All Israel News - With all the recent debate around Israel and the Gaza War, including questions about how much countries like the United States should support Israel taking place as part of the election cycle around the Western world, the issue of Christian support for Israel is once again being raised.

In a recent interview with Moody Radio's "Dawn and Steve in the Morning," All Israel News Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg was asked the question: "Is it really necessary that Evangelical, born-again believers intercede on behalf of the country and the people [of Israel]?"

Calling it a "great question," Rosenberg responded, "The answer is not only, yes, is it necessary, it's commanded." He cited Psalm 122:6, which states, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem."

He noted that throughout scripture, God commands His followers to pray for all nations, which includes Israel, but that God calls it "the apple of my eye."

The phrase "apple of my eye" translated in Hebrew refers to the pupil of the eye.

"The way God sees the rest of the world is through Israel, through the lens of Israel," Rosenberg stated.

However, he noted that not only is prayer for Israel a commandment, but that it also works.

"We serve a prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God," Rosenberg said.

He encouraged Christians to continue to pray for the hostages in Gaza, mentioning the recent rescue of Israeli-Arab hostage Qaid Farhan al-Qadi on Tuesday.

After his rescue, al-Qadi thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him: "You truly did sacred work. There are other people [hostages] who are waiting."

Rosenberg asked believers to keep praying, saying, "There are still slightly over a hundred [hostages] that are in those tunnels ... so we need to keep praying and not give up."

He also referred to the situation on Sunday, when Israeli intelligence officials noticed that Hezbollah forces were making significant preparations for a retaliatory attack against Israel over the killing of senior commander Fuad Shukr in July.

The IDF launched a pre-emptive strike on key Hezbollah rocket launchers, which had been readied for the strike on Israel, sparing Israel from what could have been a larger-scale Hezbollah attack.

"Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror army in Lebanon, was just minutes, minutes away from firing upwards of 6,000 missiles at Northern Israel, Central Israel, and Tel Aviv," Rosenberg told hosts Steve and Dawn. He also spoke about Israel's recent elimination of three high-level terror leaders from Hamas and Hezbollah in recent weeks.

"What is happening?" Rosenberg asked. "To me, these are the fulfillments of God showing mercy, not primarily because Israel is praying, most Israelis are not praying," he noted, "but Evangelicals are interceding in prayer on behalf of Israel, and God is responding to those prayers."

"He's trying to get the attention of the Jewish people," Rosenberg added.

"We are sheep who don't understand that we have a shepherd," Rosenberg stated about the Jewish people. "We've been wandering away from that shepherd, and it's dangerous.

"We need the prayers of millions of Evangelicals."

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