(shofar trumpeting)

- This week on "Jerusalem Dateline" a new

administration takes over in Washington.

What will it mean for Israel?

CBN News sat down withformer US ambassador

to Israel David Friedmanto discuss the achievements

of the Trump administrationin the Middle East

and he looks ahead to

what the new administrationneeds to avoid.

And Qasr al Yahud, thechurches on the Jordan River

celebrate the baptism of Jesusafter landmines are cleared.

All this and more this weekon "Jerusalem Dateline."

Hello and and welcome to this edition

of "Jerusalem Dateline,"I'm Chris Mitchell.

On January 20th, Joe Bidenbecame the 46th President

of the United States.

On his first day inoffice, Biden signed more

than a dozen executive orders ranging

from new initiatives fighting COVID-19

to rejoining the Paris Climate Accords.

George Thomas has a lookat some of the key policies

he authorized on his first day in office

that signal that major changes to expect

from this administration.

- President Biden'sfirst order of business

on his first day on the jobwas to immediately reverse

some of his predecessor'skey policies and agendas.

- Some of the things we'regoing to be doing are really

bold and vital and there'sno time to start like today.

- [George] Top of his priority,

getting the COVID pandemic under control.

Biden's first executive order signed

while wearing a maskrequires face coverings

on all federal lands, along with a pledge

to deliver 100 million vaccine shots

in his first 100 days in office.

He plans to sign 10 pandemicrelated orders today.

- It's requiring, as I said all along,

where I have authoritymandating masks be worn,

social distancing bekept on federal property

on interstate commerce, et cetera.

- With a stroke of several pens,

the incoming president then signed more

than a dozen other executive orders,

the most a president hasever done on his first day.

- It's an incredibly broad scope of bold

and aggressive actionssome of which are designed

to roll back some of themost egregious actions

of the Trump administration.

- [George] Among them, Bidenrepealed Trump's travel ban

preventing people frompredominantly Muslim

and African countries fromentering the United States.

And as part of his campaignpromise to reengage the world,

the president rejoined theWorld Health Organization

and the controversialParis Climate Accords

which president Trump pulled out of.

The president also revoked plans

for a Keystone XL oil pipeline.

- The United States continues to be one

of the world's largestemitters of greenhouse gases.

And we need to put in place policies

and take steps here toaddress that as well.

- [George] Some argue nixingthe Keystone pipeline project

and rejoining the Paris treatywill hurt American workers

and further weaken an economyalready reeling from COVID.

- The reality is regulationsthat are promulgated

on the energy industry aregoing to increase those prices

which are going to havedramatic ripple effects

throughout the economy disproportionally

impacting the lowestincome families in America.

- [George] The Biden administration plans

to assign more executiveorders in the weeks ahead

including rolling back restrictions

on abortion funding and revoking the ban

on transgenders fromserving in the military.

George Thomas, CBN News.

- One of the key architectsshaping US foreign policy

in the Middle East fornearly four years has been US

Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

CBN News sat down with Ambassador Friedman

for his last official interview

in the US embassy in Jerusalem.

Ambassador David Friedman ended his time

as ambassador as he began itby praying at the Western Wall.

- [Announcer] Ambassador David Friedman.

(crowd applauding)

- [Chris] Friedmanfields work accomplished

over the past four yearswill help the incoming

Biden administrationget off to a good start.

- Normally, people come into a office

in the Middle East is all ablaze

and that becomes the challenge.

I think that's not the case here.

I think we've left theMiddle East in a good place.

I would urge real caution inchanging any of the dynamics.

It ain't broken so don't fix it.

- That includes potentially

renewing the Iranian nuclear deal.

The Trump administrationended the 2015 agreement known

as the JCPOA that had been struck

by the Obama administration.

Are you concerned aboutthe effect that the Biden

administration has alreadysaid that they want

to renegotiate or reenterthe Iranian nuclear deal?

- Boy, going back to 2015 wouldjust be an enormous mistake

and it could threaten all the advances

that we've made in the region.

There really is no rationalbasis to return to the JCPOA.

One of the argumentsthat kept coming up then

in favor of the JCPOAwas if we let Iran back

into the community of nations,

they will self-modulate,they will self-correct.

Five years later, we know the truth.

We know that they didn't self-correct.

The idea that we wouldmake a deal with Iran

that would give them a pathto a bomb is frankly insanity.

- [Chris] Friedman alsobelieves such a move

could threaten the Abraham Accords,

an achievement that took manyby surprise but not Friedman.

- The seeds of these

relationships have been there for years.

They were there under theObama administration as well.

They were there.

They needed some water.

They needed some fertilizer.

They needed some real engagement.

But we knew from the beginningthat we were onto something.

- [Chris] Ambassador Friedman pointed out

what set the Trump administration apart.

- What I'm most proud of isthat our administration really

extended to Israel, not just the courtesy,

but the right, the self-determination

to really decipherthemselves how to govern

and I hope that courtesycontinues to be extended

because that's where I thinkwe really made a difference.

- [Chris] That set thestage for historic moves

such the United Statesrecognizing Israeli sovereignty

over the Golan Heights,declaring Jerusalem

as Israel's capital, andmoving the US embassy there.

- I think the most significant event

of the four years was movingthe embassy to Jerusalem.

I think so much came from that.

I think when we moved the embassy,

when we recognized Jerusalem,I think it just opened

up enormous possibilities forthe US-Israel relationship.

And I think it put Americareally on the right track.

- [Chris] Friedman alsohelped change the US approach

to Israel's biblical heartland

and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

- What we did was verymuch in the best interest

of the United States, not justthe best interests of Israel.

And I think the proof is in the fact

that after we moved the embassy

and after we recognizedsovereignty over the Golan Heights

and after he did all theother things that we did,

not only was there notan explosion of violence,

there was an explosion of peace.

We were able to achieveonce in a generation

agreements with Bahrain and the Emirates,

Sudan, Morocco, Kosovo,all Muslim countries.

- [Chris] As ambassador, oneBible story inspired Friedman.

He kept this painting of the story

of the sin of the 10 spies whowent into the Promised Land.

- The one sin I don't want

to commit is the sin of the spies,

the sin of not having enough faith

or confidence or visionin the relationship

between Israel and the United States

and the importance of keepingthat as strong as possible.

- [Chris] While the new administration

hasn't announced the replacement,

many experts on both sides agree

Ambassador Friedman willbe a tough act to follow.

(exciting music)

Up next, more of our interview

with Ambassador David Friedman

where he discusses the Abraham Accords

and Israel's biblical heartland.

(upbeat music)

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(exciting music)

- Here's more of our interviewwith Ambassador Friedman

where he addresses potentialdangers to the Abraham Accords

and the historic change in US policy

towards Israel's biblical heartland.

Ambassador Friedman,great to see you again.

- Chris, great to be with you again.

One thing that you made historywas the Abraham Accords.

Does the Iranian nuclear dealthreaten the Abraham Accords?

- It does because, look,the Abraham Accords,

they're transformational.

And of course they're based on things

that go beyond security.

They're based on commercialinterests and interests

of tourists and a warmpeace among peoples.

But of course there's also a common enemy

and that was a factor.

All of these countrieswere threatened by Iran

and to elevate that threatcould easily cause some

of these countries to start retreating

into their own national security needs

in a way that that mightmake it much more difficult

for them to be as open as they are today.

So I would hope

that the Abraham Accordscould survive anything.

They're really important but they're new

and they have to be nurtured.

And I do think that the commonality

of a common securityfront against Iran joined

by the United States is a pillar.

It's not the only pillar,but it's one of the pillars

upon which these of accords rest.

- One other thing you made history

as you changed the whole paradigm

to Israel's biblicalheartland, Judea and Samaria.

Looking back, how wouldyou express the changes

of the US policy toward Judea and Samaria?

- We brought that policyback to where it belonged.

We actually changed itrelative to the last 20 years.

But if you go back to 1967

when Judea and Samariabecame an issue, right,

that's when Israel recapturedthe territory from Jordan.

There's only one agreement since 1967

that all the litigants,

all the conflicting parties agreed to.

That was UN Resolution 242.

While it's been subject tomultiple interpretations,

the US interpretation, ofcourse we had our own people,

Arthur Goldberg was our negotiator,

our interpretation wasthat Israel would withdraw

from some but not all of theterritories that they captured.

Now they withdrew from 85% or more

of it between Sinai and Gaza.

They've withdrawn from the vast majority

of the territory that they captured.

Judea and Samaria, if youlook at our own interpretation

of those days, was that theJews had a better claim,

the Israelis had a betterclaim to Judea and Samaria

than any other competing claim.

Sure, there should be a resolution.

The parties should try to resolve it

but on the basis of a dispute to territory

as to which the Israelisprobably had the better claim.

That was where we were in 1967.

We got completely offtrack, completely off track

to the point where when we took office

we were coming on the heels of UN 2334

which the US supported.

I mean, they abstained buteffectively they supported it

because by abstaining,they enabled it to pass,

which was a security Council resolution

that found the entiretyof Judea and Samaria,

East Jerusalem, the Western Wall,

were all illegally occupied territory.

So we had gone way off track.

And our goal was not to make new law.

Our goal was to restore theoriginal intent of the parties,

all the parties when theygot together back in 1967

to try to figure out the framework

for resolving the issues thatstemmed from the Six-Day War.

And I'm convinced that we're

in the right placeunder international law.

I'm certainly convinced thatwe're in the right place

under the American viewof international law.

- One thing that you andIsraeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu didwas signing an agreement

back in October about Ariel University

where are you allowedUS investment or funds

to go across the Green Line andsupport scientific research.

How important was that?

- It was very important.

- Is that sort of like a boycott

of the US funds that couldn'tgo to Judea and Samaria?

- When I learned that US research funding,

we were talking about something

which by its nature should be apolitical.

Funding research in scienceand better understanding.

And here you have a university in Ariel

which is a major Israeli city,

there's no scenario under which Israel

whatever relinquish its controlof Ariel, nor should it.

And you have this universitythere with 16,000 students,

probably at least a thousandof whom are Palestinian.

You have a model for peaceful coexistence

in an academic environmentamong Jews and Arabs,

Muslims, Christians, and herethe United States is refusing

to participate with itin academic research.

To me, it was just an unthinkable outcome

of these agreements.

So yeah, we workedreally hard to fix them,

we changed them all.

And the United States nolonger boycotts institutions

over the Green Line.

They never should've.

But they don't anymore.

(exciting music)

- [Chris] Coming up,part two of our interview

with Ambassador Friedman, his negotiations

with the Palestinian authority,

and his relationship withEvangelical Christians.

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(exciting music)

- In part two of our interviewwith Ambassador Friedman,

he discusses how theTrump administration dealt

with the Palestinian authority,

and his relationship withEvangelical Christians.

Going to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,

you again, made history andchanged the whole paradigm.

How did you approachthat and had the Peace

to Prosperity Plan thatcame out last January?

- I was asked by a reporterfrom the New York Times

why we were punitivetowards the Palestinian.

I said we were neverpunitive to the Palestinians.

He said, "Well, isn't cuttingour funding a punishment?"

And I said, "Absolutely not."

Our policy towards the Palestinians was

we demand a minimallevel of accountability.

That's it, accountability.

The same accountability we would expect

from our own people, American citizens,

or from the Israeli government,just accountability.

We're giving you money.

Don't use it to pay terrorists.

That sounds like a like a punishment?

How would a US taxpayerdollar ever be used

to pay a terrorist?

I mean, it's unthinkable.

We said we want to have more autonomy.

Well, you have to have religious freedom.

You have to have a basicsystem of human rights.

You can't pull people out of their homes

who were accused of brokering a sale

of a house from an Arab to a Jew.

You can't pull them out oftheir houses and torture them

in the middle of the night,which was an experience I had

with a duel Palestinian American citizen.

You need to up your game to the point

where you are accountableto your own people

and you're accountable to your donors.

And that to us wasn't punishment.

We're going to give money to UNRRA

which creates a vialtextbooks that foment hatred

against Israel thatdoes absolutely nothing

to relieve the suffering of Palestinians,

perpetuates their refugeestatus indefinitely

when every other refugeeorganization in the world is geared

towards resolving resettling refugees,

UNRRA does just the opposite?

We're going to fund that?

No, because we insist uponminimal accountability

to international standards of behavior.

That was a major shift ofthe Trump administration

but it was not intendedto be punitive at all.

And I think ultimately it willhelp the Palestinian people

because it makes theirleadership more accountable

to them more than anybody else.

- One thing you've done during

your past four years has worked

with a lot of ChristianEvangelical Zionists.

Describe that situation, that relationship

that has grown over the last four years.

- It's been a great joy'cause I didn't really

know the community wellbefore I got this job.

First of all, the Christian evangelical

community is enormously important

to the relationship, theUS-Israel relationship.

Because there are farmore Christian Zionists

in America than there are Jewish Zionists.

So just in terms of thedemocratic process in America,

it's great to have so many friends

on American soil who believe that it's

in the US interests toreally support Israel.

Separate from that,

I really have made so many great friends,

people who really, I think really believe

in the centrality of Israel,

not just to their faith,but to their values.

People who share my view.

I'm completely aligned withthe Christian community on this

that the values that makeAmerica great are the values

that came out of out of Jerusalem

that's where we're sitting now.

Isaiah says out of Zionshall go forth the law.

The great values, the great principles

that informed our FoundingFathers when they said

that in the Declaration of Independence

that certain unalienable rightswere endowed by our Creator.

Well, how do they know that?

They knew that by reading the Bible.

Where did the Bible will comefrom? It came from right here.

So I think that to me, as Isee the United States going

through a very difficult time.

My own view is that we'vebecome too untethered

to our foundational values.

I think we need to reconnect.

And I'm not suggesting people

necessarily become deeply religious,

although I think that hasa real intrinsic value

in terms of anyone's personal growth.

But just understand where we came from.

We came from a common set ofvalues rooted in the Bible.

And the more we can studythat and understand that,

I think we'll see how all the things

we're fighting over noware relatively trivial

and they ought to be easy to overcome.

We ought to be able to come together based

upon the roots of our nation

which again are deeplyrooted in the Bible.

And I think the Christianevangelical community

has a role to play there because

they are such a large community

and I think deeply respectedwithin the United States.

- Ambassador Friedman,thanks for your time

and thanks for being withus on "Jerusalem Dateline."

- Thanks, Chris, thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it.

(exciting music)

- Up next, churches on the Jordan River

and close to where Jesusmay have been baptized

come back to life.

Thank you for watching"Jerusalem Dateline."

We're committed to providing you

with unbiased reportingfrom the Holy Land.

Through weekly broadcasts,podcasts, and online media,

our vision is to reachmillions around the globe

with the true story of what's happening

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This is a big vision andis only made possible

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- [Patrick] It was not mygrace, but God that I might come

to the Irish nations to preach the gospel.

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- What brings you back, Roman?

- People thought thatthis mission was crazy

that his efforts to Christianize

Ireland were doomed to failure.

- [Announcer] From slave to missionary.

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- Although the pandemicis keeping Christians

and others from visiting the Holy Land,

Israel is helping local Christians

under lockdown celebrate their feast.

CBN Middle East correspondentJulie Stall shows us how.

- [Julie] Each year, some 800,000 pilgrims

and tourists visited thisholy site until COVID-19 hit.

But the coronavirus didn'tstop Greek Orthodox clergy

from celebrating the Epiphany

on both sides of the Jordan River.

- It's the day, the memory of the baptism

of our Lord, Jesus Christ in Jordan River

by St. John the Baptist.

- This is Qasr al Yahudon the Jordan River.

It's the place many believethat Jesus was baptized by John.

It's also the place wherethey believe that the children

of Israel crossed overinto the Promised Land

and where Elijah was carriedup to heaven in a chariot.

(speaking in foreign language)

- The ceremony this year is limited

because of the coronavirus.

- Last year, for example,we passed from here

more than 15,000 peopleand this year was only 50.

- [Julie] The ceremonystarted with prayers

at the Greek Orthodox St.John the Baptist Monastery.

The small band of worshipers

then walked the mile longtrek to the Jordan River.

(speaking in foreign language)

- We're doing everythingthat we can in order

to allow the Christianceremonies at the baptismal site

in order to ensure freedom of religion

and freedom of worship, and especially

to protect the safety andhealth of the believers.

- [Julie] Israel's side ofthe baptismal site opened

to visitors in 2011 although the 250 acres

around it known as theLand of the Monasteries

remained off limits until now.

Seven churches have property here.

- After the Six-Day War,this was actually a war zone

and there were a lot of mines

that were put in the soil in this area.

As you can see, border between Israel

and Jordan is very, very close by.

- [Julie] Sharon Regev fromIsrael's Foreign Ministry says

that allowed terroriststo easily infiltrate

and use the monasteries for hiding and

as a base to carry out attacks.

- For many decades, itwas very hard to get

into the monasteries topray and do the worship.

- [Julie] Due to those concerns,

authorities blocked access

to most places beginning in the '70s.

- [Sharon] In recent years,

both the Israeli Ministry of Defense

together with the HALOTrust invested a lot

of efforts in removing all these mines

and having the worship comeback to the Land of Monasteries.

- [Julie] That allowed theFranciscan Chapel built

in 1956 to hold its firstservice in 54 years.

The Land of the Monasteriesis considered part

of the West Bank, but underIsrael security control.

- Thank God that the army is responsible

and that we have a very goodcommunication with them.

They help us.

- [Julie] Regev says Israel is committed

to freedom of religion andaccess to the holy sites.

- As the only democracyin the Middle East,

we would like to be surethat we guarantee full access

to all the holy sitesand freedom of worship

for all the differentreligions to come here

and to worship and to enjoy their faith.

- [Julie] And everyoneis hoping for a return

of the tourists and pilgrimsonce the pandemic passes.

Julie Stall, CBN News, Qasral Yahud, the Jordan Valley.

- Well, hopefully tourists will be able

to visit Qasr al Yahudthemselves very soon.

Well, that's all for thisedition of "Jerusalem Dateline."

Thanks for joining us.

Please remember to pray forthe new US administration

and for the peace of Jerusalem.

And remember, you can follow us

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I'm Chris Mitchell, we'll see you

next time on "Jerusalem Dateline."

(exciting music)