A Lebanese dream of Jerusalem: A new song released for Jerusalem Day

Lebanese singer-songwriter, Carine Bassili, has announced a new song, “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” will be released just in time for Jerusalem Day on May 26.

The song is a collaboration of four artists – two Jews and two Arabs  – in Hebrew, Arabic and English. “We need to get the message of unity for the Christians, the believers in the Middle East and Lebanon,” Bassili told ALL ISRAEL NEWS, “we want to make peace. We want to awaken this dream.”

Having been raised in Beirut as a Christian where no one read the Old Testament, Bassili first discovered God’s heart for Israel at a Messianic Yom Kippur event in California. “My heart was stirred and something was unlocked in me. A veil was lifted, and I had so much curiosity to learn more,” she recalled. 

Now a vocal advocate for Israel, Basilli has released several songs in Hebrew and Arabic, even making an Arabic version of Israel’s Eurovision entry from last year, October Rain, which was about the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Collaborating with Israeli believers Shai Sol, a Messianic Jew, and Ronza Nwesry, an Arab Christian from Nazareth, Bassili has released her new song along with another Messianic Jewish artist from Florida, Kaya Jones.

In honor of Jerusalem Day, and in light of the sobering fact that nations are turning against Israel, they believe it is a critical time to spread the message to "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem" around the world.

Bassili has been friends with Sol for some years, but this is their first collaboration. Florida-based Jewish believer, Kaya Jones, was once in the band “Pussycat Dolls,” but is now singing for God. “She loves the Lord and she loves Israel and she's advocated for Israel too,” Bassili told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. “She's just a beautiful, beautiful human being.”

Nwesry is part of the “Hope” Nazareth House of Prayer and Exploits. Joining via video, Bassili said, “I saw this woman worshiping and she was flowing beautifully in the Spirit with the Lord, and I was just like, oh my goodness, who is this woman?”

The song is about a dream that was inspired by the memories of Bassili’s Lebanese grandmother who used to take a bus from Lebanon, go through the border with Israel, and up to Jerusalem. As Orthodox Christians they would take a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and walk around the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Bassili yearns for the day when such a trip will become possible again. “It’s my dream to go,” Bassili told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. “I feel like I just want to go. I need to go.
I need to be there.”

And it might not be a pipe dream.

“It is not in the interest of any Lebanese citizen, nor of any country or people in our region, to exclude themselves from this collective path toward stability and reconciliation,” declared the Christian president of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, in Cairo, Egypt, last weekend. “Today, we are facing the challenge of peace for the entire region, and we are ready for it," he said. 

President Aoun has made it clear he expects to see a Palestinian state as a prerequisite, but the desire for peace is growing. Some love Israel even now.

“There are people from Lebanon who stand with Israel,” Bassili assured us. “God tells us to pray for peace. We really need to do as He asks us to.”

Psalm 122: A Song of Ascents. Of David.

I was glad when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Our feet have been standing
    within your gates, O Jerusalem!

Jerusalem—built as a city
    that is bound firmly together,
to which the tribes go up,
    the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
    to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
There thrones for judgment were set,
    the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
    “May they be secure who love you!
Peace be within your walls
    and security within your towers!”
For my brothers and companions' sake
    I will say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
    I will seek your good.

“Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem,” will be released on major streaming platforms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjeomCEswBI