Allen Jackson: Culture & Christianity Conference (Part 2)| Allen Jackson Now

October 17, 2025 | 22:57

Ronny Simon joins Allen Jackson at the Culture & Christianity Conference.

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Allen Jackson NOW | Allen Jackson: Culture & Christianity Conference (Part 2)| Allen Jackson Now | October 17, 2025
  • Ronnie is a historian of some note.
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  • Particularly with, israel in the middle east.
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  • But our topic today is really more focused.
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  • It's a less friendly topic.
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  • It's more on anti-semitism.
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  • So maybe we start out.
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  • You were israeli.
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  • Your family immigrated to israel from romania.
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  • So your family has been touched
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  • By 20th century expressions of anti-semitism.
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  • Maybe we start out, you just tell us a bit of that.
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  • So it isn't theoretical.
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  • You've lived through a bit of hatred of the jewish people.
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  • Well, i was just a boy when we came over,
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  • But i clearly remember stories that i heard from my parents
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  • About what was it like to be a jewish, not just a jew,
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  • But a jewish zionist that wants to go to israel?
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  • I in romania.
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  • It was very unpleasant losing most of the families
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  • In the holocaust.
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  • And just to be determined that israel is the homeland.
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  • Leaving romania back then was almost impossible.
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  • And they were determined.
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  • And my dad lost his job some times
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  • And my mother was called names.
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  • This is something that is
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  • Part of our dna, unfortunately, is the jewish people.
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  • For me, myself, i never had such an experience in israel.
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  • That's what this is all about.
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  • We are proud to be back home, but have a nation.
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  • Nobody is persecuted and nobody feels any
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  • Anti-semitism in israel.
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  • That's why is what exists, right?
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  • To make sure the jews are safe
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  • And jews will not share
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  • Those sentiments
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  • That my people did for the last 2000 years or so.
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  • Maybe expand that a bit.
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  • You said that's the reason israel exists,
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  • And i've heard you say it many times,
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  • But it's intended to give the jewish people a homeland,
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  • A safe haven.
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  • Because for 2000 years that was absent.
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  • Can you expand on that a bit?
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  • What is the secret?
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  • You do know that, jews were longing
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  • And praying and yearning to go back to israel.
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  • And we waited for nearly 2000 years until opportunity
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  • Presented itself.
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  • And the circumstances were right.
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  • And israel was built to be a homeland
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  • For every jewish person around the globe
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  • That wants to come back home.
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  • Who even made the law of return?
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  • You know, parliament
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  • In 1958, as every jewish person that comes to israel,
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  • Once you land at the airport, they give your id
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  • And automatically you become a citizen without israel.
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  • We don't have a moral.
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  • I will say, justification to exist.
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  • And what?
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  • Jewish people are in danger around the world.
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  • Israel is there to reach out and to help.
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  • And if we have to send our let's call them green berets
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  • Or equivalent to uganda,
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  • Because the plo hijacked an airplane with israelis
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  • In 1976, will send our people to every corner of the world
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  • To rescue jews.
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  • That's what this is all about.
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  • So jewish people,
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  • Even those
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  • That don't live in israel, and not all
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  • The jews are supporting the state of israel.
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  • But they know
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  • If we come to work, somebody is going to come to the rescue,
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  • Somebody is going to help.
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  • There was a safe place to go to,
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  • And people could not make the state.
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  • And the just made for the last nearly 2000 years.
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  • And you don't send the frustration
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  • That only few miles away from our homes, 48 israelis
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  • Are held hostage in the tunnels of hamas, miles away from home.
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  • And we can not do that much to free them.
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  • You understand the frustration,
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  • But israel is there to make sure that
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  • Any jewish person on the planet has a place to go to.
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  • Some will come only when things worse comes to worse,
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  • But many others will come to be part of that amazing experience
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  • Of the rebirth of the jewish nation in israel.
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  • As god promises so often in the scriptures.
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  • But i suspect most of the people listening,
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  • Have a consciousness that islam,
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  • Has a hatred
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  • For the jewish people being in that land.
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  • But the issue is, is much bigger than that,
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  • And it's much broader than that, because for hamas to exist
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  • And to have flourished, they've had to have support
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  • From the west, from ngos.
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  • The greatest persecutor of the jewish people
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  • Throughout history has not been islam.
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  • It's been christians.
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  • Although he's a historian in this setting,
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  • He's probably too polite
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  • To make that statement that i can make it.
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  • And it's historically accurate.
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  • And i think one of the changes that came with october
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  • The 7th was the realization that the anti-semitism,
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  • The hatred for the jewish
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  • People was still alive and well in the west.
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  • We wanted to believe after world
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  • War two we were done with that,
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  • And we have seen it on our
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  • Some of our most previously celebrated college campuses.
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  • And now we
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  • See it in the conservative side of the ideological spectrum.
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  • So i've got a question.
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  • And when i say it to my
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  • Friends in america, they don't usually believe me,
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  • But the
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  • The just
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  • The average israeli on the street,
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  • I think is probably more comfortable
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  • With a muslim than with a christian
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  • Because of that history.
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  • And i know there's been some change in the last decade.
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  • We've made some progress in that dialog.
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  • Maybe with alex coaching,
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  • We can do a little better with our online media.
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  • But there's been a deep divide between the jewish
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  • And christian community.
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  • The what the jewish people know was
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  • That hitler was a baptized catholic,
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  • And we
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  • Would say, well, he wasn't a good one,
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  • But you'll forgive the jewish people
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  • If that distinction is lost on them.
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  • And so today
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  • We see in the west and in much of the christian
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  • Church in america,
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  • If not opposition to the state
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  • Of israel and the jewish people, we see ambivalence.
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  • So maybe we talk for a minute.
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  • You walk us back through
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  • Some of the expressions
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  • Of anti-semitism, whether it's in spain or europe
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  • Or some of that's personal in your life. but,
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  • You're better with dates
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  • And facts than i am.
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  • Well, i think the first time it was mentioned
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  • There was in the book of esther, chapter three, verse eight,
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  • When eamon goes to excelsis and says, was this people
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  • Who are different in the customs and are not loyal,
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  • And they hate the monarchy, and we need to get rid of them.
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  • And maybe the first time
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  • That the jewish people, the people were targeted
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  • When they called jews back then,
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  • That would be the biblical example.
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  • The funny thing
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  • Is that the septuagint, the septuagint of all places,
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  • Started in official state sponsored anti-semitism
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  • In alexandria.
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  • The world was still pagan, and, king ptolemy in philadelphia
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  • Invited 72 jewish scholars to translate the bible to greek.
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  • And nobody read the bible until then, except in hebrew.
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  • And when the egyptian scholars read the translation,
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  • They were shocked
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  • Because they realized
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  • That egypt was humiliated by the god of israel.
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  • And he speaks about the plagues
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  • And speaks about the army of pharaoh.
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  • The drowned in the red sea, and the egyptian.
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  • Greek scholars were shocked.
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  • And that started something that was quite amazing.
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  • They had to write their versions of the story
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  • Because egypt was humiliated and historians called manitou.
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  • The priest said that pharaoh actually expelled
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  • A group of lepers from egypt, led by a priest
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  • That changed his name to moses
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  • And expelled them into the desert.
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  • And these are the hebrews.
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  • They would not
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  • Buy the biblical story because it humiliated egypt.
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  • The roman historian simply followed,
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  • Embracing everything the lives of the greeks.
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  • And for the catholic church,
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  • That was easy to add to the final layer
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  • And to give us the religious expression as well.
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  • In antiquity, there was absolute religious freedom.
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  • Nobody will force you to believe
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  • In zeus or to believe in jupiter.
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  • It didn't matter.
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  • The first time it became to be a state issue
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  • Was in the days of constantine, when the roman empire, now
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  • A christian, one, believe that it's their duty as an empire
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  • To lead people to christianity and to lead them for heaven.
  • 00:08:00.705 --> 00:08:04.108
  • He became to be an imperial task and obviously
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  • There was always a scapegoat, always somebody to point at.
  • 00:08:07.445 --> 00:08:10.815
  • And if you start teaching your people in small communities,
  • 00:08:10.815 --> 00:08:14.185
  • The jews are christ killers and you add to that
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  • What you heard from the egyptian historians and the romans one,
  • 00:08:17.288 --> 00:08:21.659
  • It will have all the rightful kind of hatreds.
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  • And the roman emperors were writing codex
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  • Discriminating the jews.
  • 00:08:26.764 --> 00:08:28.700
  • And by the way, the jews didn't care that much
  • 00:08:28.700 --> 00:08:31.035
  • Because that separation was important.
  • 00:08:31.035 --> 00:08:33.304
  • So once you lock the jews in ghettos or jewish neighborhoods,
  • 00:08:33.304 --> 00:08:37.075
  • For the jewish perspective,
  • 00:08:37.075 --> 00:08:38.543
  • We don't want to mingle with the others.
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  • We can't really share a meal because it's not kosher, etc.
  • 00:08:40.912 --> 00:08:44.549
  • So we think about ignorance.
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  • All those people that heard something
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  • About the jews but never met them in person.
  • 00:08:47.685 --> 00:08:50.254
  • They're being told the jews are christ killers
  • 00:08:50.254 --> 00:08:52.857
  • And they are a little more affluent and all
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  • Literate and educated.
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  • They live longer because they keep laws
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  • Of sanitation that the others did not.
  • 00:09:00.465 --> 00:09:02.867
  • And the doctor will also helping as well.
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  • You brought a lot of envy
  • 00:09:05.003 --> 00:09:07.038
  • Plus the religious aspect, and that went on and on and on.
  • 00:09:07.038 --> 00:09:10.975
  • The expulsion from spain in 1492, etc.
  • 00:09:10.975 --> 00:09:15.546
  • But if i only mean not just an expulsion.
  • 00:09:15.546 --> 00:09:18.683
  • Jews were arrested,
  • 00:09:19.150 --> 00:09:20.385
  • Tortured and forced to accept the christian faith.
  • 00:09:20.385 --> 00:09:24.656
  • Their property was confiscated.
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  • They were driven out of the country.
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  • He gave a sanitized version.
  • 00:09:28.660 --> 00:09:30.928
  • And all of that was led by the church.
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  • You see, one of the notions that we have to address,
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  • And we're going to do it for the next day
  • 00:09:37.201 --> 00:09:38.503
  • And a half together, is we can't hide from culture.
  • 00:09:38.503 --> 00:09:42.240
  • We have to bring our faith into the culture.
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  • We have to use the truth of scripture
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  • And the authority of scripture to impact culture.
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  • It's not politics
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  • I could care less about republican or democrat.
  • 00:09:52.083 --> 00:09:54.886
  • I care about the worldview that has authority over us
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  • And bringing the perspective of scripture in the church.
  • 00:09:58.723 --> 00:10:01.893
  • A perverted version of the church has brought a great deal
  • 00:10:01.893 --> 00:10:05.196
  • Of suffering, and the question in the 21st century for us is,
  • 00:10:05.196 --> 00:10:08.833
  • Are we going to come back
  • 00:10:08.833 --> 00:10:10.301
  • To that biblical worldview and have the courage
  • 00:10:10.301 --> 00:10:12.136
  • To bring the truth to bear in our culture,
  • 00:10:12.136 --> 00:10:14.505
  • Or will we hand our children and grandchildren something else?
  • 00:10:14.505 --> 00:10:16.908
  • In spain 15th century, the church
  • 00:10:16.908 --> 00:10:20.044
  • Led the persecution of the jews.
  • 00:10:20.678 --> 00:10:22.747
  • We're changing in the 21st century.
  • 00:10:23.548 --> 00:10:25.116
  • Kernel, i'm i interrupted you.
  • 00:10:25.116 --> 00:10:27.351
  • I'm sorry.
  • 00:10:27.351 --> 00:10:28.319
  • No. since you.
  • 00:10:28.319 --> 00:10:31.456
  • As you said
  • 00:10:31.789 --> 00:10:32.790
  • Earlier, a few things i will hesitate to say.
  • 00:10:32.790 --> 00:10:35.326
  • You feel much more comfortable.
  • 00:10:35.326 --> 00:10:36.627
  • Obviously.
  • 00:10:36.627 --> 00:10:40.164
  • Amen to everything you just shared.
  • 00:10:40.932 --> 00:10:43.768
  • Yeah, that was it.
  • 00:10:43.768 --> 00:10:45.236
  • But again, the way an opinion, the way i see that
  • 00:10:45.236 --> 00:10:49.240
  • For the first time ever, that, muslim anti-semitism
  • 00:10:49.240 --> 00:10:53.745
  • Is meeting good old fashioned christian anti-semitism.
  • 00:10:53.745 --> 00:10:58.116
  • And that would be in europe of the last 20, 30 years.
  • 00:10:58.116 --> 00:11:01.385
  • And that's a devastating combination.
  • 00:11:01.385 --> 00:11:11.000
  • And that's a devastating combination.
  • 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:14.491
  • One of the things we hear a lot is that the israelis
  • 00:11:15.525 --> 00:11:18.128
  • Are taking the land of the palestinians.
  • 00:11:18.128 --> 00:11:22.165
  • Maybe you've heard that some version of that,
  • 00:11:22.165 --> 00:11:25.502
  • Or more of you than that.
  • 00:11:25.502 --> 00:11:28.071
  • I'm not going to receive an offering.
  • 00:11:28.071 --> 00:11:29.339
  • It's not an auction. i was just curious.
  • 00:11:29.339 --> 00:11:32.208
  • Okay,
  • 00:11:32.442 --> 00:11:33.409
  • So how much land maybe
  • 00:11:33.409 --> 00:11:35.145
  • Are you personally confiscating property?
  • 00:11:35.145 --> 00:11:37.113
  • Ronnie, do you have, like, a ranch?
  • 00:11:37.113 --> 00:11:40.150
  • Tell us how much land you have confiscated in the process.
  • 00:11:40.150 --> 00:11:44.020
  • I had to kill about a thousand
  • 00:11:44.020 --> 00:11:45.221
  • People, which i do for breakfast every day. so
  • 00:11:45.221 --> 00:11:48.324
  • I spend eight hours this week
  • 00:11:48.958 --> 00:11:51.127
  • To try to explain to the people to came to the morning seminars
  • 00:11:51.127 --> 00:11:54.697
  • To ask you a question. eight hours.
  • 00:11:54.697 --> 00:11:57.167
  • How can i answer that in a,
  • 00:11:57.167 --> 00:12:00.737
  • Listen, israel, quickly, quickly.
  • 00:12:00.737 --> 00:12:02.872
  • So when i'm at the gate, we can cover 4000 is in ten minutes.
  • 00:12:02.872 --> 00:12:06.976
  • That's what we do for living.
  • 00:12:06.976 --> 00:12:09.646
  • To make a long story short,
  • 00:12:09.646 --> 00:12:12.916
  • Israel is the only country, i guess, in the region.
  • 00:12:12.916 --> 00:12:15.952
  • Definitely.
  • 00:12:15.952 --> 00:12:17.353
  • That was giving up land for peace constantly.
  • 00:12:17.353 --> 00:12:20.857
  • 1967 israel was attacked by the arab armies in retaliation.
  • 00:12:20.857 --> 00:12:25.829
  • By the way, we always retaliate.
  • 00:12:25.829 --> 00:12:27.897
  • That will come as a surprise to you.
  • 00:12:27.897 --> 00:12:29.799
  • Israel never initiated any act of aggression against the arabs.
  • 00:12:29.799 --> 00:12:35.038
  • Israel is retaliating.
  • 00:12:35.038 --> 00:12:37.607
  • You give me one speech of one prominent israeli leader
  • 00:12:37.607 --> 00:12:42.045
  • That speaks about destroying the arabs
  • 00:12:42.045 --> 00:12:44.547
  • Or destroy the palestinians. don't bother.
  • 00:12:44.547 --> 00:12:46.749
  • You won't find it.
  • 00:12:46.749 --> 00:12:48.351
  • I can give you thousands examples of arabs delivering
  • 00:12:48.351 --> 00:12:51.187
  • A message of destruction to the jews and israel.
  • 00:12:51.187 --> 00:12:54.691
  • Israel is willing to give up land
  • 00:12:54.691 --> 00:12:57.327
  • For peace through peace.
  • 00:12:57.327 --> 00:13:00.063
  • We occupied, quote unquote, to the sinai peninsula
  • 00:13:00.063 --> 00:13:02.966
  • From the egyptians after we were threatened and attacked
  • 00:13:02.966 --> 00:13:06.102
  • By them in june of 1967.
  • 00:13:06.102 --> 00:13:09.505
  • In 1979, we pulled out from all of sinai
  • 00:13:09.505 --> 00:13:13.042
  • Because egypt was willing to sign peace with israel
  • 00:13:13.042 --> 00:13:16.512
  • If you wanted to occupied, we would not speak about peace.
  • 00:13:16.512 --> 00:13:20.116
  • We started the peace process with the palestinians
  • 00:13:20.116 --> 00:13:22.919
  • And we pulled out from land.
  • 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:24.354
  • It was never this by the way, it used to be jordan.
  • 00:13:24.354 --> 00:13:27.657
  • We pulled out from parts of the west bank.
  • 00:13:27.657 --> 00:13:30.126
  • That's the heartland of biblical israel, for goodness sake.
  • 00:13:30.126 --> 00:13:33.363
  • The state of israel gave up some of the land of our ancestors
  • 00:13:33.363 --> 00:13:37.467
  • To a bitter enemy, hoping it's going to lead to peace.
  • 00:13:37.467 --> 00:13:41.371
  • We were naive. not anymore.
  • 00:13:41.971 --> 00:13:44.774
  • If israel wants to occupy, we can.
  • 00:13:44.774 --> 00:13:47.610
  • We are strong enough.
  • 00:13:47.610 --> 00:13:49.479
  • Israel doesn't want to occupy anything.
  • 00:13:49.479 --> 00:13:54.517
  • Thank you.
  • 00:13:54.817 --> 00:13:57.553
  • And if i may, in
  • 00:13:57.553 --> 00:13:58.988
  • A few seconds, if i may, many people ask me
  • 00:13:58.988 --> 00:14:02.025
  • Why i want to just annex
  • 00:14:02.025 --> 00:14:03.326
  • Judea and samaria and just have a greater israel,
  • 00:14:03.326 --> 00:14:06.596
  • As basically the bible says, well, we are a democracy.
  • 00:14:06.596 --> 00:14:10.466
  • And if you're annexing judea and samaria and want to leave
  • 00:14:10.466 --> 00:14:13.937
  • The people, give them the right to vote.
  • 00:14:13.937 --> 00:14:17.140
  • We would be outnumbered in our own country
  • 00:14:17.140 --> 00:14:19.642
  • If we have a greater israel.
  • 00:14:19.642 --> 00:14:21.811
  • If you want to annex the gaza strip, we can.
  • 00:14:21.811 --> 00:14:25.315
  • It's not an issue of can we or can we not?
  • 00:14:25.315 --> 00:14:28.685
  • If we do that and we give them rights
  • 00:14:28.685 --> 00:14:30.620
  • Because we want to
  • 00:14:30.620 --> 00:14:31.621
  • Save democracy, we will be outnumbered in israel
  • 00:14:31.621 --> 00:14:35.291
  • And therefore to have a greater israel and say democracy
  • 00:14:35.291 --> 00:14:38.795
  • Will lead to the demise of the state of israel
  • 00:14:38.795 --> 00:14:41.331
  • By simple demographic, the democratic demographic process.
  • 00:14:41.331 --> 00:14:45.501
  • We prefer to have a smaller israel
  • 00:14:46.235 --> 00:14:48.604
  • And not to occupy land with a solid jewish majority.
  • 00:14:48.604 --> 00:14:52.809
  • And this will
  • 00:14:53.176 --> 00:14:54.410
  • Guarantee that israel will stay a strong democracy and jewish.
  • 00:14:54.410 --> 00:14:57.981
  • That's our main dilemma.
  • 00:14:57.981 --> 00:14:59.916
  • So in israel is willing to negotiate and give a plan.
  • 00:14:59.916 --> 00:15:03.086
  • It's not because we give up on the biblical promise.
  • 00:15:03.086 --> 00:15:06.055
  • You go to genesis 15.
  • 00:15:06.055 --> 00:15:07.824
  • God promised abraham a land from the euphrates river
  • 00:15:07.824 --> 00:15:11.394
  • All the way to the book of egypt on god's timing.
  • 00:15:11.394 --> 00:15:14.297
  • The promise is there.
  • 00:15:14.297 --> 00:15:15.765
  • We are not taking action to do that.
  • 00:15:15.765 --> 00:15:18.801
  • We want to try.
  • 00:15:18.801 --> 00:15:19.869
  • If you want to be a homeland for the jewish people,
  • 00:15:19.869 --> 00:15:22.138
  • We want to be a light for the nations.
  • 00:15:22.138 --> 00:15:24.874
  • We don't want to conquer land.
  • 00:15:24.874 --> 00:15:33.992
  • We don't want to conquer land.
  • 00:15:33.992 --> 00:15:38.024
  • Through a father and a grandfather,
  • 00:15:38.791 --> 00:15:42.028
  • He said he used to when people showed him pictures
  • 00:15:42.028 --> 00:15:44.196
  • Of the grandchildren, he showed them pictures of his dogs.
  • 00:15:44.196 --> 00:15:47.767
  • But he has two grandchildren now.
  • 00:15:48.467 --> 00:15:50.870
  • And he will show you pictures.
  • 00:15:50.870 --> 00:15:53.606
  • But i thought the instructions you gave to your son
  • 00:15:53.606 --> 00:15:55.708
  • When he was leaving for college.
  • 00:15:55.708 --> 00:15:58.010
  • Do you remember that?
  • 00:15:58.010 --> 00:15:59.612
  • Yes, sir.
  • 00:15:59.612 --> 00:16:00.579
  • I thought it was helpful for all of us.
  • 00:16:00.579 --> 00:16:02.515
  • Yeah, a few things you don't forget.
  • 00:16:02.515 --> 00:16:05.251
  • I know that all this, this introduction
  • 00:16:05.251 --> 00:16:08.220
  • Of speaking about israel
  • 00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:09.789
  • May lead people to think that we live a very, intense,
  • 00:16:09.789 --> 00:16:13.893
  • Kind of nervous way of life.
  • 00:16:13.893 --> 00:16:16.562
  • Many of you have been to israel.
  • 00:16:16.562 --> 00:16:18.230
  • Life goes on.
  • 00:16:18.230 --> 00:16:19.198
  • It's amazing what you can get used to.
  • 00:16:19.198 --> 00:16:21.033
  • Nobody should get used to live under the threat
  • 00:16:21.033 --> 00:16:23.569
  • Of ballistic missiles right against you at will.
  • 00:16:23.569 --> 00:16:26.138
  • But you can get used to that.
  • 00:16:26.138 --> 00:16:27.973
  • And you keep your coffee in the coffee shop in tel aviv,
  • 00:16:27.973 --> 00:16:31.210
  • And the siren goes on and your phone is buzzing
  • 00:16:31.210 --> 00:16:33.512
  • Like the imbroglio that you have.
  • 00:16:33.512 --> 00:16:35.014
  • Each time
  • 00:16:35.014 --> 00:16:36.248
  • Somebody is launching a missile, you go to the bomb shelter.
  • 00:16:36.248 --> 00:16:40.119
  • We intercept it. in most cases,
  • 00:16:40.119 --> 00:16:41.787
  • Your coffee is still nice and warm on the table.
  • 00:16:41.787 --> 00:16:43.923
  • You go back and you sip your coffee.
  • 00:16:43.923 --> 00:16:46.192
  • It sounds crazy, sounds crazy.
  • 00:16:46.192 --> 00:16:48.094
  • But we've never really said that israel is a normal place.
  • 00:16:48.094 --> 00:16:51.197
  • Well, my son went to college.
  • 00:16:51.831 --> 00:16:52.998
  • We had the normal father and son talk.
  • 00:16:52.998 --> 00:16:55.334
  • I'm sure that you all had it
  • 00:16:55.334 --> 00:16:56.435
  • When you send your kids to college.
  • 00:16:56.435 --> 00:16:58.404
  • And it was the usual stuff, you know,
  • 00:16:58.404 --> 00:17:00.206
  • About girls and drugs, etc.
  • 00:17:00.206 --> 00:17:02.875
  • Then i said, well,
  • 00:17:02.875 --> 00:17:03.976
  • How far from your house is the nearest bomb shelter?
  • 00:17:03.976 --> 00:17:07.480
  • Well, this college was about five miles away from gaza,
  • 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:10.983
  • And back then they started already,
  • 00:17:10.983 --> 00:17:13.953
  • April 2001, the first rocket was flying from gaza into israel,
  • 00:17:13.953 --> 00:17:18.057
  • And he tells me all about 50 other.
  • 00:17:18.791 --> 00:17:21.160
  • And i said, listen, if you wake up for the siren,
  • 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:23.796
  • You have eight seconds. no way you're going to make it.
  • 00:17:23.796 --> 00:17:26.532
  • So what are we going to do with, with
  • 00:17:26.532 --> 00:17:28.367
  • So the world just roll under your bed and prayer
  • 00:17:28.367 --> 00:17:30.636
  • That that would be your nearer shelter.
  • 00:17:30.636 --> 00:17:32.671
  • And i think to myself, what father, in what country
  • 00:17:32.671 --> 00:17:36.408
  • In the world has this kind of conversation?
  • 00:17:36.408 --> 00:17:39.044
  • Sending his son to college.
  • 00:17:39.044 --> 00:17:41.847
  • Yeah.
  • 00:17:41.847 --> 00:17:42.882
  • So that's that's both, of what happens in israel
  • 00:17:42.882 --> 00:17:46.318
  • Used to be a time that busses exploded in cities in israel.
  • 00:17:46.318 --> 00:17:50.356
  • Your kid goes to school.
  • 00:17:50.356 --> 00:17:51.657
  • We just started having cellphones in the early 90s.
  • 00:17:51.657 --> 00:17:54.360
  • And you hear the the bus that the same bus
  • 00:17:54.360 --> 00:17:56.395
  • That your kid took to go to school and exploded.
  • 00:17:56.395 --> 00:17:59.665
  • You try to reach your kid to see what's what's with him,
  • 00:17:59.665 --> 00:18:02.668
  • And the system collapses because everybody tries
  • 00:18:02.668 --> 00:18:04.737
  • To reach everybody
  • 00:18:04.737 --> 00:18:05.971
  • And you're freaking out until you hear his or her voice.
  • 00:18:05.971 --> 00:18:08.841
  • And from that, i'm okay.
  • 00:18:08.841 --> 00:18:10.376
  • Again, it's absolutely insane.
  • 00:18:10.976 --> 00:18:13.279
  • And i don't wish anybody in the world
  • 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:14.947
  • To live under such conditions.
  • 00:18:14.947 --> 00:18:16.682
  • That's a price to be an israeli.
  • 00:18:16.682 --> 00:18:18.450
  • That's the price to be jewish.
  • 00:18:18.450 --> 00:18:19.952
  • We are proud and happy to pay the price.
  • 00:18:19.952 --> 00:18:24.323
  • One more story.
  • 00:18:24.690 --> 00:18:27.893
  • I wanted to tell you one more story.
  • 00:18:27.893 --> 00:18:29.195
  • When the when their kids graduated from high school,
  • 00:18:29.195 --> 00:18:31.230
  • They all serve in the military.
  • 00:18:31.230 --> 00:18:33.065
  • The guys and the women.
  • 00:18:33.065 --> 00:18:35.067
  • And his daughter was in the military
  • 00:18:35.067 --> 00:18:36.869
  • And had some dietary limits.
  • 00:18:36.869 --> 00:18:40.673
  • Though.
  • 00:18:40.906 --> 00:18:44.143
  • I'll tell it.
  • 00:18:44.510 --> 00:18:49.481
  • It's the most agitated i ever heard him get.
  • 00:18:50.382 --> 00:18:52.418
  • He was relating the story to me for for a guy in israel,
  • 00:18:52.418 --> 00:18:55.788
  • The happiest time in their life is when the two relieves.
  • 00:18:55.788 --> 00:18:59.525
  • I've been with him.
  • 00:18:59.992 --> 00:19:00.659
  • I stay behind sometimes.
  • 00:19:00.659 --> 00:19:01.827
  • And when the group leaves, there's
  • 00:19:01.827 --> 00:19:02.795
  • This great sense of relief.
  • 00:19:02.795 --> 00:19:04.029
  • And we're in the car going back to jerusalem.
  • 00:19:04.029 --> 00:19:06.265
  • He starts to tell me this story and he gets so agitated
  • 00:19:06.265 --> 00:19:09.068
  • I'm grateful i'm in the backseat.
  • 00:19:09.068 --> 00:19:12.104
  • But the commanding officer
  • 00:19:12.671 --> 00:19:14.607
  • Wouldn't let the daughter get the special food she needed,
  • 00:19:14.607 --> 00:19:17.810
  • And somehow she managed to get her dad on the phone.
  • 00:19:18.844 --> 00:19:22.881
  • And you can tell the rest of that.
  • 00:19:23.649 --> 00:19:26.885
  • They're going to pray for your kids.
  • 00:19:27.653 --> 00:19:28.787
  • That's really what i'm going to ask him to do.
  • 00:19:28.787 --> 00:19:30.189
  • So i think of myself as a pleasant person in most cases.
  • 00:19:30.189 --> 00:19:35.427
  • When my daughter says that i'm hungry
  • 00:19:36.228 --> 00:19:38.631
  • And they won't let me to go to the nearby town and just,
  • 00:19:38.631 --> 00:19:42.401
  • Buy those supplies,
  • 00:19:42.868 --> 00:19:44.103
  • They will put your commanding officer on the phone.
  • 00:19:44.103 --> 00:19:47.172
  • And i just, i will introduce myself
  • 00:19:47.172 --> 00:19:50.175
  • By my military friend that had to make an impression.
  • 00:19:50.175 --> 00:19:53.379
  • And that was the one time that i really was so upset
  • 00:19:53.379 --> 00:19:56.849
  • With the army.
  • 00:19:56.849 --> 00:19:57.883
  • Or i'm part of the army you used to be.
  • 00:19:57.883 --> 00:20:00.085
  • And that's as far as i'm willing to go in that story.
  • 00:20:00.085 --> 00:20:10.995
  • And that's as far as i'm willing to go in that story.
  • 00:20:10.995 --> 00:20:15.537
  • But we had an agreement in our congregation.
  • 00:20:16.438 --> 00:20:18.373
  • When come when someone comes and shares with us,
  • 00:20:18.373 --> 00:20:20.609
  • We welcome them into the family and we agree to pray for them.
  • 00:20:20.609 --> 00:20:24.846
  • So your take away, now that you've met ronnie symon
  • 00:20:24.846 --> 00:20:28.183
  • And you know a bit about his family,
  • 00:20:28.183 --> 00:20:29.651
  • You pray for them.
  • 00:20:29.651 --> 00:20:31.320
  • What's happening in the middle east isn't a political
  • 00:20:31.320 --> 00:20:33.655
  • Geopolitical thing.
  • 00:20:33.655 --> 00:20:34.923
  • It's about people.
  • 00:20:34.923 --> 00:20:36.758
  • And ultimately,
  • 00:20:36.758 --> 00:20:38.827
  • The prince of peace will bring peace to the middle east.
  • 00:20:38.827 --> 00:20:42.197
  • And so now it's personal.
  • 00:20:42.197 --> 00:20:43.465
  • You can pray for ronnie
  • 00:20:43.465 --> 00:20:45.067
  • And his kids,
  • 00:20:45.067 --> 00:20:45.701
  • And they're all
  • 00:20:45.701 --> 00:20:46.668
  • They're commanding officers in the military
  • 00:20:46.668 --> 00:20:47.936
  • Because you don't want ronnie unleashed on you.
  • 00:20:47.936 --> 00:20:49.771
  • I promise.
  • 00:20:49.771 --> 00:20:51.306
  • Thank you.
  • 00:20:51.306 --> 00:20:51.940
  • Turn on one last sentence.
  • 00:20:51.940 --> 00:20:53.909
  • Thank you.
  • 00:20:53.909 --> 00:20:55.077
  • And this is a message to all the other inmates i will do.
  • 00:20:55.077 --> 00:20:57.846
  • Paraphrasing the words of a prominent jewish leader.
  • 00:20:57.846 --> 00:21:01.216
  • We don't care if you like us or you hate us.
  • 00:21:02.117 --> 00:21:04.720
  • We will here before you.
  • 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:06.188
  • We will be here after you, will keep creating, will
  • 00:21:06.188 --> 00:21:09.624
  • Keep building, will keep blessing this world.
  • 00:21:09.624 --> 00:21:12.894
  • And you know what?
  • 00:21:12.894 --> 00:21:13.762
  • There is nothing you can do to stop us.
  • 00:21:13.762 --> 00:21:13.762