Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2015
Reuven Rivlin was born on September 9, 1939, in Jerusalem. However, according to the Google search engine, Israel’s 10th president was born in “Palestine.” The Mayor of Ra’anana, Ze’ev Bielski, made…
Human Interest
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2015
French and German leaders have criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying Europe is no longer safe for Jews and encouraging them to move to Israel.
Selling Islam in America
When Tulsa, Oklahoma, police captain Paul Fields refused an order to attend a mosque, he was slapped with a two-week suspension and permanent demotion. Captain Fields resisted…
They Cry in Silence May/Jun 2015
A 12-year-old girl is still traumatized after her father, an imam, beat her and killed her 15-year-old sister for converting to Christ. Naigaga Saidah’s father, Imam Abudalah Ali, reportedly…
Life in a Land of Many Gods
Some 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul strolled through the marketplace in ancient Athens where a plethora of altars dedicated to manmade gods offered Athenians a smorgasbord of…
What Terrorists Want
In November, four Israelis—three of them Americans—were slaughtered in a synagogue in Jerusalem when Palestinians armed with guns, knives, and axes burst in during prayer and…
Bad Magic: Newsweek vs. the Bible
The first time I viewed the GEICO insurance ad on television, I chuckled. It flashes back to medieval times, where an elderly mentor peers into a big book of tricks then…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2015
The world accuses Israel of being an apartheid state, but it was Arab-Christian Israeli Supreme Court Justice Salim Jubran who oversaw the recent elections in Israel.
Is America a Christian Nation?
“More than 90% of Americans who express a religious preference identify themselves as Christians.” So said a December 2014 Gallup survey after interviewing 173,490 U.S. citizens.
Are the Blood Moons Signs?
Blood moons are a beautiful sight. These astronomical anomalies have become a hot topic for both backyard astronomers and Christians who consider them prophetic signs. Are the blood moons signs? Or are they…
Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2015
In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. In Gaza, it’s three strikes and keep the money coming. In October, about 50 diplomats pledged $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza. Strike one took place…
‘Jerusalem of Gold’
Few songs have epitomized the soulful pull of Jerusalem better than Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold.” Its debut at the Israel Song Festival was broadcast live on the country’s…
They Cry in Silence Jan/Feb 2015
Those of you who regularly follow persecution news may find it gets hard to read after a while. In response to reader requests on how to deal with so much horrific information, I’ll share how…
Remembering the Martyrs
On Sunday, January 8, 1956, Nate Saint’s watch stopped at 3:12 P.M. Five days later, his body was found downstream on the Curaray River in the jungles of South America. Ed McCully’s…
The Hero Invasion
The city of Houston ignited a Bill of Rights uproar a few months ago, and the controversy is not likely to die down anytime soon. It started when the Houston City Council, at the urging of…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2015
Suha Arafat, widow of the late terrorist and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, said recently, “We need to clearly express the recognition of Israel; no one can doubt…
Inside View Nov/Dec 2014
After Joseph’s brothers were reunited with him in Egypt, they began worrying he might seek revenge because they had sold him into slavery many years earlier. But Joseph…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2014
Do a computer search for “ISIS” and “Christians” and prepare to gasp in horror. ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or simply Islamic State) is slaughtering Christians in the Middle East…
Prelude to Apocalypse
Standing atop a mountain plateau in the stark Judean wilderness, one can look down at the remains of Roman siege camps that eventually trapped some 960 Jewish men…
From the Editor Nov/Dec 2014
I don’t often read fiction (unless it masquerades as news about Israel). But when Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code came out in 2003, I decided to pick up a copy and see what all…
World Watch List 2014
Open Doors USA serves the persecuted church around the world. Each year it ranks the 50 worst countries for Christian persecution. North Korea has headed the list for 12 years…
They Cry in Silence Nov/Dec 2014
The nightmare continues for prominent Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng and his family. When Gao was released from prison in China on August 7, no one heard…
Meet Me at the Manger
Nestled in the terraced Shepherds’ Fields on the approach to Bethlehem is a cave. I expect it is merely one of many where shepherds and townsfolk of bygone days found…
The True, Historical Jesus
Bertrand Russell was a 20th-century British philosopher and logician who rejected the idea of absolute truth. In his famous 1927 essay “Why I Am Not a Christian,” Russell wrote…
The Tax Man Cometh
A recent deal between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and an anti-faith activist group promises to threaten the religious free-speech rights of churches around the nation.
The Great Admission
Messianic fervor hit a high throughout the Orthodox Jewish world in the early 1990s. Banners trumpeted messages like “Messiah Is Coming,” “We Want Messiah Now,” and…
Up Close Among Suffering Nigerians
“I’m sorry, Mr. Johnson, but your life insurance application was rejected.” When I asked why, the agent explained: “On the questionnaire, your answer about travel said you are going…
Inside View Sep/Oct 2014
This issue of Israel My Glory examines the growing anti-Zionist movement within evangelical Christianity, especially among the Millennial generation—those born between…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2014
It is no coincidence that Hillary Clinton’s book Hard Choices was released in June, two years before the American presidential election. She is without a government job, so the…
We’re Still Here
Kiryat Shmona is Israel’s northernmost city, located near the Lebanese border in the scenic Hula Valley. Until hit by a rocket launched by terrorists from southern Lebanon…
Life at the Checkpoints
While Palestinian Christians complain obsessively about the so-called atrocities suffered at the checkpoints, Capt. Joshua Lazarus, a Messianic Jewish officer in charge of…
They Cry in Silence Sep/Oct 2014
Since the Islamic extremist Boko Haram kidnapped more than 300 Christian high school girls in April, it has been relentlessly attacking Nigeria’s Christians, who now are trying to…
What is Palestinian Liberation Theology?
When the State of Israel received its independence in 1948, many Arab-Christian clergymen abandoned the Old Testament because they believed it was too Zionist. In an effort…
Israel: Forever a Fact
On the cusp of a national election, the air is filled with promises. But when the election cycle ends and the ballots are tallied, we learn which promises have a shot at being kept…
Top 5 Flaws of the Israel Apartheid Movement
This year campuses across America held their 10th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). As the name suggests, the protest organizers aim to equate the government of Israel with…
Highway to Nowhere
When the hot days of summer began to descend, two significant legal issues were heating up in Washington. One was the well-known case involving Christian-run Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc….
The Art of Reframing: Palestinian Liberation Theology
Since Israel’s rebirth as a nation, violence against the Jewish people living in the land has continued with barely a lull. Israelis have lived through three wars of survival, two intifadas…
Dr. Ateek’s Rose-Colored Glasses
Naim Ateek is not a large man. He is slender, around 5 feet 7 inches tall, with white hair and a self-effacing, gentle look about him. He is not loud or aggressive, and he would…
Tiny Israel Brings Healing to a Big World
Anyone visiting the Dead Sea region in Israel is struck by the intensity of the heat. Hundreds of years of neglect by Gentile powers made much of the territory look something like…
The Thought Machine: It May Soon Be Reading Your Mind
Anyone who likes science fiction movies probably remembers Marty McFly’s attempts to get “back to the future.” Marty ends up in a time machine built from…
They Cry in Silence Jul/Aug 2014
Although U.S. officials and other global players were trying to help recover the girls kidnapped from a majority-Christian high school in Nigeria’s Borno state in April, scores…
Free Speech and the Well-Traveled Road
This year the White House has promoted two disconcerting proposals that would cede more power over the Internet to the international community. The result would undoubtedly…
Privacy in a Facebook World
Stories involving expanding government surveillance, increased law enforcement powers, and the bugging and tracking of American citizens have started appearing regularly…
Is One-World Currency Only a Click Away?
For many people today, online shopping is the way to go. You don’t have to fight traffic on the roads or wait in long lines. There are no crowded aisles, and the store never…
They Cry in Silence May/Jun 2014
Muslim herdsmen wielding guns and machetes attacked three villages in Kaduna state in March, killing more than 100 Christians and destroying homes. The attack came…
New-Wave Anti-Semitism
“Let’s burn the Jew!” No, the words were not taken from the yellowed pages of a Nazi manual on the mass genocide of innocent people. They were shouted in a…
Telling Tales
Everyone loves a good story. Today, perhaps the most powerful storytelling takes place on the silver screen. And 2014 looks as if Hollywood is casting its attention…
They Cry in Silence Mar/Apr 2014
One of the worst Christian massacres—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—took place in Syria in 2013…
Crimes of the Mind
Years ago I traveled to the Netherlands on a book tour for my novels. A well-known cartoonist had recently been arrested there and his computer seized by Dutch police…
Commemoration The Honorable Ariel Sharon
On the passing of the late Prime Minister of Israel, The Honorable Ariel Sharon, we, the Board of Trustees of The Friends of Israel, Bellmawr, New Jersey, USA, extend to his…
A Memorial Day Unlike Any Other
I can’t move. My legs are beginning to cramp, and I can’t move. Harriet and I have been wedged in a corner standing beside Michael’s grave for more than three hours…
Making Michael’s Dream a Reality
When thousands of people arrived for my son’s funeral in Israel and a memorial service in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 2006, we knew Michael’s death had affected…
Him or Us; You Decide
Can a nation survive long after an extended time of peace and prosperity? Americans should be asking themselves that question. We have reached a crossroads in our fight for life as we…
FOI Cosponsors Event in Manhattan
Park East Synagogue in New York City was the venue in October for an Honor Israel night, cosponsored by The Friends of Israel (FOI) and American Friends of Rambam Medical Center (AFORAM).
They Cry in Silence Jan/Feb 2014
The wounded mother of a 12-year-old girl killed at a Christian church wedding in October in suburban Cairo, Egypt, lay in a hospital bed recently, lost in anguish. Her daughter, Mariam Nabil Fahmy Azer…
Common Sense Has Left the Building
When 5-year-olds are expelled from class for pointing, school bus drivers refuse to intercede while teenagers pummel and bully children, and the Pledge of Allegiance and patriotic assemblies…
Why We Believe
Last fall author Joseph Atwill made a splash in London when he claimed the Gospels were faked by the Romans to quell a possible Jewish uprising. The theory, preposterous as it is, goes like this…
They Cry in Silence Nov/Dec 2013
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) probably should have read Proverbs 17:28 before telling the world via Fox News in September that Muslims who shout “Allahu Akbar!” are no different from Christians…
Who Weeps for the Children?
It was a rather strange occurrence. The church was filled to capacity night after night to listen to Dr. J. Sidlow Baxter, one of the last great pulpit orators to have settled in the United States from…
The Biblical Bottom Line
I was watching a television talk show one evening that centered on a discussion between the host, a well-known skeptic, and a spokesman for the “evangelical” left. Political and social issues…
NFL Hall of Famer Raymond Berry Speaks of His Love for Jesus and Israel
In football lore, it is the Greatest Game Ever Played. On December 28, 1958, in front of 64,185 freezing spectators who filled Yankee Stadium in New York City and another 45 million television viewers…
The Love of God is Greater Far
In 1096 in the city of Worms, Germany, Rabbi Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai composed a lengthy poem, Hadamut, extolling God. Tragically, that same year the Crusaders came to the city and murdered…
Eye On the Middle East Sep/Oct 2013
Though lacking the pizazz of typical rags-to-riches stories, the saga of the thousands of Ethiopians who have immigrated to Israel is one worth telling. In many ways, their experience is…
FOI’s 75th Anniversary Celebration
Five hundred people from all walks of life gathered at The Mansion in Voorhees, New Jersey, on May 30 to help The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry (FOI) celebrate its 75th anniversary and give…
They Cry in Silence Sep/Oct 2013
It is well known that Christians are being viciously persecuted in countries with Muslim majorities. Now, however, Muslim violence is spreading to areas where Christians are the majority, such as…
They Cry in Silence Jul/Aug 2013
A mass exodus of Christians is currently under way. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other. We are reliving the true history of…
The UN Arms Treaty and the U.S. Constitution
Times have changed. In ancient days, the poet Virgil began the Aeneid—his famous ode to national duty and military exploit—with the celebratory words, “I sing of arms.” In April, the UN…
FOI at 75—Looking Back to See the Future
The world has come full circle. Seventy-five years ago, Adolf Hitler was gearing up the greatest killing machine the world had ever known, implementing…
Milestones
Our mission at The Friends of Israel is focused. We are a worldwide Christian ministry communicating biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah, while…
They Cry in Silence May/Jun 2013
An angry mob of Muslims burned down almost 200 Christian homes in Pakistan in March, leaving nearly 400 Christian families homeless. International…
Providing for the Common Defense
To provide for the common defense is an artful, 18th-century phrase that some have tried to modernize to mean to “defend our country from other…
Inside View Mar/Apr 2013
The super-sized, thousand-mile-wide Hurricane Sandy set its sights directly at us here in southern New Jersey. I witnessed God’s incredible…
They Cry in Silence Mar/Apr 2013
Christians are targeted for persecution more than any other religious group in the world. And if something isn’t done soon to stem the situation in the…
Visit Our Blog, Tell Us What You Think!
As The Friends of Israel turns the bold age of 75 this year, we continue to hold fast to our mission to communicate biblical truth about Israel and the…
Looking for Elijah
Every seder table has an extra place set for the prophet Elijah. A specially designated wine cup, Elijah’s cup, is filled to the brim for him. Malachi 4:5 says…
Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2013
Going Up to Jerusalem with The Friends of Israel is never the same twice. I’ve been on our tour more than two dozen times, but our recent fall trip was unique. Here is a…
Going It Alone
A prominent Virginia physician went into a deep coma awhile back as a result of a life-threatening bout with meningitis. In 2012 his book about the experience was…
They Cry in Silence Jan/Feb 2013
When Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was finally released from prison in Iran in September 2012 after an ordeal of many years, people around the world rejoiced. They did…
The Big Convergence
Powerful evidence is mounting that we are in the middle of worldwide convergences—stunning unifications taking place across the planet on at least four fronts…
John Henry Patterson
In 1898, English engineer John Henry Patterson was sent to Kenya to build a bridge over the Tsavo River. But two ferocious lions were terrorizing and eating his workmen.
Molding the Next Generation of Anti-Semites
Incoming freshman Ariel Kaplan and his parents had no idea what they were walking into when they arrived on the campus of the University of California (UC), Berkeley….
Ariel and Israel Advocacy
Ariel is a native Californian. He considers himself moderately religious, though he possesses a strong Jewish identity due to his family’s affiliation with “modern Orthodox”…
They Cry in Silence Nov/Dec 2012
Violent attacks on Nigerian Christians continue to increase at an alarming rate, and they seem to be the work of the notorious, radical Islamist group Boko Haram, which has vowed…
Diary of a Wimpy Church?
Now that national elections are over, I have taken the time to reflect on a consistent theme in American politics of late: the presence (or absence) of civility in campaign…
Christians and the Right to Vote
Many Christians are loath to participate in the political process. Some write it off, espousing the notion that voting is a fruitless waste of time. Others say it’s all in the Lord’s…
They Cry in Silence Sep/Oct 2012
All Egyptian Christians should flee from Egypt, and they should never look back.” The stark warning came from a commentator in the aftermath of Mohammed Morsi’s election as Egypt’s new…
Rushing to the Future
Years ago, as a young Christian attending a large Midwestern university, I slipped into the meeting of a radical group on campus to check it out. A speaker talked about the leftist…
Radicalized Christians?
When Texas Congressman Al Green (D) chastised Rep. Peter King (R-NY) in June for holding Homeland Security Committee hearings on the radicalization of Muslims in America, he demonstrated how little…
Inside View Jul/Aug 2012
I rejoiced in the Lord as I flew home recently from Israel after leading our first adult-volunteer Hesed Project trip. In the two weeks our 13 team members worked at Kaplan…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2012
Jive talk is slang for deceptive or insincere speech. Los Angeles Lakers basketball forward Metta World Peace (Ron Artest) was jive talking when he said in April, “It was unfortunate…
A Declaration of Peace
History has a nasty way of repeating itself. And it’s happened again. Those of us who remember 1938 recall Britain’s then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain triumphantly waving a paper while disembarking…
Ministry Freedom in the Balance
When I read the e-mail in May from a legal webcasting group that regularly advises lawyers on current, but usually mundane, employment issues, I knew it was one more bit…
They Cry in Silence Jul/Aug 2012
Eleven Christians in India barely escaped death recently after Muslims barged into a home where they were praying and tried to kill them. The mob grew larger and larger until…
Camels, Gnats, and the Importance of Doctrine
Did you know a high percentage of Christians really don’t know what they believe? This excellent article takes a look at what’s important and what’s not.
Chester and the True Gospel of Christ
Chester tried and tried to change his ways, but he always failed. His life included drugs, alcohol, immorality, broken relationships, gambling, lying, and other evils. He had divorced his wife…
25 Years of Changing Lives
Joyful reunions, laughter, and sweet fellowship flowed at the recent 25th anniversary celebration of The Friends of Israel’s Institute of Jewish Studies (IJS). Alumni, faculty, staff, and friends gathered at Friends…
Why?
Israel is an exciting and exotic place to visit, with ancient biblical sites, beautiful scenery, luxurious hotels, and colorful cuisine. So why would a small group of American Christians take time…
Jim Showers Assumes Position of Executive Director
Dr. James A. Showers took the reins this month as president and executive director of The Friends of Israel (FOI), becoming only the fifth man to do so in the 74-year history…
Inside View May/Jun 2012
May 1 marks a transition in leadership at The Friends of Israel as Bill Sutter begins his retirement and I step into his role as president and executive director. We…
Christian Zionism—The Real Story
The heat is up on the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian dilemma. The current offensive touts a single state that eliminates Israel in favor of a Palestinian fiefdom…