My wife and I recently spent eight days in Idaho, and on the drive from Sun Valley back to Boise for our flight home, we stopped for lunch at a place Google Maps happened to route us to: Apple Barrel Deli and Bakery in Mountain Home. We had no idea what we were walking into.

The first thing we saw was a large Israeli flag flying next to an American one at the entrance. Inside, we ended up in a long conversation with the owners, Jeff and LeAnn, about why those flags were there.

They put the Israeli flag up after October 7th, not as a calculated gesture, but because they are Christian Zionists who felt Israel needed to see support from ordinary Americans, including ones in a modest Idaho city most people outside the state have never heard of. A few weeks later, someone stuck a hate group sticker onto the Star of David in their window. Then one morning, Jeff arrived to open the shop and found that someone had come overnight and torn up the Israeli flag. Local news covered it. The mayor called it what it was and promised........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)