Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
- It's time to take the quiz. - Five questions, five minutes a day, five days a week. - Take the quiz every weekday at thequiz.fox and then listen to the quiz podcast to find out how you did. - Play, share, and of course, listen to the quiz at thequiz.fox. - It's Live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. - Today on Live in the Bream, we are welcoming back a friend, not only to the podcast, but to me and to my husband.
Joel Rosenberg and his wife Lynn live in Israel. They are dual U.S.-Israeli citizens. They are dear friends. But let me tell you a little bit more about him, if you're not familiar with him. He's a New York Times bestselling author, has written what I think is some of the best fiction out there, but also some nonfiction books that also touch on what's going on in the region, the Middle East right now. He's also editor-in-chief and founder of All Israel News and All Arab News. He's the host of the Rosenberg Report.
Among other things, we can also talk about the Joshua Fund, a very important charitable group that he has operated for many, many years in Israel to help the people there on the ground. So, Joel, welcome. Please just start by telling us how you and your family and friends are doing.
Thank you, Shannon. It's great to be with you. You're a dear friend, you and Sheldon, for many years now. And I appreciate you asking me. Well, we're doing OK. I mean, as I said to you just before we came on, we've been better. But this has been the most hellish week for Israeli citizens and leaders today.
I think really since the foundation of the country. Obviously, when five or six countries invaded us all at once in 1948, that was pretty bad, especially everybody was a Holocaust survivor. So, you know, that was bad. But this has got to be...
The second worst thing that's ever happened to Israel, and that's saying something because we've been through a lot of wars and terror, right? So us personally, you know, we live in Jerusalem. Jerusalem has been subjected to more missile attacks in the last seven days than at any other time since the 1967 war.
But compared to how our friends and colleagues and others are doing in the south of Israel, the center part of Israel, all near what's called the Gaza envelope within direct missile range, most rockets are coming into their areas. They've had 6,000-plus rockets in one week.
When Lynn and I and the boys moved here as new citizens in August of 2014, we moved in the middle of a rocket war, and there were 4,300 rockets fired at Israel in that month. We're at over 6,000 for the week. And the civilian casualties are over 1,300. And I mean, that doesn't even describe it.
Parents shot to death in front of their children while the children watched. Children murdered in front of their parents while the parents watched. Babies murdered, some of them decapitated. Homes of Jews set on fire and everybody alive burning to death, burning alive.
women raped people gunned down hundreds of young people at a music festival gunned down point blank range no warning it has been satanic it has been so ghastly and it has rocked Israel so badly it's a staggering intelligence failure but uh and how could there not have been enough combat troops or almost any
on that border. There are so many questions, but right now there's such deep grief. And for us, I think I would say there's a, just a, there's a darkness here right now, which is, which is emotionally exhausting. And yet, and yet I'll just add one more thing.
For me, running All Israel News and my new TV show over the past year on TBN, for me and the Joshua Fund, I'm doing interviews all day, every day. I don't know how to do anything else. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a lawyer. I joke, but it's not a joke this week. But for years, I've said it to you, the IDF doesn't need me unless they need another hostage. But that's not so funny this week. And so,
What I'm doing is explaining what we're seeing and doing. That's what I'm doing every day. What Lynn and the rest of our family and our Joshua Fund team, they're doing humanitarian relief. They're getting supplies to people who, you know, like you think of kids in a bomb shelter and you can't leave. 6,000 rockets? Where are you supposed to go?
Right. And there's not enough diapers. Right. They didn't run out of the house with, you know, big boxes of pampers. So how do you know? So getting diapers to people, toothbrushes, toothpaste, water like. Yeah. So that's what they're doing. Our team is amazing. But that's a that's a week in the life of a war. And we are we also know people that have been murdered, have died in combat. One of my sons, his unit.
People are dead and it's just it's a lot to process and it's just getting worse and worse. And like you said, as the prime minister has warned there, this is going to be long and it's going to be difficult. This is not going to be a simple solution. And we know that even though IDF is warning people to try to evacuate out of the Gaza Strip, I mean, the reports are that Hamas is telling people not to leave.
There are reports that people have very difficult options, that Egypt is not allowing a free flow of safe passage. We know in that region, Jordan, for example, had taken on scores of refugees with regard to Syria. So there are a lot of very tense breaking points there in the region as, you know, people are being warned to get out. We're coming in. We're going to basically level the Gaza Strip.
knowing that there are civilians there, possibly hostages being held there as well. I know that you and I are probably on the same page that I just pray for wisdom for the leaders of Israel, for the U.S., for all throughout that region. You've got relationships with people like King Abdullah and Jordan. I mean, what do you make of the other countries and the ripple impact of all of this there in your region?
Well, those are good questions. Let me break them apart for a few moments. First, some nuances. So
Prime Minister Netanyahu has declared that we are going to eliminate Hamas. No longer can we just say, well, we hit some of their infrastructure and we took out some of their leaders and then the Iron Dome protected us from the rockets and that'll be enough for now. And then there's a ceasefire for six months or a year or whatever. That has been the way for the last 15 years or so. But the death
The toll is so high here. It's so brutal. It's so demonic that Hamas has been able to do in one week what no Israeli was able to do all year, and that is unify our country, right? Israel has been deeply divided over internal politics, judicial reform. You'd enjoy covering that here because it's- It's very complicated. You have a very complicated situation in the United States, very complicated here.
Hundreds of thousands of people on the streets all year protesting Netanyahu, et cetera, et cetera. But in one week, all that is gone. Like the issues remain, but the number one opposition leader in the country just joined on Wednesday in a in a unity emergency unity government rally.
with Netanyahu. This is Benny Gantz. He's the most popular politician in Israel. He's a former chief of staff of the Israeli army, and he's our former defense minister. And so he brings a lot of experience and wisdom into that war room, and he brings several other really great people with him. So this is a minor miracle of unity as we go to war. That's one. Two, the objective is to eliminate Hamas, but it's not, I want to be clear, it's not to level
the Gaza Strip. This is why Israel has been broadcasting all day, text messaging and radio and television in every possible way, the internet, for Palestinians who live in northern Gaza. They can't leave
but they can move south. Gaza City is right now the objective to begin with. That's where the main Hamas infrastructure is, and that's the north. There is no way for Palestinians to leave Gaza for several reasons. One, because the northern side of Gaza is Israel. That's where we're fighting them. The eastern side of Gaza is Israel, and that's where we're fighting them. The western side is the Mediterranean Sea,
And the south is Egypt, and Egypt has closed the border and won't let anybody in.
Jordan has also closed the border, by the way, and doesn't want any new Palestinian refugees, though Gazans wouldn't be able to get there anyway because they'd have to go through Israel first. So that's a complicated regional issue. But Israel is trying to do everything we can to avoid or minimize civilian casualties because the policy of Israel is to destroy Hamas, not to kill civilians. But the policy of Hamas...
is to kill Israeli civilians. They don't really, I mean, yeah, they want to kill Israeli soldiers, but they want to kill civilians, and that's what they've done all week long. So it's a genocidal organization, terrorist organization. It's funded, armed, trained, and directed by the terror regime in Iran.
The Arab world has not been helpful, but they haven't been harmful yet. I mean, there's a lot of sharp criticisms, but they're not mobilizing to help Hamas. Hamas is actually a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot, and the Muslim Brotherhood is banned as illegal terrorist organizations in almost every Arab state in the region. So I think privately there's real sympathy in the Arab world at the government level for Israel.
during this horrible savagery. But on the street, many people want to identify with the Palestinians and are not separating the difference between you can support loving and caring for Palestinians. You don't have to support a genocidal terrorist organization. And I say that as an evangelical and an Israeli and a Jew. I'm pro-Palestinian. I want the best for the Palestinians.
but the Hamas is genocidal and they have to be, you know, my view is they need to convert or die. Like, I'm not going to put a sword to them, but I'm just saying, like, I don't want them to go to hell, but they got about a day to figure it out. Are they going to follow Jesus or not? Because anyway, they're going to be lost forever. But I want something good for the passing people. And I'll just make one other note on that. It's important for your audience to hear that.
that Israel has not occupied the Gaza Strip for almost 20 years. We don't have a single Israeli soldier or civilian there, as you and I record this. I mean, we're going to have to go back in in a moment. But since 2005, okay, because Israel made a very controversial decision, we don't want Gaza. So we left. And we said, look, you have beachfront property on the Mediterranean. It's gorgeous. You have trillions of cubic feet of natural gas right off your shores.
We're going to leave. No occupation. Go build yourselves a Palestinian paradise. But Hamas took over and has created a hellhole. And the two million Palestinians that live in Gaza, they do live under occupation. But it's not Israeli occupation. It's Hamas occupation. And they're living under a reign of terror. And it's just so cruel what Hamas has done. But anyway, that's where we are right now.
We'll have more live in the bream in a moment.
What about to the north and issues about Hezbollah? I mean, from the beginning, when these attacks were unfolding less than a week ago, they were saying our guns and our missiles are with you. I mean, they were praising, obviously, Hamas. They have many of the same goals, although they have, you know, these groups do have differences. But what about Israel's ability to defend itself with multiple fronts if that develops?
We are ready for that. We have evacuated all of our northern communities right on the border with Lebanon. So there aren't civilians living there the way
Israeli civilians were living right on the Gaza border and thought they were safe a week ago. We've got we deployed tanks. Israel has mobilized more soldiers from our reserves than at any other time in the history of Israel since the first war. We're well over 300,000 now. Most of my friends that are those that are under 40,
have been mobilized and are serving. I just hired a chief of staff for my team three months ago. He's at the front. The top executives and producers and a lot of crew at TBN, where I do my show, are now mobilized. Half of our congregation of the church that we go to, half of the men in the congregation, they've been mobilized. So there are a lot of women and children at home right now without their husbands and brothers and fathers
But it's an all in thing. So my point is Israel is mobilizing on multiple fronts. And we've got to focus on the West Bank as well, because this global day of jihad that Hamas has called for, like this could cause the West Bank to blow up. And then but we've also got another front. So anyway, you're right. And by the way, I.
You know, a couple of years ago, I wrote a novel called The Beirut Protocol about an explosion on that very Israeli Lebanon border and what a rocket war, a missile war could look like, how bad it could get and how quickly it could get triggered. You know, I was fiction at the time, but right now we just we're really thinking this this thing could blow, too. And it's all dependent on what Iran decides. And that's what makes it.
Secretary Tony Blinken's comments, you know, completely astonishing and on the verge of insane when he has said on multiple shows, perhaps yours, I don't recall whether that there's no there's no we see no direct connection between the Iranian regime and this attack.
Like what Secretary Blinken was just here. I would love to be the guy that breaks the story of what Netanyahu said to Blinken. I'm sure that will not leak. But or I don't know, maybe it will. We'll see. But no, we need the United States. And so we need to not be throwing Biden, Blinken, Secretary Austin, Defense Secretary Austin is here today.
not to throw them under the bus because we need American support we need American arms we're willing to fight this thing on our own but but we need help and uh we hope they haven't given everything to Ukraine because we're going to need some help too the whole region wide you know they have been unequivocal from the get-go President Biden the members of his cabinet and others that you mentioned saying there's no daylight between us Secretary Austin saying on Friday morning
We have Israel's back that will never change. It's non-negotiable. So I think hopefully to the Israeli people and government there that that message is being very clearly communicated that there is not going to be anything but full support for Israel. And that's pretty much here in Washington the case, too. There are you know, there's a handful of outliers who.
even Democrats don't want to endorse anything about what they're saying. They're trying to clarify their positions too, but I think it's fair to say the vast majority of Washington, both sides of the aisle, very committed to this. But the fact is, as you and I are recording this, we don't have a Speaker of the House. And so until that gets figured out, it's hard to move legislation for additional aid or whatever may need to go to Israel. And I think House Republicans are very, that weighs on them. That is additional pressure for them to try to figure this out. I want
to ask you too, though, I was, as many people were, it captured my attention. Some of the remarks that former president made about the prime minister and
about Hezbollah being very smart. And we've seen these comments from him before where, listen, it's not like he's endorsing Hezbollah, but he will refer to other leaders and bad actors as people that he does think of them. And she, too. He says it about President Xi, that he's a smart guy, he controls his country with an iron fist, this kind of thing. But his remarks about Netanyahu, to me, felt a step further. He was...
criticizing him with regard to the Soleimani raid and assassination and some other things that, you know, I reached out to some probably friends we have in common, prominent pastors and evangelicals to say, like, how is this going over in your community? Because evangelicals are so devoutly committed to the sovereignty of Israel. Just wondering if you have any reaction to his comments.
I was very disappointed to hear the most pro-Israel president in the history of the United States, something I've said to him directly when I've met with President Trump several times in the past. I've told him, you know, I regard you and most Israelis do regard you as the most pro-Israel president in American history for many reasons. But I'm disappointed, but maybe not surprised that he would
launched some very personal but also policy-based criticisms of a prime minister right in the heat of the fight. Like, even Israel's opposition isn't criticizing Netanyahu right now. There's a lot to criticize. Like, Netanyahu is going to pay, you know, very likely a very steep political price. He may not survive politically, but
because the buck stops with him. Like, he was the prime minister. He's known as Mr. Security. And, you know, if you leave a border open and there's the worst civilian slaughter in the history of Israel, usually you don't recover from that unless he does such a great job winning this war that everyone's like, all right. But, you know, but that's all for later.
Like even the opposition here, nobody's talking like that here. Nobody. I mean, again, and to the credit of Benny Gantz, our former defense minister, who was, you know, is leading the polls. If there was an election right now, Benny Gantz would be the prime minister, not Netanyahu. But Gantz, for the good of the country, said, I'm setting it all aside. I'm joining Netanyahu. We're going to war. We're going to win. You know, it makes me emotional.
Because I don't see Trump and Biden saying, for the sake of the country, we're going to do, you know, we're going to win this and that and the other thing. Like, I don't see that. So I was disappointed. But, you know, it's added to a long list of things that I, you know, if I was writing a novel,
about somebody running for president. And I always am hoping that you're working on another one. Well, I am. But I, you know, I don't understand. I like what President Trump has accomplished. I don't get him personally. I don't get why he says certain things. And usually it's not a political cost to him. So I think he seems to think it's fine. But
It's not what I would prefer, but he is far and away leading. He may be the next president of the United States. We'll see. If he gets there, if he becomes president again, I need him to do great things for America, for Israel, for our allies. But I don't like people criticizing a prime minister right in the middle of a war. I don't understand why you would do that.
Okay, before we go, Joel, I want to make sure that we get any information from you about how people can help. Is it through Joshua Fund? What other ways would be helpful to folks who are there in the middle of all of this?
Sure. Well, thank you for asking, Shannon. That's very kind. I would say two things. First, for literally moment-to-moment coverage of what's happening, that's All Israel News, and people can find it at allisrael.com. And you can subscribe to our free email newsletter at All Israel News, where every morning when you wake up in the United States, you're going to get an email with all the top stories, and you can just, you know, with hyperlinks, and you can follow that. And of course, me on social media, we're keeping up
uh, the, the sort of the really tick tick tock of, of all the changes. So all Israel news and, but, but in terms of helping practically like, um, yes, the Joshua fund. So the Joshua fund is like a mutual fund. We, we, Lynn and I set it up 17 years ago because most Christians who love Israel and want to help with humanitarian relief, with, um, care for the victims of war and terror for strengthening the local church, uh, for helping Israel, um,
educate the church around the world, why support Israel. All that's important, but most people are like, I wouldn't know the first thing, even if they've traveled here. They don't know who are the pastors we should support, where would you get the humanitarian relief, all that. So that's what we do. And over 17 years, by God's grace, I mean, totally by God's grace,
The Lord has allowed us to raise and invest almost $100 million in this type of work in Israel, but also in the Palestinian territories and in the neighboring Arab countries. We don't say, oh, we love Israel, rah, rah, and the Palestinians, well, you're on your own. That's not biblical.
Yes, God has a certain plan and purpose for Israel, but he commands us, Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors. And so this is what the Joshua Fund does. And we work with both sides. We're very careful to vet every single ministry and organization that we give to. So you don't have to worry that, oh, well, money's going to go to Hamas or something. We only
We will almost entirely give through the local followers of Jesus so they can be the hands and feet of Jesus. We know who they are. We've seen their financial books. We know their theology. So you can have confidence that when you give a donation to the Joshua Fund, it's really going to meet a need. And, you know, not only did Israel not see this war coming, certainly the Joshua Fund didn't see this coming. So all...
All the money we're investing right now is completely unbudgeted, but we're doing it. And our teams of Israeli believers are going all over the country meeting needs. We just literally had a moment just before this call, this podcast, Shannon, where one of our staff people was like, they had just done a run of supplies to the south near the war zone, risking their own lives to take stuff there. They got back to Jerusalem and they were going in to just get some vegetables and groceries for
themselves tonight for dinner. And somebody that they knew walked down the street and said, oh, what are you doing in Jerusalem? And she explained and he's like, oh, oh, you guys do humanitarian relief. I've got a restaurant around the corner. They have tons of food. They're looking for somebody to give it to right now before they close up for the weekend. And so this woman staffer and several of her colleagues went and they got huge amounts of
fresh food had just been cooked and but they were thinking well i really don't know at the moment where where we who are we going to give it to and then a phone call came into another staffer saying hey we've got a family we just rescued out of the south near gaza um i think it's eight families i think it was and they there we put them in an apartment but they've got no food they've got no water what should we do that was like oh lord you know
I'm going to get emotional because sometimes you have a plan and sometimes God, it's better when he does it instead of us. And that was so beautiful. And I just love that after 17 years, the Joshua Vine has built a team and a network that knows what to do.
And we do it every day anyway, but at a moment like this, suddenly you have trusted partners that you can really work with. As much as I love doing the information side, that's what I'm doing every day, but Lynn and our teams, I am just so grateful to them and so proud of them.
you know, such a time as this. So yeah, the Joshua Fund, you can go find it at joshuafund.com. Again, joshuafund.com. And I'll put it out on social media as well tonight and over the weekend. Fantastic. Well, we are praying for you and Lynn, your boys, their families, all we know and love and those we don't in that region who are in a desperate situation. Joel, thank you for keeping us informed. And all I can say is God bless you.
Thank you, Shannon. You're a good friend and I, and you're a great journalist and you, and I don't mean to a great, you're also a great friend. But my point is thank you for doing a little bit longer form version of just helping your audience understand the nuances here and to pray for both sides. Yeah. Pray for victory for Israel, but pray for compassion for both sides because people on both sides really are suffering. Yeah, absolutely. Joel, thank you. We'll talk with you again soon. All right. Bless you.
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