JERUSALEM, Israel – It’s an important day for the future of Israel.
The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on President Donald Trump’s International Stabilization Plan for Gaza. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin attempts to introduce his own plan. And in Jerusalem, Jews and Christians gathered to honor Charlie Kirk.
Hamas issued a statement ahead of the U.N. vote, saying any disarmament of the terror group violates their “right to resistance” and Palestinian sovereignty.”
Over the weekend, Putin called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the Kremlin, the two talked about the Gaza ceasefire and Putin’s counter-proposal to the Trump administration’s International Stabilization Plan.
Netanyahu warned in his cabinet meeting on Sunday that no plan should open the door for a Palestinian state and that Hamas will be disarmed “the hard way or the easy way.”
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Meanwhile, with music, speakers, and multiple memories, more than a hundred people turned out in Jerusalem to pay tribute to Kirk, the slain founder of Turning Point USA, hosted by David Nekrutman, executive director of the Isaiah Project.
“It is hard to believe that Charlie Kirk is no longer with us,” Nekrutman said. “The world is a quieter and less challenging place without his voice.”
Kirk made clear his love for the Holy Land. And on Sunday night, people here, even Orthodox Jews, came to make clear their love for him.
American-Israeli rapper Nissim Black honored him at the gathering, noting, “Charlie Kirk was a giant.”
Kirk was quoted as saying that when he came to Israel, he had contact with the living God, and the Bible came to life. That’s why he said his favorite trip he ever took was to Israel, and the second favorite trip he ever took was to Israel.
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli declared, “Charlie was the first guest I invited as a minister to speak at an upcoming international conference on combating antisemitism.”
Speakers shared how Kirk learned the importance of observing the Sabbath and became a staunch advocate for Israel.
Kirk once said, “I am very pro-Israel as far as the promise – 7 million people out of 14 million having a home. I believe that is an idea that needs to be defended – a Jewish state in the middle of the Mideast.”
Part of the program included a live question & answer segment moderated by CBN News’ Chris Mitchell, who spoke to Kirk’s pastor and spiritual advisor, Rob McCoy.
“Charlie looked at politics as an onramp to Christianity,” McCoy told the gathering. “He figured if he could get these young people going in the streams of liberty, they would come to the source.”
McCoy was the first pastor to invite Kirk to speak in his church.
He explained, “I look at Charlie as a modern-day Moses, in that he took 18 to 30 year-olds that were enslaved in institutions of indoctrination and he reminded them who they were and what liberty was, and what freedom and morality was, and challenged them.”
Netanyahu agreed with many Americans when he posted on X that “Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom.”
The prime minister said he talked to Kirk two weeks before his assassination in September and invited him to Israel. That visit never took place.
