What’s Really Going On In The Middle East – With Omer Eshel

What’s Really Going On In The Middle East – With Omer Eshel: Should Israel be condemned for defending itself? How does the American media’s coverage of the crisis compare to the reports of those actually on the ground in Israel? Why are the motives and war tactics of Hamas evil, while those of Israel are just? How did Hamas use the money Obama sent them? Has Israel had any success in their fight against the terrorists? Also, did you hear about the political earthquake that took place in Israel? Is there anything YOU can do that would really make a difference? Tune in to hear Omer Eshel talk about what’s really going on in Israel!

Air Date: 01/18/2021

Guest: Omer Eshel

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note: Â As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live. We’re taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. And a very hot topic of the day right now is what’s happening in the Middle East with the attacks on Israel, and Israel defending themselves. We’ll be covering that topic today.

My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. And I’m here with Tim Barton. He’s a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder of WallBuilders here as well.

Guys, later in the program, a good friend of yours will be with us on the ground in Israel to give us a report about what’s happening there. But so far, it’s significant attack on Israel, thousands of rockets, and Israel has responded and seems to be really cleaning house at this point, and doing some things that are actually pretty amazing.

David:

Yeah, we’re seeing some reports that would indicate some amazing things going on. But after reading the US media reports, I read some reports out of Jerusalem, and they were so much more detailed and had so much more information. I thought okay, here we go again, the American media doesn’t cover this very well, so that’s when we thought of Omer Eshel.

Omer is a good friend. We do a lot of tours in Israel with Omer. He’s head of the Bible Comes To Life. We’ve had him on multiple times before. But from this standpoint, he’s also been an IDF soldier, he was special forces in his IDF unit. He’s very politically connected there, works with the political leaders there.

And so seeing the difference between the media reports, and getting ready for WallBuilders Live this week, over the weekend, we called Omer and just talked to him about the situation there to see what’s going on. And so we have that interview with Omer from this weekend up to date on what’s going on in Israel right now.

Rick:

Alright, stay with us, folks, very quick break. We’ll be back with Omer Eshel when we return on WallBuilders Live.

The AMERICAN STORY

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called The American Story. For so many years, people have asked us to do a history book to help tell more of the story that’s just not known or not told today.

And we would say very providentially in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America, whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil, and everything in America was built off slavery, which is certainly not true or things, like even the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization itself, not out the statement Black Lives Matter, but the organization that says we’re against everything that America was built on, and this is part of the Marxist ideology. There’s so many things attacking America.

Well, is America worth defending? What is the true story of America? We actually have written and told that story starting with Christopher Columbus, going roughly through Abraham Lincoln, we tell the story of America not as the story of a perfect nation of a perfect people. But the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation. It’s a story you want to check out wallbuilders.com, The American Story.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. You know, it’s been way too long. Omer Eshel is back with us from Israel. David and Tim gets spent a lot of time with him when they go over to Israel and I haven’t yet, but someday I’m going to make it over there, brother. I’m going to be there to do a tour with you and you know right now obviously difficult to get over there, especially since I don’t like wearing masks.

But at any rate, man, you guys are, you know, just taking a bombardment but nobody’s talking much over here about how Israel’s dealing with it. You just get the negative pushback, of course, as always, as if the one nation on the planet that’s criticized for defending itself. Anyway, thanks for coming on, brother. Looking forward to an update. Really appreciate your time today.

Welcome Omer Eshel

Omer:

Well, thank you so much for having me. It’s great talking to you. And don’t worry, Moses was never in Israel also, so you’re not the first.

Rick:

I love it. I love it. Well, hey, so listen, we’re watching the videos. It looks like the Iron Dome is doing incredible amazing feats there. We’re watching the unbelievable number. I think, I read 1,200 something like that rockets in 48 hours. Tell us what’s going on the ground, man. What are you seeing over there?

Omer:

Well, today it was a pretty interesting day, and especially what you’re right, well, the Iron Dome is doing an amazing job. But I always remind people that we have the Iron Dome and we have the iron dome of God. And I’ll tell you what I’m talking about the Iron Dome is good against 90% of the missile.

They should have 1,200 missiles flying at us, you still have 120 missiles that the Iron Dome cannot take it. 120 missiles, that’s a lot, and we have seven casualties.

Rick:

How? That is…

Omer:

I will repeat that number to our listeners, 120 standard missiles, we have seven casualties.

Rick:

That is incredible. 120 that got through?

Omer:

They got through.

Rick:

They weren’t exploded in the air, that actually then exploded on the ground or hit the ground. I guess some of them may not explode sometimes. But that many got through in that short period of time, and so far, only seven casualties.

A Brilliant Move by the IDF

Omer:

Seven casualties. I think that God is looking down and said, you know what, I got to protect this one. I got this one. Yeah. So today was a very interesting day in terms of the fighting against Gaza. Because what happened was in the past, I would say almost 10 years, 8 years, since last operation cast led, Israel had complete quiet from Hamas. A lot of it had to do, I got to say, because of the Democrats regime that we had with Obama that basically rather pay the Hamas kind of like they paid Iran the same thing to keep them quiet, protection, we call that protection.

So what happened was in those years, Hamas took the money and abused it, not to help its own people, but to build infrastructure, mainly underground cities. So meaning what I’m trying to cities, it’s not for civilian use, it’s a chain of tunnels underneath the ground that’s supposed to be a deathtrap for the Israeli soldiers when we’re going to get into Gaza.

So look at the brilliant move that the IDF did yesterday. They announced on the media that they’re about to launch a foot attack, I mean ground attack on Gaza, and a lot of the Hamas warriors, terrorists went down to the tunnels to ambush the IDF.

So Israel waited for about half an hour, 45 minutes to get the Intel that those terrorists are in those tunnels ambushing our troops, and Israel didn’t send any troops into Gaza. We actually bombed those tunnels and made them the grave of those are terrorists.

So it’s incredible. That deception, I think, it’s a given style of warfare. I mean, it’s incredible. They caught, we don’t know how many terrorists, but a lot of that, maybe that happened last night.

Rick:

So literally, I mean, they thought they were going to be able to use these going into the future, and this gave Israel an opportunity to wipe those tunnels out?

Omer:

Basically, they dig their own grave, unintended. That’s exactly what they did.

The Deceptive Media

Rick:

Wow. Yeah, so this is, what was it, Haman and Mordecai, right? So the gallows were built for the good guy and the bad guy is one that ends up hanging on it. I mean, that’s essentially what happened here: they were going to use those to kill as many Jews as they could, and you all were able to flip that on them.

And it probably won’t be reported how many of the terrorists are being wiped out during this process. And of course, the media is going to spin that to the other side as best they can, and then they’re going to claim women and children all that.

And I’m assuming it’s the same thing they’ve always done. They’re hiding behind women and children as often as they can which causes a loss of life there. And I guess, what can you tell us about what you think coming out of this, will it put Israel in a stronger position?

Omer:

Well, I’ll tell you the way I look at this and this is for our listeners to understand. Let’s view the two sides. You have Hama that their picture of victory is seeing civilian casualties. They’re aiming to kill men, women, and children. That’s their aim. When you have the other side is sovereign biblical value state like Israel, and like the United States, we have the same biblical values.

And what we are doing, we are also fighting back quite heavily. But I want our listeners to understand the difference. When Hamas is firing 1,200 missiles, they just throw explosives in the air hoping to kill as many children as possible.

When Israel is firing 1,200 missiles, there are guided missiles, meaning we know exactly the address that it’s supposed to go. So the devastation that you see on the news is where the terrorists hid. That’s why the overall number of casualties of the Palestinians so far is less than 100.

Rick:

Well, and those from, what I’ve read, some of the top terrorists have been taken out, I mean, it hasn’t been just some in that effort, it’s been some of their leaders?

Omer:

Absolutely. Now, are their women and children among the casualties? Yes, they are. Are we sorry for those? Yes, we are. Because we value every single innocent life; they’re all created by God, every single man, woman, and child. But what happened, when you use civilian population as your human shield, people will get affected.

Peace Can Only Come When….

But what I’m amazed is that the media doesn’t say that. The media doesn’t say that Hamas is firing from schools, from hospitals, from kindergartens. We actually took out a Hamas missile launcher that was based right at the school yard in Gaza. It blows my mind that no one thinks about it.

Rick:

No, the narrative is it just gets worse. Over here I feel like, in course, it’s, I mean the same thing, and forgive me if I’m quoting the wrong person, but I think Golda Meir was the first one to say if the Palestinians would stop fighting, we would have peace, if the Israeli stopped fighting, then they’d be wiped out. And that they…

Omer:

Yeah, Golda Meir also said, the day, and I want to say this slowly, get this. That was Golda Meir. She said “The day that the Arabs or the Palestinians will love their children more than they hate us, that’s the day we’re going to have peace.”

Rick:

That’s good. That’s good. That’s powerful. Now also, one of the things that’s different it seems like, I saw a little bit of reporting on this, is some of the violence within Israel, from Arabs that typically had been peaceful when these conflicts were raised. Are you seeing that over there?

Omer:

That’s the hot issue. It’s not Gaza. Gaza is Gaza, we know how to deal with them, it’s fine. What happened is we do have mixed cities in Israel such as Lydda, such as Ramle, such as Acre, such as Haifa, these are cities that Jews and Arabs, you know, Muslims and Jews living together for more than 70 years in peace and harmony.

What happened now at this specific skirmish is that we have basically riots, kind of like what you guys have with Antifa. So basically, those radical anarchists are using the conflict with Gaza as an excuse, same with Black Lives Matter, same thing. They are not there to support black life. They are there to destroy and to raise chaos. Same thing, these guys are our version of Antifa.

The 99% Must Stand Up

But the biggest thing, I think, is the fact that the disappointment, disappointment from Jewish neighborhoods that are, 99% of the Arabs in Israel want to live in peace, and they want to have food on the table and better education for their kids, 99%. 1% is the one that set in blaze everything.

But we understand that. But where are the 99% that will come to that 1% to say, stop no more, you are destroying our future? That’s the problem. The problem with that sound of the rationals is not to be heard among the Arabs.

And I think, and don’t get me wrong, and I want to said to that to our listeners as well. This is not a threat to Israel. We were going to cope for this. We were going to overcome it. It’s not a civil war. It’s not, you know, General Castro, that’s not like, it’s General Lee.

This is not it. It’s not, Atlanta is not going to burn. But my point is that it took so many years to build trust between Jews and Arabs, and in five days, they basically destroyed it. And that really hurts my feeling. It really does.

Rick:

How’s the political climate? You know, obviously, you guys are going to trying to still form a government there. And I read that Netanyahu had basically given up on, you know, there was no way he was going to get enough votes, and so now there’s a chance it goes back to another election. What can you tell us about that part?

Omer:

Well, actually, yesterday, there was another earthquake, a political earthquake, what they called the “Change Government”, the coalition against Bibi Netanyahu, Bibi Netanyahu lost the mandate to build the government, we know that. So it moved to the second one that can build it and the guy name is Łapy.

A Political Earthquake

And Łapy was almost able to sign a government, but because of what’s going on right now, and again, because of the Arabs, some of the right wing parties that was supposed to sign the coalition with Łapy are saying, we’re not going to sit down with the Arabs after they did. So the way it looks like right now, is that Łapy will not be able to form a government, and that means fifth election in two and a half years. Yeah, that is really bad news.

But again, this is Israeli politics. So tomorrow, if everything goes well, the wind might shift to a different direction. But the way it looks at right now, is that we are sadly going to go to fifth election.

Rick:

Now, is it as different there in terms of like for us how far the difference in policy and the direction of the country between a Trump and a Biden is just night and day. I mean, it is a radical, radical difference.

So there, is it that difference or would any of these people that would end up being the leader be as strong in at least the defense of Israel and not even talking about economic policies and some of the things they might differ on? But when it comes to defending in these situations we’re facing right now, would they be at least within the same ballpark and still be drawn on this?

Omer:

Well, in Israel, there’s almost no left wing. Israel is very, very right wing. I can say from 120 members of the Parliament, about a good number of them, about 90 will be associated with the right wing. So even if you have coalition that is not Benjamin Netanyahu, you still going to have right wing over there. So it’s not going to be like Biden and Trump, you’re right, it’s not in depth.

That’s not the case, you know. It’s going to be either a right wing party with Benjamin Netanyahu, or a three quarter right wing party with Łapy. But at the end of the day, their agenda is very, very similar. It’s definitely not like Biden, and Trump, not at all.

Rick:

That’s good to hear. That’s really good to hear. And that helps, I think, our listeners and me, I mean, just kind of to understand how much is at risk and what the difference would be depending on who does end up winning. What do you think going forward, I mean, how long do you think this last? And nobody’s got a crystal ball.

But is this the kind of thing where you think Israel will squash this quickly? I remember one time, I can’t remember how long ago it was, but it was actually advantageous for it to last at least a few days or a week or two so that Israel could root out a lot of the opposition and the violent people. Is there anything to that?

It Depends on the US

Omer:

Well, it all depends now, and this is actually, I’m now addressing to our listeners, it all depends on how the US will let us behave. So if you’re listening right now, call your local representative and explain to them how important it is to support Israel.

And as long as the Biden administration will protect us against the Security Council, because China in Russia already wants to put an end to this, Israel doesn’t want to see an end to this. We want to root out the evil that is called Hamas. We want to chop the head of the viper. But we need time to do this. It’s not in five minutes.

And actually, Hamas was asking for a ceasefire more than three times and Israel said no. Israel said no, we said we had rather have those missiles, and make sure that we are going to clean those tables once and for all. So the answer for this, Rick, is basically is we’re going to keep on pounding them as much as the world will let us do it.

Rick:

I can’t imagine what goes through the mind of a Hamas leader. They know the minute they fire those first missiles that they are opening themselves up to exactly what’s happening right now. So it doesn’t make sense to me why they would do it. But you know, what makes sense in a terrorist mind? I mean, there’s no way to get inside their head.

Omer:

The day the Palestinians will love their children more than they hate us, that’s the day we’re going to have peace. That’s Golda Meir in 1972.

Rick:

There we go. Yeah, that does completely explain it. Well, I love the fact that you pointed out America’s role in this and the support from America being critical. I don’t know if you saw, I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever in my life said I was glad to hear Nancy Pelosi say anything, but she actually voiced support for Israel very quickly when this happened, which surprised me.

So that’s a good sign. I think, you know, boy, I sure, was Trump was in the White House right now because you know you have his unequivocal support. But elections have consequences.

It’s Time to ACT

So yeah, I mean, right now it’s a matter of we the people need to be putting the pressure on the legislators and the White House to continue to support you guys and stand beside, you know, our best friend in really in the world, but certainly in the Middle East. So man, we’re going to be praying for you guys. We’re going to put the pressure on the elected officials here. And really would love to get you back in a week or two and have an update if you’ve got time, bro.

Omer:

Absolutely. I mean, I’d be more than happy to give an update. And I do want to share something with you and with all our listeners. We are both biblical value-based nations, both the US and Israel. You have “In God we trust” in every single one of your dollar bill. And that’s beautiful. And this is what it’s all about. That’s what we’re going to win because we have God, and we have the Bible to guide us. And I want people to understand when they listen to what we say right now.

Today, those terrorists are attacking Israel, not because we are Israelis, is because we belong to the same value of Judeo-Christian values that they despise. So we are the defense line of the West. If we’re going to fall, it’s going to be at your doorstep.

And I remember I was saying that before 911 when I used to work for the government, I was saying that if you understand what I’m talking about. And then 911 hit and I said why do they have to attack you guys? You’re, you know, beyond the Atlantic. It’s not the nation. It’s our way of life. They don’t attack Israel as a nation. They attack our Judeo-Christian values.

And this is what I want people to understand when we say and you’re right, we’re all in the same boat, we all support each other. It’s more than we are allies and we are the best friends of you guys in the Middle East. We are. We’re very loyal.

We’re very thankful for the Americans. We know that we are the same root, you guys are the grafted in. So it’s the same tree. And this is what I want people to understand when they say I support Israel, is basically I support my own biblical Judeo-Christian values.

It’s So Important to Share Truth

Rick:

So good, so good, so powerful, and so true. I mean, that’s exactly what we need to know and spread that truth, because you got a new generation right now that doesn’t have that foundation, hasn’t been taught that in school, been taught basically the opposite. That’s why when you come on this program, and teach that truth and speak that truth, it’s incredibly important for us to spread that news.

So folks that are listening take this program and share it with your friends and family. Go to wallbuilderslive.com today and share it as much as you possibly can. Thank you so much, sir, we will get you back again soon.

Omer:

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Shabbat Shalom and happy Pentecost.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David Barton.

A moment from AMERICAN HISTORY

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Many today assert that religion is something private that it has no place in the public square and that it is incompatible with government. But the Founding Fathers believed exactly the opposite. They held that religion was absolutely necessary in order to maintain our free system of government.

For example, John Adams declared “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.” And signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush, similarly affirmed “Without religion, there can be no virtue, and without virtue, there can be no liberty. And liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”

The Founding Fathers understood that limited government required public morality from the people and that public morality was produced by the Christian religion. For more information about the Founding Fathers views on religion and public life, go to wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. That was Omer Eshel, thanks so much for coming on the program. We’re here with David and Tim now and guys, of course, you know, we have him on anytime something like this happens. But you can hear some optimism in his voice as he talks about what they’re doing on the ground. And obviously, the success of the Iron Dome in the air, but what they’re doing on the ground right now to root out a lot of these terrorists.

The Iron Dome

Tim:

Yeah, it really is. It’s been interesting, Rick, as we have been able to see some of the footage. And at this point, all over social media, people have posted and shared these videos of the Iron Dome in action. And it really feels like you’re watching some kind of Mission Impossible James Bond kind of movie.

As this Iron Dome is taking place, it’s almost like a video game, like, man, that’s so cool to see these rockets shooting down other rockets. And then you have to realize, wait a second, this is a real life for somebody.

And as Omer pointed out, 10% of these rockets actually get past the Iron Dome. And at this point, we know 120 rockets have actually come in and have hit the ground in Israel and lives have been lost in Israel. And yet with the tragedy of what’s going on with Israel being under attack, also the fact that Israel has been able to pull off this really incredible strategy, very targeted to take out some very specific high ranking Hamas leaders.

Also bombing the terror tunnel really pretty creative to use the media to let really Hamas, these bad guys know that, hey, they’re going to do this ground invasion and get ready for the ground invasion. And they flooded the tunnel and they take the tunnel out.

And really strategic in what’s going on. And one of the things he pointed out is we really, we want to make sure that America stays on the side of Israel having the right to defend themselves. Now, everybody listening, understand, when we’re talking about somebody having the right to defend themselves, this should not be a complicated issue. Right? This is beyond some of the politics and policies that sometimes other people want to talk about.

When somebody is shooting more than 1,000 rockets at you, and their intent is to kill as many people, innocent people, women, children, they don’t care, they just want to kill people, when that is their intent, absolutely, it is the role of the government and be the same case in America, it’s the role of the government to protect the citizens, to make sure that they protect as much innocent life as possible. Of course, Israel has the right to defend themselves.

And we’ve seen even since the weekend, people have come out criticizing that Israel would blow up a building. And then actually, President Biden came out and one of the things that was suggested from the Biden administration was that Israel needed to be careful and make sure that they’re not dampening the media because it was alleged that this building they blew up in Gaza, that maybe the media was there.

The IDF

And even with that being said, we’ve seen so much more information come out that we know that there was an IDF official who was on the phone with people in Gaza saying hey, we’re about to blow this building up, clear all the people out. We don’t want to hurt innocent civilians. And the owner said no, don’t blow the building up.

And this IDF leader says no, it’s coming, clear your people out. Not only is Israel doing things like these roof knocker bombs to warn civilians to stay away, they literally were calling people on the phone saying we don’t want to hurt civilians stay away.

So Israel has done a remarkable job in these very difficult situations. But we want to make sure that America continues to stand up with Israel and their right to defend themselves.

David:

And as Omer said, a lot of that is based on public opinion, they will be able to clean out these nest of terrorists, as long as public opinion will allow them to move forward. And so far, the White House has taken a measured but a supportive response. They’re supporting what’s going on. Even Biden said Israel has a right to defend itself. We want that to continue.

So it would be helpful for every one of our folks to call the White House and say, hey, we support Israel’s right to self-defense. Thank you for standing for that. We’ll have the White House number on the website today. But the number if you want to write it down, is 202-456-1111, 202-456-1111.