Live from Jerusalem

Live from Jerusalem

May 28, 2025

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: Bill Koenig

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 5/26/25. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:

Hello and welcome to Stand In the Gap Today, and it’s our bimonthly focus on Israel, the Middle East and biblical prophecy. And today’s special emphasis is going to be live from Jerusalem Israel. In just a moment, I’m going to bring in live from Jerusalem, Bill Koenig, White House correspondent and founder of World Watch Daily, which is, in my opinion, probably the best in superb Israel and Middle East news site, which you can find@watch.org, just like what you hear in your watch on your hand watch.org. Now, because of the biblical and prophetical significance of Israel, the Jewish people and Jerusalem of which we talk so much on this program, it is no wonder that geopolitical attention began to shift decades ago from other places in the world to increasingly back to the Middle East. And that attention has only increased with the entire world’s attention returning to this area of the world literally week after week and sometimes day after day.

There’s some other event that’s causing people and the world to look to. This attention, I’m telling you is no accident. Now, for those of us who know God’s plan of redemption and biblical prophecy, we know that the better we understand biblical prophecy, the more our eyes are drawn to the nation of Israel and the biblical command to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That all makes sense to us if we know God’s word. The title I’ve chosen to frame today’s conversation is simply this live from Jerusalem, where today again, be county White House correspondent and student and biblical prophecy will update us on the latest in Israel. And there’s a lot happening. He’s there actually tending, and this is the evening of the last of the main event of the Jerusalem prayer breakfast. So he’s calling directly from there. And I’m going to ask Bill for an on the ground update and a number of things regarding Israel, the attitude of the people there, the government, all that’s happening, particularly in the current imminent war scenario with Iran. And I’m going to get some responses of what’s actually maybe taken place as a result of the recent Trump, Saudi Arabia military and economic summit that we’ve talked about on this program and more. But with that as a little bit of a setup, welcome Bill direct and live from Jerusalem, Israel, thanks for being with us.

Bill Koenig:

Oh, you bet, Sam. Thank you. Always a pleasure.

Sam Rohrer:

Bill, you’re currently, as I said, in Jerusalem, Jerusalem prayer breakfast. I’ve been able to be there with my wife, Ruthanne a couple of times. You and your wife Sonya are there, and I believe tonight is a final session concert, I believe going on. So that being the case, you’re right there on the ground. Can you give me an update perhaps because you attended before, but on the highlights of this year’s gathering perhaps as compared to other ones to which you’ve attended?

Bill Koenig:

Well, Sam, yeah, this is actually a day and a half into it. So tomorrow morning we’ll actually have the prayer breakfast. Today was a time for the participants to go to the Knesset this morning. And then there were breakout sessions this afternoon. And then tomorrow morning, the prayer breakfast, and then we’ll have breakout sessions. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be one of the speakers. I’m going to speak on Trump’s Middle East trip and the impact on Israel and the United States. And then tomorrow night is a founder’s Day dinner, and then it’ll be over tomorrow night. So a lot of people got here. That was concern because so many airlines have canceled flights. There’s only a few that are actually getting people here, but the attendance have been great packed house and people hearing about negotiations and with Iran and with Gaza and living through this, if you are in Jerusalem, you wouldn’t even know the nation’s in a war most time. But when you go around the country, it becomes more reality that there’s still an issue in Gaza that’s being dealt with.

Sam Rohrer:

And that’s one of the things I’ve noted when I’ve been there, bill, is that once you get in Jerusalem, it is, it’s almost like you’re in a different part of the world. And to me makes me think a little bit about there’s Israel and then God’s protective hand on that city of Jerusalem. It almost seems as if you’re in a different world when you’re inside that city. Life just tends to go on, however. Now here’s my question to you in this regard. The potential for war in Israel has always been real because their enemies are always threatening them. But is there any difference in what you’re noting it right now because of the nature of what we’re going to talk about in the next segment I ran, but is there any sense of an mention of a war in a different way or a greater way than you recall in the past?

Bill Koenig:

Well, my wife Tanya and I have been traveling the country. We’ve been around in the Orthodox neighborhoods, the best mish we’ve been up in the Galilee. We’ve talked to friends here in Jerusalem that served in the military. Matter of fact, about an hour ago, we’re with a friend that’s a captain in the IVF. He’s down in Gaza, so they feel they have a serious issue there. Our friend said back when the nuclear, I mean back when the hostage negotiations were taking place, or maybe 5,000 members of Hamas at that time had been pretty much estimated, but he said it’s back up to around 30,000 right now. So the international community, Trump, his negotiator, Witkoff are putting more and more pressure on Israel to stop the war in Gaza. And Witkoff is still trying to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel with Qatar’s help, but that’s not getting anywhere. And then on the Syrian border, we have friends up in the Syrian border right now it’s pretty quiet. Hezbollah is pretty quiet. Israel keeps knocking out Hezbollah encampments up there. And then Trump’s really been trying to push even the possibility of Syria becoming into a Abraham Accord and

Speaker 3:

Dropping

Bill Koenig:

Sanctions against the new interim government. So Sam, I think with all things said, and also Trump actively through Witkoff negotiating with Iran, I think there’s a certain level of quiet, not quiet, more so just kind of wait and see. It’s a little bit calmer perspective, but the big concern is if we don’t get a good deal done with Iran and we aren’t allowed to finish in Gaza and do we trust the Syrians that are influenced by Erdogan or not. So it’s kind of a war footing, but a lull. A lot of reservists are in place, but there’s kind of a lull right now waiting, pending these negotiations.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay, that makes sense. Quick response and then maybe we’ll revisit again the last segment if we can. There was a shooting in Washington DC I think our listeners are aware of that. Two staff individuals from the embassy that were murdered there. How is that being received in Israel right now?

Bill Koenig:

Well, I tell you, ya own the young man that was killed lives here. His father and brother work for a friend of Tan mine, and it’s been devastating to that family. It’s kind of a gut punch. I mentioned the other day that this, I was at the Israeli embassy at the end of March for a welcoming event for Ambassador Lidar and those young people were there, the young and his, the lady who’s about to get engaged to, they were there and now they’re not. And I think Sam in that Jewish community center or that Jewish location at dc, it sounds like the shooter was not aware that they worked at the Washington Embassy.

Sam Rohrer:

Interesting

Bill Koenig:

Angels, Washington Embassy.

Sam Rohrer:

Interesting. You’re going to have to hold that Bill because we’re out of time ladies and gentlemen. We’ll pick that up and conclude that implication of that shooting in the last segment. Stay with us. We’ll be back. Our theme today is live from Jerusalem special guest, bill Koenig. We’re going to talk about next segment Iran and all that’s happening there, of which there is a lot happening. Well, if you’re just joining us today, welcome aboard. This is a special program because my guest today is Bill Koenig White House correspondent. He’s the president and founder of World Watch Daily with the website@watch.org. Been with me before favorite guest to people, but what’s really special is that he is actually physically in Jerusalem right now and he’s calling in live. And it’s a wonderful thing to be able to have a great connection and be able to talk with Bill directly about what he’s been seeing there as he’s been there about a couple weeks now.

But Bill, let’s go to the matter, Iran now, we’ve already talked about it a little bit, but for months now, Iran’s effort to reach nuclear, actually for years, Iran has attempted to reach nuclear capability to produce nuclear warheads. And that goes all the way back to the days of Obama. And we know many things that have happened since then. They threaten Israel, they want to kill the little Satan Israel, they want to destroy us, the United States, the big Satan. And this seems almost like games have been played along the way, in my opinion, with the date they’re only two months away. And then it goes like two weeks away and then here it is now several years from that point. And I wonder if we’re actually being told the truth or if there’s more gamesmanship being played behind the scenes. But nonetheless, now we have Donald Trump online and he threatened Iran.

Iran has come back and said, you’re not going to threaten us and we’re willing to take a hit if you take it to us. And anyway, so here we are now from your perspective, we already talked again about it, but what is the Mency really now not what we’ve been hearing for years, but is there any sense of changed Mency now of either Iran doing something to Israel or Israel saying that they cannot wait any longer and then trying to take out the facilities in Israel and this whole concept of the president saying, Hey, look, we’re going to make a deal and if the deal doesn’t go through, I’m going to lead the way against Iran, not Israel. It’s kind of complicated things. Put this all together, please place.

Bill Koenig:

Well, Israel was ready. Israel was ready to hit the Iranian nuclear facilities after they got hit last year by Israel. It pretty much took out their missile defense system as well as Syria’s missile defense system. So this is an opportune time for Israel to go in there with their plan and at least set back Iran’s nuclear plan five, 10 years, maybe longer. But the challenge has been President Trump and his negotiator, Steve Witkoff, his lifetime or time friend believes that he has what it takes to cut a deal with Iran. Well, Iran are master negotiators. They got masters in PhD in negotiation. According to a Persian gentleman I talked to in DC a few years ago, another friend of mine at the Israeli embassy said, you can’t out negotiate Iran. And so they agreed a deal, don’t fulfill it, go back to the table again, agree to another deal with less teeth, less teeth, and on and on and on.

We’ve seen the internet, the P five plus one members of the Security Council plus Germany negotiating with Iran during the Biden’s time in office. And that went nowhere. And they’re just masterful and Roff and Trump say, Hey, we’re close. And then Iran starts going away. And then when Iran goes away and then they play the game, oh, well maybe we are close. They just go back and forth. It’s cat and mouse. They’re so masterful this. So that’s created tension between the White House President Trump and Benjamin Net Netanyahu. They’ve been told, matter of fact, about a month and a half or so ago when Netanyahu came to the Oval Office to get the blessing of the attack on Iran, he was blindsided that Trump wanted try negotiations first. After seeing all these things about Iran, they decided Witkoff convinced him to go the negotiating route. And then this week, homeless security director, Christie Nome was sent by Trump to make sure that Netanyahu was going to be on the same page as Trump when it came to Iran. They didn’t want any surprises that Israel was going to go in there and pop these nuclear facilities. Well, according to paper today, here this afternoon, right after that, Nome left for the United States, president Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu who are on a pretty tense phone call. So that’s kind of where it is right now, Sam.

We’re watching it closely.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, that’s interesting because anyways, I’m just going to let it sit there a lot more. Let’s go to this because while all this delay is happening, the I Iranian masterful negotiation and they’re up against Trump, who thinks he is the negotiator, it almost like, all right, but in the meantime, this gets drug out and into this. Now comes an agreement between Russia and Iran that’s already kind of been in place, but now they formalize a 20 year agreement. How do you view the ramifications of this 20 year agreement between Russia and Iran just done a week ago, and how’s it being viewed inside the Israeli government? Because now it seems to me anyways that now any attack on Iran could potentially, depending, I haven’t read the agreement, but an agreement of that type would theoretically bring in Russia as a defender of Iran. So waiting appears to be costly. What are your thoughts?

Bill Koenig:

These things ebb and flow. And it seems like when Iran’s the closest to being hit by Israel, maybe United States to a certain extent, but especially Israel, Russia comes to the table and starts saying, don’t do it. It will be a great mistake. And this agreement you’re talking about right now is certainly problematic. There’s been a lot of back channel discussions with Iran and Russia and the mountains over the last few years, plus some of the sophisticated drones that are being used in the Ukraine have been supplied by Iran to Russia. So yeah, that’s the pattern there. And plus President Trump has said over and over and over again that there would not have been a Russian Ukraine war if he’d been president. Well, it looks like President Trump’s getting played right now. He supposedly had a two hour conversation with Putin other day and they’re hitting the Ukraine and areas of Ukraine harder than they’ve ever had. And President Trump even called Putin crazy a couple days ago. So that relationship and even Labro questioned Trump’s comments in an article yesterday. He’s a former president of Russian also in a very key security position. He’s saying that Trump in essence, to paraphrase, he better be careful. We don’t want World War iii and this is a high level Putin person.

Sam Rohrer:

Yeah, and I saw that, and I also saw this aspect, well, I don’t want to go too much into Ukraine, but I’m wondering about the independent nature of Donald Trump to make sure that he’s in there having negotiations with entities. For instance, going around Netanyahu where he was not involved having negotiations with countries where Ukrainian president Zelensky is not involved doing some things of that type. It is unusual. People say, well, is it good or is it bad? I don’t know. But just yesterday there was a interview where the Ukrainians had targeted helicopter where Putin was riding, clearly had NATO assistance with triangulation and assistance on that Putin was not killed. They took down the things, but that raised the whole issue. And when the questioning was asked to President Trump, he appeared not to know that that had happened. Are we witnessing something where inside advisors are perhaps not even communicating all things to the president or are we just watching the hand of God moving the hearts of kings the way God wants to move them at this point?

All right, well ladies and gentlemen, live radio does that. I ask a question to Bill who’s live in Jerusalem, but the line dropped, but I’m just going to comment a bit further as Tim, if you can get him back, then we’ll work them in. But what I just commented on there is something that’s very interesting because there is a lot of suspicion right now of whether or not the president is actually being informed by his advisors of all’s going on or belt. Did you get my question about the President and not knowing what had happened perhaps on the attack on Putin’s helicopter? Is he being informed or do you think advisors around him are actually withholding information? What are we witnessing or are we witnessing just the hand of God moving the hearts of kings and all are falling into place prophetically as God is directing him? What do you see, Sam?

Bill Koenig:

I don’t know the details. Have you heard that Putin might’ve been in that helicopter?

Sam Rohrer:

It appears that yes, he was in there and they did attack with about 400 Ukrainian drones, but it was NATO’s coordination was involved, but they didn’t shoot him. I mean, they shot him down. He was not hurt. But in that scenario, the president was asked, did you know that there was an attack on Putin’s helicopter? And the president generally responded, no, I did not hear that, but that would make a difference. That would raise my question. Is he being properly advised or do we not know?

Bill Koenig:

That’s a good question. I think maybe NATO took some independence on that, but we’ve been hearing that Macron, some of the Europeans want to give Zelensky more advanced missiles, and that’s come up in the last 24 to 36 hours. I didn’t see anything more than just a general information about Putin’s helicopter actually being targeted. So I don’t know beyond that, Sam, but I know that’s pretty serious stuff. And then I don’t know if Trump was in the loop on that or not. You think he would’ve eventually, but I don’t know at first

Sam Rohrer:

We’re about out of time. But my question there really Bill was in regard to this, were the president’s initiative to engage in discussion without informing an Netanyahu where he probably should be or without informing a Zelensky on a matter up there perhaps should be it. That is almost Trump’s style, but at the same time, it almost like they’re hanging him out a little bit. Anyways, ladies and jump, you don’t have time to comment. Stay with us. We’ll be back if Bill has any comments on that question there. We’ll go there first. And otherwise, we’re going to pick up discussion relative to further outcomes from the Trump Saudi summit, which we’ve talked about before here on this program, but other insights that Bill would have to that rather historic meeting. Well, we’re midpoint in our program today. This is a Jerusalem Israel Middle East focus, and our special guest today is Bill Koenig.

So glad he is back with us. He’s White House correspondent. He’s the president and founder of World Watch Daily with a website@watch.org. If you go there, you will find, I don’t think just my opinion, but I go there regularly, all articles or pieces of information that are of importance to Israel, to Jerusalem, to the Middle East, you will find on that website and you can read the entire article. The linkage is there, but it’s always kept up to date and it’s a great place watch.org. So I just pass that along for those who are interested. Bill, the recent Trump economic visit to Saudi Arabia, we’ve already touched on that a little bit, was historic in many ways. Some have said there were actually three legs that seemed been differently, but there was an economic objective, there was a political objective, there was a military objective, and part of that was for the president to go and extract basically a trillion dollars of Middle East funding from those Middle East countries, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, United Arab Emirates, and maybe some others. In fact, some of that actually happened. Major military occurred to Saudi Arabia in the billions of dollars. That’s a big deal, $20 billion commitment by Saudi Arabia to fund American efforts here in the United States on AI databases and billionaires. Many were there in their glory. This was a big deal, and I’m not sure that all of the importance of it has really found its way out yet. So here’s my question. What’s your personal take on the purpose for that meeting and then what appears now to be some of the outcome of that Trump Saudi meeting?

Bill Koenig:

Well, I think Sam, when you look back at President Trump’s first term, his first foreign meeting in 2017 was going to Riyadh Saudi Arabia to meet with the members of the Islamic States, the presidents of the Islamic states. And that was really his son-in-law, Jared Kushner’s idea that this was an opportunity for him to address them personally in a significant number. And the point was at that time was if you are going to lay down terror or not do terror, you’re a friend of the United States. If you continue to fund or do fund terrorism, you’re going to be an enemy of the us. And Jared Kushner really developed a close race to Crown Prince Salman during his time in office. President Trump’s first term time in office when he left, Kushner established a two and a half billion dollars sovereign fund that it’s anywhere from a billion and a half to $2 billion of Saudi monies in that fund, and that’s for investment purposes.

In the last couple of years, Jared Kushner’s made over a hundred million dollars from having been managing that fund. And he really in a lot of ways pushed the importance of develop relationships with President Trump with these very wealthy sovereign funds. The Emirates, I think is almost a trillion, the Saudis 700 billion. This is American petrol dollars as the late great t boon pick and said, we send 500 billion a year to the Middle East that should be staying in America. So what he’s dealing with President Trump’s dealing with these countries with a lot of money, is bringing that money to the United States. At the same time, he has investments that were just announced in Doha. Qatar, he’s building an 80 story hotel in Dubai. He’s building a hotel in Oman. They’re also going to be building properties in Emirates. Also, one of the big investors in the Trump crypto coin is United Arab Emirates members, some significant people there, financially, significant people there.

So there it is. He’s also dropping the sanctions on Syria, and he put Erdogan on that phone with Crown Prince Salman to tell the new acting president of Syria that he was going to have Trump support and lay down the weapons, so to speak. Big concern here, Sam, is the approval of these countries, the Wahabi of Saudi Arabia have a big influence. And also Qatar has Al Jazeera, which is many ways anti-Israel and anti-US to a certain degree, and also just a major funder of amass. And they’re very sophisticated, very sharp. A lot of people have made money off the Qatar money in the us. But the point is, Sam, this is basically endorsing these countries and throwing the doors open to Islam and America, as we know right now, it’s fast growing in Texas and Michigan and Maryland and other states. And this in many ways endorses the Saudis and Qatar and some of the ways that they’ve had over the years.

Sam Rohrer:

And that really concerns me, bill, because the Saudis have been the primary funder of all of the mosques across our country. They have been since way back. And even though Ben Salman, the guy that the president met with, appears to be west leading, you can’t get away from the fact that Saudi Arabia is the home of Mecca. Saudi Arabia is still not a friend of Israel, although they will work with them because they’re at odds with Iran. But what country takes and puts tens of billions of dollars or 700 billion perhaps Saudi Arabia into our country without expecting something in return. Now, you can comment on that, but it seemed almost to me that it was almost like a quid pro quo that if I, Saudi Arabia bin Solomon give you the United States Donald Trump money for AI development, that you must give me something. And that is the recognition of the terrorist president. Now there in Syria, seems like that was all linked. Talk about any of those linkages that you think are important.

Bill Koenig:

Well, that’s true. I mean, 80% of Muslims are Sunnis and their headquarters is Saudi Arabia, Mecca and Medina. And there’s been odds against the Shiite of Iran in Iraq. Shiites are major majority of the population in Iran and Iraq and Eden, Bahrain. And so with its relationship, you question, I know part of the supposed Abraham Accord negotiation with Israel, the United States was going to supply defense to the Saudis. Well, they’re going to support them defensively, but also sell them a lot of equipment. Israel has an agreement. United States government, they’ll always have edge militarily. And also here we have Qatar that’s giving up $400 million jet to the Defense Department to be used by President Trump that supposedly will end up at the Trump Presidential Library when he’s out of office. So a lot of people are questioning that relationship right now, just before President Trump went to Doha, they announced a big real estate development that’s going to take place in Qatar with Trump development, a Trump international development company. And he also has two towers in Istanbul. And so obviously these conflicts of interest are a concern and will it be costing to Israel in the long run? I mean, these are vast, vast sums of money that these countries, Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, that’s going to be investing a tremendous amount of money. Also, a lot of that’s going to be earmark toward artificial intelligence. They’re going to be establishing artificial intelligence in the United Arab Emirates, which is very committed to artificial intelligence and also these facilities in the United States. So Sam, you’ve been around the business world like I have, and I mean there’s always quo in these things. So

We’re going to obviously watch that very closely. But the biggest concern is the Islam spread in America because of these relations.

Sam Rohrer:

That to me is a very, very big concern. I think all the things you’ve mentioned with personal business dealings and all being tied up, all of that obviously makes a difficult nature of having any kind of policy from a presidential perspective or a national perspective when you’ve got your own property on the ground in these country. Anyway, I think that’s sufficient. When the president asked Saudi Arabia to sign on board with Abraham Accords, speak to that a little bit. And then following that meeting, I believe, or before that I believe the Saudis had talked to the president about a Palestinian state. And then you have now Canada, the UK and France all coming on board with Saudi Arabia for a Palestinian state. Seems this is a swirling pot of confusion.

Bill Koenig:

Absolutely. There’s supposed to be a British French co-sponsored meeting for about a Palestinian state at the UN at their general assembly June 2nd through fourth. I understand the day. I think it’s been moved to the 16th through 17th. And that’s a big push by the French and the British on a acceptance of a two state plan. There’s five members of the UN Security Council, that’s Russia, China, the Brits, and the French and the United States. In order for any resolution to be approved, you need a full approval of the five permanent members. Then you have 15 partial members or rotating members. So there’s going to be, there is a big push right now on the establishment of a Palestinian state, and they think now’s the time to do it. I was talking to Fred today. We were always talking about Israel and their military and what they have to do, but hardly anybody ever talks about the main reason of the problem in God’s in the first place. And that’s Hamas. Hamas. And you still have a majority of people in Gaza that support Hamas. It’s a terror organization that are committed to this elimination of the state of Israel. And I dunno this disconnect internationally now. And Biden kept pitching this when he was in office that the key to peace in the Middle East was the cooperation of the two state plan, and Israel was obviously the most important part of that agreement.

Sam Rohrer:

So ladies and gentlemen, if you visit Israel, one thing you’ll hear from guide and people talk with is here in Israel, everything is confusing. Well, you can see exactly what’s happening. These layers we’re talking about is confusing, but what’s not confusing is how it’s going to turn out and how God’s going to work it to his end. Stay with us. We’ll conclude just a minute. Well, bill Koenig, thanks for being with me again live from Jerusalem and stepping away from the events here this evening. Let me follow up with another question and then I want to go to how are you’re perceiving the attitude of the people on the ground there in Israel? And that is this follow up to what we were just discussing. Abraham Accords, the President put forward that under his last term. He’s pushing the Saudis to agree with it and to come on board with it. Then you’ve got this other effort we talked about by the UK and France and actually most of the security council to a two state solution. Here’s my question for you. Are the Abraham Accords in a two-state solution mutually exclusive, or could there actually be an agreement by Saudis to the Abraham Accord if there is an agreement by others also to a two-state solution?

Bill Koenig:

Well, bin Salomon hasn’t been tethered in normalization. Talk to a two state plan. His father the king, yes. But Crown Prince bin Solomon, for the most part, runs the country, has not been tethered to that even. There was some possibilities that Abraham Accord deal with the Saudis and Israel was going to be announced this year. There’s been some effort by Witkoff and members of the State Department. But after this recent trip and signing of this and signing of that and committing to this and committing to that by President Trump and the Saudis, the normalization agreement discussions have not gone anywhere. And that’s a good question. At this point, will they come alongside the international effort to fully endorse the two state plan? I would think they probably would along with virtually every other country in the Middle East. They would go along and vote in favor of that Sam. But right now the Saudis aren’t pushing it, especially Bin Salman. So that’s kind of where it sits right now.

Sam Rohrer:

Alright, well we need to keep our eyes on that because anytime there’s any kind of a support from our nation of a two-stage solution, we always run into trouble from God’s judgment. It seems that thought. But then anything on there, if you have any follow-up, do that. But let’s move from that then as well to the attitude of the citizens of Israel to the fact that there are impacts. I mean it’s known economically because they are at war. You’ve got so many, the reservists that are tied up, they’re not on the assembly line, they’re not in there doing what they’re doing generally. So what’s the attitude of the people and what’s actually happening with the economy right now in Israel as a result of this ongoing war?

Bill Koenig:

Well, the economy continues to be hurt by this. The major airlines, world’s, major airlines are American, Delta and United that were traveling here have all postponed coming back some into early June, some into August, some into September and even October. So tourism is a huge business here in Israel. Secondly, there’s a shortage of worker for the agricultural fields. They’ve got a lot of people that are in reserve that are stationed around the country right now. But an interesting commentary a couple of days ago talking about the situation in Israel has been difficult because you have some members, military members have been away from home for a long time, and there’s a lot of tension in married relationships because you’ve got the warriors and then you have the other people that are just trying to live their lives and work and deal with their family. So there’s a tension from those who have been in the front line of the war and those in the family that haven’t.

And then the hostage crisis has also has been another, that’s a gut punch along with the shooting of the two Israeli embassy workers there in Washington dc These are gut punches, Sam. So you feel it. You feel the stress. Israel and the Jewish people here are very resilient, but this is a time of great reflection. And about the times that we live in are these biblically significant. Yes, Tanya and I have an opportunity to talk about that can talk about Yeshua to people because there’s a lot of stress and tension. People are adapting at the same time as we talked about earlier in the program. I mean, Jerusalem is different than the rest of the parts of Israel, especially Northern Israel, which is closer to the borders of trouble

Speaker 3:

And

Bill Koenig:

Those that border Gaza. So with all that said, Sam, it’s a unique time. Israel’s been a lot through since October and they continue to be concerned about a future in nuclear Iran.

Sam Rohrer:

Another question here, I don’t know if you’ve met at the Knesset, generally at the Jerusalem prayer breakfast. There’s a meeting there. But as you’ve heard from Knesset members and as you’re sensing there, how is the unity of the Knesset right now politically managing? How are they in relationship to Netanyahu? Because there’s a big fight going on publicly, people trying to attack Netanyahu. But is Netanyahu and the coalition within the Knesset remaining strong?

Bill Koenig:

It seems to be there was so much division over the judicial system here and other things prior to October 7th. Some of that has resurfaced on and off. But for the most part, I think Netanyahu and his coalition are okay right now. I think they all stay in power. I think obviously Netanyahu has such a gift with the international community, even the White House, despite the differences, he seems to be the man of the hour to be the prime minister of Israel with the situation here in Israel in the Middle East. So for the most part, I think he’s okay. I think he’s fine for now. That can change. But for the most part, I think he’s going to be okay for a while, his coalition.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. We’ve got about two minutes left. Could you do this, bill, I’d like to have you, you’re at a prayer breakfast. I’d love to have you pray and if you could put into your prayer the things for which our listeners should be praying and can be praying for in relationship to the peace of Jerusalem right now as we talk. Can you just kind of work those together?

Bill Koenig:

I will, Sam, thank you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be living at such an interesting and serious and prophetically significant time that we’re living. It’s always a blessing to watch the scriptures play out. As you’ve written with the Jewish prophets of Ezekiel and Zechariah, Daniel and others. It’s a very significant time. The time clock is your city, Jerusalem, where I’m praying for tonight. So Lord, we pray for those that are listening to this program that will continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray for wisdom within our administration, the United States and also Israel, that they will fully understand the threats that are about and that they will be dealt with it at the same time. Lord, I pray that the church in America will be bolder about the biblical right Israel has to this covenant land and that they will stand up to our Judeo-Christian values, which our great nation was developed upon. So, Lord, I just, what a time, what a gift that you’ve given us to live in a time that’s so important to you biblically and scripturally. And I pray for the leadership again of the United States and Israel, that they will look to your biblical wisdom for direction, guidance. And also we pray for those in Israel that have not heard about our Messiah, Yeshua, that they will have a greater understanding of our Savior, who it will be coming back to Jerusalem one day. I pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Sam Rohrer:

Amen and amen. And then Bill Konik life from Jerusalem, thank you so much for being with us. Ladies and gentlemen, remember what was prayed for in that prayer. We do pray for the salvation of the Jewish people. We pray for the salvation of our own people. The days are shortening very quickly when the return of Christ is at the door. So what are we doing if we know him? As we say regularly, share the gospel. Be bold in the truth and pray for those our neighbors around us and the Jewish people that they will come to understand that Jesus Christ is you should Bill Konik. Thank you so much for being with us. God bless you. Go back to what you were doing there, brother, and we’ll continue to pray for the Jerusalem Prayer, breakfast and you and the others that are involved. God bless you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us today. Again, you can pick up this program on Stand in the gap radio.com. The transcript is also available free there at that site or on our app at Stand In the Gap. Join me tomorrow, Twila Brase will be with me as we speak about areas of health freedom.