Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: The solution for peace in Gaza is Jesus. I'm an orthodox jew. Right. But I am all about the idea of Muslims converting to Christianity because I actually think that's the only bona fide peace solution that we have.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to the Inside scoop, Jerusalem.
So this week is rather interesting. Here in Jerusalem and in the state of Israel, we are entering what is known as the national holidays. And these days are different than regular holidays where they're celebrated, their jewish holidays or the biblical holidays. These are actually holidays that are not just holidays. Bad word. Bad choice of words, maybe, but they're observances by the state of Israel as a nation. And we're talking about Memorial Day, which is not a celebration, and then Independence Day. And they are actually placed on the israeli calendar back to back. So first you've got the very mournful and somber memorial day. And we're gonna talk about, talk more about that later in the program with my guest. And then right after that, it launches into Independence Day, which is this raucous celebration, fireworks, barbecues, the works. So, so it's very interesting juxtaposition, position. But this year, of course, different, totally different. You've got a war going on. You have, I mean, speaking of Memorial Day, I mean, we're talking about people who just died and 1500 Israelis total since October 7. And I think 600 of them are soldiers and the rest are civilians. Youve got a war going on. Theres constantly back and forth with the diplomatic world about Israels, how its waging the war and threats to prosecute israeli leaders. So all of this is happening this year. And its a completely a different observance of the holidays than ever. In fact, you also still have, as of this recording, 132 hostages that are being held in Gaza and families who are saying that it is despicable to even be holding to beholding an Independence Day ceremony while there are 132 citizens that are in limbo right now that might be dying in Gaza and are not being rescued through negotiations.
So instead, so while the national ceremony for Independence Day is going on, which it will, although without an audience, without a live audience, it would be just broadcast on tv. Normally theres a live audience and its concerts and speeches, but this time its going to be, you know, the government decision was to make it less festive and to hold it without an audience. But the hostage families said that a civilized state, this is a, quote, a civilized state cannot celebrate while 132 citizens are still being held in captivity, end quote. So they are extremely upset at the turn of events for this Independence day but in the meantime, now, this being Jerusalem, nothing can be straightforward. And, of course, it will be extremely complicated. So, for instance, while it is quite normal for all of the israeli schools to have their kids go to school wearing a white shirt on Memorial Day and participating in all sorts of ceremonies, then you've got schools like the one my kids go to, and it's called hand in hand. And the mission of the school is to bring together Israelis and Palestinians. And, of course, in the mix, there are others. I mean, there's Armenians, there are other ethnicities and also Israeli Arabs. And so you've got this mix of ethnicities and religions all together. And what do you do when it comes to Memorial Day? Because Memorial Day, when soldiers died? Well, the Palestinians are thinking that's when their people were engaged in battle with the israeli soldiers that died, and hence they were also victims. Now, to take it a step or a day further, there is also what the Palestinians commemorate. Rather than Memorial Day and Independence Day, they commemorate the Nakba. Now, that means catastrophe in Arabic. And they consider the founding of the date that the state of Israel was founded was the beginning of the demise of their living in the land and as a free people. Of course, there was the british occupation. But I mean, this is a whole history lesson. So.
So, of course, that makes the ceremonies at my kids school very complicated as to how they're going to observe and who's going to go. And you've got some families that want to boycott the other ceremony, or there were a few years where the school decided to keep the jewish ceremony separate from the arab ceremony, but that didn't make sense if the whole point of the school is to create tolerance and dialogue and eventually to foster unity.
So while the majority of Israelis will be participating in the traditional ceremonies, whether it involves them personally for their loved ones who were lost or if they, they're attending something in their community or watching it on tv.
There's also another organization that hosts both Israelis and Palestinians together for a shared memorial Day. And it is fascinating. I actually participated, or let's say, watched in. I watched the previous one, and what you saw was raw emotion from both Israelis and Palestinians who lost loved ones on or since October 7, bereaved parents connecting with each other from both sides of the fence and looking for a way to stop the cycle of violence.
There was not a dry eye in the audience, and it was just unbelievable to see the graciousness on both sides and the understanding, the attempt to understand that despite what I went through, which was so hard, I see that you also went through something that was very hard. So they also admit, you know, you could see, like in the, in the chat where people admitted that they didn't necessarily, they couldn't forgive, yet they couldn't forget what happened to them, whether it was from one side or the other. But they said, that's okay. This is why we're here. We're here to talk. We're here to rebuild trust after what was lost on October 7.
Well, my guest for this week actually has a solution as well.
Now, he made headlines when he wrote this headline a couple weeks ago. The solution for peace in Gaza is Jesus. Now that could sound like, you know, something. You would hear somebody say a preacher in a pulpit. But Jonathan Feldstein is an orthodox Jew.
So Jonathan isn't trying to just be funny. He really believes in, in the power of prayer. In fact, after our interview, we were talking and he said, you know, I really wish that the people who were protesting, you know, all the free Palestine, he said, I wish they were, instead of protesting that they were praying for the Palestinians.
Well, in line with that, Jonathan is hosting his own prayer event and we will talk about that and more in our conversation coming up right now.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Hi. So I just want to welcome Jonathan Feldstein to the program.
Jonathan is the president of the Genesis 123 foundation. He was born and educated in the US and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. He is a leader working with and among christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an orthodox jew in Israel through his work, writing and as host of the Inspiration from Zion podcast, which I have actually had the honor of being a guest on quite a few times. So, Jonathan, thank you very much. Thank you for joining me today.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Always a pleasure, Nicole, whether it's you on my podcast or me on yours, or just hanging out and having coffee.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Or even, or even bantering back and forth during the Eurovision Song contest, which if anybody is listening in America right now, they don't know what we're talking about. And as two Americans who now live in Israel, we have a completely different view than the rest of Israel and Europe and we share a lot of the same opinions about it.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: So a lot of the same opinions. It's a ridiculous, I don't know if 20 years ago, if it was as ridiculous, but now it certainly is. But, yeah, but nevertheless, as we were texting last night during the, during the broadcast, I felt, you know, part of me was, oh, this is really stupid to stay up till 02:00 in the morning, watching a bunch of people sing in Europe. But then again, I felt, wow. We have this incredible performer representing Israel who was, what's the word? Who was odds on favorite to be among the top three. She ended up number five. But that was inspiring to see her not just with such a beautiful voice and a great song and poise, but also really representing us, the Israel and the jewish people with such pride.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: Yeah. She was so impressive and I have to say I was. I really got into this year the, the israeli show that's like the contest to get into the Eurovision. It's called the next star. And I was a fan of hers from the beginning. I mean, there were really. There was great talent, a ton of great talent. But I was like, she should go. We've just had a war. She should go to Eurovision because what is so funny? Cause one of the criticisms she gets in Israel is she's not israeli enough. She was born and raised, or maybe she was born here.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: She was born here, but she was. She's been about twelve years in Russia.
[00:13:00] Speaker C: Yeah. And her english, though, is fantastic sounds. Yeah. So people would criticize her for not being israeli enough, but then she goes to Eurovision and she was criticized for being israeli. So I was like, oh, this poor girl can't win. But if anybody can handle it, it looks like she can because she is like, focus. Like, I'm going to be a singer and nothing's going to stop me.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: She was. She is great. She was great last night in the finals and everything. And I agree with you, watching the reality show that we have here that picks the israeli representative. For me, I enjoyed. Aidan was great, is great. I enjoyed watching it. That was sort of a selfish little pleasure I gave myself at the beginning of the war. If you remember when that, when that show started in the fall, the war had already begun and they were singing to empty seats. It was just the judges and their family members because it wasn't safe because rockets were still coming in as far as Tel Aviv from Gaza and then it got normal and Ed and shined and there were so many great people. It was very emotional. You remember also there was one of the contestants who was killed in Gaza, who was a soldier who was killed in Gaza and they did a beautiful tribute to him with a bunch of people singing his. What would have been his next song in the competition.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Apparently he comes from a very musical family and I think that the sister is now like one of the sisters is, you know, she has a song coming out, I think, in honor of one of Memorial Day, maybe. Anyway. Well, I don't know exactly and I don't remember their names, but. Yeah, that was really moving. But I will. You know, my. I've been here for over 20 years and when I first got here, I remember when the first Eurovision rolled around and everybody stopped. Like, the world stopped and I was like, what's going on? I thought, oh, it must be like an american idol type thing. So. But when I watched it, I was like, this is like American Idol on steroids or on, you know, unlike candy or something. I don't know what. Like, it just.
It was just like bombastic and flamboyant and everything. And even last night. Now, the only difference is I don't know if they had like a satanic ritual 20 years ago, like they did last night, you know, on the stage, but other than that it was.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Or the winner. The winner was the swiss singer, a man dressed in a pink dress.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: Yeah, but, yeah, yeah, but actually he says he's not a man or a woman or he's.
Yeah, I think that's why he won.
Yeah. But. So in any case, it was. It's. It was just funny to be watching, you know, sharing the commentary with another american because we have a lot of the same opinions.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And the stupidity of staying up that late despite the feel, the good feeling in the end and now, despite how exhausted we both are. But it's good to be with you, Nicole.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Despite all that. Yeah.
And it was like you said, it was like. It's one of the things. It looks like a bit of escapism for the entire country, but that's all about to end and amazing. I mean, I don't know about the timing. You know, obviously the Eurovision and the european organization that puts this together, they wouldn't be mindful of the israeli dates. I understand, but we are about to go into. And this is why, you know, one of the things I want to talk to you about, we're about to go into here in Israel, the national days. It's called the national holidays and that as opposed to religious holidays where it's, know, Passover or Sukkot Shavuot.
And then the observation is different. It's from also a religious observance where things will shut down and there will be specific prayers. But this is national and it goes across the boards and it includes also anybody who isn't necessarily an observant jew and even non Jews of the state of Israel, like the Druze. So, first of all, you know, I think as an American who comes here and sees these holidays play out. That's why I wanted to talk to you as an American and also about the event that you have coming up. But let's start with these national days and, you know, share a little bit about your experience. Like just coming from America where Memorial Day is barbecues and picnics to Israel, Memorial Day, which will be approaching this evening.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
The juxtaposition coming from America is vivid and so inappropriate.
What happens in America if you're there and Americans don't even realize that this happens, but if you're there the week of Memorial Day and you go to a store or a restaurant or anywhere and you interact with people before the weekend, people actually wish you a happy Memorial Day. Right. As if it's just, oh, it's a day off to go to the beach or have a barbecue or, or do something and it's. And it's the opposite. It's not a happy day. It can't be a happy day. And. And that's so vivid. I. And it's funny because with the Eurovision taking place, there's another analogy. I think. I think we've talked about music. I love my classic rock and if I were back in New York, I forget. What's the classic rock station 103 Q I think is the classic rock station in New York now. But they and others are likely on Memorial Day weekend to have the top 500 hits of all time, the countdown. Whereas here tonight, already, now beginning in the media, tv, radio, we are in a tremendously somber mood. And I mean, all the. It's always that way. But this year, my heart rate, I'm emotional just thinking about how I'm going to feel when we're watching it. Because there are 1500 people who were killed between last Memorial Day and tonight who were mourning. And it's very real. And we're in the midst of a war still and we're. And some of the graves are so fresh from this week and we have 133 hostages. So it's the first time that we've observed Memorial day in the midst of active combat. And it's gut wrenching and it's how I think Memorial Day should be done. I think we need to pay tribute to those who, whether through terrorism and we're just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or soldiers who are still giving their lives today. We must commemorate them, we must honor them and we must embrace and comfort their families because that's why we have this strange back to back observance of Memorial Day. And then immediately, as Memorial Day ends. We begin the celebration for Independence Day, which connects the fact that if not for these people who gave their lives, we wouldn't necessarily be here to be able to celebrate the independence either.
[00:20:55] Speaker C: Yeah, that's awesome. Can you explain that a little bit more in depth, like how?
Like describing for people who haven't been here during those days, you know, what happens from the eve, because Israel, all of its holidays beginning in the eve of first Memorial Day and then how it transitions and then what happened.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: So tonight we will have, I don't remember at what time, but we all figure that out. A siren that will be sounded all around the country for two minutes. And it's the air raid siren. It's what we heard a few weeks ago when the iranian missiles came in. And you and I both also stayed up all night watching the missiles come in on tv, in your case, out the window.
And that begins the day of national grief. But by the way, I was mentioning on tv all of the, you were talking about the religious holidays, all of the frivolous tv channels, the Comedy channel, I don't know what other frivolous ones we have. They all go blank for 24 hours. They stop programming. And you just see a memorial candle, which is very sobering. And what begins is a series of national memorials that take place with individual families. And this year, I think probably all the more so. And then units that serve together. My third daughter has always gone to Mount Herzl, which is the military cemetery, during the day. And she meets up with a group of australian immigrants who fought in the same unit. I think, if I'm not mistaken, in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago. So she's with a bunch of old men, remembering those who were killed then, now 50 years later, and it's very sobering. And that's the, you can't go out to a cafe starting tonight. You can't go out to a restaurant. In fact, I think it's illegal. I think there's no movies. There's nothing. It's really a somber day. And it should be. It really should be. It's how to do Memorial Day riot. And I wish people could experience it. And then late tomorrow afternoon, the Memorial Day somberness diminishes and we begin the festivities celebrating Independence Day. This year being our 76th Independence Day, though this year is going to be more somber because there's been a whole big national debate. How much should we be celebrating? And how should we be celebrating while we're at war and while we still have 133 hostages and all of the families of all of those people, 1500 who have been killed and 133 who are still in Gaza. One of the things that I think has been nixed universally is fireworks. Right. There won't be any fireworks at all this year because of the PTSD that it could cause, particularly children.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: Yeah. And also I think they decided to do the ceremony with no audience usually.
Right.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: It was pre recorded and there's no audience. And, yeah, it's a very. It's more of a broadcast than an actual celebration, and that's taking place in a lot of ways. And by the way, also for coming back to Memorial Day, it's very common for government ministers to go to particular cemeteries and memorial events. And with Israel, even though we've had tremendous unity the last seven months that we were seeing that on fray. And a lot of people who were running these memorial ceremonies are telling government ministers, you know, don't come, you don't, we don't want you here. You're not managing. It's because of you that we had this war and that we're still in this war, which I'm not sure that that's a correct message, but this is another conflict of Memorial Day 2024.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: Right. In many ways, the angst that's happening now is even more, is even stronger and maybe more complicated than October 6 and before because there's a strong call for accountability from the government and for people to take responsibility now. But then, of course, you're in the middle of a war and then if the government says, okay, we quit, then who takes over and who's going to run? And then you have the instability. But yeah, it'll be really interesting what happens with the hostage families because they are protesting every day and can't blame them, of course, but they are out there and very loud voices among them are calling for the government to step down.
So there is a lot of frustration and more than that with the government right now. So, yeah, it's very, very complicated. It also throws into flux.
Normally, memorial. No, Independence Day is a big barbecue day. Like you cut out at 08:00 a.m. On a grassy knoll somewhere, and there's not many grassy knolls here in this like, desert ish kind of land. But if you're not out there at 08:00 a.m. You don't get a spot. So this year I don't think it's going to be quite as busy. And I think that's another thing where the hostage families are calling for respect of what they're going through. And I'm sure it's going to be toned down, at least by choice, by a lot of people.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: Look, I had a birthday a few months ago, and I told my wife it wasn't a particularly significant one, but I told her I don't really want, I'm not in the mood to celebrate. But on this level, you have to celebrate. I mean, it's still the miracle that we're here 76 years.
It's still an incredible national entity. It's what everyone was protesting against Ed and Golan at Univision. It wasn't because she was a bad singer, it's because she was from Israel. Pure anti semitism. So the fact that we're here, if we don't celebrate, if we don't thank God, and there's special prayers that we add to our prayers on Independence Day, that's so important. If we're not thanking God, if we're not recognizing the miraculous prophetic time that we're living in, that we're also not doing the job. And since we've never done this before, I don't know that anyone has, pun intended, the silver bullet as to how to do it. Right?
[00:28:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you did this on purpose. It's a very good segue to one of the things that I want to talk about, which is your event that you have coming up that I also will make sure we put the link here in the show notes, the global prayer for Israel. And before I get into it, I just want to say that Jonathan is a really, when you say bridge builder, you know, like, you build bridges between Jews and Christians, but you're also a friend and you're also very real. And I think that that's very important because a lot of people are in that lane and in that sort of outreach. But, but you carry a real, genuine spirit when you come and meet with, with christians. You're just a very real person. What you see is what you get, you know, and for good and for bad.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: But thank you for saying that.
[00:29:09] Speaker C: Exactly. But, you know, for both.
No, but this is really good. And I also want to say that, just to note that you also point out for all christians, like when, when there was an issue with the local christian communities, the indigenous christian communities here, because we should differentiate, like most of the outreach between Christians and the state of Israel is the evangelical Christians that are usually located outside of Israel. But you also take the time to advocate for the Christians on the ground in Israel who experience different challenges and the challenges of being a minority. And so you have taken up that cause as well.
And so that's great. So, but so for this event. So I want. So it's interesting about the timing. Like, you timed it there now on purpose, like, for this, this date. So why don't you tell us a little bit about this event and why you're calling for global prayer for Israel now at this time.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: So it's actually a good segue backwards. I have to call credit my friend Kathleen Lucan, who is a Christian American. Her twin sister Christine was killed here in a terrorist attack, also Christian, December of 2010, if memory serves correctly, or eleven.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: I remember.
I remember this. Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: And it was the week before Christmas, and she and another friend of mine were stabbed to death. Well, my friend wasn't stabbed to death.
Christine was stabbed to death. And as a result of that, I became friends with Kathleen. And in January, everything that's been going on here, she called me up and said, hey, Jonathan, we have to get Jews and Christians to come to pray for Israel. And she wanted to do it, like, the next day. And I said, well, Kathleen, I don't do next day stuff. I'm impulsive. I'm very impulsive. But I said, if we're going to do that, and you're right, then it needs to be planned. So I also like to do things that have not just significance in the doing them, but significance in terms of when and why we're doing it. So the reason why we're doing it this week is because while Israel, we celebrate Israel's declaration, Israel's independence, on the day Israel declared independence, which in 1948 was Friday, May 14, corresponding on the biblical calendar with the fifth of the month of er, which I should mention that my oldest daughter was born then. And after a 26 hours labor, we realized, oh, yeah, she was born on Independence Day, too. So she's turning 31 and Israel's turning 30, 76. But the reason why we're doing it on May 15, and you'll get this. Do you know the story, Nicole?
Okay, so because it was a Friday, and the state of Israel, the emerging state of Israel, wasn't about to begin its existence by violating Shabbat, which begins at sundown on Friday. So we declared independence on Friday to go into effect at midnight on Saturday, which was the day that the british mandate, what I call occupation, expired. And so Israel became an independent state on May 15. Now, why is that significant? Because our enemies, and there still are more than a few of them, call the May 15 Nakba day. Nakba in Arabic is the catastrophe. It's not the catastrophe of what happened to them, or they're making a mistake of not accepting two states and having a palestinian state that's 76 years old as well. The catastrophe is that Israel was born and continues to exist, and they continue to annihilate, try to annihilate us. So we decided we were going to do the global prayer for Israel, bringing Jews and Christians together specifically on May 15 to create a positive spin to flood God's inbox. And, you know, we didn't know then that american campuses were going to be flooded with vulgar, anti semitic things trying to shut down graduations. So all the more things that are happening now, this week, last week, next week, with graduations taking place, where we're putting a positive energy, a positive spin on May 15. And we will be having thousands of people coming together. It begins at 07:00 p.m. Israel time, which corresponds to what time?
12:00 p.m. Eastern time in the US. And it's going to go for 6 hours with each hour praying for a different theme with people from all over the world.
I have a list next to me. As of this morning, we have people from nearly 40 nations, some of which don't even have diplomatic relations with Israel, which is pretty cool. Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia.
We have Christians participating. Yeah, it's really nice. Wow.
And so we don't forget, we are encouraging everyone to register and join us. Registration is required. We're trying to not get Zoom bombed by people who have ill intentions. So registration is through the link at our website, Genesis 123 Co. And we really want Jews and Christians to come together and join us and pray, flooding God's inbox with prayer. Prayer and be inspired, because it is and will be inspiring.
[00:35:01] Speaker C: Okay, so let me just ask you something, because when you say, like, you say the nakba, that's what they also. It's the arabic word for catastrophe, and it's used by the Palestinians. And actually it's used by even, you know, most Arabs that live here will use that as the word.
And so now, are those the ones you're referring to as your enemy? Or is this like when you say these are the enemies of Israel? Because you also mentioned anti semitism, which is going rampant around the world.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not the kind. I can definitely identify some of who I'm speaking about in terms of enemies. That's all of Hamas. That's all the palestinian islamic jihad. That's all of Hezbollah. That's the Islamic the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Houthis and other such proxy tentacles of the iranian regime. And people who don't recognize our right to exist, whether they're protesting on the streets of Malmo, Sweden, because a young woman from Israel is singing, or they're protesting on the campus of Colombia or Emory university or anywhere else in the world, I do consider those to be our enemies. I'm not saying we should go on the quad of Emory, where I graduated, and shoot them all down like we have to deal with our enemies in Gaza, but there is an evil spirit behind it. And so when we, for instance, during the global prayer, we're praying also 1 hour, 2 hours for God to change the hearts of our enemies. And that can be as benign as for them to attend a history class and realize that they're actually wrong or come to faith, which, you know, I'm all.
I'm an orthodox jew, right. But I am all about the idea of Muslims converting to Christianity, because I actually think that's the only bona fide peace solution that we have.
[00:37:09] Speaker C: Yeah, that was actually the shock headline of an article that you recently published.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
The solution for peace in Gaza is Jesus.
[00:37:23] Speaker C: That I'm sure raised some eyebrows, especially when they looked at the author name, Feldstein.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:37:30] Speaker C: Any pushback from either Muslims or Jews on that?
[00:37:36] Speaker A: From jewish friends? A couple of people told me that because of what I wrote and because there are Jews who are uncomfortable with even just speaking about Jesus and other things that I suggested, some people said basically defriended me, they said, please don't ever send me your emails again.
But most people who I've engaged, Jews and Christians, are intrigued enough to have a conversation and tell me if they think that I'm wrong.
But no one has a better solution. So if we go back to the movie argo from however many years ago, even though I think it happens to be a really solid solution, we can borrow the line from the movie Argo that it's the least. Oh, now I forgot it.
The best. Bad idea. But it's not a bad idea. It's a really solid idea.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: Do you happen to have any Palestinians that are willing to join for this global prayer?
[00:38:39] Speaker A: Good question.
There are a few who we've reached out to who will participate, but as of now, in terms of the hour by hour lineup, who's going to be praying live? No, we do have former Muslims, but not palestinian Arabs.
[00:38:59] Speaker C: Okay. Because I just also wonder how, you know, what if you get pushback from people when you say global prayer for Israel is there also that, do people immediately say, then what about for the Palestinians? What about for the Gazans and for the people who are dying? So I don't know if people ask.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: You these questions, the mission of the genesis one, two, three foundation that I run is to build bridges between Jews and Christians, and Christians with Israel. I'm all for dialogue and civil conversations and getting along and aspire to dream about and pray for peace, but my raison d'etre is not building bridges with Muslims. Jews and Christians share a biblical tradition. We share scripture. We worship the creator. And it's fine for other people to do that. But I'm specifically targeting. In fact, I have a very good friend who's a Muslim who I would have loved to invite, but I'm really keeping it true to what we're talking about, Jews and Christians coming together and. Yeah, so that's our nature. If someone else wants to bring Jews, Christians, and Muslims together, or Buddhists and Hindus and whoever, Baha'I and whoever else, that's fine with me. I might even participate, but that's not with the kind of event that I'm organizing.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: Okay. All right. So then what would you say is if there is one prayer that you want to hear for that night, for the global prayer for Israel, what would you say is, like, the most important prayer point for that event?
[00:40:37] Speaker A: I don't. That's a great question, Nicole, and I don't have a specific answer except as you ask the question.
First of all, I'll say two things. First of all, God doesn't need us. God can do whatever he wants with or without us praying, but he's giving us an opportunity. Prayer is his currency. Someone else I did an interview with recently said it's the greatest weapon we have against evil, and I subscribe to all of that.
But we need to show God that we care. And I believe God cares that we care, even though God has promised that he's going to continue to protect us, that this is not a passing phase with the jewish people in the state of Israel. Having said that, I think regardless of the actual prayer, what I'm really hopeful for is that Jews in general and Israelis in specific, will come away from this inspired seeing something that may, it may be honest to say, has never been done before. Nicole, I don't know that on such a global effort over so many hours, Jews and Christians have ever come together to pray like this. So for all of us who are feeling beaten up at war, mourning this week, mourning desperately this week and seeing what's going on on the campuses in the streets of Sweden and how the judges for for the Eurovision voted against Israel and all of these exhibitions of anti semitism and hostility to Israel's very existence.
My prayer is that Jews and Israelis come away encouraged, inspired, uplifted and I believe that will happen.
[00:42:22] Speaker C: Oh, that's great. Well, Jonathan, I just want to thank you very much for this. I am going to link to all of it, you know, the registration for, for this event, if people want to participate and also like how to be in touch with you website or whatever is the best. But thank you for your time and one thing for sure, we will be praying.
[00:42:49] Speaker A: Thank you. I'm looking forward to you joining Nicole and sharing this really widely.
I already know it's going to be powerful. I'm excited. You know, you and I stayed up a few weeks ago watching the rockets come in. Last night we stayed up watching this spectacular spectacle of the Eurovision and in a couple of nights I'm staying up till 02:00 in the morning to be inspired. I probably won't have an easy time falling asleep because I'll be really pumped up, but yeah, it's worth it.
[00:43:20] Speaker C: That's awesome. It's a sleepless country.
Thank you so much, Jonathan.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: Thanks, Nicole.
[00:43:36] Speaker D: Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation.
If you were interested in joining Jonathan's event, you can check out the link in the show notes and also there's a link to his infamous article as well.
Thank you so much for joining me here at the Inside scoop Jerusalem. I love the complications of this city and all of the various perspectives, opinions and aspects that are inherent within. And what's more, I love to share it with you. So thank you so much for joining me on this journey and tune in next week for the Inside scoop, Jerusalem.
