War With Hamas – History Repeating Itself

George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (The Life of Reason, vol. one, 1905). Hegel added, “What experience and history teach is this – that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it” (Georg Wilhelm Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History, 1832).

The Apostle Paul brings a more hopeful historical perspective when he comments, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did ... These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Cor.10:6, 11). As history speeds up before our very eyes, we want to heed the warnings God is sending us, and apply the wisdom that can be gleaned from history for the situation at hand. Specifically we need to ask God what we can learn from all the happenings surrounding the recent war in Gaza.

The Ebenezer Principle

Eli was priest of YHVH at Shiloh. His two sons Phineas and Hophni oversaw and administered the sacrifices at the Tent of Meeting. The Scriptures say that Eli’s sons were wicked men, that they had no regard for YHVH, and that they treated the Lord’s offerings with contempt. They violated the letter and spirit of the Mosaic Covenant and set themselves up as a higher authority. Their father Eli rebuked them saying, “‘If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against YHVH, who will intercede for him?’ His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was YHVH’s will to put them to death” (1 Samuel 2:25).

Eli’s desire to honor his sons more than fearing the Lord led to the collapse of his own priestly dynasty, the destruction of Shiloh as a spiritual center, the death of his two sons in battle and the “Ichabod” capture of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines. The boy prophet Samuel gave his first prophetic word to Eli in fear and trembling, speaking in the name of YHVH: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family – from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible and he failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering’ “ (1 Samuel 3:11-14).

Eli’s lack of due diligence in disciplining his sons caused another terrible tragedy – 30,000 brave Jewish soldiers were slaughtered at the Battle of Ebenezer (1 Samuel 4:1-10), barely one kilometer away from today’s Baptist Village and Tel Aphek. According to writer of 1 Samuel, a leader’s sin in Israel can have disastrous and heartbreaking consequences – not only for himself, but also for his people.

Bulldozing The Bulldozer

General Ariel Sharon (known in Israel as “the bulldozer”) was an Israeli war hero whose fierce and bold brand of warfare brought Israel back from the brink of defeat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He established Unit 101, the basis for what later became Sayeret Matkal (Israel’s Delta Force). He later served as Defense Minister and Prime Minister.

When Sharon became PM on January 28 2003, he was known for his Joab-like ferocity in defending the people and land of Israel. His life’s work was based on the same principles as his campaign promises – no withdrawal from Gaza, the West Bank or any part of Jerusalem; no negotiations with the Palestinians as long as terror continued; and a strong counter-terrorist military and intelligence response to Islamic jihad operations against Israelis.

Nearly one year later Sharon did a complete turn around. At the Herzliya Conference on December 18 2003 Sharon announced his intention to unilaterally withdraw Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip; to evacuate all Israeli settlements from Gaza and also four other small settlements from a diminutive section of the northern West Bank. Since Sharon had been elected on a platform diametrically opposed to these moves, his own Likud party insisted that his radical new plans be brought to a party vote. Eventually three separate votes were taken, and each time Sharon’s will was blocked by the will of his party’s majority. Sharon then created a new breakaway party called Kadima, while holding onto the reins of power. He pushed through a retreat from the Gaza Strip, using the IDF to accomplish this. This was especially painful for many, since the Israeli army’s mandate is to protect and defend citizens of Israel, not to evacuate them by force from their homes.

What caused Sharon to execute such a drastic turn-around, one that flew in the face of his entire military and political career? According to two senior Israeli reporters (Raviv Drucker of Israel’s Channel Ten and Ofer Shelach of Yediot Aharonot), PM Sharon (who at the time was under many criminal investigations) was well aware that the left-leaning media would look more kindly on former rightists if they pushed for compromise with the Palestinians. Sharon’s push for disengagement was a desperate attempt to get the press on his side and so avoid getting indicted for various illegal transactions. Channel Two correspondent Amnon Abramovitz then said that PM Sharon should enjoy the protection of pro-disengagement forces, and should be treated like an etrog (a fragile citron fruit used in ceremonies during the Feast of Tabernacles). To sum up, according to left-leaning Israeli political commentators PM Sharon retreated from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria in order to gain a temporary postponement from being hit with criminal charges.

Sharon’s attempt to cover his own sins led to two tragedies for the Jewish people – Israel exiting Gaza, and the jihadi Hamas terror organization taking over Gaza. One can say that the recent war (Operation Cast Lead) finds some of its spiritual roots in PM Sharon’s reckless and misguided misdeeds. Even as the sins of Eli led to defeat at the Battle of Ebenezer, so did the sins of Sharon lead to the rise of Hamastan and the necessity for Operation Cast Lead.

On Thursday Israeli newspapers revealed that Prime Minister Olmert told Senator George Mitchell (Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East) that he had offered a secret peace deal to the Palestinian Authority which would involve the forcible evacuation of 60,000 residents of Judea and Samaria; a nearly full retreat to the 1967 borders; and an internationalization of Holy Places in Jerusalem. In a scenario that looks like history repeating itself, PM Olmert has also been under more than a handful of criminal investigations over the past 3 years.

➢ Pray that the God of Israel would limit the damage done by Prime Minister Olmert through the harmful negotiations described above.

➢ Pray for the incoming Prime Minister of Israel who will be elected on February 10 – that he would be instructed and guided by God on these issues.

9/11 and the Saudi connection

History repeats itself in another area – Saudi Arabian threats against the USA in order to turn American policy against Israel.

The first of these two events transpired between May and July 2001, when Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Aziz (now King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia) instructed his Ambassador Prince Bandar Sultan to communicate his grave displeasure with America’s support of Israel. In particular Abdullah was infuriated by Israel’s counter-terrorism efforts against Islamic jihadi terror groups, and by American refusal to condemn Israel’s anti-terrorism policies.

Deciding that America did not “get the hint”, on August 25 Prince Bandar told the Saudi Chief of Staff General Bin Muhayya to cancel Saudi Arabia’s high-level strategic military review with America’s top brass.

Then, on August 27 (www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/02/10/saudi-leaders-anger-revealed-shaky-ties/a570bab2-c7c4-4111-b9bc-c03a3cab5ce2/) Prince Bandar delivered a message to President Bush from Crown Prince Abdullah which said, “A time comes when peoples and nations part. We are at a crossroads. It is time for the United States and Saudi Arabia to look to their separate interests”. The message continued, “Therefore the Crown Prince will not communicate in any form, type or shape with you, and Saudi Arabia will take all its political, economic and security decisions based on how it sees its own interest in the region, without taking into account American interests anymore because it is obvious that the United States has taken a strategic decision adopting (Israel’s) policy”. Unspoken (though anonymously leaked at the same time) were threats of drastic cuts in oil supply to America or even an oil embargo; turning to other countries for weaponry; and no intelligence cooperation regarding jihadi terror groups and plans.

Less than two days later, a two-page Presidential letter was winging its way back to Riyadh, held tightly in Prince Bandar’s hands. President George W. Bush had for the first time ever officially committed the United States to establish a Palestinian state – to divide the land of Israel – and was planning to announce this sea-change in US policy on September 24, 2001. The weekend of September 8, 2001 saw Saudi and U.S. officials discuss how the revolutionary announcement would be publicized – would Colin Powell publicize it first, or would President Bush, or perhaps both? Final decisions were put off to the next week.

Prince Bandar recollected that “the happiest man in the world that night, on Monday night, was Bandar bin Sultan. I was in the [indoor] swimming pool [of my McLean residence], smoking a cigar. I gave myself a day off because I worked the whole weekend. I had been to Saudi Arabia . . . out with the [Bush] response, back with our response. I worked on the weekend up to 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock in the morning. . . . I worked all Monday. And I said to my office, Tuesday I’m taking the day off.” But Tuesday was 9/11.

The terror attack on September 11 2001 which destroyed the Twin Towers was carried out by 19 Saudi citizens. The resulting confusion and American crisis forced a rescheduling of President Bush’s Palestine policy change. The announcement was postponed until Bush’s Rose Garden speech of June 24 2002. The principles were then further established by the international “Quartet” on April 30 2003 in what is now known as the “Road Map”.

The connection between America’s official decision to divide the land of Israel and the most serious terror attack on U.S. soil is sobering.

➢ Though there are many other factors which also influenced the tragedy of 9/11, God’s warnings about cursing Israel and dividing His land in Genesis 12:3, Joel 3:1-3 and Zechariah 14:1-3 call us to serious prayer for the leaders of our nations.

The Turki Trot

In a historical repeat of Abdullah’s 2001 threats to the USA, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal published an op-ed in London’s Financial Times on January 22, 2009 entitled “Saudi patience is running out”. Al-Faisal was Director General of the Kingdom’s Intelligence Service for 24 years, and has served as Saudi Ambassador to London and Washington.

Here are some quotes from this article.

➢ “Unless the new US administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the US-Saudi relationship and the stability of the region are at risk.”

➢ “If the US wants to continue playing a leadership role in the Middle East and keep its strategic alliances intact – especially its ‘special relationship’ with Saudi Arabia – it will have to drastically revise its policies vis-à-vis Israel and Palestine”.

Prince Turki lists what is required: a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank; the recognition of an independent state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capitol; a return of all Palestinian refugees to Israel (basically, an event which would lead quickly to the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state).

Prince Turki concludes, “So far, the Kingdom has resisted these calls (for jihad against Israel), but every day this restraint becomes more difficult to maintain … Eventually, the Kingdom will not be able to prevent its citizens from joining the worldwide revolt against Israel.” He then prays that President Obama will have the resolve “to rein in the murderous Israeli regime”.

The parallels between Prince Turki’s threats in 2009 and King Abdullah’s threats in 2001 are striking. There is no question that Saudi Arabia is applying pressure, trying to manipulate America into cursing Israel big time.

➢ Pray for President Obama and his advisors – that God will give them a different spirit, and guide them safely through these Saudi minefields into being a blessing to and for Israel according to Genesis 12:3.

Perverting the Holocaust

Seventy years ago Adolf Hitler began his genocidal attack on the Jewish people. From ghettos to killing pits, from gas chambers to crematoria, Nazi Germany focused with a religious zeal on incinerating the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8). For the most part the nations of the world showed either indifference or cold-heartedness to the Final Solution. Only after the war did some measure of shame push the nations into voting for the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel.

Thirty years passed, and slowly the theme of the Holocaust began to surface in films, plays and literature. Children were taught ethical lessons based on the Holocaust, and Holocaust Remembrance Days became part of most Western European official calendars. Nevertheless, the rise of neo-Nazi and skinhead movements in Germany and throughout Europe continued to grow apace. Anti-Jewish attacks became commonplace in France and the former Soviet Union, with Muslims being the religious grouping most likely to engage in these attacks. The cooperation of European Islamist and radical leftist movements in spearheading anti-Israel demonstrations gradually became part of the political scenery.

Operation Cast Lead was greeted by this coalition with huge and often violent anti-Israel demonstrations, which were directed against Jews as well as Israelis, and which took perverse delight in using Nazi terminology to describe Jews and the Jewish state. For the first time since WWII violent European street demonstrations called for the destruction of Jews and the Jewish state, accusing Israel of carrying out a Holocaust on Gazan Arabs. Verbal attacks on the Jews have included threats to gas Jews, taunts calling the Jewish people Nazis, descriptions of Israel as a Nazi state, and equating the Star of David with a swastika.

The Swedish city of Lulea’s municipal board and local church cancelled a planned Holocaust Memorial Day because of anger toward Israel over the Gaza war. In Barcelona the Cataluña government canceled a public commemorative service remembering the Holocaust. A city official stated that “marking the Jewish Holocaust while a Palestinian holocaust is taking place is not right”. Instead, the city council decided to have a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people, inviting Leila Khaled, a PFLP terrorist (according to European Union definition). The Socialist mayor of Campozuelos, also in Spain, canceled Holocaust Day and replaced it with Palestinian Naqba Day, mourning the establishment of the state of Israel.

It is astounding to see how those who condemn Nazi attacks on the Jewish people so quickly end up repeating Nazi sins by targeting the Jewish state and the Jewish people for vilification, attack and destruction. Though calling themselves anti-Nazis, those who engage in such attacks against the Jewish people and their state are blindly repeating Nazi sins, bringing judgment on their cities and nations according to Genesis 12:3 and Zechariah 2:8. The irony of Nazi-like groups attacking Jews and calling them Nazis is LSD-like in nature; it strongly pushes the boundaries of commonly understood reality further into worlds unknown.

The Fellowship of Firemen and Arsonists

During WWII many Western statesmen and politicians who were anti-Semitic suggested that their Jewish populations were making too big a thing about Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. They also accused their Jewish constituents of panicking and blubbering, while simultaneously suggesting that the Jewish people “had it coming” and were to blame for any attacks that the wider Gentile populace might bring upon them. These leaders tried to establish a “moral equivalence” between the Jewish victims and their anti-Semitic attackers.

It has become commonplace for the UN and world media to fall into this same historical black hole, creating a false moral equivalence between Islamist terror and Israeli counter-terror police operations. The oft repeated term is “cycle of violence”, and the feeling communicated is “Here they go again, blaming each other and killing each other. A plague on both their houses, but a special plague on the Jewish part!”

There is a world of difference between the terrorist who wants to destroy all unbelievers in general and Jewish people in particular, and the soldier who is willing to sacrifice his own life to prevent the terrorist from killing innocent civilians. To place them on the same moral playing field is as intellectually honest as stating that firefighters and arsonists are basically the same, since they both deal with fire!

A recent example of such moral equivalence is found in Senator George Mitchell’s 2001 Report on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which main conclusions were recently repeated in his December comments in Tel Aviv. In both cases he said that Israel and the Palestinians were both guilty: Mitchell called upon Palestinians to make efforts to prevent terrorism, while calling upon Israel to no longer live in the West Bank.

In truth, what is actually required is that Palestinians both stop all terror and also recognize that Jews have a right to live anywhere in their own land. If terror has been chosen as a Palestinian strategy to get Jewish people to move out of parts of the biblical land of Israel, then Mitchell’s policy of moral equivalence, of forcing Jews to move out of parts of their biblical land is actually aiding and abetting the Palestinian terror strategy. No good or blessing can come to America through such a strategy, from a God’s eye perspective.

Prophets Asleep At The Wheel

Zechariah 1:7-17 describes the vision of the myrtle trees – a fat and prosperous world that couldn’t care less about the spiritual and physical state of the Jewish people. “All’s well, and all’s peaceful,” is what all the nations say, turning a cold shoulder and an even colder heart to the Jewish people in their time of need (see also Jeremiah 25:31; 30:17). In verse 15 YHVH states that He is very angry with the nations that feel secure, because through their indifference and cold-heartedness they have only added to Israel’s calamitous situation.

In the Western world, certain streams of the prophetic movement may have something in common with Zechariah’s vision of the nations among the myrtle trees. When daily prophecies abound which focus on personal fulfillment and financial success, while the Scriptures that prophesy revival, restoration and blessing for Israel are allegorized and applied prophetically only to the Church, a corrective is needed. And over the past weeks when Israel’s life has been threatened by war, what is needed is not a steady stream of “feel-good” prophecies. Serious calls for intercession or divine protection need to go out.

We praise the Lord for such groups like Mike Bickle’s IHOP (www.ihop.org), Jobst Bittner’s TOS (www.tos.info), Don Finto’s Caleb Company (www.calebcompany.com), James Goll’s Encounters Network (www.encountersnetwork.com), Jane Hansen’s Aglow (www.aglow.org), Chuck Pierce’s Glory of Zion International (www.glory-of-zion.org), Joel Rosenberg’s Joshua Fund (www.joelrosenberg.com) (and others – this is only partial list) who have taken a courageous stand in intercession, prayer and more – for Israel and for Messianic Jews. But the need is very great; the laborers are few; and many are otherwise preoccupied..

The prophetic movement is still in its infancy, and too often it is more concerned about personal peace and prosperity than in Israel, the biblical apple of God’s eye. In time and as the result of intercessory groanings, that maturity will come. In time the prophets of the nations will receive a deeper revelation about God’s passion for Israel and about the urgency of the hour. In time the prophetic movement will grapple with the scriptures referring to Israel and will accept what they teach. In time the prophetic movement will communicate God’s heart and strategies for Israel and the nations with greater accuracy, honesty and humility.

➢ Pray for more leaders of international prophetic streams to receive clearer Bible-based revelation about God’s heart and strategies for His people Israel.

➢ Pray that these leaders would become bold and courageous in their preaching and teaching about the need for the body of Messiah to bless, pray for, stand with and evangelize the Jewish people and their state.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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War With Hamas – Context and Clear Thinking

“A text without a context is a pretext.” Bible college students are taught this proverb when they begin to tackle the fundamentals of exegesis. Reporters doing a stint on the Middle Eastern beat would surely benefit from similar advice. Often the main actors and leaders on the Middle Eastern stage are misunderstood by the media, their behaviors and beliefs ignored or glossed over. Apart from access to greater depth of analysis, it is hard for the average consumer of news to make sense of what is actually happening in the Middle East.

What follows is some context – light and background enabling the reader to better understand the behavior and strategies of five of the recent Gaza-Israel war’s main players: Egypt, Fatah, Hamas, the Arab world and the United States.

Egypt

On Sunday January 25 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak praised Egypt for preventing stockpiles of weapons in the Sinai desert from reaching Hamas in the Gaza Strip. President Obama also recently thanked Egypt for playing a constructive role in developments. On Friday President Sarkozy of France announced that a French helicopter-carrying frigate will now patrol the waters off Gaza, while on Saturday the US announced that it has diverted the Combined Task Force 151 to track Iranian seaborne weapons smuggling in the Red Sea. On Monday Germany sent six Foreign and Interior Ministry experts to assess how to beef up security on Egypt’s border with Gaza. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, “Effectively fighting weapons smuggling is one of the key questions for a lasting truce and the opening of the borders.”

What goes unsaid here is something so simple that it seems to be in poor taste for anyone to call attention to it.

Gaza does not only border on Israel. It also touches the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt. The Israeli Navy effectively prevents arms smuggling by sea into Gaza. And of course, arms are not smuggled into Gaza overland from Israel, as the borders are protected by Israeli security fences. It is an open secret that all weapons are smuggled into Gaza through Egypt. Egypt physically observes all Hamas smuggling operations, and allows them to continue because it is in Egypt’s interest for such smuggling to occur. Were Egypt to turn off the faucet on the Hamas arms flow, it could achieve near-perfect results overnight. Why has this not happened?

Egypt allows weapons smuggling for its own good reasons. It has a large and restive Islamist population which is pro-Hamas and pro-Muslim Brotherhood. As long as weapons flow to Gaza, some of this potential revolutionary anger toward Mubarak’s regime is dissipated.

President Mubarak realizes that control of the arms spigot affords Egypt some influence over Hamas as well, specifically making sure that Hamas focuses its jihadi endeavors on the Gazan side of the Egyptian border. Egypt also recognizes that an active Hamas weakens Israel, and this is definitely part of Egyptian geopolitical strategy. When Israel is preoccupied, Egypt has more room to breathe and influence Arab-Islamic politics.

The US, Germany and France understand Egypt’s way of thinking. They know that Egypt will never willingly or effectively prevent arms smuggling. As a result, these nations smilingly describe their current activities as “helping Egypt” and (as long as these foreign navies don’t set foot on Egyptian soil) Egypt smiles in return. Even Israel lends faint praise to the “constructive” Egyptian role. The world smiles and forgets about the Middle East for a few days. Everyone is happy.

But, as Delaney and Bonnie once said, “Where there’s a will, sure enough honey there’s a way!” Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan declared on Sunday that nothing “will prevent us from using weapons or smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. No one has the right to prevent the Palestinians from equipping themselves with weapons as long as the occupation continues. From the first day of the ceasefire we began to return what we’d lost and to improve what we have in our hands. No ships, planes, or technology and satellite imagery will prevent the weapons smuggling.”

➢ Pray that Egypt’s leaders and people will receive the biblical revelation that their blessing and safety will come from blessing Israel (Isaiah 19:16-25)

➢ Pray for Egypt’s leadership to have courage to know, speak and do the truth

Fatah

Yassir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has had major problems with corruption since its inception. Palestinian communities throughout the world have been very aware of PLO financial sleaze, yet have made sure that their disgust is carefully voiced in private settings alone. It was this disgust with PLO corruption that led to a landslide victory for Hamas in the Gazan elections in January 2006. Gaza’s electorate chose Hamas to lead them, an Islamist political party whose covenantal platform calls for eliminating Israel through jihad, and setting up an Islamist state (“raising the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine”). Its organizational motto is, “Allah is our goal, the Prophet our model, the Qur’an our Constitution, Jihad our path and death for the cause of Allah our most sublime belief”.

Though the US and Western Europe accept Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (the new name for the PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian people (in Gaza, at least) are not quite as sure. Gazans actually chose jihadi terror representation (Hamas) over more secular and corrupt terrorists (PA and Fatah).

But it is not only Hamas that engages in terrorism. The PA’s armed wings (Fatah and al-Aqsa Brigades) are up to their hip boots in terrorism, though Western politicians turns a blind eye and don’t let on that the PA’s “naked emperor” is actually sporting terrorist fatigues.

Israeli Colonel Moshe Elad served as the head of the security coordination mechanism with the Palestinian Authority during the Oslo Accord period. Today he is a lecturer at the Western Galilee Academic College. Elad remembers a statement made by a senior Palestinian (Fatah) figure at a fateful moment during the Oslo negotiations: “No Arab leader has the right to renounce the right of return, because the return is beyond anything.”

This Fatah politician was stating that, even if a future peace deal would divide the land of Israel into two states (one Israeli, one Palestinian), all Palestinians will still insist on the right to settle in any spot within the Jewish state and claim it as their own. If the Jewish state refuses to allow this, then Fatah will once again wage war against Israel until “every inch of Palestine” is conquered by Arab Palestinians. This is the Palestinian Authority’s not-so-secret strategy. And this Palestinian Authority is what the West calls its “Palestinian peace partner.”

➢ Pray that the God of Israel will grant revelation to Palestinians about His heart for Israel the people and the land (Zechariah 2:8-13)

➢ Pray for salvation in Yeshua to come to many Palestinians through evangelism, dreams and visions

Hamas

Hamas has the unique challenge of being a jihadi group trying to get its message across to a secular Western world. It has hit on a successful media strategy which has evoked world sympathy – its spokesmen champion freedom from occupation; they call for open borders; they stir up the world to hate Israel for civilian casualties in the Gaza war. Hamas has been rather effective in its strategy. But what Hamas does not communicate is even more important.

Though it calls Israel an occupier, Hamas does not explain that Israel does not occupy the Gaza Strip. Israel totally evacuated Gaza in August 2005, leaving not even one soldier behind. What Hamas wants Israel to evacuate now is Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheva and Jerusalem – the whole State of Israel. That is what it means by the term “occupation”. It wants the Jews of Israel to fold up their tents and move en masse to Europe or America or to just disappear from the face of the earth. Israel’s existence is what Hamas wants to destroy – not any invisible occupation in Gaza.

Hamas’ call for open borders is also a euphemism. It is another way of saying that Hamas wants freedom to continue smuggling in weapons through Egyptian tunnels and unmonitored Egyptian borders. Open borders between Hamas and Egypt would lead to Israel’s destruction – by the same Gazan rockets, IEDs and gunmen who fired on Israel for the past 8 years.

Television footage of civilian casualties in Gaza have been used by Hamas to label Israel a criminal and evil state. Yet the context of those tragic pictures must be re-emphasized: civilian casualties occurred because civilian population centers were where Hamas stored its rockets, placed its rocket launchers and from where it fired its missiles into Israel. Hamas chose its battlefield carefully, knowing that Israel would have to respond, and knowing that civilian casualties could turn world opinion against Israel if the images of these casualties were marketed wisely.

Casualty figures were inflated by Hamas and the majority of the casualties were described by Hamas as innocent women and children. The IDF’s latest intelligence is that 1,100 to 1,200 Gazans were killed in Operation Cast Lead, out of which at least 700 were combatants, with another 200 fatalities of men in their 20’s whose identities are still being established. IDF’s Military Intelligence believes that most of these 200 will be proved to be Hamas operatives. That is an approximate ration of 3:1, or 75% of the fatalities being Hamas operatives. This is convincing proof that the IDF was targeting Hamas and not civilians. Indeed, significant precautions were taken not to harm civilians. It was Hamas’ strategy of using Gaza’s civilian population as human shields which made the carrying out of surgical strikes with no “collateral damage” an extremely difficult undertaking.

But it seems that for Hamas not all news is sad news. Even though Hamas’ locations of firing zones guaranteed that many of their own fellow Gazans would become cannon fodder, on January 22 Hamas spokesman Tahar al-Nunu announced that the families of Palestinians killed in the war will receive 1,000 Euros, and those whose homes were destroyed will receive 4,000 Euros.

The Arab world

In the Middle Ages, blood libels against European Jews were commonplace. False and vicious charges were often made that Jewish people had captured and then murdered Christian children, draining their blood to mix with unleavened flour for ritual Passover matzot. Even in the Middle East such charges became commonplace. In Damascus, Syria a blood libel was backed by the French Consul in February 1840, and it led to the murder of two Jewish leaders and the torture of seven Jewish citizens, as well as the hostage-taking of 63 Jewish children. Other notorious Middle Eastern blood libels include Damascus (1848, 1890), Aleppo (1810, 1850, 1875), Antioch (1826), Beirut (1862, 1874), Tripoli (1834), Jerusalem (1847, 1870, 1895), Jaffa (1876), Dayr al-Qamar (1847), Istanbul (1870, 1874), Izmir (1872, 1874) and Edirne (1872).

The blood libel has been resurrected by Syria’s Vice-President and Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas in his book The Matzah of Zion (1983). Egypt’s government-sponsored al-Ahram newspaper published an article on October 28, 2000 entitled “Jewish Matzah is Made from Arab Blood”. Other modern variations on an ancient theme involve Jews supposedly using Arab blood to make Purim pastries. The false equation of Zionism with Nazism has also been drilled into Arab minds for more than 40 years in succession.

In Israel’s counter-terror Operation Defensive Shield (April 2002), Palestinian sources claimed that Israel had massacred more than 500 civilians in Jenin. The numbers were later downsized to between 53 and 56, 6 or 7 of whom were civilians. Hamas’ recent attempts to paint Gazan fatalities as being all or mostly civilians is an up-to-date example of the same libelous strategy.

A few days ago I watched a British TV network interview a Gazan man who insisted that he watched an IDF soldier get out of his tank and shoot a number of small Palestinian children with his personal M-16 while two other IDF soldiers looked on, munching on chocolate bars and potato crisps. No evidence was shown, nor was it requested. No IDF reaction was asked for. No other eyewitnesses were interviewed. Yet this libelous “testimony” was broadcast around the world as “gospel truth.”

Other deliberately slanderous charges against Israel in the Gaza war involve accusations of using white phosphorus anti-personnel bombs and uranium shells. In each case attempts are made to portray Israeli behavior in battle as sub-human or even demonic. Unfortunately, some human rights groups with a strong anti-Israel bias have taken up these calumnies and used the media to spread these hateful charges against Israel. In this they are unwittingly used by Hamas as willing accomplices in their drive to weaken and destroy the Jewish state.

American political strategies

President Obama declared on his first day in office that he “will make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority from day one.” He “will make a sustained push … to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.” Obama stated that he would pursue peace in the Middle East “aggressively” and that he appointed Senator George Mitchell as his new Middle East envoy. Senator Mitchell is supposed to arrive in Israel on Wednesday to begin his mission.

Mitchell was the facilitator of the Belfast Agreement (1998) in Northern Ireland. He then “formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended”. His Mitchell Report, commissioned by President Clinton and handed in to President Bush, became the basis for President Bush’s Road Map concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mitchell’s plan then called for a total freeze on Jewish housing growth and settlement (including natural growth, which means normal population increase through births) between Beersheva and Jerusalem, and between Jerusalem and Afula (the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria).

His present perspective is summed up in this quote from May 21, 2001: “Two proud peoples share a land and a destiny. Competing claims, religious differences and many other factors have led to a grinding, demoralizing and destructive conflict here”. Mitchell sees the Biblical prophecies and Islamic claims over Israel as in conflict. He does not believe that the God of the Bible is restoring the Jewish people back to their own homeland. For Senator Mitchell, that train of thought is irrelevant and even potentially destructive. His solution is to sidestep all claims and to attempt to establish peace and stability through American influence and pressure. To Mitchell, “the alternative is unacceptable and should be unthinkable” (this last quote was also given word for word on December 18, 2008).

Though perhaps well intentioned, it is clear that President Obama’s aggressive priority to establish peace in the Middle East leads back to the same black hole that swallowed the Bush Administration – a commitment to divide the land of Israel and give part of it to Israel’s enemies. Without truly understanding what he is getting himself into, President Obama is running up against the promises and warnings of the God of Jacob in Zechariah 14:1-3 and Joel 3:1-3. When Yeshua returns, He will judge the nations based on their dividing up of the land of Israel and their re-division of Jerusalem. Dividing the land of Israel (even if one calls it “the peace process”) actually forms the basis for the judgment of the nations at the Second Coming of Messiah Yeshua. Concerted pressure on Israel by any nation will bring the concerted pressure of YHVH right back on that nation.

➢ Pray for President Barak Obama, his advisors and wise men – that the Lord God of Israel will grant him a revelation regarding the land of Israel and God’s strategy for it as the Jewish homeland and world capitol. Pray that the President will only push for the things that will bless America, things that will dovetail with God’s heart and strategies for the Promised Land.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – A perspective on the broader picture

This newsletter is a break from the near daily prayer updates regarding the war between the IDF and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In this letter we consider some issues that most of the news media do not delve into. These matters concern the background to the conflict, as well as present directions for prayer and intercession.

Blowback – the backfiring of best-laid plans

Kings and presidents throughout history have discovered that occasionally their wisest strategies come up short. Assyria ruled the world until it snarled at the God of Israel and His people (Isaiah 10:1-19). King Hezekiah thought it was a wise idea to show the Babylonian delegation the splendor and riches of his kingdom, but Isaiah the prophet rebuked the king, telling him that Babylon would one day cause great damage to the Jewish people and their kingdom (Isaiah 39).

At the close of WWII the OSS (Office of Strategic Services – the precursor to the CIA) recruited Nazi Major-General Reinhard Gehlen to head up counter-intelligence work against the USSR. What the OSS did not know is that the Gehlen Organization was thoroughly penetrated by Soviet double agents, thus compromising Western spying efforts for years to come.

In 1983 the CIA funded and trained Islamist jihad fighters (see the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War”) in order to successfully sabotage Russia’s imperialistic conquest of Afghanistan. The blowback from this operation came through the very same Islamists that the CIA trained. These jihad terrorists used CIA tradecraft to successfully bomb the World Trade Center (1993), the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam (1998), the USS Cole (2001), and of course the 9/11 attacks.

Today much of Western intelligence efforts are focused on degrading the ability and operations of these US-trained Islamist jihad fighters.

“The enemy of my enemy …”

There is a well-known Middle Eastern proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Sometimes this adage is not 100% accurate.

Hamas was birthed out of the womb of the Muslim Brotherhood, and specifically out of an Islamist welfare charity called Mujama, established in 1973 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Israeli security officials in charge of the Gaza Strip were concerned about how to weaken and destroy Yasser Arafat’s PLO terror gangs. They encouraged Sheikh Yassin’s welfare group, hoping that it might loosen the PLO terrorists’ grip on Palestinian society.

In the early 1980’s Yassin’s Mujama secretly began to stockpile weapons in preparation for jihad activities. By 1984 Sheikh Yassin was arrested by Israel for commanding jihad activities against Israel, but was released as part of a prisoner exchange in 1985. At the outbreak of the first Arab civilian revolt or intifada in December 1987, Yassin secretly gathered six other Gazan Islamists and founded Hamas.

They drew up a charter which declared loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood, to jihad, and to the Islamist vision of Israel’s subjugation and destruction. In 1989 Yassin was re-arrested for ordering the kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldiers. In October 1997 he was released from jail through the efforts of Jordan’s King Hussein. Out of jail again, Yassin returned to spearheading Hamas terrorist operations until he was killed in a targeted Israeli helicopter attack in March 2004.

Hamas began as a secret and poisonous flower growing in a Gazan ‘garden plot’ – using the freedoms that Israel had allowed – whose goal remains the destruction of Israel. Operation Cast Lead is Israel’s attempt to weaken and crush this “blowback” terror movement.

To learn more about the origins, ideology and strategies of Hamas (and for all archived newsletters on the war) see www.davidstent.org, under “words”, newsletters February 2006, June 2007.

Hamas roots and Muslim Brotherhood fruits

Hamas’ older brother is The Muslim Brotherhood (hereafter MB), or Society of Muslim Brothers (Jama’at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin), founded in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, a school teacher. From the MB perspective most Arab and Islamic states are evil and need to be overthrown. Only strict Islamist rule and the re-establishment of the Muslim Caliphate or khilafah is ultimately acceptable to the MB.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) had links with the Nazis, and Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler’s main contact in Jerusalem was Haj Amin al-Husseini.

MB assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud Fahmi al-Noqrashi Pasha in 1948, and attempted to overthrow Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. That revolution failed, and many MB members were jailed in Egyptians concentration camps and severely tortured. Sayyad Qutb, a main MB theologian, was imprisoned, tortured and later executed in 1966. Qutb’s brother moved to Saudi Arabia and later became the mentor of Ayman al-Zawahiri (later Osama Bin Laden’s deputy).

Yasser Arafat joined the Egyptian MB in 1952. MB members in East Jerusalem established a shadow organization in 1953 called Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation) which today is a worldwide terror organization.

In the late 1970’s MB members established Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Al-Jihad al-Islami) led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Jamaat al-Islamiyya or al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) led by the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman is now serving a life sentence in Florence, Colorado for his role in directing the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, as well as for thwarted plans to bomb NY tunnels and bridges as well as FBI and UN headquarters. Both organizations’ primary goals are to overthrow the Egyptian Government, to replace it with an Islamic state, and to attack American and Israeli interests in Egypt and abroad.

Ayman al-Zawahiri was jailed in Egypt for his part in planning and carrying out President Anwar al-Sadat’s 1981 assassination. He was later released and went on to become Bin Laden’s deputy in al-Qa’ida. He was involved in planning and executing the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

➢ Pray that the God of Israel would confound and nullify the Islamist strategies and plans of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood (Psalm 83:9-18).

Egypt and Hamas

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt fears the MB, for an Islamist MB-led revolt is the main threat to his rule. For more background, read “A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam”, Mary Anne Weaver, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000). A victory for Hamas in Gaza would encourage anti-Mubarak forces in Egypt, while a defeat of Hamas would create Egyptian civil unrest as well. Mubarak’s strategy seems to be “to do as little as possible and hope for the best”.

As a result, he has turned a blind eye to Hamas’ tunnel-smuggling of rockets and weapons into Gaza, while delusionally protesting that the weapons are actually being run successfully by the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza!

He refuses to totally open Egypt’s borders with Gaza, since this would be a violation of signed peace agreements with Israel. Yet he allows Hamas officials to travel freely through Egypt and to plan attacks on Israel from sovereign Egyptian territory, and to smuggle weapons into Gaza for use against his peace partner Israel.

PM Mubarak has been hoping that Operation Cast Lead would severely downgrade Hamas’ strength and, indeed, he recently has had key leaders communicate this desire in off-the-record conversations with Israeli leaders.

Were Mubarak to decisively dry up Hamas’ smuggling activities, the rocket fire would cease. Operation Cast Lead would not have happened had Egypt reined in Hamas. One of the reasons that Israel has gone to war is to get the world to pressure Egypt into stopping Hamas’ smuggling operations.

➢ Pray for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, that he will have the courage, wisdom and backbone to turn off the Hamas weapons faucet which runs through sovereign Egyptian territory.

Jihad – God speaking to a secular West

In Romans 1 the Apostle Paul describes a socio-spiritual process of handing nations over to demonic influence and control, through His removing of restraints on major sins. Some of these sins include idolatry, materialism, sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, greed, deceit, faithlessness, hatred of the God of the Bible, boastfulness, insolence and ruthlessness. These sins increase their manifestation in society incrementally. God’s divine judgment is a process, a route which descends quietly into darkness.

Europe and North America once adhered to the Hebrew Scriptures and to the New Testament, albeit in a faltering and halting fashion. Today, however, the intellectual forces of secularism have fashioned an atmosphere of political correctness, intolerance and scorn toward biblical truths. The West now views life, politics and strategic thinking through secular lenses, and in many ways it is opposed to a Judeo-Christian worldview and lifestyle.

In the Book of Judges 2:10-23 the God of Israel responded to His people’s cooling hearts by raising up plunderers – evil and cruel invaders. God raised up brutal marauders to attack Israel, hoping that these trials would cause His people to cry out and turn back to Him.

In a similar way, God has allowed jihadi Islam to arise and to threaten a secular West – a West which to a large extent scorns faith, God and the Bible. God is involved in a process of testing and judging the nations. Yet if we allow Him, these challenges could drive many Westerners to cry out and turn their hearts back to the God of Israel.

➢ Pray for the secular West to turn their hearts back to the God of Jacob and to embrace His heart for Israel.

➢ Pray also for the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora, that through these shakings our hearts would be quickly moved to cry out and turn back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through Yeshua the Messiah.

Israel – at the forefront

The Scriptures tell us that Israel is God’s billboard to the nations (Isaiah 11:12; 49:22; 62:10). God uses the Jewish people to reveal His ways, to reveal His heart, to shout out His message to all countries. Senator Hillary Clinton once called Israel “the canary in the mineshaft”. By that, she meant that Israel is an indicator – an air-raid siren, an advance warning alarm – to the world. What happens with Israel is a preview of coming attractions; these same challenges or trials or wars will soon be coming to the whole world.

The anti-Nazi Pastor Martin Niemöller put it this way, The Nazis “came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, for I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me”.

For decades Islamist and Arab terrorists have attacked the Jewish people and the State of Israel. These atrocities have for the most part been brushed under the carpet by the nations of the world. The United Nations even passed a resolution condemning Zionism (the Jewish people’s national liberation movement) as racism (General Assembly Resolution 3379, passed in 1975, revoked in 1991). At this moment Iran is openly pursuing nuclear weaponry in its self-confessed drive to wipe Israel off the map.

Over 10,000 Hamas rockets and mortars have rained down on Israel for the past 8 years, and for the world this has been merely business as usual.

Through all of this God is communicating a message to the world: what comes first to Israel (Islamist attacks) surely comes to the rest of the nations (9/11 etc). Hamas’ attempts to establish an Islamic state and to destroy Israel through rocket fire, indicates that unless the nations of the world get with the plan, they will see similar things happening in their neck of the woods.

Green tide rising

We are living in the days of the restoration of the Jewish people to Israel, their promised land. God’s restoration movement has been opposed by Satan in many ways – through Communism, Fascism and now through Islamist hatred and murder of the Jewish people. The flags and colors of these movements are red, black and green. Today the anti-Semitic charge is currently being led and catalyzed by those carrying green banners – the banners of Islamic jihad.

As Europeans and the Islamic world march in their tens of thousands against the Jewish state, it is time to “wake up and smell the coffee”. We are living in the days of Satan’s renewed and murderous onslaught against the Jewish people. These are the “days of the hunters” (Jeremiah 16:16-17).

➢ Pray for believers worldwide to wake up and recognize that the Jewish people are being strategically targeted by the enemy. Pray that believers worldwide will target the Jewish people in prayer, for blessing, protection and salvation.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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