Transcript [00:00] So, a lot of you will remember this [00:01] event that took place about a month ago. [00:03] There was this worldwide outrage over [00:07] this Israeli soldier who vandalized a [00:10] Jesus statue [00:12] in Lebanon, right? And there was the [00:14] whole narrative that went viral that [00:16] Israel is bad to Christians and Israelis [00:18] hate Christians and and Israel [00:20] persecutes Christians. And [00:23] the whole thing was was very [00:25] unfortunate. The soldier was was [00:27] was disciplined. [00:29] And he was given some some jail time and [00:33] the statue was restored. And [00:36] nevertheless, there was this worldwide [00:38] outrage. And it fed this narrative, like [00:40] I said, about Israel being bad to [00:42] Christians. And what's so absurd about [00:44] the whole thing is that you know, on the [00:46] world watch list by Open Doors [00:48] International, a Christian organization [00:50] that monitors persecution of Christians [00:53] around the world, it marked in orange [00:55] and red are the 50 worst places in the [00:58] world to be Christians [01:00] to be a Christian, the places that are [01:01] the most dangerous for Christians in the [01:03] world. And you see the whole Middle East [01:05] is red and orange. It's like the worst [01:06] place in the world for Christians, but [01:08] Israel is not on the list at all because [01:12] Israel's a great place for Christians. [01:14] Christians flourish. It's the only place [01:15] where Christians flourish. And what was [01:17] also interesting is that uh [01:19] >> [snorts] [01:20] >> 10 days after that statue was [01:23] vandalized, [01:25] there was a a poll that was published. A [01:28] new survey by Statistics Lebanon [01:30] indicates that 68.26% [01:33] of Christian Lebanese respondents [01:35] support peace with Israel, while 27% [01:38] said they oppose it. So, there's [01:40] overwhelming support for peace with [01:42] Israel among Lebanese Christians. Oh, [01:44] wait, I thought Israel was terrible to [01:46] Christians. [01:47] No, Israel is not terrible to Christians [01:49] and the Lebanese Christians know it [01:51] better than anybody. And I was thinking [01:52] about all of this when I saw a clip [01:55] recently [01:56] of Brigitte Gabriel. Many of you [01:58] probably heard of her. She's a She [01:59] appears in media a lot. She's written a [02:01] number of books about Islam. She grew up [02:03] in Lebanon as a Christian and has spent [02:06] the last couple of decades trying to [02:08] warn the West about the dangers of [02:10] Islam. And I recently came across this [02:11] clip of her talking about her childhood [02:14] in Lebanon. And she also in the clip [02:17] talks about Israel. And I thought it was [02:19] so interesting. It's a very powerful [02:21] clip. It's a little longer than clips [02:23] that I usually play, but it's powerful [02:25] enough that uh I think you'll enjoy it [02:27] and you'll find it uh you'll find it [02:28] valuable. So, here let's take a look. [02:30] Here's Brigitte Gabriel. [02:31] Israel in 1989 and I came to the United [02:35] States. And I thought I left all the [02:37] crazies behind. I thought I'm going to [02:39] start a new life in America. I'm going [02:41] to It's going to be great. I'm going to [02:42] live the American dream. I'm going to be [02:44] a millionaire by the time I'm 30. Don't [02:47] we all think that way when we come to [02:48] America? Because supposedly when I was [02:51] living in Lebanon, in America everybody [02:53] has a tree in their backyard that makes [02:55] dollars. [02:58] Rude awakening, right? [03:00] So, I come here. The you know, and I was [03:03] minding my own business. I started a TV [03:05] production and marketing and advertising [03:06] agency. Had two children. Was living the [03:09] good life working 6 months out of the [03:11] year and then playing with my kids for [03:13] the other 6 months. [03:15] Until 9/11/2001. [03:21] We just yesterday celebrated the memory [03:24] of 9/11. [03:27] Did we learn anything from 9/11? It [03:29] looks like we learned nothing from 9/11. [03:32] 9/11 was a defining moment for the [03:35] United States. 9/11 changed the way we [03:39] travel. Changed the way we bank. 9/11 we [03:42] all did the exact same thing, no matter [03:45] where you were in the world when you [03:47] heard about what happened in New York. [03:48] If you were near a television set, you [03:51] were glued to that TV set. We could not [03:54] get enough news. We all felt sad. We all [03:58] felt broken hearted. We all felt [04:00] devastated. We could not believe [04:01] somebody could hate us so much that they [04:04] would hijack airliners and fly them into [04:07] skyscrapers as a human missiles. [04:11] We couldn't believe that somebody could [04:13] hate us that much. But they did. [04:15] My 9/11 happened to me in 1975 [04:20] when radical Islamists, the combined [04:23] forces of Palestinians and Muslims, blew [04:26] up my home bringing it down, burying me [04:28] under the rubble wounded. [04:31] I ended up in a hospital for 2 and 1/2 [04:34] months. [04:36] And as I laid in a hospital bed [04:39] going from one surgery to another, [04:42] I would ask my father, why did they do [04:44] this to us? [04:46] And my father would tell me because we [04:48] are Christians. They consider us [04:50] infidels and they want to kill us. [04:53] So, I learned since I was a 10-year-old [04:56] little girl that I am wanted dead simply [05:00] because I was born into the Christian [05:03] faith and lived in a Christian town. [05:07] I ended up leaving the hospital and [05:09] coming back home. But my home was no [05:12] longer the home I left. [05:14] I ended up living in a bomb shelter [05:16] underground in an 8 by 10 room without [05:20] electricity, without water, and very [05:22] little food. [05:24] And that's where I lived for the next 7 [05:27] years of my life from the age of 10 till [05:30] the age of 17 robbed of my youth. [05:34] I remember when we first went into our [05:36] bomb shelter, we we [05:39] my father would say to me, he said, [05:41] "Well, the whole world, the Christian [05:43] world is going to wake up and see what's [05:44] happening to the Christians in Lebanon. [05:46] They're going see how the Palestinians [05:48] are massacring us and America's going to [05:51] come. Canada's going to come. [05:52] Australia's going to come. France is [05:54] going to come. [05:56] Britain is going to come. [05:58] And nobody came. The world forgot about [06:01] us. [06:02] And we continued on living. [06:04] In order for me to get some food, I had [06:06] to crawl under the bombs and dig out for [06:09] dandelions and different vegetation that [06:12] grew around our bomb shelter because it [06:14] was the only greenery I had to eat. [06:17] To get some water, we would crawl to a [06:20] nearby spring under sniper's bullets [06:23] because we were surrounded by Islamic [06:25] snipers [06:26] just to get a drink of water. And before [06:29] I would left our bomb shelter, my mother [06:32] and I would say our last goodbyes [06:35] because we did not know if we're going [06:37] to come back alive or dead just to get a [06:40] drink of water. [06:42] And this became my existence. [06:45] I remember 2 years into the war, [06:48] we nobody cared about us. We realized [06:50] this is our destiny. The only people [06:52] that were defending us were the [06:54] Christian militia, the young Christian [06:55] men in our town. [06:58] And I remember one 2 years into the war, [07:00] he stopped by one of my friends, one of [07:02] my Christian militia friends, and he [07:04] said, "Brigitte, I just want you to know [07:06] that we heard a lot of chatter on the [07:08] radio and we believe we're going to be [07:10] attacked tonight. Our town is going to [07:11] be attacked." And he said, "If they [07:14] invade us tonight and we don't survive, [07:16] I wish you if I don't see you tomorrow, [07:18] I wish you a merciful death." [07:21] And he gave me a hug and he left. [07:24] And I remember at the age of 13 [07:28] dressing in my burial clothes because I [07:31] wanted to look pretty when I am dead [07:34] knowing that when they come to slaughter [07:36] me, there would be no one to bury me. [07:39] And I remember dressing in my Sunday [07:41] best, my Easter dress. It was blue with [07:43] white daisies on it. [07:46] As my mother combed my long black hair [07:48] and tied a white ribbon in my hair, [07:51] begging her, "I don't want to die. I'm [07:54] only 13 years old. Please do something. [07:57] I don't want to die." And there was [07:59] nothing my mother could say to me. [08:02] And we sat in the corner of our bomb [08:04] shelter. And my father opened up his [08:07] Bible and started reading from Psalms, [08:10] "I shall walk into the valley of death [08:13] and fear no evil, for thou art with me." [08:17] And my parents said to me, "We lived a [08:19] long life. You are a young child. You're [08:21] an only child. We will create a [08:23] distraction when they come to slaughter [08:25] us. We just want you to run towards [08:27] Israel and don't look back. You're a [08:31] young child. We lived a long life. Just [08:33] run towards Israel as fast as you can." [08:36] You see, [08:37] we knew that when the Muslims come to [08:40] kill us, because we were surrounded by [08:42] them, if we run to the Jews and beg for [08:45] help, the Jews are not going to [08:47] slaughter us because we had more shared [08:50] values with them. [08:53] Thank God I did not have to make that [08:55] difficult decision that night because [08:57] that's the night when Israel came in [09:00] physically into Lebanon and established [09:02] a security zone and set up artillery [09:05] bases around our town. And this is how [09:08] we continued on living. [09:11] And Israel would come in the middle of [09:12] the night for the next 5 years until [09:15] 1982. Israel would come in the middle of [09:17] the night and would bring ammunition for [09:20] the military and would bring food for [09:22] the people. And they even brought [09:24] blankets and they even brought bomb [09:25] shelters. And they would take the [09:27] Christian men into Israel and train them [09:30] how to fight because we learned very [09:32] quickly that you can have all the [09:34] professional degrees behind you on the [09:35] wall, your medical degree, your [09:37] accounting degree, your legal degree. [09:40] None of that will do you literally [09:42] squat, as they say in Texas, [09:45] when you are faced with an enemy bent on [09:48] killing you. [09:50] And this is how we went on living for [09:52] another 5 years until 1982 when Israel [09:55] invaded Lebanon. And the only reason [09:58] Israel invaded Lebanon at that time is [10:01] because the combined forces of the [10:03] Palestinians and the Islamists and at [10:05] that time Syria was shelling Israel, [10:07] shelling all the northern towns of [10:09] Israel to the point where all the [10:11] northern area had to be evacuated. And [10:13] boy, you just look at October 7th, you [10:15] look what happened in the last 2 years. [10:17] Same old thing, history is repeating [10:19] itself. [10:21] So, Israel, working with the Christians [10:23] in Lebanon back in 1982, invaded the [10:26] country working together as one force to [10:30] kick out the radical Islamic element [10:33] that had taken control of the country at [10:34] that time. By the time Israel invaded [10:37] Lebanon in 1982, we had 11 Islamic [10:40] terrorist organizations operating out of [10:43] Lebanon including the PLO. [10:46] And Israel was able to kick Yasser [10:48] Arafat and his cronies all the way out [10:51] to Tunisia, and that's how we came out [10:53] of the bomb shelter and back to [10:54] rebuilding our lives. [10:56] >> [applause] [10:58] >> Yes. [cheering] [11:02] I ended up moving to Israel in 1984. [11:06] Before I get to that, my mother was [11:08] wounded in the war, we had to take her [11:09] to treatment in Israel. If you have not [11:12] read my book Because They Hate, write it [11:16] down. Because They Hate, you must read [11:19] that book. I don't have time to go into [11:21] all that story, but that my journey from [11:24] Lebanon to Israel is going to it's going [11:27] to be a story you'll never forget. [11:29] By 1984, I decided I'm going to move to [11:32] Israel. I want to live in Israel because [11:35] these are the values I want to adopt. [11:37] This is the love that I that I want to [11:39] experience because I knew that Israelis [11:42] had such compassion and such love for [11:44] humanity. They were different than any [11:47] other people. [11:50] >> [applause] [11:51] >> I [11:53] ended up moving to Israel and living in [11:56] Israel and working in Jerusalem out of [11:57] Binyanei HaUma, the nations building, as [12:00] a journalist reporting on world events [12:03] because I wanted to understand why [12:05] people do evil things to good people [12:09] because I couldn't understand how they [12:10] could be so rotten on the inside. I [12:14] decided to become a journalist to [12:16] understand that and fight for truth. [12:19] I became news anchor for world news [12:21] working out of Jerusalem from 1984 till [12:23] 1989. And then [12:30] So, the next time someone tells you that [12:32] Israel is a bad place for Christians, [12:34] just share this video with them or give [12:37] them Brigitte Gabriel's book because [12:38] they hate where she tells her whole [12:40] story. [12:42] And, you know, [12:43] the this is relevant to the headlines [12:45] right now because with all this talk [12:47] about Lebanon and whether there be peace [12:48] between Israel and Lebanon, Israel's not [12:50] at war with Lebanon. [12:53] Lebanon was a majority Christian country [12:55] when it was founded back in the early [12:57] 1940s. [12:59] And then [13:01] the PLO and other Islamic terrorist [13:04] groups moved in, Hezbollah later moved [13:06] in, an Iranian proxy, [13:08] and they slaughtered Christians, they [13:10] devastated the country, they destroyed [13:12] what was actually very cosmopolitan, [13:14] fairly modern country. Beirut was called [13:16] the Paris of the Middle East. [13:18] And now it's just, you know, it's a war [13:20] zone. [13:21] And that's all because these jihadists [13:24] moved in and they moved in there because [13:26] they wanted to have a front on the [13:27] northern border with Israel to attack [13:29] Israel. That's it. That's the story of [13:31] Lebanon. That's the story of all these [13:33] Christians who were persecuted there. [13:35] And in fact, it's the same story that's [13:36] been going on for the last 1,400 years [13:38] because this entire region, the entire [13:41] region that I showed you on that Open [13:43] Doors International map of Christians [13:44] being persecuted, that was all Christian [13:46] countries. That was all Christian lands. [13:49] Those populations were almost [13:51] universally Christian until Islam came [13:53] along and invaded and slaughtered [13:56] Christians and took over the Middle [13:58] East. We think of the Middle East as a [13:59] Muslim place. That's only because the [14:01] Christians were slaughtered there. And [14:03] Lebanon was one of the last places that [14:04] still had a sizable Christian [14:06] population. And today, Christians are [14:09] only about 20 to 30% of the population [14:11] in Lebanon where they used to be the [14:12] majority because they've been [14:14] slaughtered and and chased out of there. [14:17] And if Israel's doing anything [14:20] in moving into Lebanon to get rid of [14:22] Hezbollah and get rid of all these other [14:23] terrorist groups, [14:25] it's not only to defend Israel, it's [14:27] also going to liberate the Lebanese. [14:30] And the Lebanese Christians understand [14:32] that. Now, they don't all say openly [14:34] that they want peace with Israel because [14:36] they fear for their lives. [14:38] And they know that if they openly say [14:39] they want peace for with Israel, they [14:41] could get killed. But a poll is private, [14:44] so there you see, in a poll, [14:47] some upwards of 70% of Christians said [14:49] in a poll, "Absolutely. They want to [14:51] make peace with Israel." Now, of course, [14:53] there's still that that that 28% I think [14:56] it was. [14:57] Um [14:58] that that did not What was the number [15:00] there? [15:03] Let's Let's take Let's check out that [15:04] number again. [15:09] The number there was what percentage did [15:12] not want peace with Israel? 27% said [15:14] they did not want peace with Israel. [15:16] A lot of them, you know, they've been [15:18] through the education system there or [15:20] maybe they have their they have other [15:22] reasons. [15:23] Um [15:24] but 68% is a pretty overwhelming [15:27] majority. [15:28] And that shows you where the sentiment [15:29] in Lebanon about Israel among Lebanese [15:33] Christians really is. So, don't believe [15:35] the propaganda. [15:36] Uh this is the real story. And [15:39] we should only pray that Israel should [15:41] be successful [15:43] in rooting out Hezbollah from Lebanon. [15:44] It's also relevant to the headlines [15:46] right now where they're talking about [15:47] this peace deal with Iran and that's [15:49] supposed to include Israel stopping [15:51] uh in Lebanon stopping to destroy [15:54] Hezbollah in Lebanon. Why does that [15:55] benefit the good people of the world? [15:58] Israel should be encouraged to eradicate [16:00] Hezbollah completely so that Lebanon can [16:02] again be a free nation where Christians [16:04] can flourish and prosper. [16:06] Which is not the case now. Anyway. [16:09] That's it for this one. [16:10] God bless. Keep watching. Bye-bye.
