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

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