It came from a rabbi friend, and it was very out of character, because it came between sundown on Friday and nightfall on Saturday.
“One of the rabbis, who's probably in his 50s, almost 60 years old, he said, ‘This is the first time I've ever broken Shabbat.’ He called me because he wanted to get the message out because he saw how the narrative was changing and that the pro-Hamas message was going out, Bachmann told the Washington Watch program Monday.
"And he was saying if the churches don't stand with us, we don't know what we're going to do,” she recalled.
Jewish leaders say Christian churches need to stand. Synagogues are standing, they say, and Israel among itself is more united than it’s ever been.
But Israel needs more.
The world was shocked - or it should have been - when hundreds of Hamas terrorists breached border barriers Oct. 7 and began a rampage of murder, rape, torture, beheading, and kidnapping.
Despite the atrocities, which were brazenly documented by Hamas, sympathies began shifting when Israel declared war on its murderous enemy in Gaza.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas, something that can’t be done without loss of life among Palestinians, because Hamas uses its Gaza citizens as human shields.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations – which is to say pro-Hamas – have broken out in Europe’s major cities and across the U.S., particularly on American college campuses, where Jewish students fear for their safety.
“Never before - and I really mean this - never before has Israel needed the help, the support and the prayers of the evangelical Christian community like they do now," David Friedman, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel during the Trump administration, said to the crowd at Stand With and Pray For Israel event Monday night.
The event was sponsored by the Family Research Council. It was held at a church in Blythewood, South Carolina, but Friedman delivered recorded remarks from Jerusalem.
During his remarks, Friedman said the world was being tested at protests in London, Paris, and San Francisco, where marchers are openly yelling "death to Israel!" and "Gas the Jews!" on the streets. Even on college campuses, he said, no one is condemning Hamas and its murderous rampage on October 7.
"They're standing with Hamas. They're standing with the Palestinians at a time when Israelis are bleeding, suffering, missing, murdered. They’re standing with the murderers, not the victims,” Friedman said.
Friedman, the son of a temple rabbi, said the Israel-Hamas war is a test of peoples’ commitment to God’s covenant with the children of Israel.
“Is biblical Israel a permanent and sacred place of worship and inspiration for Jews and Christians, or will it be destroyed just as so much of our collective biblical history is no longer?" he challenged the crowd.
After the murderous attacks three weeks ago, Friedman said Israel is more united against Hamas than the divided nation has ever been in any cause. The right and left on the political spectrum, the secular and the religious, have come together to support the Jewish people like never before, Friedman said.
'No peace through strength'
Friedman closed his remarks with commentary on the 29th Psalm in which David asks God to grant peace and strength to His people.
“It’s an odd choice of words. If you have strength, then presumably you need it to fight a war. If you have peace, you don't need strength," he said. "But we're learning something very important from that. What King David is telling us is that you can't have peace without strength. There is no peace without strength. Unfortunately, we live in a world where if we are weak, we will not have peace and then we will suffer."
Friedman concluded by suggesting Israel can win this war only if Christians and Jews pray together.
“I believe the Christian faithful, the evangelical faithful, and the Jews throughout the world, we are all together," he said. "We're together like we've never been before, and through that unity, we can all collectively beseech God for His mercy and his blessings and, most importantly at this difficult hour, for strength.”
