JERUSALEM DAY

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.
 Peace be within your walls,
Prosperity within your palaces.”
 For the sake of my brethren and companions,
I will now say, “Peace be within you.”
 Because of the house of the Lord our God
I will seek your good

Psalm 122: 6-9

Yesterday, 02/06/19, was Jerusalem Day, a national holiday commemorating the reunification of the City during the 1967 War, 52 years ago. For Jews it is a time of great joy but for Palestinians, who commemorated this event as Quds Day last Friday, it is a day of anger and sorrow.

This year, Jerusalem Day fell during the final days of the Muslim Ramadan Fast which will end on the evening of Tuesday, 5th June. Under an arrangement in place since 1967 non-Muslims are allowed to visit the Temple Mount Compound but not pray there. In spite of a Rabbinic ruling forbidding Jews to go onto the Temple Mount Compound, lest they inadvertently tread in the site of the Holy of Holies, small, closely supervised groups of Jews sometimes visit during limited hours. They are taken on a predetermined route and are forbidden to openly pray or display any national or religious symbols. In past years Jews have been forbidden to go up to the Temple Compound during the last ten days of Ramadan, but this year, following a High Court of Justice ruling, the Compound was opened to Jewish visitors. Yesterday morning hundreds of Jewish activists were permitted to go up onto the Temple Mount to pray and, needless to say, this provocative move resulted in rioting during which hundreds of Muslims threw objects at Israeli security personnel (1).

Most Jews do not go up onto the Temple Mount Compound on Jerusalem Day but instead many gather at the Western Wall to pray.

There were many other events and activities that took place over this day. The most sensitive one was the Flag March in the afternoon, when thousands of mostly religious youth, marched through the city dancing under Israeli flags. This event has sparked violence in previous years because its route passes through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, but thankfully this year there was no violence.

In the evening, the Jerusalem Day state ceremony took place on Ammunition Hill with the President, Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, in attendance. Later a “White Night” outdoor concert took place in Sacher Park with thousands of mainly young people in attendance. Needless to say all these events, and the many others where people are gathering, constitute a great security risk and police were present in large numbers throughout the city. I am glad to say that the day passed without any serious incidents of violence.

Quds Day

Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem and translates as “the Holy (place)”. Qud’s Day commemorates the fall of East Jerusalem into Israeli hands during the 1967 war. It is celebrated on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. This last Friday thousands of Palestinians and their supporters gathered in rallies across the Middle East and Europe. In Teheran in Iran, thousands of demonstrators set fire to Israeli and American flags, burned effigies of Trump and mocked his proposed peace plan. Similar rallies took place in at least 950 towns and cities across Iran (3).

Terrorist attack in Jerusalem

Friday also saw a terrorist attack two Israelis, a 47-year -old man and a 16-year-old boy, with a knife, wounding them both. One of the victims sustained several stab wounds in his back and neck and he is still in serious condition. The terrorist, a 19-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank was shot dead by a police officer thus preventing additional attacks.

Rocket attack from Syria and Israel’s response

On Saturday several rockets were fired from Syria towards the Golan Heights targetting Israel’s ski resort on Mt Hermon. One rocket landed in Syrian territory and at least one other landed in an open area in Israel causing no damage or injuries. On Saturday night Israel responded by attacking air defense units, artillery batteries, observation and intelligence posts in Syria (4). According to YnetNews, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli warplanes struck positions and an arms depot of Iranian troops and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters (4). Three Syrian soldiers and 7 ‘foreign nationals’ ( Hezbollah and/or Iranian?) were killed (4).

Last night the Israeli Airforce again attacked military targets at the T-4 Airbase in central Syria killing 3 Syrian soldiers and two others. Both these attacks took place after a Boeing 747 belonging to the Iranian airline, Fars Air Qeshm, and used by the country’s Revolutionary Guards to smuggle weapons to their allies in Syria, landed in the T-4 airbase. It took off three hours later after unloading cargo (5).

Gaza

On Thursday last week, Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, speaking at a conference calling for an Intifada (Uprising) on Qud’s Day, boasted of his organization’s relationship with Iran and threatened to pulverize Tel Aviv in the next round of hostilities. He said, “ In the next confrontation with Israel, we will pulverize Tel Aviv with double the force than during Operation Protective Edge“, referring to the 2014 confrontation in which a number of missiles were fired at Tel Aviv.

He also said, ” We will improve our weapons and combat capability until our goal is achieved. In the last confrontation (in May this year) we used some missiles that came from Iran, while others were manufactured locally.” He said that during this latest flare up “Beer-Sheva was attacked with a grad rocket that weighs 40kg (88 pounds), Tel Aviv was struck with an Iranian Fajr-5 rocket and with locally manufactured rockets.” Continuing he said. “Without the Iranian support, the Palestinian resistance would not have achieved these capabilities. Our nation has given up on us in the most difficult of times but Iran continues to help with knowledge and equipment. (6) ”

The following day Islamic Jihad chief, Ziad Nakhaleh, claimed that in the last round of fighting his group and Hamas restrained themselves only firing about 700 rockets into Israel, and held back from attacking some cities in central Israel. He warned that in the next round they would “not only fire at Tel Aviv, but at all the cities, whatever may happen” and claimed that they could sustain a rate of fire of 1000 rockets per day for a full month (7).

Meanwhile, daily protests occur along the Gaza border unabated and at least 35 fires have been ignited in Israel as a result of incendiary devices (according to data from the Israel Fire and Rescue Services) since May 6th when the ceasefire came into effect after the last round of fighting.

As Trump prepares to unveil his Peace Plan for the Palestinian-Israel conflict, Hamas leader Yahyah Sinwar, had this to say,

We are against the deals aimed at ending the conflict in the region and integrating the so-called Israel in it,” Sinwar said. “The people of Gaza declare that this conflict will only be over when the occupation ends, and we’ll be able to return to Jerusalem and enter the liberated Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is the mindset that was passed down to us with our mothers’ milk.” (8)

With ‘partners for peace’ like that – I suspect the Peace Plan will be still-born!

Netanyahu fails to form a government

Israel is now headed for new elections to take place in September, after Netanyahu failed to garner a coalition of the required 61 seats to form a government. He remains in office as interim Prime Minister until the new elections are held. The political scene is a fiasco and what will happen in September is anyone’s guess. What we really need is the true King of Israel, Yeshua (Jesus), to come and sort out this mess.

O Jerusalem

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See! Your house is left to you desolate;  for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’

Matthew 23: 37-39

This week I was sadly reminded of this passage in which Yeshua says he will not come until Jerusalem’s inhabitants are ready to welcome those who come in His Name. On Wednesday and Thursday nights last week the Messianic Alliance and the Yuval School for Music put on a concert featuring some of the best newly written worship songs. I attended the first concert on Wednesday night and was blessed by the richness and beauty of the new songs. It blows me away how the Body of Yeshua here has produced not only a large number of wonderful worships songs but has developed a unique Hebraic sound. Five CD/DVDs have already been produced in earlier years and this year’s performance will also soon come out on CD/DVD. You can hear the 5th concert on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chG6xRsX7ns&list=PL8WLiRY2TG0HQ3x-ry3qB_1WwUp6V_ggL This CD is available for purchase on http://www.mjai.co.il/products

As I entered the auditorium for the Wednesday concert, I noticed a number of ultra-orthodox men watching us carefully. The next night, at the Thursday performances, a large number of ultra-orthodox men and boys tried to physically stop people entering the auditorium and it all became rather ugly. One eyewitness wrote thus:

” …there were riots and problems caused by (the) Lehava* organization… and caused a lot of scare (sic) and damage to people (even people just passing by), and even a hospital run, as someone (not even a believer) got severely hurt and was bleeding from his ear. Kids were crying, mothers and old people were terrified, and our men, though kept resisting themselves from hitting someone there, got hurt as well…. They even had kids there participating, cursing us, getting close to us ladies and screaming that we’re touching them etc. Even their leader, who actually tried to keep them intact couldn’t control them. They seemed possessed (!). The police arrived at some point, … and even they could not take control of the demonstrators. After about 2 hours someone (maybe the police, maybe the demonstrators) sprayed the whole area with pepper spray… and some of us inhaled it, and suffocated and threw up…“

I can only echo Jesus’ words with sorrow,

*The Lehava Organization for the Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land is not a mainstream ultra-orthodox group but rather an extreme far-right organization that opposes any kind of relationships between Jews and non-Jews, especially Arabs and Christians, and has been responsible for many demonstrations and actions against individuals and groups, including the torching of the Yad B’Yad (Hand in Hand) bilingual school for Jewish and Arab education in Jerusalem. They have been labeled by some as a terror organization.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 23: 27-28

Pray for these people who have a zeal for God but the veil has not yet been lifted from their minds (see II Corinthians 3:15-16). Pray that one day soon even they will cry out

“Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD”.

References:

1. https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-and-police-clash-as-jews-allowed-into-temple-mount-on-jerusalem-day/
2. https://www.timesofisrael.com/two-hurt-one-seriously-in-stabbing-attack-in-jerusalems-old-city/
3. https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-leaders-mock-trump-peace-plan-as-thousands-mark-quds-day/
4. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5519384,00.html
5. https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-leaders-mock-trump-peace-plan-as-thousands-mark-quds-day/
6. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5518096,00.html
7. https://www.timesofisrael.com/islamic-jihad-chief-says-gaza-groups-can-fire-1000-rockets-a-day-at-israel/
8. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5518096,00.html