Carine Bassili, a Lebanese voice for peace and support of Israel

Carine Bassili is a Lebanese singer who cannot go back to her homeland. Her choice to stand with Israel means that she could go to jail if she tries. Now based in California, Bassili is working toward bringing peace to her people, Israel and the whole Middle East in any way she can.

“I’m going to the Nova exhibition on Saturday,” she told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. She said she’s hoping to get some footage for a video to go with her new song, an Arabic version of October Rain, Israel’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest about the Oct. 7 massacre.

The project has already generated a lot of interest, and if her last song is anything to go by, the chances are it will be appreciated by millions. Bassili’s previous song “God of Israel”, performed together with Orthodox Jewish artist, Yair Levi from Israel, and Sean Feucht, an Evangelical Christian, spread like wildfire on the internet. One of the YouTube comments in response to the song read: “I'm Jewish and the love I have felt from Christians (including the beautiful and ancient Arab Christians) has been invaluable during these dark times of war and antisemitism. Shukran, todah, and thank you for standing by us. I'm crying in gratitude.”

Bassili’s stance and endeavors to bring peace may be sacrificial and costly for her, but they are bringing great comfort to others. Her songs have broken through barriers in the midst of this horrific war.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Bassili remembers the Lebanese Civil War all too well. She spent her formative years in bomb shelters. “They weren’t bomb shelters like you have in Israel,” she explained. “It’s more just a space underneath the building. If anything happens it would all fall on your head”. She remembered just running, hiding, and eating canned food for years.

“We were just in constant survival mode. I was in a war from the womb,” she said, adding that she carried great trauma from her early life that wasn’t dealt with for many years.

Her family are Maronite Christians and when she was five years old, her uncle narrowly escaped death. A bomb had fallen perilously close to him and he began an existential search for meaning. He fled to Cyprus where he encountered some missionaries from Lebanon who led him to a living faith in Jesus.

“My uncle was the first one to seek Jesus and to be born again,” Bassili said. He returned to Lebanon a different man. She remembers her uncle’s baptism and how she started to go to Kings Kid's activities because of his encouragement.

She also remembers her first personal encounter with God when she ventured downstairs to the adult's meeting. “I felt the presence of God and started worshiping, it was a very close experience,” she recalled.

Even as a child, her talent for singing was recognized. “At school teachers would pull me out of class to sing to them in the staff room. They said I had a peaceful voice, and told me, 'Your voice brings peace to us.'”

She would sing Christmas songs about Jesus, and for a while, she joined a choir in another church due to the encouragement of her teacher, but when her uncle left Lebanon she stopped going to church. “I fell away from God after that,” she said.

Bassili met her husband Jason when she was just 18 years old, and they moved close to family members in Oregon, USA, where they married. Once they were stateside, they went to visit her uncle who was living in Texas, and he took them to his church.

“But it wasn’t a church, it was a Messianic synagogue,” Bassili explained. She heard shofars and saw people wearing Jewish prayer shawls—it was a very different environment to the churches she had experienced in Lebanon. “What the heck is this?” She asked herself in bewilderment.

“I felt something powerful, I felt like I was with Jesus of Nazareth,” she said. Every Easter in Lebanon the television stations would broadcast back-to-back shows about Jesus of Nazareth, and she felt like she was a part of one of those shows.

“I told my husband this is what I want. I felt that’s how it was supposed to be, reading the Bible.” Bassili began her own spiritual journey at that point. “The Lord was after me,” she said, “He kept reminding me of the church I went to with my uncle, I was bombarded with dreams and visions.”

However, Bassili’s journey to God was not a simple one. For several years, she and her husband were plagued with many challenges: the 2008 crash brought the family business to its knees; they lost a baby; and Carine’s health issues triggered unresolved trauma from her childhood in the war. She called out to God for help at that time, and went back to Lebanon. She went to her old church where her sister gave her a Bible with the Old Testament included. “In Lebanon, we are discouraged from reading the Old Testament,” Carine explained, “I only had a New Testament before.” She began reading it voraciously.

“I was on fire for God, very hungry, I was reading the Bible and listening to worship, to preachers.” The answers to prayer they saw were nothing short of miraculous, and cemented their faith and their life together as believers.

“God healed me,” she said, “and he should get all the glory.” Jason and Carine went to church together for the first time on Christmas Eve in 2009. It brought her such strong memories of her childhood, and she cried out, “Lord I’m here! I’m back!”

Jason and Carine later moved to California where she became involved in ministry. It was there that she encountered some Messianic Jewish teaching on Yom Kippur. “I had no idea! Nothing!” she admitted. “My heart was stirred and something was unlocked in me. A veil was lifted, and I had so much curiosity to learn more.”

At this point, Bassili started listening to Israeli worship from artists like Sarah Liberman, Shai Sol, and MiQedem.

“There was no joint Hebrew and Arabic worship at that time,” she recalled. “God called me to worship, to go on social media, so I did a song in Arabic and it went viral.” Hesitant at first, Bassili believes God’s encouragement and blessing released her into confidence. “It was a long, beautiful journey to get me to release that first song in 2019.”

She felt God prompting her: “I want you to start doing songs with my people”, so she started to reach out to Israeli artists and worship leaders. Her mandate comes from Psalm 33:3 and the command, “Sing a new song!” The Hebrew and Arabic together were a new sound in the Christian world at that time.

“My heart was stirring so much for Israel. Before I said yes I was crying in my room, saying, 'Lord it’s going to cause me so much trouble!'” She was right—all collaboration with Israel is illegal in Lebanon. By working together with Israelis on music projects, she knew she would no longer be able to go back. She has even had to release a connection with her family, knowing that by staying in contact with them she is endangering their lives. But she was determined to follow God’s call: “I was ready. I said yes, and I went for it.”

Bassili began to learn more about Israel: the land, the history and the people.

“I started to study, to see the truth, to see the battle from the spiritual aspect.” She believes that God has made promises to the land of Israel, and also Lebanon. “God never changed his mind,” she says, “but the Prince of Persia is taking territories. And God is raising up Esthers,“ referring to the biblical story of the Jewish Queen Esther set in the Persian Empire. She identifies with the protagonist of the story who spoke up for the Jewish people when they were in danger of annihilation. 'My Hadassa' is what my uncle calls me,” she said, referring to Esther’s original Jewish name.

“It’s his plan, it’s not just something I’m feeling and thinking. This brings me so much courage, confidence, and boldness. It’s hard when I think about the safety of my family but I believe what I’m doing will bring freedom to my people, to Lebanon. We’re exposing lies and bringing truth, bringing Lebanon back to their calling.” Bassili points to Isaiah 29 with its promise of blessing and hope for Lebanon:

Is it not yet a very little while

until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

In that day the deaf shall hear

the words of a book,

and out of their gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind shall see.

The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,

and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

(Isaiah 29:17-19)

Together with another Lebanese friend named Jonathan Elkhoury, Bassili went to support Jewish students at a Hillel rally in support of Israel on a campus. They took the Lebanese flag to fly alongside the Israeli flag.

“At first the students were nervous, but then they were really happy, saying, “Oh, they’re with us?!” Others were saying, “We love Lebanon, we love the people, we don’t want war.” It was great to see their love. Some Lebanese students were freaking out but it led to lots of conversations.”

As a result of her presence on campus, Bassili was invited to a meeting to support the Jewish community in California where she pointed out that Christianity has its roots in Judaism, and said, “We want to wake up the silent church that has not been vocal in supporting Israel.” Those who were gathered agreed, and have since prioritized establishing an alliance of Jews and Christians (www.christianandjewishalliance.com), based on Isaiah 62: “For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet” (Isaiah 62:1).

The alliance has planned a rally for Oct. 20 and Bassili will sing her song “God of Israel.” They’ve also invited Hananya Naftali and others to speak.

She will also be part of the Persian Jewish Unity Night on Sept. 24, as Israel approaches the date that changed it: October 7. Eden Golan, who performed October Rain at Eurovision, will join via Zoom, and Bassili will perform her version in Arabic afterward.

Now she is working on a new album with Israeli producers, with Arab, American, and Jewish artists all working together. “It’s really needed at this time,” says Bassili. “It’s going to be called “The Apple of My Eye””.

Today Carine Bassili’s non-profit Pure Love Worship seeks to bring healing and peace through humanitarian aid and music. You can find her songs on her YouTube channel and follow her on Instagram.