JOHN RILEY
This is the Middle East Report, your connection to truthful reporting on Israel and the Middle East. I'm John Reilly. Each week, we bring you the truth of what's happening in that part of the world because there's a lot of deception and a lot of lies in the news and social media and coming from so many different angles. But each week, we bring you the truth of what's happening there.
And of course, we bring in God's word to all of this. Welcome to the Middle East Report. Appreciate you listening today. And we're going to be talking about a lot of current things that are happening right now in the Middle East and even in our country with Stephen Briggs.
Stephen Briggs is the executive producer of the multi-award-winning Hatikva Films and Documentaries. He's also a host of the weekly podcast, Israel Matters. He's the founder of that wonderful ministry, Israel Matters, and he's not from the United States. You're going to immediately detect that with his accent.
Stephen, hey, thanks for joining us here on American Family Radio and the Middle East Report. It's my privilege, John. There is a lot of people who may not know about Israel Matters and what you guys do, Stephen. Why don't we just start right there and then we're going to get into some of the current things going on here in our country and also in the Middle East.
STEPHEN BRIGGS
So, Israel Matters simply exists to help people understand Israel's story in today's world. We have an amazing reality that we are living in the generation that the disciples wanted to live. Acts 1 tells us the one question at the end of the best Bible school in history, 40 days with Jesus, and the Bible school resulted in just one question being left unanswered and it was, will you at this time, and that's important, restore the kingdom to Israel? And the at this time is the key component to that because Jesus responds and says, it's not for you to know the times or seasons which my father set, but you should be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the outermost parts of the earth.
So, we have a window there in understanding that the restoration of the kingdom of Israel was the burning question that the disciples had. And you, John, and I are living in the generation that the disciples wanted to live.
JOHN RILEY
And it is absolutely exciting. We are seeing the unfolding of biblical prophecy. We see the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, and it is absolutely incredible. Well, we want to get into some of these current events, Stephen, that are happening right now in our country and around the world.
And since you are from England, from that part of the world, we're just going to jump into something that's going on. And I want you to explain this to our listeners out there because it might be hard for them to understand every detail about this, but there is a little England flap going on regarding England and Israel. It has to do with putting sanctions on Israel, and it also has to do with, is it West Bank? Is it Judea?
Is it Samaria? So, why don't you lay that out for us and tell us what's going on?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
So, Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, announced that sanctions were going to be imposed by the British establishment, by the Labour Party more specifically, on businesses in Judea and Samaria, which the world calls the West Bank. The name the West Bank simply comes from the fact that Jordan perceived it as the West side of their territory, but the biblical name of those regions is Judea and Samaria. And we have a decision and declaration that they're going to cease or legislate towards people not being able to do business with organizations in Judea and Samaria, which has huge ramifications, not least for the Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria, living in the West Bank. And approximately, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, approximately 17,600 Palestinians were employed in Israeli settlements in the first quarter of 2026.
During the same period, unemployment in the West Bank stood at 27.9%, which means there are about 284,000 people without work. Well, that number, those 17,600, stands to increase. It's a small detail, but it's been completely disregarded by the politicians sitting in London. And those 17,600 individuals support households and inject wages into an economy already suffering from severe unemployment.
So if this boycott succeeds on its own terms, reducing sales, investment and activity in settlement businesses, some of the first people to suffer will be those Palestinian employees. And I want to add into that this statement that Ed Miliband made was with regard to resurrecting, if you like, the two-state solution. And Joel 3, verse 1 and 2 says, in the latter days, when I restore the fortunes of Judea and Jerusalem, not if, when, so in other words, God is going to do it, I will bring the nations into Emek-Yehoshaphat, which in Hebrew means the valley where God judges, not because of sin, but because they divided my land and scattered my people. And that division, if you sow, there's a principle of reaping what one sows.
If you sow division, you reap it. And literally within less than a week, there was an MOU that was stated or put into motion by the leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who signed a pact this past Monday, desiring to see them become independent nations. So the United Kingdom is far from united at this present moment in time.
JOHN RILEY
So let's just put this right down on the shelf for everybody to understand. You've got England, the government there that's really upset that Israel is building some new homes there in Samaria and in Judea, and they don't like that at all. They're really, really upset that they're building on their land there. And so they've got these sanctions that they've put on Israel and specifically in the Samaria-Judea area.
So this has created a big firestorm. It's all about dividing the land, the land and the covenant that God has given to the Jewish people. And whenever that happens, bad things happen when we try to divide the land.
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Yeah. Jeremiah 33 says, the Lord brings the counsel of the nation, makes the plans of the peoples to be an effectual. The counsel of the Lord stands forever in his purpose to a thousand generations. So we have a situation here where Miliband has stated the UK is going to ban products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank within six months, and that they plan to restrict financing, construction, real estate, services and property advertising related to the settlements.
He has accused, that's Miliband, settler terrorists of carrying out ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and claimed the Israeli government was turning a blind eye and defended the actions as a way to save the two-state solution. This is Israel responded by ordering the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem within 30 days. And the foreign minister of Israel, Gidon Sa'ar, called the boycott discriminatory and a distortion of international law. Israel has also halted security training programs for the Palestinian Authority and barred entry to several British elected representatives and nationals tied to anti-Israel activity.
So these are major, major diplomatic issues that are coming to the fore. And we have to remember, just a few weeks ago, the former head of Mossad informed the world that Israel had helped Britain to thwart multiple terrorist attacks on their own soil. So the ramifications of this and severing ties with friends doesn't tend to go well, especially when you have a God in the equation that calls himself the God of Israel.
JOHN RILEY
The two-state solution that you mentioned and that a lot of people talk about has never worked, will not work, is not working. And people in Israel understand that, especially after, the October 7th massacre there, they know that the two-state solution does not work. And yet, you've got a lot of Democrats, you've got a lot of people here in the United States and in England and other places saying we need this two-state solution, which absolutely will not work. Just go to Israel, get there on the ground, and you'll understand why it just doesn't work.
There's one other thing that we wanted to mention when we start talking about sanctions and Israel and all of that, some stuff going on with some Scandinavian countries. What's that all about?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Yeah, so Norway is considering legislation that could impose up to three years in prison for trading with Israeli Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. So it's not just Britain. Internationally, that area is known as the West Bank, and Oslo is continuing its increasingly confrontational policy towards Israel. Their foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, announced the proposed legislation on Monday, arguing that deteriorating conditions in Judea and Samaria have strengthened the case for the measure.
The proposal could potentially go further than a similar British trade measure announced recently, including Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. This is quite serious because London's announcements, Norway joined Canada, France, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, Ireland, and Spain in issuing a joint statement opposing Israeli communities in the disputed territories. So there is a lot of maneuvering that's going on, and we have to be aware that these nations that are seeking to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, which took place in May 2024, Norway joined Spain and Ireland in unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state when it doesn't even exist, which is quite a bizarre scenario. Now, talking about the two-state solution, and let's just unpack that a little bit, because the original intent when the British mandate was under the jurisdiction was that Jordan was to be the state for the Arabs of the region.
And so Churchill actually took a pen and down the Jordan River and from Transjordan created Jordan and Palestine. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was a British invention. Let's use the terminology. Historically, it was Moab, Ammon, and Edom.
And that region, Jordan, is a relatively new, made-up country. The name comes obviously from the Jordan River that runs through that region as well. And then, of course, let's go back to Gaza and understand that Gaza essentially was an attempt at a two-state solution. It was an evidence-based reality.
There was 9,000 Israelis living in Gaza, and they were removed forcibly by the Israelis themselves in order to give the Palestinians what they had requested, which was a region that they could govern autonomously. They chose to dig down instead of up in that autonomous region and stockpile weapons. And we saw, as you've already mentioned, the consequences of that coming to its fruition on October 7th. So the two-state solution for all intents and purposes failed in that window as well.
So we have these evidences, and yet the nations want to propagate this idea that actually this is still the solution to the issue. We have to remember that there are 2.1 million Israeli Arabs, Arabs who have been absorbed and live in Israel amongst the Jews, and thrive as a result. They have work, they have access to health care, they have all those sorts of things. And yet within the Arab nations surrounding it, there are those that have lived in refugee camps, Palestinians as they're termed, that have not been absorbed by their own society.
One must ask the question, why? Yeah, it's a good question.
JOHN RILEY
Absolutely. And, we keep mentioning, West Bank, Judea, and Samaria. For those of you listening right now, Judea and Samaria, that's the biblical name of the heartland of Israel. Probably, 70 to 80% of the Bible stories that you read about happened in that geographical area in the land of Israel.
So much going on. And the thing that comes to my mind right now, Stephen, is it's like the nations are raging, against the Jewish people, the land of Israel. And we see this in so many different ways around the world with Jew hatred. It is something we all need to be praying about.
Well, I want to talk about a few other things in the news right now. Coming up next week, you've got Prime Minister Netanyahu, who will be in New York to speak at the United Nations. Then you've got a Muslim mayor there who said, he's a war criminal. We're going to try to arrest him.
But he kind of backed off on that just a little bit and said, I don't have the authority to do that. But he's still a war criminal. So your thoughts about the prime minister coming to New York to speak at the UN, what do you think he's going to say? And how do you think that's going to go?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Well, I think he'll follow the track that he's done in the previous times that he's spoken at the General Assembly. I think he will continue to discuss Iran and Iran's tentacles and the threat that they are to the Western world. He is a very articulate speaker, very clear. He, in the previous kind of couple of rounds, he's brought some cards to kind of show illustrations of what he's talking about.
We have to also remember that it's in the context of the lead up to the Israeli elections, which are taking place October 27. And so there is the diplomatic outworking and the wrestling over the most democratic system in the whole of the Middle East and the way in which the parties are run in Israel. So he's got that in the back of his mind. He's looking to secure another term as prime minister of Israel.
And so he will be very, very clear. Now, with regard to Mamdani, who you've mentioned, Zohra Mamdani, who'd have thought that 25 years, a quarter of a century after 9/11, you would have somebody who is so vocal about hostility towards Israel and towards the way the Western world runs, being at the helm of the mayorship of New York. It's quite simply astonishing. And I think that I saw a meme where Bin Laden was talking with Mamdani.
If I'd only knew that I could have been voted in, I wouldn't have needed to fly the planes. And the ramifications and the consequences of that is, and that's just one area. Now, coming from Britain West, we've seen a number of the increase of Islamic influence over the political sphere that is now beginning to happen in an increasing measure here in the States as well.
JOHN RILEY
Well, I want to encourage everybody to pray for the prime minister coming to Israel. We know there's going to be a lot of protests and of course, a lot of security as well, but do pray for the prime minister and his entire team as they come to the United States to speak at the United Nations. Now, you just mentioned a moment ago about what's going on in Britain with the Islamic influence. So I want to ask you about that.
You are from that area of the world. What have you seen going on there in Britain? And then let's just jump over the pond here to the United States. And we see some alarming things happening in the U.S. as well.
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Well, I think we have to understand theology drives the ideology, which brings about the reality. And so we have a clash of civilizations that is going on. There is a, if we don't understand Islamic theology, we don't understand what is taking place. Islam sees the whole world as their territory and they are recovering it for the sake of Allah.
And therefore there is a theological position within their writings that says every place that their foot treads that is theirs perpetually. So once they own a piece of territory, they have to ensure that they secure it further, which is why Israel being back in the land is an affront to them because for a season that region was under the Ottoman Islamic jurisdiction. So we have to understand that their theology is driving their expanse, shall we say, into different regions. And the process of that is quite fascinating because it becomes by utilizing the freedoms that are afforded in the West to further their agenda.
Where I grew up in the UK was where the first mosque in Britain was built. And so I experienced this growing up in my schooling and saw the ever increasing encroachment of Islamic thought and way of life on different facets of society. And there's little things that kind of begin where you start having shop signs that are only in Arabic. And it's a subtle progression to the point where the influence within the political world becomes more prominent.
And then Sharia law is operating as a dual system within the regions. And so you have some towns that their jurisdiction, they say Sharia law trumps the law of the land, so to speak. And so, we need more time to go through this. Taqiyya, Dhimmitude, Jizya, I'd encourage your listeners to go and research that.
And if they want to do that, we did an interview a few years back with an Anglican vicar in Australia, Reverend Dr. Mark Durie. And we have a film called Sister Religions that looks at his, he was so articulate in breaking this down, how we should engage with Islam, but how we need to also understand the theology that drives it because it's going to unfold in a myriad of ways. And there are some scriptures that we can look at to see the kind of the character that we're dealing with.
Psalm 83 is one of those. And in that passage, you've got a whole number of different lessons and things that we can glean in order for how we are to reach the Islamic world for the Lord.
JOHN RILEY
That's Psalm 83. And we want to encourage you to look that up. And you're going to learn a lot, of course, because it is God's word. God's word is powerful.
God's word is far more powerful than the darkness of Islam. We know that. And the things that you were mentioning there, Stephen, about happening there in Britain, I'm thinking, well, wait a minute. A lot of those things are happening in the United States.
It's crazy because you've got Islamists and you've got socialists joining together. And you've got an Islamist running for high office there in Michigan. So there is absolutely a lot to be praying about. And Stephen, thinking about Islam, and you mentioned this Psalm, and I want to leave the rest of the program open for us just to talk about God's word and God's word being more powerful than Islam, of course, and light over darkness.
What's your heart about that? And what's going on with the Jewish people right now? And we're seeing Jew hatred all over the world. What do you see God doing?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Well, Psalm 83, we mentioned, but we've got this, it starts with a prayer. Oh God, keep not silent, hold not your peace and be not still. Oh God, that's the first verse. For lo, your enemies make a tumult and they that hate you have lifted up their head.
They take crafty counsel against your people and conspire or consult together against your hidden ones. And so who are these people it's talking about? And who are the hidden ones? Well, verse four says they have said, come and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
Ah, so here we have a window into understanding a group of people. We're called to pray with regard to it. And they are saying that they want Israel to be no more in remembrance. They've consulted together with one consent against you.
Do they make a covenant? Okay. You've got the Hamas charter. You've got other things.
You've got what Iran stands for, what Lebanon, the Hezbollah stands for. And they're looking to fulfill this covenant of wiping Israel off the face of the earth. And then it goes on and says against you, do they make a covenant? Then lists a whole bunch of the nations and then gives us a couple of prayer strategies.
In verse nine, do unto them as unto Midian, as to Zerah, as to Yabin, at the torrent of Kishon, or the river of Kishon, who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Orev and Ze'ev, yes, all their princes like Ze'ev and Zalmunah, who said to let us take to ourselves in possession the habitations of God. Those two passages, Judges four and Judges seven, go back and look at them. But essentially what they are saying is they are people who are trying to take the land for their own possession.
And then verse 13, it says, Oh my God, make them like the whirling dust. In Hebrew, that's the wheel, as stubble before the wind and the fire that burns the forest. And as the flame that sets the mountains on fire, pursue them with your tempest. That's God's tempest.
Terrify them with your storm. Fill their faces with confusion. Now that word in Hebrew can be dishonor or shame. So fill their faces with shame and dishonor that they may seek your name, O Lord.
Ah, so this is all to do with actually God's salvation extending into the very nations that say they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And then it goes on, verse 17, so there's a window of grace, a window of mercy, a window of opportunity. Verse 17 says, let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be confounded and perish, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth.
Now this, it's an amazing, amazing passage. And I heard recently from a rabbi that actually this is the psalm that is read when a soldier falls at a funeral, which again was quite an insight to me. I was like, Oh wow, of all the psalms to choose, the battle that they're fighting in is that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth. So we have that.
That's part of the equation. Twice in the psalms, God says, over Edom, I throw my shoe. And that's an interesting one to understand as well, because you remember when President George W. Bush had a shoe thrown at him back in Iraq, and then there was one shoe thrown at him and one shoe thrown at the American flag, the great Satan, as the Islamic world identifies it as, and obviously Israel's the little Satan.
We have that reference twice in the psalms. I think it's Psalm 68 verse 9 and Psalm 108 verse 6 from memory. But you can look it up, over Edom I throw my shoe. Well, what does that mean?
Well, you show the soldier your feet in an Islamic home, it's an utmost disgrace. You just don't do it. It's not permitted. So especially to direct it to somebody else, it's utmost disrespect.
So we have scripture giving us wisdom and insight into all that's going on. It's more relevant than tomorrow's chat GPT, AI search, and we should be looking at all that's taking place through the lens of scripture. Jeremiah 33 says, let me turn there, says the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to naught. He makes the plans of the peoples to be ineffectual.
I mentioned this earlier, but I think it's important for your listeners to hear these scriptures and to take them to heart because they really are life to our bones in that sense. Let me just find it. Psalm 33 verse 10 says, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.
The counsel of the Lord stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. Right. So we have here the Lord bringing the nation's wisdom, their insight, their leadership, their thoughts with regard to this nation to nothing, making the thoughts of the peoples to be ineffectual, and his counsel stands forever, not just till the next week, but actually forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. Well, who is this nation that it's referring to? It doesn't say nations, it says nation, and it talks about who he's chosen for his own inheritance. Well, scripture interprets scripture, and Isaiah 19 verse 24-25 identifies who that inheritance is.
It says, in that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that the Lord of hosts has blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people. What a picture of mercy and grace we have there. This is the same people that God said, let my people go, I want nothing to do with you, and now he calls them his people. Assyria, the work of his hands, and Israel, my inheritance.
Ah, so that promise with regard to bringing the counsel of the nations to naught actually has to do with his inheritance, which is Israel, and so all of these nations talking about dividing the land and all the problems is going to not come to fruition, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be easy, but God is and has labeled himself the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for good reason. He is the one who allows them to lay down and sleep in rest, and to awake because he sustains them, and even if the nations are raging, according to Psalm 2, he has set his holy king upon his holy hill of Zion, and right at the end of that passage in Psalm 2 that I'm just referencing, as we wrap our time up together, it says a very interesting statement. Right at the end of that passage, it says in verse 10, now therefore be wise, O you kings, be instructed you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled, blessed are all those that take refuge in him, and that is the challenge today, to take refuge in the sun, because that is where our security and our peace can truly be found.
JOHN RILEY
And one of the things we need to realize is that God didn't choose the Jewish people because they were a lot of people, more numerous than any other people, or they were perfect because they were not. No, he chose them to make his name known, to glorify his name, and we need to recognize that, we need to pray for the Jewish people, stand with Israel, and I want to encourage you to do that. Stephen, thank you for joining us here on this edition of the Middle East Report. I want to encourage people to connect with you.
You can find Israel Matters on YouTube, just check out Israel Matters and Stephen Briggs, or you can go to Israel-matters.com, Israel-matters.com, and you can go to that website and you can find out more about what Stephen is doing. Stephen, I appreciate your heart, and thank you so much for what you do with Israel Matters. Encourage people to check out your ministry and your organization and connect with you guys. Thank you, it's a privilege.
Stephen Briggs, the founder of Israel Matters and executive producer of the multi-award-winning Hatikva Films. Find out more, Israel-matters.com. And thank you for joining us for this edition of the Middle East Report. I would love to hear from you.
Send me an email, let me know that you're listening, or if you have any questions, [email protected]. That's [email protected]. You can download a podcast of this or listen at AFR.net. Just look for the Middle East Report, and I am on all the major podcast platforms out there.
JOHN RILEY
This is the Middle East Report, your connection to truthful reporting on Israel and the Middle East. I'm John Reilly. Each week, we bring you the truth of what's happening in that part of the world because there's a lot of deception and a lot of lies in the news and social media and coming from so many different angles. But each week, we bring you the truth of what's happening there.
And of course, we bring in God's word to all of this. Welcome to the Middle East Report. Appreciate you listening today. And we're going to be talking about a lot of current things that are happening right now in the Middle East and even in our country with Stephen Briggs.
Stephen Briggs is the executive producer of the multi-award-winning Hatikva Films and Documentaries. He's also a host of the weekly podcast, Israel Matters. He's the founder of that wonderful ministry, Israel Matters, and he's not from the United States. You're going to immediately detect that with his accent.
Stephen, hey, thanks for joining us here on American Family Radio and the Middle East Report. It's my privilege, John. There is a lot of people who may not know about Israel Matters and what you guys do, Stephen. Why don't we just start right there and then we're going to get into some of the current things going on here in our country and also in the Middle East.
STEPHEN BRIGGS
So, Israel Matters simply exists to help people understand Israel's story in today's world. We have an amazing reality that we are living in the generation that the disciples wanted to live. Acts 1 tells us the one question at the end of the best Bible school in history, 40 days with Jesus, and the Bible school resulted in just one question being left unanswered and it was, will you at this time, and that's important, restore the kingdom to Israel? And the at this time is the key component to that because Jesus responds and says, it's not for you to know the times or seasons which my father set, but you should be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the outermost parts of the earth.
So, we have a window there in understanding that the restoration of the kingdom of Israel was the burning question that the disciples had. And you, John, and I are living in the generation that the disciples wanted to live.
JOHN RILEY
And it is absolutely exciting. We are seeing the unfolding of biblical prophecy. We see the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, and it is absolutely incredible. Well, we want to get into some of these current events, Stephen, that are happening right now in our country and around the world.
And since you are from England, from that part of the world, we're just going to jump into something that's going on. And I want you to explain this to our listeners out there because it might be hard for them to understand every detail about this, but there is a little England flap going on regarding England and Israel. It has to do with putting sanctions on Israel, and it also has to do with, is it West Bank? Is it Judea?
Is it Samaria? So, why don't you lay that out for us and tell us what's going on?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
So, Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, announced that sanctions were going to be imposed by the British establishment, by the Labour Party more specifically, on businesses in Judea and Samaria, which the world calls the West Bank. The name the West Bank simply comes from the fact that Jordan perceived it as the West side of their territory, but the biblical name of those regions is Judea and Samaria. And we have a decision and declaration that they're going to cease or legislate towards people not being able to do business with organizations in Judea and Samaria, which has huge ramifications, not least for the Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria, living in the West Bank. And approximately, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, approximately 17,600 Palestinians were employed in Israeli settlements in the first quarter of 2026.
During the same period, unemployment in the West Bank stood at 27.9%, which means there are about 284,000 people without work. Well, that number, those 17,600, stands to increase. It's a small detail, but it's been completely disregarded by the politicians sitting in London. And those 17,600 individuals support households and inject wages into an economy already suffering from severe unemployment.
So if this boycott succeeds on its own terms, reducing sales, investment and activity in settlement businesses, some of the first people to suffer will be those Palestinian employees. And I want to add into that this statement that Ed Miliband made was with regard to resurrecting, if you like, the two-state solution. And Joel 3, verse 1 and 2 says, in the latter days, when I restore the fortunes of Judea and Jerusalem, not if, when, so in other words, God is going to do it, I will bring the nations into Emek-Yehoshaphat, which in Hebrew means the valley where God judges, not because of sin, but because they divided my land and scattered my people. And that division, if you sow, there's a principle of reaping what one sows.
If you sow division, you reap it. And literally within less than a week, there was an MOU that was stated or put into motion by the leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who signed a pact this past Monday, desiring to see them become independent nations. So the United Kingdom is far from united at this present moment in time.
JOHN RILEY
So let's just put this right down on the shelf for everybody to understand. You've got England, the government there that's really upset that Israel is building some new homes there in Samaria and in Judea, and they don't like that at all. They're really, really upset that they're building on their land there. And so they've got these sanctions that they've put on Israel and specifically in the Samaria-Judea area.
So this has created a big firestorm. It's all about dividing the land, the land and the covenant that God has given to the Jewish people. And whenever that happens, bad things happen when we try to divide the land.
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Yeah. Jeremiah 33 says, the Lord brings the counsel of the nation, makes the plans of the peoples to be an effectual. The counsel of the Lord stands forever in his purpose to a thousand generations. So we have a situation here where Miliband has stated the UK is going to ban products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank within six months, and that they plan to restrict financing, construction, real estate, services and property advertising related to the settlements.
He has accused, that's Miliband, settler terrorists of carrying out ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and claimed the Israeli government was turning a blind eye and defended the actions as a way to save the two-state solution. This is Israel responded by ordering the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem within 30 days. And the foreign minister of Israel, Gidon Sa'ar, called the boycott discriminatory and a distortion of international law. Israel has also halted security training programs for the Palestinian Authority and barred entry to several British elected representatives and nationals tied to anti-Israel activity.
So these are major, major diplomatic issues that are coming to the fore. And we have to remember, just a few weeks ago, the former head of Mossad informed the world that Israel had helped Britain to thwart multiple terrorist attacks on their own soil. So the ramifications of this and severing ties with friends doesn't tend to go well, especially when you have a God in the equation that calls himself the God of Israel.
JOHN RILEY
The two-state solution that you mentioned and that a lot of people talk about has never worked, will not work, is not working. And people in Israel understand that, especially after, the October 7th massacre there, they know that the two-state solution does not work. And yet, you've got a lot of Democrats, you've got a lot of people here in the United States and in England and other places saying we need this two-state solution, which absolutely will not work. Just go to Israel, get there on the ground, and you'll understand why it just doesn't work.
There's one other thing that we wanted to mention when we start talking about sanctions and Israel and all of that, some stuff going on with some Scandinavian countries. What's that all about?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Yeah, so Norway is considering legislation that could impose up to three years in prison for trading with Israeli Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. So it's not just Britain. Internationally, that area is known as the West Bank, and Oslo is continuing its increasingly confrontational policy towards Israel. Their foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, announced the proposed legislation on Monday, arguing that deteriorating conditions in Judea and Samaria have strengthened the case for the measure.
The proposal could potentially go further than a similar British trade measure announced recently, including Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. This is quite serious because London's announcements, Norway joined Canada, France, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, Ireland, and Spain in issuing a joint statement opposing Israeli communities in the disputed territories. So there is a lot of maneuvering that's going on, and we have to be aware that these nations that are seeking to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, which took place in May 2024, Norway joined Spain and Ireland in unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state when it doesn't even exist, which is quite a bizarre scenario. Now, talking about the two-state solution, and let's just unpack that a little bit, because the original intent when the British mandate was under the jurisdiction was that Jordan was to be the state for the Arabs of the region.
And so Churchill actually took a pen and down the Jordan River and from Transjordan created Jordan and Palestine. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was a British invention. Let's use the terminology. Historically, it was Moab, Ammon, and Edom.
And that region, Jordan, is a relatively new, made-up country. The name comes obviously from the Jordan River that runs through that region as well. And then, of course, let's go back to Gaza and understand that Gaza essentially was an attempt at a two-state solution. It was an evidence-based reality.
There was 9,000 Israelis living in Gaza, and they were removed forcibly by the Israelis themselves in order to give the Palestinians what they had requested, which was a region that they could govern autonomously. They chose to dig down instead of up in that autonomous region and stockpile weapons. And we saw, as you've already mentioned, the consequences of that coming to its fruition on October 7th. So the two-state solution for all intents and purposes failed in that window as well.
So we have these evidences, and yet the nations want to propagate this idea that actually this is still the solution to the issue. We have to remember that there are 2.1 million Israeli Arabs, Arabs who have been absorbed and live in Israel amongst the Jews, and thrive as a result. They have work, they have access to health care, they have all those sorts of things. And yet within the Arab nations surrounding it, there are those that have lived in refugee camps, Palestinians as they're termed, that have not been absorbed by their own society.
One must ask the question, why? Yeah, it's a good question.
JOHN RILEY
Absolutely. And, we keep mentioning, West Bank, Judea, and Samaria. For those of you listening right now, Judea and Samaria, that's the biblical name of the heartland of Israel. Probably, 70 to 80% of the Bible stories that you read about happened in that geographical area in the land of Israel.
So much going on. And the thing that comes to my mind right now, Stephen, is it's like the nations are raging, against the Jewish people, the land of Israel. And we see this in so many different ways around the world with Jew hatred. It is something we all need to be praying about.
Well, I want to talk about a few other things in the news right now. Coming up next week, you've got Prime Minister Netanyahu, who will be in New York to speak at the United Nations. Then you've got a Muslim mayor there who said, he's a war criminal. We're going to try to arrest him.
But he kind of backed off on that just a little bit and said, I don't have the authority to do that. But he's still a war criminal. So your thoughts about the prime minister coming to New York to speak at the UN, what do you think he's going to say? And how do you think that's going to go?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Well, I think he'll follow the track that he's done in the previous times that he's spoken at the General Assembly. I think he will continue to discuss Iran and Iran's tentacles and the threat that they are to the Western world. He is a very articulate speaker, very clear. He, in the previous kind of couple of rounds, he's brought some cards to kind of show illustrations of what he's talking about.
We have to also remember that it's in the context of the lead up to the Israeli elections, which are taking place October 27. And so there is the diplomatic outworking and the wrestling over the most democratic system in the whole of the Middle East and the way in which the parties are run in Israel. So he's got that in the back of his mind. He's looking to secure another term as prime minister of Israel.
And so he will be very, very clear. Now, with regard to Mamdani, who you've mentioned, Zohra Mamdani, who'd have thought that 25 years, a quarter of a century after 9/11, you would have somebody who is so vocal about hostility towards Israel and towards the way the Western world runs, being at the helm of the mayorship of New York. It's quite simply astonishing. And I think that I saw a meme where Bin Laden was talking with Mamdani.
If I'd only knew that I could have been voted in, I wouldn't have needed to fly the planes. And the ramifications and the consequences of that is, and that's just one area. Now, coming from Britain West, we've seen a number of the increase of Islamic influence over the political sphere that is now beginning to happen in an increasing measure here in the States as well.
JOHN RILEY
Well, I want to encourage everybody to pray for the prime minister coming to Israel. We know there's going to be a lot of protests and of course, a lot of security as well, but do pray for the prime minister and his entire team as they come to the United States to speak at the United Nations. Now, you just mentioned a moment ago about what's going on in Britain with the Islamic influence. So I want to ask you about that.
You are from that area of the world. What have you seen going on there in Britain? And then let's just jump over the pond here to the United States. And we see some alarming things happening in the U.S. as well.
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Well, I think we have to understand theology drives the ideology, which brings about the reality. And so we have a clash of civilizations that is going on. There is a, if we don't understand Islamic theology, we don't understand what is taking place. Islam sees the whole world as their territory and they are recovering it for the sake of Allah.
And therefore there is a theological position within their writings that says every place that their foot treads that is theirs perpetually. So once they own a piece of territory, they have to ensure that they secure it further, which is why Israel being back in the land is an affront to them because for a season that region was under the Ottoman Islamic jurisdiction. So we have to understand that their theology is driving their expanse, shall we say, into different regions. And the process of that is quite fascinating because it becomes by utilizing the freedoms that are afforded in the West to further their agenda.
Where I grew up in the UK was where the first mosque in Britain was built. And so I experienced this growing up in my schooling and saw the ever increasing encroachment of Islamic thought and way of life on different facets of society. And there's little things that kind of begin where you start having shop signs that are only in Arabic. And it's a subtle progression to the point where the influence within the political world becomes more prominent.
And then Sharia law is operating as a dual system within the regions. And so you have some towns that their jurisdiction, they say Sharia law trumps the law of the land, so to speak. And so, we need more time to go through this. Taqiyya, Dhimmitude, Jizya, I'd encourage your listeners to go and research that.
And if they want to do that, we did an interview a few years back with an Anglican vicar in Australia, Reverend Dr. Mark Durie. And we have a film called Sister Religions that looks at his, he was so articulate in breaking this down, how we should engage with Islam, but how we need to also understand the theology that drives it because it's going to unfold in a myriad of ways. And there are some scriptures that we can look at to see the kind of the character that we're dealing with.
Psalm 83 is one of those. And in that passage, you've got a whole number of different lessons and things that we can glean in order for how we are to reach the Islamic world for the Lord.
JOHN RILEY
That's Psalm 83. And we want to encourage you to look that up. And you're going to learn a lot, of course, because it is God's word. God's word is powerful.
God's word is far more powerful than the darkness of Islam. We know that. And the things that you were mentioning there, Stephen, about happening there in Britain, I'm thinking, well, wait a minute. A lot of those things are happening in the United States.
It's crazy because you've got Islamists and you've got socialists joining together. And you've got an Islamist running for high office there in Michigan. So there is absolutely a lot to be praying about. And Stephen, thinking about Islam, and you mentioned this Psalm, and I want to leave the rest of the program open for us just to talk about God's word and God's word being more powerful than Islam, of course, and light over darkness.
What's your heart about that? And what's going on with the Jewish people right now? And we're seeing Jew hatred all over the world. What do you see God doing?
STEPHEN BRIGGS
Well, Psalm 83, we mentioned, but we've got this, it starts with a prayer. Oh God, keep not silent, hold not your peace and be not still. Oh God, that's the first verse. For lo, your enemies make a tumult and they that hate you have lifted up their head.
They take crafty counsel against your people and conspire or consult together against your hidden ones. And so who are these people it's talking about? And who are the hidden ones? Well, verse four says they have said, come and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
Ah, so here we have a window into understanding a group of people. We're called to pray with regard to it. And they are saying that they want Israel to be no more in remembrance. They've consulted together with one consent against you.
Do they make a covenant? Okay. You've got the Hamas charter. You've got other things.
You've got what Iran stands for, what Lebanon, the Hezbollah stands for. And they're looking to fulfill this covenant of wiping Israel off the face of the earth. And then it goes on and says against you, do they make a covenant? Then lists a whole bunch of the nations and then gives us a couple of prayer strategies.
In verse nine, do unto them as unto Midian, as to Zerah, as to Yabin, at the torrent of Kishon, or the river of Kishon, who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Orev and Ze'ev, yes, all their princes like Ze'ev and Zalmunah, who said to let us take to ourselves in possession the habitations of God. Those two passages, Judges four and Judges seven, go back and look at them. But essentially what they are saying is they are people who are trying to take the land for their own possession.
And then verse 13, it says, Oh my God, make them like the whirling dust. In Hebrew, that's the wheel, as stubble before the wind and the fire that burns the forest. And as the flame that sets the mountains on fire, pursue them with your tempest. That's God's tempest.
Terrify them with your storm. Fill their faces with confusion. Now that word in Hebrew can be dishonor or shame. So fill their faces with shame and dishonor that they may seek your name, O Lord.
Ah, so this is all to do with actually God's salvation extending into the very nations that say they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And then it goes on, verse 17, so there's a window of grace, a window of mercy, a window of opportunity. Verse 17 says, let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be confounded and perish, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth.
Now this, it's an amazing, amazing passage. And I heard recently from a rabbi that actually this is the psalm that is read when a soldier falls at a funeral, which again was quite an insight to me. I was like, Oh wow, of all the psalms to choose, the battle that they're fighting in is that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth. So we have that.
That's part of the equation. Twice in the psalms, God says, over Edom, I throw my shoe. And that's an interesting one to understand as well, because you remember when President George W. Bush had a shoe thrown at him back in Iraq, and then there was one shoe thrown at him and one shoe thrown at the American flag, the great Satan, as the Islamic world identifies it as, and obviously Israel's the little Satan.
We have that reference twice in the psalms. I think it's Psalm 68 verse 9 and Psalm 108 verse 6 from memory. But you can look it up, over Edom I throw my shoe. Well, what does that mean?
Well, you show the soldier your feet in an Islamic home, it's an utmost disgrace. You just don't do it. It's not permitted. So especially to direct it to somebody else, it's utmost disrespect.
So we have scripture giving us wisdom and insight into all that's going on. It's more relevant than tomorrow's chat GPT, AI search, and we should be looking at all that's taking place through the lens of scripture. Jeremiah 33 says, let me turn there, says the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to naught. He makes the plans of the peoples to be ineffectual.
I mentioned this earlier, but I think it's important for your listeners to hear these scriptures and to take them to heart because they really are life to our bones in that sense. Let me just find it. Psalm 33 verse 10 says, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.
The counsel of the Lord stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. Right. So we have here the Lord bringing the nation's wisdom, their insight, their leadership, their thoughts with regard to this nation to nothing, making the thoughts of the peoples to be ineffectual, and his counsel stands forever, not just till the next week, but actually forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. Well, who is this nation that it's referring to? It doesn't say nations, it says nation, and it talks about who he's chosen for his own inheritance. Well, scripture interprets scripture, and Isaiah 19 verse 24-25 identifies who that inheritance is.
It says, in that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that the Lord of hosts has blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people. What a picture of mercy and grace we have there. This is the same people that God said, let my people go, I want nothing to do with you, and now he calls them his people. Assyria, the work of his hands, and Israel, my inheritance.
Ah, so that promise with regard to bringing the counsel of the nations to naught actually has to do with his inheritance, which is Israel, and so all of these nations talking about dividing the land and all the problems is going to not come to fruition, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be easy, but God is and has labeled himself the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for good reason. He is the one who allows them to lay down and sleep in rest, and to awake because he sustains them, and even if the nations are raging, according to Psalm 2, he has set his holy king upon his holy hill of Zion, and right at the end of that passage in Psalm 2 that I'm just referencing, as we wrap our time up together, it says a very interesting statement. Right at the end of that passage, it says in verse 10, now therefore be wise, O you kings, be instructed you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled, blessed are all those that take refuge in him, and that is the challenge today, to take refuge in the sun, because that is where our security and our peace can truly be found.
JOHN RILEY
And one of the things we need to realize is that God didn't choose the Jewish people because they were a lot of people, more numerous than any other people, or they were perfect because they were not. No, he chose them to make his name known, to glorify his name, and we need to recognize that, we need to pray for the Jewish people, stand with Israel, and I want to encourage you to do that. Stephen, thank you for joining us here on this edition of the Middle East Report. I want to encourage people to connect with you.
You can find Israel Matters on YouTube, just check out Israel Matters and Stephen Briggs, or you can go to Israel-matters.com, Israel-matters.com, and you can go to that website and you can find out more about what Stephen is doing. Stephen, I appreciate your heart, and thank you so much for what you do with Israel Matters. Encourage people to check out your ministry and your organization and connect with you guys. Thank you, it's a privilege.
Stephen Briggs, the founder of Israel Matters and executive producer of the multi-award-winning Hatikva Films. Find out more, Israel-matters.com. And thank you for joining us for this edition of the Middle East Report. I would love to hear from you.
Send me an email, let me know that you're listening, or if you have any questions, [email protected]. That's [email protected]. You can download a podcast of this or listen at AFR.net. Just look for the Middle East Report, and I am on all the major podcast platforms out there.
John Riley speaks with Stephen Briggs, founder of Israel Matters and executive producer of Hatikva Films and Documentaries, about current developments involving Israel, Britain, and other nations, Judea and Samaria and the two-state solution, growing Islamic influence in Western societies, and biblical passages concerning Israel and the nations.
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
