- Hello, everyone.Welcome to "The 700 Club."
Thank you for joining us today.
A cease fire betweenIsrael and Hamas has ended,
the heaviest fighting since 2014.
So why are the Palestiniansclaiming victory
in the name of a new Palestine?
And why do most Israelis saythe ceasefire came too soon?
Chris Mitchell brings usthis look at the aftermath
of the brutal battle and what comes next.
(air whooshing)
- [Chris] In 11 days, Hamasfired more than 4,000 rockets
into south and central Israel,
that sent millions ofIsraelis running for shelter.
In response, Israel launched a massive
and surgical bombing campaignto stop those rockets.
Despite devastating damage toits military infrastructure,
Hamas and its supporters took
to the streets and declared victory
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] Netanyahu, Zionist enemy,
and his army said that theywould destroy the tunnels
above our resistance.
And I tell him today that our fighters
are now striding proudly in the tunnels.
- [Chris] Iran suppliedmany of the rockets to Hamas
and in Tehran,
the head of Iran'srevolutionary guard boasted
a new Palestine has emerged.
In a live address,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
told the nation,
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interpreter] Theonly thing that leads me
in making decisions is the security
and safety of the Israeli people.
If there was a need to enterGaza with ground troops,
we would have done it,but I believe that we
could accomplish ourgoals without doing so.
- [Chris] US President Joe Biden,
pressured Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu
to stop the fighting.
- I commended him for thedecision to bring the current
hostilities to a close,within less then 11 days.
I also emphasize what I saidthroughout this conflict.
The United States fully supports
Israel's right to defend itself.
- [Chris] Yet in Israel,
nearly three quarters of Israelis felt
the cease fire came too soonwithout eliminating Hamas'
ability to wage war.
Hamas' charter calls
for the destruction of Israel
and Islamic expert Dr.Mordecai Kadar told CBN News
that for Hamas
the 11 day conflict wasa jihad, a holy war,
and Israel was on the front lines.
Gadara says while the west maylook on this as a ceasefire,
Hamas sees this through the eyes
of the Arabic concept of hudna.
- It means a temporary ceasefire,
which is used by the jihadists
in order not to stop the cause of peace,
but in order to regain his power,
in order to have a betterjihad in the next phase.
- Israeli leaders now go back
to trying to form a government.
Even though most Israelisfelt the war ended too soon,
many approve of how IsraeliPrime Minister Netanyahu
handled the crisis.
So he may yet survive thechallenge to his leadership.
And it's possibleIsraelis will also end up
heading to the polls,
once again, the fifth time,in just more than two years.
Chris Mitchell, CBN News, Jerusalem.
- So the term being usedis temporary ceasefire.
Let's not stop prayingfor Israel at this point,
feeling like somehow thishas all been quelled.
I mean, it's a temporary cease fire.
And on top of that, there's somuch confusion, politically.
It's an opportunity for us to pray,
to ask God to intervene inthe midst of all of this
to see change, to seepeace come to Jerusalem.
Well, here at home, Republicansstrongly supported Israel
during his fight with Hamas,
but many of them on CapitolHill are growing concerned
about the weakening Democraticsupport for the Jewish state.
John Jessup has that story
from our CBN News bureauin Washington, John.
- Thanks Terry, for decades
the Democratic party hasbeen a champion of Israel
but the party support hasbegun to erode in recent years.
Several Republican senators
criticized congressionalDemocrats this week
for a lack of support for Israel
during the fight with Hamas.
In the meantime, someDemocrats are taking a stand
against the Jewish state, CBNCapitol Hill correspondent,
Abigail Robertson, has that story.
- Law makers here havehistorically been unified
in their support for Israel.
Now Republicans say they'reconcerned with the growth
of anti-Israel rhetoric fromtheir Democratic colleagues.
- Israel is a democracy.
Hamas is a terrorist group.
- [Abigail] But not all lawmakers agree.
- Well I think the squadused to be a fringe element
of the Democratic partywhen it comes to Israel,
probably still are, butmore and more Democrats
like Elizabeth Warren andBernie Sanders and Chris Murphy
are openly siding with thismoral equivalency argument
that there's problems on both sides.
- [Abigail] Senator LindseyGraham tells CBN News
he's shocked by the number of Democrats
reluctant to firmly stand with Israel.
- When the Iranians and Hamas here,
democratic members of Congress,Senate, basically showing,
seeing no differencebetween Israel and Hamas.
It only incentivized more violence.
- [Abigail] Senate MinorityLeader Mitch McConnell
adds when it comes to Israel and Hamas,
they play by very different rules.
- When Israel strikes, for example,
they call the buildingand say, "Please get
out of the building becausewe're about to attack it."
In order to minimize civilian casualties.
Hamas is lobbing rockets intoIsrael to kill civilians.
There is no moral equivalency here.
- [Abigail] Both senator'ssupport Israel defending itself.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib,who has Palestinian relatives
in the West Bank, confrontedPresident Biden Tuesday
in Michigan, over his support for Israel,
reportedly sharing a message
similar to her recent House speech.
- As long as the messagefrom Washington is that
our military support forIsrael is unconditional,
Netanyahu's extremism,right-wing government
will continue to expand settlements,
continue demolish homes,
and continue to make theprospects for peace impossible.
- [Abigail] The WhiteHouse announced Wednesday,
President Biden spoke toIsraeli Prime Minister,
Bibi Netanyahu.
- [Karine] The presidentconveyed to the Prime Minister
that he expected asignificant deescalation
today on the path to a ceasefire.
- [Abigail] Graham describedBiden's Israel responses
as uneven, and also criticized his plans
to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal.
- Why would you go backinto a nuclear deal
with the largest statesponsor of terrorism.
- [Abigail] Pointing to Iran's role
in the current attacks on Israel
- Without Iran's support for Hamas,
there would be no 3,500 rockets
- As the situation continues in Israel,
Senate Republicans agreedthat until Hamas stops
targeting Israeli civilians,
there should be no ceasefire.
Reporting from Capitol Hill,
Abigail Robertson, CBN News.
- All right, thank you Abigail.
While Islamic groups fromGaza fire rockets in Israel
in recent days, anotherbattle took place online
when Islamic groups attacked
one of the largestChristian pages on Facebook
that brought millionsof Christians together
to pray for Israel andthe peace of Jerusalem.
Here again, Chris Mitchell from Jerusalem.
- [Chris] The Jerusalem Prayer Team,
established nearly 20 years ago,
with a reported nearly 77million followers on Facebook
saw it suddenly shut down.
Mike Evans tells CBN News anantisemitic campaign of hate
targeted the Facebook page.
- An organized, Islamiccampaign coming out of Pakistan,
Indonesian, and Turkey targeted our site
with over one million comments.
So Facebook, rather thancontact Bible believers
and find out the truth,
they responded to radicalIslamic 911 would be's,
and pull us down.
- [Chris] The cyber campaignhappened in the middle
of the team's prayertime during the conflict
between Hamas and Israel
- We've been praying for peace.
We've been praying forGod to protect Israel.
We've been praying for peace in Jerusalem.
We've been praying for a blessing
over the Jewish people,protection over the Jewish people.
We've been praying forprotection over Arab Israelis.
- [Chris] The attack campaign was twofold.
First came the negative Facebook comments.
- People coming from antisemitic groups
calling for a second Holocaust.
People attacking us personally.
People making threats upon us personally.
- [Chris] Second, the hackersspread a false narrative
that Facebook created thepage during the conflict,
and then had people like thepage without their consent.
Dozens of videos with thousands of views
across social platformscelebrated the news
that the prayer team's page was down.
Al Jazeera also reported on the situation.
- I'm incredibly disappointed right now.
Basically that instead ofthese anti-Semitic people
who are attacking Christians
for praying for peace in Jerusalem,
for praying for peace andan end of the bloodshed.
And instead of stopping
those anti-Semitic attacks against us,
Facebook has shut our page down.
- [Chris] The Jerusalem Prayer Team
is appealing the decision
and Evans has enlisted thehelp of US and Israeli leaders.
CBN News reached out to Facebook
and they provided us with this statement.
"We removed JerusalemPrayer Team's Facebook page
for violating our rules against spam
and inauthentic behavior."
- My prayer right now is that Facebook
would start to act with hopefully,
integrity on the situation
and restore our prayers.
You know, in this era,the fact that your prayers
could be canceled on the internet,
is an unimaginable thing.
- [Chris] Evans came to Israel
to report from the frontlines of the conflict,
as part of a television special
that includes many Christian leaders.
- But it's to bring solidarityfor the state of Israel,
and to oppose the lies to theevangelicals of the world.
- [Chris] Evan sees the special
as an effort to win the media war
and counter what he saysis the mainstream media
believing the lies of radical Islam.
Chris Mitchell, CBS News, Jerusalem.
- Thanks Chris.
Terry, it's stunning to think that a page
or a group of people prayingfor peace would be shut down.
- And that's really true, John,
but it's not the firsttime that we have seen
conservative or Christianmessages shut down
or taken off even temporarily.
You know, it's unfortunate
because many of us enjoybeing able to follow
family pictures, familyinformation on Facebook,
but this is one of the things that happens
when you allow monopolies to exist.
