He Was Publicly Slandered… So I Invited Him On

Uh, your name came up on the Tucker Carlson show.

Ron Cantor is a Christian celebrity in Israel and he was on X one day talking about how loving and kind Israel is to him. He claimed that you as an Israeli citizen who had an Israeli TV show agreed not to share the gospel. He's using a press release in which it says you don't want to convert Jewish people. To see him end up on on Tucker Carlson just propagating nonsense is it was pretty interesting. and he has a Christian television station in Israel. They took his broadcast license because they said that he was telling Jews that they needed Jesus. He had to promise that he would not give the gospel to Jewish people so that they would give him his quote unquote Christian station back. And there he is bragging about how great Israel treats Christians. They were saying that no, we don't want to convert Jewish people and we don't. You you have to understand what that word convert means in in the ears of a Jewish person. And and the reason Putin can get away with what he gets away with is because who's who's going to stop it? But according to Tucker, Russia is great because of their grocery card.

So I guess you put in 10 rubles here and you get it back when you put the cart back. So it's free, but there's an incentive to return it. They have bread and grocery. Look at that. Come on.

Bruce Lawn.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I got a special guest for us uh today, Ron Cancer. Uh I'm familiar with your stuff, Ran Ron, from Keeping Up with the Dr. Brown uh investigation as well as doing kind of victim advocacy for uh folks affected by IHOP. And then over the last what about a week or so ago uh your name came up on the Tucker Carlson show by uh a gentleman that founded Protestia though I don't think he's with them any longer a guy named uh JD Hall and man he made some pretty wild claims uh about you that we wanted to clear up here particularly he claimed that you as an Israeli citizen who had an Israeli TV show uh agreed not to share the gospel And um he's using a press release in which it says that you don't want people uh to convert uh you don't want to convert Jewish people. Uh and so I know it gets a little tricky in terms of like Jewish people becoming Christians and this on under the guise of all the crazy Israel stuff and all that, but yeah. Uh give us kind of like a recap of what's been going on. And uh it's some pretty wild stuff.

You know, there are laws on the books in the state of Israel that forbid evangelism uh over the airwaves that forbid evangelism to minors. As a matter of fact, Ron Cantor, I don't know if you know that name or not, Ron Cantor is a Christian celebrity in Israel and he was on X one day talking about how loving and kind Israel is to him as a Jew who believes in Jesus. And they will phrase it that way on purpose so as to not imply that they're a Christian because if they say they're a Christian, they might have to leave. So they'll say Jew who believes in Jesus. They're trying to work the system. So I look him up, Ron Canour, and he has a television station, a Christian television station in Israel. And in 2020, they took his broadcast license because they said that he was telling Jews that they needed Jesus. And so he had to promise that he would not give the gospel to Jewish people, that he would not try to spread the name and the fame of Jesus over the radio waves so that they would give him his quote unquote Christian station back. And there he is bragging about how great Israel treats Christians. They took away his his broadcast license for sharing Christ.

Yeah. And uh and he said more than that in writing. Uh which I did not know at the time. Um it's just kind of a weird thing to suddenly um hear your name on this national broadcast. I don't know how many millions of people watch Tucker Carlson. Um but uh somebody claiming really the the a as an evangelist, as a believer in Jesus Yeshua, the the most important thing obviously beyond next to my devotion to Jesus is sharing the good news, reaching our people. That's why I moved to Israel 23 years ago to have somebody uh claim that not only that we don't share and I think I don't have his exact words but I think is that we don't give the gospel to Jewish people that I made a commitment not to. I know he wrote on on his blog that I have been paid I have been paid by the government uh because he apparently made these allegations and I never saw them um and I didn't respond to what what I didn't see. So he assumed they must be true. Um I can I can say categorically I've never received a dime, a shekele, a penny, any type of payment uh bitcoin from the Israeli government in order not to share my faith. I uh we have a TV station called Shelano TV that for uh so it's not a program it's an actual uh channel 247 and uh he put in writing he actually said that they don't share and again I'm I'm paraphrasing um they don't share uh apologetics uh Christ in the Old Testament testimonies of Jews who who've come to faith that is all we do and that's all we've done for six years. So yeah, we've got some travel stuff in there and some music videos, but the focus of the channel from anybody who's followed us who who's taken a minute to investigate is sharing the good news of Yeshua. Now what he did is there is a press release where somebody else is speaking, not me, and uh they were saying that no, we don't want to convert Jewish people and we don't you you have to understand what that word convert means in in the ears of a Jewish person. It doesn't mean what it means to many believers. To many believers, it's a wonderful thing. It means being converted from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to to the kingdom of God's son. But after 2,000 years of forced conversions, a lot of people don't know the history, but in in many different countries throughout uh the world, particularly Spain, Portugal, um Jewish people were told that either they convert to Catholicism, and it it wasn't devotion. It was for political reasons. It was to unite the people under one religion. And they were told either convert or get out.

Sometimes they were told either convert or or or you die. And um and so for a Jewish person when they hear the word convert, they're not thinking eternal life. They're thinking a denial of of I mean, you look at Jesus and in and the disciples. They never stopped being Jewish. They never said, you know what, now that we believe, we're no longer Jewish. You never you in fact, Paul in Acts 21, he goes to the to to meet James and the other elders in Jerusalem, and they said, "Hey, Paul, we got a problem. there are rumors being spread about you that you you're no longer Jewish, that you no longer believe in Moses, that you no longer believe in the Jewish traditions. And they said, "We know that's not true." But paraphrasing, by the way, go to the temple, make a sacrifice, and then people will see that there's no truth to this. So, uh, the the idea of conversion, when a Jewish person hears that, they think of leaving their heritage, leaving something that the disciples never even considered. Uh certainly people like JD Hall, it does seem that they disparage Judaism or or Jewish culture. Uh that that's how I read him. Um but uh so what we were saying or what the other gentleman was saying in that press release is no, we don't want to convert Jewish people to the to another religion. We want to introduce them to Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. And and that is what we do. We invite people to experience the new covenant. we invite Jewish people without compromise. Uh so again, I don't I don't you know, he didn't do very much investigating and as as you probably know, he's got a very checkered past. He has had some legal issues uh that are all over the internet.

Yeah. I mean, uh lost the defamation suit that then forced him to fire file for bankruptcy and then also DUI with Xanax. Uh, and so, you know, clearly he's he's gone through some stuff and and and and some personal issues and hoping that, you know, he he gets well and gets treatment, all that sort of stuff. But, uh, to see him end up on on Tucker Carlson just propagating nonsense is it was pretty interesting to say the least.

And he's disqualified.

His own church disqualified him. So, you know, I'm thinking uh again, maybe Tucker got bad information. Maybe he just knew that he wrote a book or something. But do a little vetting because if you're going to take a the there's many theologians who have not been in implicated in domestic violence with a knife that again according to the internet uh you know and and or or lost a judgment that would have been $250,000 but he filed for bankruptcy. Um there are other people that don't have those issues that he could have interviewed. Uh but it wasn't just that. It was the the lying. And um and even already, you know, we made that video last week. You know, he's made no effort to correct the record. He's mocked Mike Winger who tried to to correct him. Uh he he's written a a recent blog where he says that I'm going to sue him for all the lies he told in quotes as if he doesn't know even what we're talking about. Um so yeah.

Yeah. So, just for the record, what happened was you have a a Christian television show that does evangelism and outreach and apologetics to the Jewish people to get them to come into the fullness of the gospel of Yeshua. uh and in that you guys were on uh Israeli TV as you're an Israeli citizens for a window of time and then there became an issue with the license uh and uh because explain that part because I think that that that's an important distinction and you guys essentially went uh back to just being a internet TV show.

Yeah. Yes. So to be clear we're we're a channel. We're a 247 channel. We have many shows. Um, in fact, one of our shows is called H Salon, which you probably hear the word salon in there, the salon or the living room. And we we specifically interview in Hebrew. My testimonies on there in Hebrew of Jewish people who've come to faith, sharing uh their testimonies. So, um, in 2019, I used to be the regional director for God TV in Israel, and I got a phone call or a text from the head of programming from Israel's largest cable company called Hot Cable. So, I went to meet with this guy, and I I I suspected what he wanted, uh, which would be for God TV to pay him a lot of money so that they would put God TV in English on the air in Israel. And I I came with with books. I was ready to and I shared with the guy. I evangelized him, JD. Um, I shared my testimony with him. I shared the gospel with him. I gave him books to read. And then after 45 minutes, I said, "Why? Why am I here?" He said, "Well, we'd like you to come on on the we want your channel on our cable network." And um I said, "I'm not interested." And he said, "What do you mean you're not interested?" I said, "Well, we're a Hebrew- speakaking country. Why would I want to put an English-speaking station that most people can't understand, that no one's going to watch uh on just so I can tell people that we're on in Israel? I said, but I'll tell you what I am interested in. I would love to have a Hebrewspeaking Messianic gospel channel. Uh can can we do that? Now, I knew the answer would be of course not. There's no way. And and he shocked me. He looked at me and he said, "Sure, let's do it." And I actually said to him, I said, "No, no. I don't think you understand how controversial this is. I'm trying I'm trying to talk him down." And he's like, "No, no, no. We can do it." You know, and I said, "Okay, let's do it." So, they take care of everything. A year goes by. We're fundraising. We're getting ready. We're programming. We had a a big dinner with over 100 Messianic leaders in Israel. He came, this unbelieving Jewish man, uh, Israeli, came and spoke to a hundred Messianic leaders. He was as excited as anyone about the historic nature of the gospel going forth in Hebrew. Um because it it had never happened on Israeli television. So April 2020, so we're right in the height of COVID. Uh we we go live on this channel. They got a license for us. Uh the hot cable company, they went to the Israeli equivalent of the FCC and they got our license. and we never thought anything of it and we went live and we're programming and then a week later as I suspected and I had told our the CEO of God TV I said you know we're we're we're not going to stay on the air they're going to they're I just don't think it's going to happen but let's go on let's stay on for three months and when they kick us off we'll go to the internet and sure enough after a week all hell broke loose and uh and that became one of the issues they said we deceived them in our license. And I and I said, "No, we we didn't." In fact, in fact, we didn't even know there was a license. We didn't know that we had to get one. Again, everything was done by the cable company. And I went and and I got a copy of the license from the cable company. I had never seen it. We were on the air. I had never seen the license. And it said right there in Hebrew that our license was to share our faith in Hebrew with the population of Israel. So, we we publicized that. I sent that to Jerusalem Post to, you know, all these different media outlets in Israel. And I said, "No, no, we we can do this." And and and I said, "Listen, this is not Iran. This is Israel. We we are a democracy and we have freedom of speech." And so you you really can't take this away from we we were fighting. At the same time, we made it very clear that our goal is not to take Jewish people from Judaism. It's to introduce them to the Jewish Messiah. And um and and that seems to bother people like JD Hall. But it doesn't it is no different than what we see Peter and John doing. Where where were they evangelizing, you know, in Acts chapter 3? At the temple with Jewish people. And they didn't say, "Hey, Jewish people, we want you to leave Judaism and embrace Christianity." Because there wasn't even such a word. They said, "We have found the Jewish Messiah. He died. He's risen from the dead. And through him, you can have eternal life. And we know that in Acts 2 uh uh 3,000 Jewish men plus women and children were were brought into the kingdom, went into the waters of immersion. Uh and then after the beggar is healed in Acts three, thousands more are brought into the kingdom. So that that is our goal. That is what we do. So they um understood that they could not legitimately legally and and I we were ready to fight it. you know, if we had to go to the Supreme Court, we would have uh our version of the Supreme Court. Um, and so they put pressure on the cable company, H Hot. And by the way, I just want to say this, the folks at HOT were unbelievable and they they hung in there with us until I I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but they finally just said, "We, you know, we we we we got to stop. We got

I think just real quick Ronda

I think it is important to note that there is a degree of apprehension hostility u resistance towards Jewish believers

sharing their faith in Israel. Like I think we we don't want to gloss over that, right? Because I think sometimes um some evangelicals will look at Israel through rosecolored lenses and just say, "Oh, everything is great there. Christians are free. They can do whatever they want." And it's like, no, there's a degree of resistance. this is a degree of apprehension. Um, some of it, to your point earlier, is rooted in the historicity of forced conversion. So, they're very hostile towards Christians. Um, and so you guys are being shrewd in that you're saying, "Hey, no, no, we're not trying to convert you to something else. We're just trying to convert you to the actual richness and fullness of who the Messiah is in Yeshua." And so, you guys have experienced some resistance in this whole debacle with the TV license. Um, but you, it's not like you're not allowed to be a Christian in Israel. And interesting note, this was just discovered by the way because I think a lot of this from my vantage point, Ron, is I think people have an ideological bent that is anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and then they reverse engineer whatever they want and then they can lie, they can deceive, they can omit, and everything is justified because the ends justify the means because Israel is so so so bad that if I defame or or or slander, run, it doesn't matter because the bigger uh pragmatic angle is that Israel's Satan, right? So, I think that's kind of some of the stuff that I I don't expect you to get an apology uh in this situation because I think he's ide he's an activist. He's he's he's ideologically driven to be anti-Israel, but within all of this, there is a kernel of truth that yes, the is Israelis aren't necessarily the most welcoming towards Christians sharing their faith on their airwaves uh in in Hebrew. Um and so that that's kind of what you guys face. Is that is that a kind of a fair recollection?

Let let me address that because because you you one of the problems is we say Israelis

and there's 7 million Israelis and they think very differently. One of the famous jokes is you know uh two Jews three opinions. Uh so we have very secular Jewish people. We have very religious Jewish people. Um and so they're they're not a monolithic. They think very differently. Uh, we have never ever So, so one of the things JD Hall said is that I was on Twitter talking about how great it is for believers in Israel. I have no idea what he's talking about. I put a post up in January where I said that I am I am I I can't remember the exact words, but I'm I'm Jewish. I'm a believer in Jesus. Uh, I'm a Zionist. I'm an Israeli citizen. And he he read so much into that. I I probably spent 30 seconds writing that and he suggested that I actually this is part of my my what I get paid for in and you know the Israeli government pays me for my carefully worded propaganda. It's just

yeah I mean they think everybody's paid paid for by the Israeli government. They think I've I've gotten the $7,000 check. Anyone that's slightly friendly towards Israel is like ah you're a shill. And it's like it's like ignore all the times I've been critical of Israel, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.

I've lived for there for 23 years. We don't even own our own house. We rent an apartment. So, uh I mean, if they want to pay me, we can talk about that, but I'm not going to compromise the gospel. So, let's talk about resistance. And first,

you have to understand what they're afraid of. You know, if you're going to try and reach somebody and they're scared, let's address that fear. And the fear is this belief that the massive. So, you know, you have what a couple billion Christians on Earth or 1.5 billion. And you have 7 million Jews or in Israel, 15 13 million throughout the world. And so there is a fear that we are we the Jewish people are going to be swallowed up into this thing. In the beginning, it was Jewish people in Jerusalem sharing the gospel. There was no fear of the gentile church. But then what happened after several hundred years? Uh and we just I just posted something yesterday. We're writing a book right now uh called uh uh taking his name in vain. and and it's 22 different stories of what Jewish people have gone through throughout the centuries in the name of Jesus. And so if you understand this history, like for instance, when a Jewish person, we talked about this earlier, was was forced to convert, they would have to read a public confession comparing Judaism to vomit, saying that they would never associate with Jews anymore. They would say and and if they were caught doing anything as as as you know benign as refusing to eat pork, they could be arrested. Arrested. In fact, part of these conversion ceremonies, they would often at the end have to publicly eat pork. So th this is what a lot of Jewish people when they think of the of church history. So there is real fear there and that is where that comes from that the the resistance. what I said to JD Hall and he took issue with and we we conversed a little bit and then I I realized that um you know he he wrote a mass you know at a certain point I can't spend my entire day conversing with somebody on Twitter and I blocked him um and he remains blocked u because I am the dictator of my Twitter feed uh but what he uh what I said to him is that we experience resistance opposition we don't experience persecution and there is a difference in that what I what I see in Iran the Iranian church which many say is the fastest growing church in the world um or Afghanistan also the church that's growing there that that is violent persecution you know if you're a Muslim girl in Pakistan and you come to faith there's a possibility that you might be killed we're not going through that in Israel the government is not sponsoring um violence against us I have never I've been there for 23 years I share share my faith. Um, I freely share my faith and I'm the president of this TV channel and nobody's ever physically threatened me. Now, full disclosure, my wife was beat uh by several uh teenage orthodox that were uh uh riled up by some uh very unis undisiplined orthodox adults. That is a very small percentage of the country, but that happened. She walked into the situation and

was doing the Was she doing evangelism or was she just kind of like wrong place, wrong time?

She was going to a prayer uh event on in May 2023 and she had to pass through this area and there was a lot of uh when I say a lot, there was about a hundred activists that had come out there to protest that it was happening. And so when she went to go in uh she was physically attacked

and we we went to the police, we filed a report and sadly nothing happened. So I am not going to you know anybody who's going to accuse me of whitewashing things. I reported that publicly. It was it was on Facebook. We shared that. So again this idea that I am in denial about what we go through over there. I simply said it's not persecution, it's opposition and these people are not sponsored by the government. Uh, in fact, the police came and rescued my wife uh during that time and they arrested they did arrest uh it was uh I think it one or two guys cuz we watched we literally walked by them as they took the guy away in in handcuffs but I don't think anything happened because they were underage. And what these these radicals do and they're they're again they're less than 1% of the population less than.1% of the population um is they don't do the violence themselves. They take impressionable 14, 15, 16 year olds and get them to do it because they're probably not going to go to jail or or or get arrested. Um, but the I just want to be real quick,

Ron. Just real quick, it it is important to note that Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition that he formed did involve some people from this more radical uh fringe side of is it ultraorthodox or just far-right uh people that are

we call them ultra

ultra

ultraorthodox.

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Yeah. So he has in in our government which is really our system is so messed up um is that you really can't form a coalition unless you involve some of the ultraorthodox. Now many of the ultraorthodox they are not they don't serve in the army. They're not they're they're very almost like a separate society. But then you have another group uh led by a guy named Bengir. And and let me just explain something about Bengavir. He is a in my opinion an evil dude. He is just like in America we have racist and and we have really bad people who aren't are not ashamed to say the most horrible things. He he is that type of person. Uh he has a few seats in the government and Netanyahu and I think it was a huge mistake. I was very upset when he did this and I remain upset and I think it's been a cause of a lot of problems in our country is that he brought this guy into his government bec he he he needed to get over 60 seats in order to form a government. And so he included this guy and um I don't know one Israeli personally who voted for him. I don't I've never met an Israeli he's been in the government now four years. We're having elections in in October. I don't know one Israeli who who approves of him. He is an embarrassment to the vast majority of Israelis. Now, he does have his supporters. I just don't know them. They're they're not the people that I I associate with. I've literally ne never met somebody who said, "You know what? I I think he's a good guy. He's he's a dangerous person." And I think it was a huge mistake to bring him into the government. Um and and I'm not, you know, Israel is a free country. And again, there is resistance. There is opposition, but we do have a a freedom of speech just like we have in America. I I live my life without fear that I'm going to get thrown out. I can criticize the government. I can criticize Netanyahu, which I have done in the past. I'm not going to have anybody come to my house and say, "Hey, we we we don't expect you to go on YouTube and say anything negative." It's never happened and it's not going to happen.

Yeah. So just to uh be clear um you guys have this license. There is some resistance to the license. The way this is framed by JD is that you kind of bend the knee to the government and say, "All right, guys. I'm I'm not going to share the gospel to Jewish people no more. I'm going to bow out." And then that's how you got your license back. That that's actually not the reality of the situation.

No. And it and in that and the it is how he portrayed it at least how I understood it and and he wrote in one of his blogs that I quote he agreed meaning Ron Caner agreed not to share the gospel with Jewish people. We never did that. It was never even they were up in arms about the license but in the end we were off the air so we didn't need a license. So, that doesn't even that doesn't even make sense for him to say, "Hey, uh, Ron bent the knee to keep his license uh because they took the license from him, but then you guys aren't on the air and there is no license."

Yeah. What he what I think he did is he misunderstood some things and then he built a narrative based on what he misunderstood. Uh, he made no effort to understand whatsoever. No, I've been doing this for a long time. I've been in ministry 40 years. I' I've had this TV station or we have we're a team uh uh that that do this together. We've been doing this since 2020. All right. So, for six years, nobody has ever suggested what he suggested. I've never heard anybody say that. And because it's not true, we went off the air. We did not need a license because we went within 3 hours. We were back on the air on shellanu.tv. And by the way, if anybody wants to see what our programming is, go to shalanotv.com. That's shelv.com. And we have our programming there with English subtitles. So if anybody's doubting, you know, you know, well, it's in Hebrew, so we don't know what he's doing. Maybe he's just giving recipes on on how to make hummus, you know. No, we well, we do do that, but we also share the gospel. It's the primary thing that we do and people can see that. So, we were we were kicked off the air. Um, so when he says that I made an agreement, then I would still be on cable, but I'm not on cable and I haven't been on cable for six years. Um, but we do have Shalano.tv, which is broadcasting 247 in Israel. So, I don't know how he came to that conclusion. I don't know why he did not seek to to find the truth. But then he took his misunderstanding and then he I mean he compared me to Judas. I I'll just read you something that the that he wrote. Um he he's got this article. Um uh I don't know why Caner talking about Greg Lockach. Uh and he's he's assuming that the reason we shared concerns about Greg Lock, this is just crazy stuff that we we shared concerns about Greg Lockach because of his behavior because he divorced his wife without cause, married her best friend, and and and never even took a break from ministry that I know of. that he calls it calls people witches from the pulpit that that we have legitimate concerns about Greg Lock. But in in JD's mind because I think he's a deeply uh he's got issues that he can't imagine that our concern is for the body of Christ. In his mind, there must be something else. So he he says in writing that it must be that I want to edge out Greg Lockach in the Israel sphere so I can become more wellknown. that just absurd,

um, but he goes on and he says this, "We have already established

that Caner would sell out his sa savior for 30 shekels." And he's referring to Judas because he goes uh earlier in the article, he's comparing me to Judas. He compares me to a Nazi sympathizer. Uh it's it's just stunning the things that he wrote. Some of it is opinion, but some of it is literally lies. And so, and I want to be clear, uh, Rouslan, on a personal level, I'm not offended at all. It is literally Z. It's It's a little shocking to have someone say that you're Judas, that you've sold out for 30 shekels, which is just even that very comment sounds anti-Semitic. But on a personal level, I I don't care. I in my prayer time, I laugh about this. Uh, I am concerned for the body of believers. I don't want them to believe that the Israeli body of believers is compromising, that we're living in fear, that that that we don't share the gospel. That is simply not true. I go to a congregation where I'm an elder. We meet every Friday at 4 p.m. for for two hours or more, and we worship Yeshua in Hebrew. We share the gospel in Hebrew. We are winning Jewish people to Yeshua uh on a regular basis. We go out and feed the homeless. We've got a ministry called Feed Tel Aviv in our uh in our um congregation. So, what I don't want is JD Hall, who I as far as I know, I don't know if he's ever been to Israel, he certainly doesn't have relationships there. He certainly does not know what he's talking about. I don't want him lying to unsuspecting believers who will believe this nonsense.

Yeah. I mean, it's so demonstrabably false. and his other claims that he wrote about you that were just demonstrabably false about uh the Dr. Michael Brown situation which is really how I caught wind of you was that you were so consistent in the Dr. the Michael Brown situation, the Mike Pickle situation. So, there's just so many things that falls. And the sad part is it doesn't even surprise me that Tucker would have him on, uh because Tucker's had a lot of people on that are that are in my opinion ideologically captured, propagating nonsense uh because they have an agenda and not because they're after the truth. And it's really sad that that uh this is, you know, Tucker Carlson's become like the cesspool for this nonsense uh with with this anti-Israel slant. Just fun fact for you real quick. U a lot of this comes down to the situation in Gaza. They're upset about what's happening in Gaza. Fun fact, uh and this is sad and what's happening in Gaza is terrible and it's and it's tragic and and I hope it can be resolved. But with the idea that there's Christians being persecuted in Gaza, there were three churches in Gaza that were destroyed right um during the conflict. Now, what I think a lot of this information is coming from, and I don't mean to put on my conspiracy theory hat here, but in the uh Russia Ukrainian conflict, okay, fun fact, there have been over 740 religious uh institutions damaged in Ukraine and 200 churches completely destroyed uh in Ukraine from the Russians. Okay? And I'm I grew up in a former Soviet Union. I understand how this sort of stuff goes. So I think like this idea that Israel's big bad trying to harm Christians and by by the way the vast majority of those Christian churches that were destroyed in the Ukraine conflict were uh Baptist evangelical churches uh by the Russians in Ukraine.

It just shows me the lack of just scales these people have. If it was really about Palestinian Christians being hurt, uh Christians in Gaza being hurt, churches being hurt, uh they wouldn't be looking the other way while Russia is, you know, what is that? Uh, you know, three to 200, right? That the proportions aren't even the same, right? Uh, and no one's saying anything about the churches being, you know, destroyed in Ukraine because it doesn't fall in this anti-Israel, anti-Jewish narrative that that that that's really, I think, the underneath gurning of all of this.

Yeah. Well, let me make a couple comments there. First of all, uh, you know, Tucker interviewed a Lutheran Palestinian pastor. I guess it was about two years ago, and he made the assertion that Israel is targeting Christians in Gaza. What Tucker did not know, and and he may still not know, is that out of 2.2 million Arabs who live in Gaza, less than 1,000 are Christian. Less than 1,000. So, it would be technically impossible for Israel. It would be like a needle in the haystack. Uh there there just is no Christian community in Gaza to to target. Yes, some churches were hit, were hurt. And and I want to also be clear. I I live 10 minutes from Gaza. I have gone to bed weeping at night because I've known that people over there dying. I know that we're stronger. I know that we're bigger. And and I also know what they did to us on October 7th. I also know that 50,000 Iranians uh uh and many him many of whom are probably believers were murdered in the streets just for protesting. And and the reason Putin can get away with what he gets away with is because who's who's going to stop him, you know, it's he he leads a uh somewhat of a superpower, not not what it once was, you know. But according to Tucker, Russia Russia is great because of their grocery carts. They have the best grocery carts. They have bread and grocery. And by the way, I also lived in the former Soviet Union. I lived in Ukraine and I lived in Hungary. And you know what? They Tucker,

I I don't want to burst your bubble, but those same four-wheel drive, uh, grocery carts they have all over Europe. So, uh, you need to get out more. But, but the fact is my there's no joy when when people suffer. Even people who don't like me because I'm Jewish. even, you know, I don't want Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank to suffer. I would much rather live in peace. And and our government has absolutely made mistakes. Uh in in war, bad things happen and people do dumb things. And and and any atrocity, whether it's committed by Israel or or or Hezbollah or Iran, needs to be investigated and there needs to be justice. Uh I I am not blinded. I don't blindly say Israel can do no wrong. And I say this over and over again. Blessing Israel does not mean that you turn a blind eye when Israel does something wrong. Israel needs to be accountable just like any nation on earth. But so does Iran and so does Russia and so does America. In other words, we we have different rules for the superpowers than we do for smaller nations. and and that's probably not going to change anytime soon. But, you know, the idea that that Netanyahu can't do anything wrong. I live there. He's a politician just like politicians in America. Um, he does not have a halo around his head. Uh, and so I am not one of these people that, you know, Israel can do no wrong. But I also do see where the Bible speaks about uh you know Israel having a calling that Paul calls irrevocable that it's going to come back into play in the end times and that there's going to be a great move of God amongst the Jewish people. That's why we live there. If you read Romans 11, it's very clear. It says, Paul says, we don't have to get into theology, but Paul says to the Romans who had been turning against the Jewish people, uh, if if you don't know the history of the first century in Rome, you can't understand the book of Romans. In 49, Emperor Claudius kicked all the Jews out of Rome. Uh, tens of thousands had to leave Rome and they came back in 54. Nero let them back in. uh Claudius had died and he wanted the Jews to come back in because they were good at business. And when they came back, this included Messianic Jews, Jewish believers. When they came back into the church, they they they were met with resistance for five years. Those Roman believers didn't have a Bible because there was no book of Romans. There was no Galatians. There was no Thessalonians. It was the only Bible there was was the Hebrew Bible. And when the Jews were kicked out of Rome, they took their scrolls. And during that time, it appears that the Roman believers developed some attitudes that maybe maybe God's cursing Israel. Maybe God's against the Jewish people.

And so that is why Paul writes the book of Roman to say, "No, God has not rejected his people whom he forneew. I myself is am an Israelite." He's trying to say them, no, God has a plan for Israel. And so in Romans 11:25, he says, here's the mystery. That's what he calls it, a mystery. Why does he call it a mystery? Because it's unless God gives you revelation, you're going to miss it. He said, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery so that you do not become conceited or proud." And then and then he shares what the mystery is. Israel has experienced a hardening in part, not full, but a hardening in part until the fullness of the nations, which I believe is world evangelism, the gospel going to every nation. And then after this happens, after the gospel goes to every nation, all Israel will be saved. And then a few verses later, verse 29, he says, "For the gifts and calling of God to Israel are irrevocable." So on the one hand, just as Israel in the Bible did evil at times, many times modern-day Israel can do evil. And and again, they don't have a a market on doing evil. We Have you been to the Middle East? You know, we in you know, people are worried about Lebanon right now. Inside Lebanon is a is it's like a country within a country. You've got Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that is, I think, stronger than the Lebanese army. in so the poor Lebanese government, they're in a no-win situation. You've got the same thing in in Yemen where you've got the Houthis that are a nation within a nation, a rebel army or a terrorist army within an army and they're all sponsored by Iran. So, you know, if if you one's going to point a finger at Israel, let's let's let's go all around the Middle East. But the point I'm trying to say is that no matter whether they do evil or they do good, the Bible does not change. God's covenant does not change. And God said in Romans 31:35 to37, he said, "For all the things Israel has done, I will not reject her." As long as the sun is shining, the moon is giving off light. I'm paraphrasing. The suns the the uh the stars are shining and there are waves in the sea. As long as these these laws of gravity are working, I will not reject Israel for all she's done. So, we're living in a time where either the greatest coincidence in world history has happened, which is the reformation of the nation of his Israel, or God is actually being faithful to his promises. He spoke through all of the prophets and he said, "I'm going to punish Israel. I'm going to send you all over the world. I'm going to scatter you to every nation, but then I'm going to bring

You back in the end times. I'm going to bring you back into your own lands. That whole vision that Ezekiel has in chapter 37 of dry bones where where they they in two phases they the dry bones get flesh and then they come to life. That is happening in in in our day. So unless you want to just cut out the entire Old Testament, uh, or steal all the promises that were to the Jewish people and and and reassign them to the church, uh, we have to understand and admit that the nation of Israel is a fulfillment of prophecy with all her imperfections.

Yeah. I I think the imperfections part is is is an important caveat because there are. Okay, so when I was in Israel, I went uh end of 2022 and we landed the day after the election and I remember there being this almost like dread of people that were like, "Oh man, we just had and I and I knew nothing about Israeli politics at all." And then they start explaining to me like Benjamin Netanyahu and he had to form this coalition with the far right and you know, we're not we're not super pumped on it. And because a majority of Israelis are secular and uh the ultraorthodox don't serve in the military, so there's a degree of hostility that they have with the ultraorthodox, uh, not serving in, you know, they feel like they don't contribute, uh, whereas the rest of uh Israelis serve a minimum of two years, 18 to 20 years old. And so like I'm I'm seeing all this in in real time. But I I I do think that, um, it's important to note that when I was there, Israelis had a lot of criticism for Benjamin Netanyahu. And a lot of my Israeli friends till this day have a lot of criticism towards Benjamin Netanyahu and and some of the things and that the things that you said, hey, sometimes they get stuff wrong, sometimes they mess up. All that stuff needs to be held accountable. But let me ask you this real quick before we go on because I want to come back to the Tucker thing. Um, do you think that there is a pocket of Americans that or or American evangelicals that perhaps do kind of functionally give Israel a blank check and are less critical than yourself, are less critical than uh Jewish believers in Israel that are seeing, you know, and and have dealt with some of the resistance that they face. Uh, and so they do view Israel from most color, uh, lenses instead of just being objective of like, hey, no, there's some resistance here. There's some issues here. There's some there's some sin there. There needs to be repentance. They are a secular nation that they, you know, Tel Aviv is the gay, one of the gay capitals of the world. There's all sorts of issues with abortion and all these things, right? That it's not a theocracy. Um, and do you think that that sometimes could do more harm than good where yes, we're holding out for a future hope. Yes, Romans is true. Yes, all Israel will be saved. But at the same time, we also don't just give Israel a blank check to do whatever. Uh, because they're they're fallen and they're broken and they need Jesus. Uh, just like all of us do.

Yeah, I I agree 100%. I do think that there are evangelicals that they give Israel a free pass, that they wouldn't give other nations. Um, that they they tend to think that some of our political leaders like Netanyahu have have a halo around their head. And I'm telling you, um, I don't want to get into his personal life and and and you know, he he's a very much a fallen human being just like all of us. Um, you know, I'm whether he's been good or bad for the country. I would say he's been both. Um, I don't think it's healthy that anybody is in power as long as he has been in power because you start to think of yourself as a king. Um, it is funny, one of his nicknames is Melik BB, King Bi for his supporters. One of his nicknames from everybody who's against him is king. Like they but they mean it critically. You're not a king. We don't have kings. We we're a democracy. And so, um, you know, two-thirds of Israelis do not want him to be the next prime minister. Um, and and now I know what people are saying, wait a minute. If two-thirds don't want it, then how can he be prime minister? Because you only need a third. Because once you if if you are the biggest party, uh, of of 12 different parties, then you get the mandate to build a coalition. So you can have somebody who, uh, is not necessarily popular with the whole country become the prime minister. In fact, it often happens.

A two-party system.

No, it's a million-party system in any in any given Knesset. Uh, there is 12 to 15 different parties represented. You have to get at least 4% of the vote in order to get any seats. That way you you or you just have millions of parties. So if you're a frivolous party, you're not going to get over that 4% threshold. Um, and and we have 120 seats. I'm sorry. It's 3.25%. It's actually four seats out of 120. So no, I do think sometimes evangelicals are, you know, look at Israel as if we can't do any wrong. But they also look at the neighborhood in which we live in. Like yes, Israel, we we have made mistakes and I can be very critical regarding settler violence. Uh, and I will and I am. I I don't like it and I want our government to do more to stop it. Uh, and and and when I say settler violence, again, you're talking about maybe 1 to 2% of people who live in those areas. The average person, they just go to work, they come home. They're not they're not harassing Palestinians. But there there is that radical 1 or 2% that are doing it and our government should treat them as any other criminal criminal. Uh, and they don't always do that and they should be held to account on that. It bothers me and it bothers most Israelis. But I think evangelicals also look at the neighborhood we live in like like yes, that is wrong. It's absolutely wrong. But you've also got Hamas people who are literally dedicated to my death. If they could on October 7th, if Hamas could have killed every single Jew in Israel, that would have been a victory. That was the goal. And we But they don't have the power to do that. Now, we actually do that have have that type of manpower. We could completely destroy Gaza or the West Bank in in a matter of hours because of our military power. And we don't do that. Do we do other things that are wrong? Yes. And and I would love for us to be a more perfect nation, but you've got Hamas, a terrorist organization. You've got ISIS cutting people's heads off. You've got, you know, the the leader of Syria now, former al-Qaeda, uh, Houthis, Iran. So, you've got some really rough customers in that region. Doesn't mean Israel gets a free pass, but you also have to hold these other nations accountable as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So, let's come back to the Ser Carlson conversation. So, uh, JD goes on there. Uh, I mean, with some of the stuff you said, it almost sounds like you you potentially even have a defamation suit. Um, he's already lost the defamation suit and is bankrupt, so he'll probably, I don't, I guess, file for bankruptcy again if he did that. Um, question number one, are you considering legal action? Question number two, uh, have your team reached out to Tucker Carlson for you to hopefully give some, uh, you know, give you some equal time to one, just correct some of the stuff, but also to give a different perspective of what's happening in Israel as an actual Jewish believer. Um, living in Israel, you have lived there for, you know, over 20 years now. You're a citizen. Um, what's the deal with all of that? And and like, is there any movement on that?

Yes. Uh, yes on both questions. Yes, we are considering legal actions. Again, it's not this isn't personal for me. This is a kingdom issue. And uh what what was spoken were were lies about our ministry in Israel. Uh lies about Jewish believers in Israel. And I don't think God wants those lies to stand. So yes, we are considering legal action. And once I read the things that JD Hall wrote, and we have corrected that record for over a week now, like you had mentioned earlier about the Dr. Brown stuff and the Mike Bickl stuff. What he wrote is that I and again, it's it's laughable for anybody who actually knows me. What he wrote is that I came out against Greg Lockach, but I gave Dr. Brown a free pass. I gave Mike Bickl a free pass. I have said volumes more about both of those gentlemen than I have about Greg Lockach. That is public record. Uh, not only was it irresponsible for JD Hall to write that, but it's been now over a week and he has not corrected it.

So yes, we are considering legal action. It absolutely is defamation. Um, uh, because he has maliciously sp Let me say it this way. It appears to me that he is maliciously spreading lies about me. Uh, but and and yes, we have reached out to Tucker Carlson. I don't know if they have read what we wrote, but my lawyer uh has sent them a very friendly note asking, you know, for equal time to explaining that he had somebody on that lied and that he might want to correct the record.

Yeah. Uh, and real quick, uh, explain to me this Mike Winger situation because Mike Winger kind of, uh, said something in a tweet and then kind of walked it back and apologized, but really didn't ap it was it was kind of confusing. I actually hit him up as well cuz I like, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, Ron seems right in this. And so, yeah, explain that for folks who aren't familiar. Um, we got a lot of folks that love Mike Winger here. We had him at our summit. He's a dear friend. Um, so just just just give us some of the understanding with what what exactly happened there.

Yeah. So I was in touch with Mike and some other friends and I shared with them what had happened in the in the podcast and I shared some of the things that he had written as well. And so what happened is when Mike posted, he got con he was 100% right. It was just a matter of where he said it. And again, my my memory is a little foggy. It was a week ago and I remember reading it and a lot has been going on this week. But what happened is, and Mike then contacted me. He said, "Ron, did you say this?" I said, "Yes, but that was in what he wrote, not what he said on Tucker Carlson." So Mike deleted it because Mike is an honest guy. Anybody Mike is one of the most genuinely nicest human beings I've ever met in my life. And and he cares. Here's the difference between the actions of Mike Winger and the actions of J. D. Hall. Mike understood very quickly that he had gotten confused not about the facts about whether or not JD Hall said it. It was where he said it and so he deleted that and then he clarified, whereas JD Hall has now known I assume he's known, uh, because he read Mike's tweet and I think he said something like he would check or look, you know, but it's still up there. So Mike is a man of high character, so he corrected the record immediately. JD Hall, not so much.

Yeah. And then he fire I think he fired back in Mike Winger's correction and then put up the screenshot of the other person that you mentioned earlier saying that, uh, you know, we won't preach the gospel, uh, on Israeli.

That's not what we said. What we what we said is we don't want, and again, I I don't have the exact quote, but is we don't want to convert Jews.

That's right. We do not want to convert Jews to another religion. We want them to experience what Peter, John, you know, Paul experienced, which was eternal life through Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.

Yeah. And again, I think that might be, uh, you know, confusing for certain people when they're thinking about this.

Which is why I clarified it. Which is why in my in and in my video a week ago and in writing, I clarified it. Um, that did not at all mean that we are compromising the gospel. We just don't use that word convert because it is a it's a four-letter word to Jewish people.

Um, before we wrap up, tell us why did you decide, uh, to move to Israel? Um, what was what was your heart behind that? I mean, you're clearly American, but you're also, uh, an Israeli citizen. And, uh, what is it like doing ministry in Israel on the ground? You talked about you guys have a, you know, a church that you're a part of. Uh, g yeah, give us some of that backstory before we wrap up.

Well, um, I when I became a believer, I just assumed I would never meet a Jewish girl who believes in Jesus. I knew I'd marry a non-Jewish girl and that would have been fine. I was very happy. We by the way, we do not think that Jews are better than Gentiles. We are one in though hit my microphone. But those of us who are in Messiah are one together. There is if you are Jewish, there is nothing that is that that is not better than being a non-Jew, being an Italian, being from from from Iran or Ireland. Um, but I knew it would have been easier for my family if I married a Jewish girl, you know, as in my efforts to share the gospel with them. And shockingly, I not only met a Jewish girl, I met an Israeli and she was beautiful. Um, so and that was important, too. I needed to find she had to be Jewish and and well, she didn't have to be, but she had to be beautiful and I ended up finding a Jewish Israeli, um, and we began to date. My dad says to me when he meets her one time, just to show you how this important it was to my family. My dad says, "I know she's Jewish, but at least she believes in Jesus." I'm sorry. "I know she believes in Jesus, but at least she's Jewish." And so, uh, we we get married and, um, we go to Israel in 1991. This was just after the, uh, the Iraq war, the first Iraq war. And I just fell in love. You know, I'm ADHD. And I've always, you know, my whole life people have been saying, "Sit still. Not everything's a joke, Ron. You can't make a joke about that." And I went and I found a country where everyone was like me. Everybody is funny. Humor is the language of visitor. When you live in a nation that is constantly under threat, when when buses are being blown up, when restaurants are being blown up, uh, humor is a a caping u uh coping mechanism. And and there are no rules in Israel. You can you can you can get mad at somebody and you can yell at them and then you can be their friend the next minute. It's just a completely different culture. And I just thought, I love this. I love these people and I want, you know, I want to spend the rest of my life here. So, I got on the plane to come home and, um, my wife stayed cuz she's native Israeli. So, she stayed for three weeks to be with her her family and then she would come home. So, I got on by myself on this airplane and I just I uncontrollably wept probably for the first hour from the time we took off into the I was just I was devastated that I had to go back to my I was selling radio advertising at the time and I thought I just can't go back to that life. I have to live here. Uh, but it I had to wait 10 more years or 12 more years. Uh, and we would visit many times in between there. But it was in 2003 that we we we packed up our family, our three daughters, and we moved to Israel and we've never really looked back. Um, and and then after we got there, we I took two years off. Um, and a lot of folks can't do this. We raised support and I took two years off and I just focused on learning Hebrew. Um, and then since that time, we've done many different things. I've been a pastor. We've got this TV station. Um, and uh we we love living there. It's it's uh it has been difficult these past several years since uh 2023. The very texture from October 7th, uh, for the next I don't know, year or two. It was like the texture of life was different. That was the most devastating thing I have ever been through in my life. Um, we were not in we were in France on October 7th ministering.

Uh, we got back as soon as we could. I had people saying go to America. Why would you go back there? The Israeli mindset whenever there is war, if you're Israeli and you're you're on vacation or something, you go back. That is you don't think twice about it. You don't think about stay. You it's a weird thing. People will they will go. I had friends who literally went to Jordan, nations that's a little bit hostile, they landed in Jordan and took a bus into Israel in order to get home. And that that's just the heartbeat of Israelis. So we got home as soon as we could, October 13th, and we just started helping everywhere we were because people 70,000 Israelis lost their homes on the on the Gaza border and another 80,000 in the north because Hezbollah day and night was bombing. So you had over 150,000 Israelis displaced for well over a year. And we just we just started helping anywhere we could. Our daily life was wake up, go help, go serve, come home, write an email, take a nap, you know, do make a video and then go do it tomorrow. We, my wife and I did that every day for months.

And, uh, thank you so much. Uh, life is.

Go ahead. I was just going to say, uh, uh, finish your sentence. Sorry.

Oh, I was just said that, you know, life has been difficult, but it's getting a little bit back to normal. You know, when when we've gone through these wars, we can't like with Iran, our congregation can't meet. And that that's, you know, one of the hardest things for for believers. And so I remember when the this most recent war with Iran, the ceasefire and we all came back together, you know, we have about a hundred people in our congregation and it was just beautiful. It was just wonderful. There's just something about the body of believers being together. So I miss it now. I'm in the States right now. I can't wait, uh, to get home in in just a couple weeks.

Yeah, Ron. Well, thank you so much, man. Appreciate you sharing that. Any final thoughts? Any final words before, uh, before we wrap up?

I would just ask for prayer. You know, this has been a very stressful, uh, week. Uh, you know, one of my favorite passages is Romans 12:18 where Paul says, "As much as it's up to you, as much as it's in your own strength, live a quiet and peaceable life." And you know, people who know me probably think that that that is not what I want, but it's really what I long for. I would rather just have an uneventful life, but when these things happen, I'm I'm willing to I'm willing to stand up. I I've got thick skin and, um, but I'm I just would ask for prayer that people would pray for us. Pray that, uh, and that God would increase our platform not for fame, not for fortune, for the kingdom of God. Uh, you know, we just yesterday I noticed that Ted Cruz, who I've never met in my life, shared an article I wrote, uh, the the other day. So God, and it was connected to Tucker and the whole interview and all that, but it was about Roman, uh, uh, Genesis 12:3. So I thank God that our voice is being amplified. Um, but I also, you know, just pray for our our sanity, our peace. You know, the most important moment of my day is, uh, I go for a walk for an hour and I commune with God. I don't want to be communing with God and thinking about JD Hall. I don't want to commu commune with God and be thinking about Tucker Carlson. I want to be focused on Yeshua. So pray for me. Pray that I would be able to guard, uh, uh, my devotional life and not get overly swept up into these issues. Again, my goal is a quiet and peaceable life, but yet, you know, uh, you know, like the disciples, they they turned the world upside down. So, if if we have to do that, we'll do that. Uh, but just pray for our general, you know, peace and for my wife as well.

Yeah. Amen. Appreciate you, Ron. Yeah. We'll link the video, uh, where you go over all the claims, the false claims he's made about you, so people can watch that. You kind of pull up all the receipts there. And, uh, yeah, who knows? Maybe this will, uh, lead to you having a conversation with Tucker and kind of setting the record straight. I mean, that I think that would be amazing. So, um, yeah, I appreciate you so much, Ron. And, uh, until next time, we'll see you guys later.