Today is the last day of August and the last day of the school holidays for more than two million Israeli children. The almost traditional start-of-the-school-year teacher’s strike has been staved off this year at the last minute, and one can almost hear the sigh of relief uttered by parents across the land. I am not so sure about the teachers.
THE ‘GAME’ OF DRONES
This summer has seen the rise of a new style of warfare in the Middle East – the war of the drones. I don’t mean the kiddies toy or the camera drones, but drones equipped for military purposes. Cheap and easy to build, drones can fly low, evade radar and heat sensors, are difficult to spot visually and are almost silent. These weapons are already being used not only by national military forces but also by terrorist organizations including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. Such weapons are capable of causing much damage and loss of life in a conflict situation. The Jerusalem Post put it this way, ” What started as a child’s toy has turned into a strategic weapon in the hands of militaries and non-state hostile actors across the skies of the messy Middle East.
From the crowded cities of Beirut and Gaza to the sandy deserts of Yemen and Iraq, weaponized drones have brought a whole new assortment of security threats to the forefront and have raised the stakes in the tensions between Israel and its enemies (1).
Israel too has drones of its own and for some time now has been using them to fight against the incendiary balloons flown into Israel from Gaza and to drop tear gas canisters on rioters at the border.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5318598,00.html
Israeli companies have also been working on countermeasures to detect and shoot down drones. One recently unveiled by the company Smart Shooter is the SMASH2000 which attaches to military rifles and enables anyone to be able to track and very precisely shoot down a fast moving target on land or in the air, such as a drone (1). However a spokesman for the company, Dr Abraham Mazor, pointed out that “The threat of drones is a multilayer threat…There is not only one kind of drone that we have to defeat; there are many kinds, in terms of height, weight, velocity; and therefore there is no one solution for the threat posed by them” (1).
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are busy building up their drone arsenal and have already sent attack drones into Israeli territory. In May last year at least three drone attacks were made on Israeli towns in the south. None caused damage or injury but explosions were heard and fragments found. It is thought that this was probably a practice run for a larger planned attack in the future. It is feared the drones could attack Israel’s Iron Dome batteries, military bases or civilian towns. They can carry explosives and gas canisters. A drone dropping a chlorine gas canister could bring about multiple fatalities in a built-up area for example.
On Thursday (22/08) an Iranian UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), or drone attack from Syria was repulsed by Israeli forces. According to the IDF spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, Iran’s Qud’s Force, part of the Revolutionary Guards had been preparing the attack for several months and had sent four Iranian drone operators to Syria to control the UAVs during an attack on northern Israel. Each drone was to carry several kilograms of explosives and crash into Israeli targets, serving as unmanned suicide bombers, or “kamikaze drones”. Fortunately for us, Israeli intelligence had discovered the plot and has been keeping track of the operation. Conricus did not explain how Israel had foiled the attack (2).
The following Saturday (24/08) Israeli aircraft attacked an Iranian military targets in the village of Aqraba, southeast of Damascus, where the drone operation was centered, killing at least 5 people including Hezbollah terrorists and at least one Iranian official (2).
The next day two drones crashed in Beirut, Lebanon. One exploded and damaged the Hezbollah Media Center and killed two Hezbollah terrorists. Hezbollah claim these drones were launched from Israeli gunboats, but the IDF has not commented. Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is nevertheless threatening to carry out a revenge attack, intending to kill at least 2-3 Israelis, within 72 hours, according to the Kuwaiti Al Rai newspaper and reported by the Israeli News Channel Arutz 7 this morning (3,4).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/troops-in-north-gird-for-possible-reprisal-attack-after-hezbollah-threat/
The IDF believes that Hezbollah does not want to start a war with Israel at this time and will limit its attack to military targets. As a result Israeli forces in the north have been on high alert all week and all leave for soldiers in the region cancelled. The movement of military vehicles within a 5 km distance from the border has been limited and there are unconfirmed reports that IDF vehicles containing mannequins dressed in army uniform have been placed along the border presumably to confuse Hezbollah operatives (5). Civilians have been instructed to go about their daily activities as normal.
Although neither side wants a war only time will tell if this situation will escalate or not. Netanyahu has threatened dire consequences if even one Israeli soldier is as much as scratched.
DELUSIONS
Against this background of growing tensions between Israel and its enemies, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran, President Trump has announced his intention of unveiling his ‘peace plan’ for Israel and the Palestinians, either before or after (he has said both on different occasions) the Israeli elections on September 17. This announcement came the same week Trump identified himself as both the “King of Israel” and “the Chosen One” (6). Trump is suffering from delusions of grandeur and sees himself as the savior of the world. I am very concerned that many Christian and Messianic believers (and others) here in Israel are enamored of Trump because of his pro-Israel stance, including the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Whilst I am grateful for Trump’s support for Israel, I am concerned about his Messianic delusions and his perception of himself as the savior of the world. I don’t usually comment on political matters but at the risk of becoming very unpopular I feel the need to speak out. I feel we need to exercise great caution in whom we support. Jesus warned us of a period of deception in the end times.
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
Matthew 24: 3-5
I don’t think many Israelis or Palestinians believe that peace is possible at this time. Just this week PA Prime Minister, speaking at the Jalazone Refugee Camp, threatened ‘we will enter Jerusalem as fighters by the millions‘ and that all the Israeli settlements and houses ‘will disappear, by the will of Allah’ (see video). This is our ‘partner for peace’?
Interestingly Abbas claims that the Palestinians are the descendants of the Canaanites, and therefore the land belongs to them. He should be aware of God’s judgment on the Canaanites. God called Abram to the land of the Canaanites and told him that He would give him this land. However when Abram arrived the iniquity of the Canaanites was not complete and the Israelites were sent into Egypt for 400 years until the time was ripe for the destruction of the Canaanite peoples (also referred to in the Bible as Amorites).
God said to Abraham, “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God”.
Genesis 17:8
Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it… Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Genesis 15: 7, 13-16.
God allowed the Canaanites ( sometimes called the Amorites in Scripture) to remain ‘until their iniquity was complete’. By identifying themselves as Canaanites (even though this claim has no historical basis in reality) the Palestinians may be sealing their own fate. How long will God allow the Palestinians to remain in the Land? Is their iniquity yet complete? Not yet, but it is getting close!!
APARTHEID STATE?
Having said that, many Palestinian Arabs are quite happy to live in Israel and cannot be counted as enemies. Living in the Jerusalem area I brush shoulders, quite literally, every day with my Arab neighbors. People who accuse Israel of being an apartheid state have no idea what they are talking about. In Israel Arabs, Jews and others shop in the same shops, swim in the same pools, use the same hospitals and buses and visit the same public toilets – a far cry from the Apartheid of South Africa. Everyday relationships between Arabs and Jews are usually friendly and helpful. Yesterday, for example, I had occasion to go to the after-hours medical clinic where I was received very warmly by the Arab receptionist and treated by an Arab doctor and nurse. Afterwards I traveled to the neighboring Arab town to fill my prescription. I was grateful to have Arab neighbors since Shabbat was about to start and all the Jewish pharmacies were already closed. For the same reasons thousands of secular Jews flock to eat in the excellent restaurants in this same Arab town on Shabbat. When I go shopping in my local supermarket I often see Jewish customers chatting warmly to the Muslim Arab lady who cuts the cheeses in the deli section. Yesterday I visited a Jewish friend in hospital. An Arab nurse directed me to her room. Another Arab nurse brought her her medicine. The other patient in her room was an elderly Arab woman. Her visitors greeted me and introduced themselves in a very friendly manner. It was an Arab family who helped me find my way to the exit afterwards. It just shows that at a grass-roots level peace is possible. It is really only a minority who want terrorism and war, but sadly they are the ones we hear about most. Here is an interesting video made by an Israeli-Arab Muslim woman :
References:
- https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/New-system-allows-soldiers-to-eliminate-drones-with-one-shot-600118
- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/267875
- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/268155 https://www.dw.com/en/israel-on-edge-after-syria-strikes-lebanon-drone-attack/a-50175246
- https://www.timesofisrael.com/troops-in-north-gird-for-possible-reprisal-attack-after-hezbollah-threat/
- https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Is-the-IDF-deploying-dolls-along-the-Lebanese-border-600086
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/21/trump-press-conference-greenland-jewish-democrats