INTERNACIONAL
Leading evangelicals in push to have President Trump recognize Israeli sovereignty over ‘biblical heartland’
TEL AVIV, Israel – Last week, an influential group of American Christians publicly reaffirmed the Jewish people’s right to Judea and Samaria as the biblical heartland of Israel. The Judea and Samaria area is more commonly known as the West Bank.
The declaration was unveiled at the annual National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas by American Christian Leaders for Israel and was expected to be signed by 3,000 religious leaders before being delivered to President Donald Trump.
The push to apply Israeli sovereignty to the area comes after Trump said last month that his administration would make an announcement on the matter in the coming weeks when asked about annexation.
The Oslo Accords, forged under the Clinton administration, divided the West Bank into three regions: Area A, under full Palestinian jurisdiction; Area B, under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security control; and Area C, under full Israeli authority.
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The Cave of the Patriarchs, also known as the Cave of Machpelah. The site is the burial place of Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, and is situated in Hebron in Judea and Samaria, also more commonly referred to as the West Bank.
A 2020 Trump plan, dubbed Peace to Prosperity, envisioned Israel annexing parts of Judea and Samaria, but was shelved in favor of the Abraham Accords, which normalized Jerusalem’s ties with four Arab countries.
«The evangelicals gave Trump the presidency. He will support our position on the Bible and that’s why he chose Mike Huckabee [as ambassador to Jerusalem], who supports Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,» Dr. Mike Evans, founder of Friends of Zion, which boasts just under 30 million members, told Fox News Digital.
The declaration reaffirms «the Jewish people’s inalienable right to the Biblical Heartland of Israel and reject all efforts—both from the United States and the international community—to pressure the Jewish people to relinquish their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria.»
The Tomb of Joseph near Shechem (Nablus). Samaria, Jul 6, 2021. (Roee Oz/TPS)
Evans said evangelicals support Israel «because they believe in moral clarity, good versus evil, they are friends of Zion. They see Jews being killed because they’re Jews, not because of land.»
Pastor John Hagee, the influential founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel, told Fox News Digital that Evangelicals «know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will always keep His word to the Children of Israel. From beginning to end, the Bible is a Zionist document mandating that all believers stand with, and bless, Israel and her people.
«For almost half a century, I have been preaching the message that Israel does not occupy the land, Israel owns the land, the title deed of which is recorded in the pages of the Bible. The land was endowed by God to the Jewish people for all time,» added Hagee.
Aerial view of Joshua’s Alter in Judea and Samaria, more commonly referred to as the West Bank. (TPS-IL)
Earlier this week, Fox News Digital reported that some Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) urged the president to recognize Judea and Samaria as Israeli territory. Their letter to the president expressed support for Jerusalem applying sovereignty over the area, which the lawmakers said was «the heart of our shared Judeo-Christian heritage.»
Israel’s Parliament Speaker Amir Ohana on Feb. 23 urged the government in Jerusalem to extend sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, saying full control over the region was the «one and only way» to achieve lasting peace.
Another Likud lawmaker, Dan Illouz, told Fox News Digital that Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre «proved that any withdrawal, any concession, any illusion of coexistence with those who seek our destruction is not just naive—it is suicidal … we withdrew from Gaza, and in return we got Hamas and the massacre of our people. Judea and Samaria cannot become another terror state.»
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President Donald Trump, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answer questions during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4, 2025. ( REUTERS/Leah Millis)
«A push for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria would be the end of Israel,» Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli lawmaker and an architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, told Fox News Digital. «If Israel were to become a minority of Jews dominating a majority of Palestinians, it would be neither Jewish nor democratic. I don’t believe it could ever happen, but just waving this [idea] is bad enough,» he said.
«The right in Israel believes that Trump would support whatever they demand. But five years ago, he suggested there could be a two-state solution. As such, it is not as clear-cut as it seems,» he added.
Late last month, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to conduct a «massive» counter-terrorism operation in Judea and Samaria after three buses exploded near Tel Aviv, and bombs were found on two others in what is being investigated as a coordinated attack.
Israeli soldiers take part in an operation in Jenin, as it seeks to take out Iranian-backed terror groups. Feb. 24, 2025. (REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta)
«This brutality and forceful displacement of civilians in the West Bank… was never about self-defense, but rather a colonial expansion scheme and an ethnic cleansing campaign,» Ahmad Fattouh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s dominant Fatah faction, told Fox News Digital.
«Annexing the West Bank will set us back to 1948 and destroy any future stability or prospects for peace. Every rational voice understands too well that there is no way forward except the two-state solution; otherwise, it will lead to endless havoc,» he added.
Israel Ganz, head of the Yesha Council, the umbrella group representing Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, is working in conjunction with the government in Jerusalem to push for sovereignty.
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Pastor John Hagee speaks during «March For Israel» at the National Mall on Nov. 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
«We started a campaign to push for it, but we won’t do it without the support of the U.S.,» he told Fox News Digital. «Many in the Trump administration are very connected, they know the area, and they believe in our right to this place. They understand that if they want to stabilize the situation, we must have sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.»
«For Israel to be able to continue to survive and thrive along the coastal plain, which produces about 80% of the country’s GDP, then it must keep control of the high grounds in Judea and Samaria,» Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (ret.), a former IDF international spokesperson and now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
«If any other entity, Palestinian or otherwise, holds that, it would be used as a way to threaten Israel’s security; its core infrastructure, including Ben-Gurion Airport, and also its population– concentrated in a narrow strip between Haifa [in the north] and Ashdod [in the south]–approximately 15 kilometers wide,» he said.
Palestinian terrorists take up position during a confrontation with the Israeli army in Jenin on July 3, 2023. The Israeli army said it had launched drone strikes in Jenin as part of an «extensive counterterrorism effort.» (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)
Another element, Conricus explained, is that some 500,000 Israelis currently live in Judea and Samaria, and they need to be protected.
«The trends of escalation in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem are highest now since Oct. 7. We see significant terrorist activity in almost all Palestinian cities and continued weakness of the P.A. in exercising control,» he said.
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Ze’ev Orenstein, director of international affairs at the Jerusalem-based City of David Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the Jewish people’s millenia-long connection to the Land of Israel bestows upon them an inherent right to Judea and Samaria.
«The reality is that there is likely no other people on the planet today with a deeper–and longer–connection to any piece of land than the Jewish people with the Land of Israel, in general, and Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, in particular; where the inhabitants continue to worship the very same G-d, speak the same language, practice the same faith, celebrate the same festivals, and walk upon the very same stones, as their ancestors did so many thousands of years ago,» Orenstein added.
INTERNACIONAL
Al menos 25 muertos en nuevo accidente de carretera en Bolivia: suman más de 60 víctimas desde el sábado en la misma región
Al menos 25 personas murieron este lunes en Bolivia cuando un bus de pasajeros se desbarrancó y rodó por una pendiente de unos 500 metros luego de impactar con una camioneta en Potosí, en el sur del país, informó la Fiscalía.
Es el segundo accidente con un elevado número de víctimas en tres días. El sábado murieron 37 ocupantes de dos autobuses que chocaron de frente también en Potosí, durante las fiestas de Carnaval.
El nuevo siniestro se produjo en la carretera Oruro-Potosí, en la localidad de Las Leñas, unos 90 kilómetros al norte de la ciudad de Potosí. El choque frontal de los vehículos dejó «como saldo 25 personas fallecidas y 26 heridas», precisó el Ministerio Público en un comunicado.
Las autoridades presumen que el conductor de la camioneta, que se encuentra internado en un centro de salud cercano, fue el responsable del siniestro luego de invadir el carril contrario.
«Está en el hospital (…) con custodio policial porque ya ha sido aprehendido por la Fiscalía», detalló a la AFP Limberth Choque, vocero de la policía.
Todos los fallecidos eran ocupantes del bus que se desbarrancó, añadió.
Según reportes policiales, el vehículo de pasajeros había partido desde Oruro, donde el fin de semana se celebró el Carnaval de Oruro, una de las fiestas más grandes de América Latina, que recibe cada año a decenas de miles de personas.
INTERNACIONAL
Delegation of hostages released by Hamas traveling to DC to meet with Trump admin officials
A group of seven people who were freed from Hamas’ captivity are traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. officials.
Eli Sharabi, Doron Steinbrecher, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Omer Shem Tov and Iair Horn will meet with officials from the Trump administration, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters.
The released hostages will express their gratitude to the Trump administration for the president’s commitment to bringing all the hostages home.
The group will provide firsthand testimony about their experiences in Hamas’ tunnels.
WHITE HOUSE BACKS ISRAEL’S DECISION TO HALT GAZA AID SHIPMENTS UNTIL HAMAS ACCEPTS CEASEFIRE EXTENSION
Israeli captive Eli Sharabi, who had been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, is escorted by Hamas before being handed over to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP)
The delegation will stress to government officials about the need to require Hamas to return all remaining hostages immediately in a single phase.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Sunday with Sharabi.
«I deeply appreciate the courageous way you are sharing your experience, and it is also important that you share it with President Trump,» Netanyahu told him. «Our goal is to bring all the hostages home – and we will not relent for a moment.»
Sharabi replied that he was glad to be home and reunited with his family, but emphasized that «the remaining hostages, especially those who are still alive, must return home to their families urgently.»
«And of course, the fallen hostages, including my brother Yossi, must be brought back for burial in Israel so that their families have a grave to mourn at,» Sharabi said.
ISRAEL AGREES TO TRUMP ENVOY’S TEMPORARY GAZA CEASEFIRE EXTENSION PROPOSAL AS FIRST PHASE EXPIRES: REPORTS
Keith Siegel, accompanied by his wife Aviva (on his left), disembarked from a military helicopter at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center on February 1, 2025. (Getty Images)
On Sunday, Israeli officials announced that they are stopping the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip and warned Hamas it would face «additional consequences» if it does not accept a new proposal for an extended ceasefire. An Israeli official said the decision to suspend aid was made in coordination with the Trump administration.
The White House backed the move by Israel, saying that the Jewish State has «negotiated in good faith since the beginning of this administration to ensure the release of hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists.»
The first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which included an uptick in humanitarian assistance, expired on Saturday. The two sides have not yet negotiated the second phase, in which Hamas was called to release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout and a permanent ceasefire.
Israeli officials also said on Sunday that they support a proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover, or April 20. They said the proposal came from the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on February 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
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Under that deal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the remainder when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, according to Netanyahu’s office.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israeli also pulled back forces from most of Gaza and allowed a surge of humanitarian aid to enter the region.
The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people and abducting more than 251. Hamas still has 59 hostages, 32 of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive into Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run government’s Gaza Health Ministry. It does not specify how many of the dead were terrorists or civilians.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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