River Lake Church pastor reacts to homecoming from Israel

BARREN COUNTY, Ky. – The Barren County based River Lake Church group that was stuck in Israel after the Oct. 7 beginning of conflict between Israel and Hamas has returned home.

Pastor Nic Smith, who has been to Israel multiple times, believes from what he and his group experienced that the conflict is altogether different.

“There was a lot of tension around when it wasn’t safe. You know, all of a sudden it’s like, okay, this is real. And when you have the prime minister declare we’re at war, it obviously escalates tensions and anxieties and fears and concerns and stuff like that. And so, yeah, it was a challenge to walk through that and to to make sure people are calm,” Smith said.

Timothy Quevillon, professor of Jewish Studies at Western Kentucky University, says that this conflict is indeed much greater than those that periodically crop up in the region.

“What has been boiling over in random attacks of violence over the past 15 years finally erupted in the largest strike against not only Israel, but the largest single day, you know, the largest single day casualties of Jews since World War II, since the Holocaust,” Quevillon said.