Ever year, the three-day “Israel Summit” brings together thousands of people who support Israel and the Jewish people. This year, however, organizers HaYovel and The Israel Guys announced they were cancelling the summit – twice – due to concerns for safety.
In an announcement on X, The Israel Guys said the FBI and Texas Rangers warned them pro-Hamas jihadist groups were targeting the summit, originally scheduled for June 9-11 in Dallas.
In a related story, online news outlet Jewish News Syndicate said organizers quietly moved their event to a second location, with better security, but anti-Israel groups learned about that location, too. So that second try was cancelled, too.
The news story identified two groups targeting “Israel Summit,” Palestinian Youth Movement Dallas and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Jewish Voice for Peace is an American Jewish anti-Zionist and left-wing advocacy organization founded in September 1996 at the University of California at Berkeley.
Authorities considered the summit a “high-threat event,” Israel Guys show host Josiah Hilton said.
Ben Hilton, one of The Israel Guys, said Jews and pro-Israel Christians are now left asking and troubling question: Is it still safe in America to publicly stand with Israel?
"We want Israel to see that there are thousands of Christians that support the nation of Israel, support their right to self-defense, support their right to autonomy,” he said. “And by bringing everyone together in one place, we're able to send a very clear message to the state of Israel: This is who we are this is what we believe."
Josh Waller, an Israel Guys co-host and director of operations at HaYovel, described “immense security needs” for a “relatively small gathering” of Christian and Jewish attendees.
“Corrie Ten Boom said if you love God, you love what God loves, and God loves His people,” Waller said. “He didn't forget them. God's not a forgetful God. He never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever."
Reacting to the security threats, conservative activist Gary Bauer tells AFN there is clear proof something terribly bad is happening in America.
“Not just Donald Trump but everyone needs to rethink and recalculate what our immigration policies should look like,” he warns, “and what our universities ought to look like, or we’re going to find ourselves in much deeper water than we’re in right now.”
