By Jim Fletcher
During my visit to Israel in 2002, during the Second Intifada, I had the chance to visit the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, north of Tel Aviv. It isn’t a place most Christian visitors see, but a friend got me in. I’m glad he did.
This was the location of Israel’s first intelligence apparatus. A small theatre showed information-packed films, and a library contained thousands of volumes studied by the intelligence community. It made me think of the Robert Redford film, “Three Days of the Condor.”
But the most interesting section was a collection of rooms housing captured terrorist weaponry and propaganda. There I saw Palestinian school textbooks and notebooks, each filled with the most odious Jew-hatred…from schoolkids. There were also guns, “suicide” bomb belts, and rockets. Some from the captured Karine A ship in the Red Sea.
I was struck by the fact that some religious imagery was there, such as a drawing depicting Christ on the cross. He was being given a sponge-soaked drink by…IDF troops. Not Roman soldiers. Modern Israeli soldiers. This was my first experience seeing the PLO try to pry Christian support away from Israel. (Already, back home, Yasser Arafat was persuading mainline American clergy to push the absurd lie that Jesus Christ was a Palestinian!) I also saw things like (what is now routine) symbolism. One image showed Joseph and Mary trying to find room in the inn. As they and their sad-looking donkey gazed at a giant cement wall, they couldn’t find room in the inn. You see, this was to show the linkage between ancient Israelites that hated Arabs, and the modern situation, the “Occupation.”
I was reminded of this this week as I read a post by my friend and great prophecy teacher Gary Frazier, on Facebook. It was an article by Jules Gomes: “Antisemitic Textbooks Assert the Bible is Distorted and Paint ‘Paul the Jew’ As the Corruptor of Christianity” The lead paragraph got right to the point:
“Palestinian textbooks for the 2025-2026 school year has found that the Palestinian Authority curriculum persists in inciting Jew-hatred and jihad, debunking assertions in podcaster Tucker Carlson’s interviews that Palestinian children are ‘not taught to kill.’”
What I saw a quarter-century ago is worse than ever:
“Antisemitism remains a ‘central feature of the curriculum’ and teacher guides serve as ‘manuals for transmitting hate,’ a November 2025 investigation by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found.”
Remember, all through the 90s and early 2000s we heard from our hapless diplomatic corps in Washington that “demands” were being made on the PLO/PA to reform school textbooks. We heard endless words from Clinton and then Bush 43 that this was going to happen.
It never happened. The current young generation of Arabs in that area are more radicalized than ever. Sharing in the guilt of destroying these young people is Western media.
Yesterday, I watched a Newsmax program hosted by Greta Van Sustern. She did interview the magnificent Danny Dagon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN. He was his usual effective self.
But also featured was Middle East Correspondent Zach Anders. In his reporting from the conflict area, he mentioned twice that Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon had resulted in the displacement of 500,000 people, while two Israeli soldiers had been killed.
This might sound like I’m reaching, but I am convinced that this kind of reporting also demonizes Israel, whether intentional or not. It’s all about the numbers, you see. A HALF-MILLION “innocents” are driven from their homes (no context given) while “only” TWO Israeli soldiers are killed. The same kind of thing happens in Gaza. Many cite the “paltry” number of 1,200 Israelis massacred on 10/7 (they deserved it anyway, right?) while “MILLIONS” of Gazans have been brutalized, murdered, and generally harassed by the Occupying Jewish Power. That’s how it goes.
Look, many people might not like it, but I’ll say it anyway. In the 1.5 hours I watched of that cable new network, I also heard repeatedly that Israel’s bombing of Iranian oil depots is driving up oil prices. Then more discussion of how this will hit us at the gas pumps. And this is supposedly friendly conservative media. Yes, I acknowledge it’s subtle, but propaganda often is.
What is often not brought up in such discussions is the lethal, existential threat a nuclear-armed Iran would be not only to Israel, but very much to us. If the stored enriched uranium is not secured by the West, Iran will remain a threat. (By the way, I think Trump’s threat to send in U.S. special ops might be a feint. I would be stunned if such a raid isn’t carried out by Israel’s elite counter-terrorism unit, Sayeret Matkal, who is probably on the ground right now.)
So we see these political and religious coordinated propaganda attacks on the Jewish state, which the world collectively detests. That is going to come to a head soon.
Further from the Gomes article:
“The schoolbook teaches that ‘when Paul the Jew started preaching to follow Christ, he began to claim that he was the only one with whom true Christianity and the Gospel were entrusted and started introducing into them false beliefs and ancient philosophies to corrupt them.’”
The coordinated effort to defame Paul is one shared with mainline and even evangelical sources that bash the Apostle. In particular, his writings on homosexuality alienate those activists. This kind of rot eventually seeks to hollow-out the whole Bible. Same goes for the Old Testament. I remember an email exchange in 2000 with a Palestinian Arab Christian from Bethlehem who told me that he rejected God’s promises to the Jews because he “doesn’t like them.” There you have it. These people don’t deal in facts, but rather pure emotion. If one isn’t anchored in the Scripture as the Word of God, one eventually loses himself.
So this is the time in world history to be very vigilant. Pay attention to information you consume. Question most everything.
Except Scripture.