This week Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), was honoured to speak at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, Israel on 28 April 2025.
This page contains a video of Pastor Hagee’s speech along with the full transcript.
Full transcript of Pastor John Hagee’s speech:
Good morning, friends, and thank you for inviting me here as we gather in Jerusalem, the eternal and undivided capital of the State of Israel.
I am honoured to be among so many distinguished individuals and aggressive defenders of Israel. I bring you greetings from the 11 million-plus members of Christians United for Israel in the United States of America. And as my daughter has said, our motto is: “If a line has to be drawn, then draw that line around both Christians and Jews.”
The Jewish people are God’s chosen people. The Bible says they are the apple of His eye, who have an eternal covenant to own the land of Israel forever.
Three days ago, I visited Krakow and stood in the dreadful shadows of the ovens of Auschwitz. I wept and I prayed, not only for the past, but also for our failures in the here and now. I prayed for the fate of the 59 Israelis who are still held hostage by Hamas, for the warriors and the wounded, for the survivors, and for the bereaved. But at Christians United for Israel, we do not just pray, we do not just speak—we take action.
The Bible commands Christians, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people”—that’s the Jewish people—“saith the Lord.” (Isaiah 40:1)
Christians United for Israel and John Hagee Ministries have given more than 180 million dollars to comfort, to aid, and to defend the Jewish people. We act in defence of Israel’s sovereign right to make decisions of war and peace, free of international interference. We act in opposition to the scourge of the one-world Jewish hatred that has once again come out of the darkness and is spreading across the United States of America.
We do these things because we are Christians who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For we know that all the nations of the world can only be blessed through the chosen people, as the Psalmist made clear: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.” (Psalm 105:15)
Let’s read that again: “Do not touch my anointed ones”—that would be the Jewish people—“and do my prophets no harm.” These words are directed to the nations of the world, and Am Yisrael are the ancient ones, the apple of God’s eye. The apple of God’s eye.
Yet the nations of the world have miserably failed to behave righteously—from the ten-horned dictators who hold sway over the political brothel that is the United Nations, to the holier-than-thou Europeans who spent centuries slaughtering each other and murdering the Jews in the Crusades, in direct defiance of God’s clear and unchanging law.
As an American, I must admit my shame that certain feeble policies of the United States government toward the mullahs and their obsessive support for terrorism, at least in part, enabled the October 7th massacre. America’s self-serving flattery towards the tyrants of Tehran, and Washington’s worship of any agreement with Iran during previous administrations, led to the international community aiding and abetting the world’s leading sponsor of terror—until that awful nuclear agreement was torn up by our courageous 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.
But at that point, most of the damage had been done, and many promises of a stronger agreement with Tehran only served to enable the Islamic Republic to empower its bloodthirsty terrorist proxies like Hamas to attack Israel with stronger weapons. And in the wake of October 7th, no rational world can allow the terrorism that already resulted in the massacre of thousands to be legitimised in exchange for any deals with Iran.
Tragically, America’s international leadership has been undermined by massive swings in the political pendulum. At the end of the day, those who enable murderers, rapists, and terrorists share in the responsibility for all that transpires when such evil is encouraged by American policies.
I will not repeat the horrors that took place on that infamous day, because we know them all too well. We have seen the faces of the survivors and the victims. We have wept with the bereaved and have shared Israel’s disgust for Gaza’s wretched war criminals and terrorists. We must remember: in war, there is no substitute for victory—victory today, victory tomorrow, and victory forever. As Winston Churchill once said, “Without victory, there is no survival.”
The world changed on October 7th, and we will never return to the status quo—not ever. America’s capitulation to Iran a decade ago broke our promise to never again abandon the Jewish people. As a result, Tehran has played multiple American administrations like a fiddle. They simply had their way with our government. The refusal to return to the status quo means that America must never accept a nuclear Iran—not ever.
Either the Islamic Republic destroys their nuclear facilities by themselves, or the Free World will do the job for them.
Gone are the days when planes filled with piles of cash are going to solve our problems with Iran. I assume the rulers of Tehran want none of the packages currently awaiting deployment on the half-dozen B-2 stealth bombers recently stationed at Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean.
Iran’s nuclear program must end. Anything less is unacceptable. President Trump has made that clear. Israel has made that clear. There will be no equivocation about this issue. Iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
I planned to say that Iran’s terrorist proxy program must also end—and it must. But that program is being dismantled by the mighty hand of the U.S. military and the IDF, through the outstretched sword of Gideon’s warriors, as we speak.
Hezbollah will never abandon its hatred of the Jewish state, but it has been forced to abandon the bases in southern Lebanon that enabled it to strike fear into the hearts of every man, woman, and child in northern Israel.
Next door in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, the coward of Damascus, has fled, and responsible powers are actively working to ensure that Damascus does not become a radical Sunni Islamic state or an outpost of the Turkish strongman bringing his neo-Ottoman fantasy to life.
To be clear, Turkey is not our friend or ally under the current regime. Turkey has become increasingly dictatorial and an aspiring Islamic imperialist state that is allied with the Hamas terrorists who raped and murdered their way through southern Israel more than 550 days ago. Western policy towards Turkey must be rigid. Ankara must learn that she cannot enjoy Western support or approval while stabbing the United States of America and our allies in the back.
Today, Hamas is a shell of its former self, but it still terrorises the Jewish people every day. As we stand in the holy city in the land God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we are all heartbroken, unable to return to any semblance of normal. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Hamas captivity. Every one of them must come home. Every day that they are held in Gaza injures not only the hostages, but every Israeli and every Palestinian caught in the crossfires. Only the Hamas death cult revels in the pain of these innocents.
So, as we look into the future, let us be clear in the wake of the atrocities committed on that historic day: the world can no sooner allow Palestinian terrorists to retake control of Gaza than we would allow the Nazis to retake control of Germany after the Holocaust. It must not happen.
The October 7th terrorists murdered more than 1,200 innocent people. But let me be crystal clear: the October 7th terrorists also murdered any serious discussion of a Palestinian state. Not now and not ever.
God Almighty created the State of Israel, and He gave it to the Jewish people forever and forever—end of story.
The Bible has a ‘one-state solution’: Israel today, Israel tomorrow, and Israel forever.
The fact is, on October 7th, Hamas killed the ‘Two-State Solution’. It is inconceivable that successive generations of Palestinians, who have been spoon-fed an ever-increasing diet of Jew-hatred, would be allowed to again threaten atrocities against their innocent neighbours. On October 8th, and until Israel had militarily eviscerated much of Hamas, ordinary Palestinians supported Hamas terrorism. Imagine for a moment if—God forbid—such atrocities had been committed in your name.
As a Christian, I know the great horrors committed against the Jewish people by false Christians in the Crusades, and I’m appalled by that fact. I have spent the majority of my life speaking against these false Christians. They’re called in history, “Crusaders.” So whenever antisemitism attempts to drape itself in the American flag or the banner of Christianity—as is taking place right now among some in my country—we at CUFI stand up, we speak out, and not just a handful of people, but millions of people are speaking out for Israel and in support of Israel.
So I ask: where are the conscientious Gazans of October 7th? Where was Abbas, the Holocaust-denying, pro-terrorist leader of the Palestinian Authority? Where are the righteous among the Palestinians? Your answer is: they are nowhere to be found. And as such, the free world’s approach to the Middle East can only be peace through strength.
In the context of Middle Eastern policy, the Trump administration has taken numerous steps that align with this simple, long-known geopolitical axiom. This includes ending the semi-arms embargo against Jerusalem. Translation: give Israel all the weapons they need to win this war—and win it now.
Secondly, by being tough with our adversaries, rather than berating our friends, and making clear that the United States of America does not bluff—not ever. President Trump has done these things and will not waver from that course. As the enemies of Israel and America integrate, America must never isolate. I want to say that again: as the enemies of Israel and America integrate, America must never isolate.
Today, the United States has restored the idea of a credible military threat against the regime of Tehran. Long before President Trump took office in his second term, Israel had already made clear to Iran that their precious nuclear and oil facilities were not as safe as the mullahs thought. And, if compelled by Iran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear ambition, the Free World will end Iran’s nuclear ambitions with a bang. It sounds like this: Boom!
Regime change is the only moral, realistic, and permanent solution to the Islamic Republic’s obsession with destroying the Free World and wiping the Jewish people from the face of the earth. A robust approach to the Middle East enabled the Abraham Accords; a weak approach to the region enabled October 7th. I have no illusions about the road ahead.
The world is a more volatile place than it has been in decades. It’s a very, very delicate time that we live in. And at all times—but especially during these times—we must look to what has enabled freedom to thrive in the past: peace through strength, strength through wisdom, and wisdom from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This is the path that protects what God loves and what we love. And for generations to come—Israel, you are not alone.
May God bless Jerusalem, and may God bless Israel and the Jewish people. And may God bless you.
