INTERVIEW: ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief Rosenberg discusses 'Israel at war' on CALVARY Live radio program

Israel's war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza has not just changed Israel but has changed the Middle East and the world, ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg told by Pastor Ed Taylor on his radio program Calvary Live on Grace FM in Colorado.

Rosenberg set the stage by describing what it was like to be in Israel on the morning of Oct. 7, the day Israelis now refer to as the “Black Shabbat,” when 3,000 Hamas terrorists and their allies broke through the Gaza border with Israel’s southern border communities and brutally attacked 1,200 Israeli and foreign civilians, including children, women and Holocaust survivors.

“It was a Sabbath for us in Israel,” Rosenberg began, explaining that Shabbat is a quiet day, a day of rest when most of the country slows down.

“And it was also a religious holiday, Simchat Torah, which is a Jewish holiday that celebrates…it's called the joy of the Torah. And it celebrates and commemorates when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the first five books of the Bible.”

What should have been a joyful and quiet holiday morning was disrupted by the sound of rocket sirens, alerting the region that there were inbound missiles headed toward the area. Rosenberg was at his home in Jerusalem with his family at the time, when they were suddenly under fire, with eight rounds of missiles being launched toward the city, which Rosenberg said was "unusual."

“That's what we woke up to, and it just kept happening and happening. And you're sitting in your bomb shelter and you're turning on the news…We'd never seen anything like this. This was an invasion. There were people being butchered in their own bedrooms, in their own homes, Jews burned alive in their houses. Mothers shot to death in front of their children…” Rosenberg said and continued to describe the horrific news reports. He also recalled the Yom Kippur War that was launched against Israel on Oct. 6, 1973, when a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, caught Israeli forces off-guard on the most solemn and holy fast day of the Jewish calendar and launched an attack.

Rosenberg said that since Oct. 7, it feels like we've been living in an upside world, with a surge of global antisemitism.

“We've seen world governments turn against Israel and condemn us in the United Nations every chance they get. We've seen college campuses all across the United States, thousands of students turning out on the side of Hamas and against Israel.”

Rosenberg also mentioned the South African government’s charge against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where the Jewish state is being accused of committing genocide in Gaza, not a war of self-defense.

“…To cite Superman, we're in the 'bizarro world' where light is dark, day is night, up is down, black is white. Everything is on its head” and God is watching to see how countries will respond.

Rosenberg agreed with Taylor that man's hatred toward Israel has a demonic root to it and noted that Jew-hatred was mentioned in the Gospel of John 10:10, where  Jesus describes Satan as a thief who came “to rob, kill and destroy.” On the other hand, Jesus came so that “they may have life and have it abundantly.”

“Everything that God wants, everything that God loves, everything that God says – that Jesus says, and since Jesus is God – Satan is 100%, 180 degrees. Again, he's it's like a photographic negative. Satan is against everything that Jesus is for,” Rosenberg said.

“When we see the scriptures that tell us that God has said, ‘I'm going to give the Jewish people a land, the land of Israel, the Promised Land,’ we can now understand that Satan says, ‘Yeah, I'm going to come and take it away. When God says, ‘I'm going to make Jerusalem a City of Peace, we understand now that Satan comes to say, ‘Yeah, fine. I'll make it a city of bloodshed.’”

Even the Temple Mount in the middle of Jerusalem, “the absolute center of the world” is a target for Satan, Rosenberg continued. “And so Satan has hated Jews uniquely because God loves us uniquely.”

Rosenberg described his recent trip into the southern Gaza Strip with CBN’s Jerusalem News Bureau Chief in Jerusalem Chris Mitchell, where they were able to witness firsthand a newly-discovered maze of terror tunnels underneath the city of Khan Younis, the site of some of the war's most intense battles since December.

Upon exiting the personal carrier they were traveling in, Rosenberg said they immediately heard machine gun fire and bombs exploding, as they found themselves in the middle of a firefight just a couple of blocks away. He and Mitchell were protected by heavily armed soldiers and an IDF general while they were briefed on the terror tunnels they were about to enter.

Rosenberg described the tunnels as humid, dark and narrow. After walking for some time, they were brought to a room with cages where Israeli hostages had been held.

He said they were told that the IDF has DNA proof that the hostages were held there and “other evidence that they were in these cages.”

“And then, if that weren't creepy enough: ‘We're going to take you into the actual lair, the headquarters of the top senior Hamas terrorist leadership because we know that they were in there. And we're going to show you why we know, and we're going to show you how they lived,” Rosenberg recalled.

Mitchell and Rosenberg had an opportunity to pray for the hostages while inside the tunnels and cages.

“We just bowed our heads and started praying, praying for the hostages, for their release, for the capture – or killing, if necessary – of the Hamas leadership and for the liberation of Gaza, not from Israel, but from the reign of terror of Hamas.”

Mitchell turned to Rosenberg after the prayer and asked him if he wanted to take communion (he had prepared ahead of time by bringing grape juice and crackers). Rosenberg told Taylor it was one of the most powerful spiritual moments he had ever experienced in his life.

“We bowed our heads, and we prayed that the Lord would break the stronghold of Satan, who has come to rob, kill, and destroy all of the Palestinian people, as well as Israel. And we prayed the Lord would redeem this bloodied, desecrated strip of land,” Rosenberg said.

The two men also prayed that the Lord would set the captives free, according to Isaiah 61 – not just the hostages but also that He would set Palestinians and Israelis free, “out of their spiritual bondage to Satan, free to know Jesus is the Messiah and let them know life and know it abundantly.”

During the interview, Rosenberg spoke about the effect that the surprise invasion and brutal massacre of 1,200 people on Oct. 7, including acts of torture and rape, and the abduction of more than 250 hostages, has had on Israelis.

He said the sheer grief, shock and anger took hold of Israelis and suddenly the nation was at war, with some 400,000 Israelis called up to reserves, wives saying goodbye to their husbands, mothers saying goodbye to their sons and daughters.

Rosenberg also described what it's like to live in Israel as more than 134 people are still being held captive in Gaza by Hamas terrorists.

“The hostages are on our hearts with such grief because at the beginning there were 240. Now, there was a release of over 100 of them in November. That was a miracle by itself because Hamas had come in beheading babies. You know, as I said, slaughtering people…They literally …the videos of them, which…some of them are public, a lot of most of it is not public. I've seen classified versions, people chopping each other's heads off. I mean, unbelievable.”

Rosenberg said in recent days he interviewed some of the relatives of those still being held hostage, such as the Bibas family, including a 4-year-old toddler Ariel and his younger brother Kfir (now 1), the youngest hostage, who have been held in Gaza with their mother Shiri for 145 days. Their father Yarden was also taken captive and was separated from his wife and children.

“You know, I was in those tunnels. You can barely breathe. There's no fresh air…They're in terrible jeopardy. Israel is negotiating but Hamas is demanding full surrender by Israel. Full removal of all troops from Gaza and letting Hamas come back to power. Well, that's not going to happen.”

Rosenberg said the hostage situation has caused “real tension in the society right now.”

On the one hand, we've got to defeat Hamas. We have to because otherwise this will happen again and we can never let it happen again, which shouldn't have happened now. It was a terrible, uh, massive systemic failure of the Israeli government, Israeli military, Israeli intelligence. It's just a disaster that this could have happened and we weren't protected,” he said, “But we want those hostages back and Hamas is giving us the choice: ‘You can surrender and we'll give them all back. Or we won't. Or they'll all die.”

During the interview, Rosenberg shared his six biblical truths that Evangelicals need to embrace when it comes to Israel and the Arab Muslim world.

“Evangelical believers are called to love Israel and her neighbors, not just one or the other –called to be peacemakers, called to oppose injustice, care for those who are suffering, strengthen our Gentile, Christian and Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters, providing financial support when the Lord directs, make sure that everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to at least hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and understand it. And then, finally, to never stop praying.

Rosenberg encouraged listeners who want to invest in blessing Israel to visit their ministry site, The Joshua Fund, a non-profit organization that has been providing funding for humanitarian relief, discipleship, Bible colleges, Bible distribution, evangelism training and more for the last 18 years. Their organization helps provide local messianic and evangelical congregations ‘behind the scenes’ with the funding they need to be a blessing to those in need.

Rosenberg is the founder of ALL ISRAEL NEWS, now in its fourth year, which is the only news site about Israel for Christians that is based in the Jewish state. The news outlet provides accurate, trustworthy news about Israel for Evangelical Christians worldwide, including timely reporting, first-hand interviews, Israeli local news, Hebrew translations of local news and more.

On behalf of the hostages, join Christians around the world by praying the scripture Isaiah 61:1-2, #SetTheCaptivesFree

THE ROSENBERG REPORT airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. EST and Saturday nights at 9:30 p.m. EST – on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the most-watched Christian television network in the United States. Episodes can also be viewed on https://rosenbergreport.tv/.

Visit The Joshua Fund to learn how you can bless Israeli believers.