Is Israel a Racist Apartheid State?

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Well, hey there. You know, a common accusation against Israel these days is that it is an

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apartheid or racist state. Well, if that's true, how could Christians support Israel?

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Because we can't support racism. So it's a very important issue, and I want to give

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you the answers. So stick with me.

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Welcome to the Israel Answers series, Connecting Israel, the Bible, and You. Join Susan Michael

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as she explores timely issues and current events from a scriptural perspective to equip

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the Christian world with a balanced and biblical response. Be sure to subscribe for future

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episodes, which will ignite your faith in bringing the Bible to life in your everyday

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world. Now, let's join Susan with your Israel Answers.

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You know, Amnesty International just issued a report accusing Israel of being an apartheid

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state. Now, many people have expressed outrage against this biased report. Even some leaders

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inside Amnesty have admitted that it was very short-sighted. Nevertheless, we need to talk

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today what is an apartheid state and is this something that Israel is guilty of? Well, the

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word apartheid comes from the Afrikaans language spoken in South Africa, and it means separateness

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or apartness. And it is describing a legal system that once ruled in South Africa in

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which the white minority government had legally imposed separation of the races and outright

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discrimination. There was significant international outrage against this, and finally there were

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boycotts and there were sanctions. And it brought the government down. And in 1994, Nelson Mandela

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became the first black president of South Africa. Now, the apartheid regime in South

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Africa needed to be dismantled. It was a minority white government legalizing racial separation

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and discrimination of the majority black population in South Africa. The blacks could not inner

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white areas without permits. They couldn't own property. They couldn't study in mixed

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schools. It only could be in black schools. And they were actually intentionally given

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less education. And so it was outright legal discrimination and racism, and it needed to

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be brought to an end. But the accusation of apartheid against Israel is just absolutely

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not true. And before I give you the facts about Israel that are really going to refute

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this, I want to take a few minutes just to talk about, well, if it's not true, then

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why are they making this accusation? I mean, right? Where there's smoke, there's fire.

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Well, not always. There are such things as smoke machines. So let me get back to the

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subject. There is a few reasons I want to go over here about why this accusation keeps

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coming around and coming back around. And first is the accusation is actually anti-Semitic.

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So classic anti-Semitism throughout the centuries really blamed the Jewish individual for the

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ills of the world and kept the Jewish individual from being a full member of the human race,

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basically. Today there's a new form of anti-Semitism, and it actually is keeping the Jewish state

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from being accepted amongst all the states of the world. So it's the Jewish collective

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that is being discriminated against here. And that's why this accusation really oftentimes

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is coming from a position of anti-Semitism. Now, the enemies of Israel found that this

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accusation of being an apartheid state was actually very useful, because if the South

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African regime had been dismantled because of this, if they used the same accusation

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and painted Israel as an apartheid state, Israel too could be dismantled. And that's

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what is really behind this campaign. It's about bringing Israel as a Jewish state to

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an end. Now, this new form of anti-Semitism that is focusing on the Jewish collective,

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the Jewish state, it's a political expression of anti-Semitism. We call it anti-Zionism.

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And the anti-Zionism campaign calls for the delegitimization of Israel, the demonization

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of Israel, making it to look actually evil, and then to boycott and sanction this evil

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state in order to bring it to an end, to dismantle it. That's really what the campaign of anti-Zionism

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is all about. And so I just want to say that the accusation, this global campaign against

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Israel, implying that Israel is an apartheid state, it's not just propaganda. It's not

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just something that we can say, oh, that's just not true and ignore it. It's a very dangerous

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campaign because if they can succeed in making Israel look so bad that the international community

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believes they need to take action, it could really be very damaging to the future of the

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Jewish state. Now, we see this anti-Zionism campaign in the halls of the United Nations,

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the other international bodies here amongst left-wing organizations, and we see it on our

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college campuses. So every March on college campuses all around the world, there is what's

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called Israeli apartheid week. And it's a week to protest Israeli apartheid. And this week

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is so anti-Israel, it's anti-Semitic. Many Jewish students stay out of the way during

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apartheid week. They don't want to be seen because they don't want to be attacked. It's

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a dangerous anti-Semitic movement and there is a Palestinian organization that's behind

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it. There's a lot we could talk about there and maybe in a future episode we will. But

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for today's discussion, I just want to give you an overview of why there is a concerted

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campaign against Israel. What's behind this accusation of being an apartheid state?

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Now I want to give you a few facts about Israel. And I give you these facts as someone who's

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been traveling to Israel for over 40 years. And so I can attest that 20% of Israel's population

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are Arab. Almost 25% of Israel's population are not Jewish. But roughly 20% are actually

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of Arab descent. Most of them are Muslim and there is a minority, a Christian minority.

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Now so Israel's Arab citizens are a minority. Right here I want to stop and I want to explain

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to you something that is extremely important for you to understand. When we talk about

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Israel's treatments of the Arabs, we have to understand and this is something the Amnesty

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International Report completely mixed up and got wrong and didn't understand this differential.

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They didn't want to understand. There are two main blocks of Arabs that are the concern

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here. One are the Israeli Arabs, which are citizens of Israel and that is roughly 20%

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of Israel's population are Israeli Arabs. They have Israeli passports, they held Israeli

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citizenship and they afforded all the rights of an Israeli citizen. There is absolutely

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no apartheid there. And I will give you a few statistics in a minute. But there's another

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group of Arabs and these are the Palestinian Arabs that live in the areas under the Palestinian

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Authority government. Areas that are a part of, historically have been a part of Israel.

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But in the 90s Israel began a peace process called the Ozil peace process. And in this

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peace process, they actually set up a Palestinian government over the main population centers

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so that the Palestinian people were living under the authority of a Palestinian government.

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They didn't have all the land and all the territories in the West Bank, what we call

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the West Bank. But the population centers are all under the Palestinian Authority government.

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So they are not Israeli citizens. They are in a bit of a state of flux because their

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leaders will not negotiate peace with Israel, have not negotiated peace with Israel. So

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they're not a full fledged state. They don't have citizenship. And so this is the other

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group of Arabs. So most of the accusations against Israel are about the Palestinian Arabs.

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But because a lot of people mix this up, they don't really give a fair treatment of the

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subject. So let's take it one by one. Israeli Arabs that are Israeli citizens living in

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Israel proper. They have, they are full citizens. They vote. They have their own political parties.

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Right now a an Arab party is a part of the governing coalition in the government of Israel.

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There are Israeli Arabs that serve in the Israeli Foreign Service. They serve as diplomats

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and as ambassadors even. There are Israeli Arabs serving in the IDF. They can volunteer

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for it, but they're not required to serve in the army. But a lot of them volunteer to

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serve in the Border Patrol, which is like a police, a border police. There has been

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an Israeli Arab that was Miss Israel one year. There is an Israeli Arab serving in the Supreme

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Court as a Supreme Court justice. There are Israeli Arabs that are major athletic stars

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in Israel. There are actors and actresses that are Israeli Arabs. There are singers.

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You got to understand they have achieved so much in Israel that there is a move now amongst

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the Arab citizens of Israel to serve in the army because they understand the freedoms

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that they have that even in the other Arab countries they wouldn't have and they want

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to protect those freedoms. So they are now volunteering to serve in the Israeli army.

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Those are Israeli Arabs. Absolutely no racism, no apartheid. Now I will say this. The Israeli

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Arab minority in Israel has a special challenge unlike most minorities in other countries.

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Every country has its minorities and every minority struggles to have full rights. It's

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just a part of life. But the Israeli Arab minority has an extra little challenge that

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they have to overcome and that is the security challenge. They are part of an ethnicity and

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a language group that all the surrounding countries share who have been the enemies

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of Israel. Some are still a state of war with Israel. And so this Israeli Arab population

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sometimes come under undue suspicion. But it is also true that there are efforts by

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ISIS and other radical Islamic groups to radicalize Israeli Arabs through the mosque. And so just

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recently there were several terrorist attacks carried out by Israeli Arabs. This is in a

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way kind of a new development. It's a problem that Israel is keeping their eyes on. But

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it's because of outside forces radicalizing on the inside of Israel.

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Now let's talk about the Palestinian Arabs that are in the West Bank and then we'll talk

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about the Palestinians that are in Gaza, two slightly different situations. In the West

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Bank they are under the Palestinian Authority government and this government has pocketed

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billions of dollars that was sent to aid the Palestinian people. If you go to their capital

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city of Ramallah you will see great affluency, many huge mansions, shopping centers. There

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is so much money that has been invested in the Palestinians that you'll see there amongst

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the government leaders and the government circles. But the terrible thing, the travesty

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is that this Palestinian government has still kept Palestinian refugee camps in place in

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their territory. So there are Palestinians living as refugees with very high poverty

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level, with very high unemployment levels within the Palestinian territory. So you explain

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that to me. Is that Israel's fault? Absolutely not. But do they blame Israel every single

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time? Now we have a third group of Arabs and those are the Palestinians living in Gaza.

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The reason they're a little different is because they overthrew the Palestinian Authority

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government and they put into place a terrorist organization as their government and that

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is Hamas. So all of the money that has been flowing into Gaza, which is supposed to be

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helping the people, has been spent by Hamas at buying weapons, at building underground

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bunkers and tunnels and making plans to defeat and to destroy Israel. They don't care about

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the betterment of their people. It's a very, very sad situation there in Gaza. Most of

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the Palestinians living in Gaza would like to leave Gaza. But is that Israel's fault?

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And the answer is no, it is Hamas' fault. They've been given every opportunity to build a life

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for their people. Do you know Gaza is on the Mediterranean coastline? When Israel had Gaza

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under their control, they had beautiful farms and greenhouses and they were growing produce

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and shipping it out around the world. When they abandoned those fields and the hothouses

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and moved out in 2005, Israel moved out and turned it over to the Palestinians. You know

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what they did? They went in and destroyed the farms and destroyed the greenhouses and

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completely destroyed any opportunity of building that same industry for themselves. So this

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is what I'm saying. They could have built a Singapore on the Mediterranean coast. They

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could have built a Hong Kong on the Mediterranean coast. It would be a beautiful luxury resort

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place. But no, they have to put all their money into building underground tunnels and

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rocket launchers and rockets so that they can terrorize the people of Israel and launch

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rockets at them. So this is the situation of Israel and the Arab. So I want you to know

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that you can support Israel without any hesitation. Israel is not racist. They are not apartheid.

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They do have security concerns. But we would do the same if we had the same security concerns

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that they have. Now as I bring today to a close, I just want to add one little note

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to our Christian audience about supporting Israel and about being concerned for the Arabs.

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You know, God loves the Arab people and we as Christians should be concerned for the

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welfare of the Arabs, whether they're Israeli Arabs, they are Palestinian Arabs, or they

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are living in Gaza. We should pray for them. We should advocate for them to be freed of

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these, especially in Gaza, to be freed of this terrorist government. We should pray

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for the Palestinians in the West Bank that they would have leaders that are brave enough

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to come to the negotiating table and negotiate a deal with Israel. And we need to pray for

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their betterment, but make sure that we put blame where blame is due and we don't demonize

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the people of Israel by blaming them for something that is not really their fault. So that brings

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to a close today's teaching on Israel. Is it a racist apartheid state? I want to close

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by offering you two little offers. Stay tuned.

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Well, hey, give me one more minute. I have two very special offers for you. First is,

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all you ladies out there, we have scheduled a women's tour to Israel this November, November

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2nd through the 12th. I invite you to go with me to the land of the Bible. Let's walk the

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land, let's talk the Bible, let's have our faith restored and ignited and strengthened

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for the days in which we live. To sign up, I want you to go down below into today's

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show notes and sign up for our tour interest list. We will send you all the information.

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Or if it's easier, just call our tour's department line at 866-393-5890. That's 866-393-5890.

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I want to travel Israel with you. Now, my second offer is a free download that we have

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developed just for you called 10 Reasons for Christians to Support Israel. Over the coming

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weeks, I'm going to be talking about a lot of these reasons, but I want you to have this

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download so that you can be preparing yourself, that you can share it with your friends and

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colleagues and invite them to listen in each week as I will be going over some of these

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reasons and going a little bit farther into depth. So, in today's show notes, we link

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directly to this downloadable 10 reasons why Christians should support Israel. Or you can

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go to the out-of-zion-show.com landing page, click on Resources, and we should have a link

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there for you as well. So, take advantage of this free download, and I will see you back

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here next week, fully informed, ready to learn some more. Until then, God bless.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe

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to Out of Zion Now on Apple Podcasts, CPNshows.com, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen and

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learn. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA, All Rights Reserved.