Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it’s not the shared moral and democratic values that bind America and the Jewish state in everlasting friendship. It’s the Bible.
Speaking at the US Embassy in Jerusalem on the occasion of America’s 245th Independence Day on 4th July, Bennett stated:
‘Anyone who has read American history knows that the revolutionary ideas expressed by America’s founding fathers sprung from their faith in and deep understanding of the Hebrew Bible, the Tenach. They were very learned and they founded America on the very principles of the Bible. They saw the Bible’s insights into human nature, civic virtue, social order and political authority as essential to the establishment of this new great nation, America. Likewise, it was the vision of our ancient prophets that the scattered exiles of Zion would one day return to the Land of Israel. It is the depth of these shared ideals and shared identity that bind our nations together in an unbreakable bond.’
Naftali Bennett – Israeli Prime Minister – July 4, 2021
Naftali Bennett was born in Israel, but both of his parents had made Aliyah from the US, and the prime minister spent a goodly portion of his childhood in America and Canada.
Like Benjamin Netanyahu before him, not only is Bennett fully fluent in English, he has a deep understanding of and appreciation for the United States.
While we welcome his reference to the Bible, we have to acknowledge that both the USA and Israel are far from living up to the moral and spiritual values that inspired the Hebrew prophets. For this reason that bond that he speaks of may not be unbreakable after all.
God is calling both Israel and the USA to repentance and faith in His Word and in Yeshua the Messiah in the days before His return.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. 7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” 10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah 2.4-10