Israel, Iran and US: Why Your Mindset Toward the Middle East Matters (God and Government Series)

Mary Alessi:
Life they have to live knowing it's not just a monkey on their back, it's a target on their back to eradicate them.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah. Wow.

Mary Alessi:
Imagine, imagine just put yourself in, in that position for a minute and see if you don't change your mindset towards Israel. Well, hello again and welcome to another episode of the Alessi Family Business.

Steve Alessi:
Family Business with the Alessius.

Mary Alessi:
I'm never going to get that right.

Steve Alessi:
Don't you worry about it.

Mary Alessi:
But we're just going to keep rolling because we are actually continuing. Rolling from the podcast we just filmed.

Steve Alessi:
Yep.

Mary Alessi:
And it's a, it's a hot topic. But it's more than just a hot topic. It is something that I think is very foundational for people that need to know us gigs.

Steve Alessi:
No, I'm sorry, no.

Mary Alessi:
AP God in Government.

Steve Alessi:
God in Government, I knew is a good one too.

Mary Alessi:
That's our producers podcast. People need to listen to that one. But we've been asked quite a bit and we're hearing so much chatter even amongst the people within our church, some of the next generation about what's happening right now in real time with Israel and Iran. And you said something in our past podcast that if you didn't hear, you need to go back and listen to because you were talking about all the voices that are out there that we need to be so mindful of, the voices that we are giving access to because it does affect and influence what you believe and what you believe affects the growth of your life. And so you need to be mindful of that. So what we wanted to keep the cameras rolling on and move right into, to continue this God and government politics in the pulpit conversation is Iran and Israel. And I know you know way more than me. I don't, I will not.

Steve Alessi:
No, we don't pretend to know everything.

Mary Alessi:
We don't. But there are some things that we can talk about and really too, how we were raised in the Christian church to see Israel versus how maybe Israel is being taught to be seen today. We've been to Israel three times. What an experience that was for us. What an eye opening experience that was. So let's just dive in there and let's talk about it from our perspective. Let me just say this last thing before I unleash you and let you go, because I know you want to talk about it. Someone came this weekend, a couple that came that made the statement, you know, we need church because our kids really need it.

Mary Alessi:
But they, they were questioning our view based on something you said.

Steve Alessi:
Right.

Mary Alessi:
So maybe you should repeat for our podcast audience, what you said on Sunday.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah. Well, I think first off, the reason this is so conflicting for us is because it seems like all we ever hear about is Israel going and dropping bombs, whether it's in Gaza after the October 7 event a few years ago or now with Iran. All we hear about is what Israel is doing. We don't always hear about what happened with the extreme Muslims attacking Israel or even the danger that Iran was posing to Israel. So we don't hear that side of it. All we hear is the bombing and the aggressiveness, the attacks from the Israelite side. So then you get our president involved, who goes to show support. And I got it.

Steve Alessi:
It looks very aggressive. It looks like we are the ones that are bringing the war to Iran and now Iran or even those that were in Gaza, the Muslims that were there, the extremists. Okay. They are the ones that are on the defensive. And so you have a bleeding heart mentality.

Mary Alessi:
Sure.

Steve Alessi:
To think, let me go protect the one that's being attacked. So I got that. There this question in people's mind about how can you support Israel when they are the aggressor.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
So ultimately, I hope our audience knows both sides of it, what Israel has been up against. I mean, I've read some crazy numbers that I think is really important. I'm going to go back and find those numbers again because I think our audience needs to be aware of what this looks like. And I think it came. Actually, I got these numbers from Van Jones.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah. He's a cnn.

Steve Alessi:
Right. So he would be considered somebody that is on the other side. He's not as conservative as we are. So. And those numbers were rather startling when I read them, just showing the. The number of people. Let me just try to find it. Okay.

Steve Alessi:
So my, my comment as I go to look for them, so you can see I can't do two things at one time. What were you gonna say?

Mary Alessi:
No, what I think is important that we will talk about our angle is not necessarily biblical prophecy and all of that. It's really the reality of Israel, who they are, what that country is like and who they're surrounded by. And if people don't understand, if they've never been, they don't understand. It's like if you live in Miami, what's a small town? The Gables or Kindle. You know, Israel is so small. And it'd be like if Kendall and the Gables, that area was surrounded, surrounded by nothing but other towns and counties that hated them and wished they were gone. And that's what it is. I mean, if you've never been, you don't realize your tour guide will say, they hate us.

Mary Alessi:
They've got bombs. That's Lebanon, that's Syria. You know, these. They're our friends. They're not our friends, but they hate us. That's Iran. That. And it is so shocking when you go, Gaza's right there behind these gates.

Mary Alessi:
You know those. There's the electrical fences on the other side. That's Gaza. And people were living.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
And that's what happened October 7th.

Steve Alessi:
Right.

Mary Alessi:
Those people that were living peaceably right up against the fence are. Are the ones who got taken by Hamas.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
But. Okay, so go ahead.

Steve Alessi:
So here it is. Okay. There are 1.3 billion Chinese in the world. Get these numbers. 1.3 billion Chinese, billion Chinese in the world. 1.4 billion Indians in the world. 1.3 billion Africans in the world.

Mary Alessi:
Billion.

Steve Alessi:
Billion. 1.4 billion Catholics in the world.

Mary Alessi:
Okay.

Steve Alessi:
2 billion Muslims in the world. Okay. Only 15 million Jews in the world.

Mary Alessi:
Wow.

Steve Alessi:
Now, they were. They had multitudes more. Had it not been for the Holocaust, which, by the way, you got people out there, Mary, that are Holocaust deniers.

Mary Alessi:
I know.

Steve Alessi:
Like, it never even happened. Now, of the 15 million Jews that are in the world, half of them now live in Israel and they share their country with 20% of Arabs. Okay.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
And those Arabs have mosques.

Mary Alessi:
Yes.

Steve Alessi:
And they have rights. And the country is smaller. All right. Israel than New Jersey.

Mary Alessi:
Right. People don't understand that.

Steve Alessi:
They don't understand that. Now you're talking billions of more that would better just outnumber Israel. So if you want to go on the side of the person that is being attacked, then it's not Iran, because there's. There's many more Iranians than there are Israelis. Actually, the country. Whenever Israel is under attack, humanity has the obligation that's. They actually have a special responsibility to support, protect, and defend them.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
Because they are the most microscopic minority that deserves the support of humanity.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
That's just on humanitarian terms.

Mary Alessi:
Right. You talk about marginalized.

Steve Alessi:
Yes. Talking about marginalized. Thank you very much.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
So somebody then says, all right, what comments would you make from your pulpit? Well, as a Christian. All right. I believe that the promise that God gave to Abraham as being God's chosen people still exists today.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
That goes against what some Christians believe today. Some Christians have bought into it's. It's replacement theology.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
It's also called fulfillment theology or supersessionism. What in the world which means that the promise that God made to Israel was replaced when Jesus went to the cross and died. And now that promise is given to the Christians because Israelis don't follow. After Christ, who would be the Savior, Right? The Son of God. They. They denied that he was the Savior or the Son of God. So in their denial, then they would be excommunicated or they would be X'd out. They no longer are God pursuers.

Steve Alessi:
They're not Christ followers. So therefore they are removed and the Christian has been brought in. So we know it from a Christian verbiage that because Israel did what they did, they didn't accept Christ. That gave us a place to be grafted into the vine.

Mary Alessi:
So we're the usurpers. We've usurped Israel as Christians.

Steve Alessi:
Well, we've just been given an opportunity. We haven't replaced Israel because scripture says God says be careful that you don't boast about you being placed grafted in the vine.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
Because just as quickly as you were grafted in, you'll be taken out.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
God has a plan still and even says in the scripture for Israel. So here's what I believe. Why do we support Israel? Because they are people that God has a promise with. And according to our Bible, the Bible says the gifts and the callings of God are without reproach. So that means you can't ever lose what God put on you. Put on you. If there's a gift put in you, that gift is there. If there's a calling on you, that calling is there.

Steve Alessi:
Now you can do something to water down that the power of that call,

Mary Alessi:
or not use it, or not use

Steve Alessi:
it, but it's always there. God still has a plan for you that goes beyond sometimes what you humanly can do, which is why you need to lean into God so much more. So if God can remove the promise, then on Israel, it means he can remove the promise on you.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
If God could replace the promise, the Israel people that had a relationship with him, then God can replace you.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
So you got to be very careful. I don't believe that God has taken his hand off of the Jewish people. Does it mean that everything the Jewish people is doing is to be supported? Is it always right? Because if there are ungodly men making decisions for the people, then does that, you know, mean that we should support all of it? Well, I don't believe that if there's ungodliness that you support ungodliness. But then in this case you have to now ask who is more ungodly. Right. The Iranian government. Not the Iranian people.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
But the Iranian, Iranian government that has a philosophy. Right now the radical Muslims, extreme Muslims, that their philosophy is their Messiah cannot come to earth until the Jews are eradicated. And the, the great Satan, which is the American people that support the Jews, they also need to be eradicated. So who has a more ungodly approach? Yeah, so they, they believe in murder. I mean, they've hung a, a woman on the street recently to, to demonstrate their view of a woman that would come against their government.

Mary Alessi:
Just taking her.

Steve Alessi:
All right, if, if you're. So you have a bleeding heart for homosexuals in America that we've been told that they actually throw homosexuals off the A ten story building punishment for being a homosexual. All right, so if you want to support a regime, a government that is bent on murder, they recently killed thousands in their own citizens, citizens on their streets for coming against their government. So you, you want to say Israel is doing is ungodly, then you have to go over and ask what is Iran doing that is ungodly? Iran right now has nuclear weapons. They're saying that those nuclear weapons could take out an enemy that's within from here to California, almost 3,000 miles. So they are with an ideology that says, I got to wipe out the Jews in order for our Messiah to come.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
They are threatening to do that. They're not just threatening, they actually plan on doing it. And so with their own attacks and their radical approach, they want to eliminate the Jewish people.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
So if you're going to choose who you're going to support, you're going to choose those people. No. Now, do we agree with everything Israel is doing? What does it matter? It's not our country.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
But we're going to pray for Israel. Bible even tells us, pray for the peace of Israel. So let's, let's go back to something you said.

Mary Alessi:
Okay.

Steve Alessi:
I'm sorry, I'm on a rant, but I gotta get.

Mary Alessi:
That's okay.

Steve Alessi:
You said we've been to Israel three times.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
We've also been to, been to the radical Vatican in Rome one time. Right. Where did you feel more peace?

Mary Alessi:
Oh, in Israel. It was, it was palpable.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
Which shows me the hand of God is still on that land.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
It's still dirt.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
That God has given and there's a promise there.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
You want to say something?

Mary Alessi:
Well, I want to say that, you know, we, we heard so much of empathy and you know, free Palestine Free Palestine. We saw it on the news and even at the Oscars this year, different Hollywood stars, you know, and go for and Free Palestine. And I think one of the indicators that we're not listening to the right voices is when we just parrot and mimic what we hear from influential voices. And if you don't know what you're saying, don't say anything at all. So when you talk about the conflict with Israel and Iran and you've never been to Israel and you don't understand how small it is, and you don't understand how it's surrounded by its enemies, you don't understand how. Quite frankly, I don't know how any person could say that God has removed his hand from Israel and now we are the chosen as Christians. If you haven't been there to see what they're up against and what they overcome every single day. I mean, just that perspective, when you're there and you see it, they're also protecting.

Mary Alessi:
And it's really God that's protecting it. The places historically where Jesus walked. And when you go on tour and you see it, you realize your brain explodes a little bit because you think there's nowhere else on the planet that has preserved ruins that are factual. Even the Dead Sea Scrolls where they were found as you tour, God's hand is certainly on that land because his story is still played out. It's not covered up, it's not under building, it's not under roads and networks of highways. It has been excavated. So for, even for hundreds of years, it's been re excavated for Christians, for us to be able to walk, name another country that has done that. And even when you go to the Wailing Wall and you see the Dome of the Rock and you see the day, to this day, the battle the Arabs, the Muslims have over a tiny little.

Mary Alessi:
We walk through that cave and we're like, they're fighting over this.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
You really men couldn't at some point figure a way to divvy that up? No, because it's a spiritual war. And if you don't ask God to help you see with spirit eyes, you're only going to see with human eyes. And you're going to say, who's the most? Who's the winner here? Who's. Who's the most aggressive? And then you're going to start empathizing with the ones that you think are losing the battle. And, oh, the poor people that are losing. Well, you've got to stop and understand what the actual makeup of this conflict looks like. And Unless you're walking in those lands and in that territory and you've not seen it for yourself as a believer, what you see it through is the eyes of the natural battle and not the supernatural battle. And you cannot look at this just through the eye.

Mary Alessi:
I know we want to, because we don't want to believe that this is a spiritual war. We don't want to believe that this is the devil versus God that goes all the way back to the beginning of time. But it is.

Steve Alessi:
It is.

Mary Alessi:
It absolutely is. The battle of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and their offspring. And we're seeing this play out today. Paul spoke to it. He spoke to it when he was telling the Church of Corinthians the same struggles we're having right now here in Jerusalem with the heretics. This is the same battle Abraham had with Sarah.

Steve Alessi:
Yep.

Mary Alessi:
And now the. The offspring, the descendant of her is harassing the offspring of the promise.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
And that's what we're watching.

Steve Alessi:
Well, to show you what Israel has done over the years to try to maintain peace, they have given up land.

Mary Alessi:
Yes.

Steve Alessi:
All right. To the Arabs. They've given up land to the Palestinians. And that's where the whole Gaza. Gaza conflict took place.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
Again, not that all Palestinians are, you know, not good people, but there is a radicalized people that wants to kill the Jews.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
But when you think of Israel, most pictures that you see show the Golden Dome. Right. So that right there should show you the extent Israel has gone to try to keep peace. Because where that Gold Dome sits is actually the place where Abraham would have gone to sacrifice Isaac. Right. So when he went to sacrifice Isaac at that dome, that, of course, is the place where it's a image of what would be God the Father, having his own son to be sacrificed for humanity. So it was a picture of what would take place. And it was there that God gave him a promise.

Steve Alessi:
That is a very holy site, possibly the holiest of all holy sites to a Jew.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
Because it's where their father in the faith, Abraham, would have had that time with God. They have given that sight to the Muslims because the Muslims claim that's where Muhammad had his vision.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
And the Muslims have gone and put up a golden dome, which is a mosque.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
So that in itself should show you what Israel has done over the years to try to maintain peace with the Muslim people. To give up their most holiest of holy sons. That's right. To them. So I wish people would know their history. I Wish they would see when we were there. At one point we went to a hospital and we were a part of a pastor's group with our pastors at the time, our church in Haifa. Right in Haifa.

Steve Alessi:
And we went to a hospital and we were part of donating some medical equipment that were there. And it was an X ray machine. It was beautiful and we were able to do so. What so amazed us though was that this hospital in Haifa was actually a hospital shared with both Jews and Arabs.

Mary Alessi:
Yes.

Steve Alessi:
And we saw Arabs giving birth, moms were giving birth to their children, they were in the paternity ward and Jewish doctors were doing the delivery. And it was this coexistence which people don't realize. In Israel there is that coexistence of the Arab and the Jew. It's only these radicalized Muslims, extreme Muslims that want to see Israel eradicated from the earth. They're the ones that Israel are at war with and they have just pocketed position themselves to amongst the loving Muslims. So therefore there is some collateral damage that is involved. But back to the spiritual component of it. Mary.

Steve Alessi:
When God tells us to pray for the peace of Israel, Israel, he doesn't tell us to pray for the peace of the Muslims. No, but specifically the scripture says pray for the peace of Israel. So we should be praying. Lord, provide peace, provide protection for Israel. They are defending themselves. We said it. Their country is the size of New Jersey. They are surrounded on every corner by hostile enemies.

Steve Alessi:
Syria, all Muslim nations pointing their weapons

Mary Alessi:
at them at all times.

Steve Alessi:
Their only friendly border is the Mediterranean Sea.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
So that whole thing about being driven into the sea. Yes, that's, that's a, an assault. That's, that's a war cry of their enemy. Their goal is to drive Israel into the sea, the Mediterranean to see, eradicate them, drown them, get rid of them.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
And take over their land.

Mary Alessi:
The hatred is, is so you want

Steve Alessi:
to support those that have that kind of hatred.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
If you're against Israel.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
If you have any negative feelings towards Israel, if you're not praying for Israel, then you're supporting an enemy that will eventually, if you're a Christian, come after you. And we're seeing that happen in our own country where that influence is trying

Mary Alessi:
to infiltrate and where the argument is with people today is that they feel like with Israel having so many enemies against them, what happened after October 7th gave them a license to now go heavy handed after their enemies. And now women, children, casualties of war. Where is Israel's empathy. Why, why is Israel coming on so strong? And we know this, that when there's war and there's conflict, there's always the stories from the battlefield that do get back. And the media is going to pick up whatever bleeds leads.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
So we're going to hear from both sides. We also know the big word propaganda that we have to be so mindful of what is just propaganda. And what we definitely have to do to make a very smart decision on where we land on this is to find out what do Muslims, Palestinians, those that are radicalized, what do they believe? Is it true that they believe not only do they want to wipe out Israel and all Jews, but also Christians and America, the great Satan. If that is true, do your research, find out. You will find out it is true. Okay, but when you do, what are you going to do with that truth? What side are you going to stand on? Is it's just empathy? And if you. If so, then you have to have as much empathy for what Israel deals with as you do with what the Palestines have had to deal with. Because one thing that we know about Israel is they would never use their people as human shields.

Mary Alessi:
We know Palestinians have done that. The radicals. Now we can get lost in the weeds of that. And if we, if we get lost in the argument in the weeds of all of that and which the media has, has really created this firestorm of hostility to pick a side. And yeah, there's a middle Israel has come on very strong to wipe out its enemy. We've heard things like make Palestine a parking lot. If you don't understand the history of Palestine from actual Palestinians, not the radicalized religious from there that are bent on taking out the Jews, whatever it takes, they're taking out the Jews and they've taught their children to hate the Jews. You've got to accept that is the truth.

Mary Alessi:
You can't keep burying your head in the sand and saying, I don't know if I believe that. You don't have to believe it. That's a fact.

Steve Alessi:
Okay, so you're talking about the land. Give back Palestine to the Israelis. Well, or give back Palestine to the Palestinians. So they did. Gaza's part of that, right?

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
But that we've got to look at it from an American perspective. And Bar, what's his name, Bill Maher, said this the other day. He says, okay, if you're over here in America saying you got to give back the American Indian.

Mary Alessi:
Right, right. Their land.

Steve Alessi:
Because American, you know, the trumpet comes and steal Their land, then how could you be over there? You should be supporting Israel. You got to support Israel because that's their land. They were there before the Palestinians were.

Mary Alessi:
And you can absolutely track that all the way back down to the seed.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
Of when that whole thing started. And you will find out, if you read history, that Israel, that is their land.

Steve Alessi:
Okay, so here's another side that you need to consider. If this was all, if Israel was all replaced, then let's go to the book of Revelation and look at the Book of Daniel, where everything, every scripture verse has, or at least talking about an end time event that is coming that's going to be apocalyptic in nature. All right.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah. So we're going to talk about in time, so.

Steve Alessi:
In time. But. All right, but, but then please do me a favor, Allan, don't let me forget. I want to come back to anti Semitism because we had a friend of mine that is a rabbi on a previous podcast that we listen to that were able to talk about anti Semitism together. All right, So I want to come back to that in just a second, but I don't want to lose my train of thought on this other truth, because here, here's the deal. If there's going to be an end time event, it's not going to happen in America.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
The Bible talks about the Battle of Armageddon.

Mary Alessi:
Yep.

Steve Alessi:
Where it's an actual battle that'll take place against the forces of the Jews and against the forces of their enemy and the forces of where God's going to step in and now fight this war that will take place between good and evil. So when you go to Israel, because people wonder, where is this Battle of Armageddon going to take place? It's going to take place in Israel. We sat at that one location where you looked over Syria and we'd see the jets taking off in Syria to show they're protecting their. Their people and so forth. And right there, as you looked across it, is what is considered the area where the Battle of Armageddon is going to take place. It's going to be so bloody that it says that the blood is going to rise in the valley up to the mane of the horse and the

Mary Alessi:
bridle of the horse.

Steve Alessi:
The bridal of the horse. Okay, so this is taking place where? Not in America. Not in Russia.

Mary Alessi:
No.

Steve Alessi:
Not in China.

Mary Alessi:
Nope.

Steve Alessi:
Okay. It's taking place.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
In the Middle East.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
It talks about two prophets that are going to be seen on the street. Two prophets in the Bible, Elijah and Moses, in the end, at the last days, are going to come back. They're going to be seen doing miracles in the streets. These are two men that when you look at their history in the Bible, they never died a physical death. And it's those two men, Elijah being taken off in the chariot, Moses being taken to a mountain. They never could find his grave. These are two men that were taken out because they're going to come back in human form and be seen on the streets. Where?

Mary Alessi:
In Israel.

Steve Alessi:
In Israel, that's right. Not in Manhattan.

Mary Alessi:
No.

Steve Alessi:
Not walking in the streets of New York or Miami or California. He. They're going to be there in the Middle East. So much attention is going to be in the end times focused on the Middle east, which shows us God's plan is still there on the streets of Israel with the Jews, with the Israelis. God has a plan for him. What that plan looks like, we're not sure to the fullest degree. Will some Jews come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Yes. They're considered the remnant.

Steve Alessi:
What happens with the rest, we're not sure. We leave them in the hands of God. But if we have to have a dog in the race or a horse in this race, as they say, it has to be we as a Christian, align ourselves with our brothers and sisters that are considered the people of God, which is God's holiness.

Mary Alessi:
Let me ask you a question from this generation that really struggles with the aggression of Israel, because I think we got to go back to that. That's the sticking point for so many people. We didn't see Israel be this aggressive when we were younger. Israel was. Well, no, but not like it is now.

Steve Alessi:
No, but the ypor war. Remember people were complaining, by the way, recently that Israel bombed Iran during a holy day. Well, go back to the Y. Kapoor war.

Mary Alessi:
Yam Kapor.

Steve Alessi:
Y Kapor. Okay, that and a few years years ago, they, while they are having their holy day, they were attacked by the enemy. And that was the day we saw or we've heard about how miraculous God showed up for the people of Israel.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
They were in their synagogues praying when they were attacked. Now you forget about that part of history and you want to take the side. Oh, look, Israel attacked Iran during their high holy day while their enemies attacked them in the past during their high, holy, high holy day. Right. So all of that to say, I don't know, where was I going?

Mary Alessi:
No, we were talking about their aggression.

Steve Alessi:
Their aggression.

Mary Alessi:
Why are they so aggressive?

Steve Alessi:
Yes, they. They have just got to a place as a People where they've been in defensive mode, and they're very peaceful people, quite frankly, but they're also very prideful people. And you know this when. When your band of brothers is pretty small, you take pride in one another.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
So they have to be aggressive against this enemy that is so staunch on destroying them.

Mary Alessi:
Well, I think it's important for every young person or person that might be in the middle or hostile and angry at Israel, I think it's very important to stop and for a minute, try to think like a Jew. If you were one. Because your whole life, whether you're here in the States or if you're over in the Middle east or if you live in Israel your whole life, you know you've got a target on your back just because you're a Jew. So what would you do? If those numbers are correct and there's only 15 million Jews and you're one of the 15 million. That's not that many. How many million people are in the city of Miami? Right.

Steve Alessi:
Yep.

Mary Alessi:
Okay. So I am one of a remnant. If you kill one of me, it's like killing 30,000amillion of anywhere else.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah, yeah.

Mary Alessi:
And I want to preserve my people. So when. When Gaza came in and so brazenly jumped the fence to a peaceful people that were minding their own business, having their own festival that day, and not only just kidnapped, but raped. And the. The hideousness of what we watched play out because they filmed it, they wanted the world to see the diabolical nature of their belief system.

Steve Alessi:
That's horrible.

Mary Alessi:
They're not trying to hide their diabolical nature. How do you at all empathize with a diabolical heart?

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
Somebody that is willing to go to the degree of, we will hop this fence and we will kidnap women, and I won't continue with what they did. But you couldn't handle it.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
Okay. So let's be empathetic, because when Israel came in to defend their people, children were killed and women were killed. Okay. Yes. That's war. And I know it's horrible, but it is horrible. When the aggressor initiated kidnapped babies.

Steve Alessi:
Right.

Mary Alessi:
Kidnapped pregnant women. So it's. The truth is, if you were a Jew, what would you do? You would protect your right to survive and not be murdered and killed. You would protect your family, you'd protect your children. Name another people group, except for Christians in Nigeria right now that are being slaughtered for their belief system, that would be slaughtered if they crossed over. When we went to Israel, Steve, we saw it firsthand. Our tour guides could not go into some of the places we went to. When we went down to Bethlehem to see the birthplace of Jesus the hostile, the last time we went, we said to our tour people, don't ever take us to Bethlehem again.

Mary Alessi:
That you could sense the hostility. It felt like we could have been kidnapped.

Steve Alessi:
All the men was, we were pushing all the women into the bus.

Mary Alessi:
They got on our bus and they were getting so aggressive with us. And it wasn't long after that that October 7th happened and we said, that's it. We don't want to go anywhere anymore. If it's not safe for Jews, then it is not safe for Christians. And until you feel that, I think it's just easier to watch the news and say, oh, free Palestine, because Israel's an aggressor. Well, that's because Israel wins. And Israel now has the backing and the strength of the, of, of America. But at what point do you stop and you use critical thinking and instead of just toxic, toxic empathy or suicidal empathy as it is now coined in psycho psychological books, now that you don't stop and say, wait a minute, did Israel have a right? What is Israel's position? No, they don't.

Mary Alessi:
They can't keep slaughtering and keep killing. But that has not been the case. And if you were Jewish, what would you want your leaders to do to protect your people?

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
Especially if you knew that at all times, 247 your whole life there is an enemy that isn't trying to say, you just stay in your territory, okay, Jews, you just stay over there. Don't. Just don't come over here and we'll be good. That's not even good enough for them. We want you off the face of the earth. Tell me that is not completely endorsed by a Satan. Satanic agenda. So how do you come in any kind of agreement with Satan?

Steve Alessi:
Yeah, yeah.

Mary Alessi:
I mean, just ask yourself that question. That is Satan's view. That is fully his propaganda, his push, his war cry to end the lives of the life of every Jew.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
So let's just think from a spiritual perspective here. He hasn't stopped. He's still after him.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
So to me, that comes full circle. And I would say then God is still on their side.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah. Well, back to my comment I wanted to make about anti Semitism.

Mary Alessi:
Well, that goes into it.

Steve Alessi:
Yes. The rabbi was here and we were able to hear exactly what she was able to share. Rabbi Robin, who was season six United Against Hate was the title of that particular episode. But I, I recently, because to me it's like, what is anti Semitism? Is it just a hatred to the Jews? Ultimately, I, I heard this, I said or read it. It. It's ultimately the denial. Here's where it comes from. Ready? It's the denial of the hand of God on the Jews.

Steve Alessi:
1 and 2. It's a denial of the Holocaust. So think of this. If you deny the Holocaust or you deny that the hand of God on the Jewish people, you're anti Semitic. Wow. Against the Jews. And that's not a posture we want to be in when we are told in our Bible. So much of our history comes from the Jewish people.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
The last time we did go to Israel, I came and shared with our people that went on the tour with us. I brought about a lot of the things from the Jewish Jesus, because sometimes we think Jesus is a Christian Jesus. He was a Christian man. No, he was a Jewish man. He was raised in the traditions of the Jewishness. He. He knew what it was to be circumcised as a young man. He.

Steve Alessi:
He knew what it was to be taught and in, in their schools and their systems. He, he was a rabbi with their training and their teaching that he was actually found being able to speak and share in the temple as a rabbi and by the got together, rabbis yelled, rabbis screamed, rabbis would debate it. Debate their faith, their positions.

Mary Alessi:
That's right.

Steve Alessi:
Loudly. It was not a quiet. It was very hostile the way they would do so. But they always came to certain levels of truth. And so that was what Jesus was confronted with at every point. He was Jewish. So for us, if you're going to say that you love Jesus, you got to love the Jewish Jesus. And if you're going to love the Jewish Jesus, you got to love his brothers and his sisters.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
He wasn't Arab.

Mary Alessi:
Right.

Steve Alessi:
So I wish people would know their biblical history.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
I wish people would do a little bit more studying even of the. The history of Israel, what they have had to endure, the wars that they won, they should have lost them. It's a miracle that there is a Jerusalem. There's an Israel today on the planet. They should be eradicated. And that started, by the way, go back to the pharaoh. We, we celebrate Passover, we celebrate Easter, we celebrate so much. But just the Passover itself was taking you back to a story.

Steve Alessi:
Well, Israel was slaves.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
And then God miraculously brought them out of Egypt to a land. And the promise was, there's a land. The promised land is yours. Yeah. I'm taking you to a land. It's the Same promise given to Abraham. Abraham, I'm gonna show you a land. I'm gonna give you a land for your family, for your future, for your your.

Steve Alessi:
For your children. Your children will number so as many as those stars that are in the sky.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
Promise given to him. Then we see that promise played out again with Moses. Moses, who then came, goes into the promised land, leaves Egypt, goes into the promised land, the land that was promised to Abraham. The land that's still to this day is Israel. I'm giving you this land. God gave them a land, right, that was to be their own. They're in that land. Moses comes up with the Mosaic law.

Steve Alessi:
That law stays true to many Jews today. 630 some odd laws. That is something that they still, now, they still abide by to the best of their ability. Today. They still celebrate the high holy days that are listed in our Bible.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
If God changed everything, why does he that he had those holidays that still these Jewish people celebrate today? And when you see these high holy days, they're so symbolic, so spiritual, that when you're there, quite frankly, it blows our mind, Mary.

Mary Alessi:
It really does.

Steve Alessi:
Because we see, wait, they're not in our Christian ways. They can't be. God can't visit them, because they don't. They're not the same, share the same faith that we share, but yet God does visit them. And it's beautiful. In their own way, God has not changed his plan for them.

Mary Alessi:
No.

Steve Alessi:
So now, all these years later, you still see these people. They're still alive.

Mary Alessi:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi:
Read some history. You'll see how the hand of God has protected them. So from our standpoint, we choose as a believer, to back the Jewish people, to support them. I have a pastor friend of mine that I'm bringing down because I want him to be able to share. This summer, we're going to have a service where he's here to talk about Israel because he's been to, gosh, I

Mary Alessi:
don't know, oh, a hundred times. He's been to Israel tours.

Steve Alessi:
And as a Christian pastor, just knows things, has heard things, seen things, behind the scenes, what he's aware of. Do you know, in Israel, every Israeli knows when a siren goes off? I mean, tell me, who has to live like this? Every Israeli knows when a siren goes off, they go to an underground bunker. That's right. Israelis actually invest in underground bunkers in

Mary Alessi:
their property, their playgrounds. We saw their playgrounds where kids are. And there's bomb shelters. They look like dinosaurs and large elephants that are made out of this Heavy, heavy concrete. But it's car. It's like painted to look like animals so that the kids won't ever know that it's a bomb shelter and they have to run into it if they hear the siren. So the parents can just go, oh, run under the elephant or run under the dinosaur to say and, and not panic their kids because that is their everyday existence life. They have to live knowing it's not just a monkey on their back, it's a target on their back to eradicate them.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah. Wow.

Mary Alessi:
Imagine, imagine just put yourself in, in that position for a minute and see if you don't change your mindset towards Israel.

Steve Alessi:
Well, we got to do the prayer thing. If the Bible says pray for the peace of Israel, we've got to pray for the peace and we gotta. Even as we come up to more and more, Israel is always in the headlines. It's amazing.

Mary Alessi:
It is amazing.

Steve Alessi:
Always in the headlines.

Mary Alessi:
That should say something to us.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
That should make God that much more real and his word true. When we realize we're still getting caught up in the story of Israel and what's going on in that nation. Fifteen million people, you would think it's a small country. Who cares? It's insignificant. How many stories over the historical past have been. With time become irrelevant.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah.

Mary Alessi:
With countries and places that used to be the, the Mecca, but they're not anymore. We lost interest. How is Israel carried on?

Steve Alessi:
Well, if we.

Mary Alessi:
Except God.

Steve Alessi:
Yeah. Just, just look at what experiments or, or inventions where we're there and we hear about all the inventions for medicine and

Mary Alessi:
just groundbreaking things.

Steve Alessi:
Inventions come out of Israel, all Israel. Some of the wealthiest people on the planet are Israeli. That's right, Are Jews. The hand of God is still upon them.

Mary Alessi:
There's no doubt.

Steve Alessi:
And they're just their defense system, their dome, the golden dome, their defense system that they have in place that is, is just amazing that they have that ability to protect its people. The, the ingenuity, the, the brilliance. You see the hand of God. Does it cause them to be arrogant sometimes? Yep. I haven't met a humble Israeli yet.

Mary Alessi:
I know. We love them.

Steve Alessi:
They, they are. They've been again raised with a target on their backs. And they're also very untrusting. They, they don't trust a lot of

Mary Alessi:
people, but it's how their culture survives.

Steve Alessi:
It is, it is. They. They have to be able to do that. So.

Mary Alessi:
All right, that was good.

Steve Alessi:
I think it's important. Hopefully our listeners can understand where we come from, why we have a heart for Israel.

Mary Alessi:
And feel free to leave your comments even if you disagree with us. That's okay. We want to talk about it because this is important. This is important, especially in the life of the person that calls himself a Christian. Don't let anything separate you from your pastor, from your church, from the Lord. If you disagree with this, don't blame it on God. Well, take it out on God.

Steve Alessi:
Let me just get out on your church. Bible says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse on the cross. Why? So that the blessings of Abraham would come upon.

Mary Alessi:
There you go.

Steve Alessi:
His people.

Mary Alessi:
There you go.

Steve Alessi:
So if you're a Christian and you're walking in the blessings, those were blessings that were given to you first promised to Abraham, but then given to you through a Jewish Christ, there you go. So embrace those promises and embrace the people that God loves.

Mary Alessi:
Great thought.

Steve Alessi:
I hope it was controversial. I hope it stirred your thoughts and your feelings and your heart up to get in there and study. Know from whence your knowledge comes from, your information comes from. Make sure you're not just following some podcaster out there. You're not just buying into the liberal media's press about all of this. With Israel land on the side of right, you'll find it in your Bible. God still wants to bless Israel and so should you and I. Thanks for joining us today.

Steve Alessi:
God bless.

Mary Alessi:
Thanks so much for joining the family business today. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow or subscribe, share it with a friend and leave us a review. We appreciate your support and can't wait to have you join us next time, because family is everybody's business.