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A Powerful Bipartisan Display of Support for Israel in Washington

The US Capitol Building. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

It’s not every day that the Speaker of the House talks about stuffing his pockets with pebbles. But that’s precisely what happened at a dinner in Washington, D.C., just a few nights ago. Speaker Mike Johnson was addressing a room packed with over 300 rabbis and pastors from across the country — Jewish and Christian leaders who had come to the nation’s capital with a shared mission: to advocate for Israel and to send a clear, unified message — when it comes to Israel, we speak with one voice.

With quiet intensity, Speaker Johnson described an unplanned, deeply moving nighttime visit to the Valley of Elah in Israel — the very place where David confronted Goliath. Beneath the stars, he bent down and picked up a few smooth stones, just like the one the young shepherd placed in his sling.

At first, he took only one or two. But then, sensing this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, he filled his pockets with them. He told us that he still carries a few and occasionally hands them out to people who inspire him. “We all need courage in our pocket,” he said.

Moments earlier, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) had taken the podium. His voice cracking with emotion, he described his own nighttime visit to a high vantage point just outside Jerusalem, from which he could see Mount Nebo in the distance. That moment, he said, changed his life. It brought to mind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, delivered the night before his assassination: 

I don’t know what will happen now — we’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

The following evening, Dr. King was slain by an assassin’s bullet. Senator Booker told us about his visit to the Lorraine Motel — now the National Civil Rights Museum — and the powerful words inscribed on the memorial at the assassination site: “Behold, the dreamer cometh.” The very words Joseph’s brothers sneered as they plotted to kill him. But Joseph’s dreams came true. Those dreams, once mocked, became the blueprint for a nation that would eventually inherit the Promised Land.

Two powerful Biblical images. Two American leaders. One shared commitment. That the Land of Israel is not just geography — it is the foundation of spiritual passion and a divine mission. 

With that sacred footing, I joined my fellow clergy — rabbis from Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform communities, alongside Christian pastors from Baptist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and mainline denominations — on Capitol Hill to speak with one voice, and to lobby for Israel. This incredible gathering of faith leaders was organized by the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, American Christian Leaders for Israel, Israel Allies Foundation, and Eagles Wings.

It was historic. Never before has such a large, diverse, and spiritually charged delegation of faith leaders descended on Washington with a single, united message: that the Jewish state has the right — no, the obligation — to defend itself against those who deny its very existence and seek its destruction; and that there is a moral imperative to bring home the remaining hostages still trapped in the dark, fetid tunnels of Gaza, after more than eighteen agonizing months in captivity.

We didn’t agree on everything. Let’s be honest — you wouldn’t expect 300 faith leaders to agree on everything. Or maybe even on anything. But for 48 hours, we proved that we all agree on one thing: Israel. 

What mattered wasn’t what divided us, but what united us. A shared belief that evil must be confronted. That truth must be spoken. That Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy — and that no force on earth can stop the forward march of history.

Walking through the marble-floored, wood-paneled corridors of the Congressional office buildings, it was impossible not to feel the stark contrast between this moment and a far darker chapter in American Jewish history. 

In October 1943, more than 400 Orthodox rabbis came to Washington to plead for action as millions of Jews were being slaughtered in Nazi Europe. They were ignored. President Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to meet with them. No Christian leaders stood by their side. And the press barely noticed.

But just over 80 years later, history is not repeating itself. This time, the White House sent an official representative to the opening event. More than 100 Members of Congress and Senators welcomed us into their offices. And our Christian brothers and sisters were not just present — they were passionate, eloquent, and deeply committed in their support. 

To be clear, this wasn’t a partisan gathering. Democrats and Republicans embraced us, heard us out, and stood with us. Something fundamental has shifted.

This week, in every synagogue around the world, we will read the portion of Kedoshim. God commands us: “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2). It’s a big ask. Holiness in this world doesn’t come naturally. 

But the Hasidic masters — those spiritual giants who reached into the mystical realms — offered a beautiful interpretation. Holiness, they taught, doesn’t mean retreating from the world and becoming a hermit. It means inviting the Divine into the world, so that the world itself becomes holy. To be holy is to elevate the mundane — to ensure that what is sacred finds expression in our lives, in our institutions, and in every corner of our shared reality.

Kedoshim lays out some of the most practical and moral commandments in the Torah: don’t cheat, don’t gossip, don’t take revenge, love your neighbor. Because being holy isn’t about hiding away like a saint in a cave. 

It’s about showing up in the world. 

It’s about walking into the halls of power with pebbles in your pocket and conviction in your heart. 

It’s about standing shoulder to shoulder with people who may not share your theology but who share your values. 

And it’s about remembering that holiness isn’t some distant, glowing aura — it’s what happens when you choose to do what’s right, even when it’s hard.

And that’s what we were doing on the Hill. I left Washington with two powerful images in my mind. One was Speaker Johnson’s smooth pebbles — symbols of faith, preparation, and courage in the face of towering threats. The other was Senator Booker’s tearful voice, evoking Joseph — the dreamer thrown into a pit by his brothers, only to rise and save a nation. 

Both Biblical stories end with redemption. But both begin with someone daring to stand up and be a believer against the odds. To share the prophecy. To walk into the battlefield. To create a future shaped by faith and salvation.

In the Valley of Elah, David was challenged by his brother Eliav, who saw his presence on the battlefield as an intrusion. David responded incredulously: “Why shouldn’t I be here? Who says my presence doesn’t matter?” He was right. 

And in Kedoshim, God tells us: “Be holy.” He’s telling us that everyone has the power to bring holiness into the world — right here, right now. 

This week in Washington, those two ideas converged. We belonged there — on the battlefield. And we brought holiness with us: into the halls of power, and through the corridors of influence. For Israel. For truth. For the world. And maybe — for redemption too.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California. 

The post A Powerful Bipartisan Display of Support for Israel in Washington first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist

The Jewish community of Beit El in Judea and Samaria. Photo: Yaakov via Wikimedia Commons.

Louis Theroux first visited the West Bank in 2011 to film a documentary titled Louis and the Ultra-Zionists, part of his long-running series for the BBC. Back then, he at least seemed to possess a trace of journalistic curiosity. Even the title signaled a degree of editorial caution — framing his subjects as a small, ideological fringe rather than representative of Israeli society as a whole.

At the time, Theroux made an effort to clarify that he was profiling a narrow segment of Israelis. He showed legally purchased Jewish homes (sold by Arab landowners, no less) and acknowledged the regular — and at times deadly — terror attacks faced by Israeli civilians living in the area, often requiring military protection. There was condescension, certainly. But there was also context.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the curiosity is gone — though the bemused, slightly smug expression remains. His new BBC documentary, Louis and the Settlers, drops even the soft qualifiers. No “ultra.” No nuance. Just “settlers.” And with that, Theroux makes it clear: half a million Israelis living in the West Bank are one and the same — extremists who, we’re told, want every last Palestinian removed from the land.

This time, the documentary doesn’t begin with questions. It begins with conclusions. And Theroux uses a brief, unrepresentative snapshot of life in the West Bank to draw sweeping indictments of the entire Israeli state.

The message is unmistakable: Israel is the problem. Settlers are the villains. And Palestinians are passive, blameless victims of a colonial project.

Within the opening minutes, Theroux plants his ideological flag. He refers to the West Bank as “Palestinian territory” and describes every Israeli community within it as illegal under international law — a sharp departure from his more qualified approach 14 years earlier.

And while his personal views seep in throughout the film, they become crystal clear during one exchange at a checkpoint, where an Israeli soldier casually refers to their location as “Israel.” Theroux shoots back: “We’re not in Israel, are we?”

And just like that, the BBC and Louis Theroux have redrawn Israel’s borders. No Knesset debate needed.

Erasing History to Blame the Massacre

The timing of this return trip is no accident. The film comes in the shadow of the October 7 Hamas massacres — the day 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, families were burned alive in their homes, and children were dragged into Gaza. And yet, Theroux barely mentions it.

The few passing references to October 7 serve not to inform the audience — but to imply that Israel may be exploiting its own dead to justify further expansion. It’s not an investigation. It’s an accusation. And it allows him to skip over thousands of years of Jewish history in order to frame the current war in Gaza as a convenient cover story for Israeli “aggression.”

Take Hebron, for example. Theroux tells viewers that “in 1968, the year after [the West Bank] was occupied by Israel, a community of Jewish settlers moved in illegally. They now number some 700.” He fails to mention that in 1895 — decades before the modern state of Israel existed — Hebron had a Jewish population of 1,429.

Jews have lived in Hebron since antiquity — it’s where, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs. Modern records date the community back centuries, despite discrimination under Ottoman rule and bans on Jewish prayer at holy sites. In 1929, Arab rioters carried out a massacre, wiping out Hebron’s Jewish population. Dozens were murdered; the rest were expelled. Under Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, Jews were banned from the city entirely. When they returned after the Six-Day War — not as colonists, but as a displaced community coming home — Theroux picks up the story there and calls it “illegal.”

On the Six-Day War itself, Theroux offers no context. No mention of the Arab armies preparing to destroy Israel. No mention of Israel’s preemptive strike against an existential threat.

According to The Settlers, Israel simply “occupied” — full stop.

Palestinian Terrorism? Not Even a Footnote.

Theroux visits Evyatar, a small Jewish community near the Palestinian town of Beita, and uses it as a stand-in for the entire West Bank. Beita is depicted as a symbol of peaceful resistance: a proud, ancient Palestinian village standing firm against violent settlers backed by IDF soldiers.

It’s a neat story. Too neat. Because missing from the story are years of organized, violent riots from Beita — complete with Molotov cocktails, burning Stars of David, and Nazi swastikas. All carefully omitted to preserve the narrative: Palestinians peaceful, settlers aggressive. Facts that don’t fit? Left on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, Israeli nationalism is treated as something sinister and unsettling — a moral aberration to be examined. The notion that Jews might want sovereignty or security is met with thinly veiled suspicion. Yet Hamas’ goal of a Jew-free Palestine, explicitly laid out in its charter, is never mentioned. Nor is the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” policy, which literally incentivizes terrorism by rewarding those who murder Israelis — including women and children.

These aren’t fringe details. They’re central to understanding the region. And Theroux knows it. He just doesn’t care.

The BBC’s Complicity

That The Settlers aired on the BBC — a publicly funded broadcaster once seen as a gold standard of global journalism — says plenty. Not just about Louis Theroux’s agenda, but about the institutional direction of the BBC itself. This wasn’t a rogue filmmaker sneaking bias past the editors. This was bias built into the foundation — signed off, packaged, and broadcast under the banner of credibility.

There is, of course, no problem with scrutinizing Israeli policy, and no issue with questioning the settlement enterprise or highlighting the tensions in the West Bank. But journalism — real journalism — demands context. It demands precision. It demands at least a passing familiarity with the full scope of the story.

Theroux offers none of that. He arrives with a predetermined script and casts his roles accordingly: Hero. Villain. Victim. Oppressor. And when reality refuses to cooperate? It’s left out.

Louis Theroux didn’t return to Israel to understand it. He returned to flatten it. To reduce its complexity to a morality play — and to ensure everyone knows the antagonist is.

The Settlers isn’t a documentary. It’s a hit piece. And the BBC handed him the camera — then applauded the performance.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl

Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Photo: Screenshot

The Indian government announced on Thursday that its military forces had killed “Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist,” who was connected to the 2002 murder of Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.

On Wednesday, India launched “Operation Sindoor,” which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims is targeted at dismantling “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The operation came after Pakistani terrorists killed 26 Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

In a post on X, the BJP confirmed that during this week’s operation, the Indian army killed Islamist terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar, who was involved in numerous terrorism plots, including the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight, the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, and the 2016 Pathankot Air Force base attack.

Azhar’s involvement in the 1999 hijacking led to the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born al-Qaeda member with close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence services, who later was involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of 38-year-old Pearl, who was covering the war on terror as a journalist when he was abducted.

In a statement on X, Pearl’s father, Judea, addressed initial reports regarding Azhar’s death and his connection to his son’s murder.

“I want to clarify: Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible. Azhar orchestrated the hijacking that led to the release of Omar Sheikh — the man who lured Danny into captivity,” he said.

In 2002, the Jewish-American journalist was abducted and killed by a group of Islamist terrorists connected to Azhar’s militant network, which had ties to al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror group aiming to separate Kashmir from India and incorporate it into Pakistan.

On Jan. 27, 2002, an email was sent to several Pakistani and US media organizations, which included several photos, stating that Pearl was being held in “inhumane” conditions to protest the US treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners in Cuba. Photo: Screenshot

Originally stationed in New Delhi as the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, Pearl later moved to Pakistan to investigate terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

After kidnapping Pearl at a restaurant in Karachi, southern Pakistan, the Islamist terrorists, who identified themselves as the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, accused him of being an Israeli spy and sent the United States a list of demands for his release.

However, Washington did not meet their demands, and Pearl was ultimately executed after being held captive for five weeks.

His wife, Mariane Pearl, gave birth to a baby boy, Adam D. Pearl, in Paris later that year. On the Daniel Pearl Foundation website, she said, “Adam’s birth rekindles the joy, love, and humanity that Danny radiated wherever he went.”

The post Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete. Photo: Screenshot

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete just days before the Tunisian island was set to host its annual Jewish pilgrimage, which is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

On Wednesday morning, two Jewish men — owners of a jewelry shop in the center of the island, located off Tunisia’s southeast coast — were physically assaulted by a man carrying a large knife.

Although the attack was halted when one of them screamed — alerting members of the local Jewish community who subdued the assailant — one of them was left severely injured.

According to local media reports, the attacker had surveyed the island the day before, visiting several stores to identify those owned by Jews. Local police arrested him shortly following the assault.

After the attack, one of the owners was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries. The 50-year-old Jewish man had his fingers severed during the assault and underwent surgery to reattach them.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the attack and expressed his wishes for a swift recovery to the victims.

“This attack comes two years after the previous deadly assault that claimed Jewish lives and the lives of security personnel during the Lag BaOmer celebration,” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

“I call on the Tunisian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect the Jewish community,” Saar continued.

Djerba is home to the majority of Tunisia’s Jewish community, numbering about 2,000 people, and is also where the renowned El Ghriba Synagogue, one of North Africa’s oldest synagogues, is located.

The attack comes just a week before Jewish pilgrims are expected to arrive on the island for the Lag B’Omer holiday, when thousands gather annually for three days of festivities. The annual pilgrimage to El Ghriba Synagogue, scheduled for May 15 and 16 this year, draws visitors from around the world.

The synagogue has been targeted in multiple terrorist attacks over the years, including in 1985, 2002, and 2023.

Two years ago, a shooting at the synagogue claimed the lives of two Jewish cousins and three police officers. Aviel Hadad, a 30-year-old Israeli goldsmith, and Ben Hadad, a 42-year-old Frenchman who had traveled to join the festivities, were among the victims.

The post Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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