The John-Henry Westen Show - January 16, 2026


BREAKING： Israel is about to TAKE OVER the HOLY SITE Shepherd's Fieldvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv


Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

169.08508

Word count

2,952

Sentence count

179

Harmful content

Hate speech

22

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

What is the mystery of the Christian community of Beth Zahara in Bethlehem? What does it mean for the future of Christian life in the Holy Land in the West Bank? Why does Israel want to destroy all traces of Christianity in the holy land?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 What is the mystery of the Christian community of Beth Zahor in Bethlehem?
00:00:04.900 And I figured it out.
00:00:06.040 The grace builds upon our nature as men,
00:00:08.780 builds upon our nature as families,
00:00:10.960 and it builds upon our nature as communities.
00:00:15.740 Why in the world has the governor of Florida, DeSantis,
00:00:20.460 decided to criminalize criticizing Israel in Florida?
00:00:24.520 I thought the U.S. was all about free speech.
00:00:26.260 Not only that, speaking of Israel,
00:00:28.140 Israel is right now going to basically work toward eliminating 0.99
00:00:33.360 the whole Christian community in the Holy Land,
00:00:35.740 in the West Bank, which was supposed to be protected but is not now.
00:00:39.220 In fact, Jason Jones is just back from the Holy Land right now,
00:00:42.600 and he's going to be telling us about a new project that's being done
00:00:47.720 to obliterate where the shepherds were in the Holy Land,
00:00:53.360 and it's a move to get rid of the whole Christian community there.
00:00:56.420 Jason, thanks so much for joining us.
00:00:57.620 John Henry, it's great to see you, and thanks for having me on.
00:01:00.180 God bless you.
00:01:00.880 Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.
00:01:02.600 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
00:01:06.460 Amen.
00:01:06.820 So Jason, you are just right now back from Israel.
00:01:09.780 You're telling me about this project.
00:01:11.920 What is this?
00:01:12.780 I've never even heard of this before.
00:01:14.520 Yeah, this is the first time anyone's ever going to hear about it.
00:01:17.040 There's a new settlement.
00:01:18.460 It's called Shtema.
00:01:19.740 It was approved this past November.
00:01:21.980 Illegally, it's an illegal settlement.
00:01:25.260 It would divide the Christian community in Bethlehem from East Jerusalem even further.
00:01:32.400 They've already displaced 19 families since November.
00:01:36.120 These are 19 Christian families that are displaced.
00:01:38.180 The Christian community believes that the Shtema settlement will lead to the very end of Christianity in the West Bank.
00:01:46.940 And the narrative that we've been told in the West, especially through Protestant evangelical media,
00:01:51.260 is that there was a strong, vibrant Christian population in the Holy Land from the first century until about 1948,
00:01:59.140 when we began to see a catastrophic collapse of the Christian community. 0.93
00:02:05.660 Well, in what was called the Nakba, or the catastrophe, over 100 churches and monasteries were destroyed,
00:02:12.480 and convents were destroyed with priests and nuns and Christians being displaced and murdered.
00:02:17.220 And it's never stopped.
00:02:18.760 So on this past Christmas Eve, Benjamin Netanyahu was doing a Twitter storm,
00:02:26.000 just posting on X relentlessly from the New Year's Eve event on Israel's commitment to protect Christians around the world suffering persecution,
00:02:35.960 which this struck me as like if Ghislaine Maxwell came out and promised her commitment to protect children from predators.
00:02:42.080 It would strike me as odd, because the first thing Benjamin Netanyahu can do is rein in the settler attacks in Teba, 0.67
00:02:50.440 the settler attacks in Bethlehem and Bet-Sahur, stop these new settlements that are illegal.
00:02:57.260 In fact, the new illegal settlement that will take part of the shepherd's field, 0.78
00:03:01.920 which is this historic Christian site that's very important to the Palestinian Christian community is stop these developments.
00:03:10.040 If Netanyahu wants to protect Christian communities, but what he does is he actually, in the same breath, diminishes these attacks,
00:03:17.560 saying all of the attacks across the West Bank, he's figured it out, have been narrowed down to 75 young people from broken homes.
00:03:24.880 Well, thank you, Benjamin Netanyahu, but that's not the case.
00:03:27.840 The case is settler violence takes place.
00:03:31.400 It's sponsored by the state with the IDF and the police protecting the settlers as they attack the Palestinians, 0.86
00:03:37.620 who then have no, cannot even think of defending themselves.
00:03:41.320 Let's rewind for a second.
00:03:43.140 This thing that they want to build, this settlement that they want to build, this new settlement,
00:03:46.880 takes up the famous shepherd's field where the shepherds were, received the message from the angel Gabriel about the birth of the Lord.
00:03:55.600 Yes, the very same place.
00:03:57.300 Oh my gosh.
00:03:59.060 So they're literally going to take over holy ground.
00:04:03.700 Bet-Sahur is 80% Christian.
00:04:06.340 So this is a very threat to that ancient Christian community. 0.97
00:04:09.680 And what's striking is U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, early on, made some very bold statements against the state of Israel and its settler abuse of Palestinians.
00:04:20.560 President Trump has been relentlessly clear there will be no annexation of the West Bank and these illegal settlements will stop.
00:04:28.820 I have three goals this year.
00:04:30.500 It's New Year's.
00:04:31.140 I just made my New Year's resolution.
00:04:32.560 I have three big goals.
00:04:33.860 One is to stop the settlement in Stemma, to preserve this ancient Christian community, John Henry, which is something we really can do. 1.00
00:04:42.420 If the conservative movement, the pro-life movement, if Christians, if Catholics, really we raised our voice and said,
00:04:49.020 we will not let you ethnically cleanse the Christians of the Holy Land, Israel, the way Israel just two years ago armed Azerbaijan. 0.93
00:04:57.020 And Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed over 100,000 Armenian Christians from Artsakh, who had been there since the third century Christian community.
00:05:07.620 If we raise our voices, the Stemma settlement will stop.
00:05:10.980 So that's my first goal.
00:05:12.240 My second goal is, as Catholics, the most important thing we can do for religious freedom around the world is make sure the CCP Vatican deal is not renewed.
00:05:21.580 And then my third resolution, which is the most ambitious of them all, is I want to go from 240 pounds to 215 pounds.
00:05:29.260 So, John Henry, with your help, I think we can do all three.
00:05:32.760 Okay?
00:05:33.320 The third one I'm not so sure about.
00:05:35.820 But if you want to join me in some fasting sometime, that will really challenge me.
00:05:40.620 So maybe it'll help you.
00:05:42.280 So we'll try that.
00:05:43.720 With regard to Israel, this we have to do. 0.91
00:05:48.280 But things are going crazy.
00:05:49.340 Tell me about this Florida law.
00:05:52.140 I'm a Canadian, and I'm trying to understand this.
00:05:55.280 It sounds like just full-on restriction of freedom of speech.
00:06:00.700 And yet, it's Florida, of all places.
00:06:03.540 Yeah.
00:06:03.820 You know, there's a global cordon on telling the truth about what the state of Israel is doing to the Palestinian people.
00:06:10.320 And if you're a conservative in the English-speaking world, in the Anglosphere, in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, we have been targeted for decades now because we have been the seat of political power in the Middle East by Zionist propaganda to really form our opinions on this issue.
00:06:28.780 And there is a very aggressive influence campaigns now targeting John Henry, our community.
00:06:34.660 One of the techniques has been to foment anti-Arab hate and Islamophobia because they know they've lost the battle of censoring what's happened in Gaza.
00:06:45.900 Now, people don't begin to know the details.
00:06:49.140 And when they begin to know how barbaric the details are, like just this week, mass graves of children with their hands tied with holes in their hands because they were raising their hands to protect themselves as they were alive and mass graves being shot.
00:07:01.920 As these types of stories get revealed, you know, or stories that have been hidden, like the two Catholic women in December of 2023 who were just trying to go from the church, Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, to the restroom, a mom and daughter were shot by an Israeli sniper.
00:07:17.480 Yeah, we were told by the bishop of that himself.
00:07:20.780 We had an interview with the bishop who explained that one to us.
00:07:23.500 Just horrendous stuff.
00:07:24.500 But this thing with the graves and this, did you see any of that when you were there?
00:07:28.380 Did you see any of these atrocities while you were there?
00:07:31.260 Oh, yeah.
00:07:31.740 On my last trip, I witnessed it with my own eyes.
00:07:35.420 On this trip, I did actually, on this trip, I saw an elderly woman and an elderly man ripped out of their car and placed on their knees with their hands above their head.
00:07:46.480 And they blockaded the road.
00:07:48.520 And so we were there for about five or ten minutes.
00:07:50.820 I actually filmed this as well.
00:07:52.740 It was at a checkpoint, so I made it look like I was on the phone, but I was actually filming.
00:07:56.620 And then just in the shepherd's field, on Christmas Day, settlers, Jewish settlers, Zionist settlers, many of them are American citizens, are filmed ripping down crosses.
00:08:09.780 And this is something we see all of the time.
00:08:14.040 For example, in this past July, it appears, and Cardinal Pete Zabala and I think even the Holy Father said they believe it was intentional, an Israeli tank fired on Holy Family Catholic Church, barely grazing the church, missing the cross by inches.
00:08:29.500 And then killing three of the Catholics in the church and wounding the priest, of all things.
00:08:36.600 So, and we have a lot of footage.
00:08:38.940 If you go to VulnerablePeopleProject.com, we interviewed Palestinian Christian women from Gaza about the abuse they suffered at the hands of the IDF.
00:08:46.960 And one of the women, we have the footage of it because the Israeli soldiers put it on social media, so we have it in our video over at VulnerablePeopleProject.com.
00:08:55.820 You can see the Israeli soldiers smashing statues of Mary in her house, smashing her crucifix.
00:09:03.060 Then they put on her lingerie, and they filmed themselves dancing around her house with rifles and shattered Christian symbols all on the ground while they're wearing her underwear.
00:09:17.120 The Israeli military and these reservists that are perpetrating these crimes are so poorly trained.
00:09:23.720 They had the highest suicide rate in the history of the IDF last year.
00:09:27.080 And here's one thing I do want to say, that we're Catholics, and as Catholics, we have no other.
00:09:34.840 We see Jews and Muslims as lost sheep, our brothers and sisters, that we want to be in the fold, that we want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with.
00:09:44.420 We don't foment, we don't share the gospel by fomenting Jew hatred or anti-Arab hatred.
00:09:49.100 And there are very sophisticated campaigns trying to say that to speak out against genocide, one has to do it with hate.
00:09:59.020 And I'm a red-blooded man, and I have to check my emotions a lot, and I have to make sure my emotions don't inform my intellect.
00:10:07.600 But we as Catholics, we're the only ones that have had a clear and concise voice advocating for the dignity of all of these people.
00:10:18.400 John Henry, you know, I go there, I'm in love with the Palestinian people.
00:10:23.400 They are the most calumniated community on earth.
00:10:25.740 When you see how special they are, and how not hateful they are, and how understanding they are, and how much fortitude they have in the midst of this great persecution, I've asked myself,
00:10:36.340 what is the mystery of the Christian community of Bethlehem and Jerusalem?
00:10:44.000 What is this mystery?
00:10:44.940 And I figured it out.
00:10:46.540 That grace builds upon our nature as men, builds upon our nature as families, and it builds upon our nature as communities.
00:10:53.440 And grace has been building on the nature of this Christian community since the first century, because they're the descendants of those whose families were in the upper room.
00:11:04.340 They're the descendants of those who are fishing alongside the apostles themselves.
00:11:08.440 And so grace is building upon the nature of this community.
00:11:11.100 We need to raise our voice on their behalf, while at the same time, pitying the Israelis, who are the first victims, really, of Zionism. 0.57
00:11:19.400 Zionism is a hateful, cruel, ethno-nationalist ideology. 0.99
00:11:24.080 And here I'm not talking about Zionism as an idea that Jews should feel home in a political community somewhere on earth where they're safe and protected.
00:11:32.700 I'm all for that.
00:11:33.820 I think every decent human being would be all for that.
00:11:36.760 But Zionism is sort of this ethno-nationalist ideology that treats the Palestinians, the indigenous peoples of this land, as subhuman, as virulent.
00:11:46.220 And I pity anyone that would hold to that ideology.
00:11:48.680 And even more pitiful than Zionism would be Christian Zionism, because it's fumbling the gospel. 0.96
00:11:54.500 I see it as apostasy, not even as a heresy, because if you don't understand that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all of the promises of Abraham, then I don't see how you're a Christian in any proper understanding of what it is to be a Christian.
00:12:09.420 So Christian Zionism, to me, is really nothing but like a pagan war cult dressed up in the language of Christianity and to think it's been weaponized against this indigenous community.
00:12:21.220 But I will say that when I go there, it's almost kind of kind of get bitter.
00:12:25.920 Like, I wish I didn't love the Israelis, too. 1.00
00:12:28.400 I wish I could just pick a side.
00:12:30.440 But I'm charmed by everyone there.
00:12:32.620 And this is just the tragedy of history.
00:12:35.440 The post-Ottoman world was catastrophic.
00:12:38.620 And then you have the colonial powers playing their games.
00:12:41.340 And the dominoes have been falling now since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
00:12:45.340 And we have this very challenging situation, not just between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but across the entire region.
00:12:52.320 We see now the violence that Christians are suffering now again in Syria.
00:12:57.100 But we as Catholics, and this is why I'm so grateful for you, John Henry, we as Catholics in the West, especially those of us in the United States, are the most powerful Christians that have ever walked the face of the earth.
00:13:08.880 And because we have the ability to successfully advocate for our Christian brothers and sisters who are being massacred, we have an obligation.
00:13:19.320 And the Christian community in the West Bank, in the Holy Land, if they cease to exist, it will be because John Henry failed.
00:13:30.500 It will be because Jason Jones failed.
00:13:32.580 It will be because Bishop Barron, who has never said one word yet about the genocide in Gaza and the plight of our Christian brothers and sisters in Gaza or the West Bank, has been silent.
00:13:41.760 Father Mike Schmidt has been silent.
00:13:43.480 The USCCB has been silent.
00:13:45.120 Now, so this is Bishop Barron's failure, John Henry's failure, Jason Jones's failure, the USCCB's failure, President Trump's failure.
00:13:54.120 This is Marco Rubio's failure, because if this Christian community is ethnically cleansed, it's because we allowed it to happen and we have the ability to save the Christian community. 0.97
00:14:05.380 And I would say it's very simple.
00:14:07.800 First step, if we can't stop the Stama settlement, we can't do anything. 0.93
00:14:15.120 It's just, it's just been planted, but Christian families are already being displaced.
00:14:20.540 This will be the end of Christians in the Holy Land. 1.00
00:14:23.180 Yeah.
00:14:23.420 And when you say displaced, just to be clear, they are losing their own homes and their lands and they're just kicked out.
00:14:31.500 I mean, people talk about displacement all the time and you get to wonder, what is that?
00:14:35.580 Well, what does it feel like when you are kicked out of your own home?
00:14:38.340 When you are forced to leave and all your land, your property, everything.
00:14:42.840 Let's enlist, I would say, St. Gabriel, since he was there.
00:14:46.120 The whole host of the heavenly army that joined him when he announced the birth of our Lord.
00:14:51.980 What a time.
00:14:52.800 I'm so grateful, Jason, that you were there for the Catholic community to show us what's really going on.
00:14:58.640 Tell us where we, our people, can interact with you and find out more information.
00:15:05.420 John Henry, well, thanks for that question because, first of all, LifeSide News has been a part of our evacuations of the religious orders from Sudan,
00:15:13.240 from Afghanistan and Ukraine, and our rebuilding the Catholic school in Lahaina.
00:15:20.240 You've been a part of so much.
00:15:21.500 So the one thing I would like everyone to do is help us, we've delivered pop-up homes that Pope Leo and Cardinal Pizzabala have acknowledged,
00:15:30.020 sort of these pop-up homes that Christians have.
00:15:32.300 Every one of those was provided by the Vulnerable People Project, but it's still rainy and it's cold,
00:15:38.120 and so now we're delivering firewood, and we need everyone's help for that.
00:15:41.900 So we go to vulnerablepeopleproject.com.
00:15:44.120 I'd ask, we have a matching gift up to $25,000 for firewood.
00:15:48.820 You support that campaign.
00:15:50.140 Spread the word that we need to save the Christian community of the shepherd's field of Bet-Zahor. 0.98
00:15:56.400 We need to save the Christian community of Teba and Bethlehem. 0.67
00:15:59.720 We need the state of Israel to keep its promise to President Trump that they will not annex the West Bank and that these settlements will stop. 0.55
00:16:09.260 And if we can't stop the Shtama settlement, this new settlement that is meant by design to displace and ethnically cleanse the Christians of Bethlehem in the shepherd's field, 1.00
00:16:19.920 then there's nothing that we'll ever be able to do to serve the persecuted church.
00:16:24.620 Because right now, the biggest persecutors of Christianity in the world are our allies, Turkey, India, Israel.
00:16:33.260 And if we can't get India, Turkey, and Israel to stop fomenting the persecution of Christians, then what are we doing?
00:16:41.420 If we can't even move our allies that we send a lot of money to, to stop killing our co-religionists, then what can we do? 1.00
00:16:49.220 We can't do anything.
00:16:50.040 So let's stop Shtama and our commitment to protect the persecuted church. 1.00
00:16:54.980 Amen to that.
00:16:56.160 Jason, thank you so much for joining us.
00:16:57.720 God bless you.
00:16:58.680 And we'll talk to you again soon.
00:16:59.980 Thanks, John Henney.
00:17:00.720 And God bless all of you.
00:17:02.360 And we'll see you next time.
00:17:06.560 Hi, I'm Liz Yor.
00:17:08.520 I'm really urging all the audience to continue to follow LifeSite News for all information, news about life,
00:17:17.260 for a great perspective on all the breaking news in the world.
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