- “Why are the nations restless and the peoples plotting in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against YHVH and against His Mashiach (Anointed), saying, ‘Let’s tear their shackles apart and throw their ropes away from us!’” (Psalm 2:1-3)
What was true in the time of King David – the anointed ruler of the nation of Israel – is true in our day as well: the machinations and conspiracies of the superpowers of this earth always end up focusing on the Jewish people, their land and their destiny. This fixated and twisted dynamic could be called the world’s ‘Magnificent Obsession.’
In the same way as YHVH chose the children of Jacob to be His irrevocable priority people, so the prince of darkness has chosen the Jewish people – but for totally opposite purposes. Satan has chosen the Israeli nation to be the particular focus of his murderous madness and heinous hatred. How is this playing out in our day?
Jihadi warfare
Every Muslim who ‘signs on the dotted line’ – the classic Islamist texts of Quran and Hadith (Islamic legal tradition) – is spiritually bound to obey the words of Mohammed regarding the obligation of jihad – described as ‘the sixth pillar of Islam.’ It refers to military attack on Christians, Jews and Hindus until these groups are either vanquished, forced to convert to Islam, or destroyed by the mujāhidīn (jihad warriors).
- This is the highest calling a Muslim can engage in – armed jihad, according to the Hadith (authoritative Islamic book accompanying the Quran) “Muhammad once was asked: ‘What is the best deed for the Muslim next to believing in Allah and his messenger?’ His answer was: ‘To participate in jihad in Allah’s cause’” (Hadith, al-Bukhari 1:25).
- “When you meet the unbelievers (in battle), strike off their heads. Then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives. Afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates. Thus (you are commanded)” (Quran, Surah 47:4).
- “The Prophet… said: ‘The Hour (the Day of Judgment) will not begin until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. A Jew will hide behind a rock or a tree, and the rock or tree will say, ‘O Muslim, O slave of Allah! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’ – except for the gharqad [ed., box thorn], for it is one of the trees of the Jews” (Hadith, Sahih al-Bukhari 2926)
Blinded denial of jihadi warfare
The secular and post-Christian West is like unto a deer trapped in the headlights of an onrushing jihadi train – bent on ignoring the clear and present danger speeding toward them. They are intent on persuading themselves that:
- Jihad “has nothing to do with Islam” (France’s President François Holland)
- “We are at war with those who would commit terrorist attacks and who would corrupt the Islamic faith in the way that they do, to try to justify their terrorist actions” (U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder)
- “These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that . . . The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war. When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world” (September 17, 2001, POTUS George W. Bush)
- “Let’s be clear about ISIL – ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents . . . There has to be a clear rejection of these kind of nihilistic ideologies” (POTUS Barak Obama)
In a hard-hitting article “Hating Jews for Allah” (Jerusalem Report, February 9, 2015), Tibor Krausz points out:
- “Commentators who subscribe to the common ‘root-causes’ argument often seem willing to consider any plausible cause – from poverty to Israeli brutality to US-meddling in the Middle East – for Muslim bigotry and Islamic terrorism, except one: a homegrown ideology of supremacism fueled by traditional Islamic beliefs.”
It’s hard for some to believe, but this deadly blindness also dominates the thinking of the majority of Israel’s military, intelligence and judicial top brass.
The green seven-headed Iranian jihadi dragon
The Arabic term ‘Wahdat al-Saha’at’ (unity of the arenas) lies behind the jihadi terror state of Iran’s effort to gather its allies and all armed Islamist forces arrayed against Israel under a single Persian umbrella. Psalm 83 sketches most of those countries for us – a prophetic roster indeed:
- God, do not remain quiet! Do not be silent and, God, do not be still. For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.” For they have conspired together with one mind! They make a covenant against You: the tents of Edom [southern Jordan] and the Ishmaelites [the Arabian peninsula], Moab [central Jordan] and the Hagrites [Egyptian Sinai]; Gebal [Lebanon], Ammon [northern Jordan], and Amalek [Sinai], Philistia [Gaza] with the inhabitants of Tyre [Lebanon]; Assyria [northern Iraq] also has joined them; They have become a help to the children of Lot [Jordan]. Selah (Psalm 83:1-8)
Apart from the Yemeni Houthis who are not mentioned in Psalm 83, six of the nations currently involved in this present jihadi attack on Israel are described in this passage: Gaza, West Bank. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.
Woke violence
To hate Israel is to hate the God of Israel, as Asaph the worship-leader and Isaiah the prophet clearly declare:
- For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.” For they have conspired together with one mind. They make a covenant against You (Psalm 83:2-5)
- “In all their [the Jewish people’s] affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them” (Isaiah 63:9)
The mass anti-Israel and anti-Jewish neo-Nazi demonstrations rocking both Europe and American college campuses in recent months are funded by Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Qatar. They have been fostered over years through pre-positioning – the establishing of Chairs of Islamist and Arab thought and culture in top universities; in the seeding of both continents with Islamist organizations and illegal immigrants who have set up grass-roots jihadi networks (consider the 9/11 Hamburg cell). For the past few years, these sleeper cells have catalyzed woke leaders to organize supposedly ‘spontaneous’ demonstrations calling for the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state and for the establishment of a judenrein (Nazi term for ‘Jew-free’) Islamist terror state called ‘Palestine.’ One day after October 7, 2023, when Hamas had led horrific rapes, murders, tortures and kidnappings of Israeli children, teens, pensioners and adults, this neo-Nazi Islamist network was prepared, and they swung into gear, organizing massive demonstrations throughout Europe and America, calling for an Islamist Palestine ‘free from the River to the Sea’ – or, to speak plainly and without artifice – free of Jews from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.
The short-term crescendo of these demonstrations was seen in the pogrom attack on 3,000 Israeli soccer/football fans on October 7 and 8, 2024 in Amsterdam. This was quickly followed by a decision at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, issuing arrests for Israel’s Prime Minister and former Defense Minister on the false accusation of war crimes and genocide – something that woke demonstrators have been baying for over the past few years.
Weaponized lawfare
Israel is no stranger to international hatred and scorn. The Mesopotamian Balaam spoke a prophetic word over Israel, summing up this dynamic: “How am I to put a curse on him upon whom God has not put a curse? And how am I to curse him whom YHVH has not cursed? For I see him from the top of the rocks, and I look at him from the hills: Behold, a people who dwells apart, and is not considered to be [just another nation] living among the nations!” (Numbers 23:8-9). The God of Israel adds a divine footnote here in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who dishonors you I will curse” (ESV).
The United Nations proves the prophetic truth of Balaam’s declaration on a daily basis. Since 1948, there have been 226 Security Council resolutions related to Israel. The US directly condemned Israel in six resolutions and abstained on 19. The UN’s fixation over Israel can be demonstrated by considering one year out of many – the year 2022, where the General Assembly approved 15 anti-Israel resolution, versus 13 resolutions criticizing all other nations. Between 2015 and 2022 the General Assembly adopted 140 anti-Israel resolutions, as compared to 68 resolutions against all other countries. Here is the read-out for 2024: https://unwatch.org/2024-unga-resolutions-on-israel-vs-rest-of-the-world/. Indisputable proof of UN anti-Israel bias is freely available for those who are interested. This ancient hatred is quite at home on the banks of NYC’s East River, and has stretched it muscles there from the time of the inception of the State of Israel up to the present day.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established on July 1, 2002, after the Rome Statute of the ICC was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on July 17, 1998 as the court’s charter and governing document. As of October 2024 there are 125 ICC member states, 25 signatories who have not ratified the Rome Statute, and 41 states which have neither signed nor become parties to the Rome Statute. Four signatory states – Israel in 2002, the United States on May 6, 2002, Sudan on August 26, 2008, and Russia on November 30, 2016 – have informed the UN Secretary General that they no longer intend to become states parties and, as such, have no legal obligations arising from their signing of the Statute
Under the Rome Statute, the ICC can only investigate and prosecute ‘four core international crimes’ (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression) in situations where sovereign states are “unable” or “unwilling” to do so themselves. Even so, the jurisdiction of the court is stated as only being complementary to jurisdictions of domestic courts. The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes only if they are committed in the territory of a state party (which Israel is not) or if they are committed by a national of a state party. An exception to this rule is that the ICC may also have jurisdiction over crimes if its jurisdiction is authorized by the United Nations Security Council. Based on this last point, the nations of the world can conspire with the ICC in invalidating and overthrowing the first of the two points stated above.
Changing the judge’s horses in mid-stream
According to the ICC’s founding mandate, Israel cannot be investigated or prosecuted for three simple reasons: one: Israel has a functioning judicial system and has a solid track record of investigating itself; two, the jurisdiction of Israeli domestic courts takes priority over the ICC; three: since the UN does not recognize Israeli control over Gaza, the ‘crimes’ in question were not committed in the territory of a state party.
However, in a published opinion in August 2014, the ICC Prosecutor said that, as a result of Palestine’s new status being granted to it unilaterally by the ICC, Palestine was qualified to join the Rome Statute. In December 2014, the assembly of state parties of the ICC recognized Palestine as a ‘State’ without prejudice to any legal or other decisions taken by the court or any other organization. Palestine (a state that does not exist on the ground) acceded to the Rome Statute on January 2, 2015, and was recognized as a State party by the ICC on April 1, 2015. The fictional State of Palestine could now catalyze international legal suits against the Jewish state of Israel, in what is known as ‘lawfare’ – using judicial means to further destructive military purposes.
This scenario was very much on Israel’s mind when it originally refused to become a partner to the Rome Statute in 2002. It declared at that time in a written and appended note:
- “At the 1998 Rome Conference, Israel expressed its deep disappointment and regret at the insertion into the Statute of formulations tailored to meet the political agenda of certain states. Israel warned that such an unfortunate practice might reflect on the intent to abuse the Statute as a political tool. Today, in the same spirit, the Government of the State of Israel signs the Statute while rejecting any attempt to interpret provisions thereof in a politically motivated manner against Israel and its citizens. The Government of Israel hopes that Israel’s expressions of concern of any such attempt would be recorded in history as a warning against the risk of politicization, that might undermine the objectives of what is intended to become a central impartial body, benefiting mankind as a whole.”
Subsequent UN history has proved the validity of Israel’s sober concerns a thousand times over. The UN and the ICC are functioning as abusive bullies, stirring up international judgment and cursing of Israel (remember Genesis 12:3) even though Israel is not subject to the ICC’s authority or a party to their treaties. To add insult to injury, Israel has been highly exemplary in its prosecution of war against jihadis – who happen to also be enemies of the West. Hamas and its chief bankroller Qatar, on the other hand, have never come before the gnarled legal arm of the ICC.
Colonel Richard Kemp is a former British Army Commander of UK military forces in Afghanistan (leading Operation Fingal in Afghanistan from July to November 2003), Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia. He served with NATO and the UN, and participated in the Gulf War in Iraq. He is a consultant on international terrorism for both COBRA and the UK Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee, where he wrote the British forces doctrine on dealing with suicide bombings. Colonel Kemp recently addressed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, stating that “no army in the world acts with as much discretion and great care as the IDF in order to minimize damage. The US and the UK are careful, but not as much as Israel.”
A further bump in the road concerns the ICC chief prosecutor of nine years, Karim Khan, who is facing allegations of sexual nonconsensual behavior and coercion against a female aide over a period of 12 months. These matters raise concerns about conflicts of interest, as well as the independence and ethical foundation of both the inquiry and the inquirer.
An Arab media outlet bankrolled by Qatar, the Middle East Eye, does not mince words in describing the international end-game here – turning Israel into a pariah state, subject to the blows of international bullies: “In the long run, and in a more meaningful way, the ICC warrants cut Israel off from the international community in a very sharp way . . . The American reaction . . . cannot change the basic reality: Israel is swiftly becoming a pariah state. This isolation and de-legitimization of Israel can have practical and immediate effects such as encouraging military and other sanctions on Israel.” See also ‘ICC decision may mean European arms embargo on Israel’ (Globes, November 21, 2024).
Peace, peace – and there is no peace
The newspapers and cable TV stations of the world, as Isaiah says, “are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales . . . All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless” (Isaiah 40:15-17). While mainstream media (MSM) trumpet a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, the truth is far more interesting and less encouraging.
Lebanese Hezbollah began unilaterally shooting anti-tank weapons, rockets, drones and missiles into Israel on October 8, 2023. On that day Hezbollah declared that they were joining Hamas in jihad against Israel. Their targets were kibbutzim, moshavim and farms, towns and cities, civilian houses and shopping centers. An occasional army base was also targeted. But it should be remembered that there is some context here: Hezbollah has waged an Iran-sponsored war against Israel since 1982 – a total of 32 years. Iran’s Shi’ite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been the bankroller, trainer and arms supplier this entire time. At the beginning of the 32 year long war Hezbollah attacked U.S. Marine bases and Embassies, French paratrooper bases and Israeli military HQs in Lebanon, kidnapping and torturing U.S. diplomats and intelligence chiefs to death. But at this juncture, Hezbollah’s attacks are officially directed only against Israel.
The recent ‘cease-fire’ agreement between Israel and Lebanon, initialed and the spotlighted by world media, was actually not signed by Hezbollah; indeed, that organization is only mentioned once and in passing in the document’s Understanding #2: “From 04:00 hours (IST/EET), November 27, 2024 forward, the Government of Lebanon will prevent Hezbollah and all other armed groups in the territory of Lebanon from carrying out any operations against Israel.”
American diplomat Amos Hochstein has been functioned as POTUS Biden’s Special Envoy in this situation. He has declared that the current cessation of firing is actually a done deal: “We’re not going to stop; it’s not a temporary effort. It’s an enduring mechanism!” In this he echoed the words of POTUS Joe Biden: “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities!” But Israel’s perspective here is decidedly different. Prime Minister Netanyahu explained that this deal is not a peace treaty but is only a fragile cease-fire; it expires after 60 days; and Israel will immediately join battle again if Hezbollah violates this pending accord. The gaps between diplomatic doublespeak and behind-the-scenes negotiations are significant.
Israeli Channel 12 TV announced that US Special Envoy Hochstein made clear to Israel that there would be no deal if France were not a member of the international oversight body. Israel in turn insisted that France take back its threat to arrest Netanyahu if he set foot in France, based on the ICC warrants, and tone down its virulently anti-Israel words and actions.
Back in 2016, at the conclusion of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Shi’ite jihadi terror group also did not sign UN Security Council’s Resolution 1701. This Hezbollah sidestep led to the long-burning fuse which exploded on October 8, 2023 – one day after Hamas’ atrocities against Israel. The same side-stepping scenario is occurring again, this time with U.S. and French blessing.
- Over the last four decades Hezbollah (an Iranian-controlled Shi’ite terror group) has gradually taken over control of most of Lebanon from its original Christian, Sunni and Druze inhabitants. Through its Islamist reign of terror, it boastfully and mendaciously speaks in the name of all Lebanon while cruelly twisting the arm of that country’s citizens. To state matters clearly: the State of Lebanon does not have control of its own territory. That role is in the hands of Iran. So any deal ‘signed’ between Lebanon and Israel avoids stating the obvious – the problem is actually jihadi Iran’s jihadi proxy Hezbollah. Peace will only come when one of two things happens: either Hezbollah is totally crushed; or Iran orders Hezbollah not to attack Israel. Neither option is likely in the near future.
Yet, in spite of the diplomatic fudging and linguistic fog hanging over this process, POTUS Biden announced at the White House: “Today, after many weeks of tireless diplomacy, Israel and Lebanon have accepted a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot declared: “Force must give way to dialogue and negotiation. This has now been achieved in Lebanon.”
In other recent news, the United Nations refused to renew the contract of Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Under-Secretary-General and U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, due to her determination that Israel’s actions in Gaza could not be defined as ‘genocide.’ According to Nderitu, the term “genocide” encapsulates the Holocaust, the genocide perpetrated by the Hutus on the Tutsis in Rwanda, the Serbian attacks on Bosnian Muslims, and the killings being carried out in Sudan. But Nderitu has stated, according to the Wall Street Journal, that “as a legal matter, establishing a pattern of violence as a genocide requires demonstrating intent. Israel’s campaign of self-defense doesn’t qualify.”
- “The prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem, and who see a vision of peace for her when there is no peace” (Ezekiel 13:16)
- “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace’ – but there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14)
- “We waited for peace, but no good came – for a time of healing, but behold, terror!” (Jeremiah 8:15)
How should we then pray?
- Pray for the annulling of jihadi and superpower strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8)
- Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers
- Pray for the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel
- Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth
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:
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