The black flag and the black hole

Under Paris skies

Jihadi-inspired terrorism has become a hot-button item in the past weeks. On January 7, 2015 Chérif and Saïd Kouachi - two French citizens of North African Islamic origin (connected with Al Qa’eda in Yemen) - broke into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a Parisian newspaper known for its repeated mocking of politicians, religions (Catholicism, Judaism and Islam) and everything in between (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo_shooting). There they slaughtered 12 people connected to the editorial board. Over the years Muslims have reacted to similar depictions of Islam and Mohammed with rioting and repeated physical attacks on Charlie’s offices, including a fire-bombing in November 2011.

Meanwhile another terrorist accomplice waited in the wings – Amedy Coulibaly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedy_Coulibaly) a French citizen of Islamic Mali origin who openly declared his own connection with ISIS (known in Arabic as Da’ash) and filmed a martyr’s video in preparation. He coordinated his own bloody attack with the Charlie assassination team and had originally planned to take hostages in a Jewish elementary school. In the end Coulibaly commandeered a kosher supermarket in the Parisian suburb of Vincennes. He took 19 Jewish shoppers hostage and killed four of them before he was eliminated by a Parisian BRI (Brigades de Recherche et d'Intervention) SWAT team (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porte_de_Vincennes_hostage_crisis; www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/paris-terror-attacks-chilling-jewish-4986853). The other two terrorists stormed police lines and were killed simultaneously in Dammartin-en-Goële, a small town 35 kilometers northeast of Paris.

According to normative Islamic sentiment and law, any depiction of Mohammed in human form (or any perceived dishonor to Islam) is punishable by death, even if repentance occurs (www.memritv.org/clip/en/4745.htm; www.jpost.com/Middle-East/WATCH-Saudi-Imam-says-Charlie-Hebdo-attack-is-only-language-Jews-and-Christians-understand-389001). An overwhelming number of examples of such Muslim violence are on record, including murderous mob attacks on Christians in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria, etc.

On November 2, 2004 a descendant of the painter Vincent van Gogh, Theo, was stabbed to death in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam by a Dutch citizen of Moroccan Muslim background over Theo’s non-orthodox views on Islam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_%28film_director%29). Other voices critical of Muslim teachings and beliefs in Denmark and the Netherlands have been forced to live underground or under police protection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Westergaard).

The four-million man march

Though Charlie Hebdo’s perspectives are broadly perceived to be offensive and blasphemous to all major religions, a majority of French citizens staunchly defend freedom of the press.

France’s initial response to the carnage was a mass demonstration against terror and for unity, held on January 11.  Between 1.2 and 1.6 million people came out to the Paris march, while a total of 2.5 million marched in other cities throughout France (www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/11/us-france-shooting-idUSKBN0KK05S20150111).  The last great gathering of a similar nature was the 1944 Liberation of Paris from Nazi Germany.

The demonstration focused on free speech and on the murder of the cartoonists.  No reference was made at the demonstration to jihad and jihadi Islam – the hidden elephant in the room. This is noteworthy because the terrorists had all publically and clearly stated that they were representing Islamist groups, obeying Islamic law and avenging the tarnished honor of Mohammed the prophet of Islam.

French Islamist anti-Semitism – it ain’t no new thing

Islamist jihadi terror has been targeting French Jews for some time now:

To date, none of these hate crimes against French Jews has catalyzed a national protest or a million-man march of Gentile French citizens singing La Marseillaise (www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/11/paris-france-anti-terror-rally-massive-show-unity).  Only when an Islamist terror attack was directed against secular French journalists did the nation galvanize into action.

Philippe Karsenty, Deputy Mayor of the Paris suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine, contrasted the recent Paris march with the virulently anti-Israel and violently anti-Semitic Parisian marches against Israel in August 2014 during Operation Protective Edge, when Hamas was targeting Israeli civilian centers with rockets. “Some of the people walking today are the same people who walked against Israel last summer …This is completely hypocritical” (www.timesofisrael.com/france-marched-for-charlie-not-for-the-jews/).

Doing plastic surgery on Islamist terrorism

World leaders flocked to the Paris demonstration with two notable exceptions – the USA and Israel.  The President of the United States was a no-show, citing security concerns.  And the Prime Minister of the Jewish State Benjamin Netanyahu was told by the Elysée that his presence at the national memorial rally in Paris was not suitable.  When Bibi decided to come anyway, France immediately went out of its way to issue a publicized invitation to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, just to make sure that a ‘balanced equilibrium’ was kept between Israel and ‘Palestine’ (www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.636557).

There are some significant ethical problems and logical inconsistencies with inviting Abbas to an anti-terror and freedom-of-the-press demonstration:

‘Freedom of the press’ may have been one of the buzzwords at the demonstration, but one could fairly ask if this buzzword accurately reflects reality.  The roster of champions of press freedom who were given places in the march of honor include:

ü  Saudi Ambassador to France Mohammed Ismail Al-Sheikh, whose nation only a few hours previous had just given the first 50 lashes out of 1,000 to imprisoned young blogger Ra’if Badawi (www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/raif-badawi-saudi-arabia-urged-to-halt-flogging-of-liberal-blogger-sentenced-to-1000-lashes-9967008.html)

Denying the Islamic roots of jihad

The terrorists involved in these two attacks described themselves as jihadi warriors connected to ISIS and Al Qa’eda, and they declared that targeting of Jews was an ongoing Islamist priority.  Yet the leaders of this massive rally in Paris downplayed both the Islamist and the anti-Jewish nature of these terror attacks.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France spun a by-now recognizable narrative:  “It is very important to make clear to people that Islam has nothing to do with ISIS” (www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/french-prime-minister-manuel-valls-on-islamophobia/384592/; www.france24.com/en/20150113-french-pm-we-are-war-with-terrorism-not-islam-manuel-valls-charlie-hebdo-paris/).  President of the Republique François Hollande twittered, “Ceux qui ont commis ces actes n’ont rien à voir avec la religion musulmane” (Those who committed these acts have nothing to do with Islam; https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/553632139175292928).

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder added in regard to Valls’ statements, “I certainly think that we are at war with those who would commit terrorist attacks and who would corrupt the Islamic faith in the way that they do, to try to justify their terrorist actions … So that's who we are at war with” (https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/229140-holder-french-attacks-point-to-threats-to-us).

Though Valls made other praiseworthy statements at that time, his dismissing of the very real threat of jihadi Islam is in lock-step with the ostrich-like policies of other Western super-powers (including Blair, Cameron, Obama and Bush). All have tried to conjure up a wedge between jihadi warriors and the Islamic faith.  This is a stretch at best, and deceptive politics at worst.  It is an attempt by Western secular politicians to re-interpret Islam in ways that ignore its spiritual essence.

See “A Perspective on Islam” (https://davidstent.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/a_perspective_on_islam.pdf) by Avner Boskey for a free download and more discussion of these issue.

The spiritual dynamics of denial

At a White House reception in the Delegates’ Lounge on October 16, 2014 to celebrate Eid al- Adha, Secretary of State John Kerry side-stepped the Islamic roots of jihad, and instead placed the lion’s share of the blame for Muslim violence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

“In the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, … there wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation that they felt … they had to respond to.  And people need to understand the connection of that.  And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity” (www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/10/233058.htm).

An academic ‘pseudo-orthodoxy’ has dominated scholarly inquiry in the United States for some decades now, influencing even those who sit in the highest offices of the land.  This perspective sees the Muslim Brotherhood, its founders Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, its spiritual children in al Qa’eda and its offshoots in Iran as simply manifesting “regrettable and mistaken reactions to the arrogance and blunders of the West… To call the source of terrorism by its (ed. Islamic) name would only inflame passions and offend Muslims” (“Reframing the Enemy after France’s 9/11”, Jeffrey Hart; www.meforum.org/4982/reframing-the-enemy-after-france-9-11).

In a hard-hitting article by Tibor Krausz “Hating Jews for Allah” (Jerusalem Report, February 9, 2015), he points out: “Commentators who subscribe to the common ‘root-causes’ argument often seem willing to consider any plausible cause – from poverty to Israeli brutality to US-meddling in the Middle East – for Muslim bigotry and Islamic terrorism, except one:  a homegrown ideology of supremacism fueled by traditional Islamic beliefs.”

Quoting Islam and Middle East specialist Raymond Ibrahim (www.raymondibrahim.com/about/), author of “The Al Qaeda Reader” and “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians,” Krausz notes that if Western thinkers “‘actually pointed to the root causes of Islamic violence – the plain teachings of Islam themselves – that entire edifice of multiculturalism would crumble down, taking with it many other aspects of the preferred narrative’ – that Muslims are always somehow victims and so rightfully angry.”

Justifying a selective jihad

Some suburbs of France, the banlieues, have a high percentage of immigrants from former French colonies in North Africa. Over 750 of these areas have higher levels of crime, civil disobedience and radical Islam. The general terms used by French authorities for these areas are either Zones de sécurité prioritaires (ZSP ; www.interieur.gouv.fr/ZSP) or Zones urbaine sensibles (ZUS; www.danielpipes.org/blog/2006/11/the-751-no-go-zones-of-france; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_urban_zone).

An excellent article by Guy Millière is “Jihad in France: It's Just Beginning” (www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5120/jihad-in-france). Also see:

The French government has tended to give these banlieues a wide berth, and often less-than-average municipal services are provided there by police, firemen and garbage collectors.  These suburbs have also become hothouses for Islamist jihad cells, while France’s intellectuals do a mea culpa, beating their collective breast and blaming French civilization for Islamist violence.

The politically correct take in France and in Europe is that Islamist jihadi attacks on Jews and Israelis are understandable or even justifiable, while attacks on French journalists are still considered outrageous.  As Herb Keinon of The Jerusalem Post drily noted (Friday January 16, 2015), ‘politically correct’ politicians “distinguish between kosher terrorists who only kill Jews and Israelis, and non-kosher terrorists who kill everyone else.”

A recent example of this perspective comes from Sky News, where anchorman Adam Boulton corners UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis with an accusation that it is Israel’s behavior that fuels anti-Semitism and that Israel is therefore to blame for world anti-Semitism (www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/190602#.VMkBtdKUfns).

The West shies away from coming to terms with the chilling reality that jihad is an organic outflow of Mohammed’s teachings and actions, and that Islamist terror is by and large an accurate reflection of original mujahidin (jihad warrior) military history.  Considering the stunning growth of Muslim populations in the West, the security challenge this presents is so unsettling that many have chosen to sweep this rather large elephant under the rug.

When he was France’s Minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls once warned that the possibility of terror attacks by the hundreds of European jihadists returning home from Syria represents “the greatest danger we will have to face in the coming years … We, French and Europeans, could be overwhelmed by this phenomenon, given its scale.”  Valls then said that the numbers of French Muslims going so wage jihad in Syria had “accelerated” in recent weeks:  “It is a phenomenon which is affecting all the countries of Europe.” He added that President Hollande had asked him to draw up plans to crack down on what he called the “jihadist exodus” (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10583000/France-warns-Europe-could-be-overwhelmed-by-jihadis-returning-from-Syria.html).

Now serving France as Prime Minister, Valls is watching the chickens he warned about, coming home to roost.

All is quiet on the jihadi front

In the Book of Zechariah 1:7-17, the prophet observes as angelic watchers return from their international sorties, landing their flying angelic steeds in a myrtle grove and reporting back to the Messiah as to the contemporaneous situation on earth.  “These are those whom YHVH has sent topatrol the earth.  So they answered the Angel of YHVH who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is peaceful and quiet.’”

Though it appeared that things on earth among the Gentile superpowers was quiet, from God’s perspective there was something huge left out of the international equation.  The missing link, the key to understanding all international intrigue, is the priority focus on what is happening with His chosen people the Jews.

Then the Angel of YHVH said, “O YHVH of armies , how long will You have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been indignant these seventy years? ”YHVH answered the Angel who was speaking with me with gracious words, comforting words. So the Angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, Thus says YHVH of armies, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.  But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.  Therefore thus says YHVH, I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it, declares YHVH of armies” (Zechariah 1:12-16)

Though nearly four million French citizens marched in a mass outpouring of shock, sympathy and fear, the missing links in these events are still biblical.  And they are gaping and raw, including:

Yet La Marseillaise is sung in the background while dictators and Islamic despots join in the march of honor.

Even in the short term, these four million marchers may not be able to change the direction of Europe’s spiritual future at this late date (“Europe Unable and Unwilling to Confront Islamic Extremism”, Peter Martino, January 19, 2015; www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5121/europe-islamic-extremism).

The Battle of Algiers redux

France, like Western Europe, is dealing with an impossible security challenge regarding Islamist terror.

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s French military forces found themselves trying to defend Pied-Noirs (French citizens living in Algeria) from terror attacks of the Algerian revolutionary movement.  A half a million French troops were not sufficient to safeguard one million Pied-Noirs.  Over 800,000 Pied-Noirs retreated to France by 1962.

France today has 60 million citizens, of which perhaps six million are Muslims.  It takes an average of 24 police officers to shadow one single jihadi who has returned from fighting with al Nusra or ISIL in Syria.  In Belgium there are over 100 such jihadis, and in France the numbers is much greater.  Over 2,500 policemen would be needed in Belgium, and tens of thousands would be needed in France.  Then there are similar situations in the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, etc.

It is impossible to protect every newspaper office, university, synagogue, Jewish community center, train station or shop.  With tens if not hundreds of jihadi sleeper cells well entrenched in Europe, the immediate future is not hopeful in the short run.

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

The Sanballat Syndrome

Bob Dylan said it well. “The enemy is subtle. How be it we are deceived, when the truth’s in our hearts and we still don’t believe…” (“Precious Angel”, © Special Rider Music, 1979).

As Islamist terror stretches its icy fingers across oceans from Amsterdam to Paris, and from New York to Jerusalem, the world continually enters into a brief season of shock, to be followed by a determined burying of its head in denial of the spiritual nature of the problem. A post-Christian world cannot fathom the jihadi worldview and prefers to deny its power and its influence. That same post-Christian world view also dismisses the power and influence of the God of Israel and His covenantal promises to the Jewish people concerning their restoration and their land.

It is becoming increasingly widespread (even for some praying believers who believe in a biblical destiny for the Jewish people) to get worn down by the enemy regarding God’s heart for His people and His land. This is not a new thing. In Daniel 7:24-26 a dark world leader – a ‘lord of the kings’ – is described as the one who “will speak out against the Most High and wear down the holy ones of the Most High.” We do know that eventually this anti-Messiah’s “dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever” when YHVH’s heavenly court sits in judgment. Yet even in our day this dark lord’s hand still reaches out, attempting to confuse and deceive (if it were possible) even the very elect of God (Matthew 24:24).

As Gimli says in another context in ‘Lord of the Rings,’ the enemy’s “arm has grown long indeed if he can draw snow down from the North to trouble us here three hundred leagues away.” Today the enemy of our souls is still trying to trouble the Jewish people and the body of Messiah by drawing down his “abominable snow job” – the roots and fruits of Replacement Theology – through dark forces within the Islamic world, the Western secular world and even through anti-Semitic streams within the Christian world.

Opposing Jewish restoration

In the days of Nehemiah, the restoration of the Jewish people to their promised homeland was being carried out in stages, led by the encouraging words of God’s prophets. Though the majority of the sons of Israel chose to remain behind in Babylon, surrounded by comforts, an ardent remnant rose up and ascended to Zion. There they started to rebuild the military defensive walls around their capital city Jerusalem, and to solidify the worship and sacrificial ministry in the Temple area.

At that time there were enemies surrounding the Jewish homeland – descendants of Esau/Edom, descendants of Lot through Moab and Ammon, and also Ishmaelite and Arab tribes moving in and out of the desert areas to graze their flocks or raid passing caravans. The Bible describes some of these as opponents of Nehemiah and of the restoration of the Jewish people to their Promised Land.

One of these opponents was called Sanballat, a name possibly derived from the Akkadian word Sīnuballit which means “begotten by Sin (the moon god).” “When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it (ed., Nehemiah’s restoration efforts), they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel” (Nehemiah 2:10).

Herein lies a major key to understanding the enemy’s current strategy.

The Bible defines the well-being of the Jewish people as connected to their physical restoration to the Land of Israel, to the physical rebuilding of their infrastructure and their spiritual center, to the physical flourishing of a Jewish community in the entire land promised by YHVH to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (see Ezekiel 34:10-31; 36:1-15; Isaiah 66:14; Jeremiah 30:18-20).

The gifts of YHVH given to the Jewish people (which include the land) and Israel’s prioritized national calling (see Romans 11:28-29) were irrevocable in Nehemiah’s day, and they continue to determine the fate of nations today as well.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. May peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, ‘May peace be within you.’ For the sake of the House of YHVH our God, I will seek your good” (Psalm 122:6-8).

Nehemiah’s prayerful response

Nehemiah did not respond to Sanballat with ‘political correctness,’ even though he was a professional diplomat (Nehemiah 1:11). When Sanballat accused Nehemiah of acting against superpower interests in the ancient Middle East, the response was not long in coming: “So I answered him and said to them ‘The God of heaven Himself will prosper us. Therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem’ ” (Nehemiah 2:20).

Mocking Jewish restoration

Nehemiah’s writings reveal another aspect of the enemy’s strategy – mocking and belittling the process of Jewish restoration.

Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building – if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!” Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized (or caused great anger to) the builders! (Nehemiah 4:1-5)

Nehemiah’s prayer was Holy-Spirit-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and it shows what God thinks about those who mock Jewish restoration (see Genesis 12:3 as well). Those mockers are described by YHVH as despisers, bringers of reproach and controlled by iniquity and sin. Nehemiah considers these transgressions to be heavy sins, and asks God not to forgive such sins, because these people have attempted to demoralize and deeply anger those involved in Jewish restoration.

Israel/Palestine – the modern sleight-of-hand buzzword

In Nehemiah 13:1-9 there is a description of some un-kosher under-the-table cooperation between a high priestly descendant Eliashib and Tobiah the Ammonite. Eliashib had allowed the Ammonite to enter the Temple compound and to store his own personal possessions in one of the great rooms there. This was a direct violation of the Mosaic Torah:

By allowing someone who was not a descendant of Levi, Aaron or Jacob to enter the Temple courts, Eliashib had violated God’s biblical standards. A desire for political connections and cooperation had caused Eliashib to violate his own priestly calling. A political spirit and a desire for political correctness had become a spiritual trap for him, and had blunted the priest’s spiritual discernment.

In the same way in our day, there are a few even in the Messianic movement who started out believing ardently in the restoration of Israel and in the consolation of Zion (Luke 2:25, 38) but who have now taken the counsel of Sanballat and Eliashib. They have stepped back from supporting the restoration of Israel. They have encouraged mockers and underminers of the Jewish people, their walls and their warriors. They have participated in sowing doubt and in catalyzing unbelief regarding the prophetic word.

Others have opened up holy courtyards for unholy purposes. They have granted platforms to opponents of Jewish restoration, to mockers of the Jewish people – all in the name of political correctness or maverick political strategies.

This letter is both an exhortation and a warning to those so involved. God is not mocked, and His standards of measurement and judgment have not changed in the past six thousand years. Please – if you recognize that these words have reference to your own situation – ask YHVH to reveal His own opinion of your opinion, His take on your plans and strategies, His solution to your quandary.

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

'Tis the Season to remember

The holiday season is in full throttle. Good food, good cheer, trees and lights, and nine-branched menorahs abound.  Dreidels and potato pancakes, fruit cake and egg nog overflow on groaning tables. Tis the season for snowmen to be jolly!

In the West Jews and Christians celebrate holy days and remember stirring events. Does anything bind these two holidays together? Is there any specific and timely lesson to be found in these ancient and well-loved stories for today’s fast-paced world?

Christmas – a Jewish holiday?

For most Jews, Christmas is a Gentile celebration. Perhaps it is the holiday ham or the oyster and bacon canapés, but somehow Jews feel like strangers at the table. Most manger scenes depict a definitely Northern European holy family, and the beautiful carols and hymns don’t sound exactly like Middle Eastern tunes. Some Jews look longingly at the Christmas table but in their heart of hearts they know that they would never fit in unobtrusively.

On the other hand, Hanukah may have a good reputation but it just has not garnered the same public acclaim that Yuletide has managed to do. A hanukkiya candelabrum or Israeli jelly donuts have just not swept over the West to the same degree as Santa Claus.

Yet the prophecy of Messiah’s birth in Luke 2:34-35 has Shimon ha-Tzaddik (Simeon the righteous one) declaring that the birth of Baby Yeshua would be a sign specifically for the Jewish people: “And Simeon/Shim'on blessed them and said to Mary/Miriam His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed – and a sword will pierce even your own soul – to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.’ ”

The birth of the Jewish Messiah would be a sign to Israel. As a result of His advent, many in Israel would fall, but many would also rise. God offends the mind to reveal the heart. This principle applies not only to Gentiles, but also to Jews.

 Lord of the Holidays

In the quasi-democratic West, much is made of elections and fickle support for one political party or another. Many see a vote for their favorite party as a vote for God, and cannot believe that God could raise up ungodly or sinister leadership over a country. Yet Zechariah the father of John the Immersor /Baptizer describes the God of Jacob as above and beyond these limitations – One who brings down and raises up kings while remembering His everlasting promises to restore the Jewish people:

In much the same way, Samuel’s mother Hannah gave glory to God over a thousand years before the birth of the Anointed One:

Daniel the prophet settles the matter. God reveals secrets of the heart, raises up some leaders but causes others to come crashing down. He is in charge. He is sovereign. He sits enthroned above the machinations of men.

Hanukkah heroes

The Maccabees who fought against ungodly oppression by the Seleucid Greeks of Syria were commended as divinely sanctioned warriors. Daniel prophesied about the Maccabees while he still lived in Persia, and the writer of the Book of Hebrews commended the Maccabees as heroes of the faith:

In each case these men and women believed God’s word and heard His call. They saw the prophesied future as a reality soon to come, and willingly spent their lives to see those days come to fulfillment.

But I didn’t vote for God!

The history of mankind is a history of divine invitation, human rejection of God’s gifts and rebellion against Him, God’s rejection of men’s sinful strategies and then His judgment on them. From the Garden of Eden to the generation of Noah, these themes have been indelibly stamped on mankind’s collective memory. Moses, Samuel, Isaiah and Jeremiah witnessed the same dynamic in their own day:

As a result of over 800 years of the majority of Jewish people pulling away from the guidelines of YHVH’s prophets and teachers, YHVH Himself declared that judgment had come:

From Adam to Isaiah, and from Jeremiah to Yeshua, both the sons of Adam and the sons of Jacob ending up rejecting the call of God and His purposes on their lives: “But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been immersed by John” (Luke 7:30).

The message of both Christmas and Hanukkah calls upon men and women, both Jew and Gentile, to re-embrace God and His will for our lives, to bow before Him and to commit ourselves to follow His ways and His way.

Worldwide rejection, worldwide judgment

As believers struggle with ungodly political and social trends, we are faced with the temptation to curse God, to blame Him for negative developments. The Scriptures offer us wise words to meditate on at this season:

A call to the wall

Asaph the psalmist cries out to YHVH, “O God, have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?” (Psalm 74:1).

The Holy Spirit-birthed call to intercession is a key to the release of God’s heart and plans.

The body of Messiah is being fogged by the enemy and the nations into declare falsehood concerning God’s election and love for Israel, “Have you not observed what (ed. they) have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which YHVH chose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in their sight” (Jeremiah 33:24).

God’s response to man’s rejection of Him and His ways involves both the stick of judgment and the carrot of prophetic promises.

Rock-solid focus

God’s answer to the intercessory cry of His people throughout the ages is answered first in sending His Messiah, the Rejected Stone, to the spiritual and physical builders of His Temple and His nation:

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is YHVH’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23)

This Messiah who is also the Rock has not been rejected by the God of Israel His Father, but is His delight:

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1)

Therefore let Israel and the nations take heed at this holiday season, and bow low before King Messiah, King of the Jews and Savior of the world!

“Now therefore, O kings, show discernment! Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship YHVH with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way. For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” (Psalm 2:10-12)

How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

If I forget you, O Jerusalem

The last few weeks have seen Islamist rioting and civil unrest break out like root fires on the seams between Jerusalem’s Jewish and Arab populations. Calls for violent opposition to Israeli rule on the part of Palestinian radicals have come from –

These calls to incitement have thrown liquid gasoline onto barely concealed local Islamic expressions of violence (https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2014/Pages/PM-Netanyahu-remarks-following-Security-Cabinet-meeting-11-Nov-2014.aspx). The same calls are being seditiously echoed by some Israeli citizens who are also Arab members of Knesset (www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Police-seal-off-Temple-Mount-after-Palestinian-rioters-hurl-stones-380825).

The instigators of this violence are the same people with whom the international community is pressuring Israel to negotiate with. Whether it be EU, UN or USA, these  irresponsible forces are advocating that Israel relinquish control over ancient Jewish Jerusalem and hand it over to Palestinian advocates of violence.

Immediate fallout

Over the past three weeks, rioting has erupted in –

Burning Molotov cocktails are being thrown daily at police forces, army patrols and civilian motorists. Deadly stone throwing occurs round the clock at cars and pedestrians, with special focus on the Jerusalem light rails train system which equally serves Jerusalem’s Arab and Jewish populations in north Jerusalem.

Attempted lynchings of Jews by Islamist youth rioters on the Mount of Olives and at the abovementioned flashpoints have aggravated an already extremely tense situation.

Over the past three weeks there have been three motorized terror attacks against Israelis with fatalities, and two knifes attack causing two fatalities (one at a Tel Aviv train station, the other at a hitch-hiking stop south of Jerusalem). The perpetrators were affiliated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and had spent time in Israeli prisons for previous terror activities. One had been recently released in the Hamas-Shalit prisoner exchange.

In each terror attack not only Jews were killed. A Druze Border Patrol officer in the Israeli Army, Jed’an Assad age 38, was killed leaving behind a pregnant wife and a three-year old son. A South American woman in the process of converting to Judaism was murdered in that attack as well.

When news of one of these terror attacks against Israelis circulated in the Palestinian communities, the Palestinian response was not shock but rather further violent attacks against Israeli police, IDF forces and Israeli civilians.

In a town just northeast of Nazareth an Arab teenager attacked a police manwith a knife, attempting to kill the police. He was shot and mortally injured, Arab riots ensued as a result.

Public reaction and media spin

A quiet and grim determination has settled on Jerusalem’s Jewish inhabitants. They have been through these scenarios before. Watchful eyes roam on the lookout for potential terror-cars. The amount of Jerusalem pedestrians using the light rail system has gone down. The tension near the Jewish-Arab seams is more palpable.

Arab media has unfortunately been crowing victory, pasting up terror cartoons which glowingly compare the car-terrorists to ISIS fighters, and advocating a jihad for Jerusalem by stabbing and running down Jewish residents of the City of the Great King (www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Nazareth-billboard-supports-car-terror-attacks-while-alluding-to-ISIS-381257).

The majority of media in the Jewish sector are fearfully asking if this unrest is the start of a third intifada – a third spate of terrorist violence and Islamist rioting. There is a defeatist slant on much reporting of the news rather than a clear-eyed appraisal of the nature of the enemy Israel needs to deal with decisively.

Historical patterns

During the British Palestine Mandate in the 1920’s through the 1940’s, the Arab leadership was actively involved with the Nazi High Command. Haj Amin al-Husseini was a personal friend of Himmler and Hitler, and he also fostered street riots against Jewish residents and British Mandate troops and police. His goals were twofold and very similar to Abbas’ and Hamas’ goals today –

The same strategies lurk behind Palestinian riots in our day. Unfortunately a chink has been found in Western armor, and Western powers are advocating Jewish compromise to Islamic Jihad, and pressing for political collapse in the face of Islamist irredentism.

Islamist anti-Semitic stereotypes

Western media are unwittingly following the Palestinian media campaign of stereotyping the Jewish return to Zion as a foreign incursion. Today world media is buying into the Islamist anti-Semitic stereotypes that paint the Jews as a satanic dajjal (Islamist equivalent of anti-Christ), while ignoring or justifying the murderous attacks on Israeli civilians.

The new Anti-Semitism

European media is particularly perverse in spinning its negative media descriptions of Israel. Since anti-Semitism is officially passé, anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism. The same nasty language and malevolent intent is being published, but in the 21st century it is now being incorrectly labeled anti-Zionism. Thus has anti-Semitism changed its garment, but all the while its pustulent flesh remains virulently unchanged. The world consensus opposing Jewish resettlement of its own homeland and of Jerusalem its own capitol city, shows how advanced this spiritual disease is, and how deadly is the spiritual prognosis.

Eyeless in Jerusalem

The vast majority of Israel’s media is in the lap of PC leftist editors. The Prime Minister is routinely mocked and dishonored. Any independent media outlets are attacked, while recently a law is being attempted to be pushed through the Knesset which would silence the one pro-Netanyahu paper Israel Hayom (Israel Today).

Most editorial and media analysis of the riots declares that the fault is entirely Israel’s and that she should give up land and allow for the creation of a Palestinian state (to be ruled by Hamas in short thrift, of course). That would make Europe, the USA and the Arab world friendly to Israel again, it is believed.

As it was in the days of Ezekiel 16, so are some influential Israelis lusting after international acceptance – quite prepared to allow the Promised Land to be despoiled by those whom YHVH calls “My enemies” (Ezekiel 36:2-7; Psalm 83:2-8) as the price of admission to the international party. Truly, there are many who are eyeless in Jerusalem, and not only in Gaza (see Judges 16:21-30; Isaiah 56:10).

As some in Israel move from ‘post-Zionist’ to ‘anti-Zionist’, from settling the land to opposing settlement, we need to pray for a recovery of sight to the blind:

Rock-solid focus

As the nations are in turmoil, as super-powers slip quietly into the sea, as evil raises its green-tinged head across the face of God’s planet, we need to stay on target and remember some rock-solid truths that will serve us well in the coming days as guiding stars:

Rabbit trails

As the world’s focus zooms in on Jerusalem, we can be sure of two things – one, this is the Lord’s doing, and two, the enemy is trying to do whatever he can to distort the truth and to skew clear biblical emphases. Here are some minefields to avoid stepping on:

The real and the counterfeit - How shall we then pray?

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Stacked deck in the Middle East

On Tuesday August 26, 2014 at 19:00 hours, an unlimited ceasefire brokered by Egypt went into effect between Israel and Hamas. Nevertheless, Hamas fired rockets seven times at 19:02 and 19:09 – their usual modus operandi, a vainglorious attempt to insist that Hamas has the last word and upper hand in the conflict.

Summing it up

Significant portions of eastern Gaza are in ruins – structures used by Hamas to fire rockets and mortars at Israel. Nearly 1,000 Hamas operatives have been killed by the IDF, including very senior field commanders – possibly even the military head of Hamas, Mohammed Deif. Collateral damage (Gazans used as human shields by Hamas) stands at a little over 1,000. Internally displaced persons number between 200,000 and 475,000. Conservative estimates are that ten years will be required simply to rebuild what has been demolished. Hamas’ protestations of Islamist victory ring very hollow.

All major military attacks by Hamas were blunted.

Hamas successes of this campaign include:

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Asymmetrical warfare can enable small guerilla-type groups (in this case, Hamas) to inflict casualties on a much larger and better equipped military force (the IDF), especially in built-up urban areas with a packed civilian population. The use of civilian shields on Hamas’ part is one of the most successful parts of Hamas’ media strategy, giving Westerners a totally false picture of the nature and progress of the war.

Israel decided to hold off on a full ground invasion of Gaza, even though between 75-90% of Israelis surveyed were fully behind such a decision. It seems that three considerations led to this holding-back:

On the other hand, the IDF had Hamas on the ropes, and a knock-out punch was a real possibility. Some Israeli strategists supported Hamas’ survival, while others suggested allowing the Palestinian Authority’s Abu Mazen to take over the running of Gaza. There are strategic problems here:

Israel’s leadership has decided to cut its losses and attempt to create a new political-military reality in Gaza – one where Hamas will not be able to re-dig terror tunnels or re-create a rocket arsenal. If these efforts fail, another war is coming down the pike rather quickly.

Hamas usually resorts to continued rocket attacks or terror incursions when negotiations are not going its way. This is a likelihood at the end of September, when negotiations will kick in again.

Victory of the zombies

In Brad Pitt’s zombie movie World War Z, murderous hordes of living dead swarm over every human obstacle, including Israel’s anti-terror wall, in their quest for world domination. A similar dynamic is occurring throughout the Middle East as ISIL/ISIS/ Da’ash swarm the border between Iraq and Syria and approach the border with Jordan (www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4354/isis-jordan).

Based on the warnings of the former Deputy Director of the CIA (www.ozy.com/c-notes/the-spy-who-told-me-israel-palestine-wont-quit/33037.article) and the former head of Australia’s Armed Forces (www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/well-fight-radical-islam-for-100-years-says-exarmy-head-peter-leahy/story-e6frg8yo-1227018630297), the threat of radical Islam’s jihadi swarms will be with us for at least 100 years. The threat is strategically grave, and it is increasing on a daily basis.

Hamas is the Gazan branch of Islamist jihad, and is spiritually connected at the hip to these other terrorist gangs. Al Qa’eda (and its offshoot al Nusra) may have been the big threat on September 11, 2001, but the threat has now metastasized and has engulfed the Middle East. Western countries are now voicing fears about home-grown jihadis returning to the UK, Germany, France and the USA. But the threat is even bigger than that, and must be spiritually discerned and spiritually cut off at the roots. The West at this point is frankly not up to the task.

The happy ostrich

There are many examples of Western spiritual blindness and strategic paralysis. One of the latest is a quote from US President Obama at a recent press conference in Purchase,] NY:

“We are better off as a country than we were when I came into office…I promise you things are much less dangerous now than they were 20 years ago, 25 years ago or 30 years ago…Now, having said all that, a lot of people still feel anxious.  And the question then is, why is it that if things have gotten better, why are people anxious?...The reason people are feeling anxious is that if you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart...A lot of it has to do with changes that are taking place in the Middle East in which an old order that had been in place for 50 years, 60 years, 100 years was unsustainable, and was going to break up at some point.  And now, what we are seeing is the old order not working, but the new order not being born yet – and it is a rocky road through that process, and a dangerous time through that process...We’ve seen the barbarity of an organization like ISIL that is building off what happened with al Qaeda and 9/11 – an extension of that same mentality that doesn’t reflect Islam, but rather just reflects savagery, and extremism, and intolerance” (www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/29/remarks-president-dnc-event-purchase-new-york).

Yeshua – our goal, our model, our Living Word

Hamas’ Charter states that “Allah is (Hamas’) 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). These are counterfeit spiritual goals. But they remind us of what our goals and our spiritual model should be – nothing less than Yeshua Himself (Hebrews 12:1-3)!

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Morphing the face of jihad

As Hitler and Stalin rose to bloodthirsty power, some opinion-shapers in the West became apologists for these demonic movements. They tried to make horrendous evil appear to be simply ‘another worldview.’ They desensitized the West’s discernment about fast approaching dangers – until it was too late.

The prophetic words of Isaiah have pressing importance for the situation we face in our day: “For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples” (Isaiah 60:2). The black wave of jihadi Islam is covering the Middle East. It bubbles up in Belgium and in the Netherlands, and spreads across France, England and Germany.

Western leaders have unwittingly masked the danger facing Western society. They have made light of the Islamist menace and have soft-pedaled the jihadi threats. “The watchmen are blind. All of them know nothing. All of them are mute dogs unable to bark, dreamers lying down who love to slumber” (Isaiah 56:10).

Paul tells us clearly, “If the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” (1 Corinthians 13:8). What are the mujahidin (the jihad fighters) up to? What are their goals? How can we pray about these clear and present dangers?

Politicized spin about the Islamist faith

On September 17 2001 President George W. Bush addressed the Islamic Center of Washington regarding the jihadi terrorists of 9/11, “These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that . . . The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war. When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. . .” (https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html).

President Bush’s declaration that jihad violates the Islamic faith is understandable given the horror of that Twin Towers moment, but his read is totally inaccurate.

British PM Tony Blair’s spoke about jihadi terror at the Labour Party National Conference, July 16, 2005, just a few days after the London Islamist bombings: “I want also to work with other nations to promote the true face of Islam worldwide… In the end, it is by the power of argument, debate, true religious faith and true legitimate politics that we will defeat this threat. That means not just arguing against their terrorism, but their politics and their perversion of religious faith” (https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4689363.stm).

German Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel said Germans should be careful to differentiate between Islamists and the religion itself. “We must be incredibly careful that we don't lump everyone together," the Chancellor said. "The Islamists are not the Islam of Germany” (www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/merkel-islam-ist-ein-teil-von-deutschland-a-858218.html). Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said that that the Chancellor had in no way expressed “criticism of Islam …You cannot interpret the Chancellor as a critic of Islam because she naturally has respect for an important world religion,” Seibert said in Berlin (www.thelocal.de/20101027/30801).

In a recent comment about jihadi Islam in light of the beheading of US newsman James Foley, U.S. President Obama declared, “Let’s be clear about ISIL…ISIL speaks for no religion.  Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.  No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day.  ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings.  Their ideology is bankrupt…From governments and peoples across the Middle East there has to be a common effort to extract this cancer, so that it does not spread.  There has to be a clear rejection of these kind of nihilistic ideologies.  One thing we can all agree on is that a group like ISIL has no place in the 21st century” (www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/20/statement-president).

This list could go on. But this much is clear:

Did Mohammed understand the true face of Islam?

A careful but simple survey of the Quran’s teaching on jihad shows that jihad (holy war) is a fundamental tenet of the Islamic faith (see “A Perspective on Islam” by Avner Boskey, https://davidstent.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/a_perspective_on_islam.pdf).

The highest calling a Muslim can engage in is armed jihad, according to the Hadith (authoritative Islamic book accompanying the Quran) “Muhammad once was asked: ‘What is the best deed for the Muslim next to believing in Allah and his messenger?’ His answer was: ‘To participate in jihad in Allah’s cause’” (al-Bukhari 1:25).

Martyrdom in jihad is considered the highest of goals. “So narrated Anas bin Malik, ‘The prophet said, “Nobody who dies and finds good from Allah …would wish to come back to this world even if he were given the whole world and whatever is in it – except the martyr who, on seeing the superiority of martyrdom, would like to come back to the world and get killed again” (al-Bukhari 51:6).

Decapitating unbelievers is totally acceptable in jihad. “When you meet the unbelievers (in battle), strike off their heads; then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives. Afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates” (Surah 47:4).

Terror is considered a necessary psychological weapon to intimidate and crush all opposition. Allah says, “I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every one of their fingertips . . . Strike terror (into the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies” (Surah 8:12, 60).

Jihad continues until full world conquest. “Make war on them until idolatry does not exist any longer and Allah’s religion reigns universally” (Surah 8:39).

Killing and being killed is what mujahidin look forward to. “(For) the believers …theirs (in return) is Paradise. They fight in his cause, so they kill (others) and are killed … (al-Bukhari 51:1). “So narrated Al-Mughira bin Shu’ba, ‘Our prophet told us about the message of Allah that “… whoever amongst us is killed will go to Paradise” (al-Bukhari 51:2).

Is the beheading of unbelievers the true face of Islam?

President Obama declared (above), “ISIL speaks for no religion… (N)o faith teaches people to massacre innocents.  No just God would stand for what they did yesterday…Their ideology is bankrupt… There has to be a clear rejection of these kind of nihilistic ideologies.” Yet the Quran teaches without compromise that decapitation is an integral part of the jihad warrior’s arsenal.

One of Mohammed’s closest generals and most brilliant military commanders was Khalid bin al-Walid (خالد بن الوليد), also known as Sayf Allāh al-Maslūl (or the drawn sword of Allah; سيف الله المسلول; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_ibn_al-Walid).  Between 629-636 AD/CE he was responsible for over one hundred military victories, including the conquests of Arabia, Persian Mesopotamia, Roman Syria, Yarmouk, Damascus and Jerusalem.

During the Battle of Mu’tah, al-Walid broke nine swords in hand-to-hand combat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mu%27tah). At the Battle of Ullais it is recorded that he oversaw the decapitation of 70,000 Persian soldiers (mentioned in Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari’s History of the Prophets and Kings, Vol. 2, p. 560-62: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Jarir_al-Tabari; https://khalidbinwaleed.blogspot.co.il/2010/12/chapter-22-river-of-blood.html).

Though modern Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors gag at the thought of religious beheadings, according to classical jihadi Islam ISIS/ISIL believes and carries out the commands of Mohammed and the battle tactics of his most valiant general.

YHVH the God of the Hebrews is poles apart from the angel who demanded Mohammed’s obedience. The God of the Bible does not command His followers to spread the message of Yeshua by cutting off people’s heads. But a majority of Muslims believe as an article of Quranic faith that Allah commands decapitations.

It is therefore no surprise that jihadis take the Quran literally in their conquest of the Middle East  (www.gospelherald.com/articles/52128/20140806/chaldean-christian-leader-isis-systematically-beheading-children-in-iraq.htm).

Islamism, Europe and the Jews

The jihadi Islam that Hamas enforces in Gaza is quite similar to that of ISIS/ISIL. Though there are some slight differences of strategy and methodology (similar to the original differences between Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyites and Maoists), they share the common goals of jihad, international caliphate and shari’a.

For those who would like to get a better grasp of current Islamist developments in Europe, I highly recommend two online videos. One is from CBN, and is entitled “Belgistan? Sharia Showdown Looms In Brussels” (www.cbn.com/tv/1509282970001).

The other is a four program series (45 minutes each) in Hebrew (or with English subtitles) by Zvi Yehezkeli and David Deryi. Yehezkeli is the Arab affairs specialist for Israeli Channel Ten. He spent months travelling undercover through Western Europe, interviewing Muslims about the spiritual direction of Islam. The program series is called “Allah Islam” in Hebrew, and either Europe’s Takeover by Islam or Israeli infiltrates European Muslim community with English subtitles.

Hamas, jihad and the Jews

Hamas’ goals and strategies are impeccably Islamist and jihadi. The Hamas Charter states  clearly (www.acpr.org.il/resources/hamascharter.html; https://davidstent.com/hurtling-through-the-fog-of-war-a-messianic-perspective-on-the-new-hamastan/):

What is jihadi ceasefire?

The Western world finds it nearly impossible to comprehend what Hamas believes. So it tries to get Hamas to make PR statements abandoning its own Islamic faith and principles. However, Hamas will never recognize Israel, never live in peace with a Jewish state, and never cease trying to murder the daughter of Zion.

Two nuggets of intelligence have come out in the past week.

Massive Hamas attack thwarted

In April 2014 Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) signed an agreement of reconciliation, promising to share power and work together (www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/PA-assures-reconciliation-agreement-required-recognition-of-Israels-existence-350267). Nevertheless, recently Hamas went to war against Israel, ignoring these agreements.

The PA has major jitters that Hamas would win free elections were they to be held in the West Bank. Something similar already happened in Gaza in 2005. Hamas won the election and then proceeded to kneecap, torture and jail PA operatives, throwing many off of Gaza’s higher buildings in classic Mafia style.

But there is now no need for the PA to worry about what might happen in the future. The Israeli Shin Bet (FBI equivalent) recently uncovered a Hamas plot involving over 100 Hamas operatives in the West Bank who were plotting a violent takeover and assassination of PA leaders, murders on the Temple Mount, and violent riots and attacks on the IDF and Israelis in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel proper (www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Massive-Hamas-infrastructure-in-West-Bank-planned-to-topple-the-Palestinian-Authority-371409).

Hamas was getting ready to murder the PA leadership (with which it has been cooperating in Cairo over the past weeks) and to set up a jihadi terror state north of Jerusalem,. Senior Hamas leader Salah al-Aruri, based in Turkey, directed the coup as well as the kidnapping of the three teenagers. Hamas operatives in Zarka, Jordan as well as in Jenin, Ramallah and Hebron were all involved.

“Can an Ethiopian change his skin color, or a leopard his spots?” (Jeremiah 13:23)

Closing thoughts

No American would have entertained the thought of negotiating with Osama bin Laden. And no Jewish government in their right mind would negotiate with Pharaoh of Egypt, with Haman, or with Hitler. This is a fight to the finish, with no holds barred. It is like playing poker with a psychopathic murderer who, if he doesn’t like the way the cards are going, grabs a submachine-gun and tries to rub out his partner.

For dyed-in-the-wool jihadi warriors, an asymmetrical approach to warfare with Israel – one which results in many Gazan civilian casualties – is actually a gateway to religious merit and reward. This is not a cycle of violence, or simply a deep animosity between Isaac and Ishmael. It is a fight between (on one hand) Islamist kamikazes who don’t surrender, a group of post-Hiroshima-like zombies, and (on the other hand) the Jewish people returning to their Promised Land in fulfilment of ancient Hebrew prophecies.

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

The seduction of the blind

Western Christians in the 1930’s were beset by a selective blindness – one that left them criminally unprepared for the rise of genocidal Nazi anti-Semitism. This same dynamic is being repeated in our day in spades. This time the entry point for foul evil is not racist fascism but rather anti-Zionism and deference to jihadi Islam.

Fire burn and cauldron bubble

It’s been another ‘business as usual’ week in the Middle East. The geopolitical strategies of the Western superpowers lie shattered in the dust while jihadi Islamic forces murder, rob, rape and enslave their way across the Mesopotamian plain.

The black war flags of jihad proclaiming upcoming Caliphate world domination flutter over:

“Ein Gespenst geht um in Europa – A spectre is haunting Europe”

Europe is not far behind. The upsurge of violent anti-Semitic marches, riots, synagogue burnings and physical attacks on Jewish individuals is documented for all to see. Though the politically correct excuse for this anti-Semitic terror is given as Gaza-connected, there is no practical separation between anti-Zion and anti-Jew. The adulterous connection between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is on lurid display, splashed boldly across the TV screens of the world.

Moral failure of Western media

Western media have been roundly seduced by Islamist spinmeisters and are serving as drugged spokesmen for jihadi strategies, trumpeting Hamas propaganda as accurate news. Their digital falsifications aptly fit George Orwell’s 1984 vision of ‘newspeak’ and ‘right-speak.’ The jihadi guerilla strategy of cynically catalyzing casualties to one’s own civilian population and then castigating Israel for defending itself – this scheme has blinded the hearts of many Western viewers, bewitching their eyes and skewing their discernment.

The love of many Westerners is growing cold

Anti-Semitism has even bled over into cold-hearted diplomatic censure, as Britain (www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/12/british-arms-exports-israel-gaza-block-suspension) and America (www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4558615,00.html) leak to world media the existence of embargoes on resupplying Israel with the military ability to defend itself from jihadi rocket fire.

Tangled up in hooks

A burning prophetic word came to Ezekiel on the plains of Babylon. He described how in the Last Days, the God of Israel would put hooks into the jaws of mighty nations and pull them down to direct a hate-filled attack against the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

“I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army… After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste… It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog. Thus says YHVH God, Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares YHVH God, that My fury will mount up in My anger” (Ezekiel 38:4,8,16-18)

Some have suggested that the seductive bait to tempt the nations will be the bromine-rich brine wells of the Dead Sea, an essential ingredient in agricultural fertilizers. Others have declared that the attraction will be a new and world-shaking Israeli oil discovery. All these stand alone as potentially true and valid reasons.

While Westerners are barely moved by Muslims slaughtering Muslims in the hundreds of thousands, they turn an understanding and sympathetic eye to Islamist hate fests directed against Israel – especially when the Jewish state stoutly refuses to tolerate jihadi terror attacks against Israeli civilians. The legitimation and justification of mass anti-Semitic rampages against Israel reveal how solidly this hook has been fastened in the jaws of the nations.

Whereas Muslim communities in the West have by and large not been subject to hate-filled riots by Jewish demonstrators, and have not had to post police cordons around their community centers and mosques, the Jewish people’s historical experience in Europe has been either persecution (when Jews were powerless) or bigoted and demonized attack (when the Jewish state protects its own citizens). Accommodating volatile Islamist sentiment will not spare Europe or America from the vengeance of the black flags.

Becket revisited

Barely one hundred years after the Norman invasion and occupation of Saxon England, King Henry II found himself at odds with the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket over coronation protocol and protection of the privileges of the Catholic church. His fateful remark to four of his knights, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” catalyzed their assassination of Thomas in 1170 near the door leading to the monastic cloister (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket).

There are many today, even in the Christian world, who look upon the Jewish people and their state with haughty eye, raised eyebrow and theological smirk. Part of the Jewish people’s irrevocable gifts and calling involves being a priest to the nations (Isaiah 61:6-7). Jihadi Islam is asking Henry II’s dramatic question to the non-Muslim world, and European response (soon to be followed by American assent) is close to deafening.

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Phoenix rising

As of Tuesday morning Israel has withdrawn its forces from the Gaza Strip, in exchange for a 72 hour Egyptian brokered ceasefire beginning at 08:00 hours (the eighth ceasefire so far, all of which have been broken by Hamas). At least twelve rockets were fired by Hamas in the minutes leading up to the ceasefire, and twenty to thirty were fired between 08:02 and 08:50, with pieces landing in the Palestinian Authority town of Beit Sahur near Bethlehem as well as on the southern part of Hebron Road within Jerusalem. At 09:38 PA PM Abu Mazen welcomed the ‘ceasefire,’ but warned Israel that the calm must be maintained.

What is going on? What influenced the Israeli government to order a withdrawal? What is happening with the tidal wave resurgence of anti-Semitism across the world? How does this fit in to both Hamas’ strategy and into Satan’s end-time schemes?

“He lies like a rug”

Hamas has broken at least eight ceasefires in a row. Some of these have been brokered by the UN, others by the US, others by Egypt, and one by the Red Cross. The last two violations occurred on Friday (www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-hamas-agree-to-72-hour-humanitarian-cease-fire/2014/08/01/059f1ff8-194e-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html; www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4553302,00.html) and today Tuesday.

On Friday, 90 minutes into the ceasefire (Which Hamas had also signed off on) a Hamas terror squad attacked a Givati Reconnaissance team scouring Rafiah streets for terror tunnels. A Hamas terrorist dressed in an IDF army uniform popped out of a tunnel and killed the recon commander and another soldier, mortally wounding Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin. The Hamas squad then grabbed Goldin’s corpse and jumped back down into the tunnel. Another IDF commando jumped in to the tunnel in hot pursuit after them, along with three other Givati recon soldiers. They gave chase for at least 100 meters, and were able to bring back physical evidence of Goldin’s death.

Today Hamas broke its eighth ceasefire within minutes, firing nearly thirty rockets into Israel for up to an hour after the ceasefire came into effect. It is hard for Westerners to understand serial lying of such a magnitude. Yet such behavior is acceptable according to Islamic jurisprudence.

Lying is kosher

The concept of taqiyya (or acceptable lying, www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/taqiyya-about-taqiyya/) has an ancient and honored position in Islamic history. Mohammed himself engaged in breaking ceasefires and violating truces on many occasions, including the murder by deception of the Jewish poet Ka’b bin al Ashraf (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka'b_ibn_al-Ashraf; www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/052-sbt.php#004.052.269; in the Hadith, Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Numbers 265-271; ibid. 5:59:369) and the murder of Usayr ibn Zarim (al Yusayr bin Rizam) and his 30 companions who came to discuss ceasefire terms under a truce (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usayr_ibn_Zarim; www.justislam.co.uk/images/Ibn%20Ishaq%20-%20Sirat%20Rasul%20Allah.pdf, “Abdullah bin Rawaha’s raid to kill al Yusayr bin Rizam 981, pp. 665-667”; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_of_Abdullah_ibn_Rawaha).

In At-Taqiyya fi’l-Islam (“Taqiyya in Islam”) Dr. Sami Makaram, a former American University of Beirut Professor and Head of the Department of Arabic Literature and Near Eastern Languages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_Makarem), states, “Taqiyya is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it … We can go so far as to say that the practice of taqiyya is mainstream in Islam, and that those few sects not practicing it diverge from the mainstream … Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era” (At-Taqiyya fi ’l-Islam, London: Mu’assisat at-Turath ad-Druzi, 2004, p. 7).

The respected Hans Wehr Arabic-English Dictionary defines tawriya as, “hiding, concealment; dissemblance, dissimulation, hypocrisy; equivocation, ambiguity, double-entendre, allusion.” The three radicals in the root of the word, w-r-y, appear in the Quran in the context of hiding or concealing something (e.g., 5:31, 7:26).

According to the Islamic hadith (which along with the Quran is authoritative for Muslims), Mohammed permitted lying in three scenarios: to reconcile quarreling parties, to one’s wife, in war, or in jihad (Imam Muslim, “Kitab al-Birr wa’s-Salat, Bab Tahrim al-Kidhb wa Bayan al-Mubih Minhu,” Sahih Muslim, rev. ed., Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, trans. (New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 2000).

According to one Arabic legal manual devoted to jihad as defined by the four schools of Sunni Islamic law, “The ulema (“scholars”) agree that deception during warfare is legitimate … deception is a form of art in war” (Ahmad Mahmud Karima, Al-Jihad fi’l Islam: Dirasa Fiqhiya Muqarina, Cairo, Al-Azhar, 2003, p. 304).  Dr. Mukaram concludes “Taqiyya in order to dupe the enemy is permissible” (Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi ’l-Islam, p. 32).

Based on these perspectives, it is somewhat easier to understand why Hamas lies about casualties, conceals the truth about the high percentage of its own fighters killed, and terrorizes international journalists who want to tell the unvarnished truth.

Truth or consequences

Israel’s Chief of Staff Benny Gantz knows the strength, the strategic advantage and the will of his armed forces. As far as his is concerned, Hamas can be defeated quickly. But the leaders of Israel are focused on other concerns.

The cabinet is thinking about international pressures, sanctions, embargoes and boycotts from the EU, the UN, the USA and the FAA. They pick up on the not-so-subtle threats from British Foreign Minister (www.timesofisrael.com/british-fm-anti-semitism-likely-to-rise-due-to-gaza-op/#ixzz39R7KqRsk ) that anti-Semitic riots will ensue and Jewish citizens of Western countries will be attacked if Israel insists on defending herself against jihadi terrorists. US Secretary of State John Kerry recently intimated “For Israel there’s an increasing de-legitimization campaign that has been building up… There are talk of boycotts and other kinds of things… (T)he fact is the status quo will change if there is failure” (ed., in the peace talks) (https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/02/221134.htm).

Though Western leaders grudgingly admit that Israel has a right to defend itself from terror rockets, they do not take the next logical step and acknowledge Hamas’ strategy of using its civilian population as human shields in order to win world sympathy. A recently captured Hamas terror manual clearly explains this horrific strategy (www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/08/04/captured-hamas-combat-manual-explains-benefits-human-shields/#.U9_WNM3K4nU.twitter). To ignore Hamas’ war strategy while blaming Israel for defending itself against Hamas attacks is to fall into a pit that Islamist terror leaders have dug. It also weakens the West’s most faithful Middle Eastern ally.

Another issue that Israel’s leaders weighed long and hard is the cost of Israeli military casualties that a ground invasion would engender – an incursion that would cut off and destroy Hamas’ military leadership and command-and-control HQs – most of which lies under Gaza’s main hospital al Shifa.

A last issue concerns the likelihood of a drawn-out Somali-like guerilla war (think ‘Black Hawk Down’) – between 6 to 12 months – as the IDF would clean up jihadi terror nests in low-intensity urban conflict (www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/We-could-have-taken-Gaza-in-a-week-but-that-wasnt-our-mission-says-senior-IDF-source-369954; www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.608762).

The IDF has withdrawn to the eastern ridges which overlook Gaza and which border on Israeli farms, kibbutzim and towns. There may be an eventual dialogue in Egypt, but since rockets are still being fired by Hamas, that option may also fall through. The IDF reserves the right to re-enter Gaza should hostilities break out again.

Here are four helpful analyses of the very fluid situation:

Ultimately, this physical battle has spiritual roots – in this case, jihadi Islam’s desire to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish state. The superpower troika of Britain, Russia and the US have still not assimilated the spiritual lessons from their wars and disappointments against jihad in Afghanistan (as well as the US in Iraq and Iran). There too the spiritual element was brushed aside and not seriously factored into war strategy. The movie Charlie Wilson’s War makes that point clearly.

Crushing the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15)

The ascendancy of Islamist jihadi armies throughout the Middle East is a cause for geo-strategic concern. As the Gaza war rages and burps, ISIS/ISIL continues to plow forward, establishing its terror Shari’a caliphate from Iraq to the borders of Lebanon and Jordan. Black ISIL flags wave at demonstrations in Ramallah, in Israeli Arab cities like Taibe and Yafiah, and in the Gaza Strip. The rise of violent and revolutionary soldiers is a concern not just to Israel, but to Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, etc. The Muslim Brotherhood has slowly metastasized into al Qa’eda, Islamic Jihad, al Shabab, Boko Haram, al Nusra, ISIL – and Hamas.

Hamas in living color

Many in the Western world find it a real stretch to get inside the minds of Hamas terrorists. They assume that all anyone ever wants is personal peace and prosperity. The thought of passionately embracing suicide for ones’ self and death for one’s family is nearly unbelievable for secular Westerners.

Here are some videos which show the actual spiritual message of Hamas:

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice just stated an hour ago that “it is very important that both sides remain committed to (ed. the ceasefire) and use this opportunity to begin the negotiations that we had been working so energetically through US Secretary of State Kerry and President Obama to get off the ground so that the underlines causes of the conflict in Gaza can be addressed at the negotiation table.”

Up from the ashes

In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Grandpa Potts sings his famous “Up from the ashes grow the roses of success.” The phoenix was a mythological bird that was continually regenerated. He obtained new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. For many bored students of history, the Nazi phenomenon belongs in the previous century. Modern Europe is built on the presumption that such travesties will never again occur on European soil.

Yet today, and not only in Europe, anti-Semitism has reared its phoenix-like head and is spitting poison in all directions. Browse these links to get a broader grasp of what is happening now:

Note in the last link, that a cartoon worthy of Goebbel’s Der Stürmer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_St%C3%BCrmer) was printed in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald. An apology was posted after howls of indignant outrage, but with a twist. The paper did not apologize for its racist caricatures, but for associating them with a religion – in this case, Judaism! No insult against Judaism intended Ma’am! But against the Jewish state and the Jewish people? Well, that’s another story. They actually are fair game, according to that paper.

What can we do?

Believers in the God of Israel and His Messiah Yeshua have all the power of Heaven behind them as they pray and intercede, respond proactively, and reach out to the Jewish people with arms of love, compassion and truth.

Here is a recent example. Believers in Tübingen, Germany held a street march against anti-Semitism in Germany, with banners proclaiming that a ‘red card’ (soccer penalty disqualifying a player from the game) is due to any blend of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity (www.tagblatt.de/Home/bilder/bilder-lokales_autoplay,1_mmid,5601.html#387876/).

A courageous Hollywood movie star Noah Tishbi has recently spoken out forcefully against the politically correct attacks on Israel by some Hollywood glitterati who are otherwise ignorant of jihad’s media spin (www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/item/hollywood_stars_without_borders._or_facts).

Jon Voight of Mission Impossible fame and father of actress Angelina Jolie, added his voice of rebuke those attacking Israel, stating that Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem should “hang their heads in shame” for signing an open-letter denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and demanding the EU to “condemn the bombing by land, sea and air against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip.” Mr. Voight said he is “heartsick” that Mrs. Cruz and Mr. Bardem “could incite anti-Semitism all over the world and are oblivious to the damage they have caused” (www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/3/jon-voight-anti-israel-actors-you-should-hang-your/).

Your prayers, your testimony, your willingness to stand alongside of the people and state of Israel, is of great importance. You were born for such a time as this!

A prophetic warning

Twenty years ago, Pini Badash (the mayor of our community in Israel) stood up in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament building) and spoke words trembling with destiny. He was leveling them at those politicians who were advocating a withdrawal from Gaza and a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

“There are not a small number of Knesset members, primarily from the Left, who bury their heads in the sand and are not willing to see the grave dangers which are entailed in handing over Gaza and its regions to the PLO. They bury their heads in the sand and say, ‘We need to try, we need to return the Strip to the Arabs,’ but none of them is ready to talk about the price of making such a mistake. None is willing to take into account that the step which we will take is not reversible. Will we ever again be able to conquer Gaza again if there is a need to do so? I am not referring to military ability; I am referring to politically, internationally. Never ever! The huge amount of weaponry stored in Gazan bunkers is one of the most dangerous weapons armories for us. Out of these storehouses Ashkelon will suffer, and Nahal Oz and the regions around her, and we, to my great regret, will need to stand up again at the Speaker’s Dias of the Knesset and to announce for the umpteenth time, ‘We told you, we pleaded with you to think through what will be the price of this mistake – and you refused to listen’ ” (Pini Badash, Knesset Protocols, January 26, 1994).

Another Member of Knesset and former IDF General was laughed at and mocked in the Knesset when he said these words:

“If we heed their voice and submit to their counsel, then the Gaza Strip will become a malignant tumor and a thousand-fold center of terror. What will we do when katyusha rockets fired from Beit Lahiya land on Ashkelon, and from Beit Hanoun on Sderot?”  (Rehavam Ze’evi, Knesset Protocols, March 22, 1993).

Even one or two Israeli Messianic leaders defended such a withdrawal barely ten years ago. Today the cold and unappetizing truth about the wisdom of that disengagement lies there motionless and inert on the pixelated platter of today’s news.

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

As it was in the days of Adolph

The war between jihad and the Jewish state enters its fourth week. The fog of war is clearing, and outlines are becoming sharper. What follows is a summation of the flow of the past three weeks, a description of the developments of the past 24 hours, and some guidelines for prayer.

Background to this war

On June 12 a Hamas squad in Hebron kidnapped and quickly murdered three Jewish teenagers hitching home from an Orthodox Jewish high school. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) set up a dragnet in the West Bank to find the boys and the terrorists and by June 30 the boys’ bodies were found. The search then turned to the terrorists, and a significant amount of Hamas terrorists were arrested in the West Bank, and their underground organization was collapsing. This was good news for Abu Mazen and his Palestinian Authority (PA, formerly PLO) who see the Islamist Hamas as their mortal enemy.

In an effort to change the equation, Hamas in Gaza began to fire rockets at Israeli kibbutzim, farms, towns and cities. This quickly increased into a torrent of rockets, reaching the major cities of the south (Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheva, Kiryat Gat), the Greater Tel Aviv area (Rishon L’tziyon, Rehovot, Holon, Bat Yam, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, etc), the Sharon Plain (Hadera, Netanya, etc) and even the Jerusalem area. Israel tried to negotiate a ceasefire to no avail. The Israel Air Force (IAF) began bombings of rocket launcher sites, weapons depots, empty homes of Hamas leaders, and command-and-control centers in Gaza. Over the years Hamas had developed an inventory of over 10,000 long and short range rockets, well hidden in exclusively urban areas (mosques, kindergartens, schools, medical clinics, hospitals, homes and United Nations UNRWA schools).

Body counts and Nazi propaganda

Hamas has placed its rocket launchers smack in the middle of its civilian population. This is a deliberate part of Hamas’ war strategy, and has been repeated every time its jihad forces fire rockets into Israel (2009, 2012). The casualties which result when Israel tries to destroy rockets and launchers from the air are turned into what the KGB called “agitprop” – the use of media for political agitation and propaganda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agitprop). Israel’s defensive measures are twisted by Hamas and they influence world media into changing the storyline – now it is Gaza’s citizens who are the victims and Israelis who are the aggressors, while jihadi rocket fire continues merrily along its way.

Hamas is an Islamist dictatorship. It beats or kills newsmen who do not report news according to Hamas’ agitprop rules:

International journalists in jihadi Gaza are not free to interview whom they wish. They have Hamas minders at all times. To borrow George W. Bush’s terminology, Islamo-fascists are dictating Gaza’s news bulletins, and the West is eating it up. Casualty statistics are exaggerated by Hamas or simply fabricated. The death of Hamas fighters, and even their bodies, are concealed from foreign media. Instead, the figures of casualties among women and children are usually inflated.

British Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, has addressed this issue in world media and also at the UN quite lucidly (www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/A-salute-to-the-IDF). Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council he stated, “During its operation in Gaza (ed., 2009), the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX6vyT8RzMo). He continues to speak directly to this dynamic as fleshed out in this war (www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/30/col-richard-kemp-israeli-pilot-aborted-gaza-strike-17-times-to-protect-civilians-jewish-people-should-be-proud-of-the-state-of-israel-interview/).

In the same way as Nazi Reichsminister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels twisted the news media into an organ of persecution and murder of the Jewish people, so Hamas is twisting Western media, and millions of consumers are being poisoned into hating and opposing the Jewish people and their state.

Terror tunnels

Hamas has spent many years preparing a network of terror tunnels which snake under the border between Gaza and Israel. These are being used even now to launch attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. These tunnels are often 90 feet deep and run for up to 1.6 miles (2.5 km). Hamas was planning a 9/11 type attack for September 24 this year (Rosh Hashana/ Feast of Trumpets), involving somewhere between 200-400 terrorists exiting 20-40 tunnels simultaneously to murder and kidnap men, women and children on kibbutzim in the Gaza area. Over the past two weeks the IDF has been locating and destroying these tunnels, but the network is extensive and not easily located, and the work needed to destroy these tunnels is complicated; at least another week is needed to deal with the lion’s share of them. To be safe, a security belt of at least 4 kilometers should be established between Israeli kibbutzim and the Gazan populace. In recent days at least ten IDF soldiers have been killed in tunnel attacks. Today IDF Givati Battalion Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin (23) from Kfar Saba was kidnapped in southern Gaza by Hamas in a combined commando/suicide bomber operation.

The Islamist phoenix – ISIL, Iran, Al Qaeda etc

The rise of Islamist violence is world-shaking in its scope. The jihadi genie was originally let out of the bottle in Egypt of the 1950’s, but quickly metastasized in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan under the al Qaeda-Taliban confederacy. This zealous revival movement in Islam conjured up the original jihadi spirit which had guided Mohammed in his wars of colonialism, enslavement, robbery and conquest. Today’s jihadi Sunni movement reaches for global jihad, while working locally for the overthrow of secular Muslim governments. It also plans and carries out terror attacks against Shiites, Western Christians, Jews, and the State of Israel. Most of their effort has been directed at destroying these ‘enemies’ rather than on constructive achievements which would ameliorate conditions in the Muslim world.

The recent dramatic spread of ISIL/ISIS in Iraq, al-Nusra in Syria, Boko Haram and al Shebab in Africa, and Hamas in Gaza are all part of the same ideological movement. Though they may disagree among themselves on certain tactics, their long-term strategies are exactly the same – total jihad across the face of the globe; the application of original shari’a law; a dhimmi slave status for non-Muslims; destruction for the Jewish people and their state.

Hamas has managed to blind many Westerners to their own blue-blood jihadi foundations, and instead have postured themselves as freedom fighters rallying against Jewish oppression.

The destruction of Middle Eastern Christianity

Though our focus is mostly on the Bible’s priority emphasis on the Jewish people and their key strategic role in world revival, we want to draw attention to how Islamist jihad is destroying the ancient Christian traditions (what are called the ‘historic churches’) in the Middle East. In Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Gaza, Christians are being persecuted, tortured, beheaded, raped, robbed and burned. This is the same spiritual principality that Israel is confronting in the Gaza Strip, and this current war is part of the front lines of that battle.

A Smorgasbord approach to Islam

Many in the West find it hard to believe that Muslims still believe in jihad, or that the source documents of Islam actually call for such religious atrocities. Some would like to visualize a ‘gentler, kinder” Islam, or transform Islam into a Middle Eastern form of Unitarianism. Yet a smorgasbord approach to Islam will not work; that is an ostrich-like approach to a clear and present danger to the civilized world.

Just as Communist sympathizers in the West in the 1930’s and 1940’s attempted to pave the way for the spread of Marxist-Leninist revolution, so it is with those who sympathize with the Muslim Brotherhood. They are attempting to shift America and Europe away from their original Christian moorings and foundations, while empowering the spread of jihadi revolution.

“A plague on both your houses?” – Christian geldings

Many in the West simply don’t understand the Middle East and have little patience for it. They are not looking at things from a biblical perspective and have no grasp of what God is doing in these Last Days with the restoration of His Jewish people to their Promised Land. They simply see an endless schoolyard fight between stubborn and violent people. The attitude of these Westerners, including some believers, is simply to say that both sides in the Jewish-Islamic conflict are speaking propaganda, that God is not involved in the process, that He doesn’t take sides, that He has no commitment to the Jewish people, and that Westerners should only support what is in their own best economic interest.

When those heart attitudes are combined with “politically correct” or leftist or anti-globalization viewpoints, or BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) groups or human rights groups with an anti-Israel bias, or Palestinian Liberation theology Christian Replacement theology groups which call for boycotts and civil disobedience/violence against Israel – one has the makings of a new toxic campaign which will outdistance Nazism in its poison and murderous effect.

Good morning Vietnam Syndrome!

Years ago there was much talk about something called the “Vietnam syndrome.”

A malaise spread throughout the United States, trumpeting a suspicion of all leadership and authority (“don’t trust anyone over thirty”), a rejection of armies and warfare (“make love not war”), and a shame about being a superpower. Certainly the Nixon years had demonstrated some cause for concern, and the Vietnam War had some very bad and corrupt moments. But the result was a loss of heart, confidence and a sense of just cause for many Americans. The American hero was replaced with the anti-hero – in movies, on TV, in fiction, in video games and in politics.

Add to this the “Crusader syndrome” (a perception that fighting for religious freedom and defending one’s faith is ethically reprehensible) and the “Chamberlain syndrome” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement; a perspective that war is unthinkable and peace by appeasement of cruel dictators is preferable), and we have a pretty accurate description of many people in the West: a gut-level embarrassment about Israel, a hatred of those who see the reborn Jewish state as a fulfilment of Biblical prophecy, a tendency to defend Islamist terrorists if it will bring a short-term peace to the Middle East (and especially uninterrupted oil supplies).

Western believers need to reclaim the forgotten biblical heritages of warriors, prophets and kings. Even as J.R.R. Tolkein singlehandedly resurrected many of these themes in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, so believers in the God of the Bible need to recapture the heart essence of what Moses declared in ancient days: “Moses built an altar and named it ‘YHVH is my Banner.’ And he said, ‘YHVH has sworn. YHVH will have war against Amalek from generation to generation” ” (Exodus 17:15-16). Where are today’s banners? Where is the enemy?

Fruitful eunuchs?

Yeshua once prophesied that “there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3). Anti-Jewish attitudes have lain fallow for years in some hearts, even in some hearts of those who call on the name of Yeshua. This virus morphs like cancer, and attempts to suck the spiritual life and vigor out its hosts.

I have met believers who tell anti-Jewish jokes (even to Jews), who dismiss clear teaching about God’s priority choosing of Israel and His restoration of the Jewish people to their land as propaganda, as simply ‘one side of the story.” I have met believers who were raised with a love for Israel, but whose hearts have grown chilled and alienated. They neither know Joseph nor feel warmly disposed to Joseph’s people (see Exodus 1:8).

David DuPlessis once said that God has no grandchildren – only children. There are those who have tasted of the good gifts of God, who have bathed in the warmth of God’s heart for Israel, and yet they have moved away from that place of blessing, tenderheartedness and revelation (see Hebrew 6:4-12). Somehow the heart of the matter has shrunk. Somehow the spirits of some men and women have been shriveled by the enemy.

C.S. Lewis talked about this dynamic in his thin book “The Abolition of Man.” “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

Writing in a heavenly book

Jewish people tend to remember things. Our recorded history in the Bible helps us to remember the highlights and the low points. The prophet Zechariah’s name means “YHVH remembers.” God asks, “How can I forget you, O Israel? I will never forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15; Hosea 11: 8).

The psalmist swears to God and asks for his right hand of livelihood to be cursed if he does not remember Jerusalem and prioritize her above his own greatest joy (Psalm 137:5-6). He then asks YHVH to remember the hatred and cold-heartedness that Edom exhibited when they fought against Israel and cursed her (Psalm 137:7). He asks the God of Israel to remember Edom’s deeds and to curse her.

One way God helps us to remember is by writing things down in a book. “Then those who feared YHVH spoke to one another, and YHVH gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear YHVH and who esteem His name. ‘They will be Mine,’ says YHVH of armies, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him” (Malachi 3:16-18).

God has books wherein all our deeds are written down. He promises that He will weigh and judge all our thoughts as well – including the attitude of our hearts toward Israel His beloved (Revelation 20:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 4:5; Matthew 25:37-40). Knowing the fear of God, we try to persuade men (2 Corinthians 5:11).

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Gird up your loins

US President Obama and UN President Ban Ki Moon, in cooperation with Turkey, Qatar and Hamas, are turning the thumbscrews on Israel, upping the political pressure. They are pushing for an unconditional ceasefire which has been coordinated with jihadi terror group Hamas, a ceasefire which would strengthen its hand in destroying Israel.

So far five separate ceasefires have been honored by Israel and broken by Hamas. American allies in times past (Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) would all be weakened by this ceasefire, while Hamas would be strengthened.

As the war against jihad ends its third week, IDF forces are entering the built-up suburbs of central Gaza, engaging in house-to-house combat with Hamas fighters, discovering and destroying terror tunnels leading into Israel, and eliminating Hamas rockets and launchers. They are being greeted with booby-trapped houses, rocket launchers positioned next to hospitals, kindergartens and mosques, and active terror tunnels. IDF casualties to date are 53.

Front line against jihad

Ceasefires are a good thing – unless one is fighting a war to the death with Hitler or Osama bin Laden. At that point ceasefires are a betrayal in the fight against evil. This definition of evil accurately fits Hamas and its bankroller Qatar, all openly committed to Israel’s destruction based on their reading of the Quran and Islamic religious texts.

Turkey is Hamas’ man within NATO, and it continues to influence the West as a ‘Trojan horse.’ And it has somewhat succeeded in this, working with Qatar and Hamas in twisting US policy against long-term ally Israel.

Former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt, Sweden and Romania Zvi Mazel states it rather bluntly: “Kerry is ignoring Egypt while he is talking to Qatar and Turkey, (Egypt’s) enemies and determined supporters of the Muslim Brothers. He is in fact favoring radical Islam. This is unacceptable for Egypt – and for Israel…This approach was met by incredulity by Israel and Egypt, which feel betrayed and insulted by America…Cairo fail(s) to understand why the US are being such ardent supporters of the Muslim Brothers while significantly failing to curb Iran’s atomic program” (www.jpost.com/International/US-and-Egypt-find-themselves-at-odds-once-again-369123).

The American-brokered ceasefire calls for Hamas to be granted freedom to import goods into Gaza. This loophole was used by Hamas since 2006 to import cement for terror tunnels, as well as rockets and launchers. The ceasefire proposal also calls for rivers of gold to be given to the Gazan government of Hamas. This has been used since 2006 to build terror tunnels (“Terror tunnels, embargoes and human rights”; www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4549358,00.html). Hamas is insisting on these conditions, as well as the release of terror prisoners in Israeli jails. Though Mashal claims that he is happy to tolerate Jews living in Palestine, his own Islamist Hamas charter anathematizes such tactics (www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Mashaal-Hamas-is-ready-to-coexist-with-Jews-but-not-the-occupation-369140; www.acpr.org.il/resources/hamascharter.html).

The US State Department for unclear reasons has turned its back on Israeli and Egyptian red lines, and has coordinated a Hamas-positive ceasefire option which it is trying to force down Israel’s throat. President Obama called Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu this Friday to demand that Israel accept this jaundiced ceasefire immediately.

The battle facing the Jewish state, it seems, comes not only from the zombie armies of jihad. It also involves a concerted effort by terrorists and their oil sheikh sugar daddies to turn the hearts of Israel’s allies against the Jewish state.

American support for radical Islam could once again lead to a Muslim Brotherhood triumph in Egypt, a refugee situation like unto that of Syria, the closure of the Suez Canal, a world oil embargo, shock waves for world trade and increased activation of Islamic unrest in Europe and the West.

The Qatar compromise

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s mediation activities have left Israeli leftists and rightists agreeing that his influence on the situation is more like demolition-derby than diplomacy. Sharp criticism has been leveled at him across the board in Israel:

Rather than address the substance of the criticism, the US State Department did a diplomatic sidestep, turning the tables by expressing outrage that their Israeli ally should act so rudely to Kerry (www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4551431,00.html).  Though rudeness should not be a part of accepted diplomatic discourse, neither should it be acceptable for an ally to actively campaign against the vital interests of its friends.

Something rotten in the State of Denmark

Unfortunately, a sober appraisal of US State Department positions vis-à-vis Israel over the years leads one to understand that Kerry’s stance is not out of place (see John Loftus and Mark Aarons’ The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People, St. Martin’s Press, 1994).  It is undoubtedly true that the realpolitik interests of the USA are not always the same as those of Israel. What is a matter of concern for those who love the Scriptures and Israel is when those interests clash, or when the fallout from that clash could cause Israel existential harm.

Here are some examples of recent clashes of interest:

The unspoken belief system that guides American policy was voiced behind closed doors by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his meeting with Sadun Hammadi, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs. A recently declassified State Department document  quotes from that meeting (www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB193/HAK-12-17-75.pdf; Paris, December 17, 1975.

Kissinger communicated a ‘no-nonsense’ US foreign policy regarding Israel in the following selected quotes:

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh noted that, in 1989 when Secretary of State James Baker was being sworn in, one White House aide joked that every Secretary of State left that office hating Israel. Baker reportedly replied, “What if one started that way? (Loftus & Aarons, ibid.).

Volunteering freely in the Day of Your power

King David prophesied about the Last Days army in Israel.

“YHVH says to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’ YHVH will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of Your enemies.’ Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power. In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew” (Psalm 110:1-3).

The Hebrew phrase ‘volunteer freely’ refers to a troop of soldiers getting into military formation in preparation for battle. It is striking to see the overwhelming support that the Israeli people are giving to their government and their army during these troubling times. The motivation of IDF soldiers to strike a decisive blow against the forces of jihad is high (www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=19021). In a recent survey (www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Poll-865-percent-of-Israelis-oppose-cease-fire-369064) 86.5% of Israelis surveyed were adamantly opposed to a ceasefire with Hamas.

In Bob Dylan’s “Neighborhood Bully,” he comments wryly on Western diplomatic moves vis-à-vis Israel, “Not supposed to fight back, and have a thick skin; Supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in, he’s the neighborhood bully” (Copyright © 1983 by Special Rider Music).

Bob Dylan’s son-in-law Peter Himmelman has just release a sizzling sequel to his father-in-law’s hit, called ‘Maximum Restraint’ (“Bob Dylan’s Son-in-Law Records Hamas War Sequel to Dylan’s Neighborhood Bully” - www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpxywkSeu0g ;www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/bob-dylans-son-in-law-records-hamas-war-sequel-to-dylans-neighborhood-bully/). This video clip is a ‘must watch’!

Gird up your loins

As the battle heightens in intensity, we remember C.S. Lewis’s wisdom, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

As Israel clashes with the world jihadi armies, we know that Zion will need to lean into God even more. Jews scattered throughout the world will need to do the same, as anti-Semitism rears its toxic head from Paris to Frankfurt, from Los Angeles to Rome, and from Toronto to Toulouse.

The prophetic warnings that Steve Lightle and Tom Hess gave in the 1980’s and following (regarding the need for Western Jews to get ready to depart the countries of the Exile and return to Zion) are even more valid today.

As anti-Semitism increases across the face of our planet, read Revelation 12 and pray for the Jewish woman who gave birth to the Messiah (Galatians 4:4-5)

Keep praying!

The following link shows a stunning answer to prayer. A Hamas bullet struck an IDF soldier’s grenade, which was hanging on his shoulder straps. The grenade did not explode, and the bullet simply buried itself into the casing of the grenade (https://mobile.mako.co.il/news-military/security/Article-37532fa9de76741004.htm).

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Stumbling with the footmen

More than 2,600 years ago, the prophet sadly noted, “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5). Jeremiah was rebuking many of his readers who were simply not prepared for battle, not ready for conflict, unprepared for warfare, out of breath and spiritually out of shape for the struggle at hand.

As war is being waged between the forces of jihad and the armies of the Jewish state, between Hamas and the IDF, some believers are plumb tuckered out. They are confused and panicking under bombardment – bombardment by the world media which overwhelmingly serves up jihadi-prepared platters of propaganda news clips about the battle. One wag has opined, “Would you like a little serving of news along with your propaganda?”

The body of Messiah for the most part has been anesthetized by centuries of anti-Semitism and Replacement theology, and its spiritual anti-virus software – those vital antibodies necessary for blocking a “spiritual DDOS” (distributed denial-of-service computer attack; www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST04-015) – are not in place nor are their weapons oiled and ready to fire.

Hamas’ main sugar daddies and ideological bed-mates Qatar and Turkey are applying pressure on the USA to force a ceasefire agreement on Israel which would bolster the Hamas terror group, preserve its weaponry, rocket launchers and terror tunnels, and throw open the Gazan gates – allowing an unimpeded flow of upgraded weapons into eager jihadi hands.

As the war against jihad enters its third week, IDF forces have been penetrating the built-up suburbs of eastern Gaza, engaging in house-to-house combat with Hamas fighters, discovering and destroying terror tunnels leading into Israel, and eliminating Hamas rockets and launchers. IDF casualties to date are 43.

Tunnel of terror

Over 150 Hamas terrorists have been captured by Israel and are being interrogated. One extremely troubling piece of ‘ticking bomb’ intelligence has come out – plans for a mega-terror attack through these tunnels on or around Erev Rosh Hashana – the Feast of Trumpets, September 24. The links below include the breaking news in Hebrew, a scale map of three of the terror tunnels, and a report by Israeli Special Operations Forces Maglan about the situation on the ground.

The plans involved simultaneous infiltration of 20 groups of ten Hamas commandos each, 200 in total, wearing IDF fatigues and equipped for mass murder and kidnapping. This would have quite possibly been coordinated with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and accompanied by a massive rain of rockets and missiles across Israel.

The continued existence of these tunnels and the unrelenting terror plans of Hamas mean that any ceasefire established at this time would leave a clear and imminent danger (see https://en.alalam.ir/news/1609867 for a comparative American use) to the security of the state of Israel.

Balancing the tragedy of civilian casualties

The construction of the Hamas terror tunnels over the past years caused significant child casualties, according to the journal Palestine Studies. Hamas has had a “cavalier approach to child labor and tunnel fatalities…During a police patrol that the author was permitted to accompany in December 2011, nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies. At least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials. Safety controls on imports appear similarly lax…” (www.palestine-studies.org/journals.aspx?id=11424&jid=1&href=fulltext).

In the past weeks Hamas has been inflating casualty figures, and concealing the amount of terrorists killed, according to analysts of Hamas’ own figures. This was also Hamas’ habit in 2009’s Operation Cast Lead.

“He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him” (Proverbs 26:27)

When is a ceasefire not a ceasefire?

Israel has agreed to five ceasefires since Hamas began firing jihadi rockets at the Jewish state – Egyptian-brokered, U.N.-brokered, and Red Cross initiated. In every case, Hamas broke the ceasefire – either by firing during the ceasefire time or by refusing to hold fire immediately after the cessation of each agreement. The four other smaller Gazan terror groups (Islamic Jihad, the an-Nasr Salah ed-Din of the Popular Resistance Committees, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) all publically announced their refusal to accept any humanitarian ceasefire.

Hamas has insisted that Israel must withdraw totally from Gaza, that all terror prisoners in Israeli jails be set free, and that Hamas be permitted to freely import cement and iron as well as North Korean and Iranian weapons to resupply their own arsenals. These demands sound like Hamas is winning the battle it started. In actuality they are losing it, but are blustering with unholy hutzpah.

On the cutting edge with Qatar

Two pro-jihadi countries are Hamas’ main supporters – Qatar and Turkey. Major players like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are opposed both to Hamas and to its spiritual father the Muslim Brotherhood. The USA, however, considers Qatar a close friend, and has just signed an 11 billion dollar military weapons deal with that country.

Qatar contains the principal overseas headquarters of the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), the sprawling al-Udeid Airbase near Doha. Qatar was a key staging ground for the invasion of Iraq, and it has played a key role in organizing, financing, and arming the opposition to Bashar al- Assad’s regime in Syria. At the same time, Qatar has been the home-in-exile for Egyptian Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual godfather of the Muslim Brotherhood and an ardent jihadist.

Five years ago after his visit to Qatar in 2009, Senator John Kerry said, “Qatar can’t continue to be an American ally on Monday that sends money to Hamas on Tuesday.” Since then, Hamas’s political leadership relocated from Damascus to Doha, Qatar’s capital city, where they live a luxurious life as they sacrifice their Gazan soldiers and children in waves of suicide attacks against Israel (www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4548202,00.html). Qatar still sends money to Hamas on Mondays and Tuesdays. And Qatar is still a gold-edged American ally.

The rest of the news

The Wikileaks cable traffic reveals another side of the Qatari-USA relationship – one that helps us to pray more realistically for the Middle-East.

US diplomatic cable traffic (Senator Kerry’s February 10, 2010 meeting with Qatar’s Amir Hamad bin Khalifa; www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2010/02/10DOHA70.html) explains:

Senator Kerry’s February 24 2010 meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani (aka HBJ; https://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/02/10DOHA71.html) reveals:

These are the days of jihad

Robin Mark’s popular “These are the Days of Elijah” has been sung with Celtic gusto in worship meetings across the world. His reference to Elijah’s ministry and the dry bones of Israel becoming as flesh may have been skipped over or misinterpreted by some, but the song does prophesy about YHVH’s holy zeal in establishing the greatest army (Ezekiel 37:10-11; Malachi 4:5-6; 2 Kings 1:12; 2:12) the world has ever seen – the reborn army of Israel!

Many believers feel antsy about imprecatory prayers – prayers which ask God to destroy the Jewish people’s enemies. It is easier for these people to relate to the believing sniper in Saving Private Ryan, or to a military chaplain in the American Civil War or World War II. Yet the Holy Scriptures do contain war psalms and war prayers. Four striking examples include Psalm 18, Psalm 120, Psalm 137 and Psalm 149.

In Psalm 120 the writer sadly states that many of Israel’s neighbors possess lying lips and a deceitful tongue. He knows that YHVH will respond to those enemies with sharp arrows of the warrior, and with burning coals. “Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshech, for I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120:5-7).

In 1991 I was doing IDF reserve duty in Hebron during Gulf War I. Saddam Hussein was firing SCUD missiles at the Tel Aviv area (where my wife and kids were), and the missiles were flying right over my head. The Muslim inhabitants of Hebron were under curfew, but nevertheless they climbed up onto the roofs of their houses and screamed out “Ya Saddam, Ya Habib, udrub udrub Tel Aviv” (Arabic for “O Saddam, O beloved, utterly bomb Tel Aviv!”).

My seminary teachers had not taught me how to respond prayerfully to such situations. But the answer was not long in coming. I asked YHVH the Lord of the armies of Israel to reveal Himself to as many as possible of Hebron’s population. But as far as for those who were calling for the blood of YHVH’s people and for the death of my family, I gave God permission to do whatever He had to do.

YHVH describes the Jewish people in the following terms: “You are My war-club, My weapon of war; and with you I shatter nations, and with you I destroy kingdoms” (Jeremiah 51:20). It is not only in Navy Seals and Delta Force movies that such clear-cut challenges occur. They are occurring right here and right now in Gaza.

In Psalm 83:6-8 various mortal enemies of Israel are described as participating in a Last Days battle against the Jewish people in Israel – Edom, Ishmael, Moab, Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia, Tyre, Assyria, the children of Lot. Today some of these countries have a quiet peace treaty with Israel (like Jordan and Egypt), while Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are actually in a state of war with Israel.

With these matters in the forefront of our minds, consider the following:

Though YHVH has great love for the peoples of the Middle East and also for the Arab world, However, He transforms into a roaring lion when the apple of His eye, the Jewish people, are threatened or attacked (Zechariah 2:8, 13; Joel 3:16).

Arab voices

It has been said that with two Jews, there are three opinions. Dialogue, debate, discussion – these are certainly part of the Jewish experience. In the Arab world there are also divergences of opinion. This is important to remember as one considers different Arab voices coming out of Israel, the Palestinian Authority region and the broader Middle East.

One interesting voice is that of a Muslim, Tarek S. Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress in Toronto, Canada. In an article “Stop the Jew-Hatred and Build Palestine” (The Toronto Sun, July 22, 2014; www.meforum.org/4758/stop-the-jew-hatred-and-build-palestine) he writes:

“Gaza could have become a showcase of Arab enlightenment and enterprise after Israel withdrew from the territory in 2005. It could have become a tourism haven and a crucible for learning and arts, science and technology. Instead, Gaza has become a one-party Islamic dictatorship under Hamas, dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. Thousands of precious lives have been lost in this macabre display of hatred disguised as piety. It’s not just Israeli Jews that have been targeted for death. Palestinians opposed to Hamas have been massacred to consolidate its power. On Nov. 12, 2007 Hamas gunmen fired on a rally organized by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party inside a Gaza stadium, at an event held to commemorate the late Yasser Arafat. Many were killed. To the horror of the world, Hamas gunmen butchered Fatah fighters, throwing wounded men from the roof of a 15-storey building to their deaths…But who will tell the Palestinians to get off the path of self-destruction?  Who will convince the Palestinian Islamists to stop dreaming of destroying Israel and start building the future of their own people?”

In another amazing interview, Dr. Tawfik Hamid (a former follower of Ayman al Zawahiri who was Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader and second in command of al Qa’eda; www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/ayman-al-zawahiri) clearly and succinctly explains why Hamas and the Palestinian jihadi movement is on the path to self-destruction (www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0m3RghOcFo&app=desktop).

Another bracing voice is that of Arab Israeli Pastor Shmuel Aweida, who unflinchingly addresses pro-Hamas and anti-Arab positions in a balanced and biblical interview (www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24779/Default.aspx).

There are also unbalanced and unbiblical voices, one of which is coming out of the Bethlehem Bible College. It is hard to know who exactly drew up the statement, as its authorship is ascribed to “Bethlehem Bible College’s board of directors, president, deans, faculty, staff and students – and the local committee of Christ at the Checkpoint.” That is a fair number of people and it seems in this case that with many Arabs there is only one opinion… (https://bethbc.org/news/statement-bethlehem-bible-college-regarding-current-crisis-gaza).

The statement does not condemn Hamas, does not refer to its Islamist genocidal charter, and does not refer to Hamas’ persecution of Christians in Gaza. But it does condemn Israel. It expresses shock only at “the unproportional (sic.) and inhuman response by the Israeli military.” It describes the Palestinian ‘liberation theology’ position as just, while intimating that those believers who support the restoration of the Jewish people to their state are contributing to “a culture of hatred and division.” They echo the political positions of Qatar, Turkey and Hamas when they state “We also believe that as long as the occupation of Palestinian territory and the siege of Gaza remain, the conflict will continue to escalate. To quote the manifesto again, ‘for Palestinian Christians, the occupation is the core issue of the conflict.’ ”

It is important for readers to understand that there are Arab voices which speak from a biblical framework and have a warm heart for the Jewish people and their restoration. There are also other Arab voices who are the exact opposite. And there are voices in between as well.

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Who is on the Lord’s side?

The words of U.S. General William Tecumseh Sherman ring out from the pages of history and echo over Gaza’s jihadi terrorists of Hamas:

“You people ... don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people (in) the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed ... You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth – right at your doors. You are bound to fail” (The Civil War: A Narrative (1986), Shelby Foote, p. 58).

As the war against jihad enters its second week, IDF forces are penetrating the built-up suburbs of eastern Gaza, engaging in house-to-house combat with Hamas fighters. The priority focus is still the discovery and destruction of terror tunnels leading into Israel, as well as the elimination of rockets and launchers. IDF casualties to date are 32.

Tunnels – from Viet Cong to Hamas

During the French Indochinese War, the Viet Minh built a huge network of underground tunnels in the Iron Triangle as part of their asymmetrical guerilla warfare against superior military forces (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Triangle_(Vietnam)). These networks were expanded by the Viet Cong in their battles against the Americans and Australians.

Hamas has studied this history. They have also received professional guidance from the Lebanese Shi’ite terror group Hezbollah in constructing their Gazan terror-tunnel networks.

Original Israeli security estimates were that there were 10-12 major terror tunnels. That number is rapidly being adjusted upwards (www.investigativeproject.org/4471/exclusive-us-intelligence-source-claims-hamas-has; www.timesofisrael.com/idf-didnt-follow-up-on-mri-style-below-surface-technology-to-find-tunnels/#ixzz38LFA9mko). So far 31 have been uncovered and, of these, 11 have been destroyed. Guestimates are now hovering at 60 plus. In the hands of a violent jihadi group these tunnels remain a clear and present danger to Israel. A ceasefire under these conditions is not realistic.

Hamas engineers sometimes build two tunnels in the same area, so that if one is discovered, the other in close proximity can still be used for terror attacks. The knowledge of where those tunnels are is a closely guarded secret known to less than a handful of unit leaders – the tunnel squads are organized like communist revolutionary cells.

Dancing on the blood of one’s own people

The cynical and cruel use by Hamas of hospitals, mosques, schools, playgrounds, homes and ambulances to hide rocket launchers, rocket storehouses and terrorists has been thoroughly documented in recent history, and especially during this war.

Hamas has been filmed firing rockets at Israeli civilians  and submachine guns at the IDF from the al Wafaa hospital in Shuja’iya (eastern Gaza). Two days of warnings by leaflets, texts and phone calls were followed by a direct phone call by IDF Military Intelligence to the hospital directors, ascertaining that all patients and medical personnel were evacuated. Only at that point was the hospital destroyed by pinpoint aerial bombardment. Here is the IDF video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8O9AHzUKYk8&app=desktop

Dr. Michael Oren, CNN Middle East analyst and former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, points out that Hamas’ media strategy relies on mounting “a sophisticated media campaign that can threaten Israel's basic security” using “one of the world's most powerful weapons: the international media.” Deliberating shooting at the IDF from behind the backs of its own civilians, Hamas crows over the casualties and hands the video footage over to the international media, who use those gory shots to demonize Israel. Oren concludes that “journalists must take a hard look at the way they cover this conflict. They must not allow themselves to act as accessories to Hamas's murderous strategy that delegitimizes Israel and prolongs the Palestinians' suffering” (https://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/21/opinion/oren-hamas-media-strategy/index.html).

Former US President Bill Clinton told India’s NDTV last week that Hamas has “a strategy designed to force Israel to kill their own (Palestinian) civilians so that the rest of the world will condemn them” (www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/hamas-is-killing-its-own/story-e6frgd0x-1226997934042?nk=b243bf5b80cbf315b10c70fef388369e).

IDF casualties

So far 32 IDF soldiers have been killed in the fighting. Many have been targeted by RPG or sniper fire and some by booby-trapped buildings. The spontaneous outpouring of national identification and sympathy with three ‘lone soldiers’ – young Jewish men who made aliyah to Israel and joined the IDF, even though their families remained in the Diaspora – deeply moved the whole nation.

Colonel Ghassan Alian, a highly respected warrior in the IDF and Druze head of the Golani Brigade, was wounded in action leading his men into battle and was treated at Soroka Hospital in Beersheva. Ignoring doctors’ suggestions that he recuperate, Colonel Alian returned to the front, battle-scarred, to lead his men on the frontlines (www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4548235,00.html). His example stirred many hearts in this country, and incarnates the biblical principles of warfare that the IDF is known for in our day – military leaders who actually lead their troops into war.

The Berlin blockade

In June 1948 the Soviet Union blocked the Allies’ rail and canal access to Berlin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade). The famous Berlin Airlift was the Allied response to these warlike acts. Aircrews from the American USAF, the British RAF, the Canadian RCAF, the Australian RAF,  the New Zealand RNZAF and the South African Air Force flew over 200,000 flights in one year, daily providing up to 4,700 tons of fuel, food and other necessities to thankful Berliners.

On July 22 a Hamas rocket landed in Yehud, a town 9 kilometers away from Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport, damaging a home. By the end of the day, three U.S. airlines decides to suspend flights to Israel for 24 hours. This created a domino effect among European carriers as well (www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Report-US-considering-grounding-flights-to-Israel-amid-rocket-threat-368492).

The effect of this was chilling for many in Israel, reminding us of how national airlines refused to fly into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. The feeling was that “all the world is against us,” a not-surprising reaction in light of two thousand years of both Gentile anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. For many in Israel, the historical reverberations of this FAA domino-decision were most sobering.

Hamas was quick to crow, once again, that a victory had been won for the forces of jihad: “’The success of Hamas in closing Israeli airspace is a great victory for the resistance, and is the crown of Israel’s failure,’ Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement” (https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/23/World-suspension-of-Israel-flights-a-great-victory-Hamas.html).

Within 28 hours the FAA reversed its position and allowed American flights back into Israel (www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/FAA-lifts-flight-ban-on-US-flights-to-Israel-368705; www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4549146,00.html). But the historical lessons of these events bear earnest consideration.

When pro-Western Berlin was attacked, the Allies stood up to be counted. When the 9/11 terror attack happened, the nations of the world did not call for suspension of flights to the U.S.A. But after two weeks of rocket fire, the American-run FAA effectively throttled Israel’s air connections with the world and gave a stunning shot in the arm to jihadi terror. Playing it safe, not choosing sides, non-committal good business behavior – the same arguments were used by feckless Western businessmen who preached appeasement and accommodationism with Adolf Hitler.

No one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side

In Bob Dylan’s sizzling rock masterpiece about Israel, “Neighborhood Bully,” ((www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/neighborhood-bully#ixzz38Nvvh9vx) he says, “He got no allies to really speak of. What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love. He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied, but no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side – he’s the neighborhood bully!”

The Scriptures’ perspective on standing with Israel is quite different from some of the internet buzz that is passing for principled philosophical discourse these days.  We have recently been running into the phrase “I don’t take sides” as a kind of Christian mantra.

The gist of the discussion seems to be:

Glib comparisons are occasionally made, shaped unwittingly by jihadi and Islamist perspectives. Israeli behavior is demonized, while emotional appeals are made, pulling on Western sympathy for the ‘underdog.’ As well, anti-Semitic stereotypes are dragged out, ascribing nefarious motives to Jewish people, like world domination and blood-sucking economic lust.

How are believers in Yeshua to respond to this multi-pronged onslaught?

Choosing to stand with the people of God

The prophet Isaiah has given us so many precious prophecies and insights into the heart of God. YHVH’s perspective is made clear in this book on how the nations (and sometimes even believers within those nations) dismiss or downplay the calling and the gifts irrevocably given to Israel (Romans 11:28-29). Here is the God of Israel’s broad historical summation of how the nations relate to the Jewish people:

And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede. Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, so He will repay – wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies. To the coastlands He will make recompense. So they will fear the name of YHVH from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun. For He will come like a rushing stream which the wind of YHVH drives. A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, declares YHVH (Isaiah 59:16-20).

Sometimes it seems that these nations are so very big, and that Israel is so very small, a tiny minority (see Amos 7:2, 5). Why should super-powers kneel before God’s purposes in their international relations with that country? Isaiah could not be more bold or more forthright on this point:

“Who has directed the Spirit of YHVH, or as His counselor has informed Him? With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.  Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him. They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth – but He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble” (Isaiah 40:13-17, 21-24).

Across the Great Divide

Moses knew something about standing up for the God of Israel in threatening and trying times. He knew what it was like to take sides: “Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control – for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies – then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, ‘Whoever is for YHVH, come to me!’”  (Exodus 32:25-26).

Joshua knew what it like to take sides. He had committed his life to following YHVH the Lord of armies, and had been called by YHVH to be His warrior and general. He paced the ground at midnight, his mind occupied by the coming morning battle with Canaanite Jericho. Joshua’s desert tradecraft suddenly picked up an intruder, and he quickly tried to discern if this person was friend or foe:

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of YHVH.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” The captain of YHVH's host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so...YHVH said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days (Joshua 5:13-15; 6:2-3).

Some preachers love to quote Joshua on this point, but they usually miss God’s main point here. Joshua already was on YHVH’s side; he was already “on a mission from God!” It would be foolish to think that God was being evenhanded in this situation. It would be out of touch with reality to suppose that God was trying to be politically correct by weighing Jewish and Canaanite sensibilities equally. The text makes it crystal-clear: YHVH of armies had taken a stand, and Joshua was standing right next to Him. This was all very bad news if you were a Canaanite, but very good news if you were a descendant of Jacob.

Joshua and Moses were not blinded to the spiritual condition of many in Israel (Deuteronomy 31:27-29; Joshua 23:11-16). But that was not the schwerpunkt, the main point that God was emphasizing at that meeting. God was for Israel, would fight their battles alongside of them, and would judge both His enemies and those who remained ‘uninvolved’ or ‘uncommitted’ bystanders (see Obadiah 1:11-14).

Choosing to stand with the people of Israel

When Moses lived in Egypt, he had it made in the shade. He was at the top of Egypt’s “Most Likely to Succeed” list. Yet he chose to link his fate to that of the Jewish people, to get in sync with God’s program.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Messiah greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward (Hebrews 11:24-26).

There are some who are interested in heavenly reward, but do not yet see the connection between the heavenly reward (on one hand) and earthly courage and covenant faithfulness with the Jewish people (on the other hand). When Messiah comes, many will stand with Israel, but our challenge today is more immediate: Will we stand with the Jewish people and with the Jewish state (still in the process of being restored) – not in order to get a spiritual thrill and not primarily for our own spiritual blessing – but because we recognize that God is already standing beside Joshua, and beside the people of Israel?

Thus says YHVH of armies, It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of YHVH, and to seek YHVH of armies; I will also go.” So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek YHVH of armies in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says YHVH of armies, In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you (Zechariah 8:20-23).

There is, of course, another option available – rather than standing with God and His people. It is the option of standing apart from Him and against His people Israel. That would involve breathing life into Israel's enemies, encouraging their murderous agendas, seeding doubt as to God’s heart and purposes concerning the Jewish people, and acting as the enemy’s mouthpiece. May the Lord God of Israel keep His beloved children from doing that!

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

The prophetic arrow of victory

The war against the jihadi army of Hamas continues. Rockets continue to be fired at Israeli population centers. Israel’s Air Force (IAF), Army and Navy (IDF) are responding by targeting rocket launchers, weapons bunkers, command-and-control centers and top Hamas leadership. Over the past two days Hamas terror tunnels played a significant role in the fighting. Up to this point 27 IDF soldiers have been killed in fighting.

Tunnel warfare

At 06:20 Monday morning ten Hamas fighters equipped with RPGs surfaced out of a terror tunnel at the northeastern corner of the Gaza Strip – 200 meters away from the Israeli Kibbutz Nir Am and barely 400 meters away from the town of Sderot. The IDF Intelligence Corps spotters identified them, but were unsure if they were IDF troops – the terrorists were dressed in IDF military fatigues. IDF Nahal infantry identified them as Hamas from a distance. The terrorists were using Russian-made Kalashnikov sub-machine guns, and not IDF-issue M-16’s or Tavors.

As a firefight ensued, an armored IDF jeep sped to the site to command the assault. In it were three soldiers and Lieutenant-Colonel Dolev Kedar, age 38 from Modi’in (www.timesofisrael.com/seven-more-idf-soldiers-killed-in-battles-with-hamas/). An RPG was fired at the jeep, killing all four. The rest of the Nahal force eliminated the terrorists, in coordination with IAF missile fire.

Another terror tunnel was uncovered beside Kibbutz Netiv Ha’asara, on the north side of the Gaza Strip. Its entrance was in Gaza and its exit mouth was beside the kibbutz. The IDF Samur anti-tunnel Special Operations Forces are closing in on a third mega-tunnel near Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Clear and present danger

Israel’s Shin Bet (corresponds to FBI) originally surmised that there were a total of 10 to 12 such terror tunnels. So far 23 have been uncovered, and some analysts say that the total amount may be closer to 60. These tunnels are often dug at a depth of 60 feet underground, and are part of Hamas’s strategy to carry out a mega-terror attack. Imagine what would happen were ten Hamas squads of ten terrorists each surfaced simultaneously within Israel, murdering women and children and taking hostages, spiriting them away back into those same tunnels to underground prisons in Gaza.

These tunnels are a threat to Israel’s security that cannot be ignored. Any ceasefire under present conditions would simply be a ticking bomb – as long as these tunnels are functional and undiscovered. The operation to eliminate these tunnels is a vital and necessary stage of this operation (www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4546679,00.html).

Rolling thunder

The eastern Gaza City suburb of Shuja’iyeh (Shejaia) is honeycombed with rocket launchers, weapons bunkers, terror tunnels and Hamas forward-command posts. Drone photography reveals that Hamas has strategically placed these terror facilities in mosques, playgrounds, hospitals and cemeteries (www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/IDF-shows-photos-of-alleged-Hamas-rocket-sites-dug-into-hospital-mosques-368307). This same dynamic is repeated countless times across the Gaza Strip area.

The IDF warned Shuja’iyeh’s civilians for two days by leaflets, phone calls and cellphone texts, to immediately vacate the area and move to adjacent suburbs which the IDF would not attack.

“To the residents of Shuja’iyya, Al Trachman and Shuja’yyia Al-Gadida: The IDF does not wish to cause any harm to you or your relatives. For your own safety you are requested to vacate from your residence and head towards central Gaza City. The assembling will be in the central Gaza City within the following borders: west of Salah A- Din, north of Amer Al- Mahtar road, east of Al- Nazzaer road and south of Al- Quds road. This fighting is temporary, and with its conclusion, everybody will be able to return to their homes. Please obey the instructions given by the IDF, which is attempting to avoid causing harm to civilians. IDF Headquarters” (www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/07/17/idf-drops-warning-leaflets-gaza/).

For two days Israeli television showed how Hamas threatened Shuja’iyeh’s inhabitants with dire results if they obeyed the IDF. They challenged them to be brave jihadis and bare their chests to the soon-to-come Israeli bombs, while simultaneously saying that there was no danger, and that the IDF was only engaging in psychological warfare.

Rocket fire continued from Shuja’iyeh, and after two days the IAF began to bomb rocket launchers and bunkers, causing a vast exodus of inhabitants to the areas where the IDF had earlier directed them. Nevertheless, civilian casualties did go up in this phase of the operation.

A similar dynamic is now occurring next to Shuja’iyeh, in the Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun. Here inhabitants are already moving out as per IDF warnings. Though American comedian John Stewart recently remarked that there is no room available in Gaza for these people to move to, his awareness of California’s Interstate network is obviously more developed than his first-hand knowledge of Gazan real estate.

Jihadi spinmeisters

As was the case in the Vietnam War, the enemy has learned that influencing the media is vital to the successful furtherance of its military aims. To that end, Hamas has issued strict guidelines to foreign media in the Gaza Strip, with the clear understanding: if Western media do not follow these rules, they will be thrown out or killed. As a result, all live Western TV reports are operating under these threats, and their story lines follow the Hamas playbook.

Noah Pollack’s article “All the news Hamas sees fit to print” take the New York Times to task for distorting the perspective its readers get as their reporters follow Hamas diktats:

One of the masters of televised sleight-of-hand in this war is the al Jazeera network. This largest of all Arabic-speaking networks is based out of Qatar, which is a Muslim Brotherhood founded state and the main bankroller of Hamas (estimated at $13 billion so far). It is also considered an American strategic ally, and herein lies a significant problem for those intent on thwarting jihadi victories in the world.

Qatar operated as a fifth column within Egypt during the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. Its efforts led to the downfall of President Hosni Mubaraq, and to the rise of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi. The overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood by Egypt’s traditional military leadership (headed by President al-Sisi) was strenuously opposed at the time by Qatar and al-Jazeera. Egypt imprisoned these reporters for sedition and treason.

Qatar is attempting to rescue its jihadi pet Hamas, by pressuring the USA to support Qatar’s call for a ceasefire – one which would preserve Hamas’ tunnels, rockets and weaponry for another fight on another day. Turkey (another Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer) has joined in with Qatar in this political PR blitz.

The rest of the Arab news

Sunni countries which have been traditionally aligned with the West (like Saudi Arabia and Egypt) are making no bones about their revulsion and disdain for Hamas, Qatar and Turkey. They are using the spiciest and most offensive terminology available in the Arabic-speaking world to make this abundantly clear:

U.N. and U.S. attempts to force through a ceasefire which would preserve jihadi strength and weaken Israel is a scenario reflective of the Hebrew prophets’ ancient warnings:

“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14).

“Surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat” (Jeremiah 4:10).

Mowing the grass once and for all?

The unappetizing challenge regarding Hamas and Gaza is this:

Pertinent quotes from the Hamas Charter (plus context and background) can be found at: https://davidstent.com/hurtling-through-the-fog-of-war-a-messianic-perspective-on-the-new-hamastan/.

Most secular Western analysts and strategists are not believers in the reality or influence of the spiritual world or in the existence and reality of God. The Bible is not a strategic sourcebook for them, and its perspectives on Middle-East conflict are summarily dismissed at the outset.

Yet Hamas makes no secret of its own synchronization with Islamist doctrines. Any serious consideration of this Muslim Brotherhood group must take its beliefs seriously as well. We are not simply dealing with “Gazan perspectives” and “Lebanese perspectives” versus Jewish perspectives” and “Israeli perspectives.” This is not a partisan conflict between unreasonable and intractable enemies. What we are dealing with is the clash of the ages, a clash between the “perspectives of the God of Israel and His word” versus “the perspective of all the nations who are in rebellion against Him” (see Psalm 2; Joel 3:1-2, 9-17; Jeremiah 30:16-17).

Some thoughtful analysts in Israel find it hard to believe that Israel will be able to actually crush Hamas and realistically eliminate its weapon-backed threat to Israel. The best example of such reason is the article “Mowing the Grass in Gaza” by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shamir (www.meforum.org/4755/mowing-the-grass-in-gaza). Their understanding is that Gaza cannot be decisively defeated but must be “mowed” every so often to prevent the “terrorist grass” from taking over the whole yard. According to this perspective, Israel is fated to play counter-terrorist cat-and-mouse with jihadi neighbors for the foreseeable future.

God’s prophetic arrows of victory

In the Bible the Jewish people are described as having a prophetic destiny, part of which involves becoming the world’s most significant army (Ezekiel 37:9-14). As we try to ‘connect the dots’ between today and that soon-coming day, we can learn military wisdom from the Scriptures.

The word of God freely offers divine wisdom to Israel’s leaders: If we prosecute the war against our enemies and strike repeatedly without weakening, our enemies will be brought to full and unconditional surrender. These were the terms under which WWII was concluded. Only under these conditions will Hamas’ Islamist occupation of Gaza and its terror war against the Jewish state come to an end.

Rising from the dead - the zombie army of anti-Semitism

As was the case in the war between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, the hostilities of the past ten days have been manipulated by Hamas sympathizers to catalyze violent demonstrations against Jewish people and against the Jewish state throughout Europe, the USA and in Islamic countries.  A zombie-like army of anti-Semites is on the rise. Targets this time are Israelis and anything connected to Israel, as well as Jews, synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses. The virulence and savagery demonstrated by recent marches and attacks in Paris, London and Frankfurt show anyone with eyes to see that the spirit of the Nazi beast has morphed. He has put on a keffiyeh but he has not changed his spots. Savagery against Jews is fast becoming accepted street behavior on our planet.

Take the time to skin through the following prophetically-edged articles. They are well worth the read:

“Keep on the alert at all times, praying …”

The battle is intense. The challenges are great. The opportunities are amazing. Yeshua’s call to pray rings in our ears.

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

Tunnel vision in Gaza

On Saturday evening Israel Defense Forces (IDF) directed intense tank and air power against areas in Gaza opposite Kibbutz Nahal Oz. This was a standard military tactic, a ‘preparing of the ground’ prior to sending in a new wave of infantry and armor into the Gaza Strip – to bolster the forces already fighting against jihadi Hamas terrorists. These reinforcements rolled into Gaza in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Five IDF casualties have occurred so far, four of those in the past 24 hours.

Hamas Rules

During the Cold War spies operating under deep cover in Russia were acquainted with intelligence guidelines called “Moscow Rules” (Antonio & Jonna Mendez, Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War, Simon & Schuster, 2003, p. 36). These rules extended the lives of operatives in a hostile and deadly environment.

Some of the ten rules listed in the International Spy Museum located in Washington D.C.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Spy_Museum) include:

IDF infantry, Special Forces, and Special Operations Forces are presently engaging jihadi commandos of Hamas in cat-and-mouse low-intensity urban conflict

Through our enemy’s eyes

Hamas’ war strategy involves the following points:

Israel’s war strategies

For the past fourteen years over 11,000 jihadi rocket and mortar attacks have been directed by the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas against Israeli farms, kibbutzim, towns and cities (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2014). This development was a direct spin-off of the Oslo Accords, which mandated a staggered Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Hamas increased its terrorist activities over the years, and by 2000 was able to begin active mortar and rocket attacks. Ariel Sharon’s grievous disengagement from Gaza in August 2005 opened the gates of demonic terror to unprecedented proportions.

On Tuesday July 8 Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu twittered, “Operation Protective Edge will continue until it reaches its goal – restoring quiet to Israel’s citizens for a prolonged period, while inflicting a significant blow to the infrastructures of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations.”

Israel’s war strategy involves the following points:

One objective has been left out of the stated operational goals, and this one is much debated in Israel – eliminating the jihadi group Hamas from Gaza’s military, political and social environment. Some in Israel express fear that an ISIS/ISIL or al Qa’eda group would fill such a vacuum. Others declare that Israel has the potential resolve and military ability to fight even the most hardened and murderous of enemies, from Hamas to the ghost of Bin Laden.

Moles and counter-moles

Shakespeare uses the phrase ‘the Old Mole’ to represent the ghost of Hamlet’s father (Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5), while Hegel used the phrase as a metaphor for Spirit (Philosophy of History; Conclusion). In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx applies the metaphor to Communist revolution. Hamas has re-applied this term, engaging in mole-digging tactics in its war against the Jewish state.

At least 12 major terror tunnels are targeting Israel. Five of these have been discovered by the IDF’s Special Operations Forces Combat Engineers unit Yahalom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahalom_(IDF)) and their sub-unit Samur (‘weasel’; www.timesofisrael.com/the-treacherous-task-of-tunnel-demolition/).

Over the past few days Hamas has attempted two kidnapping/murder raids which were foiled – one beside Kibbutz Kerem Shalom and one near Kibbutz Sufa, both bordering the southern Gaza Strip. On Saturday a nine-man Hamas squad emerged from a tunnel beside Israeli Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha (opposite central Gaza), equipped with sleep-inducing drugs and plastic handcuffs for the kidnapping of Israelis, as well as significant amounts of explosives and weapons. Their goal was a mega-attack on an Israeli kibbutz – many casualties and many hostages.

Two IDF jeeps were passing by the entrance to the tunnel just after the terrorists surfaced. The element of surprise caused the jihadi commandos to change their plans. They fired RPGs at the jeep, killing Reserves Major Amotz Greenberg (Nahal,from Hod Hasharon, three children) and Nahal driver Sergeant Adar Barsano (20 years old, from Nahariya). The second jeep engaged the terrorists, killing one, while the others escaped back into the tunnel back to Gaza.

Our dear believing friends who live on an adjoining kibbutz have told us for two years that the IDF is aware of Hamas attempts to dig a terror tunnel which would surface within the kibbutz. It has not yet been discovered.

Other casualties

Over the past 24 hours Hamas rockets have been launched against many targets in Israel. Security specialists estimate that Hamas had hoped to have caused between 50,000 and 100,000 Israeli casualties, but thanks to God’s protection, the prayers of the saints and the Iron Dome system, there have been next to no casualties. Yesterday, however, a jihadi missile struck near Dimona, murdering an Israeli Beduin 35-year old father Ouda Wafi al-Waj, severely wounding his three-month old daughter, and moderately/lightly wounding three other family members (www.timesofisrael.com/negev-bedouin-defenseless-as-man-killed-4-injured-by-gaza-rocket/).

Two Israeli combat soldiers were killed in close-quarters combat with Hamas in Gaza over the night. They are Combat Engineer Second Lieutenant Bar Rahav (age 21 from Ramat Yishai) and Paratrooper Staff Sergeant Benaya Rubel (age 20 from Holon).

As the IDF moves in to built-up areas in Gaza where rocket storehouses and launchers are situated, more casualties are certain. Some will be Hamas terrorists, and others will be bystanders who have not evacuated the areas as per IDF requests, leaflets, phone calls and text messages.

Yesterday Hamas loaded a donkey with explosives and sent it as an unwitting suicide bomber in the direction of IDF troops, who regretfully shot the animal before it blew up (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10977818/Donkey-suicide-bomb-stopped-by-Israeli-troops-in-Gaza.html).

Demonstrating demonic hatred

The Western world has not seen demonstrations against the mass slaughters being carried out by Islamists in Syria, Iraq and Africa. The streets of London or Paris have not witnessed marches against ISIS/ISIL, Boko Haram or the attempts at mass murder caused by shooting of Hamas rockets against Israeli citizens. But when do violent mobs appear on cue, and when are Islamists, Leftists and extreme Right-wingers joined at the hip in attacking Jews and Israelis on the streets of Europe? Wouldn’t you know it – when Israel decisively decides to put an end to jihadi rocket attacks.

Europe is struggling with a significant hostile Islamist population – whether it be in the banlieue riots of France, in the Shari’a zones in England, street riots in Germany, or jihadi murders in broad daylight in Belgium. Jihadis and their fellow-travelers have instigated violent riots where cries of “Death to the Jews” are commonplace. Hatred of Israel and hatred of the Jewish state are being fueled by jihadi sources, and many Gentiles (including lukewarm believers) are being swept up into this maelstrom.

Pray for revival in the Arab and Islamic world

Not all Arabs are blind to the dynamics of Hamas hatred and to the pitfalls of jihadi madness. Not all Muslims support Hamas. Not all Palestinians want to see the destruction of Israel.

But the Jewish people and the Jewish state are a prophetic sign, whether or not the nations and even some believers recognize this. Turning a cold shoulder, having a condescending heart attitude, directing anger against the Jewish people, cursing Israel, teaching that God has jettisoned the Jewish people in favor of Gentile believers – all of this brings the curse of Genesis 12:3 upon these participants. No matter how large the gang, He who watches Israel is even larger still.

A well known Arab commentator and former Editor-in-Chief of London Arabic language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi is no friend of Israel. Yet in a television interview with Lebanon’s Mayadeen TV on July 14, 2014, he said that many Arab leaders are profoundly praying that Israel will get rid of Hamas through the current war (https://jerusalemchannel.tv/video/breaking-arab-leaders-praying-israel-will-finally-get-rid-hamas/).

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

God of the armies of Israel

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have begun a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

Tunnel of hate

Early Thursday morning 13 Hamas commandos crawled over 2,500 meters through a tunnel from the Gaza Strip and surfaced near Kibbutz Sufa in Israel’s western Negev. They were armed with much “kit” as the British say, as well as with hostage-taking equipment. Their goal was to murder, take hostages and flee with them back to Gaza.

A combination of sharp IDF Intelligence Corps spotters and prior Shin Bet leads had put the IDF on high alert. As the terrorists spread out in the fields, their every move was captured by drones equipped with infra-red capabilities. The jihadi warriors discerned that they were spotted and fled back to the tunnel, with missiles exploding at the entrance to that tunnel barely one second after the last terrorist ducked in.

Over the years Hamas has constructed at least ten of these tunnels from Gaza into Israel with the sole purpose of murdering and kidnapping Israelis. On June 25, 2006 Gilad Shalit, an Israeli tanker, was kidnapped and the rest of his crew murdered by Hamas close to this very spot. Hamas later exchanged Shalit for 1,027 terror prisoners, and sees such activities as highly profitable. Other kibbutzim and farms in the area abutting Gaza are aware of such tunnels but the IDF has not yet discovered and destroyed most of them. Many lie at least 25 meters (70 feet) underground.

Ground invasion

Hamas had intended this terror-tunnel attack to be a game-changer in the hostilities. They continued to fire rockets at Israeli civilians throughout the day and actually increased the number of attacks.

The Israeli security cabinet met Thursday morning and came to a conclusion that they had tried to avoid for ten days – authorizing a ground invasion.

Thursday early evening Israeli artillery began laying down a wall of fire, standard military practice before a ground incursion. At approximately 22:00 hours, IDF tanks, combat engineers, infantry and special operations forces rolled into Gaza on three fronts.

This invasion has various goals. The first one is to neutralize the terror tunnels. The second one is to eliminate Hamas’ extensive reserves of long and short-range rockets. Other operational goals exist, though they would be pulled out of the drawer depending on developments on the ground.

Hamas hides its rocket bunkers in mosques, under hospitals, in schools and in homes (www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-strongly-condemns-placement-rockets-school; www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4545336,00.html) – always smack dab in the middle of civilian areas. Rocket bunkers wedged in beside Gaza’s al-Wafa hospital were hit by IAF UAVs on Thursday night, with huge explosions following, indicating direct strikes on rocket warehouses. It has been an open secret for many years that Hamas has its central command and rocket bunkers buried deep under Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. It is these targets that the IDF needs to obliterate with as little loss of life as possible.

Waziristan next door

It may help to understand the present war with Hamas in these terms: if England were faced with a Waziristan next door, a jihadi enclave which fired rockets into Birmingham and sent terror squads into Trafalgar Square, how long would it take for COBRA (the Cabinet Office Briefing Room) to stream SAS squads and Harrier jets into action? If the USA were faced with rockets from Ciudad Juarez, or al Qa’eda gangs tunneling into San Diego, would it not respond with Delta Force, Seals and SWAT teams – with overwhelming force?

Even so, Israel has endured 14 years of Hamas rockets without striking a decisive and crushing blow on the jihadi forces responsible.  WWII had a decisive ending because of the unconditional surrenders of the German and Japanese High Commands. Until such an event happens to Hamas, the battle will go on.

YHVH the primitive?

One of the voices which surfaces occasionally in the internet chatter is from people (believers and secularists both) who view the Bible as a compendium of syrupy ethical maxims and proverbs. Jesus is seen as a peaceful shepherd, someone totally opposed to war – like Mahatma Gandhi. These advocates of “peace at any price” are skating on thin ice when it comes to God.

In the 3rd century AD/CE, a theologian named Marcion of Sinope  (in modern Turkey) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcion_of_Sinope) taught that YHVH was a god of hatred, war and anger, closely identified with the Jewish people, while Jesus was a God of love and peace. As a result, he developed a Bible (the Marcionite Canon) which removed anything Jewish and anything YHVH-related from its pages. It was a pretty slim volume! The Church Fathers (bless their hearts) declared Marcion a heretic and his teaching as heretical (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism).

Yet today there are many today who see the Hebrew Scriptures as somewhat less than the word of God, and who cannot relate to YHVH as Lord of the battle or as Warrior God (Deuteronomy 20:10; 1 Samuel 18:17;  25:28; Psalm 24:8; Psalm 144:1). And they do not believe that God fights for Israel and publically identifies with her.

The prophet Isaiah wants us to know that YHVH identifies sympathetically and empathetically with the Jewish people, “In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9). They are as close to Him and as tender in His sight as His own eyes, “Behold, he who touches you (Zion) touches the apple/pupil of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8).

God has already taken sides. It is He who, as Captain of YHVH’s armies, sent Joshua into battle against Jericho, and it is He who granted them victory (Joshua 5:13-6:5). It is true that God was not in Joshua’s army, but Joshua was certainly in God’s army, and taking direct orders from Him!

Daisies on the battlefield?

There are some politically correct peaceniks who are attempting to hand out daisies on the battlefield. They exhibit a naïveté which is stunning and which, if followed, would lead to the destruction of good on the face of the planet.

J.R.R. Tolkein’s epic Lord of the Rings was written in the face of Nazi terror. He wanted to warn the world of the danger through his prophetic fairy tales. Let us learn the lessons that Tolkein wanted us to learn. Let’s not get caught up in deception and totally miss out on being ready for today’s battles and trials!

Who exactly is this YHVH of armies? Let’s remember David’s confession:

Some believers may feel more comfortable at this point changing the subject to that of spiritual warfare and praise meetings.

One should remember that C.S. Lewis, in the second book of his science-fiction trilogy Perelandra (a friend of Tolkein’s who wrote this book during the war with Hitler), emphasized that sometimes spiritual warfare in the heavenlies actually has “on earth” consequences, and that fighting physical evil on earth is sometimes the most appropriate spiritual thing to do.

A generation which did not know Joseph

Moses gives us an oversight of developments in ancient Egypt after the death of the patriarch Joseph son of Jacob: “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). This dynamic does not only apply to the pagan king of antiquity. It may also apply to believers in our day.

Whereas in the 1960’s through the 1990’s many Evangelicals and Charismatics were warmly disposed to Israel and the Jewish people, now at the beginning of the 21st century some of these hearts have grown cold –“ Because wickedness will increase, most/many people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved” (Matthew 24:12-13).

In days past a “summertime soldier and sunshine patriot” warmth toward Israel was easy when there was no cost involved. In our day it turns out that a slight amount of social disapproval or PC pressure melts waxen hearts to reveal the hard edge of good old Jew-hatred and anti-Semitic double standard. The prophetic warning concerning children not walking in the sins of their fathers – or the opposite, children walking in sins that their fathers never walked in (Jeremiah 31:29-20; Ezekiel 18:1-4, 30; Matthew 23:29-32) – is something to which we would well pay attention today.

Scorpion in the tent

There is a well-known Middle-Eastern fable concerning a scorpion and a frog. The scorpion (who cannot swim) asks a frog at the river’s edge if he would allow him to hitch a ride on the frog’s back. The frog adamantly refuses, declaring that everyone knows that scorpion’s sting for the pleasure of it, that there is no way that he is going to risk his life for such a creature, and that if the scorpion stung him they both would die. The scorpion appeals, cajoles, whines – and ultimately the good-natured frog allows him to hop on his back.

As they are mid-point across the river, the scorpion stings the frog. “My friend, why did you do this?” groans the frog as they both sink into the waters. “Because, my friend” says this scorpion, “this is the Middle East.”

Hamas knows it cannot win militarily in the short run, but it is prepared to sacrifice many Gazans on the altar of war in order to turn world opinion against Israel.  In doing this, it is holding true to its Islamist world view and to its own Charter (www.acpr.org.il/resources/hamascharter.html ):

The psalmist in his day challenged YHVH about Middle Eastern enemies who spoke with deceitful tongues and hated peace. “Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120:107).

Here is a youtube video produced by an Arab believer in Jesus, presenting footage of something very similar – what Hamas really acts like in Gaza and the West Bank. The grim footage shows Hamas thugs attacking, beating and killing other Muslims because they sang at a wedding – a heretical act according to Hamas’ version of Islam. There is footage of the beating of PLO supporters who were later murdered by Hamas (though not on the video). This may help the reader to get a better idea of the nature of the beast called Hamas (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOJKkLlih94&feature=youtu.be).

Fear, bread and hesitation

The Jewish people have fought their enemies and the Lord’s enemies in Bible days, and the struggle continues today (see Ezekiel 36:1-5; Psalm 83). The generation that saw God’s miracles in the land of Egypt still trembled inside and was afraid at the battle that was set before them over the Promised Land.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:30 -33).

Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is YHVH bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt” (Numbers 14:1-4).

The challenges involved in warfare resulted in Israel whining, trembling, cursing and rebelling against God and His leaders. The challenge for some in Israel today involves facing committed jihadi warriors. Major TV announcers declare in anguished tones, “But we will never be able to defeat Hamas! What if our army does some action that turns the world against us? The world will never allow us to win against Hamas!”

Just as a previous generation falsely prophesied that the Jewish people would be eaten up by the Canaanites like hot bread, so many journalists and media personalities are falsely prophesying defeatism and self-destruction for the Jewish state. Sadly, they are joined in this by some well-meaning Evangelicals who would prefer to see Israel lose its battles than win them – all in order to fulfil prophecy, of course…

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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