Countless Americans are praying for Israel, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. Now Israelis are returning the favor, with about 150 Orthodox Jews gathering at the ancient city of Shiloh to pray for America as it selected the next president. In the Bible, Shiloh is where Hannah cried out to the Lord for a child. He provided her with a son, Samuel, who would go on to become Israel’s greatest prophet.
“We’re at a critical time of a war of good vs. evil,” Yisrael Ganz, governor of the Binyamin Regional Council in Samaria, told CBN News. “We’re in a critical time when our enemies are trying to drive off the Jewish people from the heartland. From here, we pray that God will shine his face from everyone to work with him and do what he can for the United States of America, for Israel and for the whole ;and.”
He also had a special message for the United States. “Raise your head,” Ganz said. “We have to fight with our enemies. We have to believe that God will lead us for the good way. We have to stand strong together, strong America, strong Israel, and we’re to think about the Holy Land.”
Eliana Passentin, international desk director of the Binyamin Regional Council, explained how the idea came out.
“We were speaking to our friends overseas in Congress and Senate and friends in different ministries all over the world,” she said. “And I said to them that I’m really praying. I’m standing in my home in Eli looking down at Shiloh, and I’m praying for their success, for the success of America. And then I said, ‘Why don’t we have a prayer for America?'”
Passentin said Christians, particularly in America, acknowledge Israel’s biblical importance and they pray for the Holy Land. “And now it’s our turn to say `thank you’ to you,” she said. “Thank you to the people praying from for us all over the world. Thank you to the United States of America for being by our side. And this is our chance to say `thank you,’ and we pray for you.”
Josh Reinstein, president of the Israel Allies Caucus, was among those who came to pray in Shiloh and called it a blessing to pray for America.
“Since October 7, we’ve seen that around 80 percent of Americans are standing with the nation of Israel,” he said. “We see that tens of millions of Bible-believing Christians are praying for the peace of Jerusalem every day. And we said, ‘You know what? We need to do something for America.’ And what we decided to do is come together and pray also for America.”
Polling this fall found that the vast majority of Israelis prefer Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice