Out of Zion

Dr. Susan Michael: Welcome back to our Why Christians Should Support Israel series. Today I am going to give you some reasons why not just Christians, but actually every American should support Israel. We all benefit in so many ways from Israel, it only makes sense that we would support the Jewish state.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Israel Answers series, connecting Israel, the Bible, and you. Join Susan Michael as she explores timely issues and current events from a scriptural perspective to equip the Christian world with a balanced and biblical response. Be sure to subscribe for future episodes, which will ignite your faith and bring the Bible to life in your everyday world. Now, let’s join Susan with your Israel answers.

Dr. Susan Michael: Why should Christians support Israel? Last week we talked about what I called personal reasons why every Christian should appreciate and support Israel. Today I want to talk about what I call practical reasons why every American should support Israel. We benefit greatly from Israel.

Let's talk about politically. It is vital for America that we have a country like Israel in the middle of the Middle East that has our back. She is the only democracy in the Middle East, a country that advances our interests in human rights, freedom of worship, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. Israel is the only stable country in a really quite volatile area. It really serves America to have Israel.

On the national security front, Israel's expertise in fighting terrorism is essential and it is second to none. The US and the Israeli military train together and do joint operations together, especially in missile defense training and search and rescue. If there was no Israel, the United States would have to have aircraft carriers in the area and tens of thousands of troops. We would be spending billions of dollars every single year. We might get pulled into local and regional wars that now we do not have to. Instead, we can rely on Israel.

Israel's intelligence is also second to none, especially when it comes to terrorism. They have warned US officials on numerous occasions about pending threats that they found, and we were able to then prevent an attack. Israel often takes our military hardware and actually improves it. They built armor for the underneath of jeeps and tanks, and they have saved thousands of American troops' lives from the danger of IEDs. In battlefield medicine, Israel has developed many techniques for the battlefront that have saved American lives.

Even our United States police commissioners, police chiefs, and sheriffs have had joint training with their counterparts in Israel, learning some of the best techniques. Of course, our airlines and our airport security have been greatly enhanced because of Israel's experience and expertise that they were so happy to share with their best friend, the United States. We should be so grateful for all of this.

Something you don't think about a lot is the economic blessings in the United States of our relationship with Israel. We have the oldest free trade agreement with Israel. It is 30 years old and it produces more than $40 billion annually. Israel spends about $25 billion in the United States each year. 30 states in the United States have cooperative agreements with Israel on things like agriculture, energy, business, and homeland security.

Over 200 multinational companies, most of them American, have operations in Israel. They have R&D and development there. These American companies benefit America back home. Thank you, Israel, for the economic blessing of our relationship with you.

Let's talk about their innovations and technology. I could take a whole hour just on this, particularly medical innovation alone. If you've been to the hospital recently, you have more than likely benefited from some medical technology that has been developed by Israel. I am only going to name a couple of different things here that you may have heard of that have been in the news. There is a long list of these. The Pillcam is a little pill with a camera in it that you can swallow, and they can see into your colon as the pill goes through your system. We hope this is going to save many people from needing colonoscopies in the future.

There is what is called the ReWalk, which is a robotic exoskeleton that enables paraplegics to walk. There is the Total Lift Bed in hospitals now, which can actually raise the patient up so that they are in an upright position. There is a Nano-nose breathalyzer that can diagnose 18 different diseases. The list goes on and on. Thank you, Israel, for your medical technology that I am certain is saving millions of lives in America.

There is the issue of humanitarian aid. Even though Israel is just the size of the state of New Jersey, Israel has achieved acclaim all over the world for its humanitarian aid efforts. Since 1957, Israel's foreign ministry has had a department called MASHAV, and it has overseen humanitarian assistance programs in over 132 countries. They have helped 270,000 participants over the years to receive training and help that they have implemented back home in their country.

Not just the Israeli government, but the people of Israel are also volunteering around the world. Their foremost organization is called IsraAID. It is a nonprofit organization made up of everyday Israelis. They have doctors, medical technicians, and humanitarian aid workers. Anytime there is a disaster around the world, they are usually the first on the scene with the most advanced pop-up hospital that the world has ever seen.

The United States has been assisted by IsraAID since their founding in 2001. They have assisted with the Katrina hurricane disaster relief in New Orleans, Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and wildfires in Washington State. Just recently in Florida, they came and assisted with the Surfside condominium collapse. They made a huge difference in being able to determine how many bodies were there and how to recover them.

Why is Israel doing all of this humanitarian assistance? Why is Israel trying to bless the world? Is it because they are trying to prove the world wrong, that they are not really bad people after all? There might be some of that. More significantly, it is in the Jewish DNA. Their daily prayers have a thought in it called Tikkun Olam, which means to repair the world. It comes from a scripture in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 17.

It says, "Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow." This is from the Hebrew prophets. This is in the Hebrew Bible. This is part of the DNA of Judaism and of the Jewish people. They want to make the world a better place and they are doing whatever they can to bring that about. There are many, many reasons why we should support Israel.

That brings this week to a close in our more practical reasons—the political, the economic, the security, and the humanitarian. Next week, come back and we are going to talk about the moral reasons. Are you ready to go to Israel now? Go down into today's show notes and click Tour Interest List. Sign up and we will let you know tours and dates that we have coming up when you can go to Israel with me and see it for yourself. I also have two offers for you today.

Give me just one more minute because I have got two special offers for you. First, I am sure that after hearing about Israel and the blessing of Israel, you would love to go there on tour and experience that life-changing experience that so many of us have had. We want to invite you to go to Israel with the ICEJ, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. We have a tour interest list we would like you to sign up on so that you can begin saving your money, praying about the perfect time to go, and perusing what we have to offer each year, especially during the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall.

Please sign up on our tour interest list. If that link is not down below in today's show notes, we invite you to go to theoutofzionshow.com/shownotes. There we have all the links that we offer in any of our shows because every listening platform is a little different in how they allow you to provide links. You can sign up for the tour interest list, for our email list, for text messages, or any of the free downloadables and free gifts that we offer in our episodes.

Speaking of which, my second offer today is to get the free download called 10 Reasons Christians Should Support the State of Israel. This is a summary of the main points that are being covered in the next few weeks in this series. I invite you to download that so you have the notes and you can remember later and share it with your friends, your Bible study members, your church, your family, or young people that may have questions. Get it today. All this is always available at theoutofzionshow.com/shownotes. We look forward to seeing you there. God bless.

Guest (Male): We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, pray.com, Salem, OnePlace, or Salem Life Audio. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA. All rights reserved.