Elias: “Peace between Jews and Arabs is only possible through the Messiah”

Elias recounts his journey from a childhood marked by abuse and resentment to a profound personal transformation. Discovering his Jewish heritage and grappling with struggles in the Israeli army, he eventually sought solace in faith. Through embracing Yeshua, he found peace, forgiveness, and a path to reconciliation. Today, Elias shares his story to inspire others, demonstrating that love and unity between Jews and Arabs can be achieved through faith.

Subtitles from youtube video

Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:22-24)

Shalom, my name is Elias and I was born in Jaffa, and I remember that my father took me to Ramallah, to a catholic orphanage school. And in that orphanage school I grew up as a child that hated the Jews very much. I was abused in many ways. I was beaten there, the orphanage was terrible for me. It was something that I couldn’t bear anymore. And I was abused sexually, I felt very filthy, very dirty. I couldn’t really stay there in this place. This place was like a prison for me, it was nothing. And they teach about Jesus; for me, the teaching about Jesus, I did not comprehended it. I maybe didn’t understand about Jesus in that time, and they teach us about God and they force us to be read the Bible. But I hated the place, I hated the people, I hated the Jews, I hated ‘that’ God, I hated ‘that’ Jesus. At the age of 13, I had to run away to Haifa to a place named House of Grace. And House of Grace was there for the homeless that all used drugs. And they smoked, and they did whatever they wanted. But it was from the Catholic Church, and they put them there to not to be in the streets. And I was abused also in all these things, but I still never smoked and all these kind of things. But there were also Jews living in that house and this for me, I was very surprised. And I hated those Jews and I said to the manager, “What kind of people are you putting in your place?” “Why did you put these Jews in this place?” In the end, I learned that the Jews and the Arabs are living in Haifa together, because in Ramallah there couldn’t be Jews. And this made me feel that something is not okay for me. I mean, I was raised that the Jews are blood thirsty and they hate the Arabs, how could they live together? Still for me it was very strange, very awkward. But in the end I had to live in this house. I saw the change in my life, that people are not really hurting me. These Jews are okay and they are human beings like me. And they are not what I learned about them. At the age of 16, I had to go to get my identity card, and to my surprise it was written that I am a Jew. And it was very hard to understand that. I hated Jews. I told them, “that’s not right.” “It’s not the right thing to say.” And then she showed me that my mother’s name is Sarah Cohen. It was a very Jewish name. For me, I didn’t know my mother and know my father, but I thought they were dead as well. But in the end I took it as; it’s only a paper. And you have to know that in all these years, I met my wife in those days, and I started, how to say it, to be with the Jews better, and have a better relationship with the Jews. And all that I learned in Ramallah, I knew that it was a big lie. In the end, at the age 18 I had to go to the army. And there I was in the first war of Lebanon and it was very horrible for me. It was terrible. And all the time I felt in those days that what I learned about Yeshua or I learned about God was not very true. I wanted to believe that there is a God. I wanted to believe that there is a Yeshua there. But in the Army it was so hard for me. I was abused as a child. I was a very weak person, but in the army I felt like I belong to somebody. I have a flag and I belong to Israel, and I belong to a country, and I was very strong there. And the intifada started in 1987, after I was in Lebanon for one and a half year. There was much killing. There was a war there. Most of the soldiers didn’t come back. I came back only with four other people. Most of them were dead. So the intifada started, I had to go to Ramallah as well. All my classmates, all my family, all my friends, saw me there as a soldier. That’s the sign they made that they wanted to kill me. But in the end I finished the army. I went out, finished the army, and it was very clear for me that I had to go back to this house. I was engaged, but the House of Grace, there were people who were using drugs again and doing all of this, And I had many nightmares for two, three days. I was sleeping in a room with a man there, he said to me: “Elias, I can help you with something, if you want.” So he put some heroin on the table and I had to sniff it. And from that time, I, it’s like a medicine for me, it was very good. And in those days you have to know that I felt so rejected in many ways. From my father, from my mother. I met my mother when I was 19 years old, in the Army. She was a very cold woman. I met my father, he didn’t really want to. They were married. My mother was married, my father was married. In those days I had to live with myself and I heard about Yeshua in many, many places, and God. And one day, I was in a meeting of Messianics. And the pastor told me, “do you want to accept Jesus?” I was in the Army. I said, “this is my Yeshua, my M16 and this is my Yeshua and I believe in the power of Israel,” and that was the answer. Yes, I was 30 years, I was in drugs. My wife was very disappointed. My children were very disappointed in me. They suffered so much in my life. I was in a miserable way. I couldn’t even take care of my family. In the end, everybody lifted their hands off me. They didn’t want to help me anymore, so I was alone in the street. And there I was really like a dog. I was hungry, I was thirsty, in the midst of the street. I knelt down to go to God and said, “God of Abraham, and Isaac, Jacob, and Yeshua ha’Mashiach.” “If you are real, help me please,” because I wanted to to kill myself in those days. And the second day, exactly the second day, somebody came and told me there’s a place that you can go. I start learning again about the Bible and the New Testament, about Yeshua. And to my surprise, the way they teach there, it was much grace about Yeshua ha’Mashiach that loves me, that died for me, that He shared his blood especially for me, and He loves me as I am. And he forgave all my sins. This was very hard to believe, because I met so many in my life, I believe that I’m not even a person. I was living like an animal. But I had to ask, to renounce all the things that I did in my life, and I had to forgive the people that abused me sexually. It was also the hardest thing to do. To forgive these people, and to forgive my father, to forgive my mother, to forgive the orphanage that really abused me in many ways. And this Yeshua ha’Mashiach, He gave me so much new life, a new identity. Today I care what God says about me, and not what people say. I’m a free man. I’m loved. I’m a child of God. And today I want to do for Him, to say to the world how He saved me from death, and how, even I had to die many times. I have been, had to be, even mentally very sick. How He could take a vessel like me. I mean, I was so broken, there was nothing good in me. And He took me as I am and He accepted me as I am, and He made me what I am today. And today I’m really thankful of Yeshua ha’Mashiach, the God of Abraham and Isaac, and of Jacob, and that He really saved my life. And today I’m free and I’m trying to give my testimony to everyone who wants to hear it. I just want to finish my testimony to say that the only way that I could have peace with myself is peace with God. And love myself and love God. And as an Arab I hated the Jews, but today I love them. And as a Jew I hated the Arabs, but today I love them because I have peace in myself.

And I know that I’m the one new man that God is talking about. That God will bring the Jews and the gentiles together and make them one. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself (2 Cor. 5:17-18b.)