It is Christmas Eve and Christmas celebrations are muted again this year. Just as the tourists were beginning to come back to Israel, omicron arrived uninvited, and our borders were slammed shut yet again. Omicron is spreading fast and the government is tightening up restrictions once more. We are all tired of this seemingly never-ending pandemic, but we still have much to be thankful for. The reason for Christmas, the incarnation of God – Immanu-el (‘God with us’)- remains and is reason enough to greatly rejoice. He came to earth as a little baby, shared our humanity, died for our sins so that all who will can be saved and live for all eternity.
Of course we know that Jesus was not born in December since no shepherds in their right mind would be out with their flocks at night at this time of year, with night time temperatures close to zero. Nor was he born in the year 0AD. Jesus was born before Herod the Great died, and we know from many sources that Herod died in the year 4 BC. However we do know that Jesus was born in or near Bethlehem.
Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Of course it was because of the Caesar’s requirement that all would register in their home towns for the census. Imagine how Joseph and Mary must have felt having to make the 5-7 day trip on foot, or donkey, to Bethlehem when Mary was so very pregnant, and then to find no room in the inn. This was all, however, to fulfill the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and to confirm his legal right as King of Israel. For example in Micah 5:1 it says,
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”
This passage well known to most believers, but there is something I have recently discovered that goes even deeper. We first read of Bethlehem (also known as Ephrath or Ephrata – which means ‘fruitful) in Genesis 35.
After Jacob returned to the land of Canaan with Rachel and Leah, and was reconciled with Esau, he first settled in Shechem, but the son of the King of Shechem raped his daughter Dinah, and the LORD told Jacob to move his family to Bethel. God appeared again to him there, changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and said “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body…” – another Messianic prophecy. Later, Jacob and his family travelled on from Bethel towards Bethlehem, but just outside of the town, Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin.
Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.” And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.
Genesis 35: 16-20
And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem.
Genesis 48:7
Names in the Bible are often significant. Rachel – means ‘ewe’ (mother sheep), Ben-Oni means ‘son of my sorrow’ – the name given by his mother, but his father changed his name to Benjamin, which means ‘son of the right hand’. In these names we can see a prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus, who was born of a woman, a son that would bring deep sorrow to his mother when he was crucified, and who is now risen and sitting at the right hand of God in Heaven.
Rachel died on the outskirts of Bethlehem at a place called Migdal Eder – traditionally about a Roman mile (1.6km) east of Bethlehem, at or near the Shepherd’s Field. ‘Migdal’ means tower or watchtower. ‘Eder’ means flock or herd. Thus ‘migdal eder’ could be any watchtower built to protect a flock or herd, but apparently in this case it is a proper noun, the name of a specific place. We see another reference to it in Micah 4:8
And you, O tower of the flock, The stronghold of the daughter of Zion, To you shall it come, Even the former dominion shall come, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”
This passage indicates that the Messiah will come to the Tower of the Flock, Migdal Eder, the very place where Rachel died and gave birth to Benjamin.
Thus it seems very likely that Jesus was born at Migdal Eder, perhaps even in it, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, somewhere near the Shepherd’s Field. According to the Mishna, the area around Bethlehem was set aside, from the time of David until the destruction of the Second Temple, for the raising of sacrificial lambs which had to be without blemish. These special lambs were born inside the towers and before being taken up to the Temple were laid in a manger for inspection. If they were found to be without blemish, they would be wrapped in special swaddling cloths to keep them warm, clean and uninjured as they were carried up to Jerusalem for sacrifice. The shepherds who cared for these lambs were specially trained Levitical priests.
Perhaps we can see now why the angels came to the shepherds to announce the Messiah. These were not ordinary shepherds – they were the Levitical priests charged with the raising and care of the sacrificial lambs. Yeshua was likely born in a watch tower, or even in Migdal Eder itself, where Rachel had died giving birth to Benjamin, and where the Levitical shepherds tended the lambs intended for sacrifice.
For more on this I recommend the following:
The Tower of the Flock revealed! The Trial of Messiah’s birth and the Glory
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke 2: 13-14
OMICRON IN ISRAEL
About two weeks ago Israel slammed its borders shut in an effort to keep the Omicron variant of the corona virus out. Too late. It got in and now we are experiencing a fifth wave of the virus, and at present around 50% of cases tested are the omicron variant. According to the Jerusalem Post today (27/12) about 90,500 people, 1% of the population, are already in quarantine and this is likely to rise dramatically over the next two weeks, causing considerable disruption to schools and the economy.
I just got notification from the pastor of my congregation that one of the women at the meeting on Saturday has tested positive and therefore we all need to get tested. I think that also means that we all need to go into quarantine too, at least until we get a negative test. I have already self-quarantined because I have been having mild cold/flu-like symptoms since yesterday morning. I am praying that it is not Covid. ( Update: I tested negative)
BIRD FLU
As if it is not enough to have the corona pandemic progressing into its 5th wave here in Israel, we have another flu epidemic breaking out, the H5N1 bird flu virus. This virus, which is fatal to birds, first broke out in a moshav near the Lebanese border in a battery chicken farm and was not reported to the authorities until it had already spread from there to a turkey farm in the Golan Heights, and into the wild bird population. Over 70 farms have already been infected and many thousands of chickens and turkeys have either died or been culled (1). This will result in a scarcity of chicken and eggs – both staples in the Israeli diet. Eggs are now being imported to keep us supplied. Humans can catch this bird flu virus by close contact with infected birds, and it can be deadly, but it is not easily transmissible from human to human.
To my great sorrow this flu is also decimating the wild Eurasian cranes in the Hula Valley. It is estimated that one in five birds there are already infected and many have died. A video clip on the news last night (24th Dec) showed the ground and the shallow waters of Lake Hula littered with dead and dying cranes. This is terrible since around 100,000 cranes representing about 1/7th of the world’s Eurasian crane population, pass through the Hula Valley on their spring and autumn migrations, and this species is already declining. Some 40,000 of these cranes usually overwinter in the Hula Valley where they are given supplemental food. This may prove to be their undoing, sadly. Many years I have made the pilgrimage to see the thousands of cranes gathering in the winter. It is a spectacular and wonderous sight.
Cranes arriving at dusk, Agmon HaHula, 2016Cranes, Agmon HaHula, 2016
IRAN
The talks in Vienna are stumbling on. Israel would like to see an agreement that stops the development both of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles in Iran. This seems unlikely to happen. Iran is continuing ‘business as usual’ and using the talks merely to stall for time so that their nuclear program can continue unabated. Their propaganda war and threats against Israel continue. On the 15th of December the English language version of Teheran Times published a map of targets in Israel (the red tags), including nearly all Israeli towns and cities, and even a number of Arab towns in the Palestinian Territories and in Lebanon. The article was titled “Just One Wrong Move,” and it said “the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting them from anywhere”.
This kind of rhetoric is almost a daily occurrence and intended to warn the authorities and frighten the people. We all know they are capable of doing us a great deal of harm, and vice versa, should a full scale war break out between us.
Meanwhile a proxy war is being fought on the ground, with Israel attacking weapons caches and shipments from Iran intended for Hezbollah, and Iran targeting Israeli interests in the region. A cyber war is also being waged.
Just a few days ago there was an alleged Israeli attack, the second this month, on a container storage facility at the port of Latakia in Syria. The containers are thought to have contained weapons shipments intended for Hezbollah. The attack caused massive fires and much damage but there were no reports of casualties.
The Latakia area is a stronghold for Russian forces in Syria but when asked why they did not activate the air defense systems, they replied that they did not do so because, at the time, a Russian military transport aircraft was landing at the nearby Nhmeimim Air Base (2).
ISRAEL’S ECONOMY
Israel’s economy grew by seven percent in 2021, beating out a global average of 5.9%, according to a report released by the Multinational business information company Dun & Bradstreet. The report claimed that Israel’s economic improvement was being driven by a strong high-tech sector and booming construction activity, but a number of industries such as tourism, restaurants and entertainment continue to suffer the effects of the pandemic.
The Dun & Bradstreet report noted that although Israel’s economy was showing significant improvement, driven by a strong tech sector and booming real estate activity, a number of industries such as tourism, restaurants, and entertainment continued to suffer in 2021(3).
Although the Israeli economy as a whole is healthy and strong, the pandemic has had a serious impact on the ability of many Israelis to earn a living, particularly those in the tourism and entertainment sector. Many small businesses have been forced to close.
That said, the unemployment rate now stands at 4.5% and is showing a downward trend towards pre-pandemic levels, and the labor force participation rate is 63% and climbing towards pre-pandemic levels (4).
Although the overall economy is recovering a report released this week by Latet, the largest food rescue organization in Israel, shows that nearly a quarter of Israeli households are on the verge of poverty, up 14% from before the coronavirus pandemic. Ynet news goes on to say,
“Currently 27.6% of the population is described as poor including over one million children. Latet describes a new status of “middle class poor”, which has emerged as the result of the pandemic, experiencing difficulties in recovering economically and posing a real danger to the stability of the economy. The non-profit said some 633,000 families (21.8%) suffer food insecurity compared to 513,000 two years ago” (5).
An Israeli man rummaging through trash for food. (photo: Nadav Abas) https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rycm1zksf
WINTER RAINS
I am very pleased to say that the rainy season has arrived in Israel. Our first real winter storm system arrived last week, and though thankfully it wasn’t as violent as predicted, it lingered for several days bringing rain mainly in the north, the coastal plain and the south, and even snow on Mt Hermon. Here in the Jerusalem area we had a few nice showers but not a lot yet in quantity. This week we have had some light rain and next week more rain is expected. It is lovely to see all the trees washed clean (not to mention my car!) and the bare ground starting to turn green. In the forest wild narcissus and cyclamen are already blooming, as are a few early almond trees. I had hoped this week to visit the burnt areas to photograph what is happening there, but I have been grounded with a winter bug – a cold/flu type virus. I tested negative for Covid but have stayed home just in case, especially as one woman in our congregation tested positive. Our hospitals are full to capacity with people suffering from the ‘regular’ flu, many more than usual, perhaps because last year no one caught the flu due to the lockdowns and we have all lost our immunity.
CONGREGATION MEVASERET
Our congregation continues to go strong and we are meeting now indoors in a room rented from Kibbutz Tzuba, about 5km from Mevaseret. We did however have to cancel the housegroups this week because so many of us were in isolation, and we did not want anyone to get infected. We will also be broadcasting our Saturday service on Zoom this week for those who do not want to risk gathering or who are still in isolation. Our pastor is currently doing his month-long reserve army service in a risky area near Hebron. Please remember him, and his family (wife and 4 kids), and all of us waiting for his safe return.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
It is hard to believe that tomorrow our old year, 2021, will be ended. Most people here do not celebrate the New Year publicly, though for the Russians it is a major festival, celebrated with much food and wine. I wish you all a very happy New Year and I pray that 2022 will see the end of the pandemic. Whatever the new year brings however, we know that God is still in control and Yeshua (Jesus) will return soon. He said,
A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you….These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Today is the last day of the hottest November on record here in Israel. The thermometer on my porch is reading 30 degrees C and the air is so dry I am getting shocks off my cat. We have only had one day of rain so far this winter and this means the fire risk remains very high, especially on windy days like today. The forecast is for light rain over the next couple of days but it remains to be seen if it will happen. (Update: 1 Dec – today the temperature is only 13 degrees here and it is raining – a good solid wetting rain. Thank you, LORD)
I see it has been well over a month since I last posted. Largely because so much is happening around here I don’t know where to start. I will give it a go…
IRAN
Yesterday (29/11), after a break of around 5 months, the talks between the USA and Iran restarted in Vienna with the aim of reinstituting the 2015 nuclear deal. Diplomats from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia were also attending (1). The USA and allies want to renegotiate a deal that would stop the enrichment of uranium and the nuclear arms program of Iran, but Iran is really only interested in the lifting of the heavy sanctions which are crippling its economy, and buying time so it can continue its nuclear program. Consequently the parties are coming into the talks with very different agendas.
As the talks began, the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, put it this way,
“The United States still fails to properly understand the fact that there is no way to return to the deal without verifiable and effective lifting of all sanctions imposed on the Iranian nation after the US departure” (1).
There is little optimism that Iran would be willing to return to the 2015 agreement and, in any case, Iran has already exceeded the level of uranium enrichment and nuclear weapons development permitted under that deal. Iran now has a new, even more hard-line government, and its appointed negotiating team is made up of people opposed to the deal. What is more, Iran perceives the USA to be weak and lacking determination, especially following the Afghanistan pullout.
Israel opposed the 2015 deal on the grounds that it insufficiently limited Iran’s uranium enrichment program and even legitimized further enrichment after the agreement would expire, paving the way to a nuclear capability. The deal also did not address Iran’s long distance missile program, its support of terrorism and terror organizations in the region, and its threats against Israel, its neighbors and the USA (not to mention the whole world).
The fear here is that some new deal will be brokered that will ease or lift the sanctions on Iran while failing to stop or reverse their nuclear program, or that the talks will drag on buying the Iranian regime time to make a bomb. Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennet said he is concerned that ” Iran won’t just keep its nuclear program… they’ll be getting paid for it” (2). He also said, “Such a murderous regime should not be rewarded…Iran deserves no rewards, no bargain deals and no sanctions relief in return for their brutality. I call upon our allies around the world: Do not give in to Iran’s nuclear blackmail” (2). Earlier this week the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier-General, Abolfazl Shekarchi, remarked, “We will not back off from the annihilation of Israel, not even one millimeter” (2).
Even as these new talks are just getting under way, the USA and allies are meeting to discuss what to do if (when?) the talks fail. Israel is also making preparations.
Opposition Likud MK, Tzachi Hanegbi, said last month “Iran is an existential threat. We give full backing to this government if the decision is made to strike. We are approaching the crossroads of a decision on the Iranian issue” ….“If there is no agreement between Iran and the world powers, we should attack Iran by the end of 2021” (3). Israel’s former national security advisor, Yaakov Amidror, said to the BBC , “Israel cannot live with a situation in which the Iranians are getting closer and closer to the bomb, and it will soon have to make a decision how to stop it… I don’t see any other way but to bomb [Iran’s facilities], because I don’t see the Iranians retreating from their dream of having a nuclear umbrella under which they can be even more aggressive than they are today” (4).
In mid October the Israeli government earmarked $US 1.5 billion (5 billion shekels) for a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear installations and the expected ensuing war (5). In recent weeks Israel has been carrying out extensive military exercises, together with allied naval and air forces, in preparation (6). In October and November ground force drills, including the call up of reserves, were carried out in the North. Unprecedented Home Front exercises have also been implemented. Even as I am writing, fighter jets are roaring overhead as they carry out exercises.
Having said that, no one here wants war and we hope beyond all hope that Iran can be stopped by other means. A war with Iran which would inevitably involve their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza. Russia, Turkey and possibly China, might come to their aid and such a massive coalition would threaten Israel’s survival, destabilize the whole region and possibly bring about a world war.
In spite of this threat and all the military preparations, the civilian population here in Israel is psychologically and practically unprepared for such a war. Less than 30% of Israeli citizens even have access to bomb shelters (7). We seem to be living in denial – eating, drinking and making merry. If ever there was a time for national repentance it is now, but we are becoming more and more ungodly as a nation.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
After a peak of around 11,000 new infections per day in mid-September, infections have dropped in Israel to around 2-300 per day. The 4th wave is considered to be over but last week the infection rate began to increase again leading to fears of an imminent 5th wave. The discovery of a few people carrying the new omicron variant into the country from Africa led to the government slamming the borders closed to all non-Israelis on Sunday night. This was done with only 24 hours notice and has caused a great deal of dismay for tourists booked to come to Israel for the Hannuka and Christmas holidays, just when the tourist industry was starting to get back onto its feet. It is too soon to know if the currently available vaccines will be efficacious against the new variant but initial indications are optimistic. A week or so ago, Israel began vaccinating children aged between 5-11. There have been 1,343,218 infections and 8,195 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began (8).
LAW AND ORDER
There are some parts of Israel that are beginning to resemble the wild west, where law and order are breaking down and violence is making the streets dangerous. Most of this violence is in the Arab sector. Arabs in Israel make up only 20% of the population but 70% of the homicides, and this is growing. Much of this violence is driven by family feuds in a revenge-based society, ‘honor’ killings in a shame based society, organized crime, disenfranchised and unemployed youth and the ready availability of guns and other weapons. Arab communities blame the rising violence on the lack of action by the police, but police claim that when they try to investigate crimes or stop violent acts they themselves come under attack by the community at large or evidence is removed and witnesses silent. Justice Minister, Gidon Sa’ar, in a recent interview for the Jerusalem Post claimed “ The phenomenon of organized crime [in the Arab-Israeli sector] endangers Israel more than external threats … If you do not know how to deal with this issue, it will cause Israeli society to crumble to pieces from within” (9).
HAMAS AND THE WEST BANK
On the 22nd of November, Israeli security forces arrested 50 members of a Hamas cell in the West Bank and seized large quantities of weaponry, including 4 explosive belts intended for suicide attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem (10). This is symptomatic of the growing influence of Hamas in the West Bank. Many West Bank Palestinians are increasingly disenchanted with the current Fatah leadership which they see as weak, ineffectual and deeply corrupt. Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas at age 86 and suffering from multiple serious health issues is struggling to maintain power. He has been in power for 16 years of a 4 year term (!), and the elections promised earlier this year were cancelled when it became clear that Hamas would win. Even Israel’s attempts to shore up his government (as the ‘least worst option’) is working against him as he is being accused by his opponents of consorting with the enemy and the betrayal of the Palestinian cause. In the absence of any mechanism to appoint an ‘heir apparent’ it is very likely that, once Abbas is gone, Hamas would launch a violent campaign to take over the West Bank, as it did in Gaza in 2007. This would be a disaster, not only for the West Bank Palestinians but also for Israel. We would have another Gaza on our eastern flank.
THE BATTLE OF BEER SHEVA MEMORIAL SERVICE 2021
The Battle of Beersheba Memorial Service, 31 October 2021
On the 31st of October, I with some friends, attended the 104th Anniversary memorial celebration of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) victory over the Turks at Beer Sheva (Beersheba). This First World War battle proved to be historically pivotal, breaking the Turkish-German line and opening the way for the conquest of Jerusalem and the eventual establishment of the State of Israel. You can read about this battle on Wikipedia (11) but this account virtually ignores the role of the New Zealand contingent. The NZ government history site (12) records the battle as follows:
The capture of Beersheba (Be’er Sheva in modern Israel) was a turning point in the struggle between the British and Ottoman Empires in the Middle East during the First World War. The New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade played a key part in the capture of the town.
Twice already in 1917 the British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) had failed to take Gaza, the gateway to Palestine. Its third attempt focused on Beersheba, at the eastern (inland) end of the Ottomans’ defensive line. While three British infantry divisions attacked the main Ottoman defences on the outskirts of Beersheba, the Australian and Anzac mounted divisions rode in a wide arc to the east to attack the town from the rear.
On the morning of 31 October 1917 men of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade attacked Tel el Saba, a fortified hill 3.2 km north-east of Beersheba. After six hours of hard fighting the New Zealanders captured the hill. The way was now clear to attack Beersheba itself, but daylight would soon fade. In a daring action, the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade charged in from the south-east with bayonets drawn, taking the Ottoman defenders by surprise. The town and its important wells were soon secured and the enemy retreated. By the end of the day at least eight New Zealanders had been killed and 26 wounded.
You can read more about this decisive battle in which my countrymen together with the Australian Light Horse Brigade, all volunteers, fought so bravely, on Wikipedia (12) . What the account above does not explain is that the charge by the Australians was necessitated by the fact that the horses had not had water for two days and were on the verge of collapse. Many would not have survived the night to fight the following day. The Australians therefore decided on this ‘madcap’ charge, considered to the be last major cavalry charge in history. The Australians however were not cavalry but mounted infantry and normally they would ride to the battle field and dismount to fight on foot. This is what the Turks expected they would do and consequently they held their artillery fire too long allowing the Australians, who just kept charging on horseback, to quickly get inside the gun range, leap over the trenches and take the town of Beer Sheva with its wells. There is a very moving film (13) on YouTube which gives a detailed account of the battle, but from the Australian point of view, virtually ignoring the role played by the New Zealanders.
We arrived early at the Memorial service in time to watch an abbreviated version of the movie and visit the museum. Outside a crowd of probably at least 200 people were gathering in the beautifully kept war cemetery in which the 171 Allied soldiers who died in the Battle are buried, along with others who died in subsequent battles. Representatives of UK Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Israeli armed forces were present.
After the ceremony we travelled to Tel el Saba, the hill where the NZers had captured the Turkish fortifications and artillery guns. The weather had turned into a sandstorm so we did not linger long. I hope to return there another time.
“Footprints” – a detail on the Tel memorial plague commemorating the NZ capture of the site in the Battle of BeershevaTel el Saba
This visit reminded me that though we might feel that we are just insignificant cogs in the wheel of humanity, we have no idea just how important our contribution to history might be. I am sure most of the soldiers in the ANZAC brigades had no idea how important was the role they were playing, not only in human history but in God’s plan of redemption. We owe them a great debt of gratitude.
DISCORD IN THE BODY OF YESHUA IN ISRAEL
On our way back from Beersheba we stopped off at the home of some believing friends. We found that the wife was deeply distressed and in tears because of the deep divisions opening up in the Body of Yeshua here in Israel. Controversy over vaccinations, and issues concerning the governmental response to the Covid pandemic, is the most recent cause of discord, resulting in many broken relationships and hurting people. This is grievous indeed, but there are even more distressing causes of division appearing. The one that most concerns me is the infiltration of the New Apostolic Reformation into many congregations and organizations here. I have been researching this for two years and will soon post my findings on this blog. Please pray for unity in the Body here in Israel, but not unity at any cost. True unity must be based on Truth and not a wishy washy compromise between deception and truth. Pray that believers will experience a greater hunger to study God’s word and learn better how to discern and avoid error.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits….
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me… To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations…
Isaiah 61: 1-4
From Airforce Memorial looking towards Ramat Raziel – after the fire. 26 August 2021
A friend and I recently took a drive around the fire devastated hills near our home. We were saddened by the extent of the damage, but we also remarked on how, even in the midst of all the devastation, there remained so much beauty. I know that nature will heal itself, with time and a little rain, and was encouraged to see how all the human settlements in the area had been saved, with just a few homes and businesses burned. These settlements stand as green islands amid the destruction.
Kibbutz Tzuba from Sataf
I know too that God will bring good from this horrible act that was intended for evil by the arsonists, just as Joseph said to his brothers,
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.Genesis 50:20
A NEW MESSIANIC CONGREGATION RISES
This last Friday (17/08/21), I was privileged to attend the inaugural meeting of a new congregation that will be the first congregation planted in my town of around 25,000 souls, Mevaseret Zion. The building that has been acquired for the congregation is not yet ready for occupation and therefore the meeting was held in a small patch of unburnt forest at Sataf, at the very point where the fire stopped spreading, thanks to an unusual and sudden cessation of the afternoon winds on the last day of the fire. It was as if God had said, “thus far and no further”. I felt it was significant as we saw rising from the ashes the very first ever Messianic congregation in Mevaseret Zion. The name of the town means in Hebrew “The Good News of Zion”. This name is a combination of the names of the two original towns, Mevaseret Jerusalem (the Good News of Jerusalem), and Maoz Zion (Rock of Zion), which amalgamated into the current town of Mevaseret Zion. Isn’t this a wonderful name for a town that is strategically located at the gateway to Jerusalem, straddling Highway 1, the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?
There are many believers already living in Mevaseret but there has, until now, been no congregation, with most either travelling the 10km to Jerusalem for fellowship or not attending any congregation regularly. The congregation is being established by a core group of around 10 families and is an offshoot from the strong “Jerusalem Assembly”.
The Inaugural Meeting of Kehilat Mevaseret
2000 YEAR OLD DATES
This seems to be the time of new beginnings. Scientists in Israel have succeeded in growing viable trees from some 2000 year old date seeds that were found at Masada near the Dead Sea. The dry desert air had preserved these dates. In Biblical times the Judean region was renowned for its especially sweet and succulent dates which also had medicinal properties, but these ancient varieties had been lost until now. Last year the first harvest of 100 dates was gathered from the first female palm grown from these seeds, and this year 800 dates were harvested. This tree was named “Hannah” and another female tree grown from these seeds has just been planted out. She has been named “Judith” and it is hoped that she will also produce more of these ancient and beautiful pale-golden dates.
No doubt you are all following events in Afghanistan. Now that all the foreign forces are out of the country, the Taliban has total control in almost the whole nation. This means there is very little news getting out. Below are a couple of videos that can help us know how to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Lord, both those who have managed to escape and must now make a new life elsewhere, those who are trying to escape and are in hiding, and those who have courageously decided to stay in Afghanistan as witnesses to their people.
We also need to pray for the Taliban themselves who are deceived by Satan, but beloved of God. Most Taliban are of the Pashtun tribes, one of the least evangelized peoples in the world. There is some compelling evidence that the Pashtun are descendants of Israelites who were exiled 2700 years ago by the Assyrians (1).
LEBANON and the ABRAHAM ACCORDS
This week the ongoing collapse of the nation of Lebanon reached a new low. The two main power stations ran out of fuel, causing the entire electrical grid to shut down blacking out the entire country. Beirut, lit only by car headlights and the occasional private generator, looked like some post-apocalypse movie set (see the video below).
Power was restored yesterday (10/10) when the Lebanese Army released 6000 kiloliters of oil to the two main power stations (2). Even when the power stations have fuel, the supply of electricity is limited to only 1-2 hours per day, therefore many Lebanese depend upon privately owned generators, but these run on diesel which is also in short supply. Fuel for cars is also in short supply and becoming more and more expensive. As I am writing, news is coming in of a massive fire in a benzene storage facility at one of the power stations (3).
Apart from the energy crisis, food, medicines and other essential supplies are increasingly scarce and expensive in Lebanon. The currency has devalued by 90% since 2019. The government and banking system has collapsed. According to the UN, around 78% of the people are living in dire poverty. All this when the country is also facing the coronavirus pandemic and the reconstruction following the 2020 explosion which left 300,000 people in Beirut homeless.
What we are seeing in Lebanon is the consequence of a nation allowing a take-over by a terrorist organization, Hezbollah, backed by Iran. Hezbollah boasts an arsenal of 150,000 missiles all aimed at Israel (though the true number is probably only(!) 70,000) and has invested millions of dollars in constructing a huge network of underground bunkers and tunnels, and equipping itself with a massive military arsenal – all intended for the destruction of Israel. How sad that this money was not spent on bettering the lives of the people they rule! Iraq and Syria, sadly, are travelling down the same path, dooming their people to the same kind of suffering.
When God called Abram out of Haran He said,
“Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12: 1-3
God has never revoked this blessing and this curse. Lebanon and other nations have chosen to curse Israel, and in so doing, have brought down a curse upon their own heads. Throughout all of human history we can see this curse being played out – witness Assyria, Babylon, the Greek and Roman Empires, the German Third Reich, Iraq and so on.
The Middle East is realigning, and more and more Arab states are turning towards making peace with Israel, and are discovering the benefits of doing so. These nations are flourishing.
The EUObserver put it this way,
The benefits of peace cannot be denied. Since the first direct flights linking Tel Aviv with Dubai (November 2020) and Abu Dhabi (April 2021), hundreds of thousands of Israeli tourists and businesspeople have visited the UAE and Bahrain, connecting peoples and cultures like never before.
More than 55 agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain are currently underway – half of them have already been signed and implemented. These agreements lay the foundation for practical cooperation in almost all fields including: finance, communications, economy, culture, tourism, taxation, investment protection, freedom of movement, water, agriculture and energy.
Between January and July 2021, trade between Israel and the UAE surged to $613.9m [524 Euro] and that is just the beginning. The enormous economic benefits of the peace accords have become rapidly apparent, as all sides have gained from the fruits of peace (4).
This past Thursday (07/10) Israel opened its pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020, something that just two years ago would have been unthinkable. Tourists are travelling freely between Israel and the UAE, and visas are not required. This week a delegation of 8 businessmen, officials and activists from Bahrain visited Jerusalem, one of whom even joined a family celebrating a Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall.
Bahraini education official Mohammed Saleh dances with a bar mitzvah boy and his family in the Old City of Jerusalem, October 6, 2021 (Lazar Berman, Times of Israel) https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-western-wall-to-old-city-alleys-curious-israelis-embrace-bahraini-visitors/
This week too saw the first direct flight from Cairo to Tel Aviv using a clearly marked Egypt Air aircraft. There have been flights between Egypt and Israel since the 1980s but only using Sinai Air planes not showing an Egyptian flag. These flights were kept discreet amid the lingering hostilities between these nations (5).
VIOLENCE IN ISRAELI ARAB COMMUNITIES
Today Ganem Jabarin, a 46-year-old resident of Umm el-Fahm became the 98th Arab Israeli murdered this year (6). This is symptomatic of the breakdown of law and order in Israeli Arab communities, and most of the murders have been related to organized crime family feuds. Arab communities blame the lack of police control, but when police attempt to intervene they often become the targets of mob violence. The real problem is the spirit of violence and the revenge-based culture of Arab communities in combination with organized crime. Justice Minister, Gidon Sa’ar, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post said, “The phenomenon of organized crime [in the Arab-Israeli sector] endangers Israel more than external threats” (7).
WHEN THE TOWERS FALL
Recently we passed the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 Twin Towers terrorist attack. I suppose all of us, who are old enough, will remember what we were doing when we first heard about this terrible event. One of the things I can remember was that this verse popped into my mind,
In the day of the great slaughter, When the towers fall.
Isaiah 30: 25b
This verse refers to the general time period when God will judge the enemies of Israel and will restore the people of Israel to their own land.
For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you.
Isaiah 30:19
Of course this passage was not directly referring to the Twin Towers of New York City, and it most probably refers to watchtowers and fortresses built to defend Israel from its enemies, however it seems that lately there have been a lot of towers falling around the world. Around 100 or so years ago, we humans began to build higher and higher towers and now a great many of those early towers are reaching the end of their lifespan. This is certainly the case here in Israel. Many of the older buildings here were hastily erected to house the immigrants pouring into the country in the 50s and 60s. They were shoddily constructed of substandard materials, and many have been poorly maintained. The Israel Builder’s Association claims that there are some 80,000 buildings, containing some 300,000 apartments in danger of collapse (8,9).
On the Shabbat of the 11th of September residents in an apartment building in Holon heard loud bangs and serious cracks began to open up in the building. As rescue services hurried to evacuate the building they found that in some apartments the building was so deformed that the metal front doors could not be opened. They had to break through the walls to get the people out. I thank God that all the 36 families who lived in the building were evacuated safely, because the very next day it collapsed (10). Of course those people suddenly lost everything they owned.
Since then several other multistorey apartment blocks have had to be evacuated around the country as serious cracks have appeared (10,11). One cannot help but wonder what would happen should we have an earthquake. Some years ago the government instituted a reconstruction program known as Tama38. Some old, crumbling buildings have been renovated and brought up to safety standards as a result, but the program is mired in all kinds of bureaucratic and political complications and is not proceeding as it should.
If you could visit Jerusalem these days you would see it bristling with cranes. Everywhere workers are busily building apartment blocks, tunneling and rerouting transport systems. The municipality has embarked on a project to increase housing in the city, already Israel’s largest of about 1 million residents. Housing is in short supply and consequently property prices and rentals are very expensive. Until now there has been a bylaw prohibiting the building of residential buildings higher than 4-storeys, but this bylaw has now been abolished and higher and higher apartment blocks are appearing around the city. I cannot help wonder about the wisdom of this. Jerusalem is built on soft, crumbly limestone riddled with underground caves and channels like a Swiss cheese. Not only that, we are adjacent to the Great African Rift Faultline and a number of branch fault lines pass right through the city. The area has experienced many severe earthquakes in the past and we know from the Scriptures that there will be earthquakes in the future.
The other problem is sinkholes. Recently a sinkhole swallowed a number of cars in the carpark of the Shaarei Tzedek hospital, and part of a building collapsed into another sinkhole in the center of the city, in Hillel Street, just two buildings down from the building where our congregation meets. By a miracle, no one was injured in either incident, but property was lost. Last Thursday (07/10) a sinkhole appeared in the middle of the Ramle-Lod highway (12).
For He brings down those who dwell on high, The lofty city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He brings it down to the dust…
For when Your judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Isaiah 26: 5, 9
CORONAVIRUS IN ISRAEL
There appears to be some hope that the 4th wave of viral infection is beginning to wane in Israel. After reaching a high of over 11,000 new cases per day on the 11th of September there has been a steady drop off since then (13). Yesterday (10/10) only 1,579 new cases were recorded, and this in spite of an anticipated rise due to the gatherings that occurred during the High Holy Days. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Israel has registered some 1.3 million infections (approx. 1 in 9 of the population) but of course there are probably many who were infected and suffered no symptoms, or only mild symptoms, and did not necessarily report it. A total of 7,920 people have died to date (11/10)(13).
This past week the children returned to school and it is yet too early to know if this will cause another increase in infections but it is hoped that the new testing requirements for school children will prevent this. Also, we may soon be starting to vaccinate the younger children and a recent poll said that some 57% of parents are willing to have their children aged between 5-11 vaccinated (14) .
Yesterday (10/10) the government tightened the requirements regarding the Green Pass and only those who have received the second shot within the last 5 months or who have received the 3rd shot are now eligible. New methods of enforcing the Pass requirements are also being introduced. There is some debate as to whether the Green Pass system has any effectiveness in reducing infection or is just a way of encouraging people to get vaccinated.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (pink), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Ma (credit: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES – NIH/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/at-least-one-long-term-symptom-seen-in-a-third-of-covid-19-patients-study-680594
FIRES
The weather here is still hot and dry, and the risk of wildfires remains extreme. Today at least two fires were burning in the Jerusalem area. As far as I know, neither were threatening settlements. One of these fires, in Begin park near Bet Shemesh, was clearly the result of arson and a Jewish woman, said to be suffering mental illness, was arrested (15). The fire was brought under control Thursday night but today it reignited. There have also been several other fires in recent days. There is hope that we may soon get some rain. Please pray for the arrival of the winter rains and also that, when they come, they will not be too heavy causing flooding or damage to life or property.
I will stop writing at this point. As fast as I write new developments are occurring, but in the interest of actually getting this published I must now stop. God Bless you all.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces.”
After the big fire here in the Judean Hills, I headed off for a few days down in the desert. As I was passing just south of Beer Sheva I noticed a strange, and very bright light in the sky. Some 30 or so kilometers on, it was still there but by then I could see it was attached to a very tall tower, and there appeared to be ‘arms’ of light radiating from around it in the dusty desert air. The first thought that came to my mind was the Eye of Sauron (from the Lord of the Rings). Apparently I am not alone in making this association and it has indeed been dubbed Israel’s Eye of Sauron. It felt somehow very sinister.
Sauron’s Eye in Mordor, from “The Lord of the Rings”
Sauron’s Eye?
Once I returned home I discovered that it was part of the new Ashalim Solar Power Station and the structure merely collects the light from some 55,000 mirrors and uses it to generate electricity. Even though I am all for solar power, and it really is nothing at all sinister, it was hard to shake that feeling as I continued my journey south.
A blackstart begging for a grape
I had made this journey into the desert because I was wanting some guidance concerning some personal decisions. I can hear the LORD more clearly in the desert and away from all the busy-ness of everyday life. On my first evening there I walked the path along the rim of the Machtesh and enjoyed the setting sun across its incomparable views. The next day I spent some very pleasant hours sitting in the shade of an acacia tree in a pretty wadi, communing with the little birds who visited me hoping for a tidbit (I didn’t disappoint), but I didn’t hear from the LORD.
On my last evening at the Maktesh, I took a drive along the northern rim of the Maktesh and found a convenient rock on which to sit to watch the sunset. As usual, it was stunning. This time however it felt very different. As I watched the shadow creeping across the canyon floor, I was filled with a deep sense of dread. It felt ominous and threatening. There were some scattered bushes reaching their branches skyward and they caught the sun for a while, but one by one, the shadow blotted them out until all was dark.
Darkness covers the Land
I felt that this was a warning from the LORD. Darkness is creeping over the Land, and indeed the whole world, just as the Lord told us it would towards the end, not just in the world, but also in the church. Some believers here and there are holding out against the darkness but many are succumbing to the lies and wiles of the Enemy, and are ceasing to shine. My prayer for myself, and for you, is that we will not be snuffed out in the coming days of darkness when God judges the world, but will continue to shine as beacons in that darkness. May we all be found faithful until the end.
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24: 3-13
I had not received the personal guidance I was seeking but the LORD had spoken to me. I came home with a deep sense of dread and horror about what was coming upon the world and upon us all. Time is short and soon it will be too dark to do anything but hide until the wrath is past .
Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer.
Isaiah 26:20-21
If you doubt my words, then just turn on the news. The world is gripped by a pandemic which looks like it is here to stay for the long haul, climate change is wreaking havoc around the world, bringing famine, floods and fires, the nations are at war, democracy is devolving into anarchy, and the church is falling into apostasy. Of course we should not be alarmed by such things. Yeshua (Jesus), the Prophets and the Apostles all warned us this would happen. We have long expected it but now the reality is upon us and it is difficult to know how to live in these days, knowing it will only get worse. Yet we should not despair, we who know Yeshua, as all this heralds His return and our ultimate salvation. If you do not yet know Him, call upon his name before it is too late.
When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.
Psalm 94: 18-19
AFGHANISTAN
Perhaps one of the darkest corners of the world right now is Afghanistan. No doubt you have all been following events there as thousands try to flee the Taliban and its coming imposition of strict Sharia Law. The CBN reports that there are at least 5-8,000 Muslim Background Believers (MMBs) in Yeshua in Afghanistan. Unless they are rescued, they face almost certain execution. Earlier this week a Christian organization, the Nazarene Fund, raised more than 28 million dollars to charter planes to evacuate MMBs and other at-risk people from Kabul. With this money they had some 20 planes ready to do the airlift. At first things went well and several planeloads left Kabul carrying at least 1200 people to safety by Tuesday (2). It was hoped that by the end of the week at least 7,000 would be rescued. However on Wednesday last week a plane had to leave Kabul empty because the refugees were unable to reach the airport (3). Now following the terrible suicide attack on Thursday it is even more difficult to get to the airport and the August 31st deadline is fast approaching. It seems certain that many will be left behind to face almost certain martyrdom in Taliban Afghanistan. We need to pray fervently for our brothers and sisters in the Lord. May the LORD rescue them or give them strength to stand firm to the end.
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
Proverbs 24:11
Update: It is now the 31st of August and the last American soldier has left Afghanistan. Hundreds of American citizens, thousands of Afghanis who helped the US forces, and thousands of Christian and other minority groups are left behind to face their fate. The Taliban are now the governing power of Afghanistan. Do not be deceived by their words. A leopard may cover his spots for a time if it suits, but underneath, the spots do not go away. Already, behind the cameras, the Taliban are executing those that have aided coalition forces or that they see as infidels. Girls as young as 12 are being forcibly ‘wedded’ to Taliban fighters. When the cameras are silenced the massacres will begin and the rest of the people of Afghan will have to live under an oppressive and brutal regime, imposing a Medieval interpretation of Sharia Law. It is the women who will suffer the most.
Pray that the airport will reopen soon and some more people will be permitted to leave. There is little hope that people can flee via land borders. Where would they go? Pray for our brothers and sisters in the LORD, those that didn’t manage to escape, that God will open a way of escape somehow, or that He will give them the courage and faith to stand even until martyrdom if necessary. Pray too for those who did escape, leaving behind everything they have known, all their possessions and, in some cases, family members. Pray that the people of the free world, already suffering from ‘refugee fatigue’, will open their hearts to receive and provide for these people.
At the Kabul Airport August 21, 2021 US Airforce via AP https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/todaysdebate/2021/08/24/afghan-refugees-welcome-your-new-home-america/8243620002/
ISIS-K
The Afghanistan fiasco has also seen the re-emergence of ISIS onto the world’s consciousness. ISIS has never gone away, the ideology is strong and spreading, and it has just been waiting in the wings for another opportunity to establish its Islamic State. ISIS-K (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province) has claimed responsibility for the horrendous suicide bombing at the gates of the Kabul Airport killing at least 170 Afghani and ex-pat refugees and 13 American military personnel, and wounding many more. Although the Taliban and ISIS-K have similar ideologies, ISIS-K believes the Taliban have compromised too much with the West. In other words, ISIS-K is even more brutal and extreme than the Taliban (if that is possible!). Although too small numerically to pose a real threat to the Taliban in Afghanistan, ISIS-K is carrying out these attacks in order to embarrass the Taliban and recruit new members from its ranks. It seems likely that in the coming days there may be further attacks on those trying to flee the country.
Update: Yesterday (30/08) the US forces intercepted 6 missiles that were fired at the Kabul Airport. ISIS claimed responsibility for the missile attack. The day before that the US forces had destroyed a car that was being loaded with explosives in preparation for a car bomb attack on the airport. According to intelligence reports there remains a threat of further attacks on the airport.
With the Taliban claiming victory over the USA, and the reappearance of ISIS on the world stage, fueling the confidence of all extremist Muslim groups, we can expect a further destablization of the Middle East and an increase in terror attacks worldwide.
GAZA
One of the groups celebrating the Taliban victory (as they see it) is Hamas. Hamas is once more stirring up trouble with Israel. Since the May confrontation between Hamas and Israel, indirect negotiations have been taking place to draw up the terms of a stronger ceasefire agreement. These negotiations are deadlocked leading to frustration on both sides. Since May Israel has maintained tight restrictions on Gaza, significantly limiting imports and exports and complicating the reconstruction. A little while ago, Egypt totally closed its border crossing to Gaza.
In recent weeks the tension on the border has been increasing once more. Several rockets have been fired into Israel, incendiary balloons have ignited fires, and there have been a series of demonstrations and riots at the border leaving at least 2 Gazans dead, including a 13-year-old boy. An Israeli soldier was also killed after being shot in the head through a hole in the border barrier on Saturday, 21st August, during a demonstration. Hamas’ deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya said, “Our mobilizing masses have come to announce that the path of the Sword of Jerusalem is renewed,” using their name for the May operations (4).
Over the last few days there have been nightly border riots instigated by the ‘night confusion units’, which are not officially tied to Hamas, though they could not operate without their approval. During these riots, burning tires and explosives are lobbed towards Israeli soldiers. For some reason, in spite of these actions, Israel has in recent days agreed to allow Qatari money to enter Gaza and has relaxed limitations on the fishing zone. On Monday this week Israel also allowed the entry to Gaza of 30 truckloads of cement, 120 trucks of gravel and 15 trucks of steel (5). These conciliatory actions are intended to cool the escalation and prevent all out war, but I fear they may have to opposite effect of encouraging violence against Israel by rewarding the rioters for their actions. It seems a dangerous path we are treading.
CORONA IN ISRAEL
Today, 1 September, 2.5 million Israeli children returned to school, in the midst of our worst wave of coronavirus infections to date. Yesterday two milestones were passed. In just 24 hours more than 11,000 new cases were reported, the highest daily increase since the beginning of the pandemic, and the same day we passed 7,000 deaths, 500 of which occurred in August alone. Over the last 7 days Israel has had the highest number of new infections per capita in the world, according to the figures published by Oxford University (6). And this is in spite of the fact that Israel has vaccinated around 70% of its population with at least 2 shots. Over 2 million Israelis have also been given a third booster dose.
President Isaac Herzog joins a first grade class at a Modiin school on the first day of the school year (Photo: Roi Rubinstein) https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hyv445hbt
You may wonder why our infection rates are so high in spite of our vaccination program. There are a number of reasons. One is that many Israelis were permitted to travel abroad this summer and many returned with the virus, in spite of quarantine and other requirements. Another is ‘corona fatigue’ amongst the population. Many are tired of all the confusing regulations, which change on an almost daily basis, and are simply choosing to ignore them. There is very little enforcement. Israelis are very gregarious and like to congregate socially in large numbers. Then thirdly there are the 30% of the population, including all the children under the age of 12, who have not been vaccinated, and this sector acts as a reservoir for the spread of the disease. The Delta variant is much more infective than earlier variants, and the vaccines are not 100% effective against the transmission of the virus. Some fully vaccinated people are falling ill, though data is indicating that they are 6x less likely to suffer serious illness if they do. The situation is bad, but I dread to think what it would have been had we not had the vaccinations available.
ROSH HASHANA
This coming week, from sundown on Monday until sundown on Wednesday we will be celebrating Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. This festival involves the congregation of large numbers of people in synagogues and at the Western Wall, and the gathering of families and friends for festive meals. You can read more about the significance of this festival for Jews on https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4762/jewish/What-Is-Rosh-Hashanah.htm. In the past an estimated 100,000 people attended the Shleichot prayers, which take place on the afternoon and through the night of the first day. This year attempts are being made to limit the size of the crowds but even so, it represents a potential hotbed for the transmission of the coronavirus.
Sleichot prayers at the Western Wall in 2015
HOPE IN THE LORD AND REJOICE ALWAYS
I raised the question earlier of how we must live in these dark days. We must continue to run the race with perseverance and diligence. We keep close to our Lord, praying fervently and studying his Word. We push on to the goal that lies before us, the upward call of the Messiah (Philippians 3: 14). One of my favorite passages in the Bible is this, and it gives us excellent advice:
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4: 4-9
A little Fat Sand Rat friend I made down at Mitzpeh Ramon. He is eating his favorite food – saltbush.
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Psalm 42: 11
Last Sunday (15/08) I was working at my computer when I decided to open my curtains and this is what I saw – a huge cloud of smoke looming omininously overhead and blotting out the sun. Another fire – the fourth big forest fire near here in the last few weeks (not counting the little fire we had by our house).
The fire begins
This fire burned for three days and was the biggest in Israel’s history. Some 6,200 acres (2,500 hectares or 25 square kilometers) of beautiful mature forest and all the animals in it were burned. Two hundred fire fighting units, comprising 1,500 fire fighters, and 20 planes battled the blaze without a break for 52 hours. Four of the units came from the Palestinian Authority. On the night of the second day a huge Israel Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules joined the battle dropping huge dollops of fire retardant and foam on the hotspots. The addition of this plane to our fire fighting resources was a big help as, unlike the small planes, it can operate at night as well as carry much larger loads of retardant. In total the planes dropped 190,000 liters of retardant and over half a million liters of foam (1).
The fire began near the town of Beit Meir, and quickly spread towards Shoresh and Shoeva. It then spread south and eastward towards Kisalon, Ramat Raziel, Giv’at Yearim and Tzuba, and all these communities were evacuated, as was the psychiatric hospital of Eitanim (you can look on Google maps to see where these communities are).
A settlement (? Ramat Raziel?) is threatened by a wall of flame
A before and after photo of our once, beautiful forested hills – from Ramat Raziel
A fire fighting plane dropping fire retardant
The 156 patients and the staff of the Eitanim hospital tell a harrowing story of how, when they were completely surrounded by fire, they prepared themselves to die, calling their loved ones to say goodbye. One staff member later told reporters, “All we could do at that moment was raise our hands to the sky and say, ‘God, save us.’ There was nothing we could do” (2). And God did. Four incredibly brave police officers somehow managed to break through the flames and lead all the people to safety, making a snap decision to evacuate them in private cars down the only access road through the flames. Two patients fled on foot and were lost for a while but at midnight one was located and the other found next day, both safe and well. The photo below of the hospital shows how perilously close the fire came.
Eitanim Hospital after the fire
As night fell the fire died down and, thinking it was under control, the authorities allowed some of the people to go home and cancelled the request for help from firefighters from other countries, including Greece, Cyprus and France (These fire crews were needed in their own countries, as it turned out).
Around noon the next day the wind picked up, as it always does at this time of the day in summer, and suddenly the fire came back to life, this time spreading even faster. The communities were evacuated again, with many people managing to flee with only the clothes on their backs. Many had to leave their pets and farm animals behind. That day, Monday, the fire continued spreading to the east and south and other communities were evacuated or put on standby. The fire spread through the national park of Sataf and was heading towards Jerusalem’s largest hospital, Hadassah Ein Kerem in which there were hundreds of patients and staff (if not thousands), many in intensive care units, the coronavirus ward or otherwise incapacitated. Rushed preparations were made to evacuate the hospital, a task all but impossible, but thankfully God heard our prayers again. The wind dropped two hours before it normally does and the hospital and several communities in the area were spared.
The view from my home of the fire spreading towards Hadassah Ein Kerem on Monday 16th August, 2021
The firefighters, exhausted by now but determined and very courageous, worked through the night and, by the end of Tuesday, the fire was brought under control. It continues to smolder and the risk of fresh outbreaks remains. On Thursday several such outbreaks occurred but they were quickly brought under control.
All through this ordeal I was watching the progress of the fire, as it drew closer and closer to us. It came on two fronts to about 5km of the suburb in which I live and on Monday there was the possibility we might have to evacuate. Some Arab villages on the outskirts of Mevaseret were evacuated for a few hours until that front was brought under control. Fortunately for us, the wind direction was in our favor and the fire did not enter our town, but the photo above shows how vulnerable we are as the forest comes right up to the houses. The kibbutz of Tzuba, where I sometimes work, was evacuated but was spared, as was the home of my boss in neighbouring Givat Yearim.
Miraculously no one was killed during this fire and there were only a few minor injuries. Even the settlements were mostly saved, though now they are only small islands of green in a surreal black landscape. A few homes were damaged (there has been little detail in the news about how many) and some industrial workshops and farm buildings destroyed. A factory that makes ant poison exploded in Ramat Raziel spraying toxic chemicals into the air and old buildings made of asbestos added to the danger posed by the thick, dark cloud of smoke that blotted out the sun and polluted the air as far away as Jerusalem. The photo below shows the kibbutz of Giv’at Yearim, and you can see how the fire reached the very outskirts of the community. The long buildings in the burnt area are chicken houses where tens of thousands of chickens were incinerated. At least two horses were also lost but I do not remember in which community.
In Ramat Raziel the workshop of Harari Harps, owned by a family of believers, was totally burnt out destroying 40 years of work, though many of their harps will continue to bring much joy to many around the world.
Micah Harari holds the harp at his burned factory that manufactures handmade King David Biblical Harps and Door Harps, in Moshav Ramat Raziel, in the Jerusalem mountains, August 18, 2021. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
The evidence suggests that this fire, like the others this summer, were the result of deliberate arson, probably by Palestinian terrorists. The authorities are reluctant to admit this without definitive evidence, and the government also has a vested interest in not saying so, because if it was terrorism, they would have to compensate those who lost property.
Please keep praying as the weather continues to be hot and very dry, and the mountain winds rise every afternoon. Even as I write there is a strong wind blowing. The valley beside my house is about the last green forest around Mevaseret, the rest having already burned in one or other of the fires. I am certain that your prayers, and ours, saved this from being an even greater disaster and also saved many lives. Pray too that the perpetrators can be tracked down and punished, not only for justice’ sake but also to prevent them starting more fires, and discouraging others from trying the same form of terrorism.
The good news is that the forest will regenerate. In fact, fire is a natural part of the Mediterranean woodland ecosystem. Many of the trees actually need fire for their seeds to germinate. Once the rain comes this blackened landscape will begin to turn green, first with annuals and those geophytes (plants with bulbs and tubers) that have survived and then the trees will start to grow. The regrowth will be a healthier mix of native species, less prone to destructive wildfires, if we can resist planting more pine trees. It may be a good thing that in a few weeks the smitta year begins when, according to the Bible, the land must be left fallow and it is forbidden to plant trees. In Israel we do not have any rain at all for 6-8 months, and the rainy season begins any time from September on but may come as late as January. Traditionally Jews in Israel begin to pray for rain towards the end of the Feast of Tabernacles (Succot) which finishes on the 28th of September this year. Some rabbis are calling for the ‘prayers for rain’ to begin early this year. It would be a blessing if they did as it would decrease the risk of fire, but we also need to pray that when the rains come they will not be too heavy. There is nothing to hold the soil on the burnt-over hillsides and heavy rain could cause much erosion and flooding in the valleys. It has been the hottest summer on record in Israel and I am seeing signs of stress in the trees. Several of the trees around my house are either dead or dying. Even my garden trees are barely surviving though I water them every day.
Trees are very important to Israelis. When Mark Twain visited the Land of Israel in the 1860s he described it as a barren land, devoid of trees. The early Jewish settlers planted trees everywhere they could and as a result Israel was the only country in the world to finish the 20th century with more trees than it had in 1900. The Keren Kayemet Leumi (KKL) organization, tasked with the reforestation, has planted some 250 million trees in the last 100 or so years and forests now cover around 8% of the land, in spite of our sprawling cities and dense population. Not only that, every city and town is full of beautiful trees. The forests and trees of the Land therefore are dear to the heart of every Israeli and any attack on our forests hurts us to our core. Please pray for the safety of our forests and trees. One day, God will judge those who harm the trees.
Let the trees of the forest sing, let them sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.
I Chronicles 16:33
[There are many more things I could write about today but I will go ahead and publish this now, as I know many of you are awaiting news. I will write more later about the coronavirus in Israel, developments in Gaza and the situation in Afghanistan and in Lebanon and publish it soon. ]
Someone has turned up the thermostat. It is awfully hot around here these days but I cannot complain because it is much hotter in all the countries around us, and even in southern Europe. We also have air conditioning and electricity unlike so many others in this region. I thought it was just because of my aging that it seems hotter every year, but the statistics show an exponential increase over the last 60 years (1). In 1960-70s there were less than 20 days per year when the daytime temperature exceeded 30 degrees Celsius in Tel Aviv, but this has steadily increased until now when we are experiencing in excess of 80 such days per year.
A chart of the annual number of days in which max day time temperatures in Tel Aviv exceeded 30 Celsius. https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2021/08/dagan_heat_waves_annual_count_1-1338×2048-1.jpg
This summer is no exception and we are currently embroiled in a heatwave which has lasted one week so far and there is no end in sight. Here in the Judean mountains its about 35 degrees with a humidity of around 15-20%. The low humidity makes it bearable but it is still unpleasant to be out of doors and it saps your strength. Elsewhere around the country it is much more humid and temperatures are also higher, especially at night. Around the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and Eilat temperatures are well into the 40s.
The biggest problem with the heat is the fire risk. There are many fires every day around the country, most of them caused by negligence or deliberate arson. Two days ago there was a large fire that threatened the moshav of Shoresh about 15km west of Jerusalem. Sixty families were evacuated and the main Tel Aviv – Jerusalem highway was closed for several hours. Also evacuated were several thousand girls participating in a summer camp activity in the area. Eight fire-fighting planes, a helicopter and 24 fire crews managed to get the fire under control by nightfall and no homes or other properties were damaged.
The fire threatening the gas station at Shoresh. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/large-wildfire-breaks-out-in-forest-near-jerusalem-675717
In the last couple of days there have been several other fires in this area, and even as I write several have yet to be contained in the outskirts of Jerusalem in Kiryat Yovel and the Lifta area. (As far as I know the fires were contained and no property was damaged)
A large fire near the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Givat Shaul. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/large-wildfire-breaks-out-in-forest-near-jerusalem-675717
Please pray for our brave and hard working fire fighters. It is hot and dangerous work and they have saved many lives and homes. Please pray for those of us, including myself, who live in these tinder dry pine and cypress forests. The forest comes right up to the edge of our property. At least some of the fires are being lit by Palestinian terrorists. Israeli fire fighters have also been sent to Greece to help fight the terrible fires there.
ON THE NORTHERN BORDER
It is not only the weather that is heating up around here. Yesterday ( 04/08) three rockets were fired across the northern border triggering sirens in Kiryat Shmona and some other towns in the area. One rocket fell short in Lebanese territory but the other two landed near the city of Kiryat Shmona, thankfully in an open field, causing brush fires but no injuries, except for 4 people treated for shock. This is just the most recent of five such incidents lately and our security people say these rockets are not being fired by Hezbollah operatives but by Palestinian factions in Lebanon. Even so, they would not be able to do this without the permission of the Hezbollah that controls the border region. It is just part of the growing proxy war being waged against Israel by Iran.
Israel has responded with the firing of about 1000 rounds of artillery fire into Lebanon, aimed to avoid civilian or other casualties. It may seem like an excessive response which could ignite the situation further, but it is intended to send a strong message. Israel will not tolerate violations of its sovereignty especially when they threaten our towns and people.
Israel holds Lebanon responsible for such attacks even though the Lebanese government is incapable of controlling all the factions in its land. Lebanon is in total disarray and its society is in meltdown. According to the World Bank, Lebanon’s economic crisis probably ranks in the top three most severe anywhere in the world since the 1850s (2). Their currency is in free-fall, and around 50% of the population is living in dire poverty. Food, medicine and fuel supplies are hard to find and prohibitively expensive for many, and the electricity supply is erratic to non- existent. Two days ago it was the first anniversary of the terrible explosion in Beirut in which at least 214 were killed, more injured and thousands were left homeless. There is no money to rebuild the homes and properties that were destroyed and the people are becoming more and more angry. Add to that the current heat wave and drought, the Covid pandemic, and the fact that there is no functioning government, and we have a nightmare situation developing right on our door step. Russia and Iran are poised to move in and take over.
Update: Friday 6 August 2021
Nineteen rockets were fired into Israel this morning from Lebanon, sending residents of the Golan and the Galilee panhandle running for their shelters. Ten of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system, 6 fell in open areas and 3 fell short of the border (3). There were no casualties. Iranian-backed Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for these 19 rockets and say they did not intend to cause any casualties, but Israel’s Iron Dome system is only activated when missiles are heading towards built up areas or military installations. Things are escalating seriously.
After Friday’s attack there was a significant new development. The local Druze villagers captured the terrorists who had fired the rockets into Israel and handed them over to the Lebanese army. This indicates a growing anger amongst the Lebanese people against Hezbollah and a weakening of Hezbollah’s power. These attacks on Israel occurred on the anniversary of the explosion in Beirut which many blame on Hezbollah, and there is a theory that this latest attack was intended to divert attention away from that and regain a greater measure of popular support.
Update: Wednesday 11 September 2021
Since my last update the situation in the north has remained tense but there have been no further cross-border attacks.
IRAN
Always hovering in the background of events in the Middle East is Iran. Today (05/08) their new President, Ebrahim Raisi, was sworn in. He has sworn to free Iran of the ‘tyrannical sanctions’ imposed by the USA (3). In spite of these crippling sanctions and the growing economic crisis and civil unrest, Iran is still investing billions in the development of a nuclear weapon, and other weaponry, with which to ‘destroy the little Satan’, Israel. Iran is also being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Yesterday (04/08), well into its 5th wave, over 39 thousand new cases were registered in just 24 hours (4) , the highest per capita infection rate in the Middle East.
In spite of all these domestic problems Iran is still waging against Israel a proxy war which is escalating. On the 29th of July a merchant vessel, the ” HMV Mercer Street” off the coast of Oman was attacked by drones and two crew members, one British and the other Romanian, were killed. The ship is Japanese owned but managed by a London-based firm which is owned by an Israeli billionaire (5). The UK, USA and Israel have all blamed Iran for this attack.
Smoke and flames can be seen on MV Mercer Street, an Israeli-managed oil tanker hit in a deadly attack believed to have been carried out by Iran last month (Photo: Twitter)
A few days later, on Tuesday, six oil tankers off the coast of Fujairah (UAE) announced around the same time that they had lost power and could no longer steer (7). One of those ships, the Asphalt Princess was boarded by 5-6 armed Iranians, who it is believed intended to hijack the ship and take it to Iran. The ship was tracked on course towards Iran until on Wednesday morning it stopped and changed course back towards Oman. It turns out that the crew of the ship had prevented the hijack by deliberately sabotaging the engines of the ship. The boarding party fled when UK and Omani warships arrived at the scene (7). I do not know what happened to the other ships involved.
This is just the latest of many attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 1/5 of the world’s oil supply is transported. Fujairah, on the UAE’s eastern coast, is a main port in the region in which ships take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew (7). Iran, of course, has denied all involvement – but no one believes them!
Yesterday (11/08) Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, met with the CIA Chief, William Burns, to discuss the situation in the Middle East and specifically Iran and the proposed renewal of the Nuclear Deal of 2015 (8). The Head of Israel’s Mossad, David Barnea, handed Burns a dossier on the Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi intended to demonstrate that he is exceptionally extreme, cruel, corrupt and mentally unstable and therefore incapable of negotiating a new nuclear deal or sticking to his commitments. Israel is trying to dissuade the US government from pursuing negotiations with Iran. Iran has demonstrated again and again that it does not take any agreement seriously and cannot be trusted.
In 1988 Raisi was one of a four man “death commission” that ordered the execution of around 5000 dissident prisoners in Iran. Another member of this “death commission” was Hamid Noury, who at the time was allegedly assistant to the deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht prison in Karaj, near Tehran. Two days ago the trial of Noury began in Sweden and he is being charged with war crimes relating to this 1988 massacre (9).
One week after Raisi assumed office he presented his new cabinet ministers. The new Minister of the Interior is IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) General Ahmad Vahidi (10). There is an international arrest order on Vahidi for his involvement in the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Jewish Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds( 11) . The Foreign Minister is hardline career diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian, an avowed anti-Westerner believed to have close relations with the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards force (12). How can the USA even contemplate negotiating with such a corrupt and evil government?
The aftermath of the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. (Newspaper La Nación (Argentina/Wikipedia Commons)
GAZA
The Gaza front has been relatively quiet but last Friday (06/08) incendiary balloons were released into Israel by the so-called ” Balloon Unit” of Hamas. These balloons ignited at least 4 fires in Nature Reserves near the Gaza border. On Saturday night Israeli warplanes struck a military camp and a rocket-launching position in the Gaza Strip (13).
It is also concerning that ISIS-inspired factions are gaining ground in Gaza. Last Friday (06/08) the newly opened Bianca beach resort was damaged by explosives planted by one such group. They accused the resort of holding a music concert for men and women together. No one was hurt in this attack but a message was sent (14). These Salafist-Jihadi groups are even more extreme than Hamas.
No longer will you see the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend, stammering in a language that you cannot understand. 20 Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be pulled up, and none of whose ropes will be broken. 21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass. 22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our king; he will save us.
Isaiah 33: 19-22
CORONAVIRUS
Coronavirus is back in Israel, not that it ever went away. In June we had two straight weeks with no deaths and only a handful of new cases. We began to hope that life could return to ‘normal’ (whatever that is around here). Since then however the Delta variant of the virus has taken hold and the numbers are rising exponentially. Yesterday (10/08) we had 6270 new cases reported in 24 hours, and now some 40 severe cases are being admitted to hospital daily. Our hospitals will soon be overwhelmed again. To try and slow this 4th wave some regulations have been reimposed, but the regulations are changing on an almost daily basis which is causing a lot of confusion and contributing to the non-compliance of many.
Some are asking why is this happening given that around 80% of our eligible population (all those over 12) have been fully vaccinated. There are basically five reasons: the Delta variant is some 5 times more infectious than the previous variants, there have been a large number of Israelis travelling abroad and coming home infected, and many are ignoring the regulations, which are not being enforced effectively. The fourth reason is that there are still around 1 million eligible Israelis who have not been vaccinated. Finally, the efficacy of vaccines in those vaccinated first, namely the elderly, is now beginning to wear off. For this reason Israel has begun to give a third dose to those over 60 or who are immunosuppressed, and may soon extend this to younger people as well. (Update: we are now giving a third dose to the over 50s)
Around 50% of those falling ill are people who have been fully vaccinated and this also is making people say, “If so, what is the point of getting vaccinated?” This statistic is somewhat misleading. Because more people are vaccinated than not, the 10% of the vaccinated who fall ill are numerically as high as those who are unvaccinated. However in Israel the data shows that those who are unvaccinated have around 5 times greater chance of getting seriously ill, and the risk is even higher for the elderly, as the graphs released yesterday by Israel’s Health Department show:
The video below explains this clearly and I would recommend everyone to watch it as the information is applicable to any country. Israel is really the canary in the coal mine. Israel was one of the first countries to vaccinate a significant proportion of our population and the vaccines were given out very quickly, and this means that we are ahead of most countries in terms of the waning of the effect of the vaccines. What is happening here will probably start happening in other countries in the next month or so.
The good news is that Israel is developing a drug that treats Covid and, though still in early trials, this appears to provide hope for the severely ill. In a trial with 88 patients in Greece (there were not enough severely ill in Israel at the time), none progressed to needing a ventilator and 90% were released from hospital within 5 days (14). The inventor of this drug, Prof. Nadir Arber of Israel’s Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv said, “Doctors reported good responses, and this is very encouraging and supports our hope that this drug could be a game changer” (14). Arber pointed out however that firm conclusions can’t be drawn until the trial is followed up by testing that involves a group with some patients being given a placebo for comparison.
Another ray of hope lies in the development of a Covid vaccine that can be delivered as a pill. Such a vaccine is being developed by the Israeli company, Oramed Pharmaceuticals. The vaccine is about to undergo clinical trials in Israel. An oral vaccine which does not need to be refrigerated or administered by a medical professional would be of great help to those countries with poor distribution and medical infrastructure. Nadav Kidron, the CEO of Oramed said, “Our oral vaccine, which doesn’t rely on a deep freeze supply chain, unlike other coronavirus vaccines, could mean all the difference between a country being able to emerge from the pandemic or not” (16).
But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
‘The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. Just as you, Judah and Israel, have been a curse among the nations, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing.
Zechariah 8: 11-13
BACK TO SCHOOL AND THE HIGH HOLY DAYS
In less than 3 weeks Israeli schools will reopen. The CDC has not yet approved the vaccination of children under the age of 12, and discussions are being held about how schools can reopen in the current wave. One possibility is to require testing at the gates. Another is to delay the reopening until after the High Holy Days.
One week after the schools reopen we start the period of the High Holy Days, that includes Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Succot (the Feast of Tabernacles). These are holy days during which people gather in extended family groups for shared meals and attend synagogues in large numbers. The Corona Cabinet is considering a 4-6 week lockdown over the High Holy Days to try and prevent the spread of the virus resulting from these large gatherings of people, and in order to bring the rate of infections down. The reasoning being that since there are many holy days during this period, a lockdown at this time would have the least effect on the economy. There is a lot of opposition to such a move, and no one wants another lockdown, but it seems more and more likely to be called.
AFGHANISTAN
Following the pullout of USA military in Afghanistan the Taliban has moved with lightning speed to take over the country. The map below shows the situation two days ago. With the Taliban rapidly approaching the capital, Kabul, embassies are scrambling to evacuate staff and destroy sensitive documents. Many Afghanis who worked with US and other foreign military forces are desperate to flee what is likely to be certain death.
The Taliban are an extreme fundamentalist force that ruled Afghanistan until 1996 when they were toppled by the USA military. They sheltered Osama bin Laden as he planned the September 11 Twin Towers attack on the USA and ruled with strict Islamic shariya law. The Taliban banned television and music, barred girls from attending school and made women wear head-to-toe coverings called burqua. The withdrawal of American and other NATO forces will be interpreted as a victory over the west and this will reinforce their extremist views. It also means that all the lives that were lost fighting the Taliban will have been lost for nothing. The American intervention and withdrawal may well leave the citizens of Afghanistan in a far worse situation than before. As Engel (of NBC) said on Twitter that, “Some say Afghanistan is coming full circle. Taliban were in power, now returning. It’s much worse than that: people tasted freedom, and Taliban can now claim they drove the US out. So it’s not back to the beginning, but to a new, far worse place.” May God have mercy.
High summer is here. The thermometer is hovering in the mid-30s and the sky is a lovely clear blue (thanks to the reduced air traffic since the corona restrictions!). The difficult and disrupted school year is over and 1.6 million Israeli school children are on vacation, many of them enjoying summer camps around the country. The ceasefire with Hamas seems to be holding except for some sporadic incendiary balloon attacks. Our new government has been sworn in and has survived its first month. Netanyahu left the official Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem yesterday (don’t worry, he will not be homeless – he has a multi-million dollar residence in Caesarea). We also have a new President, Yitzak Herzog, who was sworn in this past week. There have been no more major fires in our area though there was a small one about two weeks ago adjacent to my home which thankfully was extinguished very quickly by the fire fighters (see picture below). All in all, things have been relatively quiet the last few weeks and we are enjoying a respite from traumatic events. I do wonder however if this is an illusion, just the lull before the storm. We all know this ‘quiet’ could end any minute, but in the meantime we are all grateful for every day of peace we can get.
Extinguishing the fire beside our house.
CORONA IS BACK
Since the beginning of July Israel has seen an uptick in the number of new corona cases, most of which are caused by the Delta Variant brought in by travelers from abroad. From a period during which daily new cases were in only double or single digits, and even a few days with none, we have now reached a situation where there are over a thousand new cases every day, and climbing daily. The Delta Variant is much more transmissible than the earlier variants, but because 50-60% of those infected have had both vaccine shots, there have been relatively fewer serious cases and few have died.
This rise in cases, however, has led to the government to re-impose the requirement to wear masks indoors. Unfortunately, many people are disregarding this, except in places like hospitals, medical centers and care homes where there is more enforcement. The intended reopening of our borders to tourists has been delayed indefinitely and travel to certain destinations banned. Now they have also reintroduced the Green Tag system allowing only the vaccinated or recovered to enter indoor gatherings of over 100 people.
In spite of government pleas to stay home this summer, some 30-50,000 Israelis are passing through Ben Gurion airport daily, reluctant to cancel family visits and vacations. As one person put it “it is in the Israeli DNA to travel abroad for vacations”, not the least because the cost of a holiday abroad is far less than that of a holiday in Israel. For all that, travelers risk getting stuck abroad or having their flights cancelled, and the regulations are changing on an almost daily basis. For now the government is not intending to go back to having lockdowns or other regulations that affect the economy, but rather is stepping up the vaccination program. We are now vaccinating children in the 12-15 age group. Immunosuppressed individuals are receiving a third booster shot and there is talk of giving a booster also to the over 65s in the near future. It appears that those of us who received vaccines in January are now only about 50% protected as the efficacy of the vaccine is diminishing with time. Some pharmacies are now selling home testing kits in a pilot trial in preparation for the possible use of them in schools when they reopen in September.
Israel is getting some criticism for giving third shots when many around the world are still awaiting their first. Our government has first responsibility towards its own citizens and we tax-paying Israelis have paid for many years a large chunk of our salaries towards our health care services. Nevertheless we have however already donated large numbers of vaccines to various poor countries. Not only that, Israel did a deal with Pfizer in order to receive vaccines early in return for generating data on their effectiveness and side effects. We were able to do that because we have a well-organized health system that was able to access vaccines, carry out the vaccination program quickly and efficiently so that we could gather data and pass it on. The world should be thanking us for being the world’s ‘guinea pigs’!
Israel has received a lot of criticism for not vaccinating the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, but under the current agreements the Palestinian Authority is responsible for providing health care to its citizens. Israel has no legal or moral requirement to do so. Last month Israel did offer the Palestinian Authority approximately one million doses of vaccine but they refused to accept them, claiming they were too close to their expiry date. As we say here, the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. There was nothing wrong with these surplus vaccines and in fact Israel exchanged them with South Korea which will give us the same number of vaccines from their future shipments – exactly the same kind of deal that was offered the Palestinians (1). The Palestinian leadership is responsible for ordering, receiving and distributing vaccines to their people, but the large amounts of aid money they have received has been used to line the pockets of the leaders or buy weapons with which to attack us, instead of building a functional health system. Even so, in order to protect ourselves, we have vaccinated the some 300, 000 or so Palestinian workers who come into Israel from the West Bank and Gaza each day.
IRANIAN THREAT
Ebrahim Raisi, President-Elect of Iran https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Raisi_in_2021-02_%28cropped%29.jpg/330px-Raisi_in_2021-02_%28cropped%29.jpg
Iran recently held elections which resulted in the election of Ebrahim Raisi as President. Currently serving as the Chief Justice, he will be sworn in as President on the 8th of August. Raisi is considered to be even more hard-line than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, and is a close ally of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khomeni. Raisi is accused of crimes against humanity as one of the four on a prosecution committee which was responsible for the execution of tens of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 (2). Since that time Raisi has held several positions in the judiciary including Chief Justice and is undoubtedly responsible for ordering the arrest, torture and execution of many more political opponents. He is expected to promote a tightening of Sharia Law in Iran, including the ‘segregation of the sexes’, the Islamicization of the universities, the revision of the internet and the censorship of western culture, and the cutting off of the hands of thieves.
Israel, has condemned Raisi’s election and said it would be a “regime of brutal hangmen” with which world powers should not negotiate a new nuclear deal. Israeli Prime Minister, Bennett, said in a statement, “(His) election is, I would say, the last chance for world powers to wake up before returning to the nuclear agreement, and understand who they are doing business with” (3).
In April talks began in Vienna between Iran and six world powers led by the USA aimed at reviving the 2015 Nuclear Accord. Without making any discernable progress the talks were adjourned at the end of June. Iran’s delegation chief, Abbas Araqchi told Iranian state TV that “We are now closer than ever to an agreement but the distance that exists between us and an agreement remains and bridging it is not an easy job…We will return to Tehran tonight” (4). A few days ago Teheran announced that it will not resume talks until the new President takes office.
It doesn’t really matter since the talks are doomed anyway. Iran is not interested in a negotiated peace. Again and again, almost daily, it threatens to annihilate the ‘little Satan’ Israel and after that, the ‘big Satan’ the Western World led by the USA. To that end, and with the support of Russia, Turkey and China, Iran is continuing to enrich uranium and recently it has begun to make uranium metal containing 20% enriched uranium, such as is used for making warheads. They also broast that they can enrich uranium up to the 90% needed for a nuclear bomb. There is no need to enrich uranium past 3-4% for peaceful uses.
Iran has however been plagued by a whole series of mysterious fires and explosions in military installations, power stations, ports and sites where uranium enrichment is being carried out, thus causing delay and disruptions to their plans. There have also been a number of serious cyber attacks. Teheran alternately claims that these incidents are ‘accidents’ or are being carried out by Israel. Israel of course is not admitting any responsibility but clearly the frequency and nature of these events makes it abundantly clear that they are not ‘accidents’. It is also possible that dissident factions within Iran are carrying out these attacks, with or without outside help.
Nevertheless Iran continues to threaten Israel and is accelerating its uranium enrichment activities. It seems inevitable that as they approach nuclear capability Israel will be forced to carry out a pre-emptive strike which would unleash a full scale war with Iran and its proxies. Consequently the IDF is asking the government for a budget increase of some billions of shekels (5).
Iran is continuing to spread its influence across the Middle East. Lebanon and Iraq are on the verge of total collapse, Syria is fragmented and Jordan is destabilizing, very largely because of the influence of Iran in supporting dissident extremist factions. When these governments implode and fall, guess who will step in to ‘rescue’ these states. Iran, of course. Iran is destabilizing the entire Middle East, strengthening its power and creeping closer and closer to our borders. In an effort to shore up the shaky Jordanian regime, Israel recently signed an agreement to double the amount of water supplied to Jordan (bringing it to around 100 million cubic meters a year), and boosting Jordanian exports to the Palestinian Authority (6). Jordan, like most of the Middle East, is experiencing one of the most severe droughts in its history.
Last night (19 July) Israel attacked an Iranian-linked military research facility in Al-Safirah, located east of Aleppo, in Syria, supposedly meant for ballistic missile/chemical weapons research and production. A few hours later two rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon, it is thought by Palestinian activists and not Hezbollah. Red alert sirens were triggered in some northern Israeli towns but one rocket fell into the sea and the second was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system. Israel returned artillery fire upon the source of the rockets.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS
A new alignment of nations is taking shape in the Middle East with Iran at the center of one group of nations and Israel at the center of another.
On the 29th of June Israel’s new Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, was the first Israeli minister to visit the United Arab Emirates where he opened an Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi and a Consulate in Dubai. He also met with the UAE Minister for International Cooperation and Dubai Expo 2020, Director General Reem Al Hashimi, and they visited the Israeli Pavilion, still under construction, at the site of the upcoming Dubai Expo which will be held in October 2021, after being postponed for a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the 14th of July the UAE opened its new embassy in Tel Aviv. The UAE Ambassador to Israel, Mohamed Al Khaja, said, “It marks a new paradigm for peace and a model for a new collaborative approach for conflict resolution” (7). The Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, are a demonstration that Muslims and Jews can work together to our mutual benefit.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (L) meets the UAE’s Minister of State for International Cooperation and Dubai Expo 2020 Director General Reem Al Hashimi, June 29, 2021. (Shlomi Amsalem/GPO) https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/lapid-visits-israeli-pavilion-at-dubai-expo-grounds/
This new alignment of nations seems to approximate the alliances spoken of in Ezekiel 38, when a coalition of nations including Gog and Magog, Meshek, and Tubal ( Russia), Persia (Iran) , Cush (Ethiopia), Put (Libya), Gomer (Europe), Beth Togarmah (Turkey) will come up against Israel, Sheba and Dedan (the nations of the Arabian peninsula (see the map). I am not saying this war is necessarily imminent but just that the stage is being set.
CONDO COLLAPSE IN FLORIDA
No doubt you will all have heard about the terrible collapse of the Champlain Towers condo in Florida, but you may not know that a significant number of those killed and still missing are Jews, including at least 20 Israelis. Within 24 hours Israel had sent a task force to Florida to help and, later, the IDF’s National Search and Rescue Unit, along with members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit of United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency medical services unit, together with volunteers from ZAKA, the response organization that specializes in gathering bodies and body parts for Jewish burial also arrived at the site (8).
Even before these teams arrived on the ground the Israeli Home Front Command generated 3D digital models of the building which, together with information gathered from surviving family members, produced highly accurate information where each missing person could be expected to be found (8). This was extremely valuable in speeding up the search and providing closure to at least some anxiously waiting families.
Israeli search and rescue team (with yellow helmets) at the site of the collapsed building in Surfside near Miami (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit) https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/Byl1EFY300
FLOODS AND FIRES, HEAT AND DROUGHT
As our news broadcasts are full of reports of extreme weather related events, including extreme heat and wildfires in NW USA, Canada, and Siberia, and terrible floods in Germany and China, you are not perhaps aware of the situation developing here in the Middle East. Below is a map of air temperatures around the world for June 6th, 2021. In the Gulf States, Iran and Iraq temperatures that day were well over 50C (122 F) as indicated on the map by the dark red color.
Air temperature map for June 6, 2021. The red depicts the region where temperatures reach over 50 C (= 122F) https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148430/heatwave-scorches-the-middle-east
The heat of June 6 is by no means an isolated event. There have been at least two heatwaves this summer where temperatures have topped 50C in parts of the Middle East for extended periods of time, and we are yet to reach the hottest part of summer. The severe heat and record breaking drought are being compounded by inadequate infrastructure, power cuts and political instability. An unknown number of people have died and farmers are losing livestock and crops. Especially hit are the hundreds of thousands of refugees trying to survive in tents or temporary structures.
The Haaretz newspaper in Israel said this “In the space of little more than a month, Iraq, Iran and the United Arab Emirates and other countries bordering the Gulf have suffered two blistering heat waves. In back-to-back doozies, temperatures pushed past 50 degrees centigrade (122 degrees fahrenheit), once early June and again in the first days of July. Bahrain experienced its hottest June in nearly a century” (9).
South China News reported that “Widespread power cuts in Iraq brought hundreds of people onto the streets of the capital Baghdad on July 2, 2021, to protest against the outages. The country has been struggling to cope with a prolonged heatwave, as daytime temperatures in much of the country soared to 50 degrees Celsius (122°F) or higher. The power cuts have left many Iraqis without electricity and air conditioning (10).
Thankfully, Israel is having a fairly normal summer so far, albeit one with temperatures a few degrees above average. Over the last decade or so every summer has been hotter than the one before, so the ‘average temperatures’ are higher than they were. Of course we still have at least 2 months of summer to go and the late summer and autumn period is when we usually have the highest temperatures and are most prone to heat waves. Our desalination plants are providing us with plenty of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use and we are even selling surplus supplies to neighboring countries. Desalination however is dependent upon large supplies of electricity and is an expensive option both financially and ecologically. I am reminded how vulnerable we all are on our supplies of electricity. Just about everything we do, from brushing our teeth, keeping cool or charging our cell phones requires a constant supply of electricity. What if that supply were cut off?
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
There is never a dull moment around here. Today (9th June, 2021) I went swimming with a friend at Maale Hahamisha, a kibbutz near my home. I was swimming along when suddenly it went dark as if the sun had gone behind a thick cloud. Surprised, since we don’t usually have clouds at this time of year, I looked out the window and saw that the sky was full of smoke. I looked around and saw a huge column of smoke looming above the hotel where we were swimming.
At first no one seemed at all concerned but my friend and I decided to get dressed and head for home. It turned out to be a timely decision as just a few minutes after we safely escaped down the road, the police closed off the road. Also just a few minutes after we left, the entire population of Maale Hahamisha were told to evacuate immediately, including children at the school and kindergartens, and all the guests at the hotel (and presumably, all those in the pool). This was accomplished very smoothly and there was no loss of life or injury.
Once I got home I learned that there were at at least 5-6 foci of the fire and some 70 or more fire engines and crews were fighting the fires. Two helicopters were spotting hotspots and ten planes were dropping fire retardant (1). I am full of praise for the speed and efficiency of the emergency services which managed to get the fires under control within the space of a few hours and prevent them from damaging any homes in the several towns, including Yad Hashmona (the Christian-owned kibbutz and hotel), Nataf, Abu Ghosh, and Maale Hahamisha that were threatened. All the occupants of Maale Hahamisha and parts of some other towns were evacuated including some schools and kindergartens, but all were able to return home before nightfall.
That this huge fire was so quickly brought under control is amazing given the heat (around 30 degrees C), the low humidity (around 30%) and the high flammability of the tinder dry pine and cypress forest. It was not a windy day but the fire itself generated localized strong winds which carried sparks causing the fire to jump. The fires were stopped less than 100m from the outermost houses of Maale Hahamisha, and also spared were a large shed housing several hundred cows, and horse stables, on the outskirts of the kibbutz. Some 2650 dunams (655acres) of beautiful 100-year-old pine and cypress forest, and natural woodland were burned (2). It will regenerate but it will take decades. In addition to the forest, a number of vineyards were damaged. The Main Highway and the rail line between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were closed for a few hours but were reopened by nightfall. The entire Jerusalem area was covered in a dense pall of smoke all night, and the vulnerable warned to stay indoors. Ash fell here like snowflakes.
Smoke rises from the site of a wildfire behind the village of Abu Gosh near Jerusalem, Wednesday, June 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
At the same time several other fires were also burning in the area, including at the picturesque abandoned village of Lifta at the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Sataf National Forest, and near Ariel and Shavei Shomron in the West Bank. Given the timing and number of fires it seems clear that these fires were an act of arson, probably lit by Palestinians with nationalistic motives. In my opinion actions of this kind show how little these people respect the Land they claim is theirs and how little they deserve it. As even the mayor of the Arab village of Abu Ghosh pointed out, it is forbidden for Muslims to harm trees, yet they claim to do it in the name of Allah. This outbreak of arson attacks is worrying since we are just at the beginning of the fire season and there are at least 5 more months of high fire risk ahead.
UPDATE: 13 JUNE 2021 As I am writing now there is another big fire right here in Mevaseret. It is about 1km from here and I don’t think my home is at risk but the fire has already threatened some homes across the valley. A number of my friends live very close to the fire, including a young couple who just have a baby one day old. Some people in that area are being told to evacuate immediately. (A sheltered-living home for the elderly in the suburb of Motza was later also evacuated. For those of you who know Mevaseret, the fire is in the valley down below the Har’el Shopping Mall alongside Highway 1.
The fire as photographed from Kanion Mevaseret 13 June 2021
FURTHER UPDATE 14 June: The fire services once again very efficiently controlled this fire also and people were able to return to their homes before nightfall. I am not sure if any homes were burned but at least one car was destroyed. It has been hard to get news because all the news stations were concentrating on the swearing in of the new government.
Please pray about these fires. They are a form of nationalistic motivated terrorism. There are many towns and kibbutzim nestled amongst the forest here in the Judean Hills and other wooded areas around the country. We are very vulnerable, and the weather is hot, dry and, in the afternoons, windy. The forest is tinder dry and comprised mainly of highly flammable pine and cypress trees. It doesn’t take much to get a fire started, naturally or with a little help from an arsonist. As a form of terrorism arson is tempting, it is cheap to execute, requires no training and only a small amount of fuel. It also poses little risk to the terrorist as they can light the fire and be far away before it is noticed, and there are no surveillance cameras in the forests. The fires spread incredibly fast and can cause a massive amount of damage putting lives and livelihoods at risk.
SINKHOLE
The day before (8 June 2021) the fires at Maale Hahamisha Jerusalem was the scene of a scary incident when a giant sinkhole suddenly opened up in the carpark at one of the main hospitals, Shaarei Tzedek, and swallowed 7 cars. Thankfully no one was in the cars at the time and there was no loss of life or injuries. You can see this event as captured by a surveillance camera below. Since this happened, big cracks have also opened on the adjacent road which has been closed. There is concern that this sinkhole was caused by tunneling work on a new highway into Jerusalem which goes under the hospital and the residential area adjacent. It makes me wonder how safe the hospital and the apartment blocks are. A big new wing and a large parking building have recently been built on the site. Any one of these could be destabilizing the area. All of Jerusalem is built on very soft, crumbly limestone which is riddled with caves, tunnels, underground streams like a Swiss cheese, not to mention many fault lines. Now our city fathers are planning to build many high rise apartment and office buildings within the city, contrary to the earlier bylaws which limited the height of buildings. One cannot help but wonder if the geology of the area is being taken into consideration.
It’s official. Israel now has a new government comprising 8 political parties. Last night (13 June) the new coalition government was sworn in and we now have a new Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. According to the agreements made within the coalition, Bennett will be PM for two years and then Yair Lapid will be PM for the remaining two years of the term (if this government lasts that long). Until the last minute Netanyahu fought hard to stay in power but he has now been relegated to the position of the Leader of the Opposition, after 12 consecutive years as PM (he was also PM for an additional 3 years at an earlier date).
The coalition won the Knesset election by only one vote. The fire at Mevaseret almost scuttled the election as 3 MKs (Members of the Knesset) were stuck in the traffic jam when the highway was closed. Police rescued them and were able to get them through the closure and to the Knesset in time to vote.
This will be the first time a Prime Minister of Israel will belong to a Party that won only 8 seats in the 120 seat Knesset (Parliament). This bizarre coalition includes a radical far-right anti-Arab religious party and an Arab party with links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Strange bedfellows indeed. In fact the only thing the 8 parties making up this coalition have in common is their desire to get rid of Netanyahu. Once that is accomplished, I don’t know what will hold them together. I give it about a week before it collapses and we get thrown into yet another round of elections. I hope I am wrong – we really need some stability in Israel right now.
Yamina leader and Prime Minister-designate Naftali Bennett (left) and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid after announcing the formation of a new coalition, June 3, 2021. (Photo: Yesh Atid handout) https://www.allisrael.com/political-earthquake-how-will-pro-israel-evangelicals-react-to-the-post-bibi-era-can-bennett-and-lapid-build-trust-with-evangelicals
Is this new government a good thing or a bad? Opinion here is very divided. I was greatly saddened by a headline I saw this week in the Jerusalem Post which said ” Bennett under attack by Evangelical leader for helping oust Netanyahu” (3). A well known prominent Evangelical leader, Mike Evans, sent Bennet a scathing, not to mention crude and insulting, letter which said among other things, “You’re a pathetic bitter little man so obsessed on murdering Netanyahu that you’re willing to damage the State of Israel for your worthless cause”, and (we will) “fight every step of the way. You have lost the support of evangelicals 100 percent… We gave you four years of miracles under Donald Trump and this is how you show your appreciation shitting on our face. How dare you!” (3). (You can read the full text of the letter below as published by All Israel News who obtained it directly from Evans himself.)
Evans purports to speak for all evangelicals but he has no right to do so. No matter what one’s political views, one should express them with respect and courtesy. Most believers here were disgusted by this letter. It makes us all look bad and undermines our witness. Quite a few leaders have spoken out against it and I am glad to say their comments have also been published in the Israeli media (4). Howard Bass, a pastor in Beer Sheva, said this, ” Naftali Bennett may be a man of worldly politics, but Mike Evans claims to be a man of God. Yet he boasts about his following and allows filthy words to proceed out of his mouth. Neither of these honor the name of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus” (5).
We are all entitled to have our political opinions, one way or the other, but there are right and wrong ways to express those opinions. However Paul, writing to Timothy, at a time when they lived under the harsh Roman rulers, who actively persecuted the fledgling church, exhorted the believers of his day to be subject to the rulers and authorities, and to slander no one, always being gentle towards everyone:
Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.Titus 3:1-2
It is God who raises up rulers and brings them down. We need to trust Him. That is not to say we as individuals, like any other citizen, should not participate in the political process or speak out against ungodly policies, but when the church or church leaders begin to identify with one political party or leader to the exclusion of other politicians, or to exclude other believers because they do not agree with them, then they are treading on very dangerous ground. This is especially so if they indulge in threatening behavior, slander, or incitement to violence.
“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others.
Daniel 2: 20-21
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Romans 13: 1-2
This kind of thing is a result of the growing trend of Christian and Messianic leaders and congregations all over the world to get caught up in worldly politics. This is a huge mistake. If the gospel becomes identified with one particular political party or ideology this undermines, or even negates, our gospel message to those who do not agree. Yeshua himself refused to take political leadership when he walked this Earth, and never encouraged his followers to do so. His kingdom is not of this world. There is a time when He will return with His saints to rule the Earth for a time, but that time has not yet come. We should not make the same same mistake that occurred in the 3rd Century CE when the Emperor Constantine united church and state, which led to the compromise with paganism and the consequent heresies of the Roman Catholic Church.
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” John 18:36
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3: 18-21
Our focus as believers should be the preaching of the gospel and the making of disciples as Jesus himself commissioned us. We have no other mandate. We should not allow ourselves to be sidetracked. We have more important things to do, the saving of souls, than meddling in worldly politics.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20
What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short… For this world in its present form is passing away. I Corinthians 7: 29,31
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4: 18
My plea to all believers is that you love Israel for the sake of the LORD and His Name. Pray for her fervently, but stay out of our politics. God will raise up and bring down leaders according to His will and the working out of His redemption plan. We can pray as Yeshua himself taught us “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6: 10).
CEASEFIRE AND THE JERUSALEM FLAG MARCH
The ceasefire with Hamas is holding so far but it is very shaky. Almost daily Hamas is making threats to hit Tel Aviv with thousands of rockets, or activate the 10,000 terrorist martyrs they claim to have in our midst, or to ignite the Third Intifada in Jerusalem if we do this that or the other thing. Is it all posturing and psychological warfare, or are they serious? It seems to me that Hamas is itching to start another confrontation and is just waiting for the right pretext.
Hamas fought the last war based on the pretext that Israel was trying to take over the Temple Mount and destroy the Al Aqsa mosque. This is a lie from Satan. It is true there are some extreme religious individuals who want to do just that but they are a tiny, miniscule minority and do not have State sanction, or the support of the majority of Israelis. The planned eviction of several Arab families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah was the other excuse Hamas used to start the firing of rockets, first towards Jerusalem and then towards other areas. The courts have not yet made a final ruling on the eviction order, but there are precedents. The legal situation is complicated and I discussed it in an earlier post.
It seems to me that Hamas is doing everything it can to win over the minds and hearts of the Palestinian people with the aim of ruling over the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) as it does in Gaza. They are gaining more and more popular support particularly as the PLO grows weaker and weaker and is seen to be compromising more and more with Israel. Prior to the last Gaza war the PLO called off the elections in the West Bank, the first for 15 years, because it was more than evident that Hamas would win and take power. This was the real trigger for the last round of fighting. Hamas is also gaining a large foothold amongst the Israeli Arabs, as evidenced by the recent rioting that took place all over Israel, and perhaps they are also behind the arson attacks. This internal threat poses a far greater risk to Israel than the rockets from Gaza.
Another trigger for the latest confrontation with Hamas was the Jerusalem Flag March, a provocative annual event in which “thousands of nationalist Jews march through Muslim-majority parts of Jerusalem toward the Western Wall, in a show of sovereignty to mark the Hebrew anniversary of the city’s east side being captured by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967” (6). The March was originally scheduled for May 10th and was to pass through the Damascus Gate, a flash-point for trouble, and the Muslim Quarter of the Old City before ending at the Western Wall. On that occasion the March was stopped short by the rocket fire on Jerusalem that day. The organizers then decided to reschedule the March for the 10th June but the police denied them permission “concerned of the potential for the parade to inflame tensions in the city and spark a fresh wave of unrest there, and potentially in other locations” (6). The march has now been rescheduled for tomorrow (15th June) and the route will not pass through the Damascus Gate or the Muslim Quarter. They do however plan to stop outside the Damascus Gate and dance with the flags and this is likely to result in confrontations, which could easily escalate into widespread rioting again. Hamas has warned of “consequences“. Clashes already broke out last Thursday as far-right lawmaker, Itamar Ben Gvir, marched to the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City. Ben Gvir waved an Israeli flag at the site, in what he said was a personal protest, after police banned him from parading through the Muslim Quarter to reach the Temple Mount.
The rerouted Jerusalem Flag March on May 10th entering the Old City via the Jaffa Gate. https://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-flag-march-organizers-say-agreement-reached-with-cops-on-parade-route/
This may be the first test of the new government. The outgoing Netanyahu government exerted a lot of pressure to allow this March to go forward saying that we must not give Hamas the sense of victory in being able to stop such a March. However this needlessly provocative (in my view) March has the potential of starting a new round of fighting between Hamas and Israel, and a new round of rioting and violence within Israel between Arabs and Jews. Please pray for the calming of the situation.
UPDATE: I just received this from a reliable source:
Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanoua: “The so-called flag march, which will be carried out tomorrow by the settlers, will be a detonator for a new battle to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. We demand the mobilization of our people in Jerusalem and the occupied interior to confront the settlers’ herds with various means and tools, and our people are with you and behind you in their resistance to thwart the occupation’s plans”
CORONAVIRUS
This past week we had several days in which no new Covid-19 cases were reported, and we also began vaccinating the 12-15 year age group. There is a sense here that we have beaten the virus, and it already seems like something in the past. Tomorrow the final restriction, the requirement to wear masks in indoor public spaces, will also be lifted (Hallelujah!!). Life is getting back to normal (whatever that is around here). The borders are not fully open yet and quarantine is still required for those coming in. Organized groups of vaccinated tourists have already been permitted to enter the country. There is talk of allowing individual tourists to enter starting from July 1st, but if we see an uptick of cases this could all change – so don’t book your tickets yet.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”
Psalm 122: 6-7
THE FULL TEXT OF MIKE EVAN’S LETTER TO NAFTALI BENNETT
Dear Mr. Bennett,
What a disgusting disappointment you turned out to be. You and I spoke on behalf of the settlers at APAC at a hotel because they packed APAC wouldn’t let him in. I always thought Begin was your hero. You’ve disgraced his very name. Shame, shame, shame on you. Don’t ever call yourself a defender of Zion. You’re not.
You betrayed the very principles that a generation gave their blood for and died for. You want to be in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood and Leftists. God have mercy on your soul. Such a bitter little man that your obsession to damage Benjamin Netanyahu has convinced you that damaging the State of Israel is a worthy cause.
I’ve given my life building evangelical support for the State of Israel, not only with 77 million of my followers but with more than 20 world leaders. I assure you, I will fight you every step of the way. You have lost the support of evangelicals 100 percent. I don’t know how you can sleep at night. It would have been so easy for you to have gone with a conservative government. We gave you four years of miracles under Donald Trump. We evangelicals delivered it. You delivered nothing. What appreciation do you show us? You sh** right on our face. How dare you!
To say I’m disgusted with you is an understatement. You should hang your head in shame. You care more about your own damn ego and your bitterness than you do the State of Israel.
Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
Psalm 121: 4
Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him…
The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations…
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
Psalm 33: 8,10-12, 20-22
Rocket fire over Gush Dan (Tel Aviv and surrounding area) in Israel shortly after midnight,16 May 2021). The straight lines on left are rockets being fired from Gaza and the curly ones are the Iron Dome interceptors
I came home from work Monday night (10th May) and plonked myself down in front of the TV, trying to decide if I had the energy to go for a swim or not. A sound began to penetrate my consciousness. The “Red Alert” (incoming missile) siren was sounding, barely audible in my home. I quickly relocated to my ‘safe room’, and immediately heard the booms, the last of which was very loud and rattled my windows. I later learned that the closest rocket landed just 1-2 km away. That was the opening volley of this week’s events.
Seven rockets had been fired towards Jerusalem from Gaza. Though the phrase ‘towards Jerusalem‘ is in the media, of course the Gazan terrorists do not aim at Jerusalem itself for fear of killing ‘good Muslims’ or damaging the Al Aqsa mosque. Instead they aim at the predominantly Jewish towns and villages on the western outskirts.
The map of where the first missiles aimed at “Jerusalem” landed.
Since that evening we have had no further “Red Alerts” in my town and if it were not for the media, I would not know anything was happening. It must be one of the quietest spots in Israel right now. However one cannot live in a bubble and it is with a very heavy heart I have followed events.
A soldier from the Israeli military’s Home Front Command walks outside a house in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon that had been struck by a Hamas rocket on May 20, 2021. (Edi Israel/FLASH90) https://www.timesofisrael.com/guardian-of-the-walls-wasnt-the-resounding-victory-the-idf-had-hoped-for/
It has been a terrible eleven days for Israel and also for the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have fired more than 4300 rockets and missiles into Israel since that first volley on Monday. The towns around the Gaza Strip, Ashkelon and Ashdod have been subjected to an almost continuous barrage of hundreds of rockets. The city of Ashkelon alone was targeted by around 960 rockets. Places further afield, including Beer Sheva , Tel Aviv and the region of Gush Dan (the central coastal plain), including the region around Ben Gurion Airport have also been attacked. Some of the rockets fell in open areas, and 90% of the others were shot down by the “Iron Dome” anti-missile defense system, nevertheless some penetrated our defenses killing 13 people, injuring around 350, and destroying a significant number of homes, cars and other property. Of the thirteen people killed, all except one were civilians, including an elderly woman and her Indian care-giver, two children, two Arabs, two Thai agricultural workers and two who died as a result of injuries sustained while running for cover. The only military casualty was a soldier on duty near the Gaza border.
The scene where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on May 11, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90) https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-killed-by-rockets-in-ashkelon-amid-massive-barrages-from-gaza/Red Alerts in Gush Dan just after midnight 16 May2021
Some of the rockets fired towards Israel, around 680 in number, failed to reach Israel, falling in the Gaza Strip and causing casualties there- of which at least some were blamed on Israel.
In response to the barrage of rocket fire from Gaza, Israel initiated what has been called “Operation Guardian of the Walls”. The IAF (Israeli Air Force) and artillery divisions pounded Hamas and Islamic Jihad military targets relentlessly for eleven days and destroyed much of their infrastructure, including 100 km of underground tunnels and bunkers, 10 Hamas government offices, 11 security offices, 5 banks that handled Hamas’ finances and the international media tower used as the center of communications and intelligence by Hamas ( and also housing the media offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera). The IAF carried out 570 airstrikes against rocket and mortar launchers. Some 25 senior Hamas commanders were also targeted and killed.
In spite of these heavy attacks only 232 people were killed in Gaza and 1600 injured, according to official Hamas figures. Most of the casualties, around were Hamas fighters. The relatively low loss of life is thanks to the extreme care that Israel takes to prevent civilian casualties. Not only do they telephone people individually warning them to vacate buildings about to be attacked, but they also send a warning ‘roof knock’ – a small explosive device – before dropping the main explosives. In the case of the international media tower, occupants were given an hour to vacate the building. There were also incidents when Israeli planes aborted attacks because children or other civilians were seen in the area. Since the last round of hostilities Israel, with the help of the USA, has developed much more precise weaponry which can take down one building or installation without harming those around it. There is no army in the world, or in the history of mankind, that takes as much care to avoid harming civilians.
It is for this reason it really hurts when Israel is criticized by the press and others for using ‘ excessive force ‘. This is war and we are fighting for our existence. Did the allies in WWII use ‘excessive force’ when they obliterated Dresden in Germany, or when the USA dropped the atomic bombs on Japan? How many innocent civilians have died in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan in more recent years? ( According to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission’s annual report last year, there were 8,500 civilian casualties in 2020, including 2,958 deaths (1)). How would the UK or USA or any other country respond if their neighbors began firing thousands of rockets into their major cities. Yet many in these Western countries hypocritically dare to criticize Israel when civilians get caught in the crossfire. No matter how careful the army is, accidents happen and civilians get killed.
I do not feel anyone has the moral right to accuse Israel of ‘excessive force’ until they themselves have been targeted by a barrage of rockets or have had to live for 20 years under the threat of incoming fire, as our southern communities have! In the area around Gaza, residents have only about 6-10 seconds to find cover. Here we have about 1.5 minutes. Would you like to live like that- always looking for places to run to whenever you are out and about, wondering if your children are safe every time the sirens blare? Most of the children in those areas have known no other life and many suffer from insomnia, bed-wetting, nightmares and other symptoms of PTSD.
Here is the latest (23 May) breakdown of the damage inflicted on Israel (did your newspapers report this?):
In Ashkelon, 792 buildings and 267 vehicles were damaged.
In Ashdod, 228 buildings and 130 cars were damaged.
In Sderot, 228 buildings and 267 vehicles were damaged.
In Tel Aviv, 77 buildings and 74 cars were damaged.
In Ramat Gan, 254 claims were filed for damages,
In Givataym – 157,
In Petah Tikva – 231.
In Lod and Ramla, 348 buildings and 229 vehicles were damaged.
In Akko, claims were filed for damage to 16 buildings and 4 cars, in Haifa – 19 buildings and 26 cars, in Jerusalem – 4 buildings and 26 cars
And this was with the Iron Dome stopping some 90% of the incoming missiles. Imagine the carnage without that protection.
These figures also do not show the damage to the economy in terms of lost workdays or the expenditure of the army and air force. The IDF WhatsApp update on 16 May 2021, stated that “ It’s estimated that each Iron Dome interceptor cost approximately, 50,000 USD, which means 57 Million USD or 187 Million NIS was spent to defend and protect human life – not to mention all other costs….”. The figures also do not measure the human costs, in terms of anxiety, depression and other psychological effects. Schools were closed in a large part of the country – just after they had reopened following the Covid pandemic. I was shocked by images of high school students sitting their bagrut (matriculation) exams wearing masks and being interrupted by sirens and having to scramble for cover. How could they do well in their exams under such circumstances?
Hamas and Islamic Jihad make no secret of the fact they want to kill as many civilians as possible. They deliberately aim at large, densely populated population centers with the hope of killing as many Israelis as possible, while hiding their rocket launchers and other military installations beside homes, hospitals and schools. They cynically hope that Israel will kill as many of their ‘innocent civilians’, especially children, as possible. It makes for ‘good press’. They don’t care about their own people. If they did, they would not build tunnels under their homes and use them as human shields. If they did, they would not attack Israel in the first place and they would, as Israel has done, invest money in building safe rooms and an “Iron Dome’ system of their own. If they did, they would not spend millions, if not billions of dollars in aid money, building hundreds of miles of tunnels and bunkers under the cities of Gaza and on munitions and armaments intended solely for attacking Israel (Yahya Sinwar, the Head of the Military Wing of Hamas, recently boasted that they have 500 km of tunnels under Gaza that Israel did not demolish, and at least 10,000 more rockets!!!). Imagine how good a life the Gazan’s could have had that money been spent on building homes, hospitals, schools and infrastructure. They could all be living in mansions with the best standard of living in the world.
Now that the rockets have stopped falling and a ceasefire seems to be holding the real war is beginning – the war for your minds. As has happened so many times in the past, the media is focusing on the damage inflicted on Gaza by Israel, publishing inflated figures of the dead and wounded, clearly staged photos of the damaged buildings and failing to give the backstory behind these images. Here is a particularly one-sided article published by CNN today entitled ” Gaza Mourns its Dead as the Specter of an Endless Cycle of Conflict Looms” (1). What about Israel mourning its dead? What about the homes destroyed in Israel? Instead it shows heart wrenching images of destruction and injured people, but only those in Gaza. The picture of the stuffed toy in the rubble is clearly staged – if an explosion had indeed torn the head off this toy wouldn’t it show some dirt at least?
A stuffed toy found among the ruins on Al-Wahdah street. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/22/middleeast/gaza-mourn-dead-intl-cmd/index.html
This article does attempt to give a little of the backstory but it comes well into the article and is sketchy to say the least. There is no mention of the fact that it was Hamas that fired the first rockets and started this war. It speaks about the endless cycle of violence, but does not explain that it is Hamas that is driving this cycle of violence, and has done ever since wresting power by force from the Palestinian Authority after it failed to win the last ‘democratic’ elections in Gaza in 2007. If Hamas had not fired first at Israel, there would have been no dead children, headless stuffed toys nor demolished houses in Gaza. It’s Hamas who is responsible for every civilian casualty in Gaza, not Israel!
Here is another example of biased reporting picked up from Reuters today,
Note the caption refers to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Who is occupying Gaza today? Certainly not Israel. Israel evacuated every last citizen and soldier from Gaza in 2005. Reuters – check your facts!! We hoped then that that would bring an end to the rocket attacks, but they have continued and since then we not only have had a steady rain of attacks but also several outbreaks of all-out war initiated in every case by Hamas. The only ones ‘occupying ‘ Gaza these days are Hamas terrorists and a great many reporters.
We now have a ‘ceasefire’ brokered by Egypt which seems to be holding for now. I put ‘ceasefire’ in brackets because what these usually mean is that Israel ceases and Hamas fires! For Hamas the concept of a ‘ceasefire’ is a little different from what it means to us from the West. For them it is hudna, more akin to a withdrawal for the purpose of rearming and regrouping. There is no intention of negotiating a lasting peace. The best we can hope for is a few years, or months, weeks or days of relative calm. For this reason polls indicate that 3/4 of Israelis feel that we entered the ‘ceasefire’ too soon and should have continued to strike Hamas until it was fatally crippled. International pressure, especially from the USA, however meant that Israel could not go on without serious repercussions.
This derives from the failure of the Western mind to understand the mentality of the Arab mind. The USA is already talking about reconstructing Gaza, sending humanitarian aid and boosting its economy. This comes from the mistaken idea that the attacks on Israel are being driven by economic despair. This is not the case. It is being driven by the Islamic concept of Jihad, in which it is every Muslim’s ultimate duty to conquer the world for Allah, and rid the world of the infidels (the Jews, Christians and everyone who is not a Muslim). The western world does not understand that the extreme Islamic nations, such as Iran for example, do not want peace and co-existence. They want war to destroy the “Big Satan”, the USA and the western world. Their first step in doing this is to destroy Israel, which they call the “Little Satan”. Like it or not, this is essentially a holy war, the war against the God of Israel, YHWH, and the god of Islam, Allah. There can be no negotiation in the context of such a world view.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” .
Ephesians 6: 12
The Covenant upon which Hamas is founded states that,
“The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.” (Article 7 of the Hamas Covenant – a quote from the Muslim Hadith writings).
And,
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” ( from the Preamble of Hamas Covenant) (2).
For on the Hamas Covenant see the summary below.
As I write the Biden regime and many aid organizations are scrambling to amass aid for the ‘humanitarian’ needs of the Gaza people. A couple of days ago, Matthias Schmale, Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) admitted on i24 TV news that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza during the last round of fighting. When asked about the “humanitarian situation” in the Strip, Schmale said that though at least 1,000 residential units were destroyed, leaving “a couple of thousand people who don’t have a home they can go back to” he considers “the biggest damage [to be] psychological,” because “building and rebuilding buildings is easy, and easy to plan for.” He went on to say, “During the 11 days of war, we did not run out of food, water and supplies, [though] we would have if Kerem Shalom and the border would have stayed closed… So, from my point of view, there is no acute or serious shortage of medical supplies, food or water, as long as this now starts – continues – to come in.” When asked about his opinion on “claims by Israeli officials that the IDF bombardments were very precise.” Shockingly, Schmale replied: “I’m not a military expert, but I would not dispute that. I also have the impression that there is a huge sophistication in the way the Israeli military struck over the last 11 days. So, that’s not my issue. My issue is another one. I’ve had many colleagues describe to me that they feel that, in comparison to the 2014 war, this time the strikes felt much more vicious in terms of their impact. So, yes, they didn’t hit, with some exceptions, civilian targets, but the viciousness, the ferocity, of the strikes was heavily felt.”(3) Schmale was forced by Hamas to apologize for this statement the next day!!!
A few days before the ceasefire went in to effect, both Hamas and Israel called a 5 hour temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid from Jordan to pass through Israel to Gaza. The ‘ceasefire’ came to an abrupt end when Hamas fired on the aid convoy at the border crossing wounding an Israeli soldier, a soldier who was helping to bring them food and medicines. That’s how badly they needed aid!!!
THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN GAZA?
Caught in the middle of all this are the people of Gaza who are being cynically used by Hamas as expendable human shields. Furthermore, instead of investing the millions of dollars already sent as aid to the Gaza Strip into building homes, hospitals, schools and much-needed infrastructure, the Hamas government has constructed hundreds of kilometers of tunnels and bunkers under the cities and towns of Gaza and purchased tens of thousands of rockets and other types of armaments. Iran has financed, trained and equipped the Hamas ‘army’. It is important to understand that Israel is not fighting the Palestinians of Gaza, but rather the terrorist organizations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad which are both proxies of Iran.
Here is a video of Yahya Sinwar (translated into English) in which he says. “We have our own funds… We don’t need any reconstruction funding. I want to thank Iran which has not stopped assisting Hamas & other factions with money, arms, experience & support.” Here is clear proof that Hamas is a proxy of Iran. It receives, money, arms, training and most likely its orders from Iran.
Now how is this for a bit of hypocrisy? The overall leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, who remained safely in Qatar during the latest round of hostilities, has a niece who has been hospitalized in an Israeli hospital for over a month following a bone marrow transplant. Not only that but his grand-daughter was treated in an Israeli hospital in 2013, and his mother-in-law and his daughter were both treated in Israel in 2014 (4). Even during the latest fighting Israel brought several Gazans into Israel for urgent medical treatment. What other country in the world treats its enemies in this way?
IRAN, HEZBOLLAH AND ITS OTHER PROXIES
Another proxy of Iran is Hezbollah, based in Lebanon and Syria, which poses an even greater threat to Israel. You might be wondering why Hezbollah did not attack Israel at this time. My feeling is that Iran is holding them back for the ‘right moment’. This latest round of fighting with Hamas was just a trial run to test the waters for a larger attack on Israel from the north. Iran supplied Hamas with some of its latest technology , such as attack drones and unmanned submarines (which tried to attack Israel’s offshore natural gas platform), possibly as a trial run to see if Israel could counter them. They were probably surprised to find that Israel was a jump ahead with its defensive technology. Israel shot down all the drones and destroyed all the submarines and Gaza’s naval bases. Israel also shot down a barrage of rockets fired towards the industrial complex in Haifa from Hezbollah-held territory in Lebanon and an explosives-laden drone flown from Syria which crossed into the Jezreel Valley.
ANARCHY BREAKS OUT ALL OVER ISRAEL
During the 11-day war with Hamas, a series of much more disturbing events took place, and are still taking place. Riots involving mobs of Arabs are attacking Jewish shops, homes, vehicles and synagogues all over Israel, especially in the mixed towns of Lod, Jaffa, and Haifa. ‘Lynch’ mobs have hauled innocent passersby from their cars and beat them to a pulp. At least two men have been killed, one Jewish and one Arab. I am very sad to say that in response, some Jewish right wing activists have retaliated and joined the mindless violence.
פרעות בערים המעורבות: בתי כנסת הוצתו בלוד, מג"ב בדרך אל העיר > מהומות ברמלה, לוד, רהט pic.twitter.com/WrpMWbdTSx
— Gabriel Hébert-Røuillier (@Gab_H_R) May 11, 2021
A Synagogue in Lod is torched by Arab mob
Below is a video of a ‘lynching’ attack when two Jewish men, driving near the Old City, were attacked by a mob of stone throwing Arab youths. Trying to escape the driver drives back and forth and loses control of his car which mounted the pavement hitting one man, who runs off apparently unharmed. Eventually a police man arrives on the scene and fires into the air to disperse the rioters, and rescue the men from the car who were both injured.
CCTV footage shows the moment the Israeli driver was attacked by Palestinians throwing stones, as he rams his vehicle into them. pic.twitter.com/7S2aDSFrjH
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 10, 2021
Below is an excerpt from an article in The Jewish Press written on 13 May,
Anarchy has taken over the streets of integrated Israel, with Arab rioters targeting Jews and young Jewish thugs organizing to attack Arabs as well.
A police officer in Ramle was shot by rioting Arabs at a junction in the city of Ramle. A 19-year-old IDF soldier was also injured after having been attacked by rioting Arabs in Jaffa (Yafo), part of greater Tel Aviv.
Two Jewish men were wounded by gunfire by rioting Arabs in Lod, one in serious condition and the other less so. A third was injured by rocks hurled by Arabs. Three synagogues were burned to the ground.
In Akko, some 20 Jewish-owned bed & breakfasts were torched and burned to ashes.
In Haifa, violence returned Thursday as well. And by Thursday night, the violence had spread to the streets of coastal Ashkelon in the south.
Arab rioters from the nearby Bedouin villages managed to block the road, the only artery connecting Arad residents with Highway 6, Be’er Sheva and the rest of the country.
A woman living in Arad was the victim of a near-lynch earlier this week, with rioters pulling her out of her car at the Shoket Junction on Highway 31 and torching her vehicle.
“The truck traveling behind her was driven by an Arab, and he was the one who saved her,” a friend in Arad told JewishPress.com.
To make sure there were no further victims, police closed Highway 31 between Arad and Shoket Junction. On Thursday night some 30 Jewish activists demonstrated at the entrance to the city, waving Israeli flags. Due to rumors that young Arab hotheads were going to attempt to attack Jews in Arad, police forces were doubled and guarding the main entrance to the city; other entries were locked down” .
In the small northeastern city of Arad, where a significant number of the small businesses are owned by local Bedouin, residents said they have been in virtual “lockdown” for the past three days, unable to leave the city without the concern they might not make it more than a mile or two down the road on Highway 31 (6)
And this was just the run down for that one day.
Road 31, the main road to Arad was closed for several days because the local Bedouin had blocked it using rocks and burning tires and had collapsed all the tall lighting poles along the highway down across the road.
— Gabriel Hébert-Røuillier (@Gab_H_R) May 11, 2021
Similar acts of vandalism and destruction have occurred all over Israel. Two days ago I saw a video of a young woman driving through the Wadi Ara road, one of the main northern routes to the Galilee from the center. She stopped at an intersection in Umm ql-Fahm where the traffic lights had earlier been destroyed by Arab mobs. A group of Arab youths smashed her car windows and pulled her out of the car, and then drove off in it. She was fortunate not to have been beaten up. All this was caught on CCTV but it appears to have been taken down off the web. At the same intersection an Arab woman was killed two days ago by a car accident caused by the lack of traffic lights.
What is happening now is hard to ascertain. The army has put a news blackout on the rioting in an attempt to calm things down.
The greatest tragedy of all this is not the loss of life nor the wanton destruction, as terrible as that is, but the undoing of years of co-existence and building up of trust. Can it ever be restored? Can Jewish Israelis ever live again in peace with the Arabs in our midst? The worst of the rioting has taken place in the mixed cities, long touted as examples proving that Jews and Arabs can live together in peace. Was that all an illusion? Twenty percent of Israel’s population is Arab. We live together, walk the same streets, eat at the same restaurants, use the same buses, are treated at the same hospitals, work together and play together (contrary to those who accuse Israel as being an apartheid state). But now, can I trust the Arab sitting beside me on the bus. Is he, or she, going to draw a knife or a gun and start killing? Can I trust the Arab plumber or gardener that comes to my home, or the doctor who treats me at the hospital? Yahya Sinwar boasted the other day that he has 10,000 ‘martyrs’ in Israel just waiting for the word to attack. This is a much more dangerous threat than the 10,000 or so rockets he claims to have.
THE FUTURE?
I have a sinking feeling that everything is coming to a head. This ‘ceasefire’ cannot last long. Iran is waiting for the right moment to unleash all its proxies and attack Israel. Biden is chasing butterflies, hoping to negotiate the un-negotiable with Iran, or to buy peace in Gaza with those who do not want peace. He is not in touch with reality. Israel cannot and will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear capability. There have been a whole series of mysterious fires and explosions in Iranian nuclear development facilities. They have fallen short of blaming Israel in so many words and Israel is not admitting to anything. Israel may have won this last round of fighting on the ground but Hamas is surely winning the war in cyberspace and the media. The UN is trying to charge Israel with ‘war crimes ‘ in the international court and few countries are voting against it. There is no mention of the war crimes perpetrated by Hamas! Antisemitism of a scale not seen since the Holocaust is raising its ugly head all over the world and Islam has infiltrated every Western country. The stage is set and the fuse is burning. When will it hit the powder keg? I don’t know but it could happen any minute or months or possibly at a stretch years from now, but it seems inevitable.
I do know however it will not happen until God so ordains. It is he who will gather all the nations of the world against Israel and lead them to judgement and their own destruction for what they have done against His people.
For behold, in those days and at that time, When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people, My heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land. They have cast lots for My people, Have given a boy as payment for a harlot, And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
“Indeed, what have you to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? Will you retaliate against Me? But if you retaliate against Me, Swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon your own head.
Joel 3: 1-4
Yes, the LORD says this,
“If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!”
Psalm 81: 13-14
CORONAVIRUS IN ISRAEL
And now the good news! Israel seems to have beaten the Covid-19 virus. With over 5.5 million of our population of 9 million now fully vaccinated there are only around 383 active cases and less than 20 new cases being reported in the last 24 hours. This is down from a peak of around 10,000 active cases on the 18 of January, just before the start of the vaccination program. As a result, from 2 June nearly all coronavirus restrictions are going to be dropped, except for the requirement to wear face masks in indoor public spaces. Movie theatres reopened last week and the first tourists entered for at least a year!! (6). Tourism is still limited to small groups of vaccinated individuals but all going well regulations will slowly be lifted over the coming months. That said, I wouldn’t book your tickets just yet.
If you wish to follow the unfolding of events here in Israel I can recommend the Twitter or WhatsApp group in the links below. The information is gleaned from the Hebrew press and the IDF website, summarized in English, and updated several times a day.
…..this is a private non-governmental effort using publicly available information. (Go away spies, we got nothin’ for you.)
THE MAIN POINTS OF THE HAMAS COVENANT
======================================= The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement was issued on August 18, 1988. The Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as the HAMAS, is an extremist fundamentalist Islamic organization operating in the territories under Israeli control. Its Covenant is a comprehensive manifesto comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the basic HAMAS goal of destroying the State of Israel through Jihad (Islamic Holy War). The following are excerpts of the HAMAS Covenant: Goals of the HAMAS: ——————
‘The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.’ (Article 6) On the Destruction of Israel: —————————– ‘Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.’ (Preamble) The Exclusive Moslem Nature of the Area: —————————————- ‘The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it.’ (Article 11) ‘Palestine is an Islamic land… Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be.’ (Article 13) The Call to Jihad: —————— ‘The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews’ usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.’ (Article 15) ‘Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: ‘Hail to Jihad!’. This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah’s victory comes about.’ (Article 33) Rejection of a Negotiated Peace Settlement: ——————————————- ‘[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.’ (Article 13) Condemnation of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty: ———————————————- ‘Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of struggle [against Zionism] through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. The Zionists are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements in order to bring them outside the circle of struggle. …Leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who perpetrates such an act.’ (Article 32) Anti-Semitic Incitement: ———————— ‘The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’ (Article 7) ‘The enemies have been scheming for a long time … and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took control of the world media… With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe… They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about… With their money they formed secret organizations – such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs and the Lions – which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests… They stood behind World War I … and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains… There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it.’ (Article 22) ‘Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’.’ (Article 32) ‘The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism… Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews.’ (Article 32) . ===================================================================== Information Division, Israel Foreign Ministry – Jerusalem Mail all Queries to ask@israel-info.gov.il URL: http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il gopher://israel-info.gov.il
On top of Mt Arbel in the Galilee there once stood a lone carob tree. It could be seen for miles around and became much beloved and famous throughout the land. Then around two years ago, during a winter storm, this brave tree was struck by lightning and felled. Many of us mourned the loss of this tree. But on a recent visit I discovered that the burned stump of this tree had sprouted new life and a strong and healthy sapling had grown up, already big enough to offer shade to passing hikers.
On Mt Arbel
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
Isaiah 11: 1-3
These verses speak of the Messiah , Yeshua (Jesus), who came forth from the ‘stump’ of Jesse, who was the father of King David, the direct forefather of Yeshua (Matthew 1). They also speak of the Messianic kingdom, restored from the ‘stump’ of Israel, burned and destroyed but risen again. The new ‘shoot’ is stronger and more vigorous than the old, just as the Messiah is greater than David, and the Messianic kingdom will be more perfect than his (David’s).
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11: 6-9
Another reason I love to visit Mt Arbel in this season is that the wildflowers there attract many butterflies. The beautiful butterfly also speaks of the new kingdom that is to come. The caterpillar ‘dies’ in its pupa and is reborn with a glorious new body, just as we who are in Yeshua will ‘die’ and emerge with new and better bodies into everlasting life.
Papilio machaon Swallow-tail butterfly
Vanessa cardui Painted lady butterfly
I wish I could say that as Israel is emerging from the corona virus pandemic, we have come forth with a glorious new and better society but I am afraid I cannot. Life is returning to normal, we can go out and about more, visit our friends and family, work in our offices, go to school, eat at restaurants and even travel abroad to a few select destinations. But that is not all. The roads are once more congested, traffic accidents on the rise again, and even more worrying we are getting back to ‘normal’ in terms of terrorist attacks, social unrest and political turmoil.
SYRIAN MISSILE
On the first morning of my recent little holiday ‘escape’ in the Galilee, I turned on my phone to get the news. I wished I hadn’t !!!! An advanced SA-5 antiaircraft missile fired from Syria had exploded south of Jerusalem and the shrapnel fallen in the Bedouin town of Ashalim, only about 40km from Israel’s Nuclear facility near Dimona (1). This ‘attack’ raised a number of questions. Had this missile been fired towards the Nuclear facility on purpose or was it an errant missile meant for the Israeli aircraft that were attacking an Iranian military installation near Damascus at the time? What is more why did our multi-layered anti-missile batteries had fail to shoot it down?
ROCKETS FROM GAZA
That same weekend, at least 40 rockets were fired from the Gaza strip into the southern region of Israel (2). Some of these rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system and others fell in open areas. There were no Israeli casualties. This was the most serious escalation in months.
INCENDIARY TERRORISM
This last week an incendiary device was flown into Israel from Gaza – the first for many months. Yesterday, Friday, at least 7 fires were ignited by incendiary balloons causing damage to a greenhouse and in several nature reserves. With the vegetation now drying off and the fire season beginning this is also a worrying development.
TENSION IN JERUSALEM
Meanwhile tensions are flaring in Jerusalem. Yesterday was the last Friday of Ramadan and some 70,000 Muslims gathered for prayers at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. Thousands remained after the prayers waving the green Hamas flags and chanting Hamas slogans, before dispersing peacefully. Later in the day however, after the evening prayers, clashes broke out resulting in at least 205 Palestinians and 17 police being injured. (3) Tensions have been simmering in Jerusalem since the beginning of the Muslim fast of Ramadan. First, clashes broke out when police attempted to stop people gathering on the steps leading down to the Damascus Gate in order to enforce the corona-virus prohibitions. After a few days of rising violence, the police were pulled back and tensions cooled. Later however tensions began to rise again as news came in that the Palestinian Elections, the first in 15 years, had been cancelled because Israel had refused to allow Palestinians living in East Jerusalem to vote. This week the situation has been exacerbated even further by the attempts to evict some 6 Arab families from four properties, claimed by Jews, in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The Supreme Court is expected to convene on this matter on Monday – which just happens to be Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the conquest and reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. Earlier in the day two Palestinians were shot and killed, and a third seriously wounded, by IDF soldiers when they (the Palestinians) opened fire on an Israeli base in the West Bank (4).
The next few days are expected to be very tense. As it was pointed out in the Jerusalem Post, several potential flashpoints coincide, “Jerusalem Day (the Jewish one) and Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Power), a major holy night of Ramadan, fall on Sunday evening. Eid al-Fitr is on Wednesday, marking the end of Ramadan. Quds (Jerusalem) Day, a holiday made up by Iran to express support for Palestinians against Israel, is on Friday (yesterday) and Nakba Day, on which Palestinians mark the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment, is on Saturday” (4).
Both Iran and Hamas are calling for a general uprising, and terrorist and rocket attacks on Israel. Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’ armed wing the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades, has warned that , “If the aggression against our people in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood does not stop immediately, we will not stand idly by – and the occupation will pay a heavy price” (4).
You might be wondering why these people in Sheik Jarrah are being evicted, especially at a time when tensions are already high. Land ownership in Israel is fraught with conflicting claims. Land ownership was registered during the Ottoman period under Turkish Law, then during the British Mandate under British Law and since 1948 under Israeli Law. Needless to say, records are often somewhat lacking, muddled or contradictory.
According to the Ottoman census in 1805 the Sheik Jarrah sub district was home to some 167 Muslim families (est. 1,250 people), 97 Jewish families, and 6 Christian families. In 1956 the Jordanian government, in agreement with UNWRA moved 28 Palestinian families into Sheikh Jarrah who were displaced from their homes in Israeli-held Jerusalem during the 1948 War. During the 1967 war the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood was captured by Israel and incorporated into the reunited Jerusalem. The Minister of Justice stated that in 1970 that the agreements with UNWRA would be respected. Nevertheless, just two years later, the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesset Yisrael Committee went to court to contest the ownership of the property in the neighborhood. In 1982, they demanded rent for this property and the Supreme Court of Israel ruled in their favor. The tenants were allowed to remain as long as they paid rent (5). Since that time there have been several land disputes and several evictions. Jewish lawyers present Ottoman documents indicating that the land was sold to Jewish settlers in the 19th Century while the Palestinian’s lawyers claim the land was only rented or that the documents are forgeries. And so it goes on.
The humanitarian and moral issues are perhaps more important than the legal ones. According to Times of Israel “The evictions are based in part on a 1970 Israeli law that allows Jews to reclaim East Jerusalem land owned by Jews before 1948…But no similar law exists for Palestinians who lost their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war and fled to what was then Jordanian-controlled territory“. What is more, ” most Jews moving into Sheikh Jarrah are motivated by ideology, not through a familial connection to the homes” (6). Is it right to evict families who have lived in these homes for over 60 years? If we evict every Palestinian from homes once owned by Jews, then are we not also morally obliged to return to the Arab owners every property once owned by Palestinians who fled in 1948?
I don’t envy the courts who must try and untangle these complex, inflammatory and endless claims. Only God knows where righteousness lies in such disputes.
There were also a number of terrorist attacks this week. On Wednesday night an Israeli yeshiva student, Yehuda Guetta, died after he had been shot in a drive-by terror attack in the West Bank earlier in the week. The same night a 16-year-old Palestinian, Sa’id Odeh, was shot and killed by IDF soldiers near Nablus. He had been throwing Molotov cocktails at troops (7).
TRAGEDY AT MT MERON
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews celebrate the lighting of a bonfire during celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer on Mt. Meron in northern Israel on April 29, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90) https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2021/04/F210429DC151-1.jpg
No doubt you will have heard about the terrible incident at Mt Meron in which 45 people, many of whom were children or minors, were crushed to death in a crowd numbering some 100,000. Although investigations are ongoing it appears that some of the people slipped on a wet metal ramp and fell. Those behind were unaware that they had fallen and continued to press forward creating a sort of human avalanche, killing 45 and injuring at least 160 others.
This is not the first deadly incident at this celebration. In 1911 eleven people died, and about 40 were injured, when the railing on a balcony collapsed and about 100 people fell seven meters to the ground below. In recent years there have been many who have warned that such a disaster could happen again but nothing has been done to improve the safety of the site, probably because there is no one organization responsible for the organization. The site is much too small for the crowds that gather and access to the site is by means of only a few, very narrow alleyways.
Every year on Lag B’Omer (the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost), hundreds of thousands of observant Jews congregate at the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on the anniversary of his death. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, also known as the Rashbi, was a second century C.E. sage who is credited with writing the Jewish mystical book the Zohar, the foundational text of the Kabbala. Since the Middle Ages religious Jews have made the pilgrimage to his grave on Mt Meron on Lag B’Omer where joyous celebrations involving prayers, singing and dancing, culminate in the lighting of a bonfire on his grave.
The Kabbala is a set of teachings intended to explain the relationship between the unchanging, eternal God, known as the Ein Sof (The Infinite) and the mortal, finite universe of God’s creation. It is the mystical branch of Judaism and has more in common with occult, pagan and New Age teachings than the Bible. At various times and in certain branches of Jewish religious practice the Kabbala has been banned, but today it is gaining a huge following in both religious and secular circles, not only in the Jewish but also in the non-Jewish world.
Perhaps one pilgrim who was at the celebration on Mt Meron had a point when he said to Channel 12 TV News, “Rabbi Shimon used to say that he could absolve the world … If he didn’t manage to cancel this edict on the very day of his exaltation, then we need to do real soul-searching” (8).
The aftermath – body bags await transport away from the site. https://www.israelhayom.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800-8.jpeg
ISRAELI ELECTIONS
At midnight on Tuesday the deadline passed for Bibi Netanyahu to form a coalition government. The President, Reuven Rivlin, then passed the baton to Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, who now has 28 days to cobble together a coalition. Lapid’s party gained only 11 seats in the election so he will need to find 50 more seats in order to reach the 61 he needs to form a government. To do this he will have to form a coalition with some parties who are very anti-Arab, and with the Arab block. This sounds like a recipe for disaster. Even if by some miracle a coalition is formed, how long will it last when their only common ground is a desire to unseat Netanyahu? No wonder, according to polls (9), most Israelis believe that Lapid will fail, and if he does, we will have to have yet another round of elections, the fifth since 2019. Even if we do, will another election solve the deadlock? I really feel that it is time for Netanyahu to step down and open the way for a government to be able to form. At this point I think any government might be preferable to none at all – a dangerous sentiment perhaps. But how long can we survive as a nation without a government?
In view of all these events, it is no wonder that many of us here are wondering if we really want a ‘return to normal’. Life in lockdown was simpler – we only had one ‘enemy’, the disease. But of course we cannot all retreat to our ‘safe places’ and become hermits. Life has to go on and we are thankful that here in Israel, at least, we seem to have overcome the virus, thanks to the vaccination program, which has created a kind of ‘herd immunity’.
Of course we do not know what the immediate future will bring. Will the vaccine continue its work in the months ahead? Will a variant arise that will not be controlled by the vaccine? Will war with Gaza break out again? Will there be a Third Intifada? Will Iran finally attack? Life seems so fraught with uncertainties these days. It is no wonder that many are depressed and confused. I thank God that in Yeshua, at least, we have a sure hope, and with God there is no confusion or uncertainty. His Holy Scriptures are my anchor in these stormy seas. We have the sure hope that one day the butterfly will emerge from the cocoon.
