Rick Green
Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Builders Show. We're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. I'm Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about us at our website, wallbuilders.com. Wallbuilders.com that's the place to go. Make that one time our monthly contribution, come alongside us and also just get you some good tools for educating and equipping and inspiring yourself and your family, David and Tim. A lot happening in the Middle East, of course, and some of it well, I would say biblical proportions, but that would probably be overused. Anyway, we got Omer coming back to update us on what's been going on, but there is a lot happening.
Tim Barton
Yeah, there is a lot happening in the Middle East. One of our good friends, Omer Eschel, is our tour guide whenever we take groups over to Israel and actually even groups of Turkey. He is one of our friends who is a biblical scholar. We've had him on the program many times before. I don't know that we need to go through a ton of his resume, but he is an incredible friend. He's brilliant.
His family is up in the Golan and up in the Golan is one of the areas that have been under rocket fire, although I guess really it's much of Israel, especially when Iran sent what was it? Over 300 drones and rockets and missiles at Israel, the US, and was it the UK, Australia, I don't remember who was involved in helping intercept those. It's a very, very interesting time. It certainly does show what a lack of leadership in America does to so much of the world, to the Middle East, and maybe not just a lack of leadership, but also when there seems to be what's apparent corruption, with much of the Biden administration that seems to have deals with China and whoever else that we don't know about giving Iran funding, releasing funds to them, and virtually every time that funds have been released to Iran? Iran has done something to attack America or Israel
Just lots and lots going on and, as we have seen this happening, there's been growing protests at universities, Columbia University, all kinds of chaos been going on this week. I just saw a video, I think yesterday, where there was a professor from Columbia University, a Jewish professor, who was not allowed on campus. He wasn't allowed to go to his office, to his class. Allowed on campus, he wasn't allowed to go to his office, to his class, he was kept off. Where Columbia is now going online because they have these pro-Palestinian quote unquote protesters that are so disruptive that Columbia University says, well, the easiest way to handle them is let's just do online class. And just so much nonsense what we are seeing from so much anti-Israel, anti-semitism, anti-jewish movement on college campuses. But that's exactly what we're seeing right now and so we thought certainly, with all this happening, we need to get our friend Omer on and talk through some of this.
David Barton
Yeah, we had a listener that wrote a question and said, hey, what is the background of this Palestinian-Israeli conflict? I don't understand Palestine, I don't understand the history of it, and it was a great question, because a lot of Americans don't even understand American history, much less when you get international and go somewhere else. So it was a great question. We thought, Omer, we'll ask him that let's have him give the background of how this conflict came to be the Palestinians, the background of the Palestinians, how old a group are they? Are they as old as the Jewish people? Have they always been perpetual enemies, et cetera? And so Omer is going to answer that question as well, which will help put a lot of perspective on what's going on in Israel, as well as in America with our colleges.
Rick Green
Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with Omer Eschel, our special guest today. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show.
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Rick Green
Welcome back to Wall Builders. Thanks for staying with us. Omer Eschel, back with us. Always good to have you, Omer, and I like to consider you. This will this will shock people David barton's, everybody else's historian. You're like David Barton's historian on Israel. It's like I have David Barton's personal historian on Israel with me. Hey brother, good to have you, man.
Omer Eschel
I'm honored, thank you, glad to be back. Thank you.
Rick Green
Hey, so obviously a lot happening. Man, we could spend a week catching up with you. But one of the things that David really wanted us to cover is just the whole history behind it. I mean, I know in 10 minutes that's impossible, but just sort of a summary. As the pro-Palestinian insanity here in the US gets worse and worse, most people just have no idea what the real history is over there. And so just sort of a quick summary there and then your thoughts on where this goes with the whole Iran thing and what you're thinking on the ground there. So just really, brother, anywhere you want to go with all of that, we're just glad to have a few minutes with you.
Omer Eschel
Absolutely Well. First of all, thank you for having me, and I want to start with something that is obvious and it's not obvious, and I'll give you an example. The Palestinians are saying that they claim ownership over the land because they used to be a nation called Palestine, which is a complete and utter lie. And, just for our listeners to understand, there's no letter P in the Arabic alphabet, so how can they name a country using a letter that doesn't exist in their vocabulary the name Palestine. Where would the name Palestine came from?
We all know about the Great Revolt in the year 70 AD, where Judea fought against the Romans and then Jesus wept for the temple and the temple was destroyed. This is not the big revolt that ended up with an exile. The big revolt happened about 50 years later, in the year 134 AD, and it was the Jews, Judea the Jews, fighting against Emperor Hadrian. And what Emperor Hadrian did? He changed the name from Judea to Palestina. Did he changed the name from Judea to Palestina, named after the Philistines, who were the sworn enemies of the Jews in the Bible? By the way, we're not the only nation that that had that. If you look at the kingdom of Romania, Romania used to be called Dacia or Dacia. So he tried to erase the name of of the Jews from erasing the name Judea, and that that's how we got the name Palestina.
However, in all the Arab records, in every single one of them, the name of that land is not Palestine, it's Beladisham or great Syria. Only when the Brits came in in 1917 ad we're talking 900 years after the effect, only 800 years Only then they called it Palestine, but they called it Palestine, Israel, Palestine, Israel. And when I was a kid and this is going to be a shocker for many of our listeners when I was a kid, there was no such thing as Palestinians. They were called Arabs. Actually, funny enough, you know who were the Palestinians?
Rick Green
No, no, I have no idea.
Omer Eschel
The Palestinians, until the establishment of the state of Israel, were the Jews who lived in the land of Palestine.
Rick Green
No, kidding, seriously.
Omer Eschel
Yes, yes, because when you look at what the Germans did in the 30s, they said Jews, go to Palestine, you are Palestinian. Go to Palestine. To the Jews, not to the Arabs. Now, where did the Palestinians come from? This is something very important for our listeners to understand. In the end of the 19th century, when the Jews came back to the land of Israel what we call the Aliyah, the beginning of Zionism, it started in 1882.
They came from the developed countries, like Germany, like England, Scotland, like France. So when they came and bought the land with money, they brought machinery with them and then a lot of villagers from neighboring nations which back then were not nations Syria, Jordan, Saudi, Egypt. They immigrated into the land of Israel and that's basically all the Palestinians. Now how do you see that? If you look at their last name, the largest family in Gaza, their name is El Masri, el Masri meaning from Egypt. The largest family in the Galilee called Zoabi, zoabi meaning from Syria. So their claim that they were there and the land of Palestine belongs to them because of ancestors, right, here's just for me to wrap this up. If you dig in Israel, you will find countless evidence of biblical archaeology, which is written mostly in Hebrew. I don't remember finding anything from the time of King David or from the time of Jesus written in Arabic.
Rick Green
Wow. So how have they managed to change the perception of essentially the whole world? I mean, you talk about a propaganda machine. They have managed to literally rewrite history.
Omer Eschel
You know, Joseph Goebbels he was the minister of propaganda of the aid of Hitler said if you tell a lie enough times and be consistent about it, people will take it as the absolute truth..
Rick Green
Yeah, that's exactly what's happened.
Omer Eschel
You know, I'm going to share this with you what's going on in the States right now. I'm appalled because I saw about a year ago when they knocked down the statue of Robert E Lee. This is a race in history and Robert E Lee was a patriot. He was on the Confederate side, but he was a patriot. Actually, he was almost on the Union side. I don't know if many people know that. Actually David told me that and to erase that history. This is so dangerous. Yeah, because in in a decade from now, most Americans are not most a lot of Americans would not even know who Robert E Lee was and they're going to start believe in false propaganda that serves an agenda of people who are against the United States.
Rick Green
That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right. No, it's happening in both of our countries, without doubt, and it has obviously huge consequences, because it rallies nations to send hundreds of millions of dollars, now billions and billions of dollars, that have, you know, send hundreds of millions of dollars, now billions and billions of dollars, that have essentially been used to build a war machine against Israel and, and you know, the undermining of the American support for Israel. All of it based on these lies. It's, it's all a they have managed to get now, two generations in America to be sympathetic to a false cause. That's the nicest way I can say it.
Omer Eschel
The biggest fear that I have in Israel, we know how to deal with them. We live in a tough neighborhood. Our neighbors are not Mexico and Canada. You guys have much better neighbors than we do. But here's my fear, brother. Here's my fear.
My fear is that when people are adopting these kind of thinking doctrines, like woke or like adopting false history, and they shape it to their own agenda, when they attack Israel, they attack Israel not because of the fact that we are Jews. They attack us because we represent the West. If you notice the, the Islamic radicals calling us the little devil, you guys are the big devil. America is the big devil. The reason why they do this is because of envy. They envy the way of the of life of the west. But here's something that people and I want to. I want to listen to take a minute to think about it. By definition, you cannot be born a refugee. That's against the definition of the word refugee. Refugee is someone who was forced to leave from his home. How come we have three generations of refugees, of the Palestinians? Hmm?
Rick Green
Yeah, yeah, again a false narrative to create a sympathy that doesn't is what I'm looking for. I mean, it's a sympathy that is completely fake. It's not fake on the person's part, like they make Americans feel like they should have sympathy for, like you say, quote unquote, refugees. They're not even refugees, but the sympathy is real. So they still send the money and they still support politically, but it's all based on deception.
Omer Eschel
And they still support politically, but it's all based on deception and I tell them my biggest, biggest, biggest fear, really, because we see it now. We see it now in Europe, now, when you have very large pockets of illegal immigrants in the United States, I think that 2023 will be remembered as the largest invasion into the United States because of the opening borders. What's going to happen now, and this is a lesson you need to understand this In the Islam world, there is a word called the waqf W-A-Q-F. Waqf meaning holy ground. Holy ground, not a church or a synagogue. Holy ground only for a mosque.
According to the Muslim understanding, if it's once been declared as a waqf land, it cannot be revoked. If it's once been declared as a waqf land, it cannot be revoked, meaning if you're going to have a mosque built in your neighborhood, it will always be a mosque. If you're going to try to take it out, you're going to try to de-zone it or to change. I mean, mostly many churches and synagogues turn into libraries. You cannot do it with a mosque and the problem is brother in in 50 years from now. That lie that now is attacking the state of Israel, that lie will attack the very core of the united states when people in Dearborn, Michigan, gonna come and say Dearborn was always Muslim, that's a Muslim land wow, wow.
Rick Green
I hadn't thought about that, man, I had not even thought about that. Oh, wow, yeah.
Omer Eschel
They do it now in Europe. Yeah, when you walk today in Spain and I'm in shock that the Western media doesn't speak about it the Arab-controlled south of Spain was called the Kingdom of Andalusia, andalus. Their capital was Cordoba. Today, the Muslims are saying to reconquer Spain or Cordoba from the hands of the infidels because it was taken from the Arabs in 1492. That's with not just Columbus sailed the ocean blue, it's also Ferdinand and Isabel basically conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula, which is Spain and Portugal. But the Muslims today are saying this is our land, because Cordova and Granada are waqf land that belong to the Muslims. We're talking about the Catholic nation of Spain today, in 2024.
Rick Green
Hard to even comprehend. I mean, get your head around it. That is Omer. That's I can't believe. I never really thought about that, and that is I mean. Like you said, it's obviously Europe's, unfortunately, way ahead of us on that, but it is going to happen here in the US as well. I can't talk to you this close to what's going on without getting at least your initial thoughts on Iran's obviously failed attempt to attack and just thrilled to see the Iron Dome work so well. But what is that doing on the ground there in terms of preparation and in terms of expectations for Israel?
Omer Eschel
I want to start by saying good for the West. It's not just Israel, it's also, of course, the United States, it's France, it's England, several Arab nations around us that they're opposing the radical Shiite regime of Iran. It's not just Israel that took down those drones and those missiles, it's the West. And you know, I've got to tell you, brother, I'm looking at the regular media. The Washington Post said that most of the missiles, a third of the missiles, did not even reach the targets because they failed. You know what? This is our problem as the West, we keep on bashing ourselves. Why even say that? Let's say that they are right. From 110 missiles, 30 did not reach the target, but 80 was supposed to reach the target. So my point is we are trying to apologize for our success. The West, it's not just Israel, wow, it's the West. What we did three days ago, we mean in the West. I think that this night, it's the night that nowhere in history a nation was attacked so brutally by another nation and intercepted 99% of the threats. I'm going to talk about Star Wars. For us, when we look at it right now, it's like the Battle of England in the Second World War. This is humongous. It's more than huge, it's humongous. And don't forget, Iran is 1,000 miles away from us. There's no land dispute, there's no religion dispute, there's nothing.
And I want our people to think why did Iran attack Israel? They didn't attack Israel, they attacked the West. Iran has been attacking your troops on the ground since October 7th. Yeah, the fact that your media doesn't speak about it, I mean, I'm appalled because these are your boys fighting. But they are trying to take over the world.
And just for our listeners to understand why, they are using proxies to take down vessels going through the Red Sea, because that Red Sea represents 10% of the world trade, 10% of the world trade. So Iran is basically choking the Western economy. That's what they're doing, so in Israel. For us, that victory that we had three days ago is a tremendous victory and it brought a lot of confidence with our friends, because we felt very much stabbed in the back by a lot of organizations, especially the UN, especially them, and it brought a lot of pride and good feeling back to us. I think it's the first good day that we had since October 7th. But we are not resting you know, on the Bay Leaf crown.
We understand. You know, Iran is a big devilish country that vowed to destroy the biblical values of the West and, sadly enough, we are in the forefront.
Rick Green
Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. Oh man, well, yeah, no doubt about it. Oh man Well, Omer, God bless you. Thank you so much for keeping us updated. Let's get you back again soon, just so appreciate your insight and discernment and wisdom on all these major issues. And I love even your attitude, man. I love it. I love it. God bless you. Thanks for coming on today.
Omer Eschel
Thank you, and I just want to share this with our listeners yeah, we win, because that's what the Bible says.
Rick Green
Amen Amen.
Omer Eschel
God bless brother. Hey, you too. Thanks so much for having me.
Rick Green
Thanks again. That's Omar Eshel. You'll stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.
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Rick Green
We're back here on the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Omer Ashel for joining us, and David and Tim I mean you guys have been. I still haven't been over there, by the way, and I don't know that right now is the time to go, but you guys have been there many times and so you can probably picture what it's like for them to take that kind of a bombardment and imagine what that would have been like to. We see it on video, but imagine looking up into the sky and seeing all the amazing Iron Dome capturing of all of that attack from Iran.
David Barton
And one more thing to add that Omer talked about off air that's worth hearing is after Iran did those 300 drones at Israel, and so much of the Western world stepped up and knocked those things out not just the Iron Dome, I think, 73 of them were taken out by American preventive measures. There was just so many nations that stepped up to help Israel with that, and so you knew that Israel was not going to remain silent on that. And my curiosity was Russia. Putin has essentially said hey, if you go after Iran, Israel, if you go after Iran, then I'm coming after you. So it really had the potential of getting into a world war type of thing, depending on how Israel handled this. And so Israel responded and they came back and they hit the nuclear sites in Iran and they took out the site that was closest to having nuclear weapons development ready. But they were very selective, very pinpoint, and it was really interesting because when that happened my thought was okay, this is going to escalate and this is going to be really ugly and Iran's not going to let this go by, because you just wiped out all their nuclear development stuff, all those sites, pinpoint precision. And Omer told me something that just blew me away. He was just giddy and elated because he's also in the military too and he's in charge of the military in that part of Israel and they were expecting something from North over in Lebanon to come in to Israel as a result of this, because Iran is supporting Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, northern border of Israel, and so just all of this is connected. And Omer was giddy, he said did you notice that all of our missiles hit the targets and that the Iranians never knew that they were coming? Our missiles did not set off any of their alarms and they have that high-tech stuff from Russia and China and elsewhere. They have all this high-tech stuff and it really has befuddled them because they don't know how the missiles got by and they don't know how to stop missiles that you can't detect, that you didn't know were coming, that hit all this precision. And so he said they've just really gone silent. And lo and behold, what Iran did was they attacked American base in Iraq because they know America's not going to retaliate. If they would attack Israel again, Israel would have retaliated with more missiles and they couldn't have stopped any of those because they didn't even know how the first ones got through their system. So all their defense systems have proven to be no good.
And then Omer told me he said he's really even more excited. He says as great as the Iron Dome was. He says we're about to not even have the Iron Dome anymore. He said we have a new technology where we can use light to shoot missiles out of the air. It's like laser beam type of stuff. He said it's really inexpensive. We're not going to have to have all the missiles and that's part of the debate in the US Congress is sending them billions so they can get more missiles for their Iron Dome. He said we're at the point of nearly not needing the Iron Dome because we have also developed the ability to use light to shoot down enemy missiles coming in.
Rick Green
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. David, are you saying they're going to literally have like a super lightsaber? So not only do we have the Iron Dome, that's essentially Star Wars, now they're going to have a super lightsaber t
David Barton
I was sitting there listening to him. I mean he's just giddy like a kid at Christmas time with all this new technology and he was just so elated that it operated so well because they haven't tested it in battle conditions and they did. And I can imagine being Russia and China and everybody else and saying, man, we gave you the best defense system we had and it didn't even pick up the Israeli missiles coming in. So it is just such good news from that standpoint. I mean it's a crazy thing going on over there. And back to the original question. The Palestinians don't have a long history because, as he pointed out, that's really a 20th century group. The Palestine was named that as an anti-Jewish movement by the Romans and the Palestinians, they were Arabs even a century ago. Now they're Palestinians.
Tim Barton
There's just not a long history there. Yeah, I mean, as he pointed out, the notion of it being Palestinians. Up until I mean not even a hundred years ago, it was the Jews that lived there. He pointed out they were Palestinian Jews. You had Palestinian Christians. It wasn't something referring to a Muslim population there exclusively. That happened much more recently. Mid-1900s is when you see a lot more of it becoming exclusive that. But also, if you back up, as he points out, really, I mean this P doesn't even appear in the Arabic alphabet and it was really the Philistines who it was really named after. But even when you look at the kind of Ottoman Empire when there was a Muslim influence there, it was really known as Little Syria or Southern Syria. Right, it wasn't this unique standalone nation that people are claiming.
It is today so very different from that history, and what we're seeing a lot on the college campus is it really is more of a reflection of a Marxist movement. It's the reason why what Hamas did in Israel on October 7th people who should be able to look at it objectively and say there was a lot of evil that happened. There was just so much of an atrocity, a genocide that happened. But because in Marxism there's only two classes and categories of people. You're either the oppressed or you're the oppressor. And because they're taught that Israel is the oppressor, well, in Marxism they're also taught that those that have been oppressed have the right, the responsibility, that the moral obligation, the moral justification to do anything to the oppressor without crossing any moral boundaries. And so this is a lot of what we're seeing reflected on college campuses is the outgrowth of a pro-Marxist message, which is anti-truth, but it's also anti-God, anti-America and obviously anti-Israel.
Rick Green
Thanks for listening, folks. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show