Keep your eyes on the prize

My Yiddish-speaking parents were communists. They believed that socialist revolution held the key to a better world, and they poured their lives out in support of what they called ‘the progressive movement.’

They loved music. My dad used to be a cantor in the U.S. Army and as a youngster he sang in Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt’s children’s choir in Manhattan’s Spanish Harlem. Records were always playing in our house – ‘progressive music’ by the Weavers, the Almanac Singers, Paul Robeson, the Alexandrov Ensemble of the Red Army Chorus, etc.

One of my favorite songs was a powerful banjo-strummed tune by Pete Seeger called ‘Hold On.’ At that time I had no idea that this civil rights tune had its origins in an African-American spiritual titled ‘The Gospel Plow.’ The chorus still echoes in my mind, “Hold on, hold on! Keep your hand on that plow, hold on! Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on!”

Evidently Bruce Springsteen was similarly touched by this song, because in March 2005 he included it on his ‘We Shall Overcome: the Seeger Sessions.’

Shimon was holding on

Every Christmas, the story of baby Yeshua in Herod’s Temple is recounted by believers. Yeshua’s mother Miriam (Mary) and his adopted father Yosef (Joseph), both descendants of the House of David, brought the suckling Messiah up to the Mountain of YHVH in Jerusalem to dedicate Him according to Moses’ commandment in Exodus 13:2. Unbeknown to them,

“there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Shimon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. And he came by the Spirit into the Temple. And when the parents brought in the child Yeshua, to carry out for Him the custom of the Torah, then he took Him in his arms, and blessed God, and said, ‘Now, YHVH, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace according to Your [prophetic] word. For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all the peoples – a light for revelation for the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:25-32).

Though the cruelty of Roman oppression weighed heavily on all Jews in Judea, Shimon did not yield to the pressures of this difficult situation. He believed God’s prophetic word given to him by revelation, that he would not pass from this earth until he saw the coming Messiah who had been prophesied in Isaiah 49:6. Shimon held on until he witnessed with his own eyes this amazing Firstborn Son (Hebrews 1:6) of YHVH’s firstborn people (Exodus 4:22), born to Jewish parents and circumcised on the eighth day.

The Jewish author of the Epistle to the Hebrews adds his ‘Ohmayn!” to Shimon’s example: “We who have taken refuge have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:18).

Jerusalem is holding on

The prophet Isaiah encourages the Jewish people to hold on, to hold the line, to hold the fort – because another prophetic birth is soon coming – their own! The day is fast approaching when the remnant of Israel will receive the spirit of favor and intercessory supplications, and fall to our knees as did Joseph’s brothers, recognizing and submitting our hearts to Messiah Yeshua as David’s Greater Son (Psalm 110; Matthew 22:41-46):

· Before she was in labor, she delivered. Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be given birth all at once? As soon as Zion was in labor, she also delivered her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth but not give delivery? says YHVH. Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb? says your God (Isaiah 66:7-9)

We will not yield to the pressures of this difficult situation, but will hold on to God’s redemptive promises for the Jewish people. In days soon to come our nation will experience this profound spiritual rebirth, as Ezekiel agrees:

· Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the entire house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what YHVH GOD says: Behold, I am going to open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am YHVH, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. And I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, YHVH, have spoken and done it, declares YHVH’” (Ezekiel 37:11-14)

Explosions of Light

Yeshua is not only the Light of the world (John 8:12). He also promises to shine His glory in a special way on the Jewish people at a time when the entire planet will be in gross darkness. This is one of the most powerful prophetic promises spoken over the sons and daughters of Jacob:

· Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of YHVH has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples. But YHVH will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising (Isaiah 60:1-3)

Hold on! Hold Out! Hold Fast!

During the American Civil War, the Battle of Allatoona Pass was fought in Bartow County, Georgia, on October 5, 1864. On the day before the battle, the Union General William Tecumseh Sherman sent two messages by signal flag to urge the besieged garrison at Allatoona to hold out. They read as follows:

· “Sherman is moving in force. Hold Out!”

· “General Sherman says Hold Fast. We are coming.”

The Christian hymn writer Philip Paul Bliss was touched by this event, and composed the famous hymn “Hold the fort, for I am coming.”

· See the mighty host advancing, Satan leading on

Mighty men around us falling, courage almost gone!

Fierce and long the battle rages, but our help is near,

Onward comes our great Commander! Cheer, my comrades, cheer!

“Hold the fort, for I am coming,” Jesus signals still.

Wave the answer back to heaven: “By Thy grace we will!”

Jewish lessons about holding on from the days of Nazi Germany

To the average German in the mid-1930’s, it seemed that the Fatherland was rebounding manfully from the WWI swamps of economic, cultural and military despondency. The West was benignly looking the other way as Hitler re-armed in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Teutonic threats and political machinations were swallowing up neighboring Austria and Sudetenland. Nazi totalitarianism had become a matter of course.

The whittling away and eventual abandonment of civil rights for political opponents of the Third Reich and for despised racial groups (especially the Jews) was a small price to pay, many thought, for Germany to become the dominant European and world superpower. For most Germans the ‘risk-benefit’ trade-off made perfect sense. Only communists and Jews could possibly object, they said, and these were already classified as dangerous ‘enemies of the state.’ The termites of totalitarianism had eaten away at Germany’s former commitment to classic Western democratic values. Yet the speed at which democratic foundations had collapsed in Germany was still astonishing to many.

Yet European and American Jewry in that day were hesitant to raise a ruckus. Many community leaders rebuked watchmen raising the alarm. These leaders warned that drawing attention to German anti-Semitism would only make it worse for Jewish people everywhere. The leadership’s fear of being labeled ‘troublemakers’ or marginal served the Nazis well as they plotted the murder of world Jewry – euphemistically labeled the Endlösung der Judenfrage, ‘the final solution of the Jewish question.’

After the termination of WWII and the uncovering of the horrific murder of six million Jewish men, women and children, Jewish communities worldwide resolved to ‘Never Again’ be silent. soft-spoken or apologetic while Jews were being massacred with impunity and brutality. This aggressive and pro-active approach on the part of the Jewish community defending the Jewish state or opposing Soviet persecution of its Jewish citizens continues to be seen in our day.

We are witnessing parallels between the crushing of democratic rights of German citizens in Nazi days and some developments today. There are also parallels in how quickly the masses have accepted that certain groups in society are to be feared, condemned and treated as pariahs – undeserving of constitutionally ratified protections. The risk-to-benefit ratio used by some in our day to downplay, cover up, ignore or even justify physical damages from hastily approved and improperly vetted government mandated medical treatments – these behaviors find surprising and dangerous parallels to the atmosphere in Germany of the 1930’s. The cold-heartedness which tolerates and even approves of such policies underscores the spiritual climate in which we live.

There are those today who are uncomfortable discussing the reality of such historical parallels, who shy away from even considering such historical comparisons. “It will all blow over soon, and it’s really not that bad. The alternatives could be much worse,” some say. But now is the time to stand firm and to shine God’s light into dark places, to lift up the floor tiles and see what uncleanness might be concealed below. “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:13).

How should we then pray?

· Pray for God’s wisdom, discernment, provision and divine strategies to guide us in the very challenging days ahead

· 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:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES
BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Two trees, two cities, two choices

The Maccabees were mightily used by the God of Israel to bring military deliverance to Jacob’s children. From weakness they were made strong, they became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight (Hebrews 11:34). Barely two centuries later Messiah Yeshua walked the thorn-covered trails of Galilee, bearing chain-breaking gifts of light, healing, deliverance and eternal life – freely given to Israel’s scattered sheep, “a people who walked in darkness” (Isaiah 9:2). God’s heroes and deliverers – the gibor and the moshi’a – remain one of His time-honored strategies to break the power of the father of lies and to disconnect him from his infernal tools – the weapons and effects of sin.

Two trees

Many years ago in a land far away stood a garden planted by the hands of YHVH Himself. In the middle of the garden stood a beautiful tree, its delicious-looking fruit laden with promising health and nutrition (Genesis 3:6). Yet YHVH God had commanded Adam, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17). When Eve and Adam bit into the fruit of the forbidden tree, they underwent a spiritual transformation. Now they ‘knew good and evil,’ but not in the same way as YHVH, who knows all things without being infected by them (Genesis 3:22; 1 John 1:5). Our original father and mother disobeyed God and as a result were deathly infected by the virus of sin.

There was another tree in Eden, and its location was also no accident: “The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 2:9). The devilish Temptation involved stampeding humankind into making a fateful choice: to eat from the forbidden tree, leading to a future history soaked in sin and rebellion. Mighty cherubim with flaming and swiftly spinning rotor-like swords would then need to forever stand guard, preventing man and woman accessing and eating from the second tree, the tree of life. “East of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).

Two cities

There are two cities intertwined with mankind’s destiny. One city is founded on man’s effort to establish his own values and to keep YHVH’s values at arm’s length. The other city is the beloved home of all who submit to the God of Israel with a joyous heart.

Now all the earth used the same language and the same words. And it came about, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let’s make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:1-4).

The name of this first city was Babylon. Moses gives us YHVH’s perspective through a Hebrew word play in Genesis 11:9: The name of the city was called “Babel, because there YHVH confused (in Hebrew, balal) the language of all the earth. And from there YHVH scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” In modern Hebrew the same onomatopoeia exists. ‘Lebalbel’ (based on the same three root letters BBL) means to confuse or to communicate a confusing sound or message. And so God named that city ‘Babel’ or ‘confusion’ and the dwellers in that city could aptly be called ‘the confused ones!’

The founder of Babylon was a man named Nimrod: “Nimrod . . . became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before YHVH . . . And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel . . . in the land of Shinar” (Genesis 10:8-10). The personal name Nimrod comes from the Semitic root MRD which mean rebellion. Nimrod means ‘we will rebel’ or ‘let us rebel.’ This is the spiritual inheritance of that first city, founded by rebellious men and women and architecturally designed in their rebellious image.

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated from his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich from the excessive wealth of her luxury” (Revelation 18:1-3)

The other city is Jerusalem, also known as Zion. The city name ‘Jerusalem’ is connected from ancient days to the Semitic/Hebrew root SLM, or peace (today pronounced ‘shalom’). The alternate name of the city is ‘Zion,’ probably an ancient Hittite word. Originally it was the name given to a Hittite fortress in that location: “David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David” (2 Samuel 5:7). The city of Zion is called the footstool of God in Scripture (1 Chronicles 28:2). Messiah Yeshua calls Jerusalem “the city of the great King” in Matthew 5:35. It is a city especially close to God’s heart:

“Therefore YHVH says this: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with compassion . . . and YHVH will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem’” (Zechariah 1:16-17)

The city of Zion that we know on earth has a heavenly counterpart – a specific place in Heaven also known as Zion. There is a correspondence and a sympathetic vibration going on between these two realities, and the Temple Mount is ground zero for that interface. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels” (Hebrews 12:22).

The history of mankind is thus ‘A Tale of Two Trees’ and ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’ Men and women have, for the most part, continued to choose the wrong city and the wrong tree. God’s police force continues to stand, as they have for millennia – angelic bodyguards at the doors of eternal life.

The Circle of Life

The angel Gabriel gave some sobering advice to Daniel during the prophet’s last recorded revelation: “Go your way, Daniel, for these words will be kept secret and sealed up until the end time. Many will be purged, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly. And none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand” (Daniel 12:9-10).

We live in days of prophecy, in the season where all are being constantly surprised by unexpected developments. The ‘princes’ and world powers are trying to unite with ‘one purpose,’ honing their strategies to ‘speak with one language.’ The simmering rebellion of Adam’s descendants is raising the ante,’ ramping up the challenges to YHVH of the Hebrews and to His divine order. The Tower of Babel is once again under construction.

Some historians like to contrast two views of history – linear (moving in a straight and non-repeating line) and cyclical (going through a cycle, age or pattern, and eventually coming back full circle to the initial starting point). The Biblical view of history is decidedly cyclical, beginning with man and woman in close fellowship to God, and ending with man and women in eternal divine fellowship. Humankind begins in a garden (the Garden of Eden) and ends in a city (the New Jerusalem). And it is the God of Jacob who continues to hold both eternity and the hearts of mankind in His hands:

Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My plan will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’ . . . Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, I will certainly do it. (Isaiah 46:9-11)

Schadenfreude at the altar

A wicked generation acts wickedly, refusing to understand God’s ways or to see His hand. Sadly, something similar has occurred in the history of Christianity. Many theologians have gladly recognized God’s judgment and discipline on the Jewish people – national Jewish sin, the agony of the Exile, etc. – while simultaneously being overjoyed that the doors of the Kingdom have been opened to the nations. Yet they have not grasped that the same God who scattered Israel has never stopped loving her and is presently regathering her: “Hear the word of YHVH, you nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away, and say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and He will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock” (Jeremiah 31:10).

Christian theology often exhibits a peculiar sin of the heart – the Germans call it schadenfreude (a response of joy at others’ misfortunes) – when considering the judgment on Israel. Many exhibit a cold-hearted response when asked to consider Jacob’s coming blessing, victory and full restoration to original status. But history is coming full circle. The merry-go-round can’t be stopped. The clock needs to run out. God’s vision and plan for a world capital in a Jewish Jerusalem will trump any Babylonian substitute. “For the gifts and calling of God [on the Jewish people] are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Though evil men cannot understand this, and though they bridle at a special calling, status, borders and destiny for the Jewish people, God smiles, even laughs as His plan comes together (see Psalm 2:1-6).

You, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon. For YHVH of armies says this: “After glory He has sent me against the nations that plunder you, for the one who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. For behold, I am going to wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that YHVH of armies has sent Me. Shout for joy and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, declares YHVH. And many nations will join themselves to YHVH on that day . . . Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that YHVH of armies has sent Me to you. And YHVH will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem (Zechariah 2:7-12)

Two choices

Nearly ninety years ago, the demonic spirit of Nazism rose up out of medieval cobblestones to haunt the streets and courtyards of Germany. Hitler’s stated goals were threefold: confront Communism; counter rampant inflation; make Germany great again (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschlandlied#Official_adoption). And of course, there was that maniacal and genocidal urge to murder the entire Jewish nation . . . Yet the proud boast of a visionary Third Reich crumbled along with many beautiful German cities. That 1945 collapse should give pause to the leaders of today’s Western world. The West is similarly on the brink of the abyss economically, socially, morally and spiritually. The ease and blindness with which Western democratic principles and traditions are crumbling takes the breath away from those who have the spiritual and historical insight to understand.

Flee from the midst of Babylon and each of you save his life! Do not perish in her punishment, for this is YHVH’s time of vengeance. He is going to repay to her what she deserves (Jeremiah 51:6)
Come out from her midst, My people, and each of you save yourselves from the fierce anger of YHVH (Jeremiah 51:45)
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive any of her plagues. For her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her offenses” (Revelation 18:4)

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols!” (1 John 5:21). Choose to eat from the right tree – the tree of obedience. And make sure that you are living in the right city – Zion and not Babylon. The days are getting shorter.

How should we then pray?

Pray for wisdom, discernment, provision and divine strategies to guide us in our choices during these very challenging days
Pray for protection, discernment and salvation to visit Jacob’s children across the globe and especially in Israel
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:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

These are the Days of Izvestia

On March 15, 1917 the editorial board of the Communist Party newspaper Pravda welcomed a new member – Joseph Stalin. The name chosen for this flagship journal –‘Pravda’ – is the Russian word for ‘truth,’ though its original usage also referred to ‘justice.’ The first medieval law code of Kiev Rus (ancient Russia) was known as Russkaya Pravda (‘Russian Justice’).

Pravda was the official mouthpiece of Russia’s Communist Party, while its journalistic twin Izvestia (the Russian word for ‘news’) represented the Supreme Soviet (Russia’s top governmental body) and its positions on foreign affairs. Ironically, and due to the fact that many Russians knew that they were being lied to from both sides of the journalistic aisle (the Party and the Supreme Soviet), many Slavs tended to believe the exact opposite of what appeared in print.

A sly proverb was whispered quietly in those days: “In Pravda there is no news, and in Izvestia there is no truth.” (В <Пра́вде> нетизве́стий, ав <Изве́стиях> нетпра́вды; V ‘Právde’ net izvéstij, a v ‘Izvéstijax’ net právdy).

Stalin and fake news

The last few years have seen the term ‘fake news’ rise in prominence. It might be helpful to consider some origins of this modern expression.

In 1923 Stalin was credited as having coined the word dezinformatsiya (dis-information), though the term was probably created by Józef Unszlicht, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian CHEKA and later of the OGPU (State Political Directorate). A special intelligence office (‘Service A’) was formed whose tasks included ‘black propaganda’ – the active manipulation of an enemy nation’s intelligence system through the injection of credible but misleading data. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia of 1952 defined dezinformatsiya as the dissemination of “false information with the intention to deceive public opinion.” A classic example of these activities is found in George Orwell’s magnum opus 1984, a science-fiction fantasy based on Soviet Russian propagandistic ‘active measures,’ universal surveillance and behavioral modification.

Sir Winston Churchill noted on February 22, 1906 that “there are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”

The prophet Jeremiah twice warned that Judah’s leaders were foisting fake news upon the Jewish people when they avowed that God was not about to bring judgment or plagues on Judah, and that all would work out just fine in the very near future. These false shepherds were proclaiming that the Babylonians would simply fade away and Jerusalem would not be destroyed; God’s judgment could be averted. Jeremiah wryly noted that “they dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). The ‘prophetic journalists’ of Jeremiah’s day may have controlled the narrative, but their hearts were cold and their message was false. Those who opposed Jeremiah’s prophetic words stood in opposition to God’s perspectives, whether about events close at hand or far into the future.

Paul Simon sums up the quandary some of us may be facing these days, “Who’ll be my role model, now that my role model has gone?” (in ‘You Can Call Me Al’). Many of us are discovering that we can no longer trust most of what the media says regarding current events (see below for more on this subject). So, if ‘Izvestia’ is not ‘právdy’ – if what is called ‘the news’ is clearly no longer ‘the truth’ – how can normal people figure out what’s going on?

The role of media in telling lies

An excellent book has recently been published. ‘Live not by lies’ (Rod Dreher, Sentinel, 2020). An accomplished journalist whose work has appeared in top newspapers, Dreher presents a prophetic challenge to our Western civilization. Totalitarianism is rising in the West, he notes, and its tactics are not a ‘copy paste’ of those in ‘1984’ – at least the way Orwell had then stated it, “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping down on a human face – forever.”

Dreher warns us that ‘soft totalitarianism,’ the ‘Pink Police State,’ is coming in through our back door, worming its way into the hearts and minds of the West. Hedonism, narcissism, the pursuit of personal pleasure and satisfaction are the gods being worshipped today. While it is true that the Pilgrims sailed to America with a purpose and in pursuit of freedom – in order to live virtuous lives and to freely worship God – it is also true that their foundational goals have mostly faded from the public conscience and consciousness of the West. Instead, our eye-gates and ear-gates are tuned to other channels, all of which are connected to the ever present and all-watchful ‘Sauron’s Eye’ of Big Tech. This beast unwinkingly stores our thoughts, desires, purchases, passions and sins in secret clouds – waiting for the day when the information we have so freely given will be used against us to enslave and control.

Remember the media’s recent malignant role in dezinformatsiya – in falsifying the nature and goals of America’s 2020 street riots (as well as minimizing the physical damage caused); in advocating over the years the shameless violation of biblical perspectives and ethics regarding gender; in acting as a shill and stampeder of the masses for Big Pharma, concealing and twisting facts about many aspects of the current medical situation while pouring fear into billions of hearts; and in lulling whole populations to sleep about the creeping violations and neutering of civil rights now being legalized throughout the Western world through supposedly ‘temporary and emergency authorizations.’ As Edward Snowden recently pointed out, “the virus is harmful, but the destruction of rights is fatal.”

Mass demonstrations and riots in France, Italy, the Netherlands, etc, combined with an underwhelming response to free booster shots in Israel all demonstrate the free-fall loss of credibility that mainstream media (MSM) is garnering through its propagandistic narrative and tendentious reportage.

Those who basically receive their news from mainstream media on any of these abovementioned issues may not be up to date on what’s happening across the planet. In the same way as most people who listen to MSM do not understand what is going on in the Middle East and with Israel (since they are being fed a steady diet of jaundiced anti-Israel propaganda) – regretfully the same is true regarding these abovementioned issues. We suggest that it is worth your time and effort to get a more balanced and accurate handle on what is going on by digging more deeply and more broadly. It is even worth consulting the very sources that MSM and Big Tech boycott and censor.

‘Pravda’ (whether in Eastern or Western MSM form) can no longer be seen as a dependable source for either news or truth. Cracking open the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation is a better place to begin.

Last Days News

Rachel and I thank God for the time we spent living and ministering in Russia. One of the rich treasures we witnessed was how believers in Messiah Yeshua have suffered for their faith and through that suffering have come to understand more of God’s heart and grace. For older Russian-speaking believers, the reality of following after Yeshua and of bearing His cross was not a dry theological study but a living reality. For these precious brothers and sisters, the concept of Last Days suffering as believers was not an abstract issue to be experienced only by those on earth after the Rapture – it was a pillar at the center of their lives.

In the West today, believers often place great stress on experiencing a fulfilled life, having a good job and warm relationships, pursuing fun-filled leisure activities, etc. It may come as a rude shock for some of us to consider what the Scriptures say about the Last Days:

But realize this, that in the Last Days difficult times will come (2 Timothy 3:1)
Know this first of all, that in the Last Days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts (2 Peter 3:3)

Messiah Yeshua tells us that one of the benchmarks of the Last Days will be family splits and love growing cold:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:34-35; see Micah 7:5-6)
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12)

In his song ‘Precious Angel’ Bob Dylan laments how so many of his close friends refuse to move beyond the coolness of being ‘woke,’ while simultaneously refusing to really wake up and open their eyes to what’s going down:

My so-called friends have fallen under a spell
They look me squarely in the eye and they say, “Well all is well”
Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high
When men will beg God to kill them and they won't be able to die

(‘Precious Angel’; Bob Dylan, 1978, © Bob Dylan Music Co.)

Yet the God of Israel promises strong words of encouragement to the Jewish people. In the Last Days, after terrible things have befallen the sons and daughters of Jacob, YHVH will cause spiritual and physical revival to break out among them: “When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the Latter Days you will return to YHVH your God and listen to His voice” (Deuteronomy 4:30).

How to deal with unanticipated Last Days developments

Everyone who loves the Bible looks forward to the promised coming of Messiah. In 1 Peter 1:12 we are told that “even angels long to look into these things.” The Hebrew prophets “searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the times and circumstances” of these Messianic prophecies (1 Peter 1:10-11). In our day, many of us have a misplaced confidence that we will easily recognize the breakout scenarios leading to the final great eschatological events. It is true that these events will center in on the Jewish people; that there will be a rise in anti-Semitism, a gathering first of Middle Eastern nations and then of all nations against the Jewish state. Some of us are also aware that the amazing Jewish army of Ezekiel 37 will be birthed by an astounding move of God’s Spirit, doing exploits in the power of God.

Yet few of us would have imagined that the forces of the anti-Messiah would be activating their own Last Days dynamics and prepositioning strategies – driven by their hunger for world control and domination – under the seemingly benign cover of world health and the controlling of viral diseases. Global pressures are increasing. Experimental treatments having unacceptable levels of dangerous side-effects are being strong-armed on all ages and conditions of people under threat of civil liberties being ‘temporarily’ suspended. International surveillance systems are being ramped up, blocking trade and travel across the planet. Yet at the same time millions of people refuse to be intimidated, cowed or controlled. They are taking a stand for the liberties and rights they still have, at least on paper. Let us press in to discern the heart and mind of the God of all spirits – the One who has promised to restore and revive Israel – asking for His strength, courage, strategies and help.

How should we then pray?

Pray for wisdom, discernment, provision and divine strategies to guide us in these very challenging days.
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:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Three fairly exciting new developments

The world is going through intense birth pangs. We are also in the process of giving birth – to three new babies. I believe that these opportunities are worth sowing into. Here they are. Pray with us as to what God would have you do in terms of standing with us in bringing these babies into full birth.

‘Shtetl Dreams’ – our new recording

We have been working on a new musical project – nine songs, some very old, some old, some new. Four of them are in Yiddish, one in Quebecois French, one is Jewish reggae, one is a song that Rachel wrote when she was 18 with the Star of David Singers (reworked, tweaked and even better!). The Yiddish songs and lyrics have been reworked and rewritten by Avner. One goes back to Russia of the 1850’s and is performed in original pre-electric klezmer style; one goes back (the original poetry) to 350 A.D. and 1450 A.D. (the melody) with totally new words and medieval instrumentation. All of them have an intensely biblical and prophetic focus. As always, we have turned to the cream of the crop of Israeli musicians to help us flesh out our vision, as well as to some budding Messianic Jewish talent.

We have recorded over 90% of the project. After that comes mixing, mastering and production costs – close to $20,000 USD.

Translating ‘Israel the Key to World Revival’ into Polish

Avner’s foundational book (IKWR) lays out the sweep of Biblical teaching on the Jewish people, their calling and gifts, their successes and failures, their future both difficult and amazingly glorious, and their indispensable role in the establishment of world revival. Messiah’s return and the establishment of His glorious throne in Jewish Jerusalem. Avner has been teaching college and university level courses on these subjects at various Polish institutes over the past five years. He and Rachel have an appreciation and love for Poland – the historical birthplace for much creative flowering of Jewish literature, music, philosophy and art before all this was crushed by the Nazi juggernaut.

One of Avner’s Polish students (a professional translator) received a divine burden to translate this book into Polish, and another good Polish friend who has spent many years in Israel and is stellar in media and the Polish language, are cooperating on producing a user-friendly translation which could prayerfully have some influence on modern Polish believers. We feel that this is a redemptive gift to the Polish people who recently have been going through testing at an international level regarding their own hearts – both regarding blessing the Jewish people and coming to terms with the murderous tragedy which was so recently played out on Polish soil.

Costs here involve translation, editing, printing and distribution, something totaling approximately $12-15,000 USD. We believe that this is an opportunity to sow grace and truth into Polish hearts at a time of deep need.

Filming the Ezekiel 37 Institute course in English

Over the past five years we have developed the E37 Institute courses in Hebrew – a training for Israeli believers based on the prophetic vision in Ezekiel 37:1-14. We have taught this course in Hebrew three times (Jerusalem twice and once in Beersheva). The time has come to make this course available in English on the internet. My son David and I have been translating the materials into English and reworking the PowerPoint presentations as well.

We have been building a camera-friendly section of our recording studio (now half-completed), and have secured the services of a top-notch Israeli Messianic believer to do all the filming.

Costs here involve completion of the camera-friendly studio; hiring of the cameraman for the entire project; film editing and graphics/production costs. We have received one encouraging contribution so far toward this project. Funds needed to complete this project would be again in the range of $15-20,000 USD.

We encourage you to pray about these projects and to ask the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob what role and part you can play in helping us equip and reach the House of Israel, as well as reaching all those who desire to stand with the Jewish people as the shadows grow longer and the Day grows nearer.

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Hebrew translation of August 8 2021 newsletter - תשעה עיוורים הודים והפיל הישראלי

תשעה עיוורים הודים והפיל הישראלי

מאת אבנר בוסקי

הערה – מאמר זה נכתב ויצא לאור ב-8 לאוגוסטת 2021. מאז יש כמה התפתחויות חשובות כגון הנושא של חיסוני ילדים, ההחלתה של ה-FDA שנותן אישור (כביכול) לחיסון אך עם הגבלות ברורות, וכו'. לדאבוני מאמר זה לא נוגע בפרטים חשובים אלה.

משל הודי עתיק (500 לפנה"ס בערך) מספר על תשעה עיוורים שלא נתקלו בפיל מעודם. ואז נתבקש מכל אחד מהם לגעת בגופו של הפיל, ולתאר את החיה שמיששו. מן הסתם היו התיאורים שלהם שונים מאוד! כל אחד התעקש שהתובנות האישיות שלו בנוגע לזהותו של הפיל הן האמת היחידה, והתנגד נחרצות לשמונת התיאורים האחרים. וכך התעורר אצל כל אחד מהם החשד שכל השאר פשוט שקרנים. בסופו של דבר החלו התשעה להתנגח ולהכות זה את זה. למרות שכל אחד מהם תיאר נכונה את החוויה האישית שלו, איש מהם לא הצליח לקלוט את התמונה הגדולה יותר.

השנה וחצי האחרונות טילטלו את העולם כולו. רבים מאיתנו מרגישים שאנחנו מקשיבים לתשעה הודים עיוורים. לפעמים נדמה שיש יותר תיאוריות והסברים למאורעות הקשורים לקורונה מכפי שיכלו לייצר אפילו 900 הודים עיוורים. הכתובים מבהירים:

"בימים ההם אין מלך בישראל, איש הישר בעיניו יעשה" (שופטים כ"א 26).

"כל דרך איש ישר בעיניו, ותוכן ליבות ה' " (משלי כ"א 2).

'רגל הפיל' - השנה וחצי האחרונות

חלק ניכר מהדיעות והעמדות השונות שאפשר למצוא באינטרנט בנוגע לנגיף הקורונה מציירות, מן הסתם, תמונה חלקית, המזכירה את נקודת ההשקפה של כל אחד מההודים העיוורים. ההצהרות התקיפות שנשמעות - חלקן מבוססות על ניסיון, חלקן על נתונים סטטיסטיים. חלק מהן נובעות ממניעים פוליטיים, אחרות ממניעים כלכליים ומהתבססות על תיאוריות מתחום מדעי החברה.

המאמר הזה נכתב בהקשר ישראלי ומתוך השקפת עולם ישראלית. הוא משקף את מה שקורה כאן, את הדיונים שמתקיימים בעברית בקרב דוברי עברית, למרות שאפשר למצוא בו הקבלות ויישומים שמתאימים גם למדינות אחרות בעולם.

חבר יקר שנפטר לפני זמן מה וניחן במתנת הנבואה, חזה לפני כעשר שנים מגיפה שתפרוץ ברחבי העולם. הוא אמר ש"המגיפה הראשונה תתגלה בסופו של דבר כפחד בלבד", אבל זו שתבוא אחריה תהיה חמורה בהרבה. הדים ל"מגיפת הפחד הראשונה" הזו ניתן למצוא בכתבת שער שפורסמה לאחרונה בשבועון ניוזוויק, תחת הכותרת 'וריאנט יום הדין'. ואכן, פחד הוא עדיין אחד ההיבטיםהעיקריים שהתקשורת מתמקדת בו.

Доверяй, но проверяй

בזמנו לימדו את נשיא ארה"ב רונלד רייגן להשתמש בביטוי הרוסי כלומר, "תאמין, אבל תוודא", כשדובר על הצורך בחשיבה צלולה ושליטה בפרטי המשא ומתן בנוגע לנשק גרעיני. העולם עובר בימינו משבר בדיוק בתחום הזה של ודאות ואמון. אנשים רבים לא מוכנים ולא מסוגלים לבטוח ברשויות ובבעלי סמכות, בין שמדובר בסמכות פוליטית, ובין שמדובר בסמכות כלכלית, דתית או רפואית. אחת הדוגמאות לכך בארץ היא ארבעה מסעי בחירות שעברנו, בלי שהצלחנו להגיע לרוב מכריע. ציבור הבוחרים הישראלי מפולג בנושאים רבים (ופילוג דומה קיים גם באנגליה ובארה"ב). כשאין אמון, הצורך לבחון ולאמת הופך לחיוני ואקוטי יותר מתמיד.

'אוזן הפיל' - השינוי בחברה ובתקשורת'

הסופר והסוציאליסט הבריטי ג'ורג' אורוול עבר שינוי טראומתי בתפיסה שלו במהלך שירותו בצבא הרפובליקני במלחמת האזרחים הספרדית (שלהי שנות ה-30 של המאה ה-20). בספרו "מחווה לקטלוניה" הוא מתאר איך חסידי סטלין ה"פרוגרסיבים" שינו את עורם והפכו למחברי "אווירה נוראית שנולדה כתוצאה מפחד, חשד, שנאה ותקשורת מצונזרת". בספרו "מדוע אני כותב ועוד מסות" (1946, תורגם לעברית ב-1984) הוא אומר ש"כל שורה של חיבור רציני כלשהו שכתבתי מאז 1936 נכתבה, בישירות או בעקיפין, נגד משטרים טוטליטריים".

צנזורה ושליטה טוטליטרית במחשבות הן נושאים מרכזיים ביצירת המופת של אורוול "1984". זהו סיפור בדיוני וקשה על עולם שנלכד בקורי העכביש של התעמולה ה"פרוגרסיבית". בעולם האימה שמתאר אורוול, ממשלות טוטליטריות מפרסמות עדכוני חדשות יומיים, ואז עורכות, מעדכנות ומשכתבות את תוכן הידיעות שוב ושוב. בעולם שאורוול מתאר, הנתון לשליטת התקשורת, הפכה התקשורת המרכזית (MSM - Main Stream Media) לסמכות המכריעה ולספקית הכשרה היחידה של השקפה וערכים "נאותים" (פוליטיקלי קורקט). אורוול העניק לעולם המודרני מתנות ספרותיות בדמות ערכים כמו האח הגדול, משטרת המחשבות" (thought . ."מונחים נוספים שהמציא משתמשים באנגלית מודרנית, ביניהם "שִׂיחָדָש" , "לא-אנשים" ו"חושבפשע.

יש תחושה שהעולם שלנו נחטף בידי הסיוט שאורוול מתאר. חמש החברות האמריקניות הגדולות ביותר בתחום טכנולוגיית המידע הן גוגל, אפל, פייסבוק, אמזון ומיקרוסופט. יש להן אפילו שם כולל - "ביג טק". גם לטוויטר יש מקום מכובד ברשימת חברות הטכנולוגיה המובילות (וגם לנטפליקס), אבל בשלב זה הן עדיין לא נכללות בחמש חברות הביג טק.

תופעה חברתית בשם "תרבות הביטול" פושטת בשנים האחרונות בערוצי תקשורת שונים. בדרך כלל היא באה לידי ביטוי בצנזורה והשתקת קולות במרחב הציבורי, קולות שנתפסים בעיני השמאל כמיושנים, שמרנים, לא מספיק מתקדמים. ההתנהגות הדיקטטורית הזאת מופנית לעיתים קרובות כלפי פוליטיקאים שאינם נמנים עם השמאל ולכן נתפסים כלא תקינים בעיני קובעי הטון בערוצי התקשורת המרכזיים, בעלי הנטיות השמאלניות למדי. החיצים של תרבות הביטול מופנים בין השאר נגד מי שדיעותיהם והמוסר שלהם מבוססים על ערכי דת ומסורת, מדינת ישראל, ציונות, נשיא ארה"ב לשעבר דונלד טראמפ וכן הלאה. גם אי פי ורויטרס.דיעות רפואיות שאינן נחשבות כתקינות זוכות לטיפול דומה מצד חברות הביג טק ונחסמות או מוּסרוֹת מהרשת.

ב-2 באוגוסט 2021 הודיעה טוויטר ש"לראשונה... תשתף פעולה עם רשתות התקשורת והחדשות ורויטרס במטרה לקדם ולעודד פרסום מידע מדויק ומהימן", ו"כדי להילחם בתופעת ההפצה של מידע שקרי", כלומר, במטרה לסייע בחיסול כל תחרות אפשרית בשליטה של חברות התרופות המובילות (ה"ביג פארמה") בשוק החיסונים. רשת ה-בי. בי. סי. תיארה את קרטל המידע החדש הזה במונחים חיוביים, ואף הכריזה שהשילוש הטכנולוגי הזה "ישים קץ להפצת מידע שקרי", "יספק תגובת נגד להפצת מידע מטעה" ו"יסיר תוכן שקרי ומטעה מרחבי הרשת". בפברואר 2021 הודיעה פייסבוק על צעדים דומים שבכוונתה לנקוט, בעוד חברי התקשורת המרכזית (mainstream media) קראו לצעדים קיצוניים עוד יותר. לפני חודש השעתה יוטיוב את פרסומי חברת התקשורת האוסטרלית סקיי ניוז לאחר שזו פרסמה מידע אודות גילויים רפואיים חדשים במלחמה בקורונה.

אנשים רבים האמינו בעיוורון מוחלט שאילי התקשורת החברתית אכן מאמינים בחופש הביטוי, חופש הדיון ובזכות לצאת במיזמים חדשים. אבל האשליה הזו נופצה לרסיסים בידי המציאות. האמת היא שאנחנו עדים לצמיחתה של תופעה חדשה - "עולם חדש ואמיץ" של דיקטטורה בתחום התקשורת החברתית. הפעם לא מדובר בדיקטטורה מרקסיסטית של מעמד הפועלים, אלא בדיקטטורה חברתית, בשליטתם של כמה מעשירי הקפיטליסטים בעולם - שליטי הבובה המיליארדרים.

"!על כך היה ג'ורג' אורוול אומר: "הזהרתי אתכם

לא משנה מה העמדה הפוליטית שלך, ההתפתחויות האלה בתחום הצנזורה מהוות אתגר עצום בפני אלה שמתייחסים ברצינות לאזהרות שעולות מתוך "1984" ומתפללים על כך.

'חדק הפיל' - ערפל המלחמה'

בשנת 1942 תיאר ווינסטון צ'רצ'יל את המלחמה שהתנהלה בחזיתות שונות באירופה: "שדות הקרב הציוריים הפכו לים של בוץ, שלמרבה החסד לוטים בערפל המלחמה" (מתוך Thoughts and Adventures). גם ראשיתו של המשבר הרפואי שהעולם נתון בו היום לוטים בערפל, ביניהם:

מוצאו של וירוס הקורונה

מידת האיום הפיזי שהווירוס מהווה

מידת היעילות של צעדי המניעה הננקטים מפני הווירוס

קשרים אפשריים בין מחקר בתחום הנשק הבילוגי ופיתוח וירוס הקורונה בסין ובארה"ב

התיעוד הכתוב שהולך וגדל בנוגע לפטנטים הקושרים ארגונים מדעיים ופרמקולוגיים עם פיתוח וירוס הקורונה עצמו, חיסונים נגד קורונה והמרכיבים השונים שלהם וטכנולוגיות לבדיקות קורונה. ההשלכות הכלכליות הן כמובן עצומות

נטישת הכללים המסורתיים של פיקוח, יושרה ובדיקה מעמיקה של החיסונים לעומת תופעות לוואי ורעלים שהחיסונים עלולים

להכיל.

מוצאו של הווירוס

כבר בתחילת הדרך הוגדרה סין כמוקד פריצת הווירוס. ראשי רשויות הביון האמריקנית והבריטית (CIA ו-6MI) העלו את ההשערה שקרתה תאונת עבודה כלשהי במעבדת מאובטחת של נשק ביולוגי (המעבדה הראשית לחקר מחוללי מחלה ואבטחה ביולוגית במוסד הווירולוגי של וואהן). בשלב מאוחר יותר הפכה התאונה להזדמנות פז בידי סין לצבירת הישגים פוליטיים וכלכליים (כתבתי על כך בהרחבה במכתב העדכון שלי בפסח 2020).

לאחרונה פורסמו באינטרנט מסמכים מקוריים המעידים על מחקר מעבדתי-מדעי אמריקני, שנערך בין השנים 1999 ל-2019, ושעניינו פיתוח ורישום פטנט על היבטים שונים של נגיף הקורונה 19 COVID. מחקר מעמיק, שנערך בדרגים גבוהים ביותר, בנוגע לפטנטים והיבטים שונים הקשורים לרישום פטנטים (73 במספר) מצביע על קשרים בין חוקרים מאוניברסיטאות בצ'אפל היל, צפון קרוליינה, ומכון המחקר לנשק ביולוגי בוואהן, סין. מאוחר יותר התגלו קשרים למחקר דומה שערכה DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) - סוכנות למחקר מתקדם, מטעם משרד ההגנה האמריקני, שעוסקת גם היא בנשק ביולוגי). מחקרים אלה חשפו "שיתופי פעולה מחקריים בין המרכז האמריקני לבדיקת מחלות ומניעתן (CDC), המכון הלאומי לבחינת מחלות זיהומיות ואלרגיות (NIAID), אוניברסיטת צפון קרוליינה בצ'אפל היל (UNC), אוניברסיטת הרווארד במאסצ'וסטס, אוניברסיטת אמורי בג'ורג'יה, אוניברסיטת וונדרבילט בטנסי, אוניברסיטת צינגואה בסין, אוניברסיטת פנסילבניה, ועוד מכוני מחקר רבים ונספחיהם המסחריים". האפשרות שארה"ב היתה מעורבת הן במחקר והן בפיתוח הווירוס (ובהיבטים נוספים הקשורים אליו) מלמדת שהפניית אצבע מאשימה כלפי סין בלבד מספקת מענה שטחי למדי לשאלת מוצאו של וירוס הקורונה. בהחלט יתכן שבנקודה זו, אנשים בוחנים רק חלק אחד מתוך חלקיו השונים של הפיל.

מידת האיום הפיזי

רובנו זוכרים עדיין את פרוץ המגיפה במרץ 2020, כשערוצי התקשורת ניבאו גלים של מוות וחולי בהיקפים שלא נראו עד היום ברחבי העולם. ב-25 במרץ 2020, למשל, הכריז משה בר סימן-טוב, לשעבר מנכ"ל משרד הבריאות, שעד סוף 2020 יהיו בישראל עשרות אלפי מתים מקורונה ומיליון חולים. נכון להיום, המספרים בישראל רחוקים כרחוק מזרח ממערב מתחזיות החורבן האלה.

במהלך השנה וחצי האחרונות יוצרת התקשורת העולמית צונאמי אדיר של פחד. יש שיאמרו שהדבר דומה ליצירת פסיכוזה המונית באמצעות התקשורת. האווירה הציבורית נדחקה לפינה שבה כל האמצעים כשרים כשמדובר בהתמודדות עם המגיפה. כללים וקווים מנחים שהיו מקובלים עד כה בכל מה שקשור להתנהגות חברתית, אתית, כלכלית, חוקית ורפואית בוטלו כלאחר יד ונדחקו לקרן זווית, לאור מה שנתפס כסכנה ברורה ומאיימת. "בטיחות בכל מחיר" הפכה לשם המשחק. העולם, על שדות התעופה והגבולות שלו, נסגר ונכנס לעוצר. מיליוני אנשים עטו מסיכה וכפפות גומי כשתידלקו את המכוניותם. הם שטפו את הפירות והירקות במים עם סבון, וריססו אריזות מזון ודלפקי מטבח באקונומיקה. ריחוק חברתי נשמר באדיקות. משפחות נכנסו לעוצר לקראת החגים ולא ביקרו אצל סבא וסבתא. התרחיש הזה מזכיר את מה שלחש מר טומנוס (יצור מיתולוגי שחציו אדם וחציו עז בספרו של ק' ס' לואיס, "האריה, המכשפה וארון הבגדים") ללוסי ביחס למכשפה הלבנה: "היא זו ששולטת בכל נרניה ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה. היא זו שגורמת לכך שנרניה שרויה בחורף תמידי. חורף מתמשך ללא סוף מבלי שחג המולד יגיע; תחשבי על זה!" "

הדיווחים הראשוניים חזו שיעור תמותה גבוה. מפכ"ל ארגון הבריאות העולמי, ד"ר טדרוס אדהנום גבריסוס, אמר לתקשורת בתדריך מה-3 למרץ 2020: "ברחבי העולם כולו, כ-3.4% מכלל החולים בקורונה נפטרו". כעבור 27 יום (ב-30 במרץ 2020), העריך עיתון מוביל בתחום המחקר הרפואי, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, שכ-0.66% מהנדבקים בקורונה ימותו (מדובר ב-20% מהמספרים שחזה ד"ר טדרוס).

ב-19 בספטמבר 2020 הודיע אמש אדלג'ה, חוקר ראשי במכון להבטחת בריאות על שם ג'ון הופקינס, ששיעור מקרי המוות קרוב ל-1%.

ב-13 בנובמבר 2020 הודיע מנהל מכון וושינגטון למטריצות והערכת ענייני בריאות, ד"ר כריסטופר מוראי, שנגיף הקורונה הביא למותם של כ-0.6% מהנדבקים, בהשוואה ל-0.9% בשלבים מוקדמים יותר של התפרצות המגיפה.

ב-8 בדצמבר 2020 עמד מאמר מחקרי על הקשר ההדוק בין גיל לסיכויי ההידבקות בקורונה - ככל שאתה מבוגר יותר, כך גבוהים יותר סיכוייך להידבק בנגיף.

שיעור התמותה בקרב ילדים ובני נוער התגלה כנמוך במיוחד, ולעומת זאת חלה עלייה של 8.5-4.6% בשיעור התמותה בקרב בני 75, ועלייה של 28.3-15% בקרב בני 85.

למען הסדר הטוב, המרכז לבדיקת מחלות ומניעתן (CDC) באטלנטה פירסם ב-20 באוקטובר 2020 את הפירוט הבא, בהתאם לקבוצות גיל ואחוז הישרדות משוער בקרב חולי קורונה:

שנה 0-19 99.997%

שנה 20-49 99.98%

שנה 50-69 99.5%

שנה 70+ 94.6%

הקורונה היא מחלה רצינית. שיעור התמותה בקרב בני 70 ומעלה הוא גבוה. היא גם מסוכנת מאוד לאלה שסובלים ממחלות שונות. בקרב ילדים ונוער היא כמעט לא גורמת למקרי מוות, לנזק כלשהו או לתסמינים משמעותיים. אבל עבור אלה שנדבקו במחלה או איבדו את יקיריהם, מדובר באסון אישי כבד.

בד בבד, המספרים הרשמיים מעידים שמוגזם לכנות את מה שקורה כמגיפה כלל עולמית (פנדמיה) .

יעילות החיסון

הידיעות על קיומו של חיסון נגד קורונה התקבלו ברחבי העולם בשמחה, בתדהמה ובתחושת הקלה. מהירות העל שבה פותחו החיסונים, טכנולוגיית הננו-שומנים המדהימה שמקלה על חדירת ה-mRNA לגוף, והכניסה המהירה של החיסונים השונים לשוק הדהימו רבים. מדובר בטכנולוגיות שונות של יצרני החיסונים: פייזר ומודרנה פועלות באמצעות mRNA, ואילו ג'ונסון וג'ונסון מתבססים על אדנווירוס אנושי (הנגיף שגורם להצטננות). נכון להתחלת ספטמבר 2021, כמעט שש מיליון אזרחים בישראל כבר קיבלו שתי מנות חיסון של פייזר, לעומת 412,000 שקיבלו רק מנה אחת של החיסון.

בניסויים רשמיים נמצא שהחיסונים מספקים הגנה גבוהה מפני הדבקה סימפטומטית. המגזין New England Journal of Medicine פירסם מחקר המלמד ש"ההערכה היא שהחיסון יעיל... החל מ-7 ימים לאחר קבלת המנה השנייה [של פייזר] אצל 92% מהחולים המאומתים, 94% מחולי הקורונה שפיתחו תסמינים, 87% חולים מאושפזים ו-92% מקרים קשים של חולי קורונה". המגזין Lancet פירסם תוצאות דומות. השוואות בין יעילות החיסונים השונים, על סמך פרסומים בכתבי עת רפואיים, מלמדות שהחיסונים של פייזר יעילים ב-95%, של מודרנה ב-94.1% ושל ג'ונסון וג'ונסון ב-66.3% מהמקרים. בתוך תקופה קצרה צנח מספר הנדבקים בישראל, בין שהופיעו אצלם תסמינים של המחלה ובין שלא. ירידה משמעותית נרשמה גם במספר האשפוזים והחולים המונשמים. רבים בישראל השמיעו אנחת רווחה ותיארו את הישועה הזו במילים הלקוחות מאסתר ט' 19: "יום משתה ושמחה".

אבל ההגנה הגבוהה הזו מפני הדבקה סימפטומטית התבססה ככל הנראה על רמות נוגדנים גבוהות בנסיוב בטווח הקצר, שמדמה חסינות בקרום הרירי. מבחינה חיסונית, למרות שהתוצאה המיידית הזו היתה מאוד מעודדת, היא התגלתה כנטולת השפעה הגנתית בטווח הרחוק. ההשקפה הקלאסית יותר גורסת שהגנה מפני מחלות קשות מושגת באמצעות רמות נוגדנים נמוכות יותר בנסיוב, בשילוב עם זיכרון חיסוני (תאי B) וחסינות תאית (תאי T).

לא מפתיע לגלות שההגנה שמספקים החיסונים ומנות הדחף (בוסטרים) הולכת ופוחתת עם כניסתם של וריאנטים חדשים. במקרה הגרוע ביותר עלולים אנשי המקצוע בתחום הרפואה למצוא את עצמם מתמודדים עם החמרה במצבם של חולים, שמקורה בתלות בנוגדנים (שיפור יעילות המחלה המתבססת על נוגדנים - ADE), כשרמות גבוהות של נוגדנים לא-מנוטרלים יעצימו את היקף ההידבקות. זה מה שקרה בעבר עם חיסונים נגד סארס וקדחת דנגי.

תופעות הלוואי של החיסונים

בדצמבר 2020 התחלתי לקרוא עוד ועוד אזהרות שפירסמו ארגונים שונים (לעיתים קרובות בקול זעקה רמה) מפני תופעות לוואי סמויות ומסוכנות של החיסונים. אבל רק במרץ 2021 התחילו להגיע יותר ויותר עדויות. מדובר בסיפורים שאומתו, לצד עדויות מוקלטות של אנשים שחוסנו ונפגעו בצורה כזו או אחרת, חלקם פגיעה קלה, חלקם ברמה בינונית, אחרים ברמה קשה, ויש כאלה שאפילו נפטרו בעקבות החיסון. בשלב זה נודע לי על מאגר מידע אמריקני בשם

VAERS - Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.

זהו מאגר מידע ממשלתי בחסות ה-סי די סי, המרכז את תופעות הלוואי החריפות בעקבות החיסונים. המאגר נגיש לכל מי שמעוניין לדווח על תופעות לוואי כלשהן שהתפתחו אצלו בעקבות החיסונים. 'ווארס' היא "מערכת התרעה מוקדמת" בחסות הממשלה, שנועדה לזהות כשלים ברמת הבטיחות של החיסונים. מאגר המידע מסתמך על אנשים שמדווחים מיוזמתם על תופעות לוואי שמהן הם סובלים. VAERS אינו בנוי לפסוק אם חיסון גורם לבעיה בריאותית כלשהי, אבל הוא מזהה תבניות של תופעות לוואי שעשויות להעיד על בעייתיות כלשהי בחיסון. מאגרי מידע דומים קיימים גם באיחוד האירופאי (EUDRA) ובבריטניה (MHRA). איסוף נתונים משלושת מאגרי המידע האלה מלמד שהחיסונים השונים שפותחו נגד קורונה כבר הובילו ליותר מ-25,000 מקרי מוות ולעשרות אלפי תופעות חמורות, ביניהן אלרגיה חריפה, בעיות נוירולוגיות, הפרעות בלב ובכלי הדם והפלות טבעיות.

רחל רעייתי החלה לעקוב אחר העלייה במספר המקרים המאומתים של תופעות לוואי חמורות לחיסון בישראל, בהסתמך על מידע שאספה מועצת החירום הציבורית למשבר הקורונה. בראש ועדת החירום עומדים כמה ממובילי הרופאים, המומחים והחוקרים בארץ. בהתחלה הייתי מאוד ספקן לגבי העניין הזה, אבל עד מהרה מצאתי את עצמי מול ראיות מספקות ומשכנעות. הציניות האופיינית גרמה לי להתעלם ולשלול את עדותם של אנשים שנגרם להם סבל ונזק אמיתיים. וכך הגעתי למסקנה שאני עצמי התנהגתי כמו תשעת העיוורים ההודים שלנו. הרי אי אפשר לומר: "לא שמעתי על תופעות לוואי, ולכן הן לא קיימות!"

רוב הישראלים אפילו לא מודעים למספרים ההולכים וגדלים (גם אם הם עדיין נמוכים) של אנשים שסובלים מתופעות לוואי חמורים לחיסונים, מאחר שהתקשורת הישראלית (גם הטלוויזיה וגם העיתונות המודפסת) לא מראיינת רופאים מובילים שמנסים לעורר את דעת הקהל לעניין, אלא משמשת הלכה למעשה כ"שומרת חומות" מודרנית. רוב העיתונאים החוקרים בישראל עסוקים בכתיבת טורי דיעה פופולריים שמתרחקים מעימות כלשהי עם משרד הבריאות הישראלי, עם ראש הממשלה או אפילו עם עמיתיהם למקצוע.

כעיקרון, שיעורי תופעות הלוואי ומקרי המוות כתוצאה מהחיסון אינם מדוּוחים בתקשורת הישראלית. יש מעקב אחר תופעות הלוואי האלה, ונכון ל-21 ביולי 2021 דווחו דלקת בשריר הלב (283 מקרים), בעיות גניקולוגיות (524 מקרים), שיתוק, שבץ והפרעות נוירולוגיות (462 מקרים), כאבים חריפים (283 מקרים), בעיות בריאות (175 מקרים), בעיות בעור (143 מקרים), קרישי דם ובעיות במערכת הדם (63 מקרים), מוות (455 מקרים).

לסיכום: לפי ה-CDC, השיעור הממוצע של מוות מקורונה נע בין 0.6 ל-1.3%. גם תופעות הלוואי בישראל בקרב מבוגרים מחוסנים הן בשיעור נמוך. חשוב לציין שהמקרים המדוּוחים על ידי שני הצדדים הם אמיתיים, אבל האחוזים שבהם מדובר (בשני הצדדים) נמוכים מאוד.הלסינקי,

הלסינקי, נירנברג, ה-אפ די איי והסכמה מודעת

בישראל אין אתר זמין או מרכז מידע שמאפשר למחוסנים לדווח ולעקוב אחר תופעות לוואי של החיסונים (בדומה למאגר המידע האמריקני VAERS). ולכן מביש שגופים רפואיים ואנשי תקשורת למיניהם שבים ומכריזים ש"אין קשר מוכח" בין החיסונים לבין תופעות לוואי מזיקות (שבדרך כלל מופיעות מספר ימים אחרי קבלת החיסון).

לציבור הישראלי אין גישה לרשימות מסודרות של תופעות לוואי אפשריות, שחשוב לשים לב אליהן לפני שמתחסנים, כדי שההסכמה לחיסון תהיה מוּדעת. הצהרת הלסינקי של ארגון הבריאות העולמי (WMA - World Medical Association) מפרטת עקרונות אתיים שיש להקפיד עליהם במסגרת מחקר על בני אדם. ההצהרה התקבלה באסיפה הכללית ה-18 של ה-WMA בהלסינקי ביוני 1965, ומהווה מסמך חוקי מחייב כשמדובר בחיסון ניסיוני או ב"היתר מיוחד למצב חירום".

בישראל יש ועדת הלסינקי, שנועדה להבטיח את קיום סעיפי הצהרת הלסינקי. הנחת המוצאה היא שמשרד הבריאות הישראלי משתף איתה פעולה. אבל היעדר מסגרת שמאפשרת לדווח על תופעות לוואי של החיסונים, ואי העמידה בדרישות שונות שנועדו להבטיח החלטה מוּדעת של המחוסנים, לצד נושאים אחרים - מצביעים על כך שכאשר מדובר בחיסונים נגד קורונה, רבים מסעיפי הצהרת הלסינקי אינם נשמרים בארץ. וזאת למרות שבמבוא להצהרה נאמר מפורשות שהיא מחייבת מבחינה מוסרית כל רופא, ושחובה מוסרית זו עולה בחשיבותה על כל חוקים או צווים לאומיים, אם ההצהרה מספקת אמות מידה גבוהות יותר להגנה על הפרט מאלה שמספקים צווי הלאום. בקיצור, על חוקרים להישמע לחקיקה המקומית, אך עליהם לעמוד באמות מידה גבוהות יותר.

קוד מחייב נוסף של חוקים בין לאומיים ואתיים הינו קוד נירנברג (Nürnberger Kodex). הקוד נכתב בתגובה לזוועות הרפואיות שביצעו הנאצים ביהודים, צוענים, אסירים פוליטיים ונכים בגילאים שונים. הוא נחתם ב-9 באוגוסט 1947. עשרת הכללים בקוד נירנברג מדגישים את העקרונות שמפורטים בהצהרת הלסינקי, והם אוסרים על ביצוע מחקר וניסיון רפואי ללא הסכמה מוּדעת.

יש מי שרואים בקוד נירנברג את "המסמך החשוב ביותר בתולדות האתיקה של המחקר הרפואי... היתה לו השפעה אדירה על זכויות אדם גלובליות. באמריקה, הקוד והצהרת הלסינקי עומדים בבסיס קוד התקנות הרפואיות הפדרלי, חלק 45, סעיף 46, שהן התקנות שגיבשו משרד הבריאות ושירותי האנוש האמריקני לטיפול אתי בבני אדם... בשנת 1966 אימץ האו"ם את הברית הבין לאומית לזכויות אזרחיות ופוליטיות... סעיף 7 אוסר על עריכת ניסויים ללא הסכמה מוּדעת (של האדם שעליו נערך הניסוי) לניסוי רפואי או מדעי". 173 מדינות חתמו על הברית הזו, נכון לספטמבר 2019.

מבחינה חוקית, כל חיסוני הקורונה שניתנים בארץ עדיין לא קיבלו (באוגוסט 2021) את אישור מנהל המזון והתרופות האמריקני (FDA). הם כן קיבלו אישור חרום (EUA - Emergency Use Authorization), שלפי סעיף 564 של חוק אישור המזון, התרופות ותכשירי הקוסמטיקה באמריקה, מאפשר לשר הבריאות האמריקני להכריז על מצב חרום בשעת הצורך. בדרך כלל ה-FDA משקיע בין 3-5 שנים בממוצא לאשר תרופה חדשה. בשעת חרום ניתן לעשות שימוש בתכשירים רפואיים שטרם זכו לאישור ה-FDA או בתכשירים מאושרים שטרם אושרו לשימוש במצב נתון, לצורך אבחון, טיפול או מניעת מחלות חמורות או מסכנות חיים, או מצבים שבהם "קריטריונים מסוימים קיימים, כולל מצבים בהם לא קיימות חלופות מתאימות או מאושרות".

ב-31 בינואר 2020 הכריז אלכס אזאר, שר הבריאות ושירותי האנוש האמריקני שמגיפת הקורונה היא "משבר רפואי ציבורי". כך הוא פתח את הדלת למתן תוקף חוקי להפצת חיסונים במסגרת אישור החרום (EUA). כשהוצגה האפשרות לקיומן של "חלופות מתאימות, מספקות ומאושרות" לחיסון, יצאו הממשל, כלי התקשורת, הביג טק וחברות התרופות הגדולות לקרב. בתחילה התמקדו המתקפות בעובדה ש"הג'ינג'י הגדול" (טראמפ) תמך ועודד שימוש בתרופה היידרוקסיקלורוקוויין (HCQ). אחר כך הם טענו שהוא סלל את הדרך למסלול מקוצר לפיתוח טכנולוגיה לייצור חיסונים (מבצע מהירות גבוהה - Operation Warp Speed), וכך (בעיני מתנגדיו הפוליטיים) הוא פגע כביכול באמינות החיסון. ביטוי מדהים של הגישה הזאת נחשף אצל מי שהיתה אז המתמודדת לתפקיד סגן הנשיא, קמלה האריס. מאמצי על הושקעו בניסיון ללעוג ולסתום את הגולל על כל אפשרות ל"חלופה נאותה ומאושרת" לחיסון, במיוחד כאלה שטראמפ או יועציו המליצו עליהם. קישור למאמרים על החלופות הזמינות האלה אפשר למצוא במכתב העדכון שלי (A good name is to be chosen). מחקר ישראלי שנערך בהתחלת אוגוסט 2021 מאשר את אמינותן של חלק מהחלופות האלה.

למרבה הצער, התנהגות שאופיינית לקרטל ותככים שלא יביישו אף ראש מאפיה חסמו את הדרך בפני כל מי שהעז לקרוא תגר על חברות התרופות. ודינמיקת החרום, שהולידה את השימוש באישור החרום למתן חיסונים, עודה חיה וקיימת, וההנהגה האמריקנית ממשיכה להתעלם בכוחניות מהכוונה המקורית של מי שקבעו בחוק את סעיף 564. התקשורת, מצידה, ממשיכה למלא תפקיד עוזר ומסייע בניפוח הדיווחים על מקרי מוות ובהעמקת הפחד.

ישראל כמעבדת הניסוי של העולם

ב-7 בינואר 2021 הכריז בנימין נתניהו שכ"חלק מההסכם עם פייזר קבענו שישראל תהיה מדינת מודל - מודל עולמי לחיסון מהיר של מדינה שלמה... ישראל תחלוק עם חברת פייזר, ישראל תחלוק עם האנושות כולה, את הנתונים הסטטיסטיים שיעזרו לפתח אסטרטגיות להביס את נגיף הקורונה".

מנכ"ל פייזר, אלברט בורלא תיאר (בראיון לחדשות NBC מה-27 בפברואר 2021) את מבצע החיסונים של החברה שלו בישראל כמעבדת המחקר של העולם, ואמר: "אני סבור שישראל היא המעבדה של העולם כולו כעת, משום שהם משתמשים רק בחיסון שלנו נכון לעכשיו, והם חיסנו חלק גדול מאוד מן האוכלוסייה, כדי שנוכל לחקור מדדים כלכליים ובריאותיים".

ב-5 באוגוסט 2021 הודיע ראש הממשלה נפתלי בנט בשידור בפייסבוק ש"מדינת ישראל פה עושה מהלך שתורם בצורה דרמטית לידע העולמי... מצד אחד אנחנו צוברים את הידע, ומשתפים מיד את כל העולם במידע... בלעדינו העולם לא ידע בדיוק את רמת האפקטיביות, היעילות של חיסוני הבוסטר, לא ידע כמה זה משפיע על הדבקות, לא ידע כמה זה משפיע על תחלואה קשה. אני חושב שבמובן הזה אנחנו עושים שירות אדיר למדינות העולם, ומדינות העולם שמחות מאוד שאנחנו לוקחים את האחריות וההובלה בעניין הזה".

הציטוטים האלה מעידים שחברות הפארמה הגדולות, וכן ממשלת ישראל ומשרד הבריאות רואים במבצעי החיסון האלה הזדמנות לבחון תרופות שעדיין מוגדרות כניסיוניות. אומה שלמה מחוסנת בחיסון שטרם קיבל את אישור ה-FDA. הציבור הרפואי בישראל מחליק במדרון חלקלק, ומוצא את עצמו במרחק ניכר מהבסיס המקורי של הצהרת הלסינקי, קוד נירנברג וסעיף 564 של ה-FDA.

חוסר השקיפות בנושאים האלה גרם לישראלים מסוימים לאבד את אמונם במשרד הבריאות ובראש הממשלה בנט. יש לכך השלכה חשובה: נכון לרגע זה יש למעלה ממיליון ישראלים בוגרים שלא חוסנו, וכחצי מליון שלא קיבלו את המנה השנייה של פייזר, בסך הכול יותר ממיליון וחצי ישראלים בוגרים. בבחירות האחרונות הצביעו 4,410,052 איש מתוך מאגר מצביעים של 6,578,084. מספרים אלה מבהירים שכ-33-20% מבין בעלי זכות הבחירה בישראל אינם משוכנעים שעליהם לקבל את החיסון. האחוזים אלה פירושם 30-20 מושבים בכנסת, בהנחה שכל אותם אנשים היו מצביעים לאותה מפלגה.

אילו התחילה ממשלת ישראל לחלק גלידה חינם ברחבי הארץ, או אילו חילק משרד הבריאות שוקולד בחינם לכל האוכלוסייה המבוגרת בישראל, אפשר להניח ששיעורי התגובה החיובית לפינוקים מעין אלה היו גבוהים בהרבה משיעור המתחסנים בציבור הישראלי. אולי כדאי שממשלת ישראל ומנהיגיה יתמודדו בכובד ראש עם השאלה מדוע רבים מקרב אזרחיה אינם עומדים בתור לקבלת החיסון.

כל מי שאוהב את עם ישראל ודואג לרווחתו הרפואית ולשלומו (ראו תהילים קכ"ב 6) - מן הראוי שיבחן את העובדות האלה בכובד ראש ותוך כדי תפילה.

חוט הפיל' - אתיקה רפואית בשעת משבר

אומרים שחובתו הראשונית של כל רופא היא ("פרימום נון נוקרה" - ראשית, לא להזיק). החובה "לא להזיק" (אי-פגיעה באחר) נועדה לשמש אות אזהרה לאנשי רפואה, כדי שלא ייתנו טיפול רפואי כלשהו שלדעתם עלול להועיל לחולה, בלי לוודא קודם לכן שאותו טיפול עלול בעצם להזיק. ויש גם הביטוי שאומר: "הניתוח הצליח, אבל החולה מת".

בנקודה זו עולה השאלה של אתיקה רפואית. אם שיעור תופעות הלוואי המזיקות שקשורות לחיסון הוא נמוך, ואם מספר מקרי המוות (אם מוציאים קשישים מהמשוואה) בקרב מי שנדבקו בווירוס גם הוא נמוך, איך אמור הרופא לאזן בין שתי הסתירות האלה? וכאילו לא די בכך, מה קורה כשחברות הפארמה או משרד הבריאות מעוותים את העובדות, מסתירים מידע אודות נזק אפשרי של החיסון, גם כשהסיכויים לכך הם מאוד נמוכים? מדובר בשאלה אתית קשה, אבל יש לשאול אותה, ואת התשובות האפשריות יש לבחון אל מול החובה "ראשית, לא להזיק".

שאלות אתיות בנוגע לתעשיית התרופות

תעשיית התרופות היא אחת המובילות בעולם. בשנת 2014 עלה הרווח שלהן על טריליון דולר. חברות התרופות המובילות ('ביג פארמה') נמנות עם התורמים העיקריים של מנהל המזון והתרופות האמריקני , והן תורמות כשני שליש של התקציב השנתי של ה-FDA. בין 1998 ל-2016 הוציאו חברות התרופות קרוב ל-3.5 מיליארד דולר על עבודת שתדלנות - יותר מכל תעשייה אחרת. חברות אלה משקיעות $19 על פרסום ושיווק כנגד כל דולר שהן משקיעות במחקר. ההיסטוריה שלהן עתירת סיפורי הונאה, שוחד, תביעות נזיקין ושערוריות למיניהן. חלקן שילמו מיליארדי דולרים על קנסות, הסדרים משפטיים ופסקי דין. לפי נתוני חוק התביעות הכוזבות (False Claims Act), הן נמצאות בראש רשימת האשמים בהונאת הממשל הפדרלי האמריקני (על טענת קבוצת מעקב להגנת ציבור האזרחים). מתוך כלל אזרחי ארה"ב, רק ל-28% יש דיעה חיובית על חברות התרופות הגדולות, וברשימת התעשייה השנואה ביותר על הציבור האמריקני נמצאות לפניה רק תעשיית הטבק והנפט התעשייתי.

דיווחים עדכניים מעידים על ניגוד עניינים משמעותי בין תעשיית התרופות לארגוני רפואה ציבוריים. שתי דוגמאות מתוך מאות הן התרופה לילדים (תרופה נגד צרבת) של חברת ג'ונסון וג'ונסון, שגרמה למוות בשלב הניסיוני של הפקתה. הסיפור הושתק והוגדר כ"סוד מסחרי" שהס מלהזכירו. טענות חמורות דומות הושמעו נגד התרופה (רופקוקסיב - תרופה ללא סטרואידים נגד דלקות) של חברת מרק. אותן בעיות של ניגוד עניינים צצו ועלו גם בישראל ובאנגליה.

חוקרים ועורכים של כתבי עת ועיתונים מובילים ממשיכים להסב את תשומת לב הציבור לאופן שבו פועלות חברות התרופות הגדולות. התעשייה הזאת מממנת יותר מ-80% מהתיקים המשפטים בענייני תרופות, ומבהירה שבראש סולם העדיפויות שלה עומד שיווק ולא שיקולים רפואיים. סטטיסטיקנים ומומחים לחקר מגיפות ממציאים שיטות פרסום מתוחכמות, שכוללות גם את הגדרת קהל היעד בקרב קבוצות צרכנים והפעלת מניפולציה על התקשורת. שדולה מתמדת ועקבית וקשרים פוליטיים קושרים את ידיהם ורגליהם של גופי ויסות ציבוריים. הצורך לתגמל את בעלי המניות רומסים שיקולים בסיסיים של בריאות הציבור. הטקטיקה של תעשיית התרופות כוללת "פיזור ספקות בנוגע לשלום הציבור, מתן שוחד לחוקרים, הסתננות לצוותי מחקר אוניברסיטאיים, לוועדי מנהלים, לתקשורת ולמוסדות משפט וחקיקה". צורת ההתנהלות הזו משפיעה גם על מערכת הבריאות בישראל.

דמוניזציה של אלה שאינם מוכנים ללכת בתלם

בישראל חלה עלייה חדה במתקפות מצד ראש הממשלה בנט, ראשי משרד הבריאות והתקשורת הישראלית כנגד למעלה ממיליון ישראלים שבחרו לא להתחסן. יש להוסיף עליהם גם בערך חצי מיליון ישראלים שבחרו שלא לקבל את מנת החיסון השנייה של פייזר (וכל מספרים אלה לפני חנוכת ה'בוסטר' השלישי). בסך הכול מדובר בכמיליון וחצי עד שלושה מיליון בוגרים ישראלים 'לא מחוסנים', או 'מחוסנים חלקית', שנכון לעכשיו סופגים השמצות מצד ראש הממשלה ורשויות הבריאות.

ב-22 ביולי 2021 הופיע ראש הממשלה בנט בתקשורת והאשים את הלא מחוסנים בכך שאינם ממלאים את חובתם (תוך שימוש במשלב דיבור צבאי):

אני מכבד דיעות שונות, אבל יש רגע ויש מקום שבו הדיון הזה צריך לעצור - והוא עצם החיים של כולנו. המדע הוא חד וברור: החיסונים עובדים. הם יעילים ובטוחים, לצעירים באופן כמעט מוחלט, למבוגרים הם יעילים אבל לא מספקים. מעל מיליארד אנשים בעולם כבר התחסנו. אזרחים יקרים, סרבני (הערה: בנט יוצר פה אסוציאציה עם סרבני גיוס ופקודה בצבא) החיסונים מסכנים את בריאותם, את סביבתם, ואת החופש של כל אזרחי ישראל. הם מסכנים את החופש שלנו לעבוד, החופש של ילדינו ללמוד, החופש לחגוג שמחות עם המשפחה... סרבני החיסונים פוגעים בכולנו, כי אם כולם יתחסנו, כולם יוכלו לקיים את שגרת חייהם. אבל אם מיליון ישראלים ימשיכו לא להתחסן, זה יאלץ את שמונה המיליון האחרים להסתגר בבתיהם.

ההיגיון-לכאורה מאחורי הטיעונים של בנט הוא שישראלים מחוסנים אינם מוגנים מפני נגיף הקורונה, כי די בישראלי לא מחוסן אחד, כדי לאיים על בריאותם של ישראלים מחוסנים ועל חייהם.

ביום חמישי, ה-5 באוגוסט 2021, הכריז בנט: "כל אחד מכם צריך לצאת ולהתחסן כי אם לא אתם מסכנים את עצמכם, אתם מסכנים ממש את הסביבה, כאילו אתם מסתובבים עם מקלע ויורים על כולם נגיפי דלתא... זו פעולה אנוכית ובלתי אחראית". בנט הוא יוצא סיירת מטכ"ל. יכול להיות שהוא פשוט רואה באוכלוסייה האזרחית בישראל (אוכלוסייה שהוא אמור לשרת בתור עובד מדינה) חיילים סוררים שיש לביישם ולכפות עליהם ציות בכוח. אבל ניסוח מילולי שמשווה אזרחים ישראלים למי שעומדים עם מקלע ויורים על אזרחים חפים מפשע ברחובות - זה כבר מעל ומעבר, ויש לראות בנאום הזה הסתה.

ביום שלישי, ה-3 באוגוסט 2021, אמרה הפרופסור גליה רהב, מנהלת היחידה למחלות זיהומיות בבית החולים שיבא: "לא מקובל עליי שמיליון ו-100,000 אנשים בישראל לא מחוסנים. זו נקודה שחייבים לפתור אותה". נראה שאת רהב לא מעניין מה לדעתם של אותם מיליון ו-100,000 ישראלים היא התנהלות רפואית ואתית ראויה. הגישה האגבית שלה לזכויות וערכים דמוקרטיים, כמו גם לצורך החוקי בהסכמה מוּדעת, מעידים על הנחות מוצא מדאיגות.

בערב שבת, ה-6 באוגוסט 2021, הוקרנה ב"אולפן שישי" של ערוץ 12 כתבה דוקומנטרית-לכאורה, שבוחנת את עמדתם של ישראלים שמסתייגים מהיבטים שונים של מסעות השכנוע להתחסן, בין שמדובר בהסתרה והתעלמות מקיומן של תופעות לוואי חמורות; הפעלת לחץ חברתי וכלכלי על הלא-מחוסנים; חיסון בני נוער שטרם מלאו להם 18 שנה (הליך שעד אז לא קיבל את אישור ארגון הבריאות העולמי, במיוחד משום ששיעור התמותה מהניגף בקרב נוער וילדים הוא אפסי); או בלחץ החברתי הכבד על מנת החיסון השלישית (שארגון הבריאות העולמי לא ממליץ עליה). את הכתבה ליווה רקע גרפי של פצצת ברזל עגולה עם פתיל בוער, והכיתוב "פצצה מתקתקת" (רמז לסכנה הברורה [כביכול] שמהווים הלא-מחוסנים עבור הישראלים ה"שפויים והבריאים").

הכתבה לא היתה שונה מאלה שבדרך כלל מוקרנות במהדורה - פרסום שלילי, ארסי, פוגעני, לא מדויק וגדוש בהתקפות אישיות, שרובן הופנו כלפי אנשי רפואה ישראלים בעלי שם (ביניהם נשיא אוניברסיטת בן גוריון לשעבר; מייסד המחקלה האונקו-גנטית בבית החולים שיבא, ואחרים). בדקתי לעומק את דעתם של רבים מהרופאים האלה, ומצאתי שהטיעונים שלהם הגיוניים, מלאי חמלה וראויים להילקח בחשבון. הכתבה הדוקומנטרית [כביכול] הזו לא מגיעה לקרסוליהן של אמות המידה האתיות שמצאתי באופיים ובהתנהלותם של אותם רופאים.

שוב ושוב משתמשים מנהיגים פוליטיים בכירים במונחים מסכנים ("אנשים שמאמינים בתיאוריות קונספירציה", "מתנגדי חיסונים", "קיצוניים", "סרבנים", "כאלה שמהססים להתחסן", "פצצות מתקתקות"). מונחים כאלה נועדו להעניש ולהרחיק מהזירה הציבורית את אותם ישראלים שחוששים לקבל את החיסון, גם אם מדובר ברופאים בעלי שם, בכאלה שזכו בפרסים יוקרתיים, וששוחים נגד הזרם התקין פוליטית שמייצר חזית אחת עם תעשיית התרופות.

יחד עם זאת נראה שרוב החולים המאושפזים בכמה מחלקות בישראל הקורונה הם דווקא מחוסנים. דיווחים דומים מגיעים גם מארצות אחרות. לפי "אולפן שישי", כ-20% מכלל המחוסנים בישראל (כמיליון איש) למעשה מפיצים את הווירוס ומדביקים ישראלים אחרים, גם אם זה בקצב מואט. לפי אותה תוכנית, 10% מכלל הלא-מחוסנים (כ-100,000) מפיצים את הווירוס. אם כך, מדויק יותר לומר שהמחוסנים בישראל שגם מדבקים מהווים מקור גדול יותר לדאגה בעניין ההדבקה בהשוואה לאלה שאינם מחוסנים.

במינוחים של הספר "1984", נראה שיש "אח גדול" ישראלי שפוחד מ"חושביפשע", שמספרם מגיע אולי ל-25% מאוכלוסיית הבוגרים בישראל. הדינמיקה הזו, על ההשלכות המעשיות שלה, אמורה לעורר תפילה רצינית בקרב אלה שאוהבים את ישראל ודואגים לבריאות החברה.

'זנב הפיל' - חרויות הפרט ובסיס דמוקרטי מערבי

בעניין הזה יש שתי נקודות שאדון בהן בקצרה:

דרכון החיסון

התו הירוק הוא קוד דיגיטלי, ברקוד שכולל את מספר תעודת הזהות, מידע מסוים על בעליו ומספר החיסונים שהוא קיבל. הדרכון הירוק יצא לדרך בפברואר 2021. בהתחלה הוא היה תקף ל-4 חודשים, וב-8 באוגוסט 2021 חודש תוקפו. יש צורך להציגו כדי להיכנס לקולנוע, קונצרטים, תחרויות ספורט, מלונות, מסעדות, בתי קפה ופאבים, מועדוני כושר, כנסים והתאגדות דתית מעל ל-50 איש. בשלב זה (תוקפו משתנה בין רגע) קניונים וחנויות מזון עדיין פתוחים לכול.

השימוש בתו הירוק הוא מאוד בעייתי אבל בגלל הפחד מפני המגיפה, ישראלים רבים מעלימים עיין מקיומו. מרטין נימולר, רועה קהילה ותיאולוג גרמני, כתב שיר מפורסם שפותח במילים: "תחילה הם באו ולקחו את הסוציאליסטים, ולא השמעתי את קולי, כי לא הייתי סוציאליסט". הוא בעצם ביקש להבהיר שכאשר חברה מתחילה לשלול את זכויות אזרחיה, להפוך אותך לאויבים ושדים ולהכניס אותם לגטאות, פירוש הדבר שצרות בפתח.

מעבר לבעייתיות של גניבת זהות אפשרית (הרי מאגר המידע הזה יהיה פרס להאקרים), הצורה הזו של סימון זהות, במיוחד כשמוסיפים לתו הירוק איכּוּן של מכשירי הטלפון הסלולריים (מערכת שהשב"כ השתמש בה כדי לעקוב אחרי חולי קורונה), דומה למה שרואים בסין הקומוניסטית. שם עוקבים אחרי כל אזרח באמצעות השימוש שלהם בטלפון הנייד, ובעזרת טכנולוגיית G5 לזיהוי תווי פנים. הממשל נותנת לכל אזרח דירוג אשראי חברתי בהסתמך על מידת הציות שלו לחוקים, המוצרים שהוא קונה ואפשרויות הבידור שהוא בחור בהן. על בחירות לא הולמות (בין שמדובר במישור הפוליטי, התרבותי או החברתי) האזרחים נענשים באמצעות שלילה או הפחתה הדרגתית (או פתאומית) של זכויות חברתיות. האיסורים האלה כוללים איסור על טיסה, איסור מעבר למקום מגורים אחר, איסור על לימודים באוניברסיטה טובה יותר, ועוד. המצב בישראל לא גרוע כמו בסין, למרות שאיסורי כניסה ללא-מחוסנים (למי שאין תו ירוק) מוזכרים השכם והערב בטלוויזיה, באינטרנט, ברדיו ובעיתונות.

על כמה חברים אישיים ומכרים הופעל לחץ עצום כדי שיקבלו את החיסון ואת התו הירוק. אנשים שעבדו שנים רבות במקומות מסוימים, איבדו את מקור פרנסתם בשל הסירוב להתחסן. יש מוזיקאים שאינם יכולים להופיע עוד בפני קהל. חיילים קיבלו איומים לקראת הדחה מהיחידה שלהם. אנשים רבים נכנעו לכפייה, למרות שבעצם לא רצו להתחסן. והמכבש הזה ממשיך לפעול בעודי כותב את הדברים האלה.

לכמה ממכרַי (ביניהם יש גם יהודים משיחיים המאמינים בישוע) אין שום בעיה עם הכפייה הזו. הם באמת ובתמים מאמינים ש"הכול כשר" בתקופת מגיפה. דיטריך בונהופר, רועה קהילה גרמני שהתנגד למשטר הנאצי, נאבק בזמנו עם הדרך שבהתנועה דתית-נציסטית נוצרים גרמנים ('Deutsche Christen'), האמינו בשמחה בהתחלה להבטחותיו של היטלר ללחם ועבודה, חוק וסדר וצמיחתה של מדינת משטרה. רק כשמאוחר יותר נחשפו פניה השטניים והפשיסטיים של המפלגה הנאצית, הבינו אותם גרמנים נאמנים שהדברים הרחיקו לכת. בישראל לא הגענו עדיין לשלב הזה. אנא, אלוהים, אל תניח לדברים להרחיק לכת עד כדי כך! אבל הכתובת על הקיר מטלטלת, ונראה שיש צורך בכמה מבני הנביאים, כמה "דניאלים", כדי לעזור לבני עמנו להבין את האזהרה השמימית.

המחיר החברתי

עטיית מסיכות יום יומית במשך שנה וחצי גובה מחיר חברתי. מתי חשבו בני אדם שעטיית מסיכות היא התנהגות נורמלית וראויה לשבח? אפילו בקרנבל בוונציה המשתתפים עוטים מסכות במשך שבוע, לא יותר. ד"ר פאוצ'י הנכבד התחבט חודשים ארוכים לכאן ולכאן אם יש לעטיית מסיכות ערך מניעתי או לא. דבר אחד ברור: המחיר החברתי של עטיית המסיכות, שמירת מרחק מבני משפחה, הימנעות ממגע בין חברים ומכרים, מרחק מאנשים אחרים, הישארות בבית והתרחקות מקרובים במהלך החגים, הימנעות מתפילה בבית הכנסת או בקהילה - לכל הדברים האלה יש מחיר חברתי אמיתי, שעלול להוביל לעלייה בדיכאון ובנטיות אובדניות.

לאחרונה פגשתי בחור שאני מכיר מאז שנות ה-20 המוקדמות שלו. הוא מחוסן. גם אני. כשהושטתי לו יד, הוא קפץ אחורה בבהלה, כאילו שקיבל מכת חשמל. הופתעתי. הזכרתי לו ששנינו מחוסנים. זה לא אמור למגר את הסכנה בהידבקות או את העברת הווירוס? אבל דבר ממה שאמרתי לא שכנע אותו.

הסרט "אויב המדינה" בכיכובם של וויל סמית' וג'ין הקמן משנת 1998 מזהיר מפני הפרת זכויות אדם הדרגתית ביוזמת המדינה ומפני ההשפעה השוחקת, שעלולה להביא להקמתה של מדינת משטרה. הפיכתם של הלא-מחוסנים למטרה בידי התקשורת והחברה מקצינה את הדיעות, תודות לכוחות פוליטיים שבוחשים בקלחת ומעוררים שנאה ורצון להעניש את אלה שאינם הולכים בתלם. שירו הנודע של סטיבן סטילס (אם זה שווה משהו) מספק תובנה חשובה: "הפרנויה מכה שורשים עמוקים. לתוך חייך היא תזדחל בלי משים. היא פורצת כשאתה תמיד מפוחד. אם תסטה מדרך הישר, השליט יבוא וייקח אותך מכאן. כדאי שנפסיק. היי, מה זה הקול הזה? תראו, מה קורה כאן סביבנו!"

כל הדברים האלה שקורים סביבנו משמשים בידי אלוהים כדי לחשוף את מה שנמצא במעמקי הלב. עד כמה אנחנו מחויבים לערכים דמוקרטיים ולהגנה על זכויות הפרט? ומה יקרה, אם בבוא היום נצטרך להכריז, כמו שעשו שמעון כיפא ויוחנן: "אם ראוי בעיני אלוהים להקשיב לכם ולא לאלוהים, שִפטו בעצמכם" (מעשי השליחים ד' 19).

מתי כנס שנערך לפני המגיפה נחשב לכנס נבואי?

אולי זה נשמע כמו מדע בדיוני, אבל המציאות לפעמים עולה על כל דמיון, כמו שאמר מארק טוויין. ב-18 באוקטובר 2019 נערך בניו יורק תרגיל בחסות מרכז ג'ון הופקינס לביטחון בריאותי, הפורום הכלכלי העולמי וקרן ביל ומלינדה גייטס, תרגיל היערכות מפני מגיפה כלל עולמית. התרגיל נקרא Event 201 (אירוע 201), והוא נועד להדגים איך שלושת ארגוני העל האלה מתייחסים לתרחיש אפשרי של מגיפה חובקת עולם, ואיך בעלי הון יכולים להפיק מכך תועלת עבור עצמם ועבור העולם כולו.

סרטון בן 12 דקות מאותו כנס באוקטובר 2019 זמין לצפייה באינטרנט, והוא פשוט מעורר תדהמה. הסרטון מבהיר חד משמעית שמדובר בפרודיה דוקומנטרית מבוימת, מעין סרטון מה שעלול לקרות. הסרטון עוסק בתרחיש אפשרי שמנהיגי כל העולם ניצבים בפניו - מגיפה כלל עולמית דוגמת הקורונה. להזכירכם, רק בסוף ינואר ותחילת פברואר 2020 התגלו המקרים הראשונים של קורונה במערב. אבל נדמה שהסרטון (שפורסם כשלושה חודשים לפני פרוץ המגיפה) חזה בצורה מפורטת רבים מהתרחישים שחווינו בשנה וחצי האחרונות. ההקבלה בין הסרטון למציאות שאנחנו חיים בה היום היא מצמררת. איזו משמעות יש לזה? מן הראוי שנחשוב ונתפלל על כך. בשלב זה אציג את מה שאני מכנה "תסריט גייטס-שוואב למגיפה הממשמשת ובאה", המבוסס על ציטוטים ישירים מהסרטון.

"מגיפה חמורה" עומדת בפתח. המימדים שלה יהיו "חובקי עולם והיא תשפיע על בני אדם בכל מקום". מספר המתים עלול להגיע לכ-"65 מיליון בשנה וחצי הראשונות של המגיפה". הווירוס יהיה "מחלה נשימתית עם תסמינים קלים, בדומה לאלה של שפעת, ועד דלקת ריאות חריפה... שתוביל לאשפוז במחלקת טיפול נמרץ. רבים ימותו... ועד חירום לטיפול במגיפה יתכנס כדי לדון בתגובה הראויה למגיפה".

"הכניסה והיציאה ממדינות מסוימות נאסרת... קיים סיכון להחמרת המחלה כתוצאה ממעבר מתמשך של אנשים ברחבי העולם... אנחנו חייבים להבהיר מה נחשב לנסיעות חיוניות ובלתי חיוניות".

"המגיפה גורמת למשבר כלכלי עולמי... כלכלת העולם צונחת במהירות. התמ"ג ירד ב-11%. שווקי המניות ברחבי העולם צנחו ב-40-20%, והם נעים במעגל צניחה תלול של פחד... הבעיות הכלכליות שמגיפה כזו גורמת להן ימשכו שנים, אולי אפילו עשור... תוכנית להבראת הכלכלה העולמית (דוגמת תכנית מרשל) תיכנס לפעולה כדי לחולל שינוי מהיר".

"הבעיות האלה יכולות להיפתר רק אם עסקים וממשלות ברחבי העולם ישתפו פעולה... ועד שמורכב ממנהיגים מנוסים מעולם העסקים, בריאות הציבור והממשל... חייבים לכנס ביחד את התעשיות האלה... והנהגה יעילה... הנהגת הציבור חייבת לתמוך במאמצים האלה (שימו לב שבתרחיש הזה, בעלי ההון הם אלה שמחוקקים את החוקים ושולטים בחברה; אין כמעט אזכור לתפקיד חיובי ולפעולות מנע מצד ממשלות שנבחרות באופן דמוקרטי). יידרש ידע שיש רק למגזר הפרטי... וחייבים לאסוף אותו במהירות... ממשלות צריכות להיות מוכנות לעשות דברים שאינם תואמים את ההשקפה ההיסטורית שלהן. אנחנו נמצאים במצב דמוי מלחמה".

"מדינות שונות מטפלות בצורה שונה בכמות המידע המתעה ובחוסר המידע שמציף את הרשת. במקומות מסוימים הוכרז על סגירה מוגבלת של האינטרנט כדי למגר את הבהלה שגואה בציבור... אנחנו נמצאים במצב שמחייב את המדיה החברתית לצעוד קדימה... היא חייבת, למעשה, לקחת חלק בהפצת מידע מדויק, ולשתף פעולה עם הקהילה המדעית והרפואית כדי להדוף, אולי אפילו ממש להציף, את האתרים במידע מדויק".

"ממשלות צריכות להגביר את האכיפה במקרים של הפצת חדשות שקריות... חייבת להיות לנו אסטרטגיה מוגדרת של מסירת מידע לתקשורת והכשרת מקורות מידע מהימנים, כדי שהמידע יופץ במהרה".

"ההשלכות החברתיות - אובדן אמון בממשלה, חוסר אמון בתקשורת, ושבירת הלכידוּת החברתית - עלולות להימשך תקופה ארוכה, אולי יותר מעשור".

ה"נבואה" השחורה הזו על מגיפה מספקת חומר רב למחשבה. החזון של גייטס-שוואב על האופן שבו עסקים גדולים יכולים להציל מדינות דמוקרטיות מעצמן (תוך כדי רמיסת כל מי שאינו מסכים עם עמדתם ובאמצעות השליטה שלהם באינטרנט) נשמע כמו שילוב של סטאלין, היטלר, ו-1984. למרות שהאתר של אירוע 201 הוסיף בינתיים הערה המבהירה שהסרטון לא נועד לשמש כנבואה, הוא עדיין חושף איך כמה אנשים רבי עוצמה מחכים בשקט בצד, כשהם מוכנים ומזומנים ליצור הזדמנויות ולנצל אותן. נדמה שהחזון שלהם נסוב סביב הון ושלטון, שליטה וצנזורה.

לסיכום קטע זה

כדאי לחשוב על הנקודות האסטרטגיות שפירט ד"ר פיטר דסזק ב-פורום שהתקיים במרכז למידע ביוטכנולוגי ב-12 בפברואר 2016. ה-אן סי בי איי הוא חלק מהספרייה הלאומית האמריקנית לענייני בריאות ורפואה, חלק מהמוסדות הלאומיים לבריאות באמריקה. זהו מוסד שזכה לאישור ומימון ממשלת ארה"ב. דסזק הבהיר "שכל עוד משבר הכרוך במחלה מידבקת אינו אמיתי, עכשווי וברמה של שעת חרום, בדרך כלל פשוט מתעלמים ממנו. כדי למצוא מימון מעבר למשבר הנתון, יש להרחיב את ההבנה הציבורית ואת ההכרה הציבורית בצורך... בין שמדובר בחיסון נגד שפעת או נגד וירוס הקורונה. התקשורת היא אמצעי מרכזי להשגת המטרה הזו, שכן הכלכלה תלך אחרי המסר שיועבר באמצעי התקשורת. אנחנו חייבים להשתמש בתקשורת בדרך שתעזור לנו לחשוף את הנקודה העיקרית. משקיעים יגיבו רק אם הם יראו אפשרות לרווח."

מאוחר יותר הודח דסזק מתפקידו (בעצם, פוטר) בוועדה של האו"ם לחקר מוצאה של מגיפת הקורונה. הוא הודח משום שארגן בעבר את פרסומו של מכתב, בחתימת מדענים ידועי שם, בביטאון הרפואי The Lancet' ' שהוקיע את התיאוריה הגורסת שמוצא הנגיף במעבדה בסין. דסזק הכריז שם ש"אנחנו עומדים יחדיו ומגנים את תיאוריות הקונספירציה שמוצאו של נגיף הקורונה אינו טבעי... תיאוריות קונספירציה תורמות רק לפחד, הפצת שמועות, דיעות קדומות ותו לא, ויש בהן כדי לסכן את שיתוף הפעולה הגלובלי שלנו במלחמה בווירוס הזה". עיתונאים חוקרים גילו שלדסזק היו אז קשרים מקצועיים הדוקים עם המכון הווירולוגי בווהאן, ושהיועץ הראשי לענייני בריאות לממשל האמריקני, הד"ר אנתוני פאוצ'י והמוסד שהוא עומד בראשו, ה-אן איי א איי די, נתן מענקים לתמוך בעבודה שנעשתה בווהאן.

שמחה בשעת ניסיון

אנחנו מקווים ומתפללים שחלק (אם לא כל) מהמידע שמובא במאמר זה יעזור לקוראים להבין, יעורר אותם לתפילה ויפיח בהם תקווה בימים המאתגרים והמסעירים שאנחנו חיים בהם. אנחנו שואבים אומץ ממה שהכתובים אומרים על שמחה בשעת ניסיון.

"עוז והדר לבושה, ותשחק ליום אחרון" (משלי ל"א 25).

"כאשר יתחילו לקרות הדברים האלה, התעודדו והרימו ראשיכם, כי קרבה גאולתכם" (לוקס כ"א 28).

איך עלינו להתפלל?

שאלוהים יעניק חוכמה והבחנה לחשוף את כל תכך ומזימה לא כשר.

שהלבבות של מנהיגי המדינה יתרככו ושיזכו להתגלות משמים בנוגע למה שיש בליבו של הקדוש ברוך הוא.

לחוכמה אסטרטגית ופוליטית עבור מנהיגי ישראל בכל התחומים.

עבור כל תושבי ישראל: חוכמה מלמעלה, יכולת הבחנה, אומץ ואסטרטגיה.

בתקווה שנראה בקרוב את גאולת ציון,

אבנר בוסקי

Nine blind Indians and the Israeli elephant

An ancient Indian Buddhist parable (circa 500 B.C.) tells of nine blind men who had never encountered an elephant. Each one was given a different part of the elephant’s body to touch, and then was called upon to describe the pachyderm. It comes as no surprise that each description was totally different from his neighbor’s! Each man trumpeted his limited and personal elephantine encounter as the basic and indisputable truth, while simultaneously denying the eight other perspectives. This led to a virulent suspicion that all the other neighbors were acting dishonestly. Eventually all nine came to blows. Though each man had accurately related his own experience, each one had failed to grasp the larger and more comprehensive picture.

The past eighteen months have rocked the world. Many of us feel that we have been listening to nine blind Indians. And it seems that there are more perspectives available ‘explaining COVID-19 related events’ than even nine hundred blind Indians could muster up. The Scriptures remind us:

“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25)
“Every person’s way is right in his own eyes, but YHVH examines the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2)

Let’s keep this divine caution in mind as we consider world events.

‘The leg of the elephant’ – the past one and a half years

Many perspectives flowing across the internet are understandably partial in nature, like the viewpoints of the nine blind Indians. The strong declarations we run into – some may be based on experience, others on statistics. Some may be politically motivated, and others driven by economic motivations or social science theories. This newsletter comes from an Israeli context and perspective, reflecting what is going on here, what is being discussed in Hebrew among Hebrew speakers – though there may be applications for other nations as well.

A dear and departed prophetic friend spoke nearly ten years ago of a pandemic which would come upon the earth. He said that “the first one would prove to be little but fear,” but that a second one coming after that would be serious. This ‘first pandemic of fear’ is reflected in the recent Newsweek cover ‘The Doomsday Variant.’ Fear continues to be a prime selling point for the media throughout this season.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan was once coached on the use of a Russian proverb – Доверяй, но проверяй (Doveryay, no proveryay; ‘trust but verify’) concerning the urgent need for clear thinking and command of relevant facts when involved in the details of nuclear arms negotiations. The world is undergoing a crisis of confidence in precisely this area – the area of trust. People are not ready to trust authority, whether it be political, economic, religious or medical. A current Israeli example – we have gone through four election cycles without arriving at a decisive majority. Our national electorate is divided on many issues, while both the USA and the UK mirror similar divisions. If there is no trust, the need to verify becomes all the more crucial.

‘The ear of the elephant’ – social and media metamorphoses

British author and former Socialist George Orwell experienced a traumatic paradigm shift while fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War (late 1930’s). He described in Homage to Catalonia how Stalinist ‘progressives’ had morphed into the authors of a “horrible atmosphere produced by fear, suspicion, hatred, censored newspapers.” In his Why I Write (1946) he stated that “every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism.”

The rise of censorship and totalitarian control of thought was a main theme of Orwell’s magnum opus ‘1984,’ a dystopian and surrealistic tale of a world caught in a spider’s web of ‘progressive’ propaganda. On this planet of horrors, totalitarian governments would publish daily news but then constantly edit, update and rewrite the substance. On Orwell’s media-controlled planet, main stream media (MSM) had become the final authority – the only kosher purveyor of ‘politically correct’ values and perspectives. Orwell’s literary gifts to the modern world include the terms Big Brother, thought police, newspeak, doublethink, unperson, and thoughtcrime which have all become part of everyday speech.

Our world seems to have been hijacked by Orwell’s nightmare. The five largest companies in the information technology industry of the United States are Google (Alphabet), Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. Collectively they are given the name Big Tech. Though Twitter has a place of honor here (as does Netflix), they are not part of the top five.

A social phenomenon called ‘cancel culture’ has infected the media in recent years, often marked by the censoring and silencing of voices in the public square which it deems ‘non-progressive.’ This chillingly dictatorial behavior tends to be directed against political figures who are not left-of-center and are considered ‘politically incorrect’ by left-leaning mainstream media (MSM) trend-setters, Targets also include those who are traditionally religious in beliefs and morals, the State of Israel, Zionism, the former POTUS, etc. Medical perspectives which are not considered PC are also regularly targeted and removed by Big Tech.

On August 2, 2021 Twitter announced that for “the first time Twitter will formally collaborate with news organizations” Associated Press and Reuters “to elevate accurate information” and “to fight the spread of misinformation” – that is, to help crush any competition to Big Pharma’s cartel-like domination of the COVID-19 vaccine market. The BBC describes this new information cartel positively, declaring starry-eyed that this new ‘Tech Triumvirate’ will “debunk disinformation,” “counteract the spread of misleading information,” and “remove false content.” In February 2021 Facebook announced similar moves, while its friends in mainstream media called for even more draconian measures. Last week YouTube suspended Australia’s Sky News for publishing information about promising new medical discoveries in the war against COVID.

Some of us have had a blind and trusting belief that the moguls of social media really do believe in free speech, free debate and free enterprise. This illusion has been dashed by a large bucket filled to the brim with the ice-cold waters of reality. Instead, we are witnessing a new manifestation rising from the waves – a ‘Brave New World’ of social media dictatorship. This time around it is not a Marxist-Leninist ‘dictatorship of the proletariat.’ Rather, we are being confronted with a social dictatorship directed by some of the world’s richest capitalists – the billionaire puppet-masters.

Britisher George Orwell would only say, “I warned you!”

Wherever one stands on the political spectrum, these censorship-related developments present a powerful intercessory challenge for those who take the prophetic warning of ‘1984’ seriously.

‘The trunk of the elephant’ – the fog of war

In 1942 Winston Churchill described the military clash playing out on European battlefields: “The pictorial battlefield becomes a sea of mud, mercifully veiled by the fog of war” (in Thoughts and Adventures). The origins of the current world medical crisis reveal similar patterns of fog. These revolve around:

the origins of the COVID-19 virus
the measure of physical threat posed by the virus
the efficiency of preventative measures being taken
a possible history of bioweapons research connections involved in the development of COVID-19, both in China and in the USA
the growing paper trail of patents linking scientific and pharmaceutical organizations to the development and patenting of actual COVID-19 viruses, COVID vaccines and their components, and related PCR testing technologies. The economic windfall here is of course enormous.
the abandonment of traditional guidelines regarding monitoring, forthrightness and medical due diligence vis-à-vis any possibly toxic side-effects of the vaccines

Virus origins

China was quickly labeled as the original Ground Zero of this virus. The former heads of both CIA and MI6 suggest that a work accident occurred in a high-security bioweapons lab (the Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology), with this later opportunized by China for maximum political and economic gain. See my Passover 2020 newsletter in this regard.

Recently there has been the internet release of original documentation revealing American scientific lab research going back to 1999 and continuing into 2019 connected to the development and patenting of aspects of COVID-19. An intensive top-level study of legal patents and patent tie-ins (73 in total) point to links between university researchers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the Wuhan bioweapons complex, as well as to later but similar research carried out by the U.S. DARPA agency (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research and development agency of the U.S. Department of Defense also working with bioweapons technology). These patent connections reveal “research synergies forming between the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Harvard University, Emory University, Vanderbilt University, Tsinghua University, University of Pennsylvania, many other research institutions, and their commercial affiliations.” The possibility of American involvement in both research and development of the virus in question (and other related aspects) indicates that pointing the finger exclusively at China might be an overly facile panacea to this problem. Perhaps people are examining only one part of the elephant here.

The measure of the physical threat

Most of us still remember the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 when TV news prophesied massive death and injury at an unprecedented worldwide scale. For example, on March 25, 2020 Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, the former Director General of the Israel Ministry of Health, declared that by the end of April 2020 Israel would suffer tens of thousands of Coronavirus fatalities and a total of one million sick. Israel’s totals in these areas were (and still are) nowhere close to these prognostications of doom.

For the past eighteen months the world’s media has been determinedly catalyzing an apocalyptic tsunami of fear. Some might say that what is going on is similar to a media-induced mass psychosis. The public atmosphere has been stampeded to the point where ‘all means are considered justified’ in confronting the pandemic. Previously accepted guidelines in the social, ethical, economic, legal and medical spheres have been summarily dismissed or pushed aside in light of what was now seen as a clear and present danger. ‘Safety at all costs’ became the watchword. The world, its airports and borders went into lockdown. Countless millions donned masks and wore latex gloves while pumping gas. They washed their fruits and vegetables with soap, and sprayed their packaged foods or kitchen counters with bleach. Social distancing was religiously followed. Families locked down for the holidays and didn’t visit grandma and grandpa. The scenario was akin to what Narnian faun Mr. Tumnus whispered to Lucy concerning the White Witch: “It is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!”

Initial reports prophesied a high death rate. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told media during a March 3, 2020 briefing, “Globally, about 3.4 per cent of reported Covid-19 cases have died.’’ It turns out that 27 days after that declaration (on March 30, 2020), a top medical research journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, estimated that approximately 0.66% of those infected with Coronavirus will die (five times less than Dr. Tedros’ figure).
On September 19, 2020 according to Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the case fatality rate was closer to 1%.
On November 13, 2020, University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Director Dr. Christopher Murray said that COVID-19 now was killing about 0.6% of people infected with the virus, compared with around 0.9% early in the pandemic.
A December 8, 2020 research paper showed an exponential relationship between age and Covid-19 – the older you get, the more at risk you are.
The death rate was found to be very low for children and young adults, but rose to between 4.6 – 8.5% of those aged 75, and 15 – 28.3% of those aged 85.

And for good measure, the government-run Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta October 20, 2020, gave the following age-based percentages regarding how many people infected by COVID-19 will survive:

0-19 Years 99.997%
20-49 Years 99.98%
50-69 Years 99.5%
70+ 94.6%

Coronavirus is a serious disease. It causes a higher amount of fatalities among those 70 years of age and up. It also is more damaging for those with pre-existing conditions. For children and youths it causes nearly no fatalities or serious illnesses. For those who are affected or killed by the disease, COVID-19 is a tragedy and a personal disaster.

At the same time, the official numbers show that defining what is happening as a worldwide pandemic would seem to be an over-reaction.

Vaccine effectiveness

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines was greeted with joy, amazement and relief. The ‘warp speed’ at which they were developed, the stunning lipid nano-technology which (like WD40) makes it more easy for the mRNA to penetrate the body, and the swift arrival of the vaccines to market were events which astounded many. The technologies used were different – Pfizer and Moderna used messenger RNA, while Johnson & Johnson used human adenovirus (common cold virus) as the basis. Up to today, a total of approximately 5,393,000 Israeli adults have received the two Pfizer shots (are fully vaccinated), while approximately 412,000 have received only one of the two shots.

In official vaccine trials, a very high protection against symptomatic infection was observed. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study indicating that “estimated vaccine effectiveness . . . starting 7 days after the second [Pfizer] dose was 92% for documented infection, 94% for symptomatic Covid-19, 87% for hospitalization, and 92% for severe Covid-19.” Lancet published very similar results. Comparisons between the vaccines in medical journals and magazines spoke of the Pfizer vaccine being 95% effective, the Moderna as being 94.1% effective, and the Johnson & Johnson being 66.3% effective. Within a short time Israel saw a steep drop in both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections, in the number of hospitalizations and in the number of patients on ventilators. In Israel many were relieved and saw this deliverance in light of Esther 9:19 – “a day of feasting and joy.”

But this very high protection against symptomatic infection seems to have been based on very high short-term serum antibody levels which mimic mucosal immunity. From an immunological perspective, this short term result (though highly encouraging) is not a lasting protective effect. The more classic perspective holds the position that protection against severe disease is achieved by lower serum antibody levels in combination with immunological memory (B cells) and cellular immunity (T cells).

It should not come as a surprise when vaccine and booster protection will further decrease due to new variants. In the very worst case, medical professionals may end up dealing with something called antibody-dependent disease enhancment (ADE) if high levels of non-neutralizing antibodies aggravate the infection. This was the case in the past with vaccines used against both SARS-1 and dengue fever.

Vaccine side-effects

I became aware in December 2020 of various organizations warning (often in shrill tones) that the vaccines had hidden and dangerous side-effects. But it was not until March 2021 that a growing body of evidence came to my attention – repeated verified instances and recorded testimony by vaccinated people who had suffered injury – some lightly, others moderately, some severely, others fatally. I became aware of the American vaccine database known as VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System), a government-run CDC database for anyone wanting to report any adverse side-effects following vaccinations. VAERS is an American ‘national early warning system’ to detect possible safety problems in vaccines. The database relies on people sending in reports of their own personal side-effects. VAERS can’t determine if a vaccine actually caused a health problem, but it picks up side-effect patterns that could potentially suggest a problem with a vaccine. Similar databases exist in the European Union (EUDRA) and in the UK (MHRA). A compilation of all three databases indicates that COVID-19 vaccinations have already been associated with more than 25,000 deaths and tens of thousands serious adverse events, including allergic shocks, neurological, cardiac and cardiovascular disorders, and miscarriages.

My wife Rachel began to monitor the rise in Israel of verified harmful medical side-effects of the vaccines collected by The Israeli Public Emergency Council For The Covid19 Crisis. These are headed up by some of the country’s top doctors, professors and researchers. Whereas I had originally cast a critical eye on any of this, I soon came face to face with sufficient and convincing evidence. My own original cynicism had caused me to disqualify real people who had suffered real damage. I came to the realization that I myself was in some ways acting similar to one of our nine blind Indians. It is not enough merely to say, “I’ve heard nothing about side-effects; therefore nothing exists!”

Most Israelis are not aware of the rising number (though still small) of their fellow citizens suffering these vaccination side-effects, since national MSM television stations and leading newspapers discourage interviewing the top doctors who are calling public attention to these issues – modern ‘watchmen on the walls.’ Most Israeli investigative journalists are too busy writing op-eds – popular and witty opinion pieces which stay far away from crossing swords with the Israeli Ministry of Health, the Prime Minister or even their fellow journalists and reporters.

For the most part, the percentages of harmful side-effects and deaths from vaccinations are not being communicated in Israeli media. These side-effects in Israel are being tracked and classified and include cases (as of July 21, 2021) of myocarditis (283 cases), gynecological disorders (524 cases), palsy, stroke and neurological disorders (462 cases), deep physical pains (283 cases), lung disorders (175 cases), skin disorders (143 cases), blood clotting and related disorders (63 cases), and death (455 cases).

To, sum up: the CDC averaged numbers are 0.6% to 1.3% for Corona-related fatalities. The above-documented side-effects of the vaccines in Israel also seem to be a small percentage of all vaccinated adults. It should be noted that, on both sides of the aisle, the numbers being discussed are very real, yet the percentages under consideration (on both sides) are very low.

Helsinki, Nuremberg, FDA and informed consent

Since there is no Israeli framework in place being made available to vaccinated people for reporting and analyzing vaccine side-effects (like the American VAERS database), it is egregious that various Israeli medical bodies and media talking heads repeatedly state that there is ‘no provable connection’ between the vaccination and harmful side-effects (which typically occur within a few days after vaccination).

There are no lists of possible side-effects to watch for which are made available and given to the Israeli pre-vaccinated so that they can give informed consent. This is actually a legal requirement when an experimental or ‘emergency use authorization’ inoculation is given, according to World Medical Association’s (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research involving human subjects (adopted by the 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964).

The State of Israel has a Helsinki Committee and it is assumed that the Ministry of Health (MOH) cooperates with it. The absence of a reporting framework for vaccines, of the pre-requisites necessary for informed consent, and other issues – all indicate that the many of the Helsinki principles are not being followed. Yet the Pre-amble of the Declaration clearly states: “The Declaration is morally binding on physicians, and that obligation overrides any national or local laws or regulations, if the Declaration provides for a higher standard of protection of humans than the latter. Investigators still have to abide by local legislation but will be held to the higher standard.”

Another international legal and ethical code is The Nuremberg Code (German, Nürnberger Kodex) Codified as an ethical and legal response to Nazi experimental medical atrocities performed on Jews, gypsies, political prisoners, handicapped people of all ages, it was drawn up on August 9, 1947. Its ten points follow and emphasize the same principles found in the Declaration of Helsinki, forbidding medical experimentation without informed consent.

The Nuremberg Code “is considered by some to be the most important document in the history of clinical research ethics … [It has] had a massive influence on global human rights. In America, the Code and the related Declaration of Helsinki form the basis for the Code of Federal Regulations Title 45 Part 46, which are the regulations issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services for the ethical treatment of human subjects . . . In 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted by the United Nations . . . Article seven prohibits experiments conducted without the ‘free consent to medical or scientific experimentation’ of the subject. The Covenant has 173 state [participants] as of September 2019.”

From a legal standpoint, all the COVID-19 vaccines being administered in Israel have not yet been legally approved by the American FDA. Instead, they have been granted a EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) which, according to section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, allows the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to authorize an emergency use authorization when appropriate. Unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical products can be used in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions “when certain criteria are met, including there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.”

On January 31, 2020 Alex Azar, the Secretary of DHHS, determined that the COVID-19 crisis is a ‘Public Health Emergency,’ opening the doors to legalizing the distribution of vaccines under an EUA. When presented with the possibility of the existence of other “adequate, approved, and available alternatives,” both government, MSM, Big Tech and Big Pharma came out swinging. Attacks first focused on that fact that ‘the big orange man’ (then-POTUS Trump) had advocated for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), and then that he had fast-tracked the development of vaccine technology (‘Operation Warp Speed’), thus (in the eyes of his political opponents) supposedly and potentially invalidating the vaccine’s reliability. One outstanding expression of this perspective comes from then-Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris). There were concerted efforts made to scorn and shut down any serious consideration of any other potential “adequate, approved, and available alternatives,” especially those recommended by then-POTUS or his advisors. For articles on some of these available alternatives, see my newsletter (paragraph titled “a good name is to be chosen”). Israeli research studies from last week confirm the validity of some of these alternatives.

Unfortunately, cartel-like behavior and mafia-like machinations have kneecapped any potential challengers to Big Pharma for the moment, and the emergency dynamic which gave birth to using EUA is alive and well, with America’s present leadership continuing to run roughshod over the original legal intent of the framers of FDA Section 564. The role of media hype in exaggerating fatalities and exacerbating fear continues to spread fertilizer along the primrose path.

Israel as the world’s experimental lab

On January 7, 2021 former PM Bibi Netanyahu declared that “as part of the agreement [with Pfizer], we stipulated that Israel will serve as a global model state for a rapid vaccine rollout of an entire country … Israel will share with Pfizer, with all of humanity, the statistics that will help in developing strategies to defeat the coronavirus.”

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla (in an interview with NBC News, February 27, 2021) described his company’s vaccination campaign in Israel as a laboratory for the world: “I believe Israel has become the world's lab right now because they are using only our vaccine at this state and they have vaccinated a very big part of their population, so we can study both economy and health indices.”

On August 5, 2021, Israeli PM Bennett stated in a Facebook broadcast that “Israel is going ahead here with something that dramatically contributes to global knowledge . . . (which would be) immediately shared with the entire world . . . Without us, the world wouldn't know the exact efficacy levels of the booster shots, wouldn't know the dates, how much they affect infections, how they affect severe illness . . . In these aspects, we're doing the world a great service, and the world is very happy that we're taking the responsibility and lead on this matter.”

These quotes reveal that both Big Pharma, the Israeli government and its Ministry of Health (MOH) see these vaccination campaigns as facilitating the testing of drugs still classified as experimental. An entire nation is being inoculated with a vaccine that has not received legal FDA certification. The Israeli medical community is rapidly skidding down a very slippery slope – finding itself at quite a distance from the original foundations of the Declaration of Helsinki, the Nuremberg Code, and FDA’s Section 564.

The lack of transparency on these above issues has resulted in some Israelis losing trust in both the Israeli Ministry of Health and in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. An important ramification here: at present there are upwards of one million Israeli adults who have not been vaccinated, as well as nearly half a million Israelis who have not gone in to receive their second of the two Pfizer vaccinations – a total of more than a million and a half Israeli adults. The total amount of Israelis who voted in the last election here was 4,410,052 out of a potential 6,578,084. This indicates that between 20% and 33% of all adult Israeli voters are not convinced that enough good reasons exist to get vaccinated. This percentage translates into between 20 and 35 Knesset seats in Israel’s ruling governmental body of 120 seats, were this entire group to vote as a block.

If the Israeli government began to distribute free ice cream nationwide, or if the Israeli MOH began to hand out free chocolate to all adults, one assumes that the public rate of positive response to such offers would have been much higher than the current rate of civilian vaccinations. Maybe it would be worth it for Israeli governmental leaders to seriously grapple with why so many citizens are not lining up to get vaccinated, are not ‘getting with the program.’

Anyone who loves the Israeli people and is concerned about their health and peace (see Psalm 122:6) needs to weigh these above facts seriously and prayerfully.

‘The tusk of the elephant’ – medical ethics in crisis

It is said that one of the first duties of a physician is “Primum non nocere” (Latin for “First, do no harm”). The principle of ‘doing no harm’ (non-maleficence) is meant to caution medical practitioners regarding the use of treatments believed to do good, without first having evaluated them adequately to ensure that no harm is done to the patient. There is a wry saying, “The treatment was a success, but the patient died.”

A question of medical ethics arises at this point. If there is a low percentage of harmful side-effects connected to the administering of the vaccinations in question, and if there is also a low percentage of fatalities (excluding elderly people) from the virus, how is a physician supposed to strike a balance between these two contrasting points? And to complicate matters, what happens if either Big Pharma or the Israeli Ministry of Health skews the facts, suppressing or concealing information about harm being caused – even if the percentages in question are low? This is a weighty ethical question. It needs to be asked and the answers need to be measured against the principle of “first, do no harm.”

Ethical questions connected to Big Pharma

Big Pharma, the world’s pharmaceutical industry, is one of the most powerful industries in the world. Their global revenue for pharmaceuticals was over $1 trillion in 2014. Big Pharma is a major contributor to the U.S. FDA, contributing about two thirds of its yearly budget. From 1998 to 2016, Big Pharma sank nearly $3.5 billion into lobbying expenses – more than did any other industry. Big Pharma spends $19 on promotions and advertising for every $1 spent on research. Big Pharma has a history of fraud, bribery, lawsuits and scandals. They have also forked out billions in fines, settlements and jury verdicts. They are the biggest defrauder of the U.S. Federal Government under the False Claims Act (according to consumer watchdog group Public Citizen). Only 28% of Americans have a good opinion of Big Pharma. It is the second most hated industry in America, right behind the tobacco industry and the petrochemical industry.

Recent reports increasingly spotlight a major conflict of interests between the pharmaceutical industry and public health organizations. Two examples out of hundreds – Johnson & Johnson’s Propulsid children’s medication resulted in death in drug trials; this was hushed up and described as a “trade secret.” Other serious charges were levied against Merck’s Vioxx. The same problems of conflict of interest seem to have surfaced in Israel and the UK.

Scholars and major journal editors continue to draw attention to how Big Pharma operates. It funds over 80% of trials, setting up research agendas guided more by marketing than by clinical considerations. Brilliant statisticians and epidemiologists come up with sophisticated advertising methods which also involve targeting of consumer groups and manipulating of the media. Insistent lobbying and strategic political ties bind the hands and feet of many regulatory bodies. The obligation to reward shareholders usually overrides fundamental public health considerations. Big Pharma tactics include “proclaiming doubts about safety issues, buying researchers, infiltrating universities, boards, media and legislative agencies.” This modus operandi has affected the Israeli medical sphere as well.

Demonizing those who step out of line

In recent days there has been a marked rise in Israel of vicious attacks by both PM Bennett, MOH talking heads and the Israeli MSM against the approximately million plus Israelis who have chosen not to be vaccinated. One recalls also that nearly half a million Israelis have not come back to receive the second of the two Pfizer vaccinations. A total of approximately a million and a half unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated Israeli adults are currently being vilified by their Prime Minister and their governmental health authorities.

On July 22, 2021 PM Bennett spoke to the media. He accused those who were not vaccinated of not fulfilling their duty (using a colloquial military phrase here):

I respect different views but there is a time and a place in which this discussion needs to stop – and it is our very lives. The science is unequivocal: The vaccines work. They are effective and safe, almost completely for young people. For the older population, they are effective but not enough. Dear citizens, those who refuse vaccines (comment: the Hebrew word used here for 'refuse' is extremely pejorative - sarbanim, a military usage referring to a draft resistor or to one who disobeys his commander's orders) are endangering their health, those around them and the freedom of every Israeli citizen. They are endangering our freedom to work, the freedom of our children to learn and the freedom to hold celebrations with the family . . . Those who are sarbanim about vaccines hurt us all because if all of us were vaccinated, we would all be able to maintain daily life. But if one million Israelis continue to not get vaccinated, this will oblige the eight million others to shut themselves in their homes.

The supposed logic underlying the PM’s argument here is that fully vaccinated Israelis are not really protected from infection since even one unvaccinated Israeli, by his existence (so it seems), can threaten the health and life of a vaccinated Israeli.

On Thursday August 5, 2021 PM Bennett declared: “Every one of you has to go out and get vaccinated because if not, you endanger yourself, you are really endangering the environment, as if you are walking around with a machine gun and shooting Delta viruses at everyone . . . This is a selfish and irresponsible decision.” Bennett was once in Sayeret Matkal, the Israeli equivalent of Delta Force. Perhaps he sees Israel’s civilian population (whose public servant he still is) as recalcitrant soldiers who need to be humiliated and bullied into obedience. But to use the word-picture of Israeli civilians firing machine guns on the streets into unarmed fellow citizens – that is way over the top, and should be classified as hate speech.

On Tuesday August 3, 2021, Professor Galia Rahav, head of the Infectious Disease Unit at Sheba Medical Center (Israel’s largest hospital), stated that “it is not acceptable to me that 1.1 million people in Israel are unvaccinated. This is a matter that must be resolved.” It seems that Rahav is not concerned about what those million and a half Israeli citizens think about what is medically or ethically acceptable. Her casual approach to democratic rights and values as well as with the legal necessity of informed consent reveals some worrying presuppositions.

On Friday evening August 6, 2021 Israeli TV’s Channel 12 Ulpan Shishi (‘Friday night studio’) main Shabbat program featured a pseudo-documentary looking at Israelis who have strong reservations about different aspects of the vaccination campaigns – whether it be the sweeping under the carpet of harmful side-effects; the exertion of strong social and economic pressure on the unvaccinated; the vaccination of those under 18 (which is not yet approved by WHO, especially since youths and children have a near zero level of sickness and fatalities); or the social pressure being brought to bear through the pushing of a third vaccine booster shot (which WHO does not recommend). The program featured a graphic background of a round iron bomb with a burning fuse, and was titled ‘a ticking bomb’ (a reference to the ‘clear and present danger’ that the unvaccinated supposedly are to ‘sane and healthy’ Israelis).

The media piece was not that different from standard Israeli TV fare – a poison-pen hatchet-job, malicious, inaccurate and replete with ad hominem attacks – many directed against outstanding Israeli doctors and medical professionals (including against a former President of Ben-Gurion University; a founder and Head of the Oncogenetics Unit at Sheba Medical Center; etc.). I have studied the perspectives of many of these doctors and have found their arguments to be logical, compassionate and worthy of serious consideration. This pseudo-documentary failed to achieve the high moral and ethical standards that I have witnessed in the character and behavior of these doctors.

We are seeing the use of dog-whistle words which are like unto curses (terms like ‘conspiracy theory people,’ ‘anti-vaxers,’ ‘extremists,’ sarbanim,’ ‘those who are hesitant to be vaccinated’) by top governmental leaders. These serve to separate and castigate, censure and condemn – in a word to disqualify and ban from the public square those Israelis who have valid concerns about the vaccines and related issues – even if they are prize-winning top doctors swimming against the PC/Big Pharma current.

But it seems that vaccinated people in Israel are now the majority in some Corona wards, and similar dynamics are occurring in other countries. According to the Ulpan Shishi program mentioned above, it seems that 20% of all vaccinated Israelis (one million) actually spread the virus and infect other Israelis, though perhaps at a reduced rate. It also seems that 10% of all unvaccinated people (100,000) spread the virus (again, according to the Ulpan Shishi figures mentioned above). Based on this algorithm, it would be accurate to say that vaccinated/infected Israelis are actually more of an epidemiological concern to Israel than are the unvaccinated.

To use ‘1984’ terminology again – it seems that there is an Israeli ‘Big Brother’ concerned and somewhat fearful about the ‘thoughtcrimes’ of up to 25% of Israel’s adult population. This dynamic and its practical ramifications should be a matter of earnest prayer from those who love the Israeli people and care about the health of Israeli society.

‘The tail of the elephant’ – civil liberties and Western democratic foundations

Two brief points on this subject:

The vaccine passport

The first concerns the vaccine passport, or what is called in Israel ‘the Green Passport.’ It is a digital QR code, a digital bar code with personal ID, related information and vaccination status. It has been in force over the past six months (February – June 2021) and is being re-introduced as of August 8, 2021. The Green Passport is needed to gain entrance to movies, concerts, sports events, hotels, indoor restaurants, coffee bars and other bars, health and fitness clubs, conferences, religious gatherings above 50 in attendance, etc. At the same time, food and mall shopping is still open to all.

There are many problems involved with this passport though, due to ‘pandemic fear,’ a lot of Israelis try to look the other way. Martin Niemöller, German pastor and theologian, is the author of a famous poem which begins: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist.” His point was, that when a society begins to disenfranchise, demonize and ghettoize its own citizens, trouble is on the way.

Apart from the recurrent modern problem of identity theft (and this database would be a whopper of a prize for hackers), this form of identity marking – especially when joined with cell phone tracking (which Israel’s GSS used to track corona-infected citizens in 2020-2021) – has shocking parallels to present practice in Communist China. There every citizen is tracked by the location and operation of their own cell phone as well as by 5G face recognition technology. A ‘social credit score’ is then given by the government to each citizen based on obedience to the rules, correct shopping and entertainment choices, etc. Non-PC choices (whether political, cultural or social) are punished by the gradual (or sudden) diminishing (or removal) of social privileges. This can include a ban on flying, on moving to another location, on attending a more suitable university, etc. In Israel it has not gone as far as China, though Green Passport ‘banned areas for those unvaccinated’ are continually noted on TV, internet, radio and newspapers.

We are aware of friends and acquaintances who have had extreme pressure applied on them to receive vaccinations and the Green Passport. Some long-term workers have been fired from their employment. Some musicians are no longer able to perform publicly. Some soldiers have been threatened with being dropped from their units. Many people have submitted to the coercion, even though they didn’t want to do so. These events are continuing to happen as these words are being written.

Some of my friends (even Messianics) are quite comfortable with this coercion. They honestly believe that “all things are justified” in a pandemic season. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and anti-Nazi, struggled in his day with how some Christians, notably the Deutche Christen (the ‘German Christians’), originally bought into Adolf Hitler’s calls for bread and work, law and order, and a burgeoning police state. Only when the demonic and fascistic face of National Socialism was revealed did these German loyalists realize that things had gone too far. We in Israel are not yet at that stage. Please God, may it never be so! But there is some disconcerting handwriting on the wall, and it seems that some Daniels are needed to help our nation interpret the divine warning.

The social cost

There is a social cost in wearing masks day in, day out for 18 months. Since when have human beings thought that wearing such masks is a normal and praiseworthy activity? Even at the Carnevale di Venezia, masks are worn for perhaps one week and that’s it. The world-renowned Dr. Fauci has moved back and forth about the preventative value of face masks. But one thing can be said: the social costs of wearing masks, not visiting family, not touching friends and acquaintances, being cautious around neighbors, staying away from family at holidays, not attending synagogue or church – these things have a real social cost, and that can lead to an increase in depression and suicides.

One recent personal example: I met up with an Israeli father, a man I have known since his early twenties. He is vaccinated. I am vaccinated too. When I reached out my hand to shake his, he jumped back in panic as if I had tased him. I was surprised. We are both vaccinated, I pointed out. Isn’t that supposed to eliminate the danger of getting infected or passing on the virus? But there was no convincing him.

A 1998 film ‘Enemy of the State’ starring Gene Hackman and Will Smith warns of how gradual government violation of civil rights has an erosive effect, and can lead right into the arms of a police state. The social and media targeting of unvaccinated individuals can catalyze an attitudinal shift on the part of some Israelis, as polarizing definitions intensify and political powers stir up a hatred which desires to punish those who step out of line. Steve Stills’ classic rock anthem ‘For What It’s Worth’ still has wry insight to share: “Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid. Step out of line, the Man comes to take you away. We better stop. Hey, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down!”

In all these things God is offending the mind to reveal the heart. What is our commitment to democratic values and the protection of Western civil rights? And what will happen, should the day come, when this commitment will need to be reiterated in the words of Peter and John: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your own judgment” (Acts 4:19).

When is a pre-pandemic conference ‘prophetic’?

It may sound like science fiction, but truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, as Mark Twain once opined. On October 18, 2019, in New York City, a Global Pandemic Exercise classified as Event 201 was hosted by The John Hopkins Center for Health Security, The World Economic Forum and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The exercise was orchestrated to communicate what these three power groups envisioned in terms of what a coming pandemic would look like, and how world business leaders can be pro-active in seizing the moment for what they feel is a beneficial world agenda.

A twelve minute film clip from that conference in October 2019 is available on-line and it is stunning. The clip clearly states that it is a ‘mockumentary’ – a staged quasi-documentary in video form – a ‘what if?’ video of an imaginary conference of world leaders faced with a Coronavirus-type world pandemic. But remember – it was not until the end of January-February 2020 that the first cases of COVID-19 recognizably appeared in the West. Yet this clip (released three months before the onset of the pandemic) seemed to prophesy blow-by-blow many of the events we have all experienced over the past eighteen months. Its parallels to the reality we are experiencing are chilling. What does this all mean? Certainly we should all be thinking and praying about these matters. For now, I would like to present what I would call the ‘Gates-Schwab script for the coming pandemic’ based on exact quotes from the video.

“A severe pandemic” is coming. It will “circle the globe and affect people everywhere.” The death toll could be “65 million people dying in the first 18 months.” The virus will be “a respiratory illness with symptoms ranging from mild Flu-like signs to severe pneumonia … intensive care. Many died.” “A Pandemic Emergency Board has been convened to respond to the pandemic.”

“Some countries have banned travel . . . [There is a] risk of worsening disease [due to] the continued movement of people around the world . . . We have to clarify what is essential and what is non-essential travel.”

“The pandemic is causing a global financial crisis . . . The global economy was in a freefall. The GDP down 11%. Stock markets around the world plummeted between 20 and 40% and headed into a downward cycle of fear . . . The economic turmoil caused by such a pandemic will last for years – perhaps a decade.” A global “Marshall-type Plan [should] go into effect to stimulate a change very quickly.”

These “problems can only be solved by global business and governments working together . . . A board comprised of highly experienced leaders from business, public health and civil society.” “Get those industries … and an efficient leadership … and that needs to be supported by the public leadership.” (Note that businessmen are the rule makers and controllers of society in their scenario; nearly no mention is made of any constructive proactive role for democratically elected governments). “It’s going to take knowledge that only the private sector has … and it needs to be put together pretty quickly.” “Governments need to be willing to do things that are out of their historical perspective. It’s really a war footing that we need to be on.”

“Countries are reacting in different ways as to how best to manage the overwhelming amount of dis- and mis-information circulating over the internet. In some cases, limited internet shutdowns are being implemented to quell panic.” “Misinformation is undercutting efforts to control the pandemic.” “We’re at a moment where the social media platforms have to step forward … They have in fact to be a participant in broadcasting accurate information, and partnering with the scientific and health communities to counterweight, if not flood the zone, with accurate information.” There needs to be “a step up on the part of the governments on enforcement actions against fake news.” We need to have a strategy for the media of “relaying and informing and equipping trusted sources of information with the facts, so they can the pass that on.”

“The societal impacts – the loss of the faith in government, the distrust of the news, and the breakdown of social cohesion – could last even longer” than a decade.

This dark ‘prophecy’ about a coronavirus pandemic gives much food for thought. This Gates-Schwab vision of how big business can step in and save democracies from themselves (while crushing dissent and controlling the internet) sounds like a gumbo synthesis of Stalin, Hitler and ‘1984.’ Though the Event 201 website now has a disclaimer explaining that the video was not meant to be a prophecy, the video does reveal with stunning clarity that there are some rather powerful men waiting in the wings who are ready and willing to create opportunities and to take advantage of them. And their vision of the future seems to revolve around profit and power, control and censorship.

To close out this section:

It is worth chewing on the strategic perspectives of Dr. Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance who offered the following assessment on February 12, 2016 at a Forum of the The National Center for Biotechnology Information. NCBI is part of the United States National Library of Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, and is approved and funded by the government of the United States : “Daszak reiterated that, until an infectious disease crisis is very real, present, and at an emergency threshold (all emphases mine), it is often largely ignored. To sustain the funding base beyond the crisis, he said, we need to increase public understanding of the need for . . . a pan-influenza or pan-coronavirus vaccine. A key driver is the media, and the economics follow the hype. We need to use that hype to our advantage to get to the real issues. Investors will respond if they see profit at the end of process, Daszak stated.”

Daszak was later to be recused (polite parlance for ‘fired’) from a UN commission investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was based on the fact that he had previously organized a letter co-signed by prominent scientists and published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet denouncing any Chinese lab leak theory. In that statement Daszak declared ‘We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin . . . Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumors, and prejudice that jeopardize our global collaboration in the fight against this virus.’ Investigative reporters revealed that Daszak at the time had strong professional ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and that U.S. White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci's NIAID institute gave grants to EcoHealth to support the work in Wuhan.

Joy in the face of trials

It is our hope and prayer that some (or all) of the information presented here will help in bringing clarity, discernment, increased prayer and hope to you in the challenging and exciting days ahead. We draw courage from the biblical paradigm of joy and overcoming faith in the face of trials:

“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come” (Proverbs 31:25).

“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28)

How should we then pray?

Pray for God to grant wisdom and discernment regarding the machinations of men and the strategies of the enemy
Pray for the leadership of your country to receive a softening of heart and divine revelation of God’s heart
Pray for strategic and political wisdom for Israel’s leadership in every area
Pray for all individuals in Israel – for God’s wisdom, discernment, courage and strategies
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Elisha’s arrows, Sauron’s eye, and Ahithophel’s counsel

The Middle East is never boring. Fast paced events over the past few weeks included:

Iranian-Gazan instigated riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a flexing of their ambition to lead the push for an Islamist caliphate
concerted jihadi rocket attacks (over 4,300 total) on Jerusalem and Israel’s civilian population (fired by Hamas – ‘the arsonist’)
pin point IAF air and artillery attacks on Hamas rocket launchers, command-and-control (C&C) centers and tunnels (carried out by Israel – ‘the firefighter’)
various Israeli politicians stumbled forward in an attempt to unseat PM Bibi Netanyahu for the fourth time, even cooperating with Muslim Brotherhood parties to do so

Encyclopedic volumes could be written on these developments. Here is a brief analysis and summation of these events.

Elisha’s arrows

The prophet Elisha was on his deathbed. King Joash of Israel came to pay his respects and to seek a final prophetic word:

When Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Lay your hand on the bow.” And he laid his hand on it, then Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, “Open the window toward the east,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. And he said, “YHVH’s arrow of victory, and the arrow of victory over Aram! For you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have put an end to them.” Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” and he struck it three times and stopped. Then the man of God became angry at him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you put an end to it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times.” (2 Kings 13:14-19)

Striking arrows on the ground was a prophetic action here. King Joash’s politically correct strikings revealed his insufficient attitude of heart – he would not pursue his enemy to a bone-crushing defeat. Elisha prophesied that, instead, Joash would lead three inconclusive military campaigns against Aram (modern Syria), which would remain a clear and present danger to Israel even after his death.

Israel has recently engaged Hamas’ jihadi terrorists three times, and we are experiencing an intermission in the fourth campaign:

Operation Cast Lead (2008–09)
Operation Pillar of Defense (2012)
Operation Protective Edge (2014)
Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021)

Hamas’ goals in these battles remains to destroy the Jewish state (as per its Charter), mobilize jihadi support among Islamic countries and, in the latest round, to bolster its reputation among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, eclipsing the PLO and being recognized as both the frontline jihadi defender of Jerusalem and the real leader of the Palestinian people worldwide.

Israel’s goals remain to degrade and prevent jihadi rocket fire on the Jewish state’s civilian population, to cause Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to accept and honor a ceasefire, and to weaken jihadi forces within the Gaza Strip.

The temporary ‘intermission’ ceasefire is just that – temporary. Even though Hamas and PIJ have suffered severe blows to much of their C&C, there are still significant amounts of their military infrastructure (as well as their jihadi vision of Israel’s annihilation) hidden underground, lying in wait for the next conflict. To crush Hamas as Joash could have crushed Aram – this would require an overwhelming land invasion by the IDF. IDF casualties (including the real potential of kidnapped Israeli soldiers) are a price that the present government does not want to pay at this time. As a result, Hamas and PIJ are continuing to threaten Israel with a renewed outbreak of hostilities.

This zero-sum game will continue until Israel decides to strike jihadi Gaza decisively and definitively (in the words of Elisha’s prophecy).

Sauron’s eye

In Tolkien's trilogy ‘The Lord of the Rings’ the satanic Sauron was known by his manifestation “the Eye” (also the Red Eye, the Evil Eye, the Lidless Eye, the Great Eye). He is described as having once been transformed into a non-physical state, spending a thousand years as a shapeless, dormant evil. His invisible darkness is given shape only through the actions of his subordinates.

The spiritual nature of jihad has eerie parallels to Sauron’s existence: the unclean and murderous darkness of jihad’s spiritual author cannot be removed once and for all by targeted eliminations, though counter-terrorism specialists refer to this strategy as a necessary and repeated ‘mowing the grass.’ The Hamas Charter states in its preamble: “Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors.” The Islamist article of faith that jihad will only be successful through the martyrdom and physical elimination of its terrorist fighters is explained here: Fathi Hamad, a member of the Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council, stated on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV (February 29, 2008): “For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly (ed., Palestinians) created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: ‘We desire death as you desire life.’”

Hamas’ strategy of using its own population as human shields while firing from among them exclusively into Israel’s civilian populations is reminiscent of Imperial Japan’s kamikaze (“divine wind”; Shinpū Tokubetsu Kōgekitai, Japanese for ‘Divine Wind Special Attack Unit’). Coldly and deliberately causing the death of one’s own fighters is common to both groups. American and British defensive responses on WWII involved becoming adept at destroying enemy aircraft before they struck Allied ships. Israel’s policies today are the same. Hamas has pulled another rabbit out of its strategic hat (with Western media help), accusing Israel of war crimes by causing wanton civilian deaths in Gaza.

The unsolvable and irreconcilable battle between Islamic jihad (on one hand) and the God of Israel and His Jewish people (on the other hand) will continue until YHVH brings about the deliverance about which Moses prophesied – and His peace is established on earth as it is in heaven:

If I have sharpened My flashing sword, and My hand has taken hold of justice, I will return vengeance on My adversaries, and I will repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword will devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired leaders of the enemy. Rejoice, you nations, with His people! For He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will return vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His land and His people.” (Deuteronomy 32:41-43)

The counsel of Ahithophel

Bathsheba’s father was Eliam, and Eliam’s father was Ahithophel the Gilonite (see 2 Samuel 11:3; 23:34). In better days, before David’s sins with Bathsheba, “Ahithophel was counselor to the king; and Hushai the Archite was the king’s friend” (1 Chronicles 27:33). “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 was deeply offended by King David’s murder of his granddaughter Bathsheba’s husband Uriah (2 Samuel 11:14-15). In a royal dispute between Absalom and his father King David, Ahithophel hated David so much that he took Absalom’s side, repeatedly giving him advice that would destroy the reign of David and allow for a change of government. At one point Absalom spurned Ahithophel’s counsel and chose to follow the advice of Hushai (a double agent planted by David to frustrate the counsel of Ahithophel): “Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, ‘The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel.’ For YHVH had ordained to foil the good advice of Ahithophel, in order for YHVH to bring disaster on Absalom” (2 Samuel 17:14). “Now when Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out and went to his home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s grave” (2 Samuel 17:23).

Israel’s scrappy coalition politics are always stimulating. Currently, the 120 Members of Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) represent thirteen different political parties. They have traditionally formed simpatico blocks – Right, Left, Religious and Arab. Since 1977, the Right wing has grown increasingly stronger, whereas after the disastrous Oslo Accords and the rise of Hamas, the Left wing grown considerably weaker. The Religious bloc has tended to hold its seats, whereas recently the Arab factions underwent a split and increased their share of the political pie. The recent four elections within a two-year period have revealed an electorate with a Right wing majority, yet due to deep seated roots of bitterness between Netanyahu and three of his former confidants (Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett, Gideon Sa’ar), these former Right wing running mates have split, resulting in four political parties where there once had been one. This has resulted in a political zero-sum game with no one party able to deliver a clear majority (hence four elections in two years).

In order for one political block to triumph (temporarily), a uniquely Israeli game of musical chairs must be played. At this point Left and Left-Center have tentatively shaken hands with Bennett (Religious/Right) and Sa’ar (Right) to form a movement called ‘Change’ (meaning both ‘unseat Bibi’ and ‘make things better’). Yet there are still not enough seats to swing the deal. So ‘Change’ has turned to the Arab vote, which was split in this last election. One faction led by Mansour Abbas split off and won four seats with his United Arab List, Ra’am. Dr. Mansour Abbas is involved with a movement connected to the Muslim Brotherhood (the same group which flowered into Hamas, al Qa’eda, etc.) and serves as Deputy Chairman of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement. He is the formulator and author of the Islamic Movement Charter. His party is being offered positions of influence in the Knesset. Some of this could certainly lead to a betterment of Israeli Arab life (like Hamas’ rise in Gaza was sold as something which would lead to ‘dawa’ – better social services for Gaza’s population). Yet having a political party which is spiritually drinking from the wells of Osama bin Laden’s teacher may not be the wisest move for Israel, as noted Arabist Dr. Mordechai Kedar explains.

The razor thin majority that both blocks are seeking now seems to be dependent on a Muslim Brotherhood party, albeit one who is prepared to bide its time in the realization of its clearly stated objectives. Yet because of Mansour Abbas’ potential participation, some on the anti-Bibi Right (and even on the anti-Bibi Center) are getting very cold feet about signing on to this hybrid political mutation. One defection here or there could collapse the whole deck of cards. Though pro-‘Change’ media is not explaining the subtleties here, Elvis has not yet left the building.

This coming week will probably also have many surprising developments, both in the Hamas/Qatar corner and in the poker game called Israel’s fourth election results.

How should we then pray?

Pray for God to shine His light on all evil jihadi Gazan/Iranian plots against Israel, and to pull the plug on them
Pray for God to expose the Muslim Brotherhood strategies at work in Ra’am
Pray for strategic and political wisdom for Israel’s leadership in every area
Pray for the government of God’s choice to come into being in Israel (Daniel 2:21; Luke 1:52; Proverbs 16:33; 18:18)
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

In every generation they rise up to destroy us

Hamas’ Ramadan war has bled over into Pentecost (Sunday evening May 16), the Jewish feast known as Shavuot/Feast of Weeks in Deuteronomy 16:10: “Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to YHVH your God.” This is the third time Hamas has initiated rocket attacks on Israel’s civilian population during a Ramadan season, considered in classical Islamic sources to be an auspicious time for jihad.

Hamas’ zealous Islamist religious convictions focus primarily on the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, as its Charter makes crystal clear:

“The Islamic Resistance Movement (ed., Hamas) draws its guidelines from Islam” (Article #1)
“The Platform of The Islamic Resistance Movement (ed., Hamas): Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors”

It’s not surprising that Jewish holidays often center around attempts to destroy the Jewish people. That’s “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The famous Hebrew Passover song “V’hi she’amda” graphically charts this historical flow. “For not only has one nation risen up to annihilate us, but actually in every generation they rise up to destroy us. But the Holy One blessed be He, rescues us from out of their hand!” The Jewish nation may be paranoid, but even paranoid people can have real enemies.

Though the Abraham Accords give the impression that peace is breaking out in the Middle East, anti-Jewish roots still run deep in the Islamic world. A clear example: the previous ruler of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (died in 2004) held aggressively anti-Israel views and funded international think-tanks to spread those views, which included Holocaust denial. The coronavirus of anti-Semitism is lurking just under the surface all across the Middle East, hovering below the glass-topped oak tables at Islamic conferences like the World Islamic Conference (Saudi) or the International Islamic Unity Conference (Iran). How do these roots influence not only Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but also Israeli Arabs?

Not only one nation

To get a solid grasp on developments among Israeli Arabs, one has to look deeper than TV breaking news or the New York Times. Even the occasional voice coming out of Israel’s Messianic Jewish or Israeli Arab community may not always be reflecting concrete realities on the ground.

One of the reasons this is important is because of the recent Arab-Islamic riots throughout Israel involving arson, robbery, blocking and stoning of national highways, lynching and murder have pushed these matters to front and center in Israeli discussions. Talking-head responses in the Arab community have included the following expressions:

denial that Arabs are rioting
justification for such behavior, blaming it on Israel’s supposed moral failures
tit-for-tat arguments, saying that Arabs are simply responding to ‘initial’ Jewish terror
a call for all rioting (Jewish and then Arab) to stop

In the past week 112 Jewish homes were torched, 386 Jewish homes were looted. One Arab home in Jaffa’s Ajami district was attacked with a Molotov firebomb and a 12 year old Arab boy was badly burned. Israeli police traced the DNA on the glass bottle to an Arab rioter who mistook the Arab house for a Jewish house. Here is an incomplete list of violent activities over the past week, all perpetrated by Israeli Arabs:

Lod- Monday May 10, Israeli Arabs burn the synagogue in Lod, not far from Ben Gurion airport
Lod – Tuesday May 11, Yigal Yehoshua, age 56, lynched by being beaten with bricks in Lod by Israeli Arabs, dies Monday May 17
Laqiya – Tuesday May 11, Israeli Arab Bedouin attempt to lynch inhabitants of 4 Jewish cars on Route 6
Akko/Acre – Tuesday May 11, Israeli Arab arson destroys two boutique tourist spots, the Arabesque Hotel and Uri Buri fish restaurant
Akko/Acre – Tuesday May 11, 84 year old famous Israeli leader in Israel’s space program in critical condition as a result of the hotel arson
Akko/Acre – Wednesday May 12, 30 year old Jewish man in critical condition after being attacked by Israeli Arab mob with rods at Egged Square
Hura – May 12 Wednesday, Israeli Arab Bedouin rioters set fire to community police HQ in the Negev
Rahat – May 12 Wednesday, Israeli Arab Bedouin throw stones and burn tires along routes 310 and 264.
Kafr Kassem – Thursday May 13, two police cars set on fire in Israeli Arab town
Jaffa – Thursday May 13, Leon Shranin, a 19 year old soldier, seriously beaten by Israeli Arabs, suffering from a skull fracture and a cerebral hemorrhage
Lod – Thursday May 13, Jewish man on way to synagogue prayers stabbed beside mosque by Israeli Arab
Umm al-Fahm – Thursday May 13, Jewish family attacked by Arab rioters after accidentally entering Israeli Arab town
Umm al-Fahm – Thursday May 13, Israeli policeman injured by live fire by Israeli Arabs, Molotovs also thrown at Police station
Haifa – Thursday May 13, bus stoned, one woman passenger injured
Kiryat Motzkin – Thursday May 13, Arab resident called on Arab protestors to target Jewish vehicles and shops in Akko
Tamra – Thursday May 13, Israeli Arab medic saves the life of a 50 year old Jewish man stabbed in neck in Israeli Arab town
Akko/Acre – Friday May 14, Jewish-Arab Theater Center torched by Israeli Arabs
Other riots of Israeli Arabs include the following towns: Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Fureidis, Jisr az-Zarqa, Nahf (near Carmiel),
Riots also occurred in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of a-Tur, Bet Hanina, Sheikh Jarrah, Shuafat, Silwan.

The specifically Islamist nature of these attacks needs to be considered. Synagogues and yeshivas were burned to the ground. Torah scrolls and Jewish prayer books were vandalized. Over one hundred Jewish-owned cars were torched. Jewish passengers were pulled out of cars and lynched. The cries of the Israeli Arab mobs were typically jihadi and murderous: “With blood, with spirit we will redeem you al-Aqsa!” and “Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud” (‘Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! The army of Muhammad is returning!’ – a classic Islamist battle cry used when attacking Jews or Israelis).

These attacks cannot be explained by Marxist political theory – the main motivations here are not economic or social. They are classically jihadi. They are a spiritual continuation of the Islamist jihadi campaigns waged by Haj Amin al-Husseini and the Muslim Brotherhood against Jews and their restoration in 1920-21, 1929, 1936, 1948, etc. As Professor Efraim Karsh of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies notes in his fresh article ‘Israel's Arabs versus Israel’ of May 14, 2021, “The ongoing explosion of violence by Israel’s Arabs against their Jewish compatriots is not an act of social protest as is wrongly claimed by many commentators but an internal uprising in support of an external enemy – a corollary of decades of steady nationalist and religious radicalization, especially since the September of the Oslo ‘peace process’ in September 1993.”

How did Israeli Arabs get to this point?

In the State of Israel, Jewish and Arab believers in Yeshua make up a very small percentage of the overall population. Out of nine million Israeli citizens, Jewish believers may be 0.3% and Arab believers 0.2% of the total Israeli population. Our relationships with each other are important in the eyes of the Lord, and the love we express to each other is a significant joy and testimony. But for a clearer and realistic view of general relationships between Jews and Arabs in Israel, we need stronger and longer-range spectacles. Jews and Arabs who care about what is happening need to consider the past, present and future of these two groups.

In May 1948, when five Arab armies broke into the fledgling Jewish state, claiming it for their own, there were approximately 750,000 Arabs residing in the area. Nearly 600,000 of these Arabs fled (the ‘Palestinian refugees’), either to Lebanon, to Syria or to Jordanian-controlled territories. Approximately 160,000 Arabs remained in the Jewish State of Israel and became Israeli citizens – 13.6% of the total population. By 2019 these Israeli Arabs had become 1.9 million – 21% of the total population, a nearly twelvefold increase.

Regarding the explosive growth of Islam in Israel: In 1988 there were 80 mosques in Israel, but by 2003 that number had grown to 363. That is an increase of nearly four and a half times. Yet during that period the Arab population increased only one and a half times. This reveals a growing Islamization of Israel’s Arab population. By 2020 Muslims were 85% of Israel’s Arab population. The future seems to be heading even more in that direction.

Perspectives from scholars and spooks

Israeli scholar and doyen of the ‘New Historians’ in Israel Benny Morris gives his perspective:

“I don’t see the suicide bombings as isolated acts. They express the deep will of the Palestinian people. That is what the majority of the Palestinians want” . . . [Morris] said that Israel was justified in uprooting the Palestinian ‘fifth column’, once the Arabs had attacked the infant state, and that the number executed or massacred – some 800 – was “peanuts” compared with the massacres in Bosnia in the 1990s. He even added: “The Israeli Arabs are a time bomb. Their slide into complete Palestinization has made them an emissary of the enemy that is among us. They are a potential fifth column. In both demographic and security terms they are liable to undermine the state. So that if Israel again finds itself in a situation of existential threat, as in 1948, it may be forced to act as it did then. If we are attacked by Egypt (after an Islamist revolution in Cairo) and by Syria, and chemical and biological missiles slam into our cities, and at the same time Israeli Palestinians attack us from behind, I can see an expulsion situation. It could happen. If the threat to Israel is existential, expulsion will be justified.”

Yuval Diskin, former Director of SHABAK, Israel’s General Security Services, noted in a 2006 internal document that that Israel's Arab population “is a genuine long-range danger to the Jewish character and very existence of the State of Israel.” In 2004 then-GSS Director Avi Dichter had told the Israeli cabinet that the Arab population in East Jerusalem “represents today the largest reservoir for terror attacks within the Green Line.”

In an article titled ‘Israel’s Domestic Enemy’, Daniel Pipes (President of the Middle East Forum) speaks bluntly:

After nearly sixty years on the sidelines, Israel's third and final enemy may be joining the battle . . . Foreign states are Israel's enemy no. 1 . . . External Palestinians [ed. terrorists and Hamas] are enemy no. 2 . . . The Muslim citizens of Israel, usually known in English as Israeli Arabs, constitute enemy no. 3. (But I focus on Muslims, not Arabs, because Arabic-speaking Christians and Druze are generally less hostile) . . . Their blatantly celebrating Israel's worst enemies evidences this, as does growing Muslim-on-Jewish violence within Israel.

In 2000, a poll published by the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot showed that 66% of surveyed Israeli Arabs would support the Palestinians in any confrontation with Israel, while only 13 percent would support their own country.

Ra’am, the political wing of the Southern Islamic Movement, is an organization inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood (as are Hamas and al Qa’eda). Updated and reviewed at a 2019 conference in Nazareth chaired by Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas, the Southern Islamic Movement’s charter takes Islamist and jihadi positions:

“The State of Israel was born of the racist, occupying Zionist project; iniquitous Western and British imperialism; and the debasement and feebleness of the Arab and Islamic [nations]. We do not absolve ourselves, the Palestinian people, of our responsibility and our failure to confront this project . . . We all are [functioning] one hand until the occupation ends and a Palestinian state is established in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and in noble Jerusalem – when the expelled and displaced return to their homes and to their homeland.”

Ra’am has been seriously negotiating with all major Zionist parties in the current round of elections. There is a warning for Israel in this potential rapprochement, considering what has happened to the formerly Christian-controlled country of Lebanon. The incorporation of many Palestinian Muslims post-1970 led to Maronite Christians becoming too small a proportion of the country’s population to rule it.

Karsh challenges us to think carefully about these matters:

Israeli Arabs are an avowedly non- or anti-assimilationist minority with the mentality of a majority. Far from seeking to adapt themselves to the norms and habits of the majority, now more than ever they regard themselves as unlawfully dominated by an alien invader who must be supplanted. Their rejection of their minority status has not diminished but has intensified with the rise in their economic and political fortunes, and so has their opposition to the Jewish state per se.

Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar, senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, served for 25 years in IDF military intelligence specializing in Syria, Arab political discourse, Arab mass media, Islamic groups, and Israeli Arabs, and is an expert on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups. His dry conclusion is:

Given Islam’s pervasive entrenchment in Palestinian society (and for that matter in all Middle Eastern societies) – even Yasser Arafat and most of the PLO’s founding generation were Muslim Brotherhood members in their young age – the acceptance of Israel’s existence by Muslims communities, both within Israel and abroad, will only be feasible upon their realization of the Jewish state’s overwhelming strength and invincibility. Only a powerful, well organized, highly determined and militarily invincible Israel can stand a chance of surviving in its violent and merciless neighborhood.

Are all Israeli Arabs opposed to the Jewish state?

The answer to this question is simple: no. Though the Islamization and radicalization of Israeli Arabs is a clear and present danger, there are some Arabs and Druze (since 1948) who long ago made the decision to loyally stand with the Jewish state. Today three Arab communities serve in the IDF – Druze, Circassians and Bedouin. Aramean Christians do not see themselves as Arabs, and they too are very Israel-positive. Pipes’ perspective is that approximately 20% of Israeli Arabs could be considered positive to Israel and Israelis. Some Palestinians are also very positive to Israel, though secretly, as their being exposed could cost them their lives.

In a recent article (December 2017) titled ‘Citizenship, Identity and Political Participation: Measuring the Attitudes of the Arab Citizens in Israel’ (Arik Rudnitzky & Itamar Radai; Moshe Dayan Center for Middle-Eastern and African Studies), the authors state that “most Arab citizens (60%) relate positively to Israeli citizenship and to current living conditions in Israel. In contrast, a considerable portion - at rates ranging from one-quarter to one-third of the respondents (by varying demographic categories) - holds very critical views on these matters.”

Those Israeli Arabs who are loyal to the State of Israel, who stand with the Jewish people, who (like Ruth 1:16-17) see their own destiny bound up with the destiny of the sons and daughters of Jacob – these are amazing people and worthy of great honor. The Scriptures give us a striking paradigm of what it means to stand with the Jewish people when many of the neighbors are violently opposed to the restoration of Israel. Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite is commended in the Song of Deborah for her courage and accurate hand in dispatching the enemies of Israel, who are also the enemies of YHVH (see Psalm 83:1-5)

Most blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Most blessed is she of women in the tent. He asked for water, she gave him milk. In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds. She reached out her hand for the tent peg, and her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. Then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head, and she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. Between her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell dead. Out of the window she looked and wailed, the mother of Sisera through the lattice. “Why does his chariot delay in coming? Why do the hoof beats of his chariots delay?” Her wise princesses would answer her. Indeed she repeats her words to herself, “Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoils? A concubine, two concubines for every warrior! To Sisera a spoil of dyed cloth, a spoil of dyed cloth embroidered – dyed cloth of double embroidery on the neck of the plunderer?” May all Your enemies perish in this way, YHVH! But may those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might.” And the land was at rest for forty years. (Judges 5:24-31)

Did some Israeli Jews also engage in violence?

The answer to this question is sadly – also yes. A few small groups whose political worldview is similar to that of Rabbi Meir Kahane and outright fascist thuggery activated their supporters through social media, and went out to look for violent clash and confrontation with Islamist jihadis. They did this primarily in three locations:

Beside Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate on Thursday April 22, hundreds of far-right Jewish activists, many affiliated with the Jewish supremacist Lehava movement, marched while calling out “Death to Arabs.” There were many injuries but no fatalities.
Orthodox Jewish settler social media posts stated that 30 Jewish youths from Yitzhar in Samaria, West Bank traveled to Lod on Tuesday night and engaged in clashes with Arab rioters. Video footage also showed Jewish rioters throwing stones at Arab cars in Ramle. One Israeli Arab was fatally shot in the violent demonstration.
In the neighborhood of Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, affiliated Jewish thugs violently destroyed an Arab-owned ice-cream parlor and then lynched and nearly murdered an Israeli Arab taxi-driver. Four Jews were arrested while chanting “death to Arabs” and “may your village burn.”

These violent images shocked many in Israel, who are not used to seeing Jews engaging in such street violence. Over the next week Israeli television broadcast commercials showing Jews and Arabs as fellow-workers, neighbors and friends. But it must be said that there was no proportionality in the violence. The above numbers clearly show that. The riots were basically Islamist and the lynchings were basically done by Israeli Arabs. There was also some Jewish violent kickback from a few extreme Jewish groups.

Postscript – Why did Hamas go to war now?

Hamas’s track record is to win elections, and then to not allow any more elections. In Gaza 2006 the PLO lost to Hamas in the elections. Hamas’ rise led to immediate torturing, kneecapping and throwing PLO representatives off the roofs of high buildings. Hamas was hoping to do the same in the upcoming West Bank elections (recently canceled by PLO on April 29, 2021). Their plans to take over the West Bank were knocked off track by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas’ response was to initiate violence in Jerusalem and to fire rockets at Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Tel Aviv and Beersheva, thus triggering jihad. Hamas’ hope is to come out of this episode with a shining reputation among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, eclipsing the PLO and clearly to be recognized as the frontline jihadi defender of Jerusalem and the real leader of the Palestinian people worldwide. To state it clearly – this war is not the result of previous events in Sheikh Jarrah or on the Temple Mount/al Aqsa; it is Hamas’ power play to seize the reigns of Palestinian jihad, and to crush the existence of Israel, the Jewish state – which according to Islamist perspective has no right to exist and must be vanquished by the armies of Muhammad.

How should we then pray?

Pray for the defeat of Islamist terror forces (see 2 Kings 6:8-14)
Pray for protection for Israel’s citizens still facing jihadi terror rocket attacks
Pray for minimal injuries and loss of life for Gazan civilians trapped under Hamas’ iron hand
Pray for strategic and political wisdom for Israel’s leadership in every area
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Watchman on the Walls – War in the Middle East

The name that the Israel Defense Forces has given for this current round of fighting with jihadi terror group Hamas is ‘Shomer Hachomot’ – ‘watchman on the walls.’ The term is based on Isaiah 62:6-7: “On your walls, Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen. All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who profess YHVH, take no rest for yourselves – and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem an object of praise on the earth.” Through this choice of name for the military operation, the promised Messianic and irrevocable calling on Israel (Romans 11:28-29) has found its way into world headlines.

Some intercessory prayer movements refer to this verse, but I am not sure if people understand that God is referring to a real people here – the Jewish people; to a real place – the Jewish state and its Jewish capital city Jerusalem; and to the God of the Hebrews who like to call Himself ‘YHVH the Lord of the armies of Israel’? (1 Samuel 17:26; 2 Samuel 7:26; Jeremiah 32:14-15; 50:18).

King David and his watchman’s sword

King David had a finely tuned awareness of who the God of Israel is, and he expressed quite forcefully in his confrontation with Goliath:

So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild animals.” But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a saber, but I come to you in the name of YHVH of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day YHVH will hand you over to me, and I will strike you and remove your head from you. Then I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that this entire assembly may know that YHVH does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is YHVH’s, and He will hand you over to us!” (1 Samuel 17:43-47)

All this may come as a shock to some followers of Messiah Yeshua as they grapple with the nature of the God of Jacob. CNN may whitewash evil terrorists by referring to them by the euphemism ‘militants,’ but let’s cut to the chase: the God of Israel is a God both militant and military. Here is how King David describes YHVH in Psalm 110:

YHVH says to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” YHVH will stretch out Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” Your people will volunteer freely on the day of Your power . . . YHVH is at Your right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside. Therefore He will lift up His head.

As the Jewish people confront their mortal enemies on the battlefield of the Promised Land, we would do well to remember how YHVH the God of the Bible views these conflicts. David says “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I did not turn back until they were consumed” (Psalm 18:37). The psalmist declares that YHVH will fight for David and for his people: “The enemy will not deceive him, nor will the son of wickedness afflict him. But I will crush his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him” (Psalm 89:22-23). The God of Israel takes these matters very seriously. It’s getting to be the time for us to do so as well.

Aiming rockets at Washington D.C., JFK and LA

The current battle between Hamas and Israel is not a generic battle. It is not a war between Arabs and Jews per se, for Israel has peace treaties with Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. The clash is between the Jewish state and Hamas, a jihadi terror offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas follows an Islamist perspective which sees destroying Israel as a religious duty and privilege, no matter the cost. Hamas began this round of armed conflict by firing seven long-range rockets toward purely civilian areas to the immediate west of Jerusalem. One of these fell across the valley from the Muslim village of Abu Gosh. Later targets in the following days included Ben Gurion International Airport and Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city.

To understand the significance of these targets in comparable terms, these rocket attacks would be like jihadi terrorist Osama bin Laden and his Muslim Brotherhood offshoot al Qa’eda simultaneously attacking America’s capital city Washington D.C., the JFK Airport and Los Angeles in one fell swoop. The nature of these attacks reveals the life-and-death struggle going on here. Hamas has to date fired over 2,000 rockets solely at Israeli civilians, and all have been fired from houses of Gaza’s exclusively residential areas.

God’s military advice to Israel

The writer of Proverbs gives solid military guidance to Jewish kings: “Establish your battle plans by consultation, and with cunning stratagems [wise guidance] make war” (Proverbs 21:18; also Proverbs 24:6). The Hebrew word for ‘cunning stratagems’ is tachbulah (תַּחְבֻּלָה) and it refers to the rope (hevel) used by the captain of a ship to steer the sail or the rudder.

In Joshua 8, the God of Jacob commands Joshua to engage in subterfuge and ambush. This was His divine military strategy:

Now YHVH said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you. Arise, go up to Ai. See, I have handed over to you the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king. You shall take only its spoils and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.” So Joshua rose up with all the people of war to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand men, valiant warriors, and sent them out at night. He commanded them, saying, “See, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as they did the first time, we will flee before them. They will come out after us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us just as they did the first time.’ So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for YHVH your God will hand it over to you. Then it will be when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it in accordance with the word of YHVH. See, I have commanded you.”

On Thursday night May 13, the IDF used a similar strategy. In every battle with Hamas so far, there has been a similarity of rolling tactics. Hamas opened up hostilities by firing rockets first at the Jewish villages and towns close to Gaza, and then exponentially increased its rocket fire to Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheva and finally to Tel Aviv and beyond. Israel responded by some aerial bombing, and then a ground invasion. But over the past few years IDF strategists have been working on new plans involving both subterfuge and ambush.

Late Thursday night the IDF spokesman distributed a press release which could have been read two different ways. World media concluded that the press release was signaling that Israel was getting ready for a massive ground invasion. Never ones to miss a scoop, they immediately broadcast that an IDF ground invasion was underway. When Hamas military command heard this, they rushed their commando squads to the border in order to confront the projected invasion. But the generals and colonels did what they always do at that point – they ran for their underground bunkers and rat’s nest network of Viet Cong-like tunnels. This was the IDF’s hoped-for result. Over 160 IAF warplanes moved into position over the underground bunkers, armed with JDAM bunker-buster bombs. Simultaneously, crushing fire was directed at the underground Hamas command bunkers by Israeli Merkava tanks, IDF self-propelled howitzers, and Israeli Navy artillery. Though in all previous battles Hamas’ underground network had proved to be unassailable, now the IDF was able to degrade these tunnels with pinpoint precision and move much of the Hamas high command on to other spheres. The military doctrine of ‘shock and awe’ had once again proved its value.

No weapon formed against you

God’s promise to the sons of Jacob is so very encouraging: “You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear, and from terror, for it will not come near you . . . Whoever attacks you will fall because of you . . . No weapon that is formed against you will succeed, and you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of YHVH, and their vindication is from Me, declares YHVH” (Isaiah 54:14-17).

Two sobering illustrations of this point:

Some Hamas rockets targeted at Israeli civilians fell short and destroyed Gazan electric power lines, leading to severe power outages for 250,000 Gazans.
Terrorists destroyed key elements of the water system for 5,000 Jewish residents of the South Hebron Hills region. That resulted in water being cut off to the Israeli Bedouin town of Kuseife (population 22,000), some who had been stoning Israeli cars and destroying highway lighting only a few hours before.

At this point Israeli Military Intelligence believes that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have 60 days of rockets left in their storerooms – approximately 12,000 units. Chances are that this war will not go on for 60 more days, due to Great Power pressure. But the jihadi goal is to keep firing to the very end, even as Gaza’s infrastructure and economy are being blown into a million pieces. “Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make,” declared Lord Maximus Farquaad in the movie Shrek. It could just as well have been a verbatim quote from Hamas’ Chief of Staff in this war, directed to each and every Gazan. The aged, the women, the children and many of the wage-earners in Gaza are trapped by their Islamist overlords. They have not voted for this war – or for anything, since the last elections were in 2006, and since then Gaza has been ruled by Hamas’ shari’a-compliant Islamist dictatorship. Tonight many Gazans in the northern part of the Strip are heading southward to find refuge in UNRWA schools. They never volunteered to Hamas, asking to be human shields while jihadi commanders hide under their houses and businesses.

A God’s-eye history of war

In the Book of Judges, Jephthah attempts to bring a ceasefire between Israel and Ammon. When Ammon claims Israel’s land, Jephthah goes into the history of the conflict and, when Ammon refuses to listen, he calls on the God of the armies of Israel to bring severe military defeat upon the sons of Ammon:

So Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What conflict do you and I have, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” And the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, “It is because Israel took my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan. So return them peaceably now.” But Jephthah sent messengers once again to the king of the sons of Ammon, and they said to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab nor the land of the sons of Ammon. For when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh . . . So I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me. May YHVH, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon’” (Judges 11:12-16, 27).

When Jewish people and Gentile friends of Israel today insists that the God of Israel has never handed over the Promised Land to jihadi terrorists, and when those modern ‘sons of Ammon’ spurn God’s word and attack His people, this is not simply a situation that calls for “immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities,” as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres demanded today. Guterres added that he was doing this “out of respect for the spirit of Eid” (the final feast of Ramadan, Eid al-Adha). To many Muslims this feast is a happy family time, similar in some ways to Western Christmas. But then again, why would Hamas choose to attack Israel on ‘Christmas’ and then complain that Israel is fighting back?

An ancient Arabic proverb explains, “He hit me and howled, then rushed first to cry foul!” This proverb helps us to understand Hamas’ worldview and behavior, as they attack the people of the Lion of Judah while insisting that we have no right to fight back and decisively crush our enemies.

How should we then pray?

Pray for the defeat of Islamist terror forces (see2 Kings 6:8-14)
Pray for protection for Israel’s citizens who are facing jihadi terror rocket attacks
Pray for minimal injuries and loss of life for Gazan civilians trapped under Hamas’ iron hand
Pray for strategic and political wisdom for Israel’s leadership in every area
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Thorns, hippies and bones

Jihadi Islam is a reality. It has clear goals and strategies, and today these are exploding in Gaza and throughout Arab communities in Israel. The co-operative efforts of Shi’ite and Sunni terrorists – Iran, Muslim Brotherhood terrorists Hamas, and Lebanese Hezbollah – are rippling their shock waves across the Middle East. The past 48 hours have witnessed over 1,200 Islamist rockets launched from pads situated smack in the middle of Gaza’s 2 million Muslim civilians (a war crime). These lethal weapons are being fired directly against Israel’s Jewish and Arab civilians (this is also a war crime). See our last newsletter (‘The flames of jihad on the Temple Mount’) for the historical and religious origins of this jihadi strategy.

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:

Edom, the Ishmaelites . . . Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia . . . Tyre, Assyria . . . Lot

(Psalm 83:1-9)

But, true to form, media commentators and diplomatic go-getters are acting like Mahatma Ghandi, who believed that Hitler’s heart could be unlocked and tamed by peaceful pronouncements and non-violent ahimsa. He gave his appraisal of the Holocaust: “But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs . . . It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany.”

Today’s social media is buzzing with declarations of naïve ex-hippies and ‘progressives’ proclaiming that ‘no side is right in this conflict,’ or that Israel’s Prime Minister ‘and his gang’ are the ones seeding the violence, or that it’s simply a matter of lives being lost on both sides (establishing a moral equivalence between jihadi terrorists and those blocking their evil deeds), Diplomats pontificate that “an immediate de-escalation” is needed and it is essential “for all sides to avoid any unilateral actions.” The willful blindness of the New York Times in ignoring the Jewish Holocaust as it was happening, or the computerized complicity of IBM in facilitating Hitler’s death machine in Auschwitz, tell us that we should not be overly surprised when world media and politicians act as cheerleaders for Israel’s mortal enemies.

Those who utter these ‘noble’ declarations most probably see themselves as purveyors of peace (a la Psalm 34:14). But they are painting the Hamas arsonist and the Israeli firefighter as simply two sides of the same coin. That would be like drawing a moral equivalence between Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. Such arguments are not only morally obscene; they are evil. The third century Tiberias Rabbi Shim’on ben Laqish once said, “He who becomes compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate.” In a battle between jihadi terrorists and the Jewish people, humanistic pseudo-compassion and false moral equivalence is not what is required.

Certainly all suffering in war is tragic, and we are called to pray that all people lead peaceful lives (1 Timothy 2:2). At the same time there are wicked people who plan and execute slaughter of innocents, and it is a moral virtue to remove their ability to do harm. Latin author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (400’s A.D.) once said, “Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum” (‘Therefore let him who desires peace prepare for war’). The state of peace is often best preserved by a readiness to make war, when necessary. That is what is going on now.

Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz, the recognized master of military strategists, stated a point worth remembering in his magnum opus Vom Kriege (‘On War’): “Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed. War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst” (Book I, Chapter 1, Section 3, Paragraph 1). Middle Eastern war is not simply another game in the World Cup series or the Stanley Cup season. It is deadly serious stuff.

Hamas is not cute

Hamas is the main Gazan Islamist terror group shooting rockets at Arabs and Jews in Israel, as well as stirring up violent riots throughout the land. The Arabic word Hamas can mean zeal, enthusiasm, fire, ardor, fervor or fanaticism. Used as an Arabic acronym HaMaS is the short form of Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya – ‘The Islamic Resistance Movement’. Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam is considered the spiritual founder and historic leader of Hamas. He ended his life in a bomb attack in 1989 in Peshawar, Pakistan. Osama bin Laden was his star pupil.

Hamas is committed and zealous, a model Islamist jihadi terror organization. Its Charter lays out with great clarity its total commitment to its platform – the physical destruction of Israel, the Jewish state. Here are a few Articles which clarify their goals:

“The Islamic Resistance Movement (ed., Hamas) draws its guidelines from Islam” (Article #1).
“The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin)…the largest Islamic Movement in the modern era” (Article #2).
“The Platform of The Islamic Resistance Movement (ed., Hamas): Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors.
“Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Qur’an its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the case of Allah its most sublime belief (ed. this is also the slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood)” (Article #8 – The Slogan of the Hamas).
“The current Zionist invasion had been preceded by a Crusader invasion from the West; and another one, the Tatars, from the East. And exactly as the Muslims had faced those invasions and planned their removal and defeat, they are able to face the Zionist invasion and defeat it” (Article #35).

There is no balanced way of negotiating or living peaceably with such an organization. Like the Taliban in Afghanistan or ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not compromise on their essentials. We are not about to enter into forty years of quiet with Hamas: “So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they did not lift up their heads anymore. And the land was undisturbed for forty years in the days of Gideon” (Judges 8:28). Peace-making with a ravenous jihadi monster is simply not a reality.

Arik Sharon’s disastrous decision – and those who supported him

In 2004-2005 former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally pulled all Jews and the IDF out of Gaza. He promised that if Hamas fired even one rocket into Israel, the IDF would move back in and deal decisively with the problem. Sharon’s position was supported by most left-of-center Israelis. Even one or two Israeli Messianic Jewish leaders declared that there was real prophetic wisdom in Sharon’s strategy. In the end, tens of thousands of rockets have since been fired into the Jewish state – and are still being fired as this is written. Arik Sharon breathed life into a jihadi giant named Hamas, and we are still paying the price for his damaging decisions. Part of the reason that Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli Right have continued to win significant majorities is because many Israelis are convinced that there will be no peace with Gaza as long as Hamas is in charge.

As you pray for Israel, please stand in for us in identificational repentance for these reckless decisions and their blowback.

The reason for the season

It is not an accident that this war has broken out during the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. Whereas in the West, this Muslim holiday is seen as a colorful and traditional occasion for blessing, fasting and feasting, in classical Islam Ramadan is much connected to jihad and to all-out battle against Jews, pagans and Christians.

Ramadan as a month of war is strikingly clear in Islamic history. Muhammad waged his first jihad, known as the Battle of Badr, on 17 Ramadan (13 March 624 AD). This battle laid the foundation of the Islamic State and was the most important of all Islamic battles. Eight years later Muhammad conquered Mecca during the month of Ramadan, thereby claiming Islam's most holy site, the Kaaba. On 19 Ramadan (January, 661 A.D.), Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali was assassinated at a mosque in Kufa, Iraq. The Battle of (the Horns of) Hattin was fought during Ramadan (July 4, 1187) between Salah al-Din al-Ayoubi's Muslims and the forces of the Crusaders, a symbol of Arab and Muslim historical victory. The Battle of Ain Jalut on 25 Ramadan (September 3, 1260) saw the Islamic Mamluks halt the pagan Mongols. Egypt attacked Israel on 10 Ramadan, 1973 (the Yom Kippur War/October War/Ramadan War/Ramadan Harb/Operation Badr).

Hamas is well aware of its religious heritage. It instigated a war with Israel during Ramadan 2014, reveling in its symbolism to fellow Muslims. See the article ‘Hamas’ Ramadan War’ with its by-line question, “Did Hamas planned to start the round of fighting in Gaza specifically in the month of Ramadan?”

On June 7, 2016, during the month of Ramadan and the day before a terror attack in Tel Aviv killed four and wounded several others, Hamas's military wing, the ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, published an article on its website Alqassam.ps encouraging jihad and martyrdom during that week, the month of Ramadan. Hamas underscored in ‘Ramadan - The Month of Jihad, Fighting and Victory over the Enemies,’ that Ramadan has always been the time of Islam’s greatest victories. Allah commands Muslims to wage jihad, the very pinnacle of Islam.

“Ramadan is the month of jihad, fighting, and fasting. Therefore, after the jihad fighter dedicates himself to the study of Islam by day he sets forth to defend his homeland, Palestine, by night. This month has seen the actualization of exceptional Islamic victories . . . The blessed month of Ramadan is the month of jihad, and saw the two most important battles in the life of the Prophet. The first is the great Battle of Badr, which was the divine proof by means of which Allah distinguished truth from lie, and which led to Muslim honor and steadfastness. The second is the Conquest of Mecca, by virtue of which the first renunciation of Islam was defeated, the banners of paganism in the holy city [of Mecca] fell, and Islam became invincible throughout in the Arabian Peninsula.”

The current Hamas War is actually the third one that Hamas has initiated during the Ramadan season, heavy with jihadi undertones and history.

New rocketman strategies

Hamas has been stymied by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile systems. They have come up with two improvised methods to bypass the system’s effectiveness. One is to swarm the system by shooting a wave of 15 or more rockets in a sudden burst. Some rockets manage to make it through as a result.

A second invention involves the development of a rocket that does not fly in an arc, but travels in a straight line of fire. The Iron Dome cannot intercept such a rocket. However, this type of rocket requires a flat terrain, a clear view of the target, and a relatively short distance to travel before the effects of gravity kick in. Two Israeli have been killed in the past few days by this straight-flying rocket.

Thorns – Israel’s unfinished business

The God of Israel warned the Jewish people not to allow mortal enemies to co-exist with Israel in the Promised Land: “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from you, then it will come about that those whom you let remain of them will be like thorns in your eyes and like pricks in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live” (Numbers 33:55). YHVH saw this as a serious matter with long-term geo-political and military consequences. It should be stressed that the same demonic powers which operated through the Canaanites and Philistines have not disappeared and their hatred of the Jewish people has in no way slackened.

This is an intercessory challenge for those who accept these spiritual realities as still influential and significant.

Curses and bones

Genesis 12:3 prophesies a curse on individuals and nations who try to harm the apple of God’s eye (see also Zechariah 2:8). Hamas and Islamic Jihad definitely fit that definition.

King David treasured his thirty mighty men, his Hebrew Special Operations Forces (2 Samuel 23:8-39; 1 Chronicles 11:1-47). David saw no contradiction between fighting the Lord’s battles and praising YHVH who trained his fingers to fight (Psalm 144:1; 149:5-9).

There is definitely a pacifist and anti-militaristic tradition among some in Protestant and Anabaptist streams. At the same time it is worth remembering that one of God’s main goals in restoring the dry bones of Jewish people back to the Land of Israel is to fill them with His Holy Spirit and to transform them into “a mighty army, much much” (the literal Hebrew of Ezekiel 37:9-10). Those who believe the prophetic word need to start incorporating what it says into our prayers and strategizing.

Our prayers for Israel should not be stepping backwards but forwards. We should not be praying for peace at this time but for the resounding defeat of YHVH’s enemies (see Psalm 83). In Steven Spielberg’s cinematographic masterpiece ‘Hook’ the enemy warns Peter Pan that, unless he decides to decisively fight Captain Hook, Peter’s children and children’s children will be harassed and even perhaps taken out by the Captain in years to come. YHVH the God of the armies of Israel states that same principle simply and in another context: “Because YHVH has sworn, YHVH will have war against Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16).

How should we then pray?

Pray for the defeat of Islamist terror forces, for the disabling of their weapons systems, the frustration of their intelligence and communications (see2 Kings 6:8-14)
Pray for protection for Israel’s citizens who are facing jihadi terror rocket attacks
Pray for minimal injuries and loss of life for Gazan civilians trapped under Hamas’ iron hand
Pray for strategic and political wisdom for Israel’s leadership in every area
Pray for the raising up of the Ezekiel 37 prophetic army among the Jewish people

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org