In this sermon, the speaker addresses the misconceptions and sensationalism surrounding the United States and Israel. He compares the portrayal of America in the media to the reality of the country, emphasizing that there are problems but also positive aspects that are often overlooked. The speaker then delves into the biblical basis for Israel's ownership of the land, referencing verses from Genesis and Deuteronomy. He also touches on the fear that arose after September 11th but encourages the audience to overcome it and seek a broader understanding of the situation.

Tonight we have our friend Ronnie Cohen from Israel. Ronnie's part, or has been part for many years, of the Israeli military. And he's also a tour guide with the group, Sammy Smudge's group that we work with when we go on our tours to Israel. And he's just a great friend and he's got some good things to share with us tonight. So let's welcome Ronnie Cohen. Let me start. Okay, am I on? Wait a second. Mayday, mayday, alright. Do I need this as well? No, okay. Wow, I'm not really used to speaking in front of people. That's basically what I do. Like Pastor Brian mentioned, I'm a tour guide in Israel. I'm not in the military anymore, but I'm an American. I grew up in the holy land in New York City. And then I made that odyssey to the Catskills? No, to Israel. And I've been living there now for about 28 years. At first I thought I was just a victim of circumstance because certain things and events which happened in my life led me to the Lord, led me to Israel. And trust me, I'm the last person in the world that anyone would have thought of ever stepping foot in Israel, picking up the book and becoming a believer. So I believe I have the best of two worlds. Not just a Jew, but also a believer in Christ. But it was a hard road to get there. Obviously everyone has their own story. I'm not going to start giving you my testimony, but I'm a Vietnam veteran. And when I was discharged at the ripe old age of 19 and a half, I traveled a bit until I finally came to Israel. I believe at the time that I landed there by coincidence because I had no place to go, and I got stuck in a snowstorm in Istanbul. I volunteered my services on a kibbutz, and the rest is history. I remained in Israel. That was in February of 1974. I served two years in the regular army. I did 22 years in the reserves. Nothing any special. I just fought in two wars and 11 military engagements. Was it 12? I can't remember. But I don't do the reserve duty anymore because for some particular reason every year that I continue doing reserve duty, the tank kept getting higher and higher whenever I jumped off. They keep changing the tanks. So they decided to let me out of my military service. But I've been blessed in the sense that I started to do something which I never thought I'd ever do in my life. I don't like to call it guiding. It's almost like a ministry like teaching. There's one particular book that became a real important part of my life. That's this. This is a guidebook, by the way. It's a guidebook. It really is. Those of you who have never been to Israel before, there must be a few of you here. I'm not here to promote a tour to Israel, okay? No, serious. That's not why I'm here. You're all going to go at one point or another. It's just a matter of time when you get there. But you're all going to be there at one time. So actually the reason why I'm here, because I want to talk a little bit about current events. We went through a very horrendous time the last couple of months. The United States has finally tasted the wrath of terrorism, which is a terrible thing to taste. Maybe it will give you a little bit of an idea of what many of us go through nearly, not daily, but it's become almost part of our lives. If you think about it, the last time anything a foreigner ever did on American soil was way back in 1812, right? The War of 1812, the British burnt down Washington. That's the last time on American soil anybody ever did anything. I'm not talking about Hawaii, because that was just not mainland, but I'm talking on mainland. Something happened to the American people after September 11th. At first, when I heard about what happened when I was in Israel, obviously to me it was quite shocking. I didn't think that anything like that would ever happen in the United States. And if you think about the numbers, more people died in that hour than of all the terrorism that ever happened in the world up until then. Just in one stroke, many lives were just changed forever. And I'm not talking about the 3,000 lives that were lost. I'm talking about millions of people who suffered because of what happened on September 11th, whether it be a relative or a friend. People will never be the same again. But one thing I should tell you, what I've learned through the years by witnessing terrorism up front, is that it's not the act of terrorism which is important to the terrorist. It's the aftermath. Terrorism is terror. It's fear. And I was a little bit annoyed, actually, for the first month or so, watching the media and everything that was going on in the United States. First of all, you have certain media organizations like CNN. I'm not going to get into that right now. Obviously, they have to tell you the news. They can sort of warp it around a little bit and tell you half-truths and everything. But I think the main reason why I'm here today is because I want to give you a better, broader picture of what's really going on. The American people were intimidated as a result of September 11th. But what's good is that after a few months, all of you came back. At first, people were afraid. People were fearful. And obviously, I believe the word fear is just a substitute or, let's just say, you're missing something when you're afraid. What's that word that you're looking for? Faith. When you have faith, you don't have fear. Now, some people have come up to me and said to me, whoa, you're a Vietnam veteran, you're a decorator, and you served in the Israeli army and all that. You must be brave. You must be fearless. No, fearlessness is stupidity. Correct? I mean, anybody who rushes a machine gun, that's got to be out of his mind. That's not bravery. He's nuts. I'll tell you what bravery is, though. Bravery is faith, or bravery is going on and coping with fear and in the face of fear. That's bravery. All right? Being willing to go on in the face of fear is bravery. And that's exactly what happened to the American people. You guys bounced back. You guys bounced back. But Israel, in the first couple of months, although we really had nothing to do with all of this, obviously everything focuses down to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Correct? And for some reason, the Israeli government, or at least the people, that's what I hear in the streets, we felt that our backs were against the wall and everybody started to abandon us. Believe it or not, on paper, tourism looked really good before September 11th. Then all of a sudden, everything stopped. I think it wasn't the fear of coming to Israel. I think it was the fear of leaving your homes and getting on a plane. That's what happened. So at first, Israel felt a little bit aghast, thinking, Wow, you know, I remember all those years when those flocks of Christians just came here and you couldn't even find a parking spot for a bus at any of the sites in Israel. Now all of a sudden, it's a ghost town. What happened? What did we do? Who's the blame for all of this? Well, I truly believe that all this is coming back. And I believe that this book is going to give us the answers. Because this book here doesn't just tell us about what happened then, but it's also telling us what's happening in the present and what's going to happen in the future. I truly believe this. The big argument right now is, whose land is this? How come you guys are fighting over just a small little strip of land? Who does it really belong to? Who's got the deed to it? Well, I say, not unless somebody who's a Canaanite comes up and says, It's my land, I think it's ours. Are you clapping for the Canaanites or for me? You know, and you have certain organizations like the United Nations and other world organizations would say, Well, you know, we need to negotiate. And I say, Well, you know, there's not really a lot of negotiation. Because we've got a land deed. Okay, what exactly is your land deed? Once again. So I'll prove that. Well, if I was ever invited to the United Nations, this is what I would say. Okay, if you want to follow with me, you can. I need my glasses. I really don't need it, but it makes it look cool. All right. You know what? Whose land is this anyway, to tell you the truth? You know what? If you open up the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 12. Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. Well, then the United Nations will probably say to me, well, that doesn't really mean anything, does that? It's just, okay, how about this? All right, you can still continue with me right now in the book of Genesis. I'm now in chapter 15. Okay, let's say verse 17, around there. To your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. Well, that's very general, they say to me at the United Nations. Can it be more precise? Okay. Let's just hang out in Genesis for a while. We'll go to chapter 13, verse 14. Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. Can't argue that, can you? Well, there's still somebody in the Security Council that does. By the way, the Syrians were voted into the Security Council this year. So my last verse I would say to them, and this is my clincher. I am now in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32. Verse 49. Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho. View the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession. Signed, sealed, and delivered. This is my deed to the land of Israel right here. Okay, but how did this all start? Well, let's go back and do a little bit of a history lesson. Is that okay with you guys? A little history? All right. The Jewish people have been in the land of Israel for quite a long time. Let's go back to the time of Abraham. We're talking nearly 4,000 years. 3,000 years ago, Jerusalem becomes the undivided capital of the kingdom. Under King David, correct? For 1,000 years, it reigns as the capital of the Jewish people. Until finally the Romans show up, 2,000 years ago, August 12th. I think it was a Wednesday. They destroy the temple. They destroy Jerusalem. And that is the end of Jewish rule in the Holy Land for 1,900 years. For the next 1,900 years, although there's always a Jewish population there, we are ruled and overseen by foreigners. We're just tolerated in our own homeland for 1,900 years. Now, it doesn't mean that the Romans killed everybody that was there or that they carted off everybody into the Diaspora and dispersed us amongst the nations. We've always been there. At certain periods of time, we're also the majority of the people, but we're now ruled by foreigners for 1,900 years. Most of the Jewish population that remained in the land of Israel were there basically for spiritual or for religious reasons, not really nationalistic until the end of the 19th century. Sometime around 1880, 1885, Theodor Herzl has a vision. He is the founder of what's now called modern Zionism. Now, again, there's another organization in the world that calls Zionism or sort of compares it to Nazism or fascism. That's the United Nations, by the way. What is Zionism? It means coming back to Zion to rebuild Zion. So now we had a movement of Zionists. These were pioneers from Europe or Russia who came back to the Holy Land to rebuild it, to rejuvenate it, to clear the swamps, to turn the deserts into the Garden of Eden, which they did. That's modern Zionism. I want to read something else to you. I've been doing my homework. Okay, you guys can follow me right now again. Turn to the book of Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 11. It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who are left. Now I'm going to skip a little bit. He will set up a banner for the nations, and it will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Coming back to Zion to rebuild the land, very important. So the Jews are now returning. It's the turn of the century. We have pioneers rebuilding the land. Now the First World War breaks out. The British arrive. They steer up nationalism amongst the Arab tribes. You guys understand something, that in the Middle East up until then, there were no Arab countries. It was just one big Arab bloc with certain chieftains or sheiks in different areas. You've seen the movie with Lawrence of Arabia, right? They start to steer up nationalism amongst the Arab tribes. Help us fight the Turks or the Germans, and we'll give you the Middle East. Well, the First World War is over, and the British and the French say, Nah, they split up the Middle East amongst themselves. And that is a time where they start to put boundaries around certain areas which are dispersed now in the Middle East. Now I just want to show you a little map over here, if you don't mind. Could this be dimmed down a little bit here? Is it possible? More, more, more, more, more. Okay, can everybody see this map? Can you guys see it back there? No. No. Trust me, there's a map here. Okay, can you guys sort of see it? Yeah? How is it? It's getting better, right? All right, look here. This is the map of Israel as it is right now. Can you see something over there? It's that small. Really. Okay, here's the map of Israel showing you the borders of what the land is right now. We're bordered on the west by the Mediterranean, minus south by Egypt, our longest border over here to the east, Jordan, our friendly neighbors to the north, Syria, and Lebanon. This is the land of Israel right now. It's quite small. It's less than 11,000 square miles, about the size of New Jersey. Just to give you an idea of the comparison, take a look at this. Where's Israel? There we go. Look here. If you can see that, here's California. 160,000 square miles. Here's Israel. Less than 11,000. That's the size in comparison. Wait, it gets better. So here we are in the Middle East. By the way, if you listen to CNN very, very closely, it gives the impression of Jewish history beginning like this. There was a Holocaust. The dispersed Jews had no place to go after the concentration camps. They all got on boats and they took over the Arabs' land in Palestine. Correct? That's what it makes it sound like. But if you think about it, it was the Jewish population that was in the Middle East before the Arabs arrived. Correct? Well, take a look at the Middle East as it is today. Can you see this? Look here. All of this over here is the Arab world. There's Israel. Today, Israel has a population of about 6 million, which about, I'd say, 4.9 million are Jews, and this also counts the Israeli taxi drivers in L.A. Now, remember, I was at the First World War with you guys, right? First World War. The British defeat the Turks. They split up the Middle East amongst themselves and the French. At this time, still, there were no Arab countries. Now, the area known as Palestine never had any boundaries on it. It was never a country with a government. It was always ruled by somebody. Does anybody have any idea where the name Palestine comes from? In the year 135 A.D., Hadrian, who is now emperor of Rome, has a second war against Israel. Okay, they demolished the city once again. They tear down the walls. They turn the city into a pagan city, changing its name, Aelia Capitolina. And to erase all existence of Jewish fact to the land, they changed the name of Judea to Palestina, taking the name of an ancient seagoing people who used to live along the coast, who were called the Philistines. So that's where the name Palestine comes from. All right, so here we go. Everything is nice and order. You know how the British put things in order and everything? This is the boundaries now which they put around the area which they call Palestine. Looks kind of awkward, doesn't it? You notice there's this big corridor going now towards the east? Makes sense because now the British find another source of fuel in the Middle East, especially in the area of Iraq, which is called? Oil, olive oil, right. Anyway, the oil fields are over here in British mandate Iraq, and this corridor was an area where the oil pipeline would go all the way to the port city of Haifa. The French, of course, got this whole area up here in the north, which is known as Lebanon, Syria, and this area now is called Palestine. By the way, 1917, the Balfour Declaration in England states that Palestine is the Jewish homeland, and as far as they're concerned, Palestine was both sides of the Jordan River, as you can see right over here. But what happened was in the 1920s, the Arab population didn't like the idea of this influx of Jews now coming back to Israel. Riots break out, and being that the British did not want to step on the toes of the Arab population because they had all the oil, they declared that no Jews were allowed to build any settlements or live on the eastern shores of the Jordan River. So therefore, they split now Palestine. Jews can only live over here, but Arabs can live on both sides. If by any chance you're ever blessed by having Bibi Netanyahu come here, he belongs to the revisionist party. As far as he's concerned, when he takes a look at this map, he calls everything over here the occupied east bank. Because as far as he's concerned, he goes by the Balfour Declaration, meaning that Palestine is the Jewish homeland, both banks of the Jordan River. But then, once again, we see that the whole area known as Palestine is still in British hands. Is it getting complicated? Alright, it's going to get worse in a minute. Up until then, you know that the Jewish societies always had their own governments. You know, the Jews always took care of themselves. Doesn't make a difference who ruled them. They always had their own sort of community, and they took care of their own, I don't know, social needs, if you would. Those of you who have been to Israel before, you notice all those brand new forests that are now standing everywhere, all those millions of trees that have been planted. All those trees were not planted since the beginning of the birth of the State of Israel. They were planted even beforehand. And if you ever go to like a real kosher delicatessen or a bakery, sometimes you may have noticed that right next to the cash register was this little blue tin box, and on it it said JNF. JNF literally means the Jewish National Fund. All that loose change and all those pennies that you may have put inside that tin box were used for planting trees in the Land of Israel. Okay, 1947 comes about. It's after the Second World War. The British government is totally devastated economically. Why? Because they're on the brunt of the fighting, correct? The Second World War, the British were involved for six years. The Americans were really only involved for three and a half. We went into the war at the end of 1941, and the war was already finished by the beginning of the summer of 1945. But economically, the British government was falling apart. They say that the sun never sets in the British Empire. It's setting all over the place. India is now becoming independent. Pakistan is independent. All the West Indies and African colonies are becoming independent. And now they find themselves in a quagmire in Palestine between the Arabs and the Jews. They want to try and sort of bail out gracefully. November 29, 1947, the newly formed United Nations declares a partition plan, which means that all land in Palestine which has a very large Jewish population will now be a Jewish state, and all land which has a very heavy Arab population will be an Arab state. It doesn't name borders, and it doesn't name countries. It doesn't say Israel or Palestine. It says an Arab state and a Jewish state. Right away, all the Arab nations which now became independent are totally against all of this. The British now have a grace period from November 47 to May 48. They're gradually leaving. The day that they leave, on May 15, 1948, the Jews declare independence. That afternoon, they're attacked by seven Arab nations. Now, the Israeli army was not even an army. It was sort of a conglomerate, if you would, of different underground organizations like the Haganah and the Palmach. They now become under one name, the IDF, Israeli Defense Forces. And in seven months of fighting, they managed to defeat seven Arab nations. Are they good fighters? Are they good shots? Was it lucky? I think it's the grace of God. In any event, in 1949, this is now the armistice lines in the land of Israel. Everything that's yellow over here is Israeli territory. Everything that's over here is now Arab territory. As you can see, Lebanon becomes independent. Syria becomes independent. Transjordan now becomes Jordan. Now, what about this area over here, this bulge, which everyone's talking about today, called West Bank, okay? Samaria and Judea. This should have been part of the Arab entity, correct? Well, it was. Jordan annexed everything on the West Bank. It became Jordan. Shouldn't it have become Palestine at the time? So how come the PLO was not formed against the Jordanians? Why against the Israelis? We weren't occupying their land. The Jordanians were. But it's okay. It's within the Arab fold, so let's not make a big stink about it. Two countries in the world recognize the annexation of the West Bank to Jordan. Not even the United Nations and not even Arab countries. Two nations in the world recognize the annexation of the West Bank to Jordan. Great Britain and Pakistan. That's it. By the way, in 1965, the PLO was formed. Why is it formed and why is it centered towards the Israelis if we're not occupying their land? The Gaza Strip is now swallowed up by the Egyptians. Over here, you can see in the north, the Syrians have control of the whole northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Those of you who have been to the Sea of Galilee before and have been on one of those wooden boats sailing across, you couldn't do that pre-'67. Why? You'd be target practice for the Syrians before their first cup of coffee. Okay, so this was the map of Israel for 19 years. Jerusalem, look at that. You had to drive through a corridor to get to Jerusalem, surrounded on two sides by Jordanian territory. And once you got to the city itself, it was divided. The Jews were expelled from the walls of the ancient city, never to set foot in it again. All the holy sites were not accessible to the Jewish population. It was a city divided. Barbed wire and mines divided the city for 19 years. And this was the situation. Look at the width of Israel right over here by the coast. Nine miles wide. That's it. And that's how the people lived for 19 years. Well, now we come into Scripture, how things are going to change a little bit. In late May of 1967, the Arabs decide, you know what, we've had enough of these Jews. Let's finally throw them into the sea. They start to mass their troops. The Egyptians move into the Sinai, which now has a buffer zone of U.N. troops. They tell them to leave, so they leave. King Hussein now places all his artillery on top of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. And the Egyptians now mine and block the Straits of Tehran, which is the access for the Jews from the Red Sea to go to the Far East. It's eminent that war is going to happen at any time. Israel has a population of 3 million back in 1967. In numbers, there's no way possible they can defeat nine Arab nations. Impossible. So on June 5th, 1967, the Israelis take it upon themselves to make a preemptive attack. They fly into Egypt. They destroy 75% of the Egyptian Air Force on the ground. By this time, Abdel Nasser, the President of Egypt, sends a message to the young King Hussein, Praise be to Allah. We just destroyed 80% of the Israeli Air Force in the air. And our tanks are on their way through Beersheba. They'll be in Jerusalem tomorrow morning. King Hussein takes the bait and commits himself. He sends in his Air Force to northern Tel Aviv and Netanya. They bomb the cities. All his artillery opens up all over western Jerusalem. The Israelis do not retaliate for 12 hours. They send a message to King Hussein, We have nothing against you. Stop firing at us. But he had already committed himself. On the Golan Heights, all the Israeli kibbutzes down by the Sea of Galilee under gunfire. The war had begun. How many days was the six-day war? Well, let me show you a map of Israel on the seventh day. That's my apartment right over there. Okay. So, as you can see, what happened was, the Israelis pushed the Jordanian forces across the Jordan River. They pushed the Syrians right off the cliffs of the Golan Heights, 15 miles eastward. And they chased the Egyptians across the Suez Canal. This is what Israel looked like on the seventh day of the six-day war. They must have been good shots. They must have had a tough army. Or maybe it was the grace of God. Who knows? Okay. But, you know what? The Israeli government approaches the Arabs and they say to them, Listen. We didn't fight a war to take land. We fought a defensive war. Let's try and have peace. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll exchange land for peace. Whoa, deja vu. Right? We'll exchange land for peace. But the Arabs way back then in 67 and 68 said, Listen. We're never going to talk to the Israeli or the Zionist entity ever. And that's it. Settlements now spring up in the areas of Samaria and Judea. If you think about it, Tel Aviv and Haifa are not mentioned in biblical texts. Okay. They're not biblical cities. But the Bible belt of Israel is Samaria and Judea. People go there and start to build settlements, not as an embarrassment to the world, because they want to restate and rename all their cities next to all the ancient sites. Today there's a modern site next to the ancient site of Shiloh, Beit El, Shechem, all these places which are mentioned in scripture. It was a devastating defeat for the Arab forces. For six years they had to live with this total defeat. It was terrible. They lost a lot of face in all of this. So now they coordinate once again. They get together all the Arab armies, and they practice daily for six years for one major assault against Israel to get back the land and to finally push them back into the sea like they tried to do back in 1948 and 56 and 67. Okay. The Israeli Secret Service. You ever hear of them? The Mossad? Okay. The Israeli Secret Service way back in 1973 in early October, not just know the day of this Arab invasion, they know what time it's going to begin. But the prime minister at the time, Golda Meir, does not want to make the same mistake as the Israelis did back in 67. Because we threw the first punch in 67, the whole world blamed us for the war. She said, you know what? Let the Arabs throw the first punch. We'll annihilate them and whip them like we did back in 67. It's good for public relations because this way the world will know that we didn't start the war, they did, and we took care of business. This was the biggest mistake that she ever made in her life, and she took this to the grave with her. I'm sorry to say. Because by not alerting all of the armed forces on the Day of Atonement, on the day when all of the Israelis were in the synagogues on Yom Kippur, all of the Arab armies attacked Israel. And by not putting everybody on full alert, the Israelis lost in the first 48 hours of fighting 900 killed. That is the cream of Israeli youth was lost in two days. The Libyans, the Sudanese, and the Egyptians make an assault now across the Suez Canal with 150,000 troops. They're willing to lose 50,000 in the crossing. Little did they know that the only thing stopping them in the whole Sinai Peninsula is 12 outposts manned by reservists up here on the Golan Heights. 120 Israeli tanks are on top of the Golan Heights. All of a sudden the Judean, Saudi, Iraqi, Syrian, all these four armies attack now across the Golan Heights with 2,000 armored cars and tanks and 2,000 artillery pieces firing simultaneously. The only thing to stop them is 145 Israeli tanks. They moved up units over here. One part has 120, one part has 30. Within 48 hours the Syrian tanks are in view of the Sea of Galilee. That's how quickly they moved. Six tanks are left on the Golan Heights in 48 hours of fighting. Six. Now again, those of you that have been to Israel before, see I'm not promoting a tour, those of you who have been to Israel before, if you've been on top of the Golan Heights, perhaps myself or other guides who are on your buses would have pointed out on a spot on the Golan called the Valley of Tears because that's exactly what happened there. Six lone Israeli tanks with skeleton crews, hardly any ammo, no gas, take up positions on a hillside and they watched the whole Iraqi army coming across the valley. 150 tanks with banners on the turrets and loudspeakers playing marching music like they're going on parade. Iraqis, go figure. Okay. So, the Israeli tanks knock off the first tank, they knock off the last tank, creating a bottleneck. The Iraqis can't turn around. Within an hour and a half they knock out 77 tanks. You heard the story of Tzvika? Can you mention that name, Tzvika? This guy was a reserve officer who was on vacation in Kathmandu when the war broke out. He flies all the way back to Israel, gets into a tank, all his units wiped out except for his tank. He's the only tank that's stopping the Syrian army from going down to the Sea of Galilee. He goes on one hill, shoots at a Syrian tank, changes the radio frequency, goes down the hill, comes up another hill, changes the frequency on the radio, shoots at another tank. The Syrians think they're surrounded, they head for the hills. Now I got a better story for you right over here. The Egyptian forces are now moving across the Sinai. Who's the Prime Minister of Israel today? Ariel Sharon. Well, Ariel Sharon was known for his toughness as being a paratrooper. But during the Yom Kippur War, he was a reserve general in the armor unit. He's on the Suez Canal. The general staff said to him, Listen, Sharon, stay right where you are, hold the line, and don't do anything until we tell you something. What's that? Turns off the radio. He tells everybody else in his brigade, Turn the radios off, you don't need them. And what does he do? Well, he's not really disobeying orders, because he couldn't hear the orders. He crosses the Suez Canal. He's now on kilometer 101 outside of Cairo. That's Ariel Sharon. Ceasefire comes about once again. Another defeat to the Arab forces. Again, the Israelis must be really good shots, or it must have been their lucky day, or perhaps maybe it was the grace of God. As a result of the Yom Kippur War, we have a peace treaty now with Egypt. Sadat makes a very famous trip to Jerusalem. Menachem Begin is now the prime minister of Israel. He arrives in Ben Gurion Airport in 1977. The red carpet is out. All the parliament members and all the dignitaries in Israel are all lined up, about 150 people. You had to see this on TV. I remember it like it was yesterday. Sadat comes down from his jet. The trumpets are playing. The band is playing. The prime minister is there. He walks right past the prime minister. He walks right past the president of Israel. He walks all the way down the line until he comes up to one of the lower dignitaries in the Israeli parliament, Ariel Sharon. He walks right up to him and he hands out his hand. He goes, finally, I caught up to you. So, we have a peace treaty now with Egypt. Later on, of course, we have a peace treaty with Jordan. If by chance, during negotiations right now, Samaria and Judea is given back, this is what the map of Israel looked like once again. Can you see that? Look here. Jerusalem is a split city. By the way, you have no idea how close this would have been just a year and a half ago. While Barack was still prime minister and before all the disturbances began, do you know that the Palestinians were this close of getting a Palestinian state recognized by the state of Israel with 95% of the West Bank? Clinton and Barack were actually contemplating splitting Jerusalem. Do you remember that? This would have been the map of Israel once again. The width of Israel over here, nine miles, Jerusalem, a divided city once again. And, of course, the Bible Belt, I call this the Bible Belt, will now become 100% PLO. So, what's exactly happening today? Arafat has this problem. It's called a personality problem. First of all, his pants can't hold a crease. He doesn't understand that. We have a problem with Arafat. He doesn't necessarily want to go down in history as being a politician. I mean, he did receive the Nobel Peace Prize, right? He does not want to go down as a politician. He wants to go down as a freedom fighter. So, therefore, although he nearly got everything that he wanted from Barack, and today everything would have been really hunky-dory, correct? If they would have gotten back the West Bank, would they have been happy with that? Anybody ever get a chance to see what the map of Palestine is? It's not Samaria and Judea. It's the map of Israel. But, in any event, he would have gotten back at least part of what he wanted. But the problem is, he didn't want to be known as a politician. He wanted to be known as a freedom fighter. So, therefore, last year, September, he started his Antifada Al-Aqsa, which means the disturbances concerning the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, because he wanted to go down as a freedom fighter. He wanted to fight his war of independence. And things are not working out very well. Too many people have died, more on the Palestinian side, which is a shame, because the people have no idea what's going on. They're hurting so bad, the Arab population right now. They're being run by a group of people, which is sort of like a family in a mafia. You know, all the monies that come into this particular organization to build an infrastructure, if you would, for the Palestinian people. You know, the European community in many countries pump in millions of dollars to the Palestinian cause, which is fine. They need it. Electricity, gas, hospitals, schools, roads. But where does all that money go? Well, first of all, a lot of that money went to Jericho. You know, Jericho is a run-down city. There are two refugee camps. They could do with a hospital there. So Arafat obviously takes the money and he builds a casino! That's right. There's a casino today in Jericho. And also, recently, as you know, he took about $60 million of that money and he purchased a ship with arms on it. Now, the funny thing was, in the media, especially American media, which is also very perturbing, that we get messages from the State Department. Well, we don't know exactly where that ship came from. How can you be so sure that it was really for the Palestinians or going to Gaza? Prove it! The captain got on TV and said, Hi, I'm PLO and it's my ship and we're going to Gaza. Right? Did you see that guy? You see him? He walked on like this and said, I'm a freedom fighter. Well, okay, now you're in jail. So we have a bit of a problem right now. Understand something. This is very, very important. A lot of times what you see in the news are truths and half-truths. Okay? Sensationalism sells. Correct? That's how you make money for your newsmen. If something is not happening, you create something or you show file film on TV to make it look like there's something going on. Trust me when I tell you that there isn't a war going on in Israel right now. We're far away from Afghanistan. And like I mentioned to other people before, people say, Well, how can we go to Israel? They're bombing Afghanistan. Well, if the ex-camos attack Seattle, you're not going to go to Orlando? You know? It's that far away. I mean, it's like really far away. I'd be lying to you if I said that we don't have problems. But if you look at it objectively, make believe that you're a reporter from the Soviet Union way back in the Cold War, back in the 1960s. And you come to the United States. The thing that you're going to film are the homeless in the streets, junkies shooting up everywhere, gangs killing each other. Alright? And crime and everything. And that's what you're going to bring back to the Soviet Union. And everybody in Russia thinks that that's what America is all about. Correct? That's how it was for a long, long time. So everyone's under the impression that if there's something happening near a border in Gaza, which is 150 miles away from anything, everyone thinks that there's, you know, chaos and people, you know, people say to me, Well, how can people come to Israel? Well, I say to them, Well, you know, as soon as I get them off the plane, they have to run really low to get back onto the bus and make sure they don't stand on mines or anything. Trust me, nothing happens when you go there. Almost every tour leader who's been there in the last year and a half has sworn that it was the best tour he ever had. First of all, they won't have long lines anywhere. But it's not like that at all. Okay? That's what I need to emphasize upon you. And I looked through Scripture yesterday. You know, I do that once in a while because I'm a very sensitive kind of person. And I found something which pertains to all of you. You ready for this? Now, you can follow me. I sort of put together a bunch of things, but this is what I read to you. I'm going to read to you first from Isaiah 60, verse 10. Foreigners will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you, and in my favor I have had compassion on you. Now, here I put together a number of things from Isaiah 60, verses 4, 5, 8, and 9. Okay? So, you're going to have to skip around with me. But this literally has to do with you. Lift up your eyes and look about you. All assemble and come to you. Your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant. Your heart will throb and swell with joy. The wealth on the seas will be brought to you. To you the riches of the nations will come. Who are these who fly along like clouds, like doves to their nest? Surely the islands look to me. In the lead are ships of Tarshish, bringing your sons from afar with silver and gold. To the honor of the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, for He has endowed you with splendor. Here it's telling you that foreigners will come from afar. And this really gets me. Who are these who fly along like clouds, like doves to their nest? Can you imagine? You know, if you've ever been to Israel, to me the most fascinating place is the Mount of Beatitudes. Because there, literally, it gives you a really good picture. We take for granted that everything that's written here is correct, because our pastors tell us that it's correct. But obviously what you're reading is black and white. It's one-dimensional. You come to Israel. You see the land. You come home. And all of a sudden, everything that you're reading, all the places jump out at you. It's not one-dimensional anymore. It's now three-dimensional. You've been there. You've seen it. You've tasted it. You've walked through the fields, and you've seen the grass. Now again, although you may take this for granted, as you come back to your homes, you now become a witness. Because now you can truly say, you know what? Everything that's written here is correct. I saw it. And could you imagine, or could Jesus would have imagined in his wildest dreams 2,000 years ago that people would fly in the clouds and come to his land? Who are these who fly along like clouds, like doves to their nest? It's you. My request of all of you is this. Israel doesn't want you to send them checks and monetary gifts, because that's not going to help us. We want you to give us your support. Now your support can just be prayer. You don't necessarily have to get on a plane in swarms to show that you're still with Israel. But your prayers are very, very important. Do not reject or forget Israel. It's very important. And also what I would like you all to do is just continue being who you are. You do not need to stand on a street corner to witness to others and tell them my way is better than yours. Because just by your lifestyle and the way you are, you are a walking, talking witness. Thank you very much. Just as we finish things up tonight, it would be good for us to pray together to pray for Israel, to pray for our friends there. There are, as we have Ronnie with us, there are many believers there. And then, of course, there are many that have yet to believe in the Messiah. But I know many Jewish people that have been greatly impressed by the Christians that they've met, and particularly the Christians at Calvary Chapel. So we've got, the Lord is using a number of the Calvary Chapel ministries, Ray Bentley and Maranatha Chapel, they have a great influence in Israel, and Bob Coy and different people. So, you know, there's a connection that God has made. And we'll close tonight with a word of prayer, specifically for the situation there in Israel and God's people there. Father, we tonight just, we thank you, Lord, that Ronnie has been able to come and be with us tonight. We thank you, Lord, for the information that he shared with us. And Lord, just his personality and everything, Lord, it's just been a good night. It's been a blessing. And we pray for him as he continues to travel. We pray you give him traveling mercies and just continue to use him to encourage people as he goes about. And may he be encouraged by those others that he's with. And we pray, Lord, for him and many like him in Israel who have come to understand that you are the Messiah. And we thank you, Lord, for those that believe. We pray that many more would. We pray, Lord, that the eyes of many would be opened. And as they see the love and the concern from Christians reaching out to them at this time, may this all just be working in the bigger picture to prepare them to embrace you as their Redeemer. So, Lord, we commit that to you. And, Lord, the whole political and the conflict, everything that's going on there, Lord, we know this is all in your hands. This is bigger than any man. It's been declared from thousands of years ago. And, Lord, you've told us in advance what was going to happen. But most of all, Lord, we rejoice in the fact that one day soon Jesus will come again. And he will sit upon the throne of David. And he will rule over the house of Jacob forever. And, oh, how we long for that day to come. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would come quickly. Amen.