Hope for Israel Ministries

04/09/2026

Shabbat Shalom from the Dead Sea!

The lowest place on Earth sits more than 430 meters below sea level and is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world. Its salt concentration is nearly 10 times higher than the ocean.

03/09/2026

There is something in this week’s Scripture reading that I find both sobering and encouraging. Israel is standing on the edge of the Promised Land. Moses is nearing the end of his life, and a new generation is preparing to enter the land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Moses says:

You stand today, all of you, before the LORD your God: your leaders, your tribes, your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the stranger who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, so that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 29:10-12

The children of Israel were standing before God as a people who had witnessed His faithfulness. He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, sustained them throughout the wilderness, and brought them to the land He had promised to their fathers.

However, God also knew what was coming. Near the end of the reading, the LORD tells Moses:

Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the pr******te with the foreign gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and they will abandon Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
Deuteronomy 31:16

I think we sometimes read the story of Israel as though God entered into covenant with Israel and then discovered along the way how unfaithful His people could be. Scripture tells us something very different. Before Israel had fully entered the land, God already knew that they would turn away from Him. He knew that they would pursue other gods, that judgment would follow, and that they would eventually be scattered among the nations. None of what would happen surprised Him.

This makes the words Moses spoke just one chapter earlier even more significant:

Then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If any of your scattered countrymen are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.
Deuteronomy 30:3-4

Before Israel’s future rebellion had even taken place, God was already speaking about their future restoration. This is an important truth that we should not overlook.

The restoration of Israel was never based upon Israel being perfect. If it were, there would be no restoration. God Himself foretold Israel’s disobedience, their dispersion among the nations, and their eventual return.

When I look at Israel today, I do not see a perfect nation. I see my people with all of our strengths and all of our failures. I see a nation in which many still do not know the one and only true God. I see many who have returned physically to the land but have not yet returned spiritually to Him.

At the same time, I see something that generations before us could only read about in the Scriptures. I see the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gathered from nations around the world and living again in the land of their forefathers. Israel’s restoration does not testify to Israel’s perfection. It testifies to the faithfulness of God.

However, Deuteronomy does not allow us to stop there. God’s faithfulness does not remove human responsibility. The same Moses who spoke about Israel’s future restoration also placed a very personal choice before the people:

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20

God knew what Israel would do, but Israel was still responsible for its choices. The same principle applies to each one of us.

It is easy to read the Scriptures and examine Israel’s failures. It is easy to look at previous generations and wonder how they could have turned away from God after everything He had done for them. It is also easy to look at the world around us and judge the choices other people are making. However, eventually the Word of God brings the question back to each one of us personally.

We must ask ourselves what we are doing with what God has revealed to us. Paul writes:

So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
Romans 14:12

There is coming a day when each one of us will stand before God. I will not give an account for someone else’s faithfulness, nor will I be able to hide behind someone else’s disobedience. I will give an account of myself to Him. That reality should cause each of us to consider Moses’ words seriously. God has revealed the way of life, and each one of us must decide what we will do with what He has revealed.

This also points us to the reason the Father sent His Son, Yeshua our Messiah. None of us can stand before God on the basis of our own righteousness because we all fall short. Our hope is found in what God has provided through His Son. A life that has truly been changed by Him should then be reflected in how we live, whom we obey, and where we place our trust.

The Haftarah adds another important dimension to this week’s reading. After reading about Israel’s rebellion, dispersion, and restoration, we hear Isaiah declare:

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning.
Isaiah 62:1

Isaiah does not look at Jerusalem only as she was in his day. He looks forward to what God has promised Jerusalem will become. A few verses later, we read:

On your walls, Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who profess the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem an object of praise on the earth.
Isaiah 62:6-7

These words carry special meaning for us today. There are many reasons people give for remaining silent concerning Jerusalem. Some look at Israel’s failures and conclude that God must have finished with His people. Others are willing to accept the passages of Scripture that speak about Israel’s judgment but struggle to accept those same Scriptures when they speak about Israel’s restoration.

Isaiah, however, did not say that he would speak for Zion because Zion was perfect. He refused to remain silent because he knew what God had promised concerning her.

Standing with Jerusalem also does not mean that we must agree with every decision made by an Israeli government or every action taken by an Israeli leader. Our confidence is not in governments, politicians, or human institutions. Our confidence is in the God who keeps His Word.

God knew that Israel would turn away from Him, yet He still spoke of their restoration. He knew their failures before they happened, yet He still declared His purposes for Jerusalem. The same God who has remained faithful to His promises concerning Israel is the God before whom each one of us will one day stand.

As we read these words this week, I believe we should ask ourselves two important questions. We should first ask whether we are prepared to stand before God and give an account of our own lives. We should then ask whether, if we truly believe that God is faithful to His Word, we are willing to stand for what He has declared concerning Jerusalem.

Isaiah declared, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet.” May we also be people who take God at His Word, who choose life by turning to Him, and who are not ashamed to stand with Jerusalem as we wait for the fulfillment of all that He has promised.

Shabbat Shalom,
Moran

02/09/2026

Keep Your Eyes on Turkey

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that those who believe they can stop what he called Turkey’s “blessed march” through provocations, plots, and traps would be disappointed. He added that Turkey would not turn away from the path it believes is right.

During the past years, as I have followed President Erdoğan and the direction in which he has been leading Turkey, I have become increasingly concerned, not simply by what he says about Israel, but by what Turkey is doing and the role it is seeking to play in our region.

For years, I have encouraged people to keep their eyes on Turkey. There was a time when that may have seemed strange. Iran was the obvious threat, Hezbollah was building its enormous arsenal in Lebanon, and Hamas controlled Gaza. Turkey, on the other hand, had once been one of Israel’s important regional partners.

Over the years, however, Erdoğan and his government have increasingly revealed the direction in which they intend to take Turkey, and I believe the world can no longer afford to ignore it. The clearest example today may be what is happening in Syria.

The collapse of the Assad regime completely changed the balance of power there. Iran and Hezbollah, which had spent years establishing themselves inside Syria, lost much of their influence, while Turkey found itself in a much stronger position to shape what comes next.

Turkey has been working closely with the new Syrian government and supporting the development of its military capabilities. Turkey already has forces operating in northern Syria and has made clear that its military presence there will continue as long as Ankara believes its security concerns remain unresolved.

Recently, the growing tension became much more visible when Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northwestern Syria. Israel said that Syrian authorities were preparing to allow Turkish forces to deploy at the base and that warnings against such a deployment had been ignored.

Syria and Turkey disputed that account. Syrian officials said there were no plans to establish a permanent Turkish base or deploy Turkish forces there. They did, however, acknowledge that Turkish military officers had visited the airbase as part of the growing military cooperation between the two countries.

Whatever ultimately happens at Abu al-Duhur, the larger picture deserves our attention. For decades, Syria separated Turkey from Israel. Today, Turkey already has forces inside Syria, maintains close relations with the new government in Damascus, and is seeking to play an important role in shaping Syria’s future.

Syria is not the only place where we can see the changing regional picture. Israel and Greece have been strengthening their military and strategic relationship while Turkey continues expanding its own military capabilities. Just this week, Israel and Greece signed a major agreement for Israel to help build Greece’s new multi-layered air-defense system.

Turkey is watching these developments closely. Its defense minister has acknowledged that the country is preparing for different scenarios, including the possibility of crisis, tension, and war, as Ankara considers the changing security environment around it.

I want to be clear that I am not saying Turkey and Israel are about to go to war, nor am I predicting what Erdoğan will do next. That would be speculation, and there is already far too much speculation when people discuss the Middle East.

What deserves our attention is the direction in which Erdoğan’s government is moving. His government has maintained ties with Hamas, his hostility toward Israel has become increasingly clear, and Turkey is strengthening its military capabilities, expanding its influence in Syria, and seeking a greater role in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean. This is why I have encouraged people for years to watch Turkey.

There is also a biblical reason that this part of the world deserves our attention. Ezekiel 38 describes a future coalition that will come against Israel. Among the peoples named are Gomer and Beth-togarmah, names that have often been associated with Asia Minor and areas within or near modern-day Turkey.

We need to approach this passage carefully. Ezekiel does not mention the modern Republic of Turkey, and I am not saying that Erdoğan is fulfilling Ezekiel 38. I do not believe we should read a headline in the morning and then search for a Bible verse to declare it fulfilled by the afternoon.

We should never make the Word of God say more than it actually says, but neither should we ignore what it says. When Scripture directs our attention toward peoples and territories from this part of the world in connection with future events involving Israel, and we watch the leadership of a powerful nation in that same region moving in an increasingly hostile direction, I believe we should pay attention.

There is another passage that I believe is important when we consider how rapidly this region is changing. Isaiah 19 describes a future highway connecting Egypt and Assyria, with Israel in their midst. The passage ends with these remarkable words:

“In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of armies has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.’”
Isaiah 19:24–25 NASB

For years, when teaching this passage, I have reminded people that biblical Assyria cannot simply be identified with one modern country. Its ancient heartland was centered in what is today northern Iraq, while at different times Assyrian territory extended across areas that today belong to Syria, Turkey, and other parts of the region.

This is important when we look at the Middle East today because we tend to look at the modern map and assume that the countries and borders we know will always remain as they are. Yet the biblical picture does not fit neatly within those modern political boundaries.

I am not suggesting that we can use Isaiah 19 to draw a future political map because Scripture does not give us enough information to do that. However, I do believe we should be careful about assuming that Syria, Iraq, Turkey, or any other country in this region will always exist politically and geographically exactly as we know them today.

What has happened in Syria should already have taught us that lesson. For decades, the Assad regime appeared firmly established. Then it collapsed, and the balance of power changed dramatically. Iran’s influence weakened, Turkey’s influence increased, and questions that would have seemed unlikely only a few years ago suddenly became part of the reality we are watching.

We do not know what Syria will eventually become, and we do not know how the governments, alliances, or even the political boundaries of this region may change in the years ahead. What we do know is that the political map we see today does not determine how God will fulfill His Word.

This is why I believe we need both humility and discernment when we consider what is happening around us. I do not know where Erdoğan is ultimately leading Turkey, what Turkey’s relationship with Israel will look like in the years ahead, or exactly how the developments we are watching today fit into biblical prophecy. I will not pretend to know what Scripture does not clearly reveal.

However, after years of watching the direction of Erdoğan’s leadership, I am more convinced than ever that Turkey deserves our attention. We do not need to fear, and we certainly do not need to turn every headline into prophecy. We need to know the Word of God, understand the times in which we live, and watch carefully as the region around us continues to change.

Our confidence is not in governments, armies, political borders, or changing alliances. Our confidence is in the one and only true God. He knows the end from the beginning, and His Word will stand regardless of how many times the political map changes before everything He has spoken comes to pass.

For these reasons, I will continue to encourage you to keep your eyes on Turkey.

Moran

For more updates, subscribe to our email list through the link in our bio

01/09/2026

September brings a season of new beginnings to Israel as children return to school and families prepare for the biblical fall appointed times. As families prepare to hear the sound of the shofar and gather for reflection and prayer, this is a meaningful time to pray for Israel and the many opportunities this season brings. We invite you to join us through this month’s prayer letter as we pray for protection, strength, unity, and wisdom, and that this special season would draw many hearts throughout Israel closer to the one and only true God. Thank you for faithfully standing with Israel in prayer.

April does not arrive quietly this year. On the first of the month, families across Israel will gather for Seder night, retelling the story of redemption. Yet it unfolds under war, as missile fire from Iran, alongside ongoing attacks from Lebanon and now even Yemen, reaches across the country and si...

31/08/2026

When Hate Does Not Violate the Guidelines

Some time ago, someone left a rating on Hope for Israel’s page and wrote:

a terrorist organization that supports apartheid terrorism genocide in Palestine

He then wrote: F* Israel dead man walking you out of touch boomers/squatters can't help it**

We reported these comments to Meta, and Meta reviewed them and informed us that they did not violate their Community Standards.

I am not going to spend time defending Hope for Israel against a baseless accusation from someone who clearly knows nothing about our organization. Anyone who actually knows our work knows that for years, motivated by the love of the Messiah, we have cared for and reached people from many different backgrounds, including Jewish Israelis, Muslims, Palestinians, and others whom God has placed in our path.

The larger issue is what was written and the decision by Meta to allow these comments to remain. I understand that social media companies have a difficult responsibility. Millions of comments are posted every day, and determining what crosses the line between offensive speech and prohibited speech is not always simple. However, there are cases where the language seems remarkably clear.

The expression dead man walking is not simply an expression of disagreement. It normally refers to someone who is doomed or whose death is considered inevitable. In the context of a hostile message directed at someone, those words can reasonably be understood as threatening or intimidating. Then there is the word squatters. In this context, it is being used to say that Israelis have no legitimate right to be here and that our very presence in this land is illegitimate.

Yet, according to Meta’s review, this language did not violate their Community Standards. That decision should concern us. The issue is not that someone on Facebook dislikes Israel. The issue is where the line is drawn and whether that line is being applied consistently. If the words dead man walking, directed at someone in an openly hostile message, do not cross that line, then what does?

There is another reason this matters. Someone who knows nothing about Hope for Israel may come across that rating and read that we are a terrorist organization that supports apartheid, terrorism, and genocide. That person may never investigate whether any of it is true. When accusations like these remain publicly visible and are repeated often enough, people can begin to assume that there must be some truth behind them.

This is one of the great dangers of our time. A false accusation does not have to be proven anymore. It only has to be repeated often enough.

We have seen this repeatedly with Israel. Words such as genocide, apartheid, colonizers, and occupiers are repeated so frequently that many people eventually stop asking whether those words accurately describe what is happening. We have reached an even lower point when Israel, Israelis, and IDF soldiers are compared to N**i Germany and the N**is themselves.

We need to consider what that comparison actually does.

The N**is sought the destruction of the Jewish people. When someone takes the identity of those who systematically sought to eliminate the Jewish people and deliberately places that identity upon Israel and Israelis today, that person has gone far beyond criticism of a government or its policies. Such a comparison turns one of history’s clearest examples of hatred toward the Jewish people into a weapon against the Jewish people themselves. At some point, we have to ask whether the hatred behind such a comparison is beginning to resemble the very hatred it claims to condemn.

When accusations are repeated often enough, the accusation itself can begin to function as evidence.

The words of the prophet Isaiah should challenge all of us:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness.�Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah’s warning reminds us of our responsibility to distinguish between truth and falsehood. We cannot simply accept an accusation because we have heard it hundreds of times. We have a responsibility to examine what is true, regardless of who is making the claim or against whom it is being made.

Words shape the way people see other people. If Israelis are continually described as squatters, people can begin to believe that Israelis have no legitimate home. If an Israeli organization can casually be called a terrorist organization without evidence, someone who knows nothing about that organization may eventually believe it. If Israel and Israelis are repeatedly compared to N**is, an outrageous distortion can eventually become accepted as truth.

If the words dead man walking become just another permissible comment directed at someone on social media, the boundary between political disagreement, hatred, and intimidation becomes dangerously blurred.

This is why Meta’s decision troubles me. Social media companies have enormous influence over the conversations taking place in our societies. They make decisions every day about what constitutes hate speech, harassment, threats, incitement, and acceptable political expression. With that influence comes tremendous responsibility, and those standards must be applied consistently.

This is not about silencing criticism of Israel. It is about asking where criticism ends and dehumanization, intimidation, and hatred begin. Meta has taken upon itself the responsibility of drawing that line for billions of people who use its platforms. In this case, Meta reviewed a message containing the words F*** Israel, dead man walking, and squatters and determined that it did not cross that line.

That decision tells us something about where the line currently stands.
In the meantime, if you see this rating on Hope for Israel’s page, I encourage you to report it to Meta yourself. Please do not attack or insult the person who wrote it. Instead, I ask you to read his words, report them, and allow Meta to decide again whether it truly believes this language belongs on its platform.

Ultimately, this issue is bigger than one person, one Facebook rating, or even Hope for Israel. The question is what we are willing to normalize.

When accusations replace facts, when hatred is disguised as political criticism, and when threatening or intimidating words are allowed to remain because they somehow do not cross a platform’s line, we should be willing to ask where that line actually is.

Therefore, I am left with a simple question for Meta: If this language does not violate your Community Standards, what does?

Moran

31/08/2026

Come stand with Israel in a personal and meaningful way.

The Israel Solidarity Tour with Moran and Hope for Israel will take you into communities impacted by war, where you will hear directly from those rebuilding their homes, their fields, and their lives.

See the realities on the ground, offer encouragement and support, and leave with a deeper connection to the people and Land of Israel.

Register here: https://hope4israel.org/tour/tour-registration-form/

30/08/2026

We can speak boldly for Israel while choosing our words with wisdom.

28/08/2026

Shabbat Shalom from Beit Guvrin!
A fascinating place in southern Israel, known for its ancient underground caves, archaeological sites, and thousands of years of history.

28/08/2026

What does it really mean to declare that the LORD is our God? Moses’ words in Deuteronomy challenge us to consider what should follow such a declaration, while Israel’s history and Isaiah’s words raise an even deeper question about faithfulness, failure, and what comes next. https://hope4israel.org/is-declaring-faith-enough/

27/08/2026

As the Feast of Trumpets approaches, families across Israel are preparing to gather around the holiday table. Yet for many families who are struggling financially, providing that meal is a real burden.

Through Operation Hesed (Grace), you can come alongside an Israeli family by providing a grocery voucher that allows them to purchase what they need and celebrate the Feast with dignity and joy.

Bless a family today. https://hope4israel.org/op-hes-rosh-2026/