Making room for the elephant

Israel is the country of prophecy. Its valleys, hills and springs are embossed on every page of the Bible. The Scriptures shine a priority focus on the Jewish people like on no other nation. The God of Jacob weaves the themes of Jacob’s welfare – physical and spiritual – on the loom of redemption history.

In light of Scripture’s divine emphasis on the destiny and restoration of the Jewish people, it is worth paying attention the current news coming out of Israel. Most of the headlines appear to be fraught with negativity and cataclysm. No help here from the Mainstream News Media (MSM), once known as the ‘fourth estate.’ We look for clarity and accuracy, but find instead spin, half-truths and propaganda. But of course, it is worth remembering that the shapers of media narratives are themselves being shaped by shadowy figures who stand hidden behind a digital ‘Wizard of Oz’ curtain. Let’s peer through this fog and ask God to help us discern what He is doing in these troubled times.

The Return to Zion

One of the spiritual hopes of the Jewish people in Exile has revolved around a concept known as ‘Shivat Tziyon’ – the return to Zion from the farthest extremities of the Exile. Moses prophesied about this event more than 3,400 years ago:

The prophet Isaiah reached into the far future and envisioned the Return to Zion:

In David Ben-Gurion’s introduction to the multi-volume View of the Biblical World, he quotes Isaiah 43 to back up his declaration: “Today we can see Isaiah’s prophecy of the ingathering of the exiles taking place before our eyes.” This same vision is reflected in Israel’s Declaration of Independence of May 14, 1948: “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles . . . as envisaged by the prophets of Israel.”

Ben-Gurion adds a postscript to this in 1950: “Because Israel is not like other countries, and there is no instance in history like the revival of the state of Israel – the uniqueness of its revival reflects the uniqueness of its destiny . . .  The entire people carried the hope of the redemption in its heart, and the state is only the beginning of that hope’s fruition. And the Ingathering of the Exiles is the task and the destiny and the mission of the State of Israel. Without this endeavor it is emptied of its historical content and of no significance to the Jewish people in our day, in the generations that preceded us, and in the generations to come.”

Rabbi Yoḥanan bar Nafḥa, writing around 250 A.D., added: “The day of the Ingathering of Exiles is as great as the day on which heaven and earth were created” (Babylonian Talmud; Pesaḥim 88 A).

The reason for the season

The Return to Zion, biblically speaking, only happens after the Exile from Zion – after Israel sins, acts disobediently, rebels against the House of David and is exiled to Assyria and Babylon. The Musaf prayer (recited by religious Jews on Shabbat, festivals and New Moon celebrations) speaks plainly in its public confession: “But because of our sins we have been exiled from our Land and sent far from our soil  . . . Draw our scattered ones near from among the nations, and bring in our dispersions from the ends of the earth. Bring us to Zion Your city in glad song, and to Jerusalem home of Your Sanctuary in eternal joy.”

The history Book of the Jewish people does not mince words: we Jewish people were scattered due to our own sin, and our restoration will be an amazing work based on YHVH’s gracious love – one which we do not deserve:

The Elephant in Zion’s living room

Limor Livnat, former Minister in three Israeli governments, pointed out in 1999 that Ben-Gurion’s vision of a Return to Zion (and that of Israel’s secular Founding Fathers) was seen in socialist terms and not in traditionally religious terms:

There is an old Persian proverb which warns: “Do not invite an elephant trainer into your living room unless you also have room there for an elephant!” Jewish socialists of the 19th and 20th centuries were captivated by an ancient dream – the biblical/prophetic vision of an international Return to Zion by the exiled Jewish people. But their vision was not exactly Isaiah’s, which was Temple centered and covenant based. Instead, it was closer to Theodor Herzl’s 1902 epic novel Altneuland – a European-styled Jewish homeland, a cultural cross-pollination between Vienna, Paris and London. In their wildest dreams, none of the secular founders imagined that their Zionist restoration-enterprise would be peopled by rabbis or run by yeshiva students.

Jerusalem in black-and-white

Yet Jerusalem is becoming more and more an Orthodox/ultra-Orthodox city. A recent May 2022 survey by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics shows a significant increase in Jerusalem’s haredi (ultra-Orthodox) population, with 35% of Jerusalem’s Jewish residents being haredi, and 25% being Orthodox Jews. In contrast, less than one in five residents (18%) are secular Jews. Jews are 61.2% of Jerusalem’s population (590,000) while Arabs are 38.8% (375,000). A January 2023 survey showed national haredi population growth at 4% (13.5% of the national population), while the projection for the haredi community of 2030 is 16% of Israel’s total population.

Ben-Gurion probably never imagined that his Western-styled secular state would morph into an Orthodox/haredi country. Neither did Israel’s secular pioneers – whether kibbutzniks or Holocaust survivors – and their secular progeny. These secular Israelis are struggling with fear, anger and concern.  The prospect of a halachic state – one ruled by rabbinic law – fills many secular Jews with trepidation. Considering that PM Netanyahu’s Likud party has coalition partners, most who long for the establishment of a halachic state – United Torah Judaism, Shas, Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit [Jewish Force], and Noam – it is no wonder that recent Israeli anti-government demonstrations and internet forums hammer away at the perceived threat of ‘the enemy’ – the growing power of Jewish Orthodoxy. To the hi-tech denizens of secular and gleaming Tel Aviv, the black-clothed haredi enclaves of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak appear to be a clear and present danger.

At’chalta d’geula

In 1918 a cutting-edge Orthodox rabbi with a ‘futurist’ bent,  Rabbi Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook began to teach that redeeming the land of Israel through pioneer farming and the establishing of a Jewish state – these activities would hasten the coming of the Messiah and the launching of the Davidic kingdom. He described this movement as at’chalta d’geula (Aramaic for ‘the beginning of redemption’). Here is a quote from a letter he wrote in that year: “At’chalta d’geula is undoubtedly coming about before us, even though this coming-about has not begun this very day, . . . Banishing [us from the Land of Israel], and [then] only from the times that the people of Israel started [again] to shoot forth their branches and yield their fruits to the people of Israel [in their Land], . . . [these days] are at hand to come and only then will this at’chalta begin.”

Rabbi Kook’s teaching helped catalyze the movement now known as Religious Zionism. The Gush Emunim settlers’ movement as well as the Religious Zionist Party both have ideological roots in Rabbi Kook’s teachings. This multi-faceted stream sees political activism as the most productive way to achieve its goals. Though these parties are willing to sit in right-wing coalitions, their vision of Zion has marked differences – both in strategies and in goals.

 Hating and fearing one’s grandparents

An increasing polarization between Israeli Jews has been developing over the past years, but has been quickening on steroids over the past year. Many Israeli Jewish citizens who oppose Bibi had great-grandparents who lived Orthodox lives in Eastern Europe or Morocco. They are finding themselves fearing and hating people who look awfully like their own great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. On the other hand, Likud Coalition-connected conservative, right-wing and more traditionally minded secularists stand aghast as they watch opposition crowds (many who are descended from the original Zionist pioneers) lighting bonfires on Israeli freeways, sparring with police forces, blocking main traffic junctions, and threatening coalition politicians (including the PM and his family) at home or at work – even surrounding them and preventing them from accessing airports, etc. 

The God of Jacob’s Last Days vision is neither secular nor rabbinic. When Messiah Yeshua sits on David’s throne in Jerusalem, all false idols and all broken cisterns (see Jeremiah 2:13) will be swept away; only the shining truth of YHVH will radiate from the Holy City, and the teaching of Yeshua’s New Covenant will flow out to the world.

A handful of my Messianic brothers look forward to the day when rabbinic authority will control the Temple Mount and the people of Israel. They have declared in print that this will be a righteous step in the direction of national Jewish salvation. The facts presented in this newsletter should encourage us to treat such perspectives with necessary caution.

Relocation, relocation, relocation

The political power groups attempting to take down Israel’s present government (see my previous newsletter) have privately (though this has become public knowledge over the past week) developed a strategy to weaken the present coalition diplomatically, economically and socially. This coordinated alignment of major companies, banks, hi-tech owners, MSM oligarchs, educational and medical organizations against the Netanyahu coalition government was demonstrated  a few days ago when all the top major newspapers blacked out their front page on July 25, running an opposition ad declaring that the passage of a Knesset law 64 to 0 was ‘a black day for Israel.’

New waves of screaming headlines daily fan the flames in Israel, declaring that hi-tech and investment companies, medical personnel, internet and digital people are investigating possibilities of relocating out of Israel. Fear seems to be the overwhelming motive – either of rising religious power, or financial and social shakings.  When former PM Ehud Olmert (who makes no secret of his hatred for PM Netanyahu) declares to British TV Channel 4 that “there is a threat. This is a serious threat. It’s never happened before and we are going into a civil war now,” one can understand how such unhelpful declarations could negatively affect some Israeli citizens. Moses’ prophetic curses in Deuteronomy 28:33-37 seem to find a measure of parallelism here.

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Following after the crowd

The spreading of false or evil reports is nothing new. In the Second Book of Moses, the God of Israel warns His people to stay far away from mass movements which, knowingly or unwittingly, pervert justice and stir up evil: “You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to join together with a crowd in order to pervert justice” (Exodus 23:1-2).

Another variation of this dynamic occurred in the days of Nehemiah, when he struggled to counteract evil reports brought by false prophets. The evil goals in this case were to strike fear into the hearts of Israel’s returning pioneers and cause them to abandon the struggle for national restoration, both spiritual and physical:

Much of recent reporting coming out of Israel and onto Main Stream Media (MSM) international news screens about developments in Israel fits the above biblical descriptions. The majority of these reports have more spin on them than a runaway gyroscope. Some of this is due to the lack of Hebrew facility on the part of foreign reporters. Some of it is due to news people’s inexperience regarding Israeli history, religion and politics (this is sometimes also true about a few Messianic voices in Israel). Then again, some of it is due to a ‘politically correct’ and left-wing socialist bent, an all-too-common professional liability in MSM reportage.

In light of the fact that world media is intensely focused on recent events in Israel (including ‘mostly peaceful’ demonstrations, Knesset filibusters and legislative activity, etc.), we have received many requests from readers around the world for clarity and insight. A good place to begin would be our last six newsletters, which trace the history and developments of these matters over the past 10 months (February 22, March 15, March 28, April 30, July 4, July 19). This newsletter presents some recently revealed news – a ‘smoking gun’ – regarding leadership, perspectives and strategies of those who are catalyzing and acting as the ‘behind the scenes’ leadership of the recent ‘civil disobedience’ and street violence in Israel. These facts have barely been addressed by Israeli and world MSM.

A specialist is someone 50 miles away from home

King Solomon shares his wisdom with us: “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him. The cast lot puts an end to quarrels, and decides between the mighty ones” (Proverbs 18:17-18). Some dear friends have pointed out to us that, even among Israeli Messianic bloggers, different opinions are being espoused. The prophet Jeremiah wryly commented on a similar dynamic in his own day: “For as many as the number of your cities are your gods, Judah!” (Jeremiah 2:28). Though ‘the cast lot’ – an ancient parallel to ‘the election ballot’ – is supposed to decisively end national conflict, in Israel we have had many inconclusive election results, leading to wobbly coalitions and five elections in three and a half years.

“I love it when a plan comes together” (Hannibal Smith in ‘The A-Team’)

Tension and barely concealed strife have existed within the Jewish State even before its international recognition in May 1948. The socialist Founding Fathers (like Ben-Gurion) exhibited a barely concealed disgust for conservative right-wingers (like Begin or Jabotinsky). Socialist-leaning oligarchs controlled the government and economy of this fledgling country until 1977, when Begin’s Likud took the political reins. For the better part of the last fifty years, the right wing has led Israel. Israel’s longest serving (over 15 years) and current Prime Minister is Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. Over the past 15 years. Left-leaning oligarchs have used the ‘yellow journalism’ of their MSM organs to attack and attempt to unseat Bibi, for the most part unsuccessfully. This ongoing ‘media soap opera’ has been going on in full public view for many years. In November 2019, four main charges were filed (at the instigation of Bibi’s enemies) against PM Netanyahu, though so far none have led to conviction. These attacks have come from such enemies as former PMs Ehud Barak (Labor, Israel Democratic Party), Ehud Olmert (Likud, Kadima), General Dan Halutz, and Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu). Their desire to unseat Bibi and invalidate him from holding office is common knowledge among all Israelis.

From ‘mostly peaceful’ demonstrations to street riots

In July 2020 former PM Ehud Barak addressed (excerpted with English subtitles) a private ZOOM meeting (excerpted with Hebrew subtitles) of retired Israel Air Force pilots and navigators (titled ‘Forum 555’) who all supported him in his desire to remove Bibi from office. The complete Hebrew video is found on YouTube. The meeting included Shikma Bressler and Moshe Redman, present leaders of the 2023 protest demonstrations. In that meeting Ehud Barak stated that Bibi is heading up “an attempted governmental coup.”  A civil uprising is needed, he added, but it must be presented to the public as an uprising “for the sake of democracy,” rather than an attempt to unseat Netanyahu.

In the Zoom video Barak discusses strategies of a civilian revolt, including the use of slogans, civil disobedience, and both general and ultimate goals of the protest movement. He stated that he will raise the necessary funds to cover all logistics for the project, including flags, banners and PA systems. He continued, stating that the more there are clashes with the government, the stronger would the opposition’s resistance become. This would inevitably lead to the government needing to use force against the demonstrators, which would again bolster the protest movement. In Barak’s words, when an army shoots into a crowd, the government is bound to fall.

Israel’s Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan publicized this video on July 21, 2023. Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev sent a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara calling for an investigation to be opened against former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Forum 555 for allegedly inciting a coup d’état. Regev stated that the video clip “shows without any shadow of a doubt that beginning in March 2020, former officials began concocting a plan for a coup d’état and civil disobedience, with detailed and careful planning.”

On January 14, 2023 Barak gave an interview to Israel Channel 12, where he declared: “This government is legal but clearly illegitimate because of its plan to crush Israeli democracy . . .  We are witnessing a coup here. This is an assassination of the Declaration of Independence, and democracy must defend itself . . . It is clearly illegitimate to assassinate the Declaration of Independence. It is not the right of every citizen, it is the duty of every citizen to come and fight for the security of the government and the rights and dignity of human beings, for the security, the future of the country and equality and freedom. Civil disobedience is a very important thing and that means blocking roads, civil disobedience is the duty of citizens when the government has gone mad.”

Ehud Barak gave a speech in Haifa on Saturday June 10, 2023, where he told his audience: “To this end, the protest must increase and move to civil rebellion, or in more precise language, nonviolent civil disobedience . . . The script for civil disobedience was written by Mahatma Gandhi, who drove the British Empire from India, by Martin Luther King, who led the struggle for civil rights for blacks, by the young people of the United States, who pulled it out of Vietnam, and by those who removed [Slobodan] Milošević from his dictator’s chair in Serbia. I am calling upon all the citizens of Israel to prepare for the call to act, and when the call comes, to answer it. We will fight, and we will not fear anyone or anything. The purpose of the protest must be clear. There are no compromises with someone who tried to destroy democracy.”

 

A salami-style military coup?

One of the most recent strategic steps taken by the protest organizers is to declare that certain top pilots, SIGINT personnel and special operations forces reserve soldiers will no longer show up for training and perhaps not even for duty. Figures of 10,000+ have been bandied about in the media. One of Israel’s top intelligence journalists and strategic affairs correspondents is Yossi Melman. On July 20, 2023 he wrote an analysis in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz: “A Military Coup Is Underway in Israel – and It’s Completely Justified.”

Top British journalist Melanie Phillips states that “we owe Ha’aretz a debt of gratitude for tearing aside at least one of the veils of obfuscation to call this crisis out for what it is – a military coup.”

This is the context that moved Prime Minister Netanyahu to address the nation on Thursday evening, July 20, 2023:

One who troubles his own house will inherit wind (Proverbs 11:29)

 And say to them, “This is what YHVH God says: ‘Behold, I am going to take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king will be king for all of them. And they will no longer be two nations, and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their offenses. But I will rescue them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God’” (Ezekiel 37:21-23)

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

When skies are red

Just after Messiah Yeshua fed the four thousand, “the Pharisees and Sadducees came up and, putting Yeshua to the test, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, ‘When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, “There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.” You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but are you unable to discern the signs of the times?’” (Matthew 16:1-3)

At another time Yeshua said to the crowds, “Whenever you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And whenever you feel a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you do not know how to analyze this present time?” (Luke 12:54-56).

It seems that weathermen in Yeshua’s day did a better job of forecasting the weather than some modern TV pundits. But Yeshua’s point in these Messianic proverbs focused on spiritual discernment: how are we doing in analyzing the present time? Are we properly discerning the signs of the times?

A time to remember and mourn

In Micah 7:1-6 the prophet spoke about spiritual, ethical and political rot engulfing his entire country. In today’s Israel,  Left and Right, secular and religious are all pointing an accusatory finger at each other during this season – each accusing the other of being the source of all rottenness. Local Messianic Jewish believers have also been influenced by these trends.

We have been tracking these general developments in five newsletters over the past six months (February 22, March 15, March 28, April 30, July 4). Fast approaching on the Hebrew calendar is the Jewish Memorial Day known as the Ninth of Av (Tish’a B’Av) – the exact day on which both the First and the Second Temples (Solomon’s and Herod’s) were destroyed (the first by Babylon and the second by Rome). The days of the Jewish calendar preceding the Ninth of Av are known as ‘the Dire Straits’ or ‘Bein ha’meitzarim.’ For Orthodox Jews this is a time of extreme sobriety, where Israel reminds herself of her sins (which led to the destructions of both Temples and our two exiles among the nations). For religious Jews, marriages and celebration (and even the eating of meat) are forbidden during this time. It is a time of spiritual mourning. Religious Jews try to avoid conflict with their fellow Jews during this time; this would include sidestepping civil disturbance and violent behavior.

Still waters run deep

God has been known at times to choose unusual spokesmen. Two biblical examples include a donkey and a professional curser/‘witch doctor’ like Balaam. The God of Israel sometimes turns to artists, musicians and actors as His mouthpieces when prophetic voices lack courage or remain silent. During the 1960’s, folk, pop and rock anthems were penned, pleading for the world to discern the signs of the times, to analyze what was going on at that ‘present time.’ These voices may not have spoken with clear revelation or full understanding, yet some of these songs stirred a generation to take a deeper look at what was happening. One such song was For What It’s Worth, written by Steve Stills and recorded by the rock group Buffalo Springfield.

Steve Stills wrote his rock anthem (considered one of the best protest songs of that period) on November 12, 1966 after observing police breaking up a hippie protest directed against an enforced 10 pm curfew at Sunset Strip clubs in West Hollywood. In the year 2000, this song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Some of the piercing lyrics include the following:

Still’s sympathies were obviously with the demonstrators, yet he wryly noted that American society seemed to be heading toward a kulturkampf, a clash of cultures. He realized that even ‘his side’ was prone to narcissistic self-justification, and that, unless sectarian trends were tweaked, the broader culture could be torn to shreds. His earnest plea was for everyone to stop, to take a deep breath and to consider what might bring unity and social healing to a divided nation – because the problems and solutions were not exactly clear. But one thing was sure: if left unattended, these infected wounds could end up destroying his beloved country.

This same soul-searching is needed in Israel today. As thousands demonstrate in an anarchistic manner against the government, blocking freeways, train stations and airports, screaming in front of politicians’ homes and offices, and with doctors calling wildcat strikes at major hospitals,  the social fabric of Israel is fraying. When ex-politicians and ex-generals publicly call for Israel’s allies to abandon her, and for Israel’s army reserves to abandon their training and commitment to the IDF (an army highly dependent on its civilian contribution), most Western democracies would define such behavior as treasonous. When cells in a body start attacking other cells in that same body, most medical professionals would call this pathology ‘cancerous.’ How should these events in today’s Israel be defined?

The present victorious coalition in Israel is attempting to limit the self-usurped role of the judiciary in shaping the country. Yet a significant minority in the opposition is concerned and fearful about some of those changes: some do not trust extreme and influential minority elements in the coalition – elements with a proven record of thuggery and anti-democratic activities. Yet the pervasive fear tactics used by the puppet-masters of the minority opposition have whipped up anxiety among many of the undecided, stampeding them to join the marching masses and to oppose the coalition which has won recent elections with a significant majority.  These civil disturbances have as their goal to shut down the country and to throw out the current government.

The whipping up of these fears has created a new dynamic – one which is leading to even deeper divisions among Israelis. Widening cracks are appearing on the surface of a country that has always pulled together in crisis.

Kamtza, Bar Kamtza and sinat hinam

For nearly 2,000 years, every time the Ninth of Av rolls in, Jewish people remember the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, two Jews who had a history of great bitterness between them (recounted in the Babylonian Talmud (TB) Gittin 55b-56a). A mistakenly sent missive to Bar Kamtza invited him to attend a feast at Kamtza’s mansion. Upon his arrival, Bar Kamtza was publicly embarrassed, humiliated and expelled by Kamtza from that celebration. The narrative explains: “Since the Rabbis were sitting there and did not stop [Kamtza], this shows that they agreed with him. [Bar Kamtza said] I will go and inform against them to the king. He went and said to Caesar, ‘The Jews are rebelling against you.’” The story continues, explaining that the Jewish religious rulers consulted a Sage and judge, Rabbi Zekharya ben Avkolas, to come up with an acceptable solution which would lower the flames on this potentially disastrous situation. Judge Ben Avkolas made what seemed to him to be a reasonable ruling, sticking with a status quo decision. Years later the famous Rabbi Yoḥanan bar Nafḥa declared: “The excessive humility of Rabbi Zekharya ben Avkolas destroyed our Temple, burned our Sanctuary, and exiled us from our land.”

The schwerpunkt of this story is that needless quarrels and internal tensions among the Jewish people actually catalyzed attacks by their Roman conquerors, leading to a major Jewish tragedy.  The rabbis call this dynamic ‘wanton or baseless hatred’– sinat hinam in Hebrew – in their discussion in TB Yoma 9b:

King Solomon warns us: “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so abandon the quarrel before it breaks out” (Proverbs 17:14). When politicians stir up strife in order to achieve their goals and cement their control over the flock of Israel, sometimes these waters of division cannot be easily controlled or safely contained.

The nation of Israel needs your prayers – that the God of Jacob would still the turbulent waters roiling across the Promised Land, and restore a soft and repentant heart to His people speedily and in our day.

Bad vibrations

Years ago, a dear prophetic friend shared a spiritual principle with me. When one comes into a country or a specific geographical location, one enters into an area under specific spiritual strongholds and influences (as per Daniel 10:13, 20). For example, if one travels to a land where the enemy has invested heavily in manipulation, hierarchy and control – one needs to ask God to deal ruthlessly with one’s desire for hierarchical control. For if we come onto the spiritual battlefield having common ground with the enemy (see John 14:30), he will have an open door to amplify his own spiritual ‘radio signals’ through us. And we should not be surprised if we begin to see a rise of ungodly control and manipulation manifesting in our relationships there.

Israel is described in the Scriptures as struggling with specific national sins: rebellion against divine and Davidic authority (1 Kings 12:15-19); rebellion against the Word of God through establishing false traditions (Jeremiah 2:13); mocking the messengers of God, despising His words, scoffing at His prophets (2 Chronicles 36:16). These dynamics still influence aspects of the spiritual life of modern Israel: many scoff at the existence of God, the truth of the Scriptures, and the Messiahship of Yeshua, David’s Greater Son; a significant minority of Israelis hold to a rabbinically-catalyzed rebellion against the Messenger of the New Covenant and His followers; a significant minority of the population look fondly on civil disturbance, socialist revolution, and crude propaganda.

The Bible talks about malevolent and biting words associated with curling of the lip:  “All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head” (Psalm 22:7);  “Behold, they belch out with their mouth. Swords are in their lips” (Psalm 59:7). Some Israelis finds themselves attacking each other with wanton hatred, employing hateful sarcasm and poisonous language to label and condemn others whose take on developments is opposed to their own. Some Israeli Messianic believers have fallen under similar influences.

In their hugely popular hit song “You can’t always get what you want,” the Rolling Stones sang about mass demonstrations in their generation, noting that sometimes protestors are actually looking forward to clashes with security forces, and often are quite happy to raise a ruckus: “I went down to the demonstration to get my fair share of abuse, singing, ‘We're gonna vent our frustration; If we don't we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse.’”

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The wisdom of Ahithophel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel once stated: “Wir lernen aus der Geschichte, dass wir überhaupt nichts lernen” (We learn from history, that we mostly learn nothing at all).

Yet there is a lesson to be learned from King David’s premier counselor Ahithophel the Gilonite (1 Chronicles 27:33; 2 Samuel 23:34).  The Scriptures tell us: “Now the advice of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was taken as though one inquired of the word of God. So was all the advice of Ahithophel regarded by both David and Absalom” (2 Samuel 16:23). Ahithophel’s God-inspired wisdom was held in high esteem by King David himself. Yet something happened to him which turned honor into tragedy.

Something rotten up on the rooftop

King David’s Special Operations Forces were led by ‘The Three’ (see 2 Samuel 23:8-12, 19). Joab’s brother Avishai in turn oversaw the lower ranking but still highly courageous team known as ‘The Thirty’ (2 Samuel 23:18-19). The last of ‘The Thirty’ mentioned in the Scriptures was a crack commando named Eliam son of Ahithophel (2 Samuel 23:34). Eliam had a daughter named Bathsheba, and Bathsheba’s grandfather was Ahithophel. When David seduced Bathsheba and later had her husband Uriah murdered on the battlefield, bitterness toward the king filled Ahithophel’s heart. By the time that Absalom activated his putsch against his own father, Ahithophel was on board supporting the mutiny:

Ahithophel quickly offered his services to Absalom, offering to assassinate his father David: “Please let me choose twelve thousand men and let me set out and pursue David tonight. And I will attack him while he is weary and exhausted and startle him, so that all the people who are with him will flee. Then I will strike and kill the king when he is alone, and I will bring all the people back to you. The return of everyone depends on the man whom you are seeking. Then all the people will be at peace” (2 Samuel 17:1-3). Ahithophel’s bitterness had morphed his own heart into that of a rebel and a murderer. The God who had bound Himself to David by covenant now stepped in to thwart the evil counsel of Israel’s premier counselor:

Ahithophel did not need a weatherman to know which way the Wind blows, to paraphrase Robert Zimmerman. The gall of bitterness and the bondage of unrighteousness (see Acts 8:23) had distorted his wisdom, leading to a tragic end.  As the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews said, a root of bitterness can spring up causing trouble, and by it many can become defiled (Hebrews 12:15).

King David was a man after God’s own heart (see Acts 13:22). Yet he was also guilty of adultery and murder. Ahithophel was aware of some of David’s real sins, but was not able to handle those matters in an ultimately redemptive way.

Old-New dynamics

Theodor Herzl’s ground-breaking utopian novel was titled Altneuland (Old-New Land). His dream of a reborn Zion in Israel’s once-green-and-pleasant-land fired up the imaginations of Jews worldwide – a reborn Jewish nation in a reborn Jewish homeland, once again taking its place as a sovereign nation on the world stage.

Along with the wonders of physical restoration can also come the repeat of the sins of bygone days. The bitterness and desire for revenge that motivated Ahithophel and ultimately destroyed him, can be found sprouting noxious buds among modern Ahithophels in today’s Israel’s body politic.

“Zeal for vengeance hath consumed me”

Famous politicians and outstanding generals have fallen pray to this dynamic, including former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman who has called PM Bibi Netanyahu “the scum of the earth” who “deserves to suffer in hell every day.” Lieberman has declared that Netanyahu’s “methods are just like those of Goebbels and Stalin.” A political commentator recently summed up matters here: “Avigdor Lieberman’s Failed Plan To Topple Netanyahu: The Russian politician’s surprise decision to pull out of coalition talks is only the latest echo of his undying ambition . . . The former foreign minister wants to see Netanyahu out of office, and he will do whatever he can to make it happen.”

Another leader who is riven with an Ahithophel-like syndrome is former Mayor of Jerusalem and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert is known for an extraordinarily bitter relationship with Netanyahu. In 2022, Olmert was found guilty in a defamation lawsuit filed by the Netanyahu family, paying $28,000 for having asserted in two interviews in April 2021 that the Netanyahu family were “irreparably” mentally ill.

In March 2023 Olmert spoke to world leaders in a public forum: “And I say, whoever loves the state of Israel has to act publicly, strongly, and aggressively against the Israeli government. If you love Israel, you have to spell it out in the bluntest possible manner: . . . because the government of Israel is the enemy of the state of Israel. And if you want to support the state of Israel, you have to act against the enemy of the state of Israel, and the enemy of the state of Israel is a government made up of thugs and terrorists and chauvinists and nationalists and brutal people, as they are.”  Olmert added, “I think that the present government of Israel is simply anti-Israeli . . . Those who are in favor of the state of Israel should be against the Prime Minister of the state of Israel.” In his Channel 12 interview, Olmert added: “I very much hope that the British Prime Minister will cancel the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister. I’m very happy that the US President isn’t inviting the Israeli Prime Minister. I very much hope that the US President and the British Prime Minister reevaluate their ties with the Israeli government.” The Ahithophelian desire for vengeance is on full display here.

 

Also in March 2023 Olmert addressed news media, declaring: “We'll be rioting and we will be raising the public opinion and we'll continue to oppose the government, publicly and . . .  in every square and street.” On March 28, 2023, Olmert addressed media in Jerusalem: “We now must get to the next stage, the stage of war, and war is not waged through speeches. War is waged in a face-to-face battle, head-to-head and hand-to-hand, and that is bound to happen here. While it’s great to see 100,000 people turn out to protest, that’s not what will clinch the real fight. The real fight will break through these fences and spill over into a real war.”

That same day, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai spoke at a mass protest outside Jerusalem’s Knesset buildings, saying, “Democratic countries such as ours can become dictatorships. But dictatorships can only return to be democracies through bloodshed. This is what history has taught us."

Vendettas and dividing the Promised Land

Former PM Ehud Barak is Israel’s most decorated soldier, Head of Sayeret Matkal (IDF Delta Force; he was Netanyahu’s commander there), Head of AMAN (IDF Military Intelligence), Minister of Defence and former Chairman of Israel’s Labor Party. There has been an ongoing historic rivalry between Barak and Netanyahu. In 1999, Barak defeated Netanyahu in the elections and become PM for a little more than a year. In subsequent elections, he was defeated by Bibi time and again.

Back in 2016, Barak announced that “Netanyahu’s reckless conduct endangers Israel . . . Netanyahu enabled a militant, nationalist minority to carry out a hostile takeover of his party, Likud; . . . to hijack our national agenda in the service of a messianic drive toward, as it’s often put, ‘a single Jewish state, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.’ This . . . spell[s] doom for the Zionist dream.”

Barak’s former Chief of Staff Gilead Sher (also Policy Coordinator for Barak, and co-chief negotiator 1999-2001 at the Camp David summit), Ami Ayalon, former director of Shayetet 13 (IDF Navy Seals) and the Shin Bet (Israel’s FBI), and Orni Petruschka are the founders of non-partisan political movement Blue White Future. These three men have been major catalysts of the mass demonstrations. They have been activists for years, working for the overthrow of Netanyahu and the Likud party.

Long before the questions of judicial reform arose in Israel, in an April 2012 NY Times article, these three stated: “Israel can and must take constructive steps to advance the reality of two states based on the 1967 borders, with land swaps – regardless of whether Palestinian leaders have agreed to accept it . . . Israel should first declare that it is willing to return to negotiations anytime and that it has no claims of sovereignty on areas east of the existing security barrier. It should then end all settlement construction east of the security barrier and in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. And it should create a plan to help 100,000 settlers who live east of the barrier to relocate within Israel’s recognized borders.”

In 2015 these three men advocated a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, the redivision of Jerusalem between Jews and Palestinians, etc. On January 15, 2019 they stated: “Anybody who wants to support Israel should keep in mind that only the vision of two states for two peoples can fulfill the Zionist dream of a secure and democratic home for the Jewish people.” They opposed President Trump’s moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem and campaigned for the UK to refuse to follow suit: “But we believe it would not be in Israel's interest for the UK move the embassy to Jerusalem.”

In 2019 they stated: “The choice Israelis must make today is between separating from the Palestinians into two nation-states, thereby maintaining Israel as the democratic and secure state of the Jewish people (albeit not in all of the territory of the Mandatory or Biblical Land of Israel), and annexation, which will bring the Zionist enterprise to its final end.” These are the clearly worded statements of the movers and shakers behind the move to overthrow the Netanyahu government.

Speaking at a June 2019 press conference in Tel Aviv, Barak called for an end to “Netanyahu’s rule with the radicals, racists and corrupt, with the Messianists and his corrupt leadership.” He declared that he was returning to politics in order to “topple Netanyahu.”  In July 2019 author and Barak biographer Calev Ben-Dor stated that “Ehud Barak has the energy, the venom and the gravitas to hurt Netanyahu in a way no other candidate seemingly can.” Later that month, Barak states that the “State of Israel is at a moment before the total dissolution of Israeli democracy.”

Black flags, blue flags

The present mass street demonstrations in Israel, the civil disobedience and blocking of freeways and airports all have deep political roots, as was detailed in three recent newsletters. The origins of this movement go back to the 1930’s during the British occupation, when communists and socialists considered all conservatives to be fascists, and practically excommunicated the pre-Likud movement from participation in political discourse. Today this same worldview thrives on the Left side of the political aisle. It finds fellow-travelers in parties of the center-left as well. It is not hard to find hatred for the moderate right and for Orthodox Jewish parties openly manifested in political discussion. The demonization of the Likud party and its coalition partners – and directed especially against Bibi Netanyahu over the past 20 years – is part of normal political discourse here.

What is new is the reshaping of the discourse. Starting on March 19, 2020, the Black Flags movement (initiated by three brothers and a sister – Eyal, Yarden, Dekel and Shikma Schwartzman) organized a convoy up to Jerusalem to push for legal attempts to remove Prime Minister Netanyahu from office. Israel’s Channel 13 presented an exposé in early 2020 that the Black Flags movement was heavily underwritten by Ehud Barak at that time.  On April 25, 2020, Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square was filled with 2,000 protesters opposed to a coalition agreement between Netanyahu’s Likud and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. Black-clad protesters carried blue and white Israeli flags ‘stained by black tears.’ Former Shin Bet head (GSS) Carmi Gillon  publicly blamed the Netanyahu-Gantz deal for destroying Israel’s parliament.

When Netanyahu lost the elections and stepped down in June 2021, the Black Flags movement declared victory. They released a statement: “Our beloved country faced the greatest threat since its inception — the dismantling of the democratic system and it becoming a dictatorship . . .  Now is the time for the elected leadership to rebuild the systems and work to strengthen democracy and all that that entails. We cleared the way for them. We now put down our black flag and proudly wave the flag of the State of Israel.”

Yet within a short time (November 2022), Netanyahu was on his way back to the PM’s office. Barak immediately got busy rousing the troops for another assault on the PM.

When you don’t like the election results

In a recent Hebrew podcast, Ha’aretz reporter Amir Oren spoke with Barak’s longtime confidant, lawyer Gilead Sher, who revealed that a small circle was convened after the November 2022 election to strategize and develop funding for a new anti-Bibi movement. Hosted by Yossi Kutchik (Barak’s former Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office), the group included Sher (Barak’s former Chief of Staff and Policy Coordinator); former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz; hi-tech entrepreneur, former fighter pilot, and left-wing political activist Orni Petruschka; former Deputy Attorney-General Dina Zilber, and Shikma Bressler, prominent founder of the Black Flags group.

At that time Sher and his colleagues set up the organizational and financial structure for the mass ‘spontaneous demonstrations’ and rioting that Israel has experienced since January 2023 – before Netanyahu had formed the government or had set up government policy on legal reform proposals. The subsequent protests and riots were not spur-of-the-moment responses to the government’s legal reform proposals. They were planned and financed weeks ahead of those events. In Sher’s telling, “The four of us met and very quickly, maybe a week or two, we were joined by a number of other people.”

Ahithophel and the call for revolt

Ehud Barak and Yair Golan (a former Deputy Chief of Staff) have recently been calling for an intensification of civil rebellion and large-scale resistance:

Barak: “We must increase the protest and end the negotiations immediately. To this end, the protest must increase and move to civil rebellion. Nonviolent disobedience . . . The script for civil rebellion has already been written by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and others. I call on all Israeli civilians to prepare to act, and when the call comes – answer it. We will fight, and we will not fear anyone or anything.”

Golan: “Civil revolt is not an exaggeration; we have to fight for democracy . . . We will present unequivocal and clear civil resistance, and if we have to reach a large-scale and non-violent protest, that is what we will do. I am calling here, within a reasonable framework and without resorting to violence – to do illegal things as well . . . In the fight for democracy, you have to do non-violent things that are on the fringes of the law – there is no choice but to do it”

Golan: “Shut down their stores, block the streets, bar all services . . .  Friends, against this evil, malevolent government we have only one path: a comprehensive, broad public rebellion . . . From tomorrow, we’re changing things. No more polite Saturday evening protests. No more lamentations and complaints. Just actions. Just results. Businesses will be shut down, services will come to a halt, roads will be blocked, and this arrogant person who presumes to rule, with the help of corrupt, extreme, and dark forces will be made to realize that the people are sovereign.”

A recent exposé of a closed WhatsApp chat was recently publicized on June 11, 2023 on Israel’s Channel 14. The group included former prime ministers Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, former IDF Chiefs of Staff Dan Halutz and Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya’alon, Yishai Hadas (founder of the Crime Minister movement), and leaders of the ‘Black Flags’ movement Roy Neuman, Shikma Schwarzman-Bressler and Eyal Schwarzman. The communications made public show that the real goal of the protests is to topple Netanyahu’s government.

King David is not Bibi, and Ahithophel is not Barak. Israel currently lives under a form of democratic government and not under a Davidic monarchy. Yet the spiritual principles that the Bible reveals, and the lessons we can all learn about guarding our hearts and not justifying vengeance and bitterness, are very much needed in our day. Ahithophel was a wise man, yet he still got poisoned by bitterness. Perhaps even modern Israeli heroes can suffer a similar fate from malevolent spiritual hands. Many hearts and minds can be defiled in Israel as a result.  No human leader of any political party will be able to ultimately solve Israel’s problems and challenges. Only Messiah Yeshua will succeed in establishing God’s righteousness and justice on earth as it is in Heaven, as His Second Coming (see Isaiah 11:3-5).

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

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