Was Israel Founded on Stolen Land?

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Well, hey there. You know, a common accusation that is made against Israel is that it was

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founded upon stolen Arab land. If this is the case, then the very founding of Israel

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would be wrong. And why would Christians support this? So we need to take a closer look at

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this accusation and let's get to the bottom of things.

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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 world.

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Now let's join Susan with your Israel Answers.

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Well I remember a number of years ago speaking at a Christian conference and I was supposed

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to give a history of the founding of the state of Israel. And after my presentation, I remembered

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this young, probably college age young man came up to me afterwards and he was literally

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scratching his head, so puzzled. And he said, but I thought Israel was founded on stolen

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Arab land. And I said, well obviously that's not the facts. The facts don't support that.

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So today I want to talk about two things, land and population. So first I want to go

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back to quote the famous travel writer named Mark Twain. You know, he was also the author

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of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He went to the Holy Land in 1867 and he documented what

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he found in his book called Innocence Abroad. Now I just want to read to you a couple of

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very brief quotes of what he said about the area there then known as Palestine. He says,

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there's no timber of any consequence in Palestine, none at all to waste upon fires. It is a

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hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods

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the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies. Well when

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Mark Twain was traveling through the Holy Land, it was still a part of the Ottoman Empire

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and it had been for almost 400 years. That's how long the Ottoman Empire lasted. And the

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land of Israel had been a part of one Islamic Empire after another. All in total almost

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1300 years. It was considered an out of the way little backwater area that no one really

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cared about. The larger population center was in Damascus. So the area a lot of times

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was considered Syria slash Palestine and Jerusalem was nothing. It wasn't of any significance

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whatsoever. The Ottoman Empire charged very high taxes and one of the ways that they taxed

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farmers was by taxing their actual properties and that included trees. So trees throughout

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the Holy Land had eventually been chopped down and either discarded or actually used

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to pay taxes. The taxes were overbearing and over time the small farmer there in the area

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had eventually gone into debt, had been taken advantage of by money lenders charging very

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high interest rates and eventually their land was taken over by larger landowners that lived

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in places like Damascus or Cairo, far away cities. So they were absentee landowners, maybe

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even Beirut or Kuwait. Now during this time Jerusalem was a majority Jewish city but all

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the Jews were squeezed into the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. So Jerusalem was actually only

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what was inside the city walls. Today if you go with me to Israel, which I hope you will,

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you'll see just how small that walled in area is. That was the city of Jerusalem for hundreds

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of years. And finally in the late 1800s it got so crowded for the Jewish population which

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even though they were the majority of Jerusalem they lived in the one quarter known as the

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Jewish quarter which was an Ottoman system. So they, a few families moved outside of the

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old city walls and started the first settlement known as Petok Tikvah. And others moved across

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the hill and we began the neighborhoods outside of the old city walls there in the late 1800s.

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In the late 1800s we also had waves of Jews that began fleeing Russia because of the pogroms

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going on there and they moved to the Holy Land and they also began building settlements

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and they were farming communities. So what happened is that as Jews were moving there,

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building these farming communities, it was creating jobs and it was creating opportunities

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and an economy. And so the more Jews that moved into the area, the more Arabs that moved

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in in order to take those jobs. So in the late 1800s, early 1900s, an unskilled Arab

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worker in the area known as Palestine could make five times as much as their relative

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in Cairo or in Iraq working the same type of job. Now let's look at population and then

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we're going to look at land. So the population, as I said, these two populations were increasing.

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So in 1922, the population of the whole area of today is known as Israel then Palestine

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was 700,000. And over the next 23 years, the next census, 1945, it was up to 1,700,000.

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So it had more than doubled in size. The Muslims were the largest community and they had grown

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from 589,000 to 1,000,000, which is 60% of the population in 1945. The Jews had grown

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from 83,000 to 550,000, which means they made up 31%. The Christians were next at roughly

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8% in 1945. So what does this mean? This means that the Muslim community had increased by

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500,000 and the Jews had increased by about 470,000. The only difference being here that

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the Muslims, a lot of their increase was due to their high birth rate, but also it was

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augmented by immigration. The Jewish increase was by and large more immigration, less birth

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rate as compared to the Muslims. But both communities were growing at a very similar

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rate. Okay? Now I want to talk about land. So as the Jews were moving into the area,

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they began purchasing land. Most of the land that they purchased were through organizations

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and these organizations were collecting donations around the world in order to purchase the land

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on behalf of the Jewish community. And they were largely buying tracts of land from these

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absentee land owners. Most of the land that they were buying was uncultivated. It was

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swampy. It was rocky. And it was sandy. It was not good land. However, once they started

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purchasing the land, then the prices started going up. And in a way, there was price gouging,

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just to give you a comparison, that the Jews were paying roughly $1,000 an acre in Palestine

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for this arid and semi arid land. While in the same year, black, rich soil of Iowa was

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being sold for $110 an acre. So that means it was costing 10 times as much to buy land

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that was uncultivated, that was desert land. It was really price gouging. But nevertheless,

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that's how the Jewish community was purchasing the land. Now in 1948, when Israel was formed,

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most of the land that became a part of the state of Israel was what's known as public

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land. So they had been owned by the Ottoman Empire and had been passed on to the British

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under mandate until the British then transferred it legally to the new state of Israel in 1948.

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So 70% of the land that the state of Israel was born on was public land. It had never

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been owned by any Arabs. It had been owned by the Ottoman Empire and passed down to this

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new state of Israel. The remaining 30% was divided up between land that had been purchased

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by individual Jews and these Jewish organizations, land that had been owned or that was owned

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by Arabs. And then there was a percentage of the land that had been abandoned by Arabs.

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So let me review. 30% of the land was these three types of land and I can't give you

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an exact percentage. It would take a lot more research. I found a little bit of conflicting

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numbers here, but we know that large tracts of land had been purchased by the Jews. And

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then the Arabs that stayed in Israel owned about 7% or 8% of that 30% or 7% or 8% of

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the land, I should say. So really, if you want to round it out, if you want to come

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up with some percentage, maybe 10% of the land that Israel was born on was land that

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had been owned by Arabs and they had fled and abandoned the land and therefore it was

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taken over by Israel, by Jewish inhabitants. So that's the real issue here. It's not the

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land the Jews bought or that was transferred to Israel or even that the Arabs continued

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living there. The real bone of contention here is this small percentage of land that

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had been abandoned by its former Arab owners. So the question is, why did they abandon the

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land? And once again, there's several reasons. One is that the neighboring Arab countries

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and the Arab leaders had told them to flee because these Arab armies were going to come

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in, they were going to destroy the Jews, there was going to be blood in the streets, and

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as soon as they had defeated the Jews, they would be able to return to their homes, of

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course. So a lot of them fled expecting the armies to come in and the armies never came

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in and defeated the Jews. Secondly, it was a war zone. So just right now we have in the

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news about the crisis in Ukraine. It's a war zone. So what's happening? So far, I think

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10 million people have fled their homes. This is what happens when there's war. And so there

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were Arabs that fled their homes because it was war. They wanted to go where it was safe

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for. And then there were a few instances, there were some instances where the Jewish

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forces actually forced an evacuation of an Arab village because of its location on the

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border. It was for security means. And it wasn't that Jewish individuals were going

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and pushing Arabs out of their homes and taking them over. By and large, it was a military

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operation for security. And what happened is that these Arabs that did flee their homes

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and abandoned their homes, what they thought was temporary, well, because they lost the

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war, they ended up on the other side of a boundary of a ceasefire line, of a boundary

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for the nation of Israel. And they weren't allowed back in. They were on the enemy side.

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They had in a way sided with the enemy by going into their territory. And so even if

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they had wanted to return to their homes, they weren't able to. So this is the abandoned

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land. It's a small percentage. And it's even a smaller percentage of those that were actually

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forced out of their home. But there are real grievances we have to admit. In war, terrible

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things happen. There are injustices in every war. And there are injustices in this story.

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And there were 500,000 to 700,000 Arabs that did leave their homes, go into the surrounding

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Arab countries and became what we would call refugees. But there's another side to this

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story. There were also roughly 700,000 Jews who were living throughout these Arab countries

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that when Israel was founded, they became very persecuted and their lives were in danger.

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They had to flee. They also became refugees. They had to leave their homes, their properties,

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their businesses. They left with the coat on their back. Some of them walked to the Holy

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Land and became refugees in Israel. But of course, that was very temporary status because

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Israel absorbed all of the Jews coming there, made them citizens. They were able to build

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homes. They're no longer considered refugees. But the Arab refugees that had fled their

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homes into the Arab countries were not absorbed by the Arab countries, were kept in a refugee

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status. So in a future episode, I'm going to talk a little bit more about the refugee

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status. But for now, this clarifies that at least 90% of the land that the state of Israel

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was founded on was legally obtained one way or the other. And the other, let's say roughly

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10%, it may be 5%, it may be 12%, but somewhere in there was abandoned property. And in any

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war when this happens, other families move in. It happened all throughout Europe after

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World War II. Many Jewish homes were just taken over by others. It happened in the Arab

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world. It happened in Israel. But this clarifies that Israel as a state was not founded on stolen

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Arab land. It was founded on legally obtained land with a small percentage of what we might

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call disputed properties and the consequence of injustice that happens in war. So I hope

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that that helps you to understand about the populations and the land. Next week, we're

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going to talk about another serious accusation against Israel that Israel is a racist state.

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So until then, God bless, and I'll see you back here next week.

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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 show

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

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it's easier, just call our tours 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 developed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.