October 2, 2026 • 33 mins
Tudor Dixon takes listeners inside Israel for a special edition of The Tudor Dixon Podcast, sharing her firsthand journey through the Holy Land and the biblical sites that transformed the way she reads Scripture.
Tudor sits down with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to discuss why he believes Americans and Christians should visit Israel, what travelers experience on the ground, the decline in tourism, and why seeing Jerusalem and the Holy Land firsthand can bring biblical history to life. Huckabee also addresses perceptions about safety, religious freedom, and relations among Israel's Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Arab, and Druze communities.
Tudor also speaks with Ze’ev Orenstein, Director of International Affairs at the City of David, about archaeological discoveries that connect visitors with Jerusalem's biblical past. They discuss King David, faith, America's Judeo-Christian heritage, equality before the law, and why passing history and faith from one generation to the next matters.
Plus, Tudor reflects on visiting the Sea of Galilee and Garden of Gethsemane and explains how walking through the places described in Scripture changed her personal connection to the Bible.
It's a special journey through Israel, Christianity, archaeology, biblical history, and faith—from the City of David to conversations about the future of the Holy Land.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is a special edition of the Tudor Dixon podcast
from Israel. If you have been following me on social
media this week, then you have seen some of the
beautiful places we toured during our trip to Israel. And
I'm going to continue posting content all week on all
my socials. So on Facebook, on Instagram, on X, you
just go there and you're going to see some of
(00:21):
the coolest stuff from our faith history, from our faith foundation.
And today I get to share some really cool interviews
with you as well. While I was there, I had
the chance to sit down with our U.S. ambassador to Israel,
and that is Ambassador Mike Huckabee and one of the
directors from the City of David, a really cool place
(00:42):
where they are excavating the actual City of David. So
both of those conversations are can't miss. You're going to
hear them in this episode. But before we get to
those conversations, I just want to give you a little
bit of my experience while I was there. Someone asked
me today, what's it like when you actually have the
Bible jumping off the page? And that is really hard
(01:02):
to capture. But I could tell you this. We actually
went on this boat in the Sea of Galilee. It
was a boat that is fashioned after the same exact
type of boat that Jesus would have been in and
would have fished in.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
This type of boat.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So you go out there and you're on the Sea
of Galilee and you look out and you can just
like feel what it would be like to have the
storm come, to have Jesus walking on the water, Peter
trying to meet him and getting distracted by the wind.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like that's all around you. That's real life.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
You know now where that happened once you've been to Israel.
Another site that was similar to that for me, but
I mean, all of these sites were very much like that,
where you can just immerse yourself in the stories that
you've known your whole life. But standing in the Garden
of Gethsemane and looking up to the Temple Mount, and
our guide, our guide was phenomenal. Our guide was, she
(01:56):
was like so on it, getting us places on time.
But she was like, look, from here, you see the
gate in the wall. That's not the actual gate. That's
a newer wall, she said, but that would have been
about where it was.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And you are.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Seeing Jesus would have been betrayed right here and then
walked up this path. It just is all these images
that you've created in your head. But now you're there
and you have the real scenery around you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
You have the smells.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You have the plants. I don't think I've ever seen
an olive tree. And I'm here in a garden of
olive trees.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You have the view.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And it's hard to wrap your head around. But you
feel the Holy Spirit so strong.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It is incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I came home and I just started to dive
into the word in a totally new way. I'm consuming
the Bible in a whole new way than I was
before I knew what it looked like. And I'm a
visual person. So for me, that just connects everything. And
I want to show you a little bit of that
in my interviews today. So as I said, we went
(02:58):
to the City of David. We sat down with Zev Orenstein.
He's the Director of International Affairs at the City of David.
And you'll get to hear my interview with Zev in
a part of this city of David. You'll get to
see that in the background. So what they're doing is
they're actually excavating under people's homes. So when you see
this interview, you'll see that we're actually kind of in
(03:21):
a tunnel. And it's these archaeological sites that sit in
huge tunnels. They have metal tunnels built so that they
can hold up the homes, but also expose this lost
city of David.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
It's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And they found things that confirm the stories of David.
Zeb was telling us a story of these two clay
seals that were found in the archaeological site in an
ash layer dating back to 586 BC when the Babylonians
destroyed Jerusalem.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And he actually went to the.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Wall and he started digging out with his finger and
he got this piece of black ash and rubbed it
on my hand. And he was like, this we know.
was from when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. I mean, to
be there, to feel that, to know that you are
so close to that. And he shows us that they
found these two seals.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
They were like letter seals, clay seals.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And the names on these two seals that they found
in the same area in the city of David, actually,
both of those names appear in the Bible, in the
same book of the Bible, the book of Kings, in
the same chapter of the Bible. And in the same
line of scripture. And you just have this connection, like
these little nuggets from God saying, you've been reading this
(04:39):
your whole life. And yet here it is now in
your hands.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We were there.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We walked this path. And when you walk this path,
we walked it down in these tunnels. It is, it's
like a road. and only partially exposed, but it's a
road and we're walking it and the stones are immense.
They're huge and they're beautiful. And this pathway is incredible.
And he says, this is the pathway that they would
(05:06):
have walked for the census. This is the pathway that
they would have walked to the Temple Mount. This is
the pathway that Jesus would have walked on the day
he overturned the tables. And he said, imagine everybody is
coming to Jerusalem because they have to come for the census.
And as they're coming up this path, you would see
vendors on either side because they've all run out of
(05:28):
their supplies and they're selling things and everybody's going back
and forth. But he said Jesus was finding that they
were telling people, oh, the price has changed to go
worship at the temple. And the reason that he got
mad in that moment was he said, nobody is going
to keep people from the Lord. Nobody is going to
keep people from worshiping God. It was so powerful to
(05:51):
be there. Zev is such an interesting guy, such an
awesome guide. This is my complete interview with Zev Orenstein
right after this. Okay. So we are here in the
city of David with one of the directors of the
city of David, Zev Orenstein. Thank you so much for
having us here, taking us on this incredible tour today.
(06:12):
So I want to take a little bit of this
tour back to America and share with people what we saw,
which is impossible.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But you're here every day.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You've we literally just walked down this path and I'm, I,
it's like emotional for me. I'm holding back tears as
I say this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
And as we're walking down this path, you say, people
ask all the time, did Jesus walk on this path?
And we've been many places where our tour guide has said,
you know, we probably think we, we feel like we're close.
And you said in many cases, we feel that way.
But in this case, we're a hundred percent sure.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
That's pretty powerful.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
It's very powerful.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
You know, there are, There are many places you take
the Bible. You read the stories going back thousands of
years that have inspired billions of people around the world, Jews, Christians,
so many people. And you wonder, were these real people?
Were these real actual events as they were described? And
sometimes you have to take it on faith. But the
(07:09):
city of David is not such a place. There is
so much of our shared heritage, Jerusalem's biblical heritage, that
is the bedrock of the United States of America, of Israel,
so much of Western civilization. So much of that heritage,
which is being unearthed every single day here in the
city of David, is showing that the foundations of that faith,
of those ideals, are not simply a matter of faith,
(07:32):
but a matter of fact. That every single day here
in the city of David, all the antiquities, all the
old stuff that archaeologists are unearthing, are affirming that heritage,
that faith, every single day.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I feel like people need to come here to see
what we got to see today, where you showed us
seals and you showed us things that were down here
in the site that confirm the bible and and it's
interesting for me because as you're talking about this i'm
like should we want to confirm it is that not
belief is that is that not having faith and yet
i think there's always that human curiosity and i feel
(08:05):
like god would only reveal these things to us if
he felt that we needed to see throughout these centuries
that this story is true.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So i i personally i agree with you i never
say that we're proving the bible It's not our place
to prove God's word, right? God doesn't need PR agents
and His word is true whether or not we ever
find anything that corroborates it. That's what faith is. And yet,
if you go back about a hundred years ago, so
much of the developed world, what we call Western civilization,
(08:35):
revered the Bible. You fast forward a hundred years to
where we stand today, and the Bible is certainly in media,
in academia, in culture in Hollywood, the Bible is not respected.
In fact, many believers are often mocked and scorned as
people who believe in the equivalent of Harry Potter as
being true. And yet, I believe that at a time
(08:56):
of unprecedented denial of Jerusalem's biblical heritage, we're living in
a time of unprecedented discovery where these discoveries are being unearthed.
At a time where on the one hand you have
this denial saying the foundations of Christianity, the foundations of Judaism,
the foundations of that Western civilization rests upon. So it's
all made up. It doesn't rest on anything. And yet
(09:18):
here in the city of David and other sites throughout Israel,
where these discoveries are being unearthed, that show that that faith,
that that heritage, that the foundations of the societies that
we've been living in, that America on its 250th year,
that it rests on a solid, that those ideals, those
principles came from a real place and from real people
(09:39):
thousands of years ago. And here in the city of David,
you actually get to see Where it is coming back
to life.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So we talked to Ambassador Huckabee, and he was saying
that this is bringing the Bible off the page. And
you told us the story of David and Bathsheba, which
I think historically growing up, I was always like.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, it was kind of a shameful thing, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
But I always interpreted as human weakness and we can,
we are, all of us are like this and we
can repent. But I think in today's political climate, it
was very interesting to hear the way you talked about that.
And I'd like you to kind of repeat that because
as we see so many leaders who are becoming obsessed
(10:21):
with self and away from God, how did we get,
even as it makes me think of George Washington and
you were talking about the values of the United States
and why the United States has such a connection to Jerusalem.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And the city of David.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And that's because these stories remind us that we are
called to repent to a higher.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
There's a reason why. Thousands of years on, the Bible
remains both timeless and timely. Because we haven't changed all
that much in the last 3,000 years. We're still driven
by ego and temptation and power and jealousy. But the
same people. And so when you look at the story
of David and Bathsheba, one, you can understand that, yes,
sometimes people in power make poor choices. That sometimes they
(11:05):
are driven by temptation and maybe not the greater good.
You know what? Because we're human, right? That's the case
with David. And that's still the case with us today.
But what's revolutionary about that story is what happened afterwards.
Because when the prophet Nathan calls out David, what should
have happened to Nathan and what happens in the ancient
world and still in much of the world today, if
(11:26):
you call out your king, your president, your prime minister,
you can do that one time. You will never get
a second chance. And yet in this story, when the
prophet calls out the king, when Nathan says to David.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
He says, you are that man.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
You committed that crime. Instead of David killing Nathan, David
responds by saying, I've sinned before God. How do I
make this right? What was revolutionary about that moment and
which ultimately would reach the shores of America is the
idea of equality before the law. That king, president, prime minister, senator, congressman,
governor are all accountable to the same moral law as
(12:04):
everyone else. And that traveled from a balcony in the
city of David 3,000 years ago that King David stood upon.
And that traveled across the shores, across the seas, to
reach people like John Locke and Thomas Paine, eventually the
founding fathers. And one of the things that makes America,
America is this idea of equality. Equality, that you have
the same opportunities, but also equality in the sense that
(12:27):
the law applies equally to everybody. That came from the
city of David. It came from Jerusalem's biblical heritage.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
But at the same time, we do feel like we're
losing that. We feel, and there's a panic over that,
I think, as we have people that are saying, oh,
you're just upset with how I pray and there should
be no prayer. And it's not even how you pray
or who you pray to. It's what that prayer means
internally to you. But also that moral value that we
(12:57):
seem to be losing, even if we're saying that we're praying,
it feels like we're losing that foundation, that foundation in faith.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
In our country.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And I think that's been a real fear for people
who are people of faith going, wait a minute, wait
a minute, this is going to be a disaster. But
coming here, it has been a disaster. And yet the
beauty in disaster is the rebuilding and the staying power.
So what is your message to the people of the
United States who right now are feeling like, what if
(13:29):
we lose it all and America falls?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
What happens?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Well, first, God willing, it won't.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
God willing, it won't. And yet, one of the stories
of Jerusalem is that Jerusalem is a place that's been
knocked down time and time again. The Jewish people have
been exiled, conquered, scattered, and yet have chosen to get
back up. That Jerusalem has been rebuilt across thousands of
years and is a flourishing city. I told you earlier today,
(13:56):
when a senator asked me, am I optimistic about the
future of Israel, about the future of Jerusalem? And I said,
I'm very optimistic. He said, why? I said, because everywhere
I look in this city, I see cranes and pregnant women.
We are building, we are choosing life every single day here,
despite the challenges that we face, despite being in a
difficult neighborhood. But there's a secret that has allowed us
over thousands of years to still be standing where we
(14:17):
are today, despite all the challenges. And that is, even
in the darkest times, even when we were exiled to
the four corners of the earth, we kept telling our story.
We kept saying next year in Jerusalem. We kept on
the festivals, on our holidays, whether it's Passover or all
the other ones, we kept telling the story. of who
we are as a people, our past, our present, but
(14:39):
also our hope for a future. And the question that
I would say to your listeners who maybe see something
slipping away is what's your story and how are you
telling it? Are you passing on that story at your
dinner tables? Is Thanksgiving, is Christmas about shopping and sports?
Is something wrong with shopping? Is something wrong with sports?
(15:00):
Is Memorial Day about barbecues and beach? Or is it
an opportunity to recognize all those who have sacrificed to
allow us to have the blessings that we have? This Thanksgiving,
a day where we truly give thanks for all the
things that we have in life, all the generations that
sacrificed for us to be where we are, for Christmas,
(15:20):
for Christians, to 2,000 years on, that your faith is
still alive. How did you get to where you are?
And when you pass on that story from generation to generation,
especially during the hard times, in the easy times, it's easy.
But especially in those hard times, when you make it
a point to keep the story alive, and you do
it at your dinner table, and your communities, and maybe
(15:41):
in your churches, and then it spreads beyond. But you
can't count on the government to tell the stories for you.
You can't rely only on your pastors to tell the
stories for you. You need to keep the story alive.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And you need to have the next generation.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Also, right, you can't pass something on if it's not
to pass it on to. And if you have the
next generation, but you're don't give them something of value,
well then, you know, I think it was Ronald Reagan
who said that freedom is only one generation away from
being lost. It's not passed down in the bloodstream. And that's,
you know, how have the Jewish people across thousands of years,
being a small people, a minority, everywhere we go, how
(16:17):
have we survived? Because we keep telling the story. We
remember where we came from. We remember where we are
and where we're trying to get to and the ideals
and heritage that we're going to be true to, no
matter what, in the hard times, in the better times,
and That's where we are in place in the city
of Dave. It shows us both. It shows us the life.
It shows us the destruction, but it shows us how
(16:37):
you come back from those things.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I think that's something unique that we've learned here is
this constant fight for survival. And it's very much value
life and value those stories and value passing on. And
I do think that in a certain sense, we've become
spoiled with the idea that we're just safe in the
United States. And I'm not saying that I would want
it to be any other way. But I do think
(17:00):
there's a time to step back and say, if you
feel threatened, if you feel that something is changing, then
it's time to get serious about passing on those stories
and making sure that that foundation is there. So thank
you for teaching us that today. I have absolutely loved
being here. It's been amazing. And I recommend anybody out here,
(17:21):
come see Zef, come to the City of Daybreak. He
will take you on an amazing tour and it will
be transformational.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I just want to say, when you go on a
trip like this, you make lifelong friends. So Zev has
kept in touch with me and as well as our
amazing guide, Sharon Peleg.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
She was awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Like I said, pushing you everywhere you had to go
because we had six days to get through everything. And
we didn't get through everything, but we got through so much.
And what I realized in this time is that the
Israelis are such loving people. So our guide was an
Israeli Jew. Our driver, the bus driver that we had
was an Israeli Muslim. It's something you don't hear about
(18:03):
when you're here in the United States. And they were
just laughing and talking and and having a great time
as we were driving from one place to the next place.
And never once did you feel like there was any tension.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And one thing I.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Noticed while I was there was with Zev and all
the other people and with Michael Weiss, who we interviewed
and you heard from this past Wednesday, Also, same thing.
He said to me, oh, you have four kids. This
is like an Israeli family. There was so much celebration
of pregnant women. Every place we went, they said, oh, well,
we love to see a pregnant woman because that's the
(18:36):
next generation. We love to see that new life. We
celebrate that. And as I started to hear that over
and over again, I started to think, why isn't that
what's happening in our country? Why aren't we feeling that way?
And I guess when you're constantly fighting for survival, every
life is honored and celebrated, but it was just such
a reminder. that we should really be celebrating every pregnant
(18:58):
woman as we see them. Every pregnant woman is a
gift from God. And that is the spirit of the
Israeli people.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It's so strong.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's so vibrant. And I got the chance to sit
down with Ambassador Huckabee. He would tell you the exact
same thing. In fact, you're going to hear from him.
He was gracious enough to sit down with me. He
is obviously the ambassador now. But he talks about it
from the standpoint of he's been a tour guide in Israel.
He loves Israel. He wants people to come and visit.
So here it is, Ambassador Huckabee. Well, we are here
(19:29):
in Israel and we have the U.S. ambassador to Israel
with us, Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Tudor, I'm so glad you're in Israel. Welcome. And I
understand it's your first time, but you just got to
promise it won't be your last.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
No, it will definitely not be my last. In fact,
that's what I wanted to talk to you about. We,
as we've gone around the country, we have felt so.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
safe.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
You are. Yeah, you should.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I mean, we've seen IDF troops in Jerusalem, but every
place else, which makes you feel safe because there's people
around you everywhere else.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
There has been no, nobody arguing, no tension. We've gone
to all these holy sites.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's been amazingly welcoming, but it's been empty.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Why?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Tourists are afraid to come and they shouldn't be. We're
urging the State Department to change the designation from a
level three down to level two, because right now the
official recommendation remains that which it has been since October
the 7th. Well, things are totally different and they're pretty predictable,
but more importantly, Even in the midst of war, this
(20:36):
is going to sound really hard for a lot of
Americans to understand. Six weeks of war earlier this spring,
and I felt safer here than I would during a
tornado in Arkansas. Now, you follow the protocol. There's a
great system of missile defense, ubiquitous shelters everywhere. There's a
(20:56):
phenomenal electronic system that warns people. When you hear it,
you take cover. You go to the shelters. but not
one person, not one in the entirety of Israel was
injured or killed during six weeks of war who went
to the shelter and was there during the incoming ballistic
missile attacks. And ballistic missiles are not little rockets. They're
(21:20):
the size of 18 wheel trucks. These are massive instruments.
Most of them, 92% were intercepted by the defense system.
Many of them hit in areas where it didn't matter.
And the few that actually found a target somewhere didn't
kill or injure anyone if they were in the shelter.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I think it sounds scary to us because obviously we
don't see that happening.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Yeah, it's not something every day. Right.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
But on the.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Flip side, something else we don't see happening is we
don't see the Bible come to life. And you put
it so beautifully when you said you've read it in
black and white on pages and it's just there 2D
in front of you.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And when you come here, it comes to life.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
And for me, I've thought so many times, my girls
are constantly saying, how do we spread the gospel?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
How do we spread the gospel? And I was here and.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I was thinking, how could they spread the gospel any
better than seeing it in real life? And as we
see revivals and Charlie Kirk's work in the United States
was so amazing with the gospel. But being here, we
can all be Charlie.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah. I first came here in 1973. I was fresh
out of high school. had no idea what to expect,
fell in love with the place, started coming, bringing groups
in 1981. And I'd been here over a hundred times
before I was sent here to be ambassador. So I
have a deep connection to the country, to the places,
(22:46):
and I never get tired of it. When people say,
you know, are there places you can just say, yeah,
I don't need to go there. I've been there too
many times. No, because every time I go, I learn
something that's new. You just can't exhaust it. I mean,
there's Just keep in mind, 3,800 years of Jewish history,
that is the foundation of Christian history. And so you
can't dig through all that is here to uncover. If
(23:09):
you go to Gettysburg, one very important thing happened in Gettysburg,
but one thing. When you're standing in Jerusalem, you're looking
at 20, 30 layers. Are we talking the patriarchs, the prophets,
the judges? Are we talking the time of the second
temple and David and Solomon? Are we looking at the
time of Jesus, the apostles? Which layer do you want
to look at? Because they're all here in one little
(23:33):
square meter of property.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And I really think this is the time for us
as Christians to be bringing people back to the faith.
And as we see some of the things, even when
I look at American politics, some of the manipulations of
Christianity that are tricking people. And we've heard about false
prophets in the Bible, certainly. But this being here is
(23:55):
very much like reading the Bible. As you go through
these sites, and I'm sure you see something different every
time as you read scripture, it hits you at different
points in your life differently.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
And I think about my own daughters.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And sending them off into the world, my oldest being 17,
and thinking the value of her seeing, hearing this. And
that's something that parents and families in America should feel
safe coming here and showing their children that, What we
go to church every day, what we go to youth
group every week for, you know, this is how can
you not want to take your children here and see
(24:29):
it because we're scared what we don't need to be.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Don't need to be. And in fact, there's never been
a better time to come.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
There's no lines.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Well, there's no lines. I tell my friends back home,
I say, this is the time to come because places
that sometimes in a high season of travel in past
years would be very crowded. You'd still enjoy it. You'd
still be blessed by it. But now you can go
and you can see twice as many things because you're
never standing in line because tourism has not recovered yet.
(24:57):
And therefore, people are very hospitable. They're glad you're here.
More importantly, you can literally double the amount of things
that you can see. Just say the Galilee alone. Go
to Tagba. Go to the Church of Beatitudes. Go to Capernaum.
Go to Migdal. Bethsaida is now... being uncovered. It's not
fully open to the public, but it's going to be
(25:18):
an amazing place when it is. All of these places
are pretty much empty right now, and you can just
absorb them. And it's an incredible time to come.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Well, we were able to pack more things in because
even our guide was saying, we thought we'd have traffic.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
There's no traffic.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Well, there's traffic. Now, let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Where we were.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Where you were. Between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, there's traffic,
and in Jerusalem, there's traffic. But it's manageable. especially when
you plan correctly. But in the bigger part of the country,
it's not that hard to get around. In fact, it's
better than ever.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So I just want Americans to understand that as we
are talking about what's happening in the Middle East and
talking about Israel, if you're really thinking about the people
of Israel, we have seen these towns and they are
just waiting for you to come because.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
They rely on Americans. They rely on us.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
So when we hear Americans talking about the people on
the ground and caring about the people on the ground,
as I've been here, I just kept being reminded, these
are the people and we care for them by coming
here and sharing our wealth and sharing our time with
the people who are set up just to help us
see our holy sites.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
And Tudor, I think one of the most important things
is when people come and see for themselves, it erases
some of these ridiculous rivals that are said about Israel
and the Jewish people, for example, that, well, Christians are
not welcomed here. Nonsense. I'm a Christian. I played the guitar,
bass guitar in our church band every Sunday. I've never
(26:51):
been spit on. I've never been heckled. I've been coming
here 53 years. Christians in Israel is the only place
in the region where the Christian population has actually grown. 1948,
34,000 Christians in the whole country. Today, just under 200,000.
Israel appointed an ambassador to the Christian world, the state
of Israel. The U.S. doesn't even have an ambassador to
(27:13):
the Christian world. This is incredible. 20% of the population
of Israel is Arab, 20%. So 2 million living in Israel,
they vote, they can serve on the Supreme Court, they
can serve in the Knesset, and they do. They sometimes
run the biggest organizations. Until recently, the CEO of the
largest bank in all of Israel was an Arab. So
this idea that, oh, it's an apartheid nation, I would
(27:36):
always say, Just go to Hadassah Medical Center, one of
the top 10 hospitals in the whole world. Go to Hadassah,
walk up and down the halls for 30 minutes, and
tell me you see apartheid. Because you see Arab doctors
who are the chairman of a department overseeing Jewish doctors, nurses, staff, patients, all, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Druze,
(27:58):
everyone side by side, working together, same waiting room, same treatment,
same price, same everything. And nobody says, are you a Jew? Oh,
I'm not going to let you work on me if
you're not Jewish. Or, oh, you're Arab. I'm not going
to touch you. Nothing like that. So it's an opportunity
to explode the incredible myths and outright lies told constantly
(28:24):
about Israel.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And I think that's the critical part about bringing people
here is to show that truth, open their eyes to
the diversity that's truly here and the togetherness And the
willingness to live together. They want to live here. They
are Israelis. They are a part of the community and
they serve. That to me, I was like, oh, 20%
Muslims and Arabs.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
And they're serving in the government. It's not what we're hearing.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
So I appreciate your time today. I know your time
is limited, but I just want to say thank you
so much. The country is beautiful. And thank you for
serving the United States in this way.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Just promise to come back and let me know when
you're here.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I will.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
When you bring your children, I'd love to welcome them
to your embassy. But more importantly, I hope all of
the people that are watching will recognize this is a
great time to come. Plan your travel. I look forward
to seeing you in the most amazing place outside of
the United States.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Absolutely. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Thank you, Tudor. Great to see you.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Thank you all for tuning into the Tudor Dixon Podcast.
I just want to address the attempted hijacking of the
plane this week from Dubai to Israel as we're talking
about this.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Because really what.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I saw in that and what I've heard from the
story is the heroism, but the spirit of Israel.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
And I know you're looking at this and you're going, oh,
this is such a terrible story. It is a terrible story.
It is scary to us.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It's scary to everyone because I think we've always felt
like that cockpit door is locked. And so we're safe
because nobody can get in there. But this is the
situation that we hadn't really anticipated is one of the
pilots already being ready to hijack the plane. So if
you haven't heard, there was a co-pilot on a flight,
a fly Dubai airline going to Israel. The co-pilot stabbed
(30:18):
the pilot. It was crazy because there was a mother
and daughter outside of the cockpit at this time. They
came out and they said to passengers, we can hear
screams and yells where we believe that one of the
pilots is being stabbed. He had the wherewithal to unlock
the door, the man who was attacked. Three men in
the plane rushed the cockpit. They pulled the terrorist out.
(30:41):
They tied him up with the headphones of the plane,
with the wires from the headphones of the plane. The
one guy knew that he was sitting next to two
other pilots.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
He ran down. First, he runs in. The plane is nosediving.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
He pulls back on the lever to pull the plane
back up. And the prime minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu, asked him,
how did you know how to do that? And he goes,
I've watched a lot of air disaster shows. I mean,
you guys, this is the spirit of the Israeli people,
like cool under pressure. Can you imagine if that happened here?
(31:16):
We would be freaking out. And yet these people were
like survival mode. He went back and he found these
two pilots.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
They landed the plane.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
It is an unbelievable story of passion, of will to live,
of God's miracle. I mean, it truly was a miracle
that this plane, all of these things happened. There were
extra pilots on the plane. The mother and daughter heard.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
It when they did. The three guys were able to
rush the cockpit safely.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
A true, incredible, amazing story of survival. And I just
want to tell you about our flight. We obviously didn't
have anything like that on our flight. We flew on
Arkea Airlines. It was a great experience. And I would
recommend anybody who is going to Israel, we went out
of JFK on Arkea.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The flight was safe. The communication was great. And the
staff was amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
So that same spirit of the Israeli people was the same,
the staff, the Israeli staff of Arkea Airlines. They were like,
they became friends by the end of the flight. So
when you're on a flight like that, it's really long.
You want to make sure that you are with genuinely
kind people. And that was what I found on Arkea Airlines.
It was an amazing week in Israel.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Please.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Keep checking our social media for more behind-the-scenes pictures of
the trip. We're going to have videos of the trip.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I'll keep putting them out. But come back here on Monday.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
We're going to have the EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and
we're going to cover a very controversial topic with him.
We're going to cover data centers, but you're going to
want to hear what he has to say. Make sure
you tune back in on Monday. And as always, I
want to thank you for joining me on the Tudor
Dixon podcast. For this episode and others, go to TudorDixonPodcast.com
or you can go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(32:54):
wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to watch
the video, which I recommend for this one, check it
out on Rumble or YouTube at Tudor Dixon and make
sure you share it with friends. This was a really
special episode for me and I'm glad I got to
share it with you guys.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Thank you and have a blessed day.
This is a special edition of the Tudor Dixon podcast
from Israel. If you have been following me on social
media this week, then you have seen some of the
beautiful places we toured during our trip to Israel. And
I'm going to continue posting content all week on all
my socials. So on Facebook, on Instagram, on X, you
just go there and you're going to see some of
(00:21):
the coolest stuff from our faith history, from our faith foundation.
And today I get to share some really cool interviews
with you as well. While I was there, I had
the chance to sit down with our U.S. ambassador to Israel,
and that is Ambassador Mike Huckabee and one of the
directors from the City of David, a really cool place
(00:42):
where they are excavating the actual City of David. So
both of those conversations are can't miss. You're going to
hear them in this episode. But before we get to
those conversations, I just want to give you a little
bit of my experience while I was there. Someone asked
me today, what's it like when you actually have the
Bible jumping off the page? And that is really hard
(01:02):
to capture. But I could tell you this. We actually
went on this boat in the Sea of Galilee. It
was a boat that is fashioned after the same exact
type of boat that Jesus would have been in and
would have fished in.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
This type of boat.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So you go out there and you're on the Sea
of Galilee and you look out and you can just
like feel what it would be like to have the
storm come, to have Jesus walking on the water, Peter
trying to meet him and getting distracted by the wind.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like that's all around you. That's real life.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
You know now where that happened once you've been to Israel.
Another site that was similar to that for me, but
I mean, all of these sites were very much like that,
where you can just immerse yourself in the stories that
you've known your whole life. But standing in the Garden
of Gethsemane and looking up to the Temple Mount, and
our guide, our guide was phenomenal. Our guide was, she
(01:56):
was like so on it, getting us places on time.
But she was like, look, from here, you see the
gate in the wall. That's not the actual gate. That's
a newer wall, she said, but that would have been
about where it was.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And you are.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Seeing Jesus would have been betrayed right here and then
walked up this path. It just is all these images
that you've created in your head. But now you're there
and you have the real scenery around you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
You have the smells.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You have the plants. I don't think I've ever seen
an olive tree. And I'm here in a garden of
olive trees.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You have the view.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And it's hard to wrap your head around. But you
feel the Holy Spirit so strong.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It is incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I came home and I just started to dive
into the word in a totally new way. I'm consuming
the Bible in a whole new way than I was
before I knew what it looked like. And I'm a
visual person. So for me, that just connects everything. And
I want to show you a little bit of that
in my interviews today. So as I said, we went
(02:58):
to the City of David. We sat down with Zev Orenstein.
He's the Director of International Affairs at the City of David.
And you'll get to hear my interview with Zev in
a part of this city of David. You'll get to
see that in the background. So what they're doing is
they're actually excavating under people's homes. So when you see
this interview, you'll see that we're actually kind of in
(03:21):
a tunnel. And it's these archaeological sites that sit in
huge tunnels. They have metal tunnels built so that they
can hold up the homes, but also expose this lost
city of David.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
It's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And they found things that confirm the stories of David.
Zeb was telling us a story of these two clay
seals that were found in the archaeological site in an
ash layer dating back to 586 BC when the Babylonians
destroyed Jerusalem.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And he actually went to the.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Wall and he started digging out with his finger and
he got this piece of black ash and rubbed it
on my hand. And he was like, this we know.
was from when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. I mean, to
be there, to feel that, to know that you are
so close to that. And he shows us that they
found these two seals.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
They were like letter seals, clay seals.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And the names on these two seals that they found
in the same area in the city of David, actually,
both of those names appear in the Bible, in the
same book of the Bible, the book of Kings, in
the same chapter of the Bible. And in the same
line of scripture. And you just have this connection, like
these little nuggets from God saying, you've been reading this
(04:39):
your whole life. And yet here it is now in
your hands.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We were there.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We walked this path. And when you walk this path,
we walked it down in these tunnels. It is, it's
like a road. and only partially exposed, but it's a
road and we're walking it and the stones are immense.
They're huge and they're beautiful. And this pathway is incredible.
And he says, this is the pathway that they would
(05:06):
have walked for the census. This is the pathway that
they would have walked to the Temple Mount. This is
the pathway that Jesus would have walked on the day
he overturned the tables. And he said, imagine everybody is
coming to Jerusalem because they have to come for the census.
And as they're coming up this path, you would see
vendors on either side because they've all run out of
(05:28):
their supplies and they're selling things and everybody's going back
and forth. But he said Jesus was finding that they
were telling people, oh, the price has changed to go
worship at the temple. And the reason that he got
mad in that moment was he said, nobody is going
to keep people from the Lord. Nobody is going to
keep people from worshiping God. It was so powerful to
(05:51):
be there. Zev is such an interesting guy, such an
awesome guide. This is my complete interview with Zev Orenstein
right after this. Okay. So we are here in the
city of David with one of the directors of the
city of David, Zev Orenstein. Thank you so much for
having us here, taking us on this incredible tour today.
(06:12):
So I want to take a little bit of this
tour back to America and share with people what we saw,
which is impossible.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But you're here every day.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You've we literally just walked down this path and I'm, I,
it's like emotional for me. I'm holding back tears as
I say this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
And as we're walking down this path, you say, people
ask all the time, did Jesus walk on this path?
And we've been many places where our tour guide has said,
you know, we probably think we, we feel like we're close.
And you said in many cases, we feel that way.
But in this case, we're a hundred percent sure.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
That's pretty powerful.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
It's very powerful.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
You know, there are, There are many places you take
the Bible. You read the stories going back thousands of
years that have inspired billions of people around the world, Jews, Christians,
so many people. And you wonder, were these real people?
Were these real actual events as they were described? And
sometimes you have to take it on faith. But the
(07:09):
city of David is not such a place. There is
so much of our shared heritage, Jerusalem's biblical heritage, that
is the bedrock of the United States of America, of Israel,
so much of Western civilization. So much of that heritage,
which is being unearthed every single day here in the
city of David, is showing that the foundations of that faith,
of those ideals, are not simply a matter of faith,
(07:32):
but a matter of fact. That every single day here
in the city of David, all the antiquities, all the
old stuff that archaeologists are unearthing, are affirming that heritage,
that faith, every single day.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I feel like people need to come here to see
what we got to see today, where you showed us
seals and you showed us things that were down here
in the site that confirm the bible and and it's
interesting for me because as you're talking about this i'm
like should we want to confirm it is that not
belief is that is that not having faith and yet
i think there's always that human curiosity and i feel
(08:05):
like god would only reveal these things to us if
he felt that we needed to see throughout these centuries
that this story is true.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So i i personally i agree with you i never
say that we're proving the bible It's not our place
to prove God's word, right? God doesn't need PR agents
and His word is true whether or not we ever
find anything that corroborates it. That's what faith is. And yet,
if you go back about a hundred years ago, so
much of the developed world, what we call Western civilization,
(08:35):
revered the Bible. You fast forward a hundred years to
where we stand today, and the Bible is certainly in media,
in academia, in culture in Hollywood, the Bible is not respected.
In fact, many believers are often mocked and scorned as
people who believe in the equivalent of Harry Potter as
being true. And yet, I believe that at a time
(08:56):
of unprecedented denial of Jerusalem's biblical heritage, we're living in
a time of unprecedented discovery where these discoveries are being unearthed.
At a time where on the one hand you have
this denial saying the foundations of Christianity, the foundations of Judaism,
the foundations of that Western civilization rests upon. So it's
all made up. It doesn't rest on anything. And yet
(09:18):
here in the city of David and other sites throughout Israel,
where these discoveries are being unearthed, that show that that faith,
that that heritage, that the foundations of the societies that
we've been living in, that America on its 250th year,
that it rests on a solid, that those ideals, those
principles came from a real place and from real people
(09:39):
thousands of years ago. And here in the city of David,
you actually get to see Where it is coming back
to life.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So we talked to Ambassador Huckabee, and he was saying
that this is bringing the Bible off the page. And
you told us the story of David and Bathsheba, which
I think historically growing up, I was always like.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, it was kind of a shameful thing, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
But I always interpreted as human weakness and we can,
we are, all of us are like this and we
can repent. But I think in today's political climate, it
was very interesting to hear the way you talked about that.
And I'd like you to kind of repeat that because
as we see so many leaders who are becoming obsessed
(10:21):
with self and away from God, how did we get,
even as it makes me think of George Washington and
you were talking about the values of the United States
and why the United States has such a connection to Jerusalem.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And the city of David.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And that's because these stories remind us that we are
called to repent to a higher.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
There's a reason why. Thousands of years on, the Bible
remains both timeless and timely. Because we haven't changed all
that much in the last 3,000 years. We're still driven
by ego and temptation and power and jealousy. But the
same people. And so when you look at the story
of David and Bathsheba, one, you can understand that, yes,
sometimes people in power make poor choices. That sometimes they
(11:05):
are driven by temptation and maybe not the greater good.
You know what? Because we're human, right? That's the case
with David. And that's still the case with us today.
But what's revolutionary about that story is what happened afterwards.
Because when the prophet Nathan calls out David, what should
have happened to Nathan and what happens in the ancient
world and still in much of the world today, if
(11:26):
you call out your king, your president, your prime minister,
you can do that one time. You will never get
a second chance. And yet in this story, when the
prophet calls out the king, when Nathan says to David.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
He says, you are that man.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
You committed that crime. Instead of David killing Nathan, David
responds by saying, I've sinned before God. How do I
make this right? What was revolutionary about that moment and
which ultimately would reach the shores of America is the
idea of equality before the law. That king, president, prime minister, senator, congressman,
governor are all accountable to the same moral law as
(12:04):
everyone else. And that traveled from a balcony in the
city of David 3,000 years ago that King David stood upon.
And that traveled across the shores, across the seas, to
reach people like John Locke and Thomas Paine, eventually the
founding fathers. And one of the things that makes America,
America is this idea of equality. Equality, that you have
the same opportunities, but also equality in the sense that
(12:27):
the law applies equally to everybody. That came from the
city of David. It came from Jerusalem's biblical heritage.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
But at the same time, we do feel like we're
losing that. We feel, and there's a panic over that,
I think, as we have people that are saying, oh,
you're just upset with how I pray and there should
be no prayer. And it's not even how you pray
or who you pray to. It's what that prayer means
internally to you. But also that moral value that we
(12:57):
seem to be losing, even if we're saying that we're praying,
it feels like we're losing that foundation, that foundation in faith.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
In our country.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And I think that's been a real fear for people
who are people of faith going, wait a minute, wait
a minute, this is going to be a disaster. But
coming here, it has been a disaster. And yet the
beauty in disaster is the rebuilding and the staying power.
So what is your message to the people of the
United States who right now are feeling like, what if
(13:29):
we lose it all and America falls?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
What happens?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Well, first, God willing, it won't.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
God willing, it won't. And yet, one of the stories
of Jerusalem is that Jerusalem is a place that's been
knocked down time and time again. The Jewish people have
been exiled, conquered, scattered, and yet have chosen to get
back up. That Jerusalem has been rebuilt across thousands of
years and is a flourishing city. I told you earlier today,
(13:56):
when a senator asked me, am I optimistic about the
future of Israel, about the future of Jerusalem? And I said,
I'm very optimistic. He said, why? I said, because everywhere
I look in this city, I see cranes and pregnant women.
We are building, we are choosing life every single day here,
despite the challenges that we face, despite being in a
difficult neighborhood. But there's a secret that has allowed us
over thousands of years to still be standing where we
(14:17):
are today, despite all the challenges. And that is, even
in the darkest times, even when we were exiled to
the four corners of the earth, we kept telling our story.
We kept saying next year in Jerusalem. We kept on
the festivals, on our holidays, whether it's Passover or all
the other ones, we kept telling the story. of who
we are as a people, our past, our present, but
(14:39):
also our hope for a future. And the question that
I would say to your listeners who maybe see something
slipping away is what's your story and how are you
telling it? Are you passing on that story at your
dinner tables? Is Thanksgiving, is Christmas about shopping and sports?
Is something wrong with shopping? Is something wrong with sports?
(15:00):
Is Memorial Day about barbecues and beach? Or is it
an opportunity to recognize all those who have sacrificed to
allow us to have the blessings that we have? This Thanksgiving,
a day where we truly give thanks for all the
things that we have in life, all the generations that
sacrificed for us to be where we are, for Christmas,
(15:20):
for Christians, to 2,000 years on, that your faith is
still alive. How did you get to where you are?
And when you pass on that story from generation to generation,
especially during the hard times, in the easy times, it's easy.
But especially in those hard times, when you make it
a point to keep the story alive, and you do
it at your dinner table, and your communities, and maybe
(15:41):
in your churches, and then it spreads beyond. But you
can't count on the government to tell the stories for you.
You can't rely only on your pastors to tell the
stories for you. You need to keep the story alive.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And you need to have the next generation.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Also, right, you can't pass something on if it's not
to pass it on to. And if you have the
next generation, but you're don't give them something of value,
well then, you know, I think it was Ronald Reagan
who said that freedom is only one generation away from
being lost. It's not passed down in the bloodstream. And that's,
you know, how have the Jewish people across thousands of years,
being a small people, a minority, everywhere we go, how
(16:17):
have we survived? Because we keep telling the story. We
remember where we came from. We remember where we are
and where we're trying to get to and the ideals
and heritage that we're going to be true to, no
matter what, in the hard times, in the better times,
and That's where we are in place in the city
of Dave. It shows us both. It shows us the life.
It shows us the destruction, but it shows us how
(16:37):
you come back from those things.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I think that's something unique that we've learned here is
this constant fight for survival. And it's very much value
life and value those stories and value passing on. And
I do think that in a certain sense, we've become
spoiled with the idea that we're just safe in the
United States. And I'm not saying that I would want
it to be any other way. But I do think
(17:00):
there's a time to step back and say, if you
feel threatened, if you feel that something is changing, then
it's time to get serious about passing on those stories
and making sure that that foundation is there. So thank
you for teaching us that today. I have absolutely loved
being here. It's been amazing. And I recommend anybody out here,
(17:21):
come see Zef, come to the City of Daybreak. He
will take you on an amazing tour and it will
be transformational.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I just want to say, when you go on a
trip like this, you make lifelong friends. So Zev has
kept in touch with me and as well as our
amazing guide, Sharon Peleg.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
She was awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Like I said, pushing you everywhere you had to go
because we had six days to get through everything. And
we didn't get through everything, but we got through so much.
And what I realized in this time is that the
Israelis are such loving people. So our guide was an
Israeli Jew. Our driver, the bus driver that we had
was an Israeli Muslim. It's something you don't hear about
(18:03):
when you're here in the United States. And they were
just laughing and talking and and having a great time
as we were driving from one place to the next place.
And never once did you feel like there was any tension.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And one thing I.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Noticed while I was there was with Zev and all
the other people and with Michael Weiss, who we interviewed
and you heard from this past Wednesday, Also, same thing.
He said to me, oh, you have four kids. This
is like an Israeli family. There was so much celebration
of pregnant women. Every place we went, they said, oh, well,
we love to see a pregnant woman because that's the
(18:36):
next generation. We love to see that new life. We
celebrate that. And as I started to hear that over
and over again, I started to think, why isn't that
what's happening in our country? Why aren't we feeling that way?
And I guess when you're constantly fighting for survival, every
life is honored and celebrated, but it was just such
a reminder. that we should really be celebrating every pregnant
(18:58):
woman as we see them. Every pregnant woman is a
gift from God. And that is the spirit of the
Israeli people.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It's so strong.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's so vibrant. And I got the chance to sit
down with Ambassador Huckabee. He would tell you the exact
same thing. In fact, you're going to hear from him.
He was gracious enough to sit down with me. He
is obviously the ambassador now. But he talks about it
from the standpoint of he's been a tour guide in Israel.
He loves Israel. He wants people to come and visit.
So here it is, Ambassador Huckabee. Well, we are here
(19:29):
in Israel and we have the U.S. ambassador to Israel
with us, Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Tudor, I'm so glad you're in Israel. Welcome. And I
understand it's your first time, but you just got to
promise it won't be your last.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
No, it will definitely not be my last. In fact,
that's what I wanted to talk to you about. We,
as we've gone around the country, we have felt so.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
safe.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
You are. Yeah, you should.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I mean, we've seen IDF troops in Jerusalem, but every
place else, which makes you feel safe because there's people
around you everywhere else.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
There has been no, nobody arguing, no tension. We've gone
to all these holy sites.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's been amazingly welcoming, but it's been empty.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Why?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Tourists are afraid to come and they shouldn't be. We're
urging the State Department to change the designation from a
level three down to level two, because right now the
official recommendation remains that which it has been since October
the 7th. Well, things are totally different and they're pretty predictable,
but more importantly, Even in the midst of war, this
(20:36):
is going to sound really hard for a lot of
Americans to understand. Six weeks of war earlier this spring,
and I felt safer here than I would during a
tornado in Arkansas. Now, you follow the protocol. There's a
great system of missile defense, ubiquitous shelters everywhere. There's a
(20:56):
phenomenal electronic system that warns people. When you hear it,
you take cover. You go to the shelters. but not
one person, not one in the entirety of Israel was
injured or killed during six weeks of war who went
to the shelter and was there during the incoming ballistic
missile attacks. And ballistic missiles are not little rockets. They're
(21:20):
the size of 18 wheel trucks. These are massive instruments.
Most of them, 92% were intercepted by the defense system.
Many of them hit in areas where it didn't matter.
And the few that actually found a target somewhere didn't
kill or injure anyone if they were in the shelter.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I think it sounds scary to us because obviously we
don't see that happening.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Yeah, it's not something every day. Right.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
But on the.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Flip side, something else we don't see happening is we
don't see the Bible come to life. And you put
it so beautifully when you said you've read it in
black and white on pages and it's just there 2D
in front of you.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And when you come here, it comes to life.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
And for me, I've thought so many times, my girls
are constantly saying, how do we spread the gospel?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
How do we spread the gospel? And I was here and.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I was thinking, how could they spread the gospel any
better than seeing it in real life? And as we
see revivals and Charlie Kirk's work in the United States
was so amazing with the gospel. But being here, we
can all be Charlie.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah. I first came here in 1973. I was fresh
out of high school. had no idea what to expect,
fell in love with the place, started coming, bringing groups
in 1981. And I'd been here over a hundred times
before I was sent here to be ambassador. So I
have a deep connection to the country, to the places,
(22:46):
and I never get tired of it. When people say,
you know, are there places you can just say, yeah,
I don't need to go there. I've been there too
many times. No, because every time I go, I learn
something that's new. You just can't exhaust it. I mean,
there's Just keep in mind, 3,800 years of Jewish history,
that is the foundation of Christian history. And so you
can't dig through all that is here to uncover. If
(23:09):
you go to Gettysburg, one very important thing happened in Gettysburg,
but one thing. When you're standing in Jerusalem, you're looking
at 20, 30 layers. Are we talking the patriarchs, the prophets,
the judges? Are we talking the time of the second
temple and David and Solomon? Are we looking at the
time of Jesus, the apostles? Which layer do you want
to look at? Because they're all here in one little
(23:33):
square meter of property.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And I really think this is the time for us
as Christians to be bringing people back to the faith.
And as we see some of the things, even when
I look at American politics, some of the manipulations of
Christianity that are tricking people. And we've heard about false
prophets in the Bible, certainly. But this being here is
(23:55):
very much like reading the Bible. As you go through
these sites, and I'm sure you see something different every
time as you read scripture, it hits you at different
points in your life differently.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
And I think about my own daughters.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And sending them off into the world, my oldest being 17,
and thinking the value of her seeing, hearing this. And
that's something that parents and families in America should feel
safe coming here and showing their children that, What we
go to church every day, what we go to youth
group every week for, you know, this is how can
you not want to take your children here and see
(24:29):
it because we're scared what we don't need to be.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Don't need to be. And in fact, there's never been
a better time to come.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
There's no lines.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Well, there's no lines. I tell my friends back home,
I say, this is the time to come because places
that sometimes in a high season of travel in past
years would be very crowded. You'd still enjoy it. You'd
still be blessed by it. But now you can go
and you can see twice as many things because you're
never standing in line because tourism has not recovered yet.
(24:57):
And therefore, people are very hospitable. They're glad you're here.
More importantly, you can literally double the amount of things
that you can see. Just say the Galilee alone. Go
to Tagba. Go to the Church of Beatitudes. Go to Capernaum.
Go to Migdal. Bethsaida is now... being uncovered. It's not
fully open to the public, but it's going to be
(25:18):
an amazing place when it is. All of these places
are pretty much empty right now, and you can just
absorb them. And it's an incredible time to come.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Well, we were able to pack more things in because
even our guide was saying, we thought we'd have traffic.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
There's no traffic.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Well, there's traffic. Now, let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Where we were.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Where you were. Between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, there's traffic,
and in Jerusalem, there's traffic. But it's manageable. especially when
you plan correctly. But in the bigger part of the country,
it's not that hard to get around. In fact, it's
better than ever.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So I just want Americans to understand that as we
are talking about what's happening in the Middle East and
talking about Israel, if you're really thinking about the people
of Israel, we have seen these towns and they are
just waiting for you to come because.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
They rely on Americans. They rely on us.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
So when we hear Americans talking about the people on
the ground and caring about the people on the ground,
as I've been here, I just kept being reminded, these
are the people and we care for them by coming
here and sharing our wealth and sharing our time with
the people who are set up just to help us
see our holy sites.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
And Tudor, I think one of the most important things
is when people come and see for themselves, it erases
some of these ridiculous rivals that are said about Israel
and the Jewish people, for example, that, well, Christians are
not welcomed here. Nonsense. I'm a Christian. I played the guitar,
bass guitar in our church band every Sunday. I've never
(26:51):
been spit on. I've never been heckled. I've been coming
here 53 years. Christians in Israel is the only place
in the region where the Christian population has actually grown. 1948,
34,000 Christians in the whole country. Today, just under 200,000.
Israel appointed an ambassador to the Christian world, the state
of Israel. The U.S. doesn't even have an ambassador to
(27:13):
the Christian world. This is incredible. 20% of the population
of Israel is Arab, 20%. So 2 million living in Israel,
they vote, they can serve on the Supreme Court, they
can serve in the Knesset, and they do. They sometimes
run the biggest organizations. Until recently, the CEO of the
largest bank in all of Israel was an Arab. So
this idea that, oh, it's an apartheid nation, I would
(27:36):
always say, Just go to Hadassah Medical Center, one of
the top 10 hospitals in the whole world. Go to Hadassah,
walk up and down the halls for 30 minutes, and
tell me you see apartheid. Because you see Arab doctors
who are the chairman of a department overseeing Jewish doctors, nurses, staff, patients, all, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Druze,
(27:58):
everyone side by side, working together, same waiting room, same treatment,
same price, same everything. And nobody says, are you a Jew? Oh,
I'm not going to let you work on me if
you're not Jewish. Or, oh, you're Arab. I'm not going
to touch you. Nothing like that. So it's an opportunity
to explode the incredible myths and outright lies told constantly
(28:24):
about Israel.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And I think that's the critical part about bringing people
here is to show that truth, open their eyes to
the diversity that's truly here and the togetherness And the
willingness to live together. They want to live here. They
are Israelis. They are a part of the community and
they serve. That to me, I was like, oh, 20%
Muslims and Arabs.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
And they're serving in the government. It's not what we're hearing.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
So I appreciate your time today. I know your time
is limited, but I just want to say thank you
so much. The country is beautiful. And thank you for
serving the United States in this way.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Just promise to come back and let me know when
you're here.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I will.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
When you bring your children, I'd love to welcome them
to your embassy. But more importantly, I hope all of
the people that are watching will recognize this is a
great time to come. Plan your travel. I look forward
to seeing you in the most amazing place outside of
the United States.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Absolutely. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Thank you, Tudor. Great to see you.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Thank you all for tuning into the Tudor Dixon Podcast.
I just want to address the attempted hijacking of the
plane this week from Dubai to Israel as we're talking
about this.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Because really what.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I saw in that and what I've heard from the
story is the heroism, but the spirit of Israel.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
And I know you're looking at this and you're going, oh,
this is such a terrible story. It is a terrible story.
It is scary to us.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It's scary to everyone because I think we've always felt
like that cockpit door is locked. And so we're safe
because nobody can get in there. But this is the
situation that we hadn't really anticipated is one of the
pilots already being ready to hijack the plane. So if
you haven't heard, there was a co-pilot on a flight,
a fly Dubai airline going to Israel. The co-pilot stabbed
(30:18):
the pilot. It was crazy because there was a mother
and daughter outside of the cockpit at this time. They
came out and they said to passengers, we can hear
screams and yells where we believe that one of the
pilots is being stabbed. He had the wherewithal to unlock
the door, the man who was attacked. Three men in
the plane rushed the cockpit. They pulled the terrorist out.
(30:41):
They tied him up with the headphones of the plane,
with the wires from the headphones of the plane. The
one guy knew that he was sitting next to two
other pilots.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
He ran down. First, he runs in. The plane is nosediving.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
He pulls back on the lever to pull the plane
back up. And the prime minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu, asked him,
how did you know how to do that? And he goes,
I've watched a lot of air disaster shows. I mean,
you guys, this is the spirit of the Israeli people,
like cool under pressure. Can you imagine if that happened here?
(31:16):
We would be freaking out. And yet these people were
like survival mode. He went back and he found these
two pilots.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
They landed the plane.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
It is an unbelievable story of passion, of will to live,
of God's miracle. I mean, it truly was a miracle
that this plane, all of these things happened. There were
extra pilots on the plane. The mother and daughter heard.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
It when they did. The three guys were able to
rush the cockpit safely.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
A true, incredible, amazing story of survival. And I just
want to tell you about our flight. We obviously didn't
have anything like that on our flight. We flew on
Arkea Airlines. It was a great experience. And I would
recommend anybody who is going to Israel, we went out
of JFK on Arkea.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The flight was safe. The communication was great. And the
staff was amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
So that same spirit of the Israeli people was the same,
the staff, the Israeli staff of Arkea Airlines. They were like,
they became friends by the end of the flight. So
when you're on a flight like that, it's really long.
You want to make sure that you are with genuinely
kind people. And that was what I found on Arkea Airlines.
It was an amazing week in Israel.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Please.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Keep checking our social media for more behind-the-scenes pictures of
the trip. We're going to have videos of the trip.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I'll keep putting them out. But come back here on Monday.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
We're going to have the EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and
we're going to cover a very controversial topic with him.
We're going to cover data centers, but you're going to
want to hear what he has to say. Make sure
you tune back in on Monday. And as always, I
want to thank you for joining me on the Tudor
Dixon podcast. For this episode and others, go to TudorDixonPodcast.com
or you can go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(32:54):
wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to watch
the video, which I recommend for this one, check it
out on Rumble or YouTube at Tudor Dixon and make
sure you share it with friends. This was a really
special episode for me and I'm glad I got to
share it with you guys.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Thank you and have a blessed day.
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