Americans For The Defense of Israel: A Night of Solidarity

[Music] [Music] We are very honored tonight to have with us a man representing Israel, the face of Israel to California, Yaki Lopez. Recently, he assumed the position of Consul for Political Affairs at the Consulate General's office in Los Angeles. Here for Israel, Deputy Ambassador, he once served to Nairobi, Kenya, with jurisdictions in various East African nations. Yaki spearheaded an unprecedented trilateral initiative between Israel, Germany, and Kenya, aimed at improving the livelihoods of the Kenyans by solving issues of hunger and food insecurity. After his service in the elite special forces of the Israeli IDF, Yaki attended the University of Maryland, where he graduated with a degree in Business. Upon his return to Israel, he worked for one of Israel's largest investment firms as a marketing consultant. He was born in Guatemala. Lopez, part, I take it, to a family of Israeli diplomats. Yaki has lived in five countries and speaks four languages fluently. He joined the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2010, and he began his work at the Division of Strategic Affairs, where he managed issues of regional security. He's a third-generation career diplomat and is happily married with two young daughters. Please give a warm welcome to Yaki Lopez.

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much, Pastor Jack. What a warm welcome. This is truly, truly amazing to be here on stage with these flags in the background, to hear the national anthem of my beloved country, Israel. It's just truly amazing. I'm, I'm so grateful and thankful to, to, and thank you, Pastor Jack, for your unwavering support and friendship and love for the state of Israel and for the Holy Land. I'd like to recognize Congressman Gary Miller. Thank you for being with us this evening and thank you for your staunch support over the state of Israel over the years. Yes, sir. And Mr. Dennis Prager, I, I don't know if you're aware of this, but you are almost a rock star in Israel. Your, your videos are going viral all over the place, and everybody is just really, truly, truly amazed. So thank you for, for the really incredible and brilliant articulation of the values of Israel. You know, so everyone out there should know exactly what we stand about. Thank you.

As I mentioned, I'm really honored to join all of you here. And particularly, it's an honor to be here in this difficult time. And it has been a difficult time for the state of Israel, but we are comforted. We're comforted by the support that we receive from Christian communities around this country, communities such as this magnificent community standing here before, sitting here before me. I have to tell you that your voices and your prayers are heard all over the Holy Land. They are heard all over the holy city of Jerusalem, and the people of Israel hear you and they are thankful.

This last conflict in Gaza was a hard one. It lasted for 51 days, where we had to suffer relentless firing of rockets, missiles, and mortar attacks against our innocent civilians. Hamas attacked Israel by land, by air, by sea. They dug deadly terror tunnels underneath the ground to try to infiltrate into Israel with the sole purpose of killing men, women, and children. Almost 5,000 missiles, rockets, and mortars were fired at us in less than two months. 5,000. 32 of these horrific tunnels were dug underneath our borders. And it's ironic, it's very ironic that Hamas not only targeted the Jews living in Israel, they targeted the thousands of Christians living in Israel. They targeted, again ironically, the hundreds of thousands of Muslims living freely within the borders of Israel. They even sent their rockets at the holy city of Jerusalem. But despite the hardships and despite 72 casualties, among them 66 brave soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces and six civilians, among them a four-year-old boy, we prevailed. The ceasefire that was reached last week is lasting, uh, in the last few days, and we're happy with that. We are hopeful that this one, which followed 11 other ceasefires that were broken by Hamas, we are hopeful that this one will last because we are a peace-loving nation. We seek peace, and we love peace, and we want peace. But we must remain vigilant, as we have remained in the last 66 years of our existence. Just in the last few days, we, we've seen factions of Al Qaeda knocking on the doorsteps of Israel in the Golan Heights on the Syrian border. So the danger is out there, and we remain vigilant. Our forces are on alert.

Terror and persecution are a common burden shared by Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Middle East. Christians throughout the region are persecuted. The Maronite Christians are oppressed in Lebanon. They are not allowed to practice their religion freely. They are even attacked and killed by the terror organization of Hezbollah. The Coptic Christians in Egypt are persecuted. Their churches and houses of worship are burnt down to the ground, and they are also physically attacked. In Syria, just horrific sites coming out of that country. It has become a tragic war zone where almost 200,000 people, men, women, innocent children, have been killed in the last two years. Many of them by chemical weapons. In Iran, Christians can't practice their religion freely, and those converting to Christianity are charged with apostasy. They are jailed, they're tortured, and they are often executed. This terrible phenomenon, which we've all heard about in the news, even as late as, as this morning, we saw another horrific video of, of an, this poor journalist, which was beheaded. They persecute anyone who is not Sunni Muslim. Even Muslims themselves are persecuted and killed by ISIS, and they're committing these barbaric acts of terror, beheadings, crucifixions, really horrific sites. And what, what we say, and our message to all of you and to everyone out there is that Hamas equals ISIS. They are both branches from the same poisonous tree. They're both Sunnis, and they both seek the destruction of what is free, what is good, and eventually also the, the destruction of Israel.

But in the midst of this persecution and turmoil, in the midst of this havoc and mayhem, there is one beacon of light in the Middle East. There is only one safe haven where Jews, Christians, and Muslims can practice freely, and this is the state of Israel. Israel is the only country in, in the Middle East that guarantees freedom of religion and equal rights for all citizens. Now, what all this means, what every, everything that I've discussed means, is that all of us, Americans, Israelis, Jews, Christians, must stand united against terrorism. We must create a fortified wall, a fortified front against the extremists. Now, this has been a difficult and trying time for the people of Israel, but we are not broken, nor will we ever be broken. For the scriptures, the scriptures in the book of Isaiah promise us that no weapon formed against us will prosper, that any tongue which rises against us will they themselves be condemned. For those who curse Israel are in turn cursed by God, in accordance to the Abrahamic Covenant.

In this last conflict, we had a truly amazing and sophisticated system protecting us, a system which saved countless lives in Israel. The Iron Dome system, developed, developed in Israel and largely funded by the United States. Amen. Iron Dome is an example of the everlasting bond which ties our two nations together. The US support for Israel continues to be strong on all levels. The economic cooperation is robust, as trade continues to grow, leading to the creation of jobs both in Israel and the United States. The political relations between our two countries remain strong, as we are witnessing continued bipartisan support from both sides of the aisle. Even as the rockets were raining down on us, the United States approved emergency funding for Iron Dome of $225 million. Once again, a bold and true statement of support for the state of Israel, and we are forever grateful for that. But our protection doesn't only come from Iron Dome, it comes from a much stronger dome, the dome of God watching over us. There is no stronger protection than the dome of the Almighty, and no evil can breach this dome.

The historic friendship between Christians and Jews is rooted in a common foundation of faith and belief. Christianity was birthed out of Judaism, and thus we are united as one for eternity. We share the same values, the same sense of history, and the same belief in God. Amen. Christians have been our biggest supporters and staunchest allies since the birth of our state in 1948. Many key supporters of Zionism came from the US, even some of them from this very area itself. The unwavering support of the American people, both in times of peace and times of conflict, has been critical in ensuring not only Israel's very existence, but also in ensuring that we prosper in our own democratic, free nation, the one and only true home for the Jewish people, with Jerusalem as its eternal and undivided capital.

The book of Isaiah reads, "For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Yes, I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God." And this is from the Book of Ezekiel, not Isaiah. Zionism is the story of a prophecy fulfilled, as millions of Jews who have yearned to return to their land after thousands of years, indeed returned to the land promised to them by God. They've managed to create a flourishing oasis filled with innovation and creativity, filled with ingenuity in technology, in health, in education, and in agriculture, and all of this in the heart of a barren desert. And this time in the book of Isaiah, we read, "I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it."

I would like to end by thanking once again Pastor Jack for your hospitality in this beautiful house of God. And let me finish off by reciting an excerpt from the prayer for the state of Israel: "Our Father in Heaven, Rock and Redeemer of Israel, the first manifestation of the approach of redemption, shield it with Your loving kindness, envelop it in Your peace, and bestow Your light and Truth upon its leaders, ministers, and advisers, and grace them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the hands of those who defend our holy land, grant them deliverance and adorn them in a mantle of victory. Ordain peace in the land and grant its inhabitants eternal happiness. Amen." Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Excellent. Yes, thank you. Excellent. Isaiah and Ezekiel, all of it. Fantastic. I love it. How do you introduce, uh, a very good friend? I'm supposed to stick to some of these introductory notes, but Congressman Gary Miller is not only a brother here at this church, but he's a brother in my heart. I had a chance to drive a little bit around Washington D.C. and hear him, uh, like a history book regarding the Persian Empire and regarding the kings of Israel. It's just impressive, and I love this guy. Uh, tonight he's sitting right here, but on Sunday mornings, he's sitting right about where Ed is seated right now. And it's amazing. Congressman Gary Miller is proud to represent California's 31st District in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington D.C. He's the vice chairman of the Finance Service Committee, committee which oversees United States banks, stock exchange, real estate market, and insurance industry. Congressman Miller is also a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees the nation's highways. Can you imagine this job? Highways, railroads, airports, and water infrastructure. Amazing. Congressman Miller was born in Arkansas but grew up in Southern California. In his early 20s, he founded the G. Miller Development Company, and he met his wife, Kathy. They married in 1972 and raised three children and three children, three sons, excuse me, and one daughter. As his family grew, so did his businesses. G. Miller Development expanded from building single homes, custom homes, to eventually developing planned communities. Congressman Miller has served in local government as a city councilman and mayor. In 1995, he was elected to the State Assembly. During his time in Sacramento, he served as chairman of the budget committee, where he helped enact and fund, listen to this, the first class-size reduction for California's schools and a balanced budget that reduced the business tax rate to 1973 levels while maintaining a $310 million reserve. We need Congressman Miller back in California. Give a warm welcome to my good friend, Congressman Gary Miller.

I can't believe you read my bio. I hate those. You know, I haven't seen you in a jacket. You did since you did the opening prayer for Congress. You, you dress up pretty good. You really do. And I am, I am a history buff. I, I, if you go to my office in Washington, there's bookcases full of books, and they're all history books. And I have a, um, Centennial History Book, and it's signed by all the presidents that were in existence since I've been alive, and by Gorbachev and Putin and Prince Charles, for one purpose: to have my children fight over it when I die. And they're going to do that. How many of you believe you're students of history? Raise your hands. Okay. How many of you are Christians? Have you read the dates inside your Bible? You are students of history. You can't be. But in order to understand Israel, you have to broaden the perspective beyond just being a student of the Bible. You need to learn. It's important to learn the lessons of history, not just to be a student of history. And the decisions we make today and in the future should be based on a historical perspective. And I know when I was back in Israel in '01, we had a, uh, individual guiding us around Jerusalem and Israel. And he, um, he knew the Bible unbelievably well, but he wasn't a Christian and didn't believe in the Bible. He said, "It's a great history book, but it can be a great history book." And history can be a great study, but if you don't apply it to your life and to decisions you make and the understanding, specifically of the Middle East, um, you're making a huge mistake. And if you are a student of history, you will find that human nature never changes. We can argue things are different today, and we have the luxury of living in a cocoon in this country. And, uh, all things are beautiful here, you know. They, um, but let's just look at history from Israel, from recent future. In fact, let's go back in this country just 10 or 11 years. How many of you remember when you bought a house, it would always be worth more money the next day? Remember that? But we didn't even look at the '70s, '80s, and '90s to understand what a fallacy that was. And if you look at history today, and you don't understand it, apply it to Israel, you cannot understand Israel, the Middle East. Let's go just in the past few years. But Israel is the only nation on the earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and it worships the same God as it's done for the past 3,000 years. That's important. But May 14th, 1948, the state of Israel declared its independence and formed a new state. And the US was, is the first group to step forward, and 11 minutes after its creation, we endorsed the state of Israel. But they're very rapid there. The very next day, May 15th, they were invaded by five neighboring Arab countries. So they don't waste time in Israel to do anything. And if you look, since they were formed, there has never been a decade without conflict. They have been at some kind of aggression with their neighbors every decade since that time. If you ask people in this room, they would say think that freedom or liberty would be a universal value. That makes sense, doesn't it? Everybody in this room believes in freedom. Everybody believes in liberty. But you need to understand the true definition of liberty to begin with. There's national liberty. That's freedom of a people from foreign dominance. And even North Korea and Russia have the benefit of national liberty. Then you have political liberty. That starts to narrow it down rapidly. That's the right of the people to govern themselves under laws they give themselves. Then you have individual liberty, and that's the right to live as he or she chooses, as long as he or she doesn't infringe on the rights of another individual. And when you add all three of these together to understand true liberty, there's only a few countries on this globe that really you can say are free and have liberty. But there's no word on liberty in certain parts of the world. In fact, the birth of liberty was September 21st, 490 BC. And you say, "What is 490?" You see, it was the battle on the field of Marathon, when you had 9,000 Greek volunteer soldiers and a thousand from a neighboring city-state go against King Darius of Persia, which at that time Israel was part of the kingdom of Persia. And they faced 26,000 of the finest infantry in the world and the finest archers, without a doubt, plus 5,000 heavily armed soldiers on horseback. And they routed them. But it's at that point in time, there wasn't even a word in the language for, for freedom or liberty. In fact, if you went to Egypt, they didn't have any idea what that meant. There was one word in Samaritan and Persian that was used about a temporary liberty granted by a king or ruler that could be arbitrarily taken away from an individual. There was no understanding what freedom was at that point in time. In the Middle East, often historians refer to it as a graveyard of empires. And you say, "What does empire have to do with anything?" And we'll get on empires as we go along. The only country that's went to the Middle East and fought that has not tried to create empire was the United States of America. World War II, in Afghanistan and Iraq, we didn't seek empire dominance. We went there for freedom, and because it was our national security. But Israel in the Middle East stands alone on one issue. They're a beacon of democracy and freedom. On the other hand, we look at ISIS and Hamas. They seek control of the Middle East. The last time I studied history, I believe that if you abducted a citizen from a country for no other reason than he's a citizen and executed him, it was an act of war against the country. But our administration doesn't seem to see it that way. But if you truly study history, you'll prove it proves to you that power and dominance is the universal value and the creation of empire, and it's challenged only by democracy. Before we really do an overview of what's happening, let's look at the 20th century. The 20th century, and we, we say democracy is great. How many think democracy is wonderful? If everybody was democratic, it'd be great. Do you realize the 20th century was the most democratic century in history? Do you all agree? And it was the bloodiest. Think about it. The reason, if you went to war with a country that had a monarch, a king, a ruler, and you conquered them, and they, they surrendered, the war was over. Not so with a democracy. You can have a leader either die or be replaced in office, and the war continues. And the 20th century was the bloodiest century in Israel, in history. When Israel is attacked by an enemy that has rocket launchers in residential neighborhoods, stores, rockets in mosques and schools, uses women and children as basic shields, how often you hear them criticized? But when Israel is forced to defend itself, critics line up and call them aggressors. They accuse them of murdering women and children. Now, just last week, Great Britain has raised their terrorists to severe. Think about that. This should be a huge warning to the US that we're next, just if no other reason based on history. And our administration acts like it can't happen here. As to ISIS, the administration has no strategy. As to the Ukraine, we have no, no opinion. Now, clearly, we haven't learned one lesson from history. Let's look at history. The common thought in 1914, you, what happened in 1914? Remember World War I? That there could never be a major war in Europe. And there was many reasons why. First, it was the greatest age of technology in history. Think about it. And they had telegraph, telephone, movies, um, we united the world through this process. The people were also the best educated. We had a global economy, free trade, free market economy. The US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Italy all enjoyed a balance of power. The weapons, they were too advanced. There's no way people go to war. You had the machine gun. One of the inventors of the machine gun said, "I invented it to eliminate war in the future because it was so devastating on the battlefield." They had airplanes, poison gas, WMDs, you've heard of that, and advanced artillery. I mean, war would be so destructive that it could never happen. And it would, this was a global opinion. Then June 28th, 1914, a terrorist from Serbia happened to shoot and execute the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and within moments, the world changed. Now, to prove that we learn nothing from history, if you just looked at our Civil War, you would realize what happens with Napoleonic warfare. You don't get out there and mass charge an enemy with rifles because they will kill you. That's how World War I started. They went out there and they massed charged. They had heavy artillery bombardment first, and they put thousands of soldiers out there to face machine guns, and 11 million soldiers died in a matter of years. That's not as bad. But you have to think, why did Japan start World War II? For power and empire. And I said earlier that it is not freedom. Why did Germany get involved in World War II? For power and empire. In Europe alone, 60 to 80 million people were killed. The Allied troops and forces went in and mass-bombed Germany, killing women and children. Were there any criticisms for fighting evil at that point in time? Yeah. When Israel defends themselves, what have they done? They're criticized continually. The terrorists in Gaza fired over 5,000 rockets that we just said in the last conflict alone. It's clear that Hamas and its patrons bear sole responsibility for this conflict. Hamas is evil, and Hamas's intentions are evil. Simply put, Hamas wants to eliminate Israel, and they admit it publicly. This is terrorism, and it means Hamas is using an archive of terrorist ends to create evil in the, in the basically Middle East. Hamas preaches murder of Jews and destruction of Israel. And I, I brought notes because he said I only had so many minutes to speak. Now, what does it mean when a politician or preacher does this to their wife? Watch. Absolutely nothing. So I brought notes. Now, Hamas stands behind women and children. Now, think of this. When 5 million innocent Israelis wake up every morning in the threat of deadly rocket attacks, they have a right to protect themselves, as we have a right to protect ourselves. When a boss calls for the destruction of Israel, the people have a right to respond. And Congress stands behind them as they do that. That response, the House and Senate passed six bills in support of Israel in July and August alone. Apparently, standing with Israel is one of the few things we can agree on in Capitol. But we agree on that at this point. We agree the American Israeli people share a special friendship based upon common beliefs and ideas of freedom, religious tolerance, and democracy. We support Israel by funding the Iron Dome. Israel could continue to defend themselves despite Hamas's determination to target civilians. Israel's missile defense defense system is a primary reason why Israel's population has not suffered higher casualties. In conclusion, that means I'm almost done. Terrorism, and this is serious, cannot and will not be tolerated around this world, and we will continue to stand with Israel as it defends itself against terrorists. I want to thank you, Pastor Jack, for the night of solidarity. Let us come together as Americans to condemn the terrorist attacks against the people of Israel. These attacks are unwarranted and unprovoked, and they must be stopped at all costs. ISIS has one purpose. They want to control the Middle East. They want power, and they want empire, period. They've proven it. And I started off with empire. I want to conclude the importance of understanding what they're doing today, what's happening in the Middle East. Let's send the people of Israel a strong message that Americans are steadfast in our support. Amen. Tonight, let us stand united in the message that Israel is our friend, and Israel's enemies are our enemies. Now, may God bless this wonderful country, and God bless our ally, Israel. Thank you.

Thank you. [Music] You know, he's retiring. I know, but that's, you're not old. He, uh, he mentioned the other day, he said, "How much time do I have?" And I said, "Well, look, we have a schedule, but you're my buddy, and you have as much time as you need." And he said, "Don't ever say that to a politician or a preacher." And I said, "I'm not saying it to a politician or a preacher. I said, I'm, I'm saying it to a statesman." We need that kind of biblical worldview in Washington. We need more of him. You guys may be thinking, if you're just kind of, you've stumbled in here so to speak, and you're wondering what's, uh, you know, what's going on, and what's with the American flag and the Israel flag on the stage? And, you know, I don't know how much you know about this, but when you begin to look at the rise of empires or states or nations in the world, there is a reason why there are two that stand out from all human history, and that is Israel, and that is the United States. Where the founding was based upon a move of God. Now, what is interesting to me, and sometimes troubling for me, is the way I understand my my Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I don't see personally a clear reference in the Bible mentioning the United States. I don't see it there. But when you read from Genesis to Revelation, it's all about Israel. It's all about Israel. And so when you look at troubling times like we have right now, people will often ask me, "You guys going to Israel again?" "Yes." "Oh, is it, you know, is it dangerous?" "Well, yes." "Oh, that's why we don't go." "Oh, no, no, that's not why." I'm not. No, listen carefully. It's dangerous when you drive from Chino Hills to LAX. The most dangerous part of getting into Israel is going down the 105 Freeway. Because I've got to tell you, once you're aboard El Al Airlines, which is Israel's absolute, in my opinion, the best airline in the world, and then when you get, I don't know, first time we ever landed in Tel Aviv, I felt a strange sensation. And Lisa and I, in fact, the entire tour felt the same. As remarkably, we felt like we were home. And so much so that my children at the time, our children, who've been many, many times to Israel, they never wanted to come back home to the States. So what I'm saying, for those of you who've been to Israel, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But it is an, it is a pearl in the middle of the Middle East, and you need to go. If you've never been, you got to go. You've got to see this land. Think of this. Would you like food? Then go to Israel. You've got a people group who have been dispersed throughout all the nations of the world, just as the, just as Moses did, by the way, in the book of Deuteronomy. He said, "If you don't, God said, if you don't obey me and follow my ways and reject me, he said, I will send you out to the ends of the earth until you come back to me." And that's exactly what happened. But when, as Yaki mentioned, as God brought the Israelis back into their land in the Zionist movement, and even now still today, God is bringing back a people that has, they've kept the language, they've kept the culture, they've kept the faith. And listen, no nation on Earth has the promises that Israel has. I wish America had the promises, but we do not have them. Let's be honest. We don't have them. Israel has all the promises, and they will, God says in his word, that once he brings them back into their own land, they shall never again be uprooted. Israel, according to the Bible, has got some tremendous times ahead of them. But the prophet Joel, and the prophet Amos, and Isaiah says they'll never go anywhere. Isaiah chapter 43 tells us that he will, listen, God will, in the last days, he says, "I will shout out to the South, and I will say, my people are coming home." He said, "I will go to the East and speak to the East, and the East, they will see my people come." And listen, to the West, "My people shall come back home from the West." And then he says, "And I will command." It's a strong military term in the Hebrew. "I will command the North to let my people go." And I remember that being, I remember getting goosebumps and hearing when, when Ronald Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall," and all of that amazing thing. And when all of, when I, we began to see so many tens of thousands, for example, of Russians come out of a city where we've planted, I think, six churches in St. Petersburg alone, we saw native-born Russian Jews get up and leave and go home to Israel for the first time in their lives. It's a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Think of it. Somebody might say, "Can you prove the existence of God?" I believe I could prove the existence of God in a lot of ways, but I can say one word that proves the existence of God, and that is Israel. There's no doubt about it. So listen, as Dennis gets ready to come on out, I want you guys to, um, be very aware. All Israel wants to do is exist. They want to be left alone. But when there is, is a religion and an ideology that is devoted and committed to their destruction, spends all their waking hours thinking and plotting destruction, the existence of Israel is not only biblical, it's a prophetic promise of God. And I, as a Christian, look, my dad was, uh, German, my mom, Portuguese. I was born in San Diego. I guess you can't get any further from Israel as possible. But on June 20th, 1977, when I stumbled into a church in Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and heard Chuck Smith, who loved Israel, when he began to talk about Israel, when I heard the gospel that came from Israel, I was convinced there was something about my heart that immediately had a kindred spirit with Israel. And I don't know how you could read your Bible and not understand that we're living in amazing days. Keep your eye on Israel. It is God's timepiece.

Dennis Prager is a best-selling author, a writer, and America's most respected, and I love that, yes, he's greatly heard, but he's America's, in my opinion, he's America's most respected radio talk show personality. He has been or has appeared on various, uh, television programs such as Fox and Friends. He's been on Red Eye and Hannity. He has, uh, conducted a speaking and lecture series schedule that is amazing. Even now, it's impressive that we even had a chance to get him here tonight. He is, as I said, a writer. He's, uh, been published and read nationally and internationally, including some of those publications such as The Weekly Standard and The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Prager is a fellow at Columbia University's School of International Affairs, where he did his graduate work in Middle East and Russian institutes there. He has taught Russian and Jewish history in Brooklyn College, or at Brooklyn College. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, that I might add, came from California, was once a governor here, remember everybody, to the U.S. delegation to the Vienna Review Conference on the Helsinki Accords. Mr. Prager owns a, holds a doctorate of law from Pepperdine University. And in 2011, Dennis Prager co-founded with Alan, I hope I say his name right, Prager University, which I asked Dennis not to be shy about asking for support for Prager University, which I believe in and love. It's an internet-based website for higher education, and I think, and he'll say it maybe correctly, but he's teaching them, the students, that is what's not being taught, and that's a big thing today that needs to happen. Uh, we love what he's doing, and, uh, we can't, uh, thank Dennis you enough for being here. We are honored to have you with us. Let's give a warm welcome, everyone, to Dennis Prager.

Thank you. Wow. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. I'm a little, I'm, I'm not a little, say I was a little overwhelmed. That's not true. I'm very overwhelmed, which is not good because I like to hold my composure. But, uh, this is such a powerful evening, and, uh, it comes at the end of a, of a difficult two weeks, as my father died a little over two weeks ago. And, um, he would be, uh, it's a mistake to bring him up, but he would be very moved here. Uh, I'll never forget, uh, when I defended the idea of having Indian names for sports teams on the radio, a man, a man called me and said, "Well, you know, all right, Dennis, well, you know what if a team were named the Jews?" And I said, "Well, tell you the truth, sir, we Jews have been looking for fans for 3,000 years." So, uh, when I see thousands of you here, that's what I think of. And, uh, I think of something else. I think of something else. And I, I don't usually say this. I speak to Christians a great deal. You're actually, America's evangelicals are my favorite people. I, I want you to know. And by the way, in that context, I just want you to know, an Evangelical Christian got up at a speech I gave in Agoura Hills, California, 500 Jews, 500 Christians. She got up at the microphone and she said, "Dennis, I just want you to know, you are my favorite Jew." And I said, "No, I'm your second favorite Jew." But I do want to say something very, very serious, and it's difficult because it comes from a place of great vulnerability. Then I want to say something about the pastor, about the ambassador. But I do want to say this. Uh, you don't know this about Jews, if you're not Jewish. Every Jew knows this. Doesn't like to talk about it, but, uh, it's one of the only things that unites Jews. Jews are very divided, left and right, religious and irreligious. There is really only one thing, unfortunately, in both senses of the term, that unites Jews, and that is the, something like the Holocaust. And, uh, it has scarred Jews. I'm third-generation American. And I'm scarred by it. And there is a little voice in Jews when they are with non-Jews, even one non-Jew, even a friend, if there were another such thing as the Holocaust, would this non-Jew hide me? I feel that I am here among thousands of people who would hide me. [Music] [Music] Thank you. You know, it's difficult to talk about, and I'm emotional to begin with, so this is tough stuff. Uh, but, uh, I do wish that your reaction to that could be seen by every Jew in America because they don't know you. And, uh, it's, uh, it's a problem. Progress is being made. Just want you to know it really is. And it's really up to Jews like myself to make Jews aware that our best friends are Christians. Sadly, not all Christians, right? You have a civil war in Christianity, and we have a civil war in Judaism. Yes. So I'm well aware of it. That the Presbyterian Church USA can isolate, of all the evils on Earth, to boycott companies that do business with the little Jewish state the size of New Jersey. That's, that's the great evil. You know how twisted it's twisted. There's no other term for it. It's, it's sick. And in the name of Christ, it makes it worse. When secular people do evil, I can handle it. When religious people do evil, God can't handle it. I have proof, by the way. I do. I have proof. I love teaching Torah. So here's, here's one that your pastor will really love. The, uh, commandment, "Do not take the Lord's name in vain," is incorrectly translated. And I am saying this in front of the Israeli consul, so I better know what I'm talking about. But I do. I know biblical Hebrew very well, and it's even modern Hebrew. This word, this verb, is the same. The verb in the Hebrew is not to take or even express, it's to carry. "Lo ta carry God's name in vain." Now, listen, this is very important because most people think that the commandment is against saying something like, "Oh God, what a great home run!" And then people think you violated one of the Ten Commandments. But you haven't. And there's a proof because you see, God has common sense because the only commandment God says he won't forgive is that one. He will not cleanse or forgive one who does this. So you mean he can forgive murder, theft, and all the other commandments, but not saying, "Oh my God," after a piano bench falls on your toe? That's a strange God, in my opinion. So why is that the only, as it were, unforgivable sin of the Ten Commandments? Because it means, "Do not carry God's name in vain," which means, "Do not do evil in God's name." Because when you do, you ruin my name, and there's no chance for goodness to prevail on Earth. What Muslims are doing, and not all, everybody knows that, but what vast numbers of Muslims are doing in God's name is having a horrific effect on religion. It is not coincidental that we live in the age of rampant and aggressive atheism because nothing, nothing is as good for atheism as bad religious people, and nothing is as good for belief as good religious people. Like you. You ain't perfect, amen, but you're the best we have. I want to thank Marty G's for the, the beautiful music. I was, uh, very, very mean. And Ambassador Lopez, I have heard more diplomats than I really want to count. You were good. And by the way, he knows his stuff. Yeah. See, he could mess around with Ezekiel and Isaiah with Jews because we don't know our Bible like you do. And he knew that at wrong Ezekiel. I caught that. That was very good. By the way, the pastor mentioned Joel. How many people are quoting Joel? How many Americans know Joel was a prophet? The ignorance of the Bible is so, so staggering and so frightening. You know that Joel said the inversion of the famous Isaiah phrase, "And you shall beat your swords into plowshares." And he said, "You shall beat your plowshares into swords." Nobody quotes him because you have to know there were times when you beat plowshares into swords, just as there are is the hope that eventually we can beat them all, all the swords into plowshares. One of the most famous prayers in Judaism is, "O Lord, give strength to his people, and He will bless His people with peace." As it was taught to me in Yeshiva, there won't be peace unless you're strong. You have to be strong, and in every way strong. You have to be strong in your faith, and you have to be strong in your arms, both. And you, Pastor, I don't know what to say. I really don't. I really, to be honest, I don't. I, I am pretty good at words, but I, I can't, I really can't express my gratitude to you for, for what you do. I, uh, um, I can, I can, this I can say. Well, I, as a kid, collected coins, and I collected stamps. No kid today even knows what collecting stamps means. But I collected, but the thing that I decided in high school that I would collect, and I mean it, my, my wife and my son are here, they can, they can attest to this, is I collect good people. You're in my collection. So thank you all. I have, uh, you may not know this, though. I do mention it on my radio show. I have been going around the country speaking to, uh, Evangelical pastors. Just last week I was in, uh, Fayetteville, Arkansas. I learned last week that there actually is a non-stop flight from LA to Fayetteville. Of course, you have to travel the entire distance of LAX to get to the terminal from which that flight goes. But I blessed God for its existence. And I spoke to about 400, 300, 400 pastors, as I had before that in South Carolina and in Michigan and elsewhere. And you know why, uh, I'm speaking? Because we, we have learned that in the United States, this vast community known as Evangelical Christians, half of them, according to whatever polls have been taken, half are not registered to vote. And of the half that are registered, half don't vote. Do you realize that if just most, not all, most evangelicals voted, do you have no, we wouldn't be losing our beloved country? I, uh, I'm so comfortable with Christians for such good reasons. Why wouldn't I be? But that, I, I raised the issue on my show for a whole hour. Why would a Christian in America not vote? And nobody gave me a coherent answer. I didn't understand that biblically. I didn't understand it theologically, and I certainly don't understand it morally. God cares what happens in this world. Okay? So that's, that's all one needs to know. If good people don't vote, people with bad values will vote, and that's it. It's, this is not, this is not, as they say, rocket science. You, in my opinion, are the last, you Evangelical Christians are the last best hope of the last best hope. Lincoln was right. This is the last best hope. This United States, founded by Christians, rooted in Jewish scripture. There is only one thing, other than the company that made the bell, there is only one thing written on the Liberty Bell, and it is a verse from the Torah. Because the founders of this country were rooted in the Jewish scriptures. This is the first and really only Judeo-Christian country that ever existed. And when Jews and Christians are united, which has almost never happened, but it's happening tonight, when that [Music] happens, when that happens, I don't think anything can stop us. What a, what a, what a powerful thing. The Christian America and Israel, slash, and the Jew. I mean, that's got the chosen people, the second chosen. And I believe that this country was founded by Christians who said this is the second, not the replacement. The second. That's key. Don't get me started on replacement theology. You don't, an atheist would understand that that's dishonest. If it's, if God says Israel, he means Israel. That's it. That's all. You may, you can agree, disagree, but don't change the wording. So the founders of this country, did you know that Jefferson and Franklin, who were considered theists, did you know what they wanted to be the Great Seal of the United States? It look at on the, look at it up on the internet, you can see the picture. They, they had it designed. The Jews leaving Egypt. Yes. It's too bad. It's so sad that wasn't adopted. People would so know then the origins of this country. It would be incontrovertible. The Great Seal of the United States, the Jews leaving Egypt. We Americans left Europe just like the Jews left Israel. And you know what is happening in America today? There's a massive movement to return to Europe. That's what we're battling. We left Europe. It would be as if the Jews, oh, wait, actually, the Jews did. Yeah. I was going to say, it was if the Jews wanted to go back to Egypt. Well, by golly, they did, didn't they? Look at that parallel. Huh? Hey, at least we had, uh, flesh pots back there, right? And that's what they say here. Well, they, they got socialism back there. Same thing. Boy, is, does life repeat itself? There's a question that is often raised. Is being anti-Israel the same as being anti-Semitic? And there are people who say, "No, you can be opposed to Zionism and Israel, but that doesn't mean you're anti-Jewish." After all, as, as, uh, Jennifer Lopez and Javier Bardem said, after accusing Israel of genocide, which I'll come back to later, "How could we be anti-Jewish? Our, we were born, I was born in a, a Jewish hospital." That's profound for Hollywood. Don't knock it, right? That goes as deep. That is considered deep in Hollywood. I was born in a Jewish hospital. How could I be anti-Jewish? To you and

That sounds like nonsense, but in Hollywood, that is deep, really deep. So let me analyze this question as I always have. Can you be answered "anti-Israel"? I don't mean this, this nonsense is a lie told. It's a huge lie. Anybody who criticizes Israel is called an anti-Semite. That is a total lie, and no one has ever given an example. There was not a single example of somebody just criticizing Israel called an anti-Semite, not one example. It's a bald-faced lie. You're an anti-Semite if you're anti-Israel, not if you criticize Israel. There's a big difference. Anti-Zionist, of course, is anti-Jewish. If in the entire world of 220 countries, the only one whose existence you don't think is legitimate is the Jewish State, then you're anti-Jewish. This is not difficult.

Or to put it another way, "Hey, I'm not anti-Italian. I don't think Italy has a right to exist." But I'm not anti-Italian. I love pizza. It is the exact same logic. The Arabs can have 22 states. Muslims can have 52 states. The Jews can't have one the size of New Jersey? But you're not anti-Jewish. What exactly are you? Pro-Jewish? Do you know how many refugees were created when Pakistan was invented? Israel wasn't invented. Israel is, is this, this is the third Jewish state in that area. There has never been a non-Jewish state in that area, never. That's not faith, that's history. Pakistan was created the same year as Israel was, millions of dead and refugees, millions, not a few thousand killed. As a few thousand Arabs were in a war that the Arabs started. Does anybody question Pakistan's right to exist as a Muslim state? You know how many were, you know, one of the great mass murderers of the 20th century, no one even thinks about or even knows about, was the creation of Bangladesh separating itself from Pakistan. What West Pakistan did to East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh, the massacres. I couldn't believe it. But it was it. What was it? I just quoted it on my show today. Was it in the Washington Post? I think it was the Washington Post. A professor, an Arab professor at an Arab university in Dubai, who, you know, not pro-Israel at all, but said, "I don't understand. Why do Muslims only protest against Israel? The, the, the massacres that are taking place by fellow Muslims all over the world, and you don't see one protest." Could it be? This Arab professor in Dubai writes, "Excuse me, could it be that these Muslims hate Israel more than they love Muslims?" And the answer is yes. Of course, hatred of Israel. That, that, that's big. Why? This is the great question. Why? Why have Jews been hated? It's, it's, it's an absolutely fascinating question. Right? One of the smallest peoples in the world who really haven't hurt anybody when you think about it. Okay? Now, if you're an ancient Canaanite, you may have a case. I, I, I have to, you know, you got to tell the truth. You know, ancient Canaanites. I did not expect to start a Jew fan club. All right? But beyond that, in the last 3,000 years, you know, a lot of contribution: monotheism, The Ten Commandments, love your neighbor as yourself, uh, the sulk vaccine, a lot of good things came from Jews. So then I always get, I love this because this is a fact. It is a fact. One of the reasons is Jews think they're chosen. No, no, no. I mean, well, not all Jews, believe me, but religious Jews. And I believe it. If I didn't think Jews were chosen, I wouldn't have raised Jewish children. After aits, you need a good reason to raise Jewish kids. So anyway, that's always fascinated me that people get ticked off at Jews for thinking they're chosen. So I've always mentioned this. Did you know that in Chinese, China means center of the world, Middle Kingdom? How many people hate the Chinese for thinking they're the center of the world? Nobody. How many people hate the Japanese who think that they get the sun before everybody else does? They do that. That's their flag. It's the Rising Sun. The Land of the Rising Sun. You would think that Jews, one of the tiniest people in the world, most persecuted throughout history, you would think if a Jew said, "You know, God chose us," most people would say, "I have a good name of a good psychiatrist." But wouldn't arouse hatred. Why does Jewish chosenness arouse hatred? You know why? Because people suspect it might be true. That's the reason. By the way, it is true. And one of the proofs of it, which by the way, I'm not happy about, is the fact that evil concentrates on Jews first. We're the miner's canary. Canaries are brought down to the mines, and when there are noxious fumes, the canary dies. The miner knows you better fight the fumes or you die. Next. That's a terrible role. We didn't ask for it, but we got it. Evil, evil's concentration on Jews. It's like the Jews' perspective of whether Jews are good or bad or whatever. The Jews represent God on Earth. We didn't ask for it. It just happened. The best response I ever heard on this, some of you may recall my first days in radio. I was on ABC radio in Los Angeles. I moderated a show called "Religion on the Line," and every week I had a priest, minister, and a rabbi, different ones each week. One week, a guy calls up and he gives the poor rabbi, who was on the liberal end of the spectrum and who really, I could tell, didn't really believe in chosenness himself, but he was there to represent Judaism, and that's normative Judaism, chosenness. So he kept telling the rabbi how racist and chauvinist, show racism is, excuse me, uh, chosenness is. So the priest, Father Michael NOA, raises his hand to Dennis. "May, may I respond to the caller?" Said, "Father, please." And I'll never forget this. Those caller, this is Father Michael NOA, the Roman Catholic priest. "God chose the Jews. Get a life." That, uh, what are you going to do? You, it's not like we took a vote. Humanity took a vote. Who will God choose? It wasn't the vote. The angels didn't vote. Men didn't vote. The Jews didn't vote. This, we don't know why. It just is. Maybe he took the most pathetic people. Which, by the way, the Torah implies you're not very, very impressive. By the way, it's one of the reasons I believe in the divinity of my Bible is because the Jews come out so bad. Really think about it. If they wrote it, they would have portrayed Jews as terrific. It's absolutely, it's one of my most persuasive arguments to me about the divinity of the Torah. The Jews look pretty awful because God is the issue, and God takes a group, gives them the Ten Commandments, gives them ultimately a Bible, and they change the world. It could only be God. It can't be anything Jews specifically did. When I see all this hatred of this tiny state, as I keep saying, the size of New Jersey, I looked it up. You know what's smaller than El Salvador? What if the UN spent more time attacking El Salvador than any other issue in the United Nations history? You would immediately assume El Salvador must be pretty impressive. All this attention. Do you know that there are more reporters in Israel than anywhere else in the world except the United States? Does that make any sense? Why aren't they in Bangladesh or Pakistan? As I pointed out earlier, there are 50 African countries that do not have the same number of reporters that are in Israel. Why does Israel fascinate people? I was just, just today I noticed on my bookshelf. I am not one of those authors who keeps his books laid out. I, I wish I were. I'm just disorganized. There's nothing to do with humility, nothing, zero. I, I, I just, I'm disorganized. So while working out today with, uh, in the room where I was working out, I saw two copies of my book on Judaism in Japanese. I hadn't seen it. I, I forgot that it was published. And so my trainer said, "Are there a lot of Jews in Japan?" I said, "No. The Japanese are fascinated by Jews." And it's true. Everybody's fascinated by the Jews. When you say Jews, no one yawns. Everybody has an opinion. I believe even aitz, even the Holocaust, ultimately says we're chosen. Why would the, why would this mightiest country on Earth think it was in a monumental, fatal battle, epic battle with Jews? Why would the Nazis be pre? Do you know that the Nazis were more concerned with killing Jews than winning World War II? This is, that's historical fact. Hitler didn't pick on the Jews to wage World War II. He waged World War II to destroy the Jews. Why? Why? It's because we represent something. Ernest van der Haag is a non-Jewish philosopher, one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. I wish more people knew about him. Read his book, "The Jewish Mystique." In just 150 or so, 200 big print pages, he explains it all. He said, "What, what did the Jews do? Why have the Jews hated?" He, he grappled with this question. Said, "Well, the Jews introduced a God that judges everybody." People don't like that. Oh, that was brilliant. That was brilliant. People don't want to be judged. We're in a non-judgmental age, aren't we? And the Jews brought this God, not only this, an invisible God, but everybody gets judged. That's tough stuff. And that's what the Jews brought in. I would like you to watch five minutes right now. I'm going to show you two videos. We, I started Prager University, and I can't thank the pastor enough for he, he opened up by saying, "We want you to know there would be no question about offerings tonight." And then says, "But on the other hand, Prager University, I'm going to make an exception." I was very touched by the way. I will say this, when it comes to offerings, you have a lot to learn from us. I want, no, no, I got it. No, no, I got to tell you why. I got to tell you why. When Christians raise funds, it goes something like this: "Whatever the Lord prompts your heart to give." That's beautiful. Jews don't do that. They go, "Rabbi, it's according to your tax return. You had a very good year last year. Heart, Mar, you give, baby." So it is different. We have, oh, by the way, if you go to the Prager store, and I don't, I don't, I don't make a living from this thing, but, but if you, but in fact, I don't even own the Prager store. My, my syndicator does. But there is, there is a speech there. You would love what Jews and Christians can teach each other. You, you will laugh yourself silly, and you will learn a tremendous amount about yourself and about you. Because I am so blessed, I am truly involved deeply in both communities, and I love them both. It's only reciprocated in one, Christians, but nevertheless, I am involved in both. But I, I do want you to see the first of two. We started Prager University because we're afraid we're losing the country. We are religious Americans are raising secular kids. They don't mean to, but hey, you go to college and you're not educated, you're indoctrinated. People need to understand that. Once you do understand that, you could send your kid to college. Once your kid understands it, there are Christian seminaries, there were Jewish seminaries, and they are leftist seminaries. The college is a left-wing seminary. It's not an attack, it's a description. You, the, the task is to produce a committed person of the left. It's not a political state, it's just the truth. Look at the reading lists. If, in case this is in any way debatable, is it true for every professor? Of course not. Is it true for every college? Yes, virtually every college. Obviously not Hillsdale, not certain Christian colleges, and, you know, and so on. We're, we're undoing this in part. You said, "I, I was real, I'm a rock star in Israel." That cracked me up. I have to say, I always wanted to be a rock star. I didn't know where it would be. I am just, you have no idea. When I go to Israel next, I'm going to walk off that plane, "Hey, I'm Dennis Prager," and they'll all go, "Who?" Mum, mum, they'll all go, "What's going on here?" Actually, though, there was a tiny bit of truth that we experienced because cab drivers kept offering me free taxi drives in Israel. I took every one, by the way. I never refused one. Oh, that's right. No matter what they said. Yeah, that's right. They fine. We are producing. We believe that rightly done, five minutes can change a mind. By the way, I got that idea from the Bible. Okay? If Genesis 1 tells you all you need to know, pretty much about everything, that's not long. [Laughter] Tells you, for example, something that we desperately need to teach people: God is God, not nature. That's the biggest lesson of Genesis 1. God made nature. Nature ain't God. Nature is made for man. Nature serves God, period. There's a lot of stuff that we need to teach. So we take five minutes. We get some of the finest minds to do it. Here's George Gilder, who is a Christian himself, but one of the not, but and one of the greatest thinkers living. He influenced me deeply with his books on men, uh, and sexual nature and everything. They were, he's one of the original thinkers of our time. So he, he asks the same question: Why Israel? Here is a five-minute answer from George Gilder, based on his book, "The Israel Test." How do you respond to people who excel you in invention, creativity, and wealth? Do you envy them? Do you feel their success somehow diminishes you, or do you admire what they've achieved and try to emulate it? These questions sum up what I call the Israel Test. In the 1880s, European Jews settled in Mandate Palestine and wrought an agricultural miracle in that desolate territory, then sparsely populated by a few score thousand Jews and a couple hundred thousand Arabs. The Jewish settlers drained malarial swamps, leached salt from the soils, terraced the barren hills, and planted millions of trees. They massively expanded the capacity of the land and enabled it to support a substantial Arab population. In the two decades between 1921 and 1943, Jews quadrupled the number of enterprises, multiplied the number of jobs by a factor of 10, and increased the level of capital investment a hundredfold. Far from displacing Arabs, they provided the capital for a major expansion of Arab farms and enabled a sevenfold rise in Arab population by 1948 to a level of 1.35 million, the largest in the long history of Palestine. In other words, the Arabs came to what would soon be the state of Israel because of the Jews. By comparison, Transjordan, now known as Jordan, with the same geological endowment and four times the land, but no Jews, was able to sustain a population density only one-tenth of the population density of Palestine. Crucial to Israel's accomplishments were world-leading technological advances in the recovery of water through desalinization, drip irrigation, and sewage recycling. Over the past 50 years, Israel has increased its population tenfold, its agricultural production 16-fold, and its industrial production fold, while actually reducing net water consumption by 10%. Since 1948, this huge expansion of effective water resources enabled the land to support not only more Jews, but also millions more Arabs. Today, the state of Israel, with its astonishing achievements in computer science and other high-tech fields, distills both the genius of the Jews and the misdirected anger of the failed states that surround her. The great divide in the Middle East is not between Arab and Jew, but between admiration of achievement along with the desire to replicate it, and envy accompanied by violent resentment. People who admire success, who pass the Israel Test, tend to be wealthy and peaceful. People who resent achievement, who fail the Israel Test, tend to become poor and violent. So again, how do you respond to people who excel you in invention, creativity, and wealth? Do you envy them? Do you feel their success somehow diminishes you, or do you admire what they've achieved and try to emulate it? The Israel Test is the central divide in the world today. How you answer it as an individual, and ultimately how we answer it as a nation, is a test of our own will to triumph over enemies who hate us as they hate Israel for what is best within us. I'm George Gilder, a non-Jew who has passed the Israel Test for Prager University. Join Prager University, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and sign up for free at Prager. Well, you show that, you show that to a young person or a middle-aged or old person, for that matter. That's not a religious statement, right? Nothing religious was invoked. Pure common sense and a bunch of data. And that is correct. And that is why America is hated. I wrote a book. One of my books is called "Why the Jews?" The reason for anti-Semitism, and there's huge on anti-Americanism because they're related. Remember, America is a big problem. America's success is a big problem to the other secular forces, the secular left forces of the world. We're the most successful country in the world, and the most religious of all the industrialized democracies. That's bad. And the most free enterprise. The two antitheses of leftism: Bible-based, God-centered, and free enterprise, not big government. And we have been the most successful country in the history of the world. So the Israel Test could be called the America Test, too. And the world is failing both. And a lot of Americans are failing both. A lot of Jews and Christians are failing both. But that's the test. The moral confusion is unbelievable. The libeling of Israel. The biggest libel coming out of the Gaza war was that Israel's committing genocide. Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Pedro Almodóvar, they sign this thing. It's published all over Spain. "Genocide." It is a tragedy that 2,100 or so Palestinians died. But genocide? Who's responsible for their deaths? Isn't it the, isn't it the side that starts the war that's generally responsible? B, who tried to slaughter whose citizens? And C, pardon me, getting over over a cold. And C, 2,000 qualifies as genocide? Israel is attempting to eliminate. If Israel wanted to eliminate Gaza, it could have done so the first day. You know how it cheapens the, the word genocide? What, what Penelope Cruz and her husband, the actor Javier Bardem. You know, it cheapens it. So now when you really speak of the genocide of ISIS against Christians, I mean, the real thing, or against this group called Yazidis, then it doesn't matter. We just throw the word out. The word has been raped of meaning by these people. But I, I wrote a piece and I said, "This is the modern version of the blood libel." Jews were accused in the Middle Ages of taking Christian children and slaughtering them to use their blood for matzah, for the unleavened bread, for Christmas, excuse me, for Passover. And it was, uh, it was so sick. First of all, Jews, Jews are not even allowed to have the blood of animals. It's, it's forbidden. And every Jew knows that. Jews are accused of the most outlandish crimes. This is a modern form of the blood libel, the genocide libel. And it pro, it's provoking a real resurgence of anti-Semitism in the world again, as usual, completely undeserved by one of the nicest countries in the world. It's a particularly good place. Israel. Do you know how many Syrians' lives they saved? Millions of dollars Israel has just spent saving Syrians who flee what's happening in Syria, treated in Israeli hospitals, and none of them want their names known because the Syrians will kill them by letting a Jew save their life. You have to perpetuate the idea that Jews are bloodthirsty, not blood-saving. You sick, it is, you, how sick it is. Jews are saving Syrians' lives, but Syrians can't acknowledge it. That's, that is what is happening. Then at campuses, you, we will, you have this moral equivalent, Hamas and Israel, a morally equivalent, or worse, Israel is the villain. It's like what I learned in Colombia. The United States was as responsible as the Soviet Union for. I have water. I know. I know. Do I know? Wife Lisa immediately looked over to the pastor, and I knew what she said. Does he have water? Does he have water? And I don't even read lips. I just knew the concern. Look, you're good. And look great, by the way. You got to admit, grandmothers today don't look like our grandmothers. Then, I mean, can we establish that as a fact? Right? Yeah. There you go. Exactly. I just had to get that on for the record because it's, it's just different. The, the, the what pervades our universities. I learned in Columbia that the United States and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the Cold War. Stalin and, and, uh, let's see, he died in '53, so, uh, Eisenhower just become president, so Truman, so Truman and Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin are equally responsible. Remember what happened when, when Ronald Reagan said the Soviet Union was an evil empire? The, all the press went berserk. How could you call them an evil empire? But if you call Israel evil, that's progressive. It's, it's bad news, my friends. Let me end with, uh, with two, with two things. One, uh, you who support Christians who support Israel are frequently asked why, which is so sad. Shouldn't it be pretty self-evident? I mean, it should be self-evident why any moral person does, forgetting even faith. But of course, the answer that most Christians will give immediately is, "God blesses." I believe in Genesis that I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. I wrote a column. I write a syndicated column, and it's not a religious column, but every so often I sneak in religion. And I actually analyzed, is this true? Forget faith. Do those who bless the Jews get blessed, whether by God or by, by faith? And do those who, who curse the Jews get cursed? And I went through history. Spain was an enormous power, a cultural giant, then kicked out its Jews in 1492, and we haven't heard from Spain since 1492. No, no. Is that, is that unfair? The United States blesses Israel. The most blessed Jews in history have lived in the United States, and it's the most blessed country in history. Maybe it's a coincidence, but it's true. And by the way, of this, I am as certain as I am that I am speaking to you tonight, that if the United States, God forbid, should ever abandon Israel, you will be able to date its decline with that act. It will mean, because it will mean we lost our moral compass. And countries that lose their moral compass do not survive. And what is the most cursed or bited society in the world today? I say this with no joy and no antipathy, and that is the Arab world. The Arab world is behind the rest of the world in any measurable way: rights of women, including sub-Saharan Africa, progress towards democracy, the rights of women, the rights of minorities, human rights, translation of books from foreign languages, behind in every way. It's, it's, it's a terrible, terrible mess. The Arab world. And sure enough, that's the world that most hates the Jews and Israel. Coincidence? I don't think so. Because just as you would be able to date the decline of the United States with the dated abandoned Israel, you can date the rise of the Arab world. The day it stops hating Israel and welcomes it into its midst, that will be the change that was necessary first and foremost for the Arab world to rise like a phoenix. And until then, there is no chance. Because as this professor at the University of Dubai wrote, until then, we hate Jews more than we love Muslims. And that's the case. That is exactly the case. So yes, God blesses those who bless the Jews, not because the Jews deserve it or don't deserve it, but in the case of Israel, it does deserve it because it's a, it's a very good society, imperfect because it's created of imperfect human beings, but pretty darn good. I want you to see one other. The one that made me the rock star in Israel, because this one has gone viral. This has been seen by millions. Uh, probably, we assume if it's 4 million different computers, maybe 12 million people, maybe 30 million people, because people show it to classrooms. We don't know. But at minimum, 4 million hits. That's reserved for nude actresses, okay? We're hitting those numbers with pretty serious stuff. That's a very, that we're very, very proud of that. Because numbers matter. It's not the only thing that matters, but it matters. So this one is, has gone viral. We put them out every single week. Prager University on every subject. You should see the ones on God's existence. I think any open-minded agnostic college sophomore would have to rethink his agnosticism or her agnosticism with our videos on God. This one is the one, is one I gave. I don't, I don't give most. Most of them, I do edit all of them so that it's clear as possible. But these people are responsible for what you see. But I want you to see five minutes because this really does explain the Middle East. Here you go. When I did my graduate studies at the Middle East Institute at Columbia University's School of International Affairs, I took many courses on the question of the Middle East conflict. Semester after semester, we studied the Middle East conflict as if it was the most complex conflict in the world. When in fact, it is probably the easiest conflict in the world to explain. It may be the hardest to solve, but it is the easiest to explain. In a nutshell, it's this: one side wants the other side dead. Israel wants to exist as a Jewish state and to live in peace. Israel also recognizes the right of Palestinians to have their own state and to live in peace. The problem, however, is that most Palestinians and many other Muslims and Arabs do not recognize the right of the Jewish state of Israel to exist. This has been true since 1947, when the United Nations voted to divide the land called Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted the United Nations partition, but no Arab or any other Muslim country accepted it. When British rule ended on May 15, 1948, the armies of all the neighboring Arab states, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, and Egypt, attacked the one-day-old state of Israel in order to destroy it. But to the world's surprise, the little Jewish state survived. Then it happened again in 1967. The dictator of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, announced his plan, in his words, to destroy Israel. He placed Egyptian troops on Israel's border, and armies of surrounding Arab countries were also mobilized to attack. However, Israel preemptively attacked Egypt and Syria. Israel did not attack Jordan, and begged Jordan's king not to join the war, but he did, and only because of that did Israel take control of Jordanian land, specifically the West Bank of the Jordan River. Shortly after the war, the Arab states went to Khartoum, Sudan, and announced their famous three no's: no recognition, no peace, and no negotiations. What was Israel supposed to do? Well, one thing Israel did a little more than a decade later, in 1978, was to give the entire Sinai Peninsula, an area of land bigger than Israel itself and with oil, back to Egypt because Egypt, under new leadership, signed a peace agreement with Israel. So Israel gave land for the promise of peace with Egypt, and it has always been willing to do the same thing with the Palestinians. All the Palestinians have ever had to do is recognize Israel as a Jewish state and promise to live in peace with it. But when Israel has proposed trading land for peace, as it did in 2000, when it agreed to give the Palestinians a sovereign state in more than 95% of the West Bank and all of Gaza, the Palestinian leadership rejected the offer and instead responded by sending waves of suicide terrorists into Israel. Meanwhile, Palestinian radio, television, and school curricula remain filled with glorification of terrorists, demonization of Jews, and the daily repeated message that Israel should cease to exist. So it's not hard to explain the Middle East dispute. One side wants the other dead. The motto of Hamas, the Palestinian rulers of Gaza, is: "We love death as much as the Jews love life." There are 22 Arab states in the world, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. There is one Jewish state in the world, and it is about the size of New Jersey. In fact, tiny El Salvador is larger than Israel. Finally, think about these two questions: If tomorrow Israel laid down its arms and announced, "We will fight no more," what would happen? And if the Arab countries around Israel laid down their arms and announced, "We will fight no more," what would happen? In the first case, there would be an immediate destruction of the state of Israel and mass murder of its Jewish population. In the second case, there would be peace the next day. As I said at the outset, it is a simple problem to describe. One side wants the other dead, and if it didn't, there would be peace. Please remember this: there has never been a state in the geographic area known as Palestine that was not Jewish. Israel is the third Jewish state to exist in that area. There was never an Arab state, never a Palestinian state, never a Muslim or any other state. That's the issue. Why can't the one Jewish state, the size of El Salvador, be allowed to exist? That is the Middle East problem. I'm Dennis Prager. So what we're trying to do is do what you saw in these two videos for God, for America, for Israel, for religion, for understanding men and women. Some of you have heard my male-female hour, and if men and women understand each other better, they'll get along better. And we're, this is what we're trying to do. Putting them out one a week. When we raise more money, we raise a couple of million dollars a year. It's very expensive to put these out. There's a lot of people we hire. We're trying to get into universities with these courses, and we're making progress. We're getting into homeschools to do this, but it's a huge, a huge undertaking. And what we need is money for, uh, spreading the word, for marketing in particular. People sponsor courses. Wait till "The Ten Commandments" comes out. I mean, I am very, very excited because we want people to understand that the Bible is a primer for living today. That's critical. So we have looked through all of your tax returns. Don't laugh, Jones. We saw rabbis, and now we see yours. Anyway, whatever you can do. I, I will revert to Christian terminology. Whatever you can do is massively helpful. And here is the way to do it. Just, if you could write this down: 3235 Prager. That's all you have to know. You call it, or you just text it now, and you'll get a call back. Here's the point: I don't make a living with this. I make a living for my radio and my writings, but I decided when I turned 60, because 60 asks a lot of questions, what am I going to do? I'm not going to live forever. And after your father dies, you really know what, as I said in one dark-humored moment to somebody, I don't remember who, I'm now in the green room, that's a Hollywood term for you're on next, but, uh, I was corrected because the green room was pretty immediate. And I hope that this is not immediate, but you ask every, you, I, we all have to, what do we do with the rest of our lives? You have to ask it when you're 20, not just 60. And I can't think of a better thing to do than make these videos because this, do you know that this stuff is seen in Arab countries? We know where these are seen. Wow. There are people who, the, the Israeli one has, has subtitles in about 15 languages. Marissa, is that correct? Right. Our CEO, or COO, is here. And we, we really, we want to change lives. So if you can help us, that would be a very big deal. Pastor, I, I can't, I don't, I don't know how to thank you. I really don't. Uh, I told you that to enable me to make this appeal for, for, but look, we're, we're working for the same employer. That's the truth. 3235 Prager, or just go to prageru.com. And by the way, you should go anyway, out of curiosity. Prior to tonight, would you raise your hand if you ever saw a Prager University video? Well, that's pretty nice. Now I hope you'll all see it, and you will all send it to your nephew who, because he's a sophomore at college, knows more than you. But he doesn't, he may have some more knowledge, but he has much less wisdom. There's little wisdom. I'll end with this: a discovery I made at Columbia in graduate school. I was being taught by very bright professors who had massive knowledge, much more knowledge than I, but who taught me a lot of nonsense. Two examples I gave you: one, America and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the Cold War. In other words, men and women are basically the same. You know, the old thing that you have to go to college to be taught this, that if you give boys tea sets and you give girls trucks, they'll be just as happy because there's no such thing as female nature or male nature. And that's, it's, I knew then that's nonsense. I have no interest in tea sets, none, none. If I had a tea set, I would throw every teacup immediately. Boys throw, girls throw. [Applause] Up. Hey. So I, I, I remember I was walking around Columbia. I give you my word of honor, because I told the story when it happened to my best friend, Joseph Tushin, at the time, so I have, I have a witness. And why am I being taught nonsense at this university, a prestigious Ivy League university? And then, so help me God, a phrase from first grade in kindergarten in Yeshiva, Jewish religious school that I attended, where all half the day was Jewish studies in Hebrew, half the day secular studies in English, and from Proverbs it came back: "Wisdom begins with fear of God." Hey, wait a minute. So I realized, oh, that's why there's no wisdom at Columbia because there's no God at Columbia. And that is the issue. There are many fine atheists, I fully acknowledge that, and fine agnostics, and I've already talked to you about religious evil, so I'm very fair on this. But there's no wisdom in the secular world. There is sweetness, there's a lot of naive too, but no wisdom. The university is wisdom-free. A typical kid in a Jewish or Christian school has more wisdom in 10th grade because they don't believe, don't trust anyone over 30. They don't believe that their heart is the source of wisdom because every religious Christian and Jew is taught, you can't believe in the heart. You can't trust the heart any more than you can throw it. There's wisdom to be learned from the Holy One, Blessed be He, and that great scripture known as the Bible. God bless you. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Thank you, Pastor. That God bless you. You. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you again. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Let's remain standing. You've been seated for a while. We'll end now. Marty, you want to come on up very, very quickly. You guys, um, it's the promised land. Promised Land. We're talking about tonight. And promised because God said so. If you don't believe in the God who made the promise, then you've got issues. But He keeps His promises. The beautiful thing about tonight is Jew and Christian come together. It's amazing because as a Jew once said, "We've been grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel." Think of it. Israel has given us the word of God. Israel has given us, as Christians, our Messiah. Let's pray. And I end with this, and I loved how he touched on it many times tonight. When you go to vote, for, find people that are represented over here, anyone, including the president. There's that trinity of truth. What is their voting record on life? On a child's life, infant's life, embryo's life? What's their voting record on life? What's their voting record on the sanctity of marriage? And what's their voting record on the nation of Israel? You take those three things, and you can then determine all of their other voting directions on every other policy from that moment on. Those three things. And those three things, I believe, you can find. Well, I know you can find in the Torah, first five books of the scriptures. Holy Father, we thank You for tonight. We pray tonight for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray for the peace of Israel. We ask You, we know You will keep. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. But we pray that You'd send revival to America, a renewal to our nation. And Lord, You said through Solomon, "When the wicked are in power, the people groan, but when the righteous are in power, the people rejoice." America is groaning. We need You, Lord, to intervene. We have sinned against You. We agree with Daniel. We have sinned. Forgive us and heal our nation. Bless Dennis. Heal him. Strengthen him. He's got a great schedule ahead of him, his family, Prager University, his staff, his radio, his writing. We thank You, Lord, that You're using him mightily. And as Christians tonight, we thank You, Lord, for Yeshua HaMashiach, our Lord Jesus, Savior of the world. And we sing this song in closing tonight. And all God's people said, Amen. [Music] Amen.