AMI Jerusalem Center Newsletter, Jan – Feb 2026

Jerusalem Center Update

By Bruce Larson

Shlomo Hizak, the beloved found­er of the AMI Jerusalem Center, wrote a pamphlet called “Seeing is Believing.” In this pamphlet Sh­lomo said the following: “Some say the streets of Israel are paved with miracles…The miracle is in the restored land, the reinvented Hebrew language, and the broken people of Israel reborn.” We recog­nize that it is the Lord who created this miracle of the people of Israel returning to their land. In Jeremi­ah 32:40 the Lord said that he will make an everlasting covenant with the sons of Israel. In verse 41 of chapter 32 he said, “And I will rejoice over them to do good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul” Think about that. God is bringing the sons of Israel back to the land He promised them with all His heart and soul. Other scrip­tures that talk about this include Jeremiah 16:15, Ezekiel 36:24, 37:21, and Zechariah 8:7-8.

In this same pamphlet Shlomo went on to say about the reborn Israel, “More and more people every­where are realizing the centrality of this place and its message. We look toward the day…when both Jew and Christian join in hand to reach for an understanding of the One True God’s eternal message. The AMI Center welcomes this day and blesses it. It is what we are all about.” This pamphlet also stated that Shlomo dedicated his life to building bridges between Jews and Christians.

The second core value and one of the key purposes of the AMI Cen­ter reflects this dedication: to build bridges of understanding between the Jewish people and Christians through education and relation­ships.

We are privileged to live in a time when we can witness with our own eyes God miraculously fulfilling the promises and prophecies in His word. It is vital in this time of such fulfillment, that Christians continue to read and know these prophecies in the Holy Scriptures which were given to the Jewish people as an ev­erlasting covenant. To build bridges of understanding it is important that Christians are aware of what God is doing today to fulfill His word and how He feels toward the sons of Is­rael. Finally, the scriptures are very clear about how the Lord wants Christians to feel and relate to the Jewish people.

Psalm 122 says that we should pray for the peace and prosperity of Je­rusalem, love Jerusalem and seek for her good.

Isaiah 40:1-2 says we should com­fort and speak kindly to Jerusalem.

Isaiah 62:1-2, 6-7 says to pray for Jerusalem and remind the Lord of His promises until He “makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth”

Isaiah 65:18-19 says we should re­joice in Jerusalem.

Therefore, through these newslet­ters our new website, tours to Is­rael, travels to churches through­out the world we will remind Christians about the scriptures that show God’s promises and heart for the sons of Israel. The follow­ing is a brief update of some of the things we are doing to fulfill Sh­lomo’s vision and what the Lord has put on our heart.

We have a bus full of wonderful Christians coming from California on a tour of Israel from February 24th to March 6th, which is fully booked. They will discover as I did that this land of the Bible is a land of miracles that makes God’s word come alive in their hearts. We have a second tour coming from May 17th to May 26th that is called a Solidarity tour. We will have days of volunteering to pack food, bring lunch and eat with Is­raeli soldiers in Hebron, plant trees along the Gospel trail in Galilee, and see much of Israel including the Nova Festival site by Gaza and the Syrian border. We are also ac­tively planning other tours in 2026. If anyone is interested in coming on a tour to Israel, please let us know. We are also considering a possible tour in November 2026. Please pray that with all the cur­rent events in the Middle East we will be able to safely have groups of Christians come and experi­ence the land of the Bible and our shared Biblical roots.

Our new website is getting close to being done, and it will be an im­portant way of communication regarding the scriptures about Israel and AM Israel (the people of Isra­el) and of our activities and prayer needs.

We are praying that the Lord opens doors and leads us to find ways to bless the people of Israel during these precarious times. Recently, we at the AMI Center, have been able to bless and help Bnei Arazim, children who have been victims of terrorism, young Israeli soldiers who are serving without parents in Israel, and organizations who pro­vide food to the poor in Israel.

We would like to open doors of communication with each of you who also share our love for Israel, and the vision God gave to Shlomo for the AMI Center. Please feel free to email either the Jerusalem office (Jerusalem@amijerusalemcenter.org) or the San Diego office (Jeru­salemcenter.us@gmail.com) of the AMI Center with ideas, questions, or prayer requests. Also, once we have your email address, we will be able to send to each of you our newsletter by email. This will allow us to send you the newsletter quick­er, send other information regarding activities and prayer requests, and save printing and shipping costs.

Please pray for Israel, its leader­ship, and for the AMI Center that God will continue to fulfill His word and that we will fulfill the vi­sion and mission that the Lord has put into our hearts.

What is a Covenant of Salt?

By Daniel Gwertzman

“Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?” (2 Chronicles 13:5)

When the Jews accepted the Torah, they became part of a Covenant with God. This was repeated 3 times, once at Sinai, then in the plains of Moab, and after entering the Land of Israel. This kind of Covenant between God and the Jewish People is called “a covenant of salt.” It is divinely made and has the quality of salt, which preserves food and keeps it from spoiling. In short it is a Covenant which will endure forever eternally preserved from abrogation. Like any Covenant, the Torah involves mutual obligations. God takes an oath that He will cause His Divine presence to dwell among His people even in exile and that they will eventually be redeemed and return to the land of Israel.

Concerning the Jewish People’s obligation, they will never cease in their commitment to study the Torah and observe the commandments. The Jewish People base their hope for the future redemption on God’s Oath in the Covenant. However, if the covenant was violated how can the Jews believe that God’s Oath is still binding?

The Covenantal relationship between God and His People never lapses because they will repent their ways. God will not reject His Nation, no matter how far they stray. So long as the Jews teach their children Torah there is hope for redemption. Until this youthful devotion to spirituality is carried all through their lives then will come the Messianic Age.

I see the hope for realization of this Covenant of Salt in the daily newspapers and in the letters that are coming to me in the email. The Ancient Pilgrimage Road from the Pool of Siloam to the foot of the Temple Mount has been opened to the public after 13 years of excavations. This was the main thoroughfare during the Second Temple Period. Former U.S. Ambassador David Friedman said this is “proof the Bible is a matter of fact, not simply of faith.” Israel is turning to faith to reboot post-war tourism. Government officials believe Christian Pilgrims, Evangelical travelers and Jewish communities overseas can form the backbone of a gradual recovery; even as broader tourism remains limited. U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee spoke at the International Mediterranean Tourism Market in Tel Aviv. “There are 80 million Evangelical Christians in America and all of them would want to travel here. Once you have walked the Land, you read the Bible differently for the rest of your life.” The U.S. remains Israel’s largest source market sending roughly 400,000 visitors in 2025, followed by France with 159,000 and the United Kingdom with 95,000. Ben Gurion Airport expects to have traffic reach 22 million in 2026. It will have a new terminal featuring modern baggage handling systems, check-in counters, offices and unloading zones to handle the growing demand.

The Monday, February 9, 2026 Jerusalem Post had an article by Paddy Monaghan, a Catholic lay leader in Ireland, who works as Secretary of the Evangelical Catholic Initiative and of Towards Jerusalem Council 2 Ireland, attacking a recent statement by the Patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem which attacked Christian Zionism as “a damaging ideology: which may harm Christian presence in the Holy Land and wider Middle East.” One of the writers he cites is Johannes Fichtenbauer from Vienna, a Catholic archdeacon who in his book “The Mystery of the Olive Tree” (2019) highlights the following:

1. 1. The Jewish People will possess the Land of Israel again as their own independent state.  (Amos 9:11-15)
   2. The Jewish People will return to the Land, coming from the four corners of the earth, North, South, East and West. (Isaiah 43:5-6)
   3. Before the end times Jerusalem will be freed from the dominion of the Gentiles and will be the Capital of Israel (Zechariah 1:17; 2:4, 12:1-9).

The State of Israel has launched a major government led initiative to complete the Aliyah and family reunification of the Bnei Menashe community. The project known as Operation Kanfei Shahar (Wings of Dawn) is being coordinated by the Aliyah and Integration Ministry in partnership with the Jewish Agency, the Chief Rabbinate, the Conversion System (Ma’arach Hagiyur) and multiple government ministries. The Bnei Menashe, a community from the northeastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram trace their ancestry to the Biblical Tribe of Menashe, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

Over 600 churches worldwide stood with Israel ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day representing around 1,100 Christian leaders and tens of thousands of church members on “Solidarity Sunday” to oppose anti-Semitism and express solidarity with Jews. This one day global event was organized to show support for the Jewish community and the State of Israel. It was organized by Eagles Wings via its pastors’ network, the Israel Christian Nexus in collaboration with the Moral Hearts Alliance. Solidarity Sunday was created in 2024 after the events of the October 7th massacre.

A poll released in November by the Jewish People Policy Institute found 27% of Israelis have increased their observance of religious customs since the war began. Roughly a third of Jewish Israelis say they are praying more frequently than before the war and about 20% report reading the Bible or Psalms more often.

The Covenant of Salt is active and alive for both Jews and Christians who share Biblical Values. Increasingly I am hearing from Christians from around the world who want to come to Israel despite the costs and difficulties and want to join groups as soon as we have openings for them. I also received an email from a church in the Volga Region telling me they were praying for the Middle East and Jerusalem and of course for God’s blessing for Israel and its friends. This comes from Russia which we haven’t visited for quite a few years. I have also heard from a lady in Brazil who was last here in 1996. Also, from a choir from Moldova, which was here in 2015. The spirit of the Lord is moving in our world.

“Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalms 121:4)

Letter from Jerusalem 

By Professor Meron Medzini

Among his many accomplishments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds another world record: he is the only leader who has met Presi­dent Donald J. Trump seven times in one year: once in Jerusalem, once in Mar-a-Lago and the rest of the time in the White House. Unlike previous meetings that were shorter, virtually open to the media and consisted of many advisers on both sides, the last one was held on February 11, 2026, and lasted almost three hours, was closed to the media and attended by a small number of advisers. Why did this meeting differ from the previous ones?

Netanyahu requested an urgent meet­ing because the United States and Iran held indirect negotiations in Muscat, the capital of Oman, to discuss the key subject: how to deal with Iran. The alternatives facing America and Israel were either to engage in armed hostilities in order to destroy Iran’s military capabilities and perhaps even topple its beleaguered regime, or to reach an agreement through diplo­matic channels that would avert a war. The decision facing America and Israel became highly urgent due to the turmoil in Iran that began several weeks ago and resulted among other things, in the killing of thousands of Iranian civilians by the Khamenei re­ligious regime. Netanyahu may have feared that America and Iran were close to reaching an agreement and wanted to be sure that Israel’s posi­tion be taken into account.

On the agenda were four major is­sues. The first dealt with the ques­tion if Iran was prepared to halt the enrichment of its nuclear material or draw closer to nuclear capabil­ity. Secondly, was Iran prepared to limit or even eliminate its capability in the field of ballistic missiles. The third focused on Iran’s support for its proxies in the Middle East, consisting of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Leba­non and the Houthis in Yemen, not to mention other Islamic revolution­ary movements in Syria and Iraq and the fourth topic was the future of the Iranian regime after weeks of upris­ing due to Iran’s disastrous economic situation.

Iran has been known for dragging its feet when it came to diplomatic ne­gotiations. It has time and may sense that in three years’ time there will be another president in the White House, maybe another prime minister in Jerusalem. Iran has made deals in the past when it ended its eight-year war with Iraq, and signed the nuclear limitations agreement with the West­ern Powers in 2015. Khamenei called these agreements “heroic flexibility” in order to justify the slowing down of Iran’s nuclear efforts.

Judging by many expressions by Presi­dent Trump, the majority of them im­promptu, he hoped that Iran would at least curtail its nuclear enrichment program that would remove from Iran 400 kgs of enriched uranium, promise not to develop nuclear weapons and agree to outside supervision. There are many indications that while building up America’s military might in the Middle East, mainly by sending two huge carriers and their attached warships to the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is obvious that war against Iran and its proxies would be totally different from the surgical attack in Venezuela and the kidnapping of Maduro to the United States.

Netanyahu wanted to be sure that there would be maximum coopera­tion and coordination between the American army, navy and air force and those of the Israel Defense Forces. Netanyahu is also fully aware of the damage Israel sustained during the 12 day war which it launched on Iran in June 2025, one that ended only after America intervened, attacking three nuclear facilities in Iran and ordering Israel to halt its operations.

Israeli leaders are also aware that any agreement between America and Iran, while reducing the threat of an Iranian attack on Israel, could in the long term be harmful to Israel’s key interest, that of assuring that Iran will not have the capacity to attack Israel, mainly by ballistic missiles, unmanned airborne machines and similar weapons. Israel is also aware that many of America’s allies in the region, chiefly Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Ara­bia, are terrified of a war launched against Iran by the United States with or without Israel’s involvement. At stake are vast American economic interests as well as the possibility of China and Russia using a war in the Middle East to enhance their own ag­gressive plans: those of Russia in the Ukraine and of China in Taiwan.

This letter is written at a time of vast uncertainty. It is easy to understand the motivations, fears and thinking of the players involved, but it is virtual­ly impossible to predict which way it will go. Hence the need for maximum Israeli-America understanding to en­sure that if worse comes to worse, Israel will not go it alone. Meron Medzini –The Hebrew University of Jerusalem