LIKE CYRUS, TRUMP STOOD WITH ISRAEL WHEN IT MATTERED MOST

A leader for our times, a leader with conviction

Peace never arrives by accident. It takes clarity, courage and someone willing to push the boulder uphill when the world says it cannot be done. 

 

By Mike Evans 

 

JNS

Oct 13, 2025

 

 

Workers hang a large banner featuring a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump in Jerusalem, Oct. 12, 2025.

 

Against all odds and expectations, U.S.President Donald Trump has emerged as the unlikely champion of peace in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s fight for its defense in the Middle East. An NBC News report on the reaction inside Israel to the peace agreement included a picture of a billboard sponsored by Friends of Zion that proclaimed: “Cyrus the Great is alive.” That’s not just a slogan; it’s a statement of fact.

Those who know their Bible will understand that Cyrus—the ancient Persian king who allowed Jewish exiles to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem after their captivity in Babylon—was not the leader the Jews would have chosen. He wasn’t the man the world expected. But he was the one God used to change the course of history.

In our time, Trump has played that same role. When others hesitated, he acted. When the world doubted, he delivered. From moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 to brokering the Abraham Accords in 2020, and now to this peace deal in Gaza, the president has done more for Israel’s security and future than any contemporary leader. Peace, especially in the Middle East, never arrives by accident. It takes clarity, courage and someone willing to push the boulder uphill when the world says it cannot be done.

The ceasefire offers space to breathe. The hostages coming home is an answer to our collective prayers, and accelerating humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza is a moral imperative. The plan for new independent governance—free from the poisonous grasp of terrorists and supported by regional partners who reject terror—creates the first real opportunity in years to replace a culture of hatred with one of dignity, responsibility and hope.

But peace that lasts is not just about laying down physical weapons. It is about what we teach our children. The path forward is not more hatred; it is education and a commitment to truth. Just as postwar Germany had to confront and overcome the poison of Nazi ideology, so, too, must the region and the world reject the lies that fuel terror and hate. Peace on paper is only the start. The moral test now falls on all of us, especially in the United States.

Since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, we have witnessed a wave of Jew-hatred in America that I never imagined in my lifetime. It has poured into our streets, onto our campuses and across social-media platforms. Antisemitism is no longer hiding as it once did behind closed doors and in hushed conversations. Today, it is shouting in broad daylight.

My life’s mission to defend the Jewish people was forged in the fires of personal suffering. As a child, I survived my own father’s violent antisemitism. That pain became my purpose. I know that peace is not just about treaties but about changing hearts and minds. It is about standing up, unapologetically, for truth and humanity.

For generations, the friendship between the United States and Israel has been a force for stability and freedom. That friendship has been about shared values and the belief that democratic nations should stand shoulder to shoulder against those who glorify murder and preach annihilation. When we lose moral confidence at home, the Middle East grows more dangerous. As the president has demonstrated, when we speak with conviction, peace becomes possible.

This peace deal is a beginning. It is a chance to save lives, both Israeli and Palestinian. Yet the new battlefield will be the ideological one being waged in the media, on college campuses and elsewhere.

To combat growing antisemitism, this December, I will be traveling with 1,000 American pastors and young people to Israel. Our mission is simple: to see the truth with our own eyes, to stand with Israel and to return home as ambassadors for peace and understanding. We will not be silent. We will not let the voices of hate drown out the truth.

History will remember this moment. It will remember that, like Cyrus, Trump stood with Israel when it mattered most. Now it is up to all of us—Jews, Christians, Muslims, Americans and Israelis—to build on this foundation. The time to stand with Israel is now. The time to fight antisemitism is now. The time to choose hope over hate is now.