that opened the way for Russia to become communist. This had a tremendous impact on World War II and directly caused the Cold War. Russia has spread communism all over the world, and the effects of its Cold War influence are still felt today.

They are one of the world's leading oil and gas producers. They are the largest nation in terms of land mass on planet earth. Due to the large expanse of their nation and the types of peoples it covers, they will be found in various places in the Bible.

The Assyrian Historian A.H. Sayce notes that the names of peoples called the "Tubla and Muska" were found in ancient inscriptions in Northern Iraq (A.H. Sayce, The Races of the Old Testament, 1893. pg. 48). Herodotus also mentions these peoples together as the Moschi and the Tiberani (Book 3:94). The geographer Strabo, writing in the early first century A.D., discusses the Moschi Mountains as extending from lower Armenia and into Albania (Strabo, Book XI, Chapter 2,12). Strabo did not do much research north of this area. These people groups eventually migrated north into the nation we call Russia.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

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Jews, Christians Collaborate to Keep the Holy Land 'Undivided' - SHALLE MCDONALD/JNS.ORG CHARISMA NEWS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during an official memorial ceremony. (Reuters)

Jews, Christians Collaborate to Keep the Holy Land 'Undivided'

 7/20/2016 SHALLE MCDONALD/JNS.ORG  CHARISMA NEWS

Amid the intrigue and speculation over the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, one item that the party has settled is its firm support for Israel and opposition to a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On Tuesday, the Republican Platform Committee unanimously approved a number of significant changes to its platform in an attempt to further set the party's pro-Israel credentials apart from the Democrats, who are facing concerns over their party's future support for the Jewish state. The GOP's platform changes included removing language encouraging a two-state solution as well as reinstating a reference to an "undivided" Israel that was previously included in the party's 2008 platform, but was removed in 2012.

"The U.S. seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, to be negotiated among those living in the region," the approved amendment said. "We oppose any measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms, and call for the immediate termination of all U.S. funding of any entity that attempts to do so."

Alan Clemmons, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and a Republican convention delegate, conveyed his disappointment over the 2012 GOP convention, when the platform committee chose not to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

"I was a delegate at the last RNC, but was not on the platform committee. I observed the platform committee process and proposed language similar to the language that was passed today (July 12). Unfortunately, that language gained no traction and it went nowhere on the platform, and as a matter of fact the platform regressed in terms of support for Israel," Clemmons told JNS.org.

The push to bolster the Republican Party's language on Israel follows a four-year effort by Clemmons and Joseph Sabag, the former executive director of the Israel Allies Foundation. Both leaders sought to reach out to the party's base—evangelical Christians—as well as to Jewish and other ethnic groups to reach a consensus on the GOP's pro-Israel stance. 

"Between Joseph and myself, we talked to pastors that represent literally millions of evangelical Americans," said Clemmons.

Although evangelical support was a significant factor in crafting the 2016 RNC platform, Clemmons said the party "didn't leave the Jewish population out of that mix."

"We met with many of prominent movers and shakers in the Jewish community throughout the United States, and Israel as well," he said.

According to Clemmons, two more recent alliances that made a significant impact on drafting and approving the platform's Israel language were with David Friedman and Jason Dov Greenblatt, senior Israel advisers for presumptive nominee Donald Trump's campaign.

"Those gentleman appreciated what we were doing. They appreciated the language that was being offered and presented it to Mr. Trump, who likewise was very interested in being of assistance in this process," Clemmons said.

Clemmons, in his platform committee speech prior to this week's vote, said that along with Trump's advisers and leading policy experts, he "was able to present platform language that captures the true sentiment of pro-Israel supporters everywhere."

The Trump campaign's Friedman told JNS.org that getting the pro-Israel language on Jerusalem reinstated "was a collaborative effort with a lot of people whose hearts were in the right place with respect to Israel. I think the outcome speaks for itself."

"It's the most pro-Israel platform that either party has ever issued, so we're obviously very proud of the accomplishment," he said.

The Trump campaign's involvement in reinstating the platform language may also signal a move by the candidate to bolster his pro-Israel credentials, amid questions over his past statements on remaining "neutral" about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and accusations of anti-Semitism stemming from his recent Twitter post featuring what critics called a Jewish Star of David.

Friedman said that Trump has been working very hard to "lay that issue to rest over the last couple of months."

"Mr. Trump himself has said, over and over again, that he is a highly pro-Israel candidate—not just in comparison to Hillary Clinton, where the differences are stark—but even in absolute terms, he's a very pro-Israel candidate," he said.

The GOP platform "should lay that issue to rest," said Friedman, who argued that the Trump campaign's work on the Israel language highlight the candidate's ability to work with leaders across different faiths and ethnicities to achieve a common goal.

"When people criticize [Trump] for being polarizing, I think just the opposite is true. This was an effort which unified people of different faiths, all united behind a desire to support Israel," Friedman said.

One of the groups that the Trump campaign worked with closely on the platform was the Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition (HILC), a group that seeks to engage Latino Christians in support of Israel. HILC is a subsidiary of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC).

Pastor Mario Bramnick, president of HILC, told JNS.org that Trump and his advisers "were very strong on the importance of this language [on Israel]. And through discussions, the language was finalized ... [and] ultimately approved by a unanimous vote."

"We are very encouraged by the resolve and support of Mr. Trump and his advisers on the issue," said Bramnick, who is also a regional vice president for the NHCLC. "We had worked with the platform committee leadership regard the reinserting of the language as a united Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the nation of Israel, and the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem should the Republican candidate win the presidency."

Clemmons, the South Carolina state lawmaker, affirmed the roles of Bramnick and HILC, calling them a "very big part" of the process to reinstate the platform language.

"[Bramnick] certainly has a large congregation and a prominent following, and a good feel for the respect that evangelical Christians have for Israel. He was certainly a partner in all of this. That's not unlike the other pastors around the country who were a part of it as well," Clemmons said.

The push for the revised platform language was also backed by Pastor John Hagee's Christians United for Israel (CUFI) non-profit through its separate 501(c)(4) lobbying affiliate, the CUFI Action Fund. 

In a letter (first reported by JNS.org) that was sent to Republican convention delegates on July 6, former Ronald Reagan administration official Gary Bauer, director of the CUFI Action Fund, called for the Republican platform to "strengthen its language in support for Israel with Jerusalem as Israel's 'undivided, eternal' capital."

Bramnick praised CUFI's role in the process, saying the group "worked very hard behind the scenes to make sure that a very strong supportive platform language came forth from the Republican Party, especially as it pertains to a united Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel."

For evangelical Christians, support for Israel is not only a political stance, but a theological one. As such, working to strengthen the Republican Party's ties with the Jewish state is a highly prioritized process for that faith community moving forward.

"There was a Pew [Research Center] report back in 2013 that said that 82 percent of the evangelical community believes that God has given the land of Israel to the Jewish people, and we read that literally," Bramnick said. "We believe that is a biblical covenant and mandate that really no person has the right to revoke. ... For the evangelical community, this is very important." 

For the original article, visit jns.org.

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Thousands of Jews Plan to Flee France After Nice Attack - RYAN GREISS CHARISMA NEWS

A French Jew prepares to board a plane from France to Israel for his aliyah. (Flickr)

Thousands of Jews Plan to Flee France After Nice Attack

7/18/2016 RYAN GREISS  CHARISMA NEWS

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship), the main organization helping Jews of France immigrate to Israel (make aliyah), has received thousands of recent inquiries from French Jews seeking to go to Israel and expects that number to climb following Thursday's terror attack in Nice.

The Fellowship in June brought 82 Jews from across France to Israel, and, additionally, is preparing to bring more than 150 to Israel this month, including several Nice families. French Jews in this seaside city were attending a Fellowship aliyah meeting Thursday evening one block from where a terrorist rammed a truck filled with munitions into a large crowd celebrating Bastille Day, in one of the country's worst terrorist attacks. An estimated 84 men, women and children were killed and many more were injured. According to media reports, two French-Jewish women, Clara Bensimon, 80, and her sister Raymonde Mamane, 77, were among five Jews wounded in the Nice attack. 

The Fellowship says it has received more than 5,100 calls and hundreds of emails from French Jews inquiring about aliyah in recent months, and now Fellowship officials expect that number to climb amid the attack in Nice, the latest to strike France over the past year.

"We mourn for the victims of this despicable attack and pray for a speedy recovery for those who were hurt," said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of The Fellowship. "Sadly, this horrific attack underscores the pressing need to help bring as many Jews who wish to leave France to their homeland in Israel, and this is what we will continue to do."

The French-Jewish aliyah is part of The Fellowship's global aliyah initiative to bring Jews facing economic and security threats to Israel. In recent months The Fellowship has helped over 2,000 Jews make aliyah, not only from France but also from other countries where Jews face economic and security challenges including Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Turkey and Ukraine. The Fellowship has also been funding security upgrades at French-Jewish communal institutions, including schools and synagogues, in the wake of terror attacks over the past year.

Several of the Jews leaving France with The Fellowship say they are escaping what has become an intolerable situation for the Jewish community. Some describe being afraid to wear yarmulkes outdoors or to display any other visible signs of being Jews, while others say they are growing increasingly concerned about radical Islamic anti-Semitism.

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Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog: Is Turkey’s Fethullah Gulen a moderate or an “archconservative” Muslim cleric...

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

Is Turkey’s Fethullah Gulen a moderate or an “archconservative” Muslim cleric who has said & written terrible things about Christians, Jews & America? (A column worth reading.) by joelcrosenberg Yesterday, I posted what will be the first of several articles about a Turkish man named Fethullah Gulen, the 75 year old Islamic cleric who Recep Erdogan says is the "mastermind" of the coup attempt. In that article, I noted that some -- like the editors of Time magazine -- say Gulen is a powerful voice of moderate Islam. Others say he is the leader of a cult. Today, I'm posting a column by Claire Berlinksi, a journalist who lived in Turkey for ten years. She reports that "many Turks...view [Gulen] as an archconservative imam with retrograde views about women, atheists, and apostates." She notes that Gulen has written horrible things about Christians, Jews and America, yet "has neither repudiated nor apologized for his former views." She doesn't conclude Gulen is definitively the mastermind behind the coup attempt Erdogan, but the fact that Erdogan is so determined to put Gulen and his followers and supporters in prison tells us something important about the power struggle going on inside Turkey. As I continue to study the dynamics inside Turkey, and try to get a clearer picture of both Erdogan and Gulen, and try to understand how to pray for the Turkish people -- and the church in Turkey -- I found this column helpful. I hope you do, as well. Who is Fethullah Gülen? By Claire Berlinski, July 20, 2016 Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claims that a Muslim cleric living in rural Pennsylvania was the mastermind of a bloody, failed coup attempt in Turkey last Friday. The attempt saw the unprecedented horror of the Turkish military turning its arms against their own people and mowing them down in the street. It almost succeeded in killing Erdoğan and decapitating the Turkish government. So who is Fethullah Gülen, why is he in the United States, and how credible is this charge? Born in 1941, Gülen hails from a village near Erzurum, the eastern frontier of what is now the Turkish Republic. The contemporary Gülen presents a tolerant image, but his early career was notable for markedly intolerant statements, sermons, and publications. In one sermon, allegedly dating from 1979, Gülen chastises his flock for failing to prevent infidels from controlling of all of the holy places of Islam: “Muslims should become bombs and explode, tear to pieces the heads of the infidels! Even if it’s America opposing them.” In another, he says: “Until this day missionaries and the Vatican have been behind all atrocities. The Vatican is the hole of the snake, the hole of the cobra. The Vatican is behind the bloodshed in Bosnia. The Vatican is behind the bloodshed in Kashmir. They have lobby groups in America and Germany.” In unrevised editions of books from his early career, such as Fasildan Fasila andAsrin Getirdigi Tereddutler, Gülen calls the Western world the “continuous enemy of Islam.” Of Christians, he writes: “After a while they perverted and obscured their own future.” Jews have a “genetic animosity towards any religion” and have used “their guile and skills to breed bad blood” to threaten Islam from the beginning of time, “uniting themselves with Sassanids, Romans and crusaders.” He avers that “the Church, the Synagogue and Paganism form the troika that has attacked Islam persistently.” “In any case,” he writes, “the Prophet considers Islam as one nation and the Kuffar as the other nation.” In the late 1990s, Gülen changed his mind — or his tactics — forging warm ties with the Vatican and other tablemates of the Interfaith Dialogue platform. Charged with attempting to infiltrate the Turkish state, he fled to the United States, ensconcing himself at the heart of what he once considered the Devil’s headquarters. Since then, he has presented himself as the great cultural reconciler. Many Turks, however, still view him as an archconservative imam with retrograde views about women, atheists, and apostates. He has neither repudiated nor apologized for his former views. The earlier books have been wordlessly revised. Gülen has somewhere between three and six million Gülen followers. The value of the institutions inspired by Gülen — which exist on every populated continent — has been estimated, variously, as ranging from $20 to $50 billion. His movement is, at least on the surface, warm toward America. This is unsurprising, given that he’s in exile in the U.S. and has considerable business interests there. Among other ventures, he is a big player in the American charter school movement. Initially, the AKP and the Gülen movement formed an alliance of convenience aimed at dislodging the old, Kemalist establishment in Turkey. But like any alliance of convenience, it reached its natural conclusion. Once the old guard was safely in prison or silenced for fear of arrest, Erdoğan and Gülen began to fight for ultimate control. What we’ve witnessed in the past few years has been a fight among the new, ostensibly pious ruling elites about how to divide the spoils of power. In recent years, the key power struggle in Turkey has not been between the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and the country’s secularists, but between Erdoğan and Gülen. The struggle hasn’t been about elections or democracy. Rather, it is a struggle for control of the Turkish state itself. For years, this split was denied and papered over, but it broke into the open when Gülenist prosecutors attempted to arrest Erdogan’s intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan. It exploded during the Gezi protests in 2013, when the movement issued an 11-article communiqué to dispute “accusations and charges” that it claimed came from AKP quarters. Another recent flashpoint was Erdogan’s decision to abolish the dershanes — something like private university grammer schools, and a major source for Gülen’s recruits. The movement correctly perceived this as an attempt to eradicate their influence. In 2013, Erdoğan, his associates, and his family were implicated in a massive corruption scandal. Erdoğan denied all charges, blamed them on a Gülenist conspiracy, and vowed revenge. Government officials accused Gülen and his followers of treason and began referring to them as “terrorists.” What of the movement’s role in America? In 2007, Gülen sued the U.S. government in District Court, challenging the denial of his petition for classification as an alien of extraordinary ability that would allow him to stay in the United States. District Judge Stewart Dalzell noted that Gülen’s work was “prominent on the syllabi of graduate and undergraduate courses at major American colleges and universities.” Based on Gulen’s “unchallenged statement that the visa he seeks ‘will allow [him] to continue to advocate and promote interfaith dialogue and harmony between members of different faiths and religions’” the court found “no basis for denying his application…” The application was approved. Since then, Gülen has been able to amass sufficient manpower and influence to beguile several Commanders-in-Chief, woo countless members of Congress, and become the largest operator of charter schools in America, funded with millions of taxpayer dollars, many of these issued in the form of public bonds. These schools have come under scrutiny by the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education, which have been investigating their hiring practices, particularly the replacement of certified American teachers with uncertified Turkish ones who are paid higher salaries than the Americans, using visas that are supposed to be reserved for highly-skilled workers who fill needs unmet by the U.S. workforce. The schools have been credibly and frequently charged with channeling school funds to other Gülen-inspired organizations, bribery, using the schools to generate political connections, unfair hiring and termination practices, and academic cheating. There is no evidence, however, that Islamic proselytizing takes place at them. Nor is there hard evidence, so far, that Gülen was the mastermind of the coup. It is, however, entirely plausible, and even probable, that he or his supporters played some role in it — although it may never be clear what this role was, precisely, or what they aimed to achieve. Claire Berlinski is a Paris-based journalist who spent ten years in Turkey. She is now writing a crowd-funded book about the transformations overtaking Europe. —————————– Order The First Hostage today — the new political thriller about ISIS plotting a terrorist attacks against Israel, Jordan and the United States — available in hardcover, e-book and audio formats. ———————-—- Subscribe (free) to the RSS feed (click here) and receive every new posting on this blog directly via email. Order THE THIRD TARGET today , the first in this new series — now out in paperback — the New York Times best-selling novel about ISIS capturing chemical weapons in Syria and plotting genocidal attacks on the U.S. and our Mideast allies. Make an investment in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net), our non-profit organization to help Christians care for Syrian refugees, educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, care for the poor and needy in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) with food and other humanitarian relief, care for Holocaust survivors, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. Read our latest Donor Report, and prayerfully consider making a tax deductible, secure, on-line contribution. Thanks so much! Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg

CUFI’s Hagee on Israel: “Will Christians Be on the Right Side of History?” [BIN EXCLUSIVE] By Abra Forman - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

CUFI’s Hagee on Israel: “Will Christians Be on the Right Side of History?” [BIN EXCLUSIVE]

By Abra Forman July 21, 2016  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“Pray for the peace of Yerushalayim; may they prosper that love thee.” (Psalm 122:6)

Pastor John Hagee (Photo: Wiki Commons)

On Monday, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), led by Pastor John Hagee, held its 11th annual Washington Summit in the nation’s capitol. The two-day event drew top speakers from the pro-Israel global community, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via satellite, and boasted an attendance of over 5,000 people.

In an exclusive email interview with Breaking Israel News on the occasion, Pastor Hagee, the founder and national Chairman of CUFI and one of the Christian community’s strongest voices for Israel, shared his hopes and beliefs for the future of the pro-Israel Christian movement and offered his strongest arguments in favor of supporting the Jewish state.

He began by explaining that the need to stand with Israel is more urgent today than ever before, pragmatically as well as spiritually. “Israel’s enemies are our enemies. Israel’s fight is our fight,” Pastor Hagee declared, pointing to the current global spread of Islamic terrorism as evidence of this truth.

Omar Mateen, the Muslim gunman who killed 49 in a gay bar in Orlando on June 12, 2016. (Facebook)

“If this wasn’t clear before, our shared enemies are making it crystal clear as they strike in Tel Aviv, Kiryat Arba, Brussels, Paris, Nice, San Bernardino and Orlando.”

Israel has long been at the forefront of the war against radical Islamic violence, he continued, making it a key ally in the war on terror.

“Radical Islam is more violent and aggressive than ever. This makes it more important than ever to support our front-line ally in the fight against radical Islam: Israel.”

Hagee admitted that the anti-Israel voices spreading through America are loud and strong. He attributed this to an appealing, oversimplified narrative which is easy to understand – unlike the actual situation in the Middle East.

“The biggest challenges [CUFI and Christian Zionists] face are the lies told by Israel’s detractors. Israel’s enemies advance simple, attractive myths. And the truth about Israel is often more difficult to convey than the myths,” he explained to Breaking Israel News.

“For example, the Jewish state’s enemies call Israel an apartheid state.  Anyone who’s spent even an hour in Israel understands how outrageous this lie is. But with this one short sentence Israel is demonized.

“Explaining the reality – Israel’s diversity, Israel’s tolerance, Israel’s equal rights – takes more than one sentence.”

BDS protesters in Washington DC, August 2, 2014. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com)

In an attempt to combat the anti-Israel narrative at its root, CUFI has become active on college campuses – often hotbeds of pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activity – where Hagee says its programs have enjoyed great success.

“If you value peace, equality and liberty, you should stand with Israel,” he said, describing why liberal students can and should identify with Israel. “One of the great assets Zionists have is that Israel exemplifies many of the ideals about which our young people are most passionate.

“Concerned with freedom of religion? Israel guards that freedom for every person regardless of their faith. Focused on freedom of the press? You’d be hard-pressed to find a country with a more vibrant and open media. Impressed by diversity? Israel is a celebration of ethnic and religious diversity. I could go on.”

While getting out the pro-Israel message is indeed fraught with challenges, the “vast majority” of America’s Christians stand with Israel, said Hagee, estimating that there are “tens of millions of Christian Zionists” in the US alone.

As for those Christians who support the BDS movement or other anti-Israel activities – a growing group which includes the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church USA – Hagee has a simple message.

“You are misguided,” he said. “Yes, our Christian values demand that we have compassion for those that suffer.  But if you blame Palestinian suffering on Israel then you’re ignorant about this conflict.”

Hagee suggested that anti-Israel sentiment is an offshoot of adherence to Replacement Theology, which holds that Christians have succeeded the Jews as God’s chosen people, essentially nullifying the Hebrew Bible.

In other words, Christians who do not support Israel are defying the Bible – and embracing anti-Semitism.

“If you believe that God has replaced the Jewish people as his chosen people then you’re ignorant about God’s word,” he said. “Those who advance Replacement Theology are advancing an anti-Semitic theology.

“And make no mistake,” he added. “Anti-Semitism is sin.”

He praised the interfaith nature of his organization’s work, which he said is very different from the “cold dialogues in which people agree to disagree” that have marked most interfaith efforts until now.

CUFI emphasizes the commonalities, not the differences, explained Hagee. “What is great about CUFI is that we bring Christians and Jews together to focus on those things we passionately share: love of Israel and the Jewish people.”

A Christians United for Israel (CUFI) solidarity march in Jerusalem in 2010. In center is CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee. (Photo: CUFI)

Hagee acknowledged the initial reluctance felt by many in the Jewish community towards working with Christians. “We know that for centuries Jews were persecuted by those who carried the cross, and we know that many in the Jewish community are thus understandably wary of Christians bearing gifts,” he said.

“But we’ve shown that CUFI is a non-proselytizing organization, and that we are focused exclusively on being a friend to the Jewish people and the Jewish state.”

In the end, there is no better reason to stand with Israel than the simple fact that “God is Israel’s ultimate protector,” Hagee told Breaking Israel News in closing. “As Christians we are blessed with the opportunity to stand with His Chosen People.”

The influential pastor ended on a somber note with a hint of warning.

“Israel will survive and thrive – the only question is whether or not Christians and Americans will be on the right side of history and God’s blessings.”

A Hispanic View Of America’s Future - Pastor Ramiro Pena on the Jim Bakker Show (Day 1)

A Hispanic View Of America’s Future

Watch here: Pastor Ramiro Pena on the Jim Bakker Show

Jim & Lori Bakker

Ramiro Peña

Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 3039 | Aired on July 21, 2016

Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios