“His eyes keep watch on the nations” (Psalm 66:7)

In 1949 the British novelist George Orwell published his novel ‘1984’, a dystopian view of the future. Orwell laid out a nightmarish vision of a totalitarian state which controlled its people’s every action and thought through propaganda, secrecy, constant surveillance and harsh punishment. One of the most famous lines in the book is the slogan “Big Brother is watching you.” At that time the Western world was shocked by the concept that a government could monitor the conversations and communications of its citizens. However, in Communist China, the U.S.S.R. and East Germany there was no great shock; government surveillance there was a daily reality.

News headlines have been made recently over leaks by purported whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) consultant. Snowden had previously worked for the CIA (2005-2009) in Switzerland as an IT  security tech, for Dell (2009-2013) in Japan as a private contractor at an NSA Facility, and in 2013 in Hawaii for less than three months as a Booz Allen Hamilton defense contractor inside the NSA, at a SIGINT (signal intelligence) Operations Center.

Snowden disclosed hard evidence about classified intelligence programs carried out by the NSA and the British GCHQ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Communications_Headquarters), including new details about worldwide interception of telephone metadata and internet surveillance programs:

ü  MAINWAY – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_call_database;

ü  BOUNDLESS INFORMANT – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundless_Informant)

ü  PRISM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program))

ü  TEMPORA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempora)

Snowden's leaks are one of the NSA’s most significant breaches ever. Snowden said his leaks were an effort “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” He explained his actions, “I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded” (The Guardian, June 9, 2013).

Sales of Orwell’s centennial edition of 1984 have risen by more than 7,000% on Amazon.com since Snowden’s leaks – from 13,074 on their list to 193 and rising. It seems that people are watching (and reading about) Big Brother.

The NSA is painfully aware that it collects more intelligence that it can actual process or analyze. “‘Sometimes I think we just collect intelligence for the thrill of collecting it, to show how good we are at it,’ said former CIA director Robert Gates. ‘We have the capacity to collect mountains of data that we can never analyze. We just stack it up. Our electronic collection systems appear to produce far more raw intelligence data than our analysts can synthesize and our policymakers can use’ ” (Body of Secrets, James Bamford, Anchor, 2002, p. 520).

Big Brother is still watching you

Snowden’s exposures pull back another curtain on national security and intelligence issues, the foundations of which go back to World War One. A brief historical context may help here.

At the close of World War One the British government compelled American telegraph companies to hand over all cable traffic (including U.S. government communications), in an effort to obtain intelligence on the flow of guns and money to Irish nationalist groups as well as about Communist revolutionary activities. When the U.S. Senate found out, a law was passed by Congress in 1920, making it illegal to intercept diplomatic or telegraphic communications.

During WWII the British Secret Service obtained President Roosevelt’s permission for Sir William Stephenson to set up an illegal wiretap unit in New York City. This unit would spy on Americans who were collaborating with Nazi intelligence. Stephenson simultaneously played a key role in the founding of the CIA, and he was deeply admired by Ian Fleming (the author of the James Bond series) who worked with him in NYC during that time.

As early as 1944 the illegal British wiretap unit also focused on other tasks – collecting intelligence about American Jewish advocates for the establishment of a Jewish state. England was opposed to the establishment of the State of Israel, and used its American connections to impede the Jewish state’s formation. “In file after file, the FBI put the Jews under surveillance and worked with the British to identify those Americans who were supporting Israel, either financially or otherwise” (The Secret War against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People; abbreviated SWATJ; John Loftus and Mark Aarons, St. Martin’s; 1994; p. 185). One example of many such documents is found in the National Archives, “British Intelligence authorities have advised that the above captioned individual … left Palestine for the United States November 21, 1947 … British authorities reported that his address in the United States will probably be in care of …” (SWATJ, p. 185).

After WWII officially ended, President Truman issued a directive on August 15, 1945 (which became Executive Order 9031 on September 28, 1945) abolishing the office and activities of the Office of the Censor (their mandate included supervision of wiretapping). Defense Secretary James Forrestal, no friend of Truman’s, operated behind the President’s back, secretly transferring the wiretapping activities to the Army Security Agency. The ASA continued the bugging under the code  name “Operation Shamrock” until May 26, 1975. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Frank Church called this “probably the largest governmental interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken.” What had started as an operation against Nazis quickly moved to focus on Jews, and then on to an increasing spectrum of Americans.

“And you will be as eyes for us” (Numbers 10:31)

On May 17, 1943 the intelligence agencies of Britain and the United States signed the BRUSA agreement (Britain-USA), merging the sharing of Communications Intelligence (COMINT) of both countries. In 1947 the cooperation was expanded in the UKUSA Agreement, bringing “together under a single umbrella the SIGINT organizations of the Unites States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand” (The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency, James Bamford, Penguin, 1982; abbreviated PP; p. 391).

“Under the theory that two ears are better than one, the NSA and GCHQ, through their BRUSA-UKUSA pacts, agreed to share the wealth of each other’s cable intercept programs” (ibid., p. 418). “The UKUSA Agreement … specified the total exchange of SIGINT intelligence between NSA and GCHQ” (Spycatcher, Peter Wright, Viking, 1987; p. 148).

In Bamford’s ground-breaking book about the NSA, he notes that “it is possible for GCHQ to monitor the necessary domestic or foreign circuits of interest and pass them on to NSA through the UKUSA Agreement. Once they were received, NSA could process the communications through its own computers and analysts targeting and watch-listing Americans with impunity… That such action is far from improbable can be seen by the way NSA processed its domestic civil disturbance watch lists.” According to a still classified Justice Department investigation into illegal NSA surveillance, “MINARET intelligence [ed., a wiretapping operation targeting American citizens]… was obtained incidentally in the course of NSA’s communications and the receipt of GCHQ-acquired …cable traffic SHAMROCK)” (ibid., pp. 468-69).

To put in simply, from the day that BRUSA and UKUSA were signed, Britain and USA have been able to “spy on each other’s citizens, without search warrants, by establishing ‘listening posts’ on each other’s territory” (SWATJ, p. 188). “Among the most critical elements of cooperation between the two nations, especially with regards to the United States, was the right to establish listening ports on each other’s territory” (PP; pp. 401-3). “Here is how the game is played. The British liaison officer at Fort Meade types the target list of ‘suspects’ into the American computer. The NSA computer sorts through its wiretaps and gives the British officer the recording of any American citizen he wants. Since it is technically a British target of surveillance, no American warrant is necessary. The British officer then simply hands the results over to his American liaison officer… Of course, the Americans provide the same service to the British in return… This …arrangement disguises the most massive, and illegal, domestic espionage apparatus in the world” (SWATJ, p. 190).

“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3)

The NSA is not the only intelligence agency involved in spying. For example, in 1969 the KGB residency in NYC (codenamed Operation PRESSING) “succeeded in concealing remote-controlled radio transmitters in UN offices used by the chairman of the Security Council … Simultaneously, Operation KRAB … succeeded in bugging the secretariat of the UN secretary-general, U Thant (codenamed BROD)” (The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, Basic Books, 1999, p. 344). So protestations by countries like France and Germany about the long reach of the NSA are somewhat hypocritical. The SIGINT agencies of these countries have long been aware of the NSA’s abilities and activities.

These facts remind us that intelligence is a necessary foot-solder in a very real cloak and dagger war. There are real enemies on the other side, and they also make use of SIGINT against us. There are also very real casualties in this war. We should not question the strategic importance of intelligence. It is the scope and directed use of that intelligence which is being considered.

Everyone who is patriotic understands that defending one’s country means that the enemies of one’s country may need to be weakened, impeded or perhaps even removed. The majority of Westerners have agreed that Nazism, Communism or jihadi Islamism all have the potential to present clear and present dangers to the security of Western countries. The goal of intelligence agencies is to defend their country by gaining accurate, timely and meaningful intelligence.

Years ago the late Senator Frank Church spoke serious words about the two-edged sword of NSA’s SIGINT technology:

“At the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such [is] the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge of this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology… I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return” (PP; pp. 477).

More than Meade’s the eye

Most of the books written about American intelligence wiretaps against U.S. citizens without a warrant, have focused on operations against leftists, draft resisters and Black radical groups. The Snowden exposé has now opened the door even wider – we all have to struggle with the fact that SIGINT wiretaps are targeting the entire world.

“Our sources, who include a former special agent of the FBI, a former liaison to the NAS, several former NSA officials and employees, a number of former consultants to both American and British intelligence on communications security, and several former officers of the U.S. Army Security Agency, make one point very clearly: For the last fifty years, virtually every Jewish citizen, organization, and charity in the world has been the victim of electronic surveillance by Great Britain, with the knowing and willing assistance of the intelligence services of the United States… It has been the most continuous criminal violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Bill of Rights. Jews are not the only ethnic group to be wiretapped at their homes or jobs, although… they are the most frequent targets” ((SWATJ, p. 182).

According to these abovementioned sources, both the FBI and NSA facilities have what are called ‘Jew rooms,’ “from which all American Jews are banned, regardless of their proven loyalty or devotion to country …. The ‘Jew room’ is where the United States and Britain spy on Israel and on anyone who supports Israel” (SWATJ, pp., 193-94). Retired NSA agent Bruce Brill (worked at NSA’s Fort Meade facility 1971-74 in U.S. Army Security) substantiated the existence of these rooms (as well as U.S. higher echelon’s anti-Jewish bias) in a Jerusalem Post article called “One Man’s Agony After The Fact,” October 23, 1992; reprinted at www.jonathanpollard.org/2004/061304.htm).

“The traditional antagonism of the US State Department toward Israel is mirrored in the US intelligence community. For example, US intelligence can pinpoint every new housing unit set up in Judea or Samaria, yet could lose a Scud-laden vessel bound from North Korea to Iran on the open seas. The Hebrew language, too was the only one used at the Agency for overt spying, with Hebrew linguists told to declare they were ‘Special Arabic’ linguists. While working at the Agency as an Arabic and ‘Special Arabic’ traffic analyst in the early 1970s, I learned of the planned October 6, 1973, invasion of Israel by Syria and Egypt - 30 hours before the US notified Israel. Upper-echelon Agency personnel knew of the planned attack hours, if not days, prior to that. Not passing this vital information along in time resulted in the unnecessary death and maiming of thousands of young Israelis. The US intelligence community’s anti-Israel policy has until now been successfully kept secret, even at the Agency itself, since the ‘need to know’ rule governing such policies is strictly applied only to select non-Jews. It was, therefore, quite by accident that I discovered the existence of chambers at NSA that are off-limits to Jews, US citizens with the highest security clearances, simply because they are Jews. Clearly, efforts toward Israel’s demise are made here. These Agency inner sancta are so totally immune from any monitoring, that such unconstitutional goings on continue freely.”

Though the fact of these rooms may not be considered earthshaking news to many people, it does reveal that intelligence agency guidelines are not exactly the same as biblical guidelines.

Nevertheless, the God of Israel’s words in Genesis 12:3 apply to all mankind, even to intelligence analysts: “Those who bless you I will bless, and the one who scorns/derides/ treats you with contempt or as unimportant (ed., the Hebrew word meqalelecha has these shades of meaning), him I will curse.”

“Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see” (Luke 10:23)

Only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knows everything. Only He has the wisdom to fully understand all the information He knows. Only He possesses the justice and compassion to respond fairly, purely and with love. Only He is worthy of our ultimate respect, our thankfulness, our praise and our obedience. His strategies, His prophetic plans, His prophetic words – these are the things we can depend on, hope for, and lay down our lives to see them come to pass.

“But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which YHVH your God cares; the eyes of YHVH your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year” (Deuteronomy 11:11-12).

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

When the Middle Eastern pot boils over

The Middle East is a violently boiling cauldron. So many changes are happening so quickly, and the media does not grasp the complexity and intractability of the present situation.  What follows is a brief summation of the current state of affairs, and scriptural guidelines on how to pray for each country.

Syria – the history

At present over 100,000 people have been murdered in the civil war raging across Syria, many of these unarmed civilians including women and children. Syria has been a dictatorship since time immemorial. Its population is a mix of Arab Sunni Moslems (60%), Arab Alawite Islam with Shi’ite roots (12%),  Kurdish Sunni Moslems (9%), Arab Greek Orthodox Christian (9%), Armenian Christian (4%), Arab Druze (3%), Arab Isma’eli Moslem (2%), and 1% made up of other minorities like Turkmen, Circassian, Assyrian and Jewish. For background on the biblical and historical perspective in Syria, see “Shakings, Weighings and Divisions: Syria, Annapolis and the Return of YHVH - Part One – Syria”; October 13, 2007 at www.davidstent.org under “words.”

Military dictatorship ruled Syria (and much of the Middle East after WWII), which eventually ended up as Socialist Ba’ath governments (espousing Arab nationalism, socialism and secularism). A military officer named Hafez al-Assad (from the quasi-heretical Alawite Islamic stream) became Commander of the Air Force in 1963, and then after a military coup in 1966 became Minister of Defense. In another coup in 1970 he became Prime Minister, and in 1971 became President. He attacked Israel in 1973’s Yom Kippur War, forced Lebanon into a practical annexation in 1976, supported and trained international terror groups, carried out assassinations of Lebanon’s Prime Ministers in 1982 and 2005, and oversaw the murder of between 25,000 – 40,000 Syrians in 1982 in Hama in an attempt to crush the Muslim Brotherhood. At that time the President’s brother Rifa’at al-Assad declared that the Syrian government was prepared to “sacrifice a million martyrs” (over a tenth of Syria's population at that time) in order to stamp out “the nation's enemies.” For more background on Hama, see “Shattering the gates of Damascus (Amos 1:5)” August 7, 2012 at www.davidstent.org under “words.”

Assad died of a heart attack in 2000 and was succeeded as President by his son, Bashar al-Assad. Hafez al-Assad was considered by his supporters as a champion of secularism, women's rights and Syrian nationalism. His critics have accused him of being an authoritarian dictator, a leader of a personality cult, a sponsor of terrorism and a perpetrator of multiple human rights abuses both at home and abroad. Christians in Syria (considered a minority group) nevertheless felt a measure of protection from Assad’s government.

Syria – the players

The civil war places Assad’s government forces on one side, and a Islamist green rainbow of warriors on the other side.

The Muslim Brotherhood organization, a jihadi Islamist group whose strategy involves coups and/or election-based takeovers of secular Arab dictatorships, has successfully risen to exercise power in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, and Gaza. One of its main leaders Youssef Qaradawi operates out of Saudi Arabia. Its networks are active in Jordan and Syria. For more background, see “Hurtling Through The Fog of War: A Messianic Perspective On The New Hamastan” February 4, 2006, at www.davidstent.org under “words.” The Muslim Brotherhood has been waiting patiently in Syria since Hama, looking for the right time for a coup, a revolution or an election which would bring them to power. Street demonstrations in 2012 afforded them that opportunity, and it was quickly snatched up.

Yet at the same time, al-Qa’eda proxies, spillovers and franchises stepped into the abyss, attempting to achieve their version of jihad on the backs of the Muslim Brothers. These include Jabhat Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abdullah Azzam Brigades, Fatah al-Islam and Jordanian Salafi-jihadis.( www.understandingwar.org/report/jihad-syria). These proxies have the same long-term goals as does the Muslim Brotherhood, but their short-term strategies are more radical.

The Syrian opposition (or National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_opposition) involves many different streams, including: Syrian National Council, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Coalition of Secular and Democratic Syrians, the Damascus Declaration, the Syrian Democratic People's Party, the Supreme Council of the Syrian Revolution, the Assyrian Democratic Organization, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, the Free Syrian Army and Higher Military Council, the Liwaa al-Umma, the Syrian Liberation Army, the Syrian Liberation Front, the National Salvation Front in Syria, etc.

These groups are not as strictly organized or supplied as the regular Syrian Army. As a result, there is a war of attrition going on, with many civilian casualties caused by Assad’s warplanes bombing cities, Assad’s artillery shelling civilian areas, and limited use of chemical warfare by Assad’s army. Rebel forces are chipping away at resupply routes, and command and control centers. They are being gradually armed with heavier and more advanced weapons. The balance of power tips back and forth with every new day.

At the same time, a state of anarchy is happening among the rebels, with Salafi and jihadi forces massacring Shi’ites and Christians (beheading Orthodox priests, torturing Protestant believers etc.), executing Muslims they suspect of being not fully Salafi and Islamic, etc.

The stockpiles of chemical weapons in Assad’s warehouses are mostly aimed at Israel, though they could also be targeted at Jordan and Lebanon if need be. Surrounding countries (especially Israel and Jordan, with the US shadow hanging over Jordan’s shoulder) – as well as Special Operations Forces from Western countries – have their fingers on the trigger, waiting and watching to see if the tripwire snaps and operations to seize chemical weapons becomes necessary.

Iran openly activated Hezbollah forces recently in order to bolster its influence over the western Middle East.  Hezbollah in Lebanon is a strategic partner of Assad’s Alawite regime, and they have lost over 500 fighters on Syrian soil in an attempt to prop Assad up from collapse.

The “Great Game,” that strategic war between the West and the Saudi-led block (on the one hand), and Russia, Iran and China (on the other) is heating up.

Egypt

Egypt has been convulsing in birth pangs for at least two years now. For more background, see “Riots on the Highway to Egypt” January 31, 2011; and “You say you want a revolution” - February 12, 2011, at www.davidstent.org under “words.”

The military dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak was dislodged by street demonstrations and US State Department pressure. At first the demonstrators became the darlings of the news media, and the moniker “Arab Spring” was coined, replete with visions of sugar-plums and Twitter hash tags. Within a very brief time indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood hijacked the ‘revolution’ and established itself as the new Pharaoh in Egypt. While corruption was a significant factor in Mubarak’s Egypt (and in the rest of the Middle East), the accession of President Morsi’s Brotherhood did not alter the socioeconomic situation. The economy actually got worse, as Islamists moved into offices of power and influence, and Western investors balked at pouring in good money after bad.

Persecution of Coptic and Protestant Christians has increased (riots, arson, murder), and recently Shi’ites were massacred in Cairo while at worship. The safety of women on the streets and in public squares has become highly dangerous. The Muslim Brotherhood has been pushing to ratify an Islamist constitution, one which would disenfranchise secular Egyptians, Christians and women.

In June and July 2013 crowds have taken to the streets in a bizarre parallel to the anti-Mubarak crowds of 2011. Now they are calling for Morsi to step down, accusing him of being an American and Zionist agent. Flags of the USA and Israel are being burned in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, as well as posters of President Morsi. The largest demonstration known to mankind took place on Sunday June 30, with over a million Egyptians protesting the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist reign.

Jordan

In 1922 the eastern bank of the Jordan river was established as a British puppet state, and then again in 1946 as a fully sovereign Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan (today known as Jordan). King Abdullah (a descendant of the Hashemite dynasty and related to Mohammed) lost out on ruling Mecca to the Ibn Saud family, but the British set him up as king in this territory. For years under British tutelage, Jordan gradually moved to rest under the American umbrella (as did the new country of Saudi Arabia!).

The Hashemite dynasty is not native to the country of Jordan, and a majority of the population is descended from Arabs hailing from west of the Jordan river (commonly known as Palestinians). As a result, a simmering Muslim Brotherhood movement arose, intent on wresting Jordan away from the Hashemites, and on establishing an Islamist Caliphate in that country. Only a strong and wily intelligence service keeps Jordan alive.

The Syrian spillover has resulted in refugees flooding into northern Jordan – approximately 420,000 at latest count. Social and economic instability has resulted, and Jordan’s leadership (as well as those of Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq) are focusing fitfully on developments.

The USA has recently conducted Operation Eager Lion in Jordan, depositing Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries, F-16 fighter jets, Special Operations Forces and other boots on the ground. Syria, Russia, Iran and China have protested America’s presence. Similar American military groups have established themselves on Turkey’s border with Syria. Jordan’s leadership is concerned at how Syrian developments might lead to unrest and violence on Jordanian soil (as once happened in 1970, when Syria invaded Jordan and the USA asked Israel to threaten Syrian forces with Israeli tanks; www.ndu.edu/press/lib/images/jfq-55/25.pdf ; www.aisisraelstudies.org/papers/Rubinovitz2009b.pdf).

Lebanon

Lebanon was severely weakened after the PLO failed to overthrow King Hussein, when the King subsequently drove the PLO out of his country into Syria and Lebanon (the Black September season in 1970). The arrival of a substantial Sunni terrorist contingent in Lebanon weakened the tenuous balance between Maronite Christian, Druze, Shi’ite and Sunni, and led to the civil war of 1975-82 wherein over 100,000 Lebanese were killed. Israel’s invasion in 1982 resulted in the PLO been driven out and re-establishing itself in Tunis.

Into this vacuum moved Syria and Iran. The latter strengthened the Shi’ites in Lebanon, and the al-Amal movement gave way to a Khomeini-like jihadi organization known as Hezbollah (the party of Allah). This movement gradually became the main player in Lebanon, taking most of its orders from Iran’s mullahs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran). The attacks on US and French Marines bases in Lebanon were engineered by Hezbollah, as well as similar attacks on the Israeli army, and attacks on Jewish organizations in Argentina, The Hezbollah network is one of the strongest present-day terror networks in the world, with many sleeper cells in Western countries. Most of its armaments come from Iran and through Syria.

Hezbollah has kept its Shi’ite warriors under wraps when it comes to action in Syria, but events there have prompted Iran to “call in the mortgage” and send Sheikh Nasrallah’s fighters into the thick of Syria’s front lines. This has catalyzed a strident negative reaction from Sunni leaders in Saudi Arabia, in Gaza’s Hamastan, in Egypt and among Lebanese Sunnis, Druze and Christians. Fighting has drifted back and forth across the Syrian-Lebanese border.

A fuse has been lit in Lebanon, and Hezbollah’s power base is experiencing tremors. The previous Lebanese civil war (1975-82) might end up being child’s play compared to what may be coming around the bend. And in many instances in the Middle East, the tradition is, “When things get bad, blame Israel!”

Afghanistan

The original American invasion of Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom, October 7, 2001) was meant to drive out al-Qa’eda and its minders the Taliban, allowing the country to become a Western-oriented democracy. Though al-Qa’eda was scattered as a result, it went underground in Afghanistan and Pakistan, morphing into a loosely knit diaspora community from Indonesia to Yemen. The British and Russians were not able to crush the Afghanis during their military sojourns in that country, and the US forces have not been able to get more brilliant results. President Hamid Karzai is a leader tainted by typical Afghani corruptions, while US diplomats negotiate with the Taliban behind Karzai’s back as US forces prepare for a staggered retreat from Afghanistan.

The Islamist world sees Afghanistan as the anvil upon which Western “Christian” forces are beaten, while in the West many leaders are running full speed away from defining themselves, their countries and their morality as Christian.

Iraq

The Kingdom of Iraq was created by British statesmen in 1932, which functioned as a British puppet until 1958, when a Ba’athist coup established the Republic of Iraq. The dictator Saddam Hussein ruled with an iron hand from 1979-2003, when he was deposed by US military forces.

Iraq is made up of a Shi’ite majority (65%), a substantial Sunni minority (34%), and a one percentage point of minorities, including Armenians, Chechens, Circassians, Egyptians, Palestinians, and Shabaks.  The ethnic distribution is as follows: Iraqi Arabs (75%), Kurds (17%), Turkmen (3%), Assyrians (2%) and Persians (2%). This religious and ethnic mix guarantees that Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurd will always be fighting each other for control. The fracturing of Iraq into separate countries does not look like a feasible option in these days of energy-based political decisions.

As the US walks out the Iraqi door and slowly disengages from the country once called Mesopotamia, explosions are accompanying her at every corner. Al-Qa’eda in Iraq has moved delicately into the vacuum, while Sunni and Shi’ite employ IEDs to fragment civilians and worshippers on both sides of the Islamic divide.

Iran

The Western orientation of the Shah of Iran could not paper over his corruption and cruelty. The rise of a bloodthirsty and demonized Shi’ite Islamist Republic under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 led to the rebirth of ancient Persia as a Middle Eastern force to be reckoned with. The export of Shi’ite jihad to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, Central Asia, Iraq and Lebanon altered the Islamist jihadi equation in the world. Iran’s persecution of Jews, Bahai’s, Christians, Communists and secular Iranians has led to a dictatorship internationally recognized for its cruelty and zeal against its own citizens.

Iran’s spread of international terrorism through its Revolutionary Guards Pasdaran movement is the most outstanding example of its kind. Iran’s fanatic fervor in obtaining nuclear weapons, while threatening Israel’s with total destruction, has created deep fear among the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, and any other country within reach of Iran’s cold and bony arm. The world’s attention is fixed on Iran’s race to nuclear holocaust, yet shows callow spinelessness in confronting these ambitions. The parallels between the world’s indifference to Hitler in the 1930’s and the world’s indifference to Iran in our day must be drawn and considered.

Hamastan and PA

As a result of Western pressure on Israel, the PLO terror organization was allowed to return to Gaza and the mountains of Israel. More pressure from the US and EU led to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally disengaging from Gaza. The gap was quickly filled by the local Muslim Brotherhood branch (Hamas) coming to power in January 2006, with President Jimmy Carter as an international observer during the voting. Knee-capping, torture and assassination of PLO/Palestinian Authority personnel was the order of the day, and soon Gaza became an armed camp with missiles aimed at Israel. Two main clashes with Israel have occurred (2009 and 2012), while scores of Qassam rockets and mortars have slammed into Israeli cities, kibbutzim and moshavim before and after each war. Over 10,138 rockets have been fired at Israel during this period, as well as 4,890 mortar shells (www.idfblog.com/facts-figures/rocket-attacks-toward-israel/; www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas-qassam.htm; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel).

Gaza has become an Islamist region, with shari’a law in effect. Unaccompanied women and mixed couples displaying any physical affection are in severe danger. Christian workers have been martyred, while foreigners have been kidnapped and held for ransom. Israeli cities, towns and villages are attacked from time to time by rocket and missile fire. Smuggling tunnels bring weapons in and terror teams out. The Sinai peninsula has become a terror hotbed, and rockets have been fired from the south into the Israeli city of Eilat, often overshooting their mark and hitting the Jordanian city of Aqaba. Terrorists attempt to tunnel into Israel on a regular basis.

Gaza’s Hamas leadership oversee an Islamist Palestinian “state.” Yet the Palestinian Authority in what is called the West Bank oversee another quasi-state. Under their watchful eye, terror squads belonging to the PA (Tanzim, al-Aqsa) as well as Islamic Jihad groups and Hamas operatives – all plan and attempt to execute terror attacks and the planting of IED’s against Israeli civilian targets. Only Israel’s Shabak (General Security Services) , the IDF and the anti-terror barriers stand in the way of bloody casualties.

The world would like to see peace break out in this area, yet turns a blind eye to all of the above – active support of terrorism, refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, wanting descendants of Arab refugees to settle in Israel and not in PA areas (thus overrunning and destroying the Jewish state), etc.

Two Palestinian-ruled geographical entities exist. Both are attempting to destroy Israelis. Why exactly is there great fanfare about a peace process?

Israel

The nation of Israel sits like a pontoon bridge on a lake of hungry sharks, surrounded on all sides by the most unfriendly of neighbors. As the pot boils over in one country after another, and as the world turns two blind eyes away from the threats facing this country, we believe that the God-breathed prayers of believers in Yeshua worldwide make all the difference in the world.

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

Exposing hearts, creating divisions

Taking a biblical stand for the Jewish people sometimes results in strife and division. Does that mean that there is something wrong with our zeal?  Why do blowback, opposition or negative feedback sometimes accompany our preaching of God’s heart for Israel? What is the cost of standing with the Jewish people and how can we count it accurately?

Land o’ Goshen!

At the dawn of Jewish history, in the land of Egypt, YHVH spoke to Pharaoh through Moses, regarding one of the Ten Plagues, “But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living, so that no swarms of flies will be there, in order that you may know that I, YHVH, am in the midst of the land. I will put a division between My people and your people” (Exodus 8:22-23).

The purpose of division was to throw the spotlight on the people whom YHVH had chosen, to show which nation had God’s approval and which nation was standing against the purposes of God.

The Apostle Paul says something quite similar when discussing divisions in the Messianic congregation of Corinth: “For, in the first place, when you gather together, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). Paul is referring to the age-old dynamic of ‘truth or consequences.’

Messianic division

Messiah Yeshua clearly proclaimed that one of the purposes of His ministry among the sons and daughters of Adam is to bring division: “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53). The preaching of the truth often has consequences: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and man loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

Years ago I had the privilege to study under a rabbi of Montreal’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, who taught a class for Concordia University called “The historical encounter between Judaism and Christianity.” This rabbi quoted Luke 12 and then waxed eloquent about how Yeshua’s words seemed to violate the spirit of Judaism as the rabbi understood it.

“Excuse me, Rabbi,” I asked, “Isn’t Jesus quoting here from the prophet Micah 7:5-6, where the prophet grieves over the spiritual state of some Jewish people?” A quiet rustling of pages among all present commenced, after which the rabbi, not quite sure how to respond, quickly changed the topic of conversation. It did not fit the rabbi’s worldview, it seemed, for Yeshua to be seen as a kosher champion of the prophetic tradition.

Yeshua King of Israel – a sign to be opposed

A prophetic word spoken over Joseph, Miriam and Yeshua by Shim’on (Simeon) in the Temple precincts adds depth to this subject: “And Shim’on blessed them and said to 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’” (Luke 2:34-35).

The New Covenant reveals that the coming of the Jewish Messiah to the people of Israel would bring division. It was YHVH Himself who purposed this division – “to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

Israel – standing up to be counted

Years ago I listened in to a conversation of some zealous seminary students discussing Romans 13:1-7. One of them declared that if he had been a believer concealing Jews in his home in Nazi-occupied Holland, he would have surrendered them to the tender mercies of the Gestapo. God would have honored his decision not to disobey the powers that be, he opined. My response was to the point, “This Jew will never take refuge in your home!”

Certainly Corrie ten Boom’s Hiding Place (www.corrietenboom.com) would have been seen by the Nazis as treasonous, for at that time saving Jewish lives was considered ‘politically incorrect.’ Her father died in a Nazi prison, while she and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbuck concentration camp, where Betsie died of typhus.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/bonhoeffer/?content=1) was a Lutheran theologian who had to walk a fine line in Nazi Germany. He saw that believers were being called not only to clarify their own attitudes toward Judaism and the Jewish people, but even more to properly discern and respond actively against the Nazi state’s actions against the people of Israel. His actions (which included smuggling Jews out of Germany, and involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler) led to his imprisonment and eventually his execution by the SS on the gallows at Flossenbürg concentration camp.

In the 1930’s a believing Officer (later Major-General) in the British Army, Orde Wingate (www.ordewingate.net) helped to train the fledging Jewish special operations forces during the time of the British Mandate. He rallied his Jewish troops (the future leaders of the Haganah), regaling them with biblical strategies of Joshua and Caleb, Gideon and the Maccabees. His strengthening of the Jewish people’s restoration in their hour of need was considered politically incorrect by the British High Command. He was later transferred to Ethiopia and then to India/Burma to train the chindits against Imperial Japanese forces, where he was killed in a military plane crash.

When Messiah Yeshua returns, He will judge the nations based on how they treat the Jewish people (Matthew 25:45; Hebrews 2:11-16) and how the nations divide up the land of Israel (Joel 3:1-2; Zechariah 14:1-4). At that point in time, it will be too late for believers to decide that the “prophetically correct” time has come to be more activist in furthering the restoration of the Jewish people. Now is the time.

Israel – not standing up to be counted

I have noticed that some believing leaders exhibit a measure of fear when discussing Israel. They are afraid of being typecast by other believers as having gone overboard in their love for Israel, as not being balanced, as ‘going beyond the Bible’ in their expression of biblical convictions about Israel.

It is certainly true that even good causes can have some advocates who are out of balance. Yet these false fears must be confronted head-on.

For someone to have God’s heart for Israel:

ü  It means that one accepts Israel’s priority (Deut. 21:15-17; Exodus 4:22-23; Romans 1:16; 2:5-11; 9:1-5; 11:28-29) in intercession, in evangelism, in international affairs and in rescuing Jewish lives.

ü  It means that one feels the same pains and joys about Israel that YHVH feels (Isaiah 63:9; Hosea 11:1-4,8-9).

ü  It entails night and day passionate intercession for Israel and God’s purposes to be birthed through her (Isaiah 62:1-9).

When you are willing not only to embrace God’s heart for the Jewish people, but also to share the same fate as the Jewish people, even in the present –

Sentiment versus conviction

Some people are afraid that if they stand firmly with God’s heart and purposes for Israel, they will be accused of being motivated by sentiment and not by Scripture. This fear is usually expressed by male theologians, and is often based on a misunderstanding of the divine origins of emotions.

Human emotions are part of the package called “being created in the image of God.” This means that YHVH has divine emotions, and not only divine intellect. The God of the Bible is not an unflappable and distant Greek deity. He expresses deep emotions for Israel. He longs for Israel, as expressed in passionate avowals like “How can I abandon you, Ephraim? How can I give you up, Israel?” or “In all Israel’s afflictions He was afflicted” etc.

Standing for Israel’s king and for the King of Israel’s people

Rees Howells (free download at www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/rees-howells), a warrior among intercessors, saw intercession for the restoration, protection and salvation of Israel as an essential calling for all believers. His school prayed for the defeat of Nazi Germany, the protection and victory of Allied forces, and the protection of Israel. Howells was not afraid of being seen as ‘political.’ He was more concerned about being faithful to the heart of the Lord and to the fulfillment of His word regarding the Jewish people.

The mystery of Israel (Romans 1:25; Ephesians 3:3-6) truly is about Israel. It is about the God of Israel, the people of Israel, and how YHVH adds multitudes from among the nations to share in what He calls “the commonwealth of Israel” (Ephesians 2:12-13).

Do not be afraid to take your stand in these matters, both in the spirit and on earth. Pray, reach out and extend your hand of rescue to the seed of Jacob. You have it on the Highest  Authority!

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

Of Crocodiles and Communists

“The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:7-8).

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’ ” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

Sobriety and mockery are both characteristics of the last days. Immediately prior to the return of Messiah Yeshua, the opposing seeds of fervent love and unbridled lust will bear fruit which will be manifested for all to see.

The crocodile of appeasement

Winston Churchill once declared, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” At another time he added, “If a dog makes a dash for my trousers, I shoot him down before he can bite.” Churchill in his day was trying to wake a sleeping England and a slumbering Europe regarding the looming threat of Nazi tyranny. For the most part the lion’s share of British leadership did not want to believe Winston’s warnings.

Churchill spoke out when Britain caved in to Hitler over the surrender of Czech Sudetenland to the German Reich: “The partition of Czechoslovakia under pressure from England and France amounts to the complete surrender of the Western democracies to the Nazi threat of force … It is not Czechoslovakia alone which is menaced, but also the freedom and the democracy of all nations. The belief that security can be obtained by throwing a small state to the wolves is a fatal delusion.”

Churchill’s prophetic warning was ignored by the British Empire’s leaders, and the result was World War II. He avowed to Neville Chamberlin on the latter’s return to England with the Munich Accords in his hands, “You were given the choice between war

and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

The same spirit of appeasement is alive and well and living in all the major capitals of the Western world, and much of it is focused on appeasing the world of Islamism and its attitudes and goals vis-à-vis the Jewish people and their state.

Appeasing jihad

In 2008 I found myself walking through a rough neighborhood in Munich, Germany with my oldest son. We passed through a tense crowd of Kurds demonstrating in an equally tense Turkish neighborhood – all of them ringed by tense German riot police. On the other side of that potential mayhem, we happened upon an old Lutheran church built in the mid 1800’s. Meditating beside the gravestones, I mused about whether or not these Christians of yesteryear could have imagined the earth-shaking changes that were to befall Germany within 150 years of their passing on – two World Wars, the rise of a racist and murderous fascist terror apparatus, the swelling of a significant and non-assimilating Islamic immigrant population (containing active Islamist and Salafist terror cells). It would have staggered their imagination.

Today many German Lutherans (and other Western Christians as well) are post-Modernist, having gone through the loss of their own personal faith in Yeshua. Mistakenly, this post-Christian Western world blindly believes that the Middle East has gone through a similar loss of faith in Islam, or that the Islamic world can be persuaded to step away from Quranic extremes through the influence of Western secular and material blandishments. The West is always puzzled when Islamists not only reject Western culture, but when they actively try to destroy both that culture and Westerners as well. But rather than respond as did Churchill to the aggressive canine, the Western world stands frozen in shock, mired in rejection – deeply puzzled as to why Islamists hate them.

The more that jihadis push for their agenda, the more that jihadi lone wolves or Islamist terror cells attack Westerners or Israelis – the more it seems that the spirit of appeasement rises to fog the situation, to obfuscate and impede clear vision of Islamism both as a source of terrorism and as an enemy force. The combination of fear of increased Islamist terror coupled with spectacles filmy with Middle Eastern oil – these motives have led to a censoring at the government level of clear warnings regarding the jihadi danger. The avoidance of the words ‘terror,’ ‘terrorist’ and ‘Islamist’ on the part of US and European governments and Western news media reveals the spirit of appeasement at work. The present American government’s refusal to classify jihadi attacks  in Boston or at Fort Hood as Islamist terror reveals the depth of this spiritual appeasement.

Churchill once expressed an optimistic faith in his American allies: “The Americans will always do the right thing...after they've exhausted all the alternatives.” May Churchill’s optimistic take be shown to have some practical foundation, speedily and in our day!

The threat of world Communism

When Hitler wrote his Mein Kampf  (‘My struggle,’ where he openly advocated genocide of the Jewish people), for the most part the West refused to take him seriously. The Fuehrer is only saying those things for internal political needs; he would never make such crazy plans actionable, said the West.

In the 1920’s and 30’s Marxism-Leninism arose as a new totalitarian dictatorship, intent at overtaking and conquering the West. At that time many liberals scoffed at those who saw Communism as a world threat. Even when the death toll in Stalin’s gulags rose to surpass Hitler’s camps, and even after the suppression of Jewish life and culture in the Soviet Union was clear, many sympathizers (including my own parents) refused to come to terms with these cold realities.

President Ronald Reagan spoke clearly to this dynamic of appeasement in his day, on October 27, 1964 in a speech known as “A Time for Choosing”:

“We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, ‘Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we’re willing to make a deal with your slave masters.’ Alexander Hamilton said, ‘A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.’ Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace – and you can have it in the next second – surrender.

Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face – that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand – the ultimatum. And what then – when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we’re retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he’s heard voices pleading for ‘peace at any price’ or ‘better Red than dead,’ or as one commentator put it, he’d rather ‘live on his knees than die on his feet.’ And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don’t speak for the rest of us.

You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin – just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn’t die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it’s a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, ‘There is a price we will not pay.’ ‘There is a point beyond which they must not advance’…Winston Churchill said, ‘The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits – not animals.’ And he said, ‘There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.’  You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.  We’ll preserve for our children this…last best hope of man…, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”

The threat of world jihad

Parallels can and should be drawn between Churchill’s day and ours. While the West pushes Israel to whittle down the borders of its biblical homeland, the Islamist world continues to trumpet its own jihadi agenda:

The Western world is not recognizing that it is supporting, appeasing and advocating the strategies and agendas of Israel’s enemies, while simultaneously calling these moves a “peace process.” What happened in Sudetenland is being repeated, but this time it is in Samaria, in Silwan and in Sderot.

Three strikes, you’re out?

The threats of world totalitarianism which have arisen in the 20th century can be color-coded – black (Nazi Germany), red (world Communist movement) and green (the rise of jihadi Islam). In each case the politically correct wise man tends to smile condescendingly at the “supposed danger” (as one would at a senile but harmless uncle) while ignoring the mountain of doom lurking in the fog. Like King Théoden (of Lord of the Rings fame) under the malevolent influence of Wormtongue, many world leaders are unwittingly blinded by a spiritual fog of appeasement. They are not attuned to the clear and present danger that Islamism presents both to the Western world and to the Jewish people and their state.

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this … be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men” (2 Peter 3:17).

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

Zooming in on Zion

The apple of God’s eye is the Jewish people (Zechariah 2:8). Most of the Scriptures concern that people, and nearly all of Holy Writ was written by Jewish people (Romans 9:4; 3:1-2). A clear focus on Israel is foundational to pure biblical vision and to a vibrant prophetic hermeneutic.

Three common pitfalls appear among some who center on the Jewish people, their calling and their destiny. These can be described as the chess perspective, the ethnolatry emphasis, and the auto-ethnolatry angle.

The chess perspective on Jewish destiny

This viewpoint is common to Dispensational, Pentecostal/Charismatic/Third Wave and intercessory streams. It sees the Jewish people through the lens of a huge chess game, a playing field where most of the end-time biblical pawns are Jewish. Prophetic playbooks (similar to that of top football coaches) are drawn up, outlining what will be happening to Israel the land and the people at each and every stage of end-time events. Often a subtle emphasis arises, stressing the complexity of interlocking prophecies, and the almost compulsive need to solve all eschatological interpretative tensions and “tie up all loose prophetic threads.”  Occasionally greater stress is laid on trials to come upon the Jewish people than on any redemptive outcome.

These above perspectives often strike the Jewish reader as eviscerated – lacking Jewish content or sensitivity.  These end-time scenarios often depict a millennial Jerusalem which is generic, and paint the Messiah in non-Jewish colors – basically a non-Jewish read on biblically Jewish promises and hopes (see Romans 15:27; John 4:22).

Though the scriptures referenced by the chess perspective stream are intensely Jewish, and though the scenarios described in those scriptures resonate in the hearts of all true sons of Jacob, the chess perspective essentially lacks warmth, heart and passion. Its vantage point is cerebral, intellectual and rather removed from the heart of the matter. An over-stress on sovereignty ends up downplaying both the human and the Jewish drama of end-time events. Balance is needed to more fully convey God’s heart and perspective.

The ethnolatry emphasis regarding Jewish culture

This viewpoint (often associated with movements stressing Hebrew roots) rightly discerns that God has chosen the Jewish people, and that He oversees their history, preserves them from their enemies, and has incorporated many aspects of His heart and character in His social and religious guidelines to the sons and daughters of Jacob.

Yet the ethnolatry emphasis falls off the proverbial ‘Lutheran horse’ in three areas: one, it falsely concludes that Jewish cultural and religious expressions are intrinsically superior to Gentile ones; two, it is sorely lacking in discernment regarding what the Bible teaches regarding matters Jewish (especially when Rabbinic teachings cross swords with Scripture); three, there is often an anti-Gentile reverse racism – one which opens the door to heretical teaching (these can include the denial of the unique unity of the God of Israel; a denial of the deity of Messiah Yeshua; a fixation on a legalistic interpretation of the Mosaic Covenant, etc.).

It is not rare in some Messianic circles to find groups of predominantly (if not exclusively) Gentile believers who dress like Orthodox Jews and recite Hebrew liturgy with curious accents and limited understanding. Again, Jews acquainted with Orthodox or Conservative synagogue services would by and large find these practices lacking Jewish authenticity or Hebrew accuracy.

Though the Scriptures do point to a future Gentile resonance with things Jewish (see Zechariah 8:23; Romans 11:17, 24; Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 66:20-23), the focus should not be on ‘all things Jewish’ but on ‘all godly things which are Jewish.’ Moses and Korah were both Jewish, but it is not Korah’s ways which are biblically praised (see Number 16). To appreciate godly Jewish ways is praiseworthy, but to worship Jewish ways is idolatry.

Ethnolatry is the when appreciation of Jewish ways metastasizes into idolatry. Balance is needed to keep holy appreciation within holy and healthy boundaries.

The auto-ethnolatry angle regarding the Jewish people

The term auto-ethnolatry refers to the worship of a people by itself. There have been Jewish voices (like that of Rabbi Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a now-deceased enfant terrible of the Israeli Rabbinic establishment) who often upbraided their own people for their values and national policies. The prophetic tradition was known to do this from time to time.

Rabbi Leibowitz condemned what he saw as a superstitious veneration of Jewish shrines, and he occasionally referred to the Kotel (the Western Wall) as the ‘Discotel’ – disparaging Jewish pilgrimage when not connected with true commitment to the God of Israel.

In a Jewish context, auto-ethnolatry refers to the worship of a people by itself. This is similar to the Gentile ethnolatry discussed above (worship of Jewish ways) but in this case it refers to some Jewish people’s narcissistic fawning over their own people. One example of this not-so-subtle trend distorts “Love your neighbor as yourself” into the maxim “Love your fellow Jew.”

When some Messianic Jews begin to give undue reverence to Rabbinic Orthodox ways, when some express anti-Gentile attitudes and teachings, when some no longer have a heart for the great Commission or an appreciation for the diversity of cultural and social expressions that God Himself has fashioned when He created the nations – then part of God’s Jewish creation begins to worship itself and not the God who formed him from the dust of the ground (see Romans 1:25; 11:9).

Usually in these scenarios ethnic narcissism joins itself quickly to various heretical expressions (see the previous examples above under ‘ethnolatry’), and the result tends to be a lifeless imitation of Orthodox Judaism, often boring and tedious. Balance is needed here, combined with solid biblical training wheels. The balanced result will be a healthy and Spirit-led Jewish expression of faith, one which is not ashamed to also be a clear light and humble servant to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6; Acts 13:46-47).

Divine balance – God’s passions and priorities

God’s healthy biblical antidote to these excesses noted above involves mega-doses of the divine Vitamin ‘P’ – God’s passionate heart for Israel, and God’s priority calling on the Jewish people.

The chess perspective, like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz, simply needs a heart – God’s burning heart for His people, and His hot tears as He grieves over their unfaithfulness (see Hosea 2:14-23; 11:1-4, 8-9; Isaiah 63:9). God is not emotionally divorced from His Hebrew chess pieces – He is passionately in love with His Jewish people.    Any eschatology which leaves God’s heart out of the equation has missed the mark of conveying the fullness of what YHVH wants to convey.

The ethnolatry emphasis appreciates the olive tree’s Jewish sap, and acknowledges the essentially Jewish makeup of the original olive tree, yet it also needs to have a right understanding of how Jewish failure has opened the door to Gentile salvation as fellow-heirs with the believing Jewish remnant (see Ephesians 2:12, 19; 3:6; Romans 11:17). To worship the Jewish people or their traditions not only violates the greatest commandment in the Shma; it also puts an unbearable weight on the Jewish people, one they were never meant to carry.

The auto-ethnolatry angle recognizes the Jewish priority of being the firstborn son (see Exodus 4:22-23; Deut.21:15-18; Romans 9:4; 1:16; 2:5-11). Yet privilege entails servanthood, and pride usually comes before a fall (Isaiah 49:6; Acts 13:46-47; Proverbs 29:23). The Jewish people were not meant to get entrapped in a Snow White syndrome (“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”), vainly admiring ourselves while gross darkness covers the earth (see Isaiah 60:1-3). The mighty Jewish revival army of Ezekiel 37:10-11 and Psalm 110:1-3 has work to do – harvesting and discipling the nations!

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

Eating grass and drinking wine

The last three months have seen elections in America, Israel and Jordan. The results have for the most part not brought healing, satisfaction or decisive change.

Re-interpreting the Founding Fathers

At the U.S. Inauguration (www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/21/inaugural-address-president-barack-obama) President Obama boldly advocated for homosexual marriage, placing it on an “Olympic podium” along with votes for women and civil rights for people of color.

The President made reference to three events beginning with the letter “S” – Seneca Falls (scene of an influential women’s rights convention in 1848; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention), Selma (scene of Martin Luther King’s civil rights marches in 1965; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches), and Stonewall – scene of a homosexual and drag queen riot on Christopher Street, NYC on June 28, 1969 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots; discretionary caution is suggested regarding some language used in this last link).

The President began his address by quoting from the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”), and then attemped to apply this principle as a support for legally validating homosexual marriage.

He concluded his address by reminding his fellow Americans that his oath is sworn “to God and country,” and then spoke a blessing in the name of God, “God bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.”

Gay Paree and the Greeks

It would have come as a shock to the signers of the Declaration of Independence (Protestant churchgoers all; www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html) that 236 years later, an American president would try to use the language of their Declaration to defend and call for homosexual marriage.

A study of ancient history reveals that pagan empires like Greece or Rome (where homosexuality was socially approved) never gave legal sanction to same-sex marriages (The Roman Law of Marriage, P.E. Corbett, Oxford, 1969, pp. 24–28). Indeed, the Roman word for matrimony is based on the Latin word mater (or mother), assuming that the union is between a man and a woman. From the ancient Classical perspective, the legalizing of homosexual unions was deemed illogical and unnecessary. The modern drive to establish legalization of homosexual marriage is a rather new phenomenon in human history.

A recent mass demonstration opposing a bid to legalize homosexual marriages (January 13, 2013)  gathered between 340,000 and 800,000 participants in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/13/anti-gay-marriage-protesters-paris), and this in the city of laissez-faire. Though Paris is one of the most tolerant cities in Europe for homosexuals, it is clear that a strong majority in the City of Lights feel that state validation of homosexuality should not extend to legalizing same-sex marriages.

The Rome that Paul knew

Conservative estimate is that Paul’s Letter to the Romans was written 56-57 A.D., though he had not yet visited that city. The Apostle Paul arrived in Rome in 60 A.D. as a prisoner, and there awaited trial before Caesar Nero, who ruled from 54-68 A.D. In the mid-sixties Paul was beheaded (the death penalty for a Roman citizen) on Nero’s orders, the traditional spot being at the Tre Fontane Abbey in Rome.

Roman leadership was not philo-Semitic, and viewed Jewish beliefs and practices for the most part as primitive, barbaric and foolish (see Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, Menahem Stern, The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974). The concepts that there was only One True God, that He had the personal Hebrew name YHVH, and that He was eternally associated with a conquered Semitic people – all this was laughable to the world’s greatest superpower. The belief that the Jewish people were the Chosen People, and that a ruler from the Davidic dynasty would one day reign over Rome, was offensive to Roman patricians. And biblical sexual morality was also considered ludicrous to Roman civil society.

When Paul penned Romans 1:18-32, he was confronting the sins of Rome head-on – idolatry (1:18-23), heterosexual adultery and fornication (1:24-25), and homosexual and lesbian acts (1:26-27). Paul declared that God’s blessing would not rest on a society that engaged in or sanctioned such behavior. Instead, social collapse and death (in other words, divine judgment) would be the result.

Paul’s worldview was shaped by the Hebrew Scriptures (see Leviticus 18:22-30), words and teachings that form the bedrock for any New Covenant minister (2 Timothy 3:14-16). Paul proclaims that anything less than faithfulness to God’s word would only be “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

A contrasting worldview was demonstrated by the Emperor Nero who in 64 A.D. held a non-legal marriage ceremony wherein he wore a bridal veil and ‘married’ (though not legally, as Roman law recognized no such union) his wine steward Pythagoros (Tacitus, Annals, XV). In 67 A.D. Nero changed roles and had another man wear the bridal veil, his young castrated servant named Sporus (Cassius Dio, Roman History, 62). Paul’s warnings regarding the consequences of such sin were to be personally manifested in Nero’s own suicide and, later, in the suicide of Sporus.

Kings who tweak the Bible

Since an election season has just passed on, it is worth considering what the Bible teaches regarding the accession and decline of national leaders and kings.

Hannah, Samuel’s mother, spoke out a prophetic psalm in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. She described how YHVH brings down mighty kings and warrior nations, yet exalts the poor, the needy and those who stumble. YHVH even has “the foolish things of the world” sit next to princes and inherit thrones of honor. He judges rulers’ deeds, weighing the motives of their hearts, “for YHVH is a God who knows” (1 Samuel 2:3). The arrogant and “those who oppose YHVH will be broken” (1 Samuel 2:9).

The mother of Yeshua, Miriam (better known as Mary) echoed Hannah’s words in her Magnificat, a prophetic psalm more than one thousand years later. YHVH “has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has bought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble” (Luke 1:51-52). Most importantly, YHVH “has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as He promised our patriarchs” (Luke 1:54-55).

One of the classic descriptions of the anti-Messiah is found in Daniel 7:25: “He will speak against the Most High and oppress His holy people, and try to change the set times and the laws.” The “set times” referred to here include YHVH’s calendar and feasts of Leviticus 23 and Genesis 2:2, things that YHVH describes as “My appointed festivals” (Leviticus 23:2; Ezekiel 44:24) and “My holy days” (Isaiah 58:13; Ezekiel 22:8).

The “laws of God” refer to the Bible’s teaching about God’s order – natural and physical limits that YHVH Himself established (1 Chronicles 16:30; Psalm 24:2; 74:17; 89:37; 96:10; 103:19; 104:5,8; 119:90; 148:6; Proverbs 3:19; 30:4; Isaiah 45:18; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15).

God establishes impassible boundaries for the ocean’s waves (Job 38:11; Psalm 89:8-10; Jeremiah 5:22; Mark 4:41), as well as established inviolable boundaries for the sons of Israel and also for the nations (Deuteronomy 32:8-10). These may be ignored at peril of divine judgment. YHVH also established moral boundaries for proper and holy sexual interaction (Hebrews 13:4), as well as clear definitions of what sins violate His divine order.

When a country’s ruler second-guesses, ignores or violates Holy Writ, a gap is created in the spirit, a vacuum which opens the door to evil spiritual influence – the spirit which mockingly questions, “Has God really said …?” (Genesis 3:1).  Invoking the name of the God of the Bible, while simultaneously advocating acceptance of behaviors that the God of the Bible calls morally sinful – this is unstable spiritual ground on which to stand. It indicates that apart from individual and national repentance, the judgments outlined in Romans chapter 1 will not delay; they will certainly come (Habakkuk 2:3; Deuteronomy 7:9-11).

Is it self-evident to obey God rather than Caesar?

During the Nazi reign of terror, some German theologians and church leaders (like Dietrich Bonhoeffer) struggled with Yeshua’s command to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). At great personal cost, they realized that a believer’s ultimate loyalty is to YHVH and to His inscripturated word alone. “To the teaching and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn”  (Isaiah 8:20).

To take a stand for God’s morality, whether it involved opposing Nazi policies of euthanasia for mentally handicapped or elderly people, the mass murder of Jews, or the rejection of Biblical moral foundations  – utimately faithfulness to God’s word cost Bonhoeffer and many others their lives.

“The church must confess that she has not proclaimed often or clearly enough her message of the one God who has revealed Himself for all time in Jesus Christ and who will tolerate no other gods beside Himself. She must confess her timidity, her evasiveness, her dangerous concessions...She was silent when she should have cried out because the blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven...She has not raised her voice on behalf of the victims and has not found ways to hasten to their aid. She is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ...The church must confess that she has desired security, peace and quiet, possessions and honor...She has not borne witness to the truth of God ... By her own silence she has rendered herself guilty of a failure to accept responsibility and to bravely defend a just cause. She has been unwilling to suffer for what she knows to be right. Thus the church is guilty of becoming a traitor to the Lordship of Christ ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Works, Volume 6, Ethics, p.117).

Eating grass with the crowned heads of Babylon

The God of Israel places a priority on getting world leaders to acknowledge that YHVH alone “is sovereign over all the kingdoms on earth and He gives them to anyone He wishes” (Daniel 4:25). When a world ruler refuses to acknowledge the God of the Bible’s authority and sovereignty, and the necessity of obeying His word, the Most High decrees that the leader must renounce this as sin or face heavenly judgment (Daniel 4:24, 27).

When Nebuchadnezzar refused to humble himself and fall into line with YHVH’s perspective, God decreed that Babylon’s mighty king would be driven away from people and would live with the wild animals. He would eat grass like the ox and be drenched every dawn with the dew of heaven – for a period of seven seasons (Daniel 4:24-25) until he repented.

After Nebuchadnezzar finally repented, he was restored. He then authored an Aramaic poem (“Shaltaneh shaltan alam umalchuteh im dor vador”) which is quoted daily in every Jewish synagogue across the face of the earth in its Hebrew equivalent (“Malchutcha malchut l’olamim umemshaltecha l’chol dor vador”).

The English words are “Your dominion is an everlasting dominion, and Your kingdom from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:3, 34-35).  The King of Babylon had learned a spiritual secret, “And all the inhabitants of the earth are to be considered as nothing; and He does according to His will among the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. None can restrain His hand, or declare to Him, ‘What are You doing?’” (Daniel 4:35).

Drinking wine from the holy goblets of God

Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar was a different story, however. Trusting in the impregnability of Babylon’s defenses, he called for a celebratory banquet of wine as Persian troops massed outside Babylon. As the evening progressed, the king thought that it would be appropriate to show how Babylon had crushed other peoples and their gods by bringing out for public display the holy vessels captured by Babylon’s overwhelming armies. And so it was the the gold and silver goblets once used to worship YHVH in Solomon’s Temple were brought out, and wine dedicated to pagan demons was poured into the vessels and drunk, while pagan worship songs were raised in merriment.

All of a sudden, the veritable hand of God appeared writing Hebrew words on the plaster of the king’s banquet hall walls. Daniel the prophet was brought in to give the interpretation of this ‘prophetic code.’ Like Paul in Imperial Rome, he did not mince words. He told Belshazzar that the king had not humbled himself even though he was aware of his own father’s spiritual history; that Belshazzar had dishonored “the God who holds your life and all your ways in His hand” (Daniel 5:23), and that he worshipped demons rather than the God of the Bible.

That very night the Persian army entered Babylon through a dried up water-supply tunnel, conquered and burned the city, and killed Belshazzar.

It is disquieting and very sobering to consider that YHVH judged the Gentile King of Babylon for both ignoring and mocking the holiness of God’s word  – even regarding what some might consider to be merely Jewish matters – issues of Temple worship and offerings. That was sufficient to bring judgment on Belshazzar and on his nation.

As the nations of the world champ impatiently at the bit for a new government to get established in Israel, the baying of the hounds begins. Mighty nations are calling for portions of the land promised to Jacob’s children to be divided among Ishmael’s and Esau’s descendants (in violation of Genesis 25:6, 18; 27:29; 36:6-9. 43; Deuteronomy 2 and Joshua 24:4). Yet YHVH promises judgment on those nations who set their hand to divide the land of Israel (Joel 3:2).

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

Obstacles to world peace

On November 30, 2012 (one day after the world upgraded the PLO’s status at the UN),  the government of Israel declared its intention to move ahead with planning, approval and construction of 3,000 housing units in the suburban Jerusalem area known as Ma’ale Adumim, Mevaseret Adumim or E-1 (over twenty years ago, our family owned an apartment in this suburb).

Two weeks after the UN ‘upgrade’ (on December 15), fourteen of the fifteen Security Council members issued strong condemnations of Israel’s moves, while Britain, France, Germany and Portugal declared that “the viability of a two-state solution is threatened by the systematic expansion of settlements,” and that “all settlement activity, including in east Jerusalem, must cease immediately.”

Within two hours of these condemnations, an even more strident joint statement was issued by India, South Africa and Brazil announcing that all “settlements must be dismantled and the occupation must end … (not as) a concession to be made in the course of negotiations (but rather as) an obligation under (UN) resolutions and international law.”

Three days later (on December 18) U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland added that  “with regard to the larger settlement issue and statements and actions on the ground, we are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action.”

So there it stands – world condemnation of an Israel which builds homes on the mountains of Judah and Samaria; censure of the Jewish people who build apartments and parks in their capital city Jerusalem. The EU even declared that the Jewish state’s building projects could destroy the whole peace process, jeopardizing “the possibility of a continuous, sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state, and of Jerusalem as a future capital of both Israel and Palestine.”

These declarations reveal what the world thinks about Jews settling the land of Israel in our day.

One step back, two steps forward

On November 29 2012 the PLO (now called the Palestinian Authority - PA) requested and received an upgrade of its status at the United Nations (see “Why do the nations rage?” www.davidstent.org, November 30, 2012). This vote made international news, and was hailed by the world’s media as a positive step forward. What the world media did not focus on was that, in doing this, the PA was committing a basic breach of the Oslo Accords.

At Oslo the PA had signed on to an exclusive process of face-to-face negotiations with Israel.  Anything other than face-to-face interaction would cause that Oslo process to self-destruct. Thus, the Palestinians’ unilateral request to the UN was a legal breach of the Oslo Accords, and as a result all legal agreements between Israel and the PA (regarding security, economic cooperation and a host of other issues) can reasonably be considered either frozen or invalidated.

A short background paragraph: over the past four years the PA has refused to engage in direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions. It has refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state (meaning that it claims all of Israel for itself in the end). The PA has praised terrorist activities as well as supporting the al-Aqsa terror work of its own Fatah party. It has threatened to resume a full-blown terror war against Israel if it does not receive the entire package of its demands. After four years of impasse, the PA has now decided to jettison the Oslo Accords, successfully getting the UN to reward Palestinians for their intransigence, hostility, rejectionism and threats of terror.

No one is now expecting Yasser Arafat to return the Nobel Peace Prize he had been awarded in 1994. But few grasp that, as a result of this latest Palestinian unilateral move, Israel is not legally obligated to help establish a Palestinian state, to cooperate with Palestinian security forces, or to even refrain from building new towns and infrastucture in Judea and Samaria.

Immediately after General Assembly Resolution 67/19 was passed on November 29, the PA began to threaten that it would take the State of Israel to the International Criminal Court in the Hague for any perceived slight or refusal to agree to Palestinian demands. These are not tactics of a ‘peace partner,’ by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, what we are seeing is the dawning of the age of Palestinian ‘lawfare’ (using legal suits as another tool of warfare, along with terror attacks and missiles).

Settlements are as old as the hills

One of the first descriptions of settlements in Israel comes from Genesis 13:12: “Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley.” Genesis 20:13 shows us that YHVH was the One who had “caused Abraham to wander” from his original home and then to settle in the Land of Promise.

Settlement is a biblical concept that could describe not just one family. It sometimes refers to an entire people conquering a land and dispossessing the inhabitants. In Deuteronomy 2:12-13 such a process is described as having divine approval: “The Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which YHVH gave to them.”

Isaac’s descendants through Esau conquered and dispossessed the original inhabitants of modern Jordan, while Isaac’s descendants through Jacob did the same to the original inhabitants of ancient Canaan.

Elijah the prophet could also be fairly described as a settler: “Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As YHVH, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word’” (1 Kings 17:1).

Even Yeshua the Messiah was a settler at one point in His life. “Leaving Nazareth, Yeshua came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet” (Matthew 4:13-14).

Settlement is God’s idea

Moses was a man who knew God and spoke with Him face to face. At one point in his intercessory arguing with God, Moses reminded YHVH that He Himself had promised to settle the Jewish people for eternity in the land of their inheritance, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever’” (Exodus 32:13).

Indeed, God describes the land of Israel as “the land in which I swore to settle you” (Numbers 14:30-31). The psalmist affirms, “Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance’” (Psalm 105:10-11).

God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob include the land of Israel as an inheritance. That Promised Land needed to be claimed, conquered and settled. And God was very much in that process.

“Then YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Command the sons of Israel and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to its borders’” (Numbers 34:1-2).

“And you have seen all that YHVH your God has done to all these nations because of you, for YHVH your God is He who has been fighting for you. See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun. YHVH your God, He will thrust them out from before you and drive them from before you; and you will possess their land, just as YHVH your God promised you” (Joshua 23:3-5).

Settlement is God’s end-time prophetic promise

At the end of the age, YHVH promises to restore His people back to the land of Israel. The prophet Hosea saw that the Jewish people would come from the west and from the east back to the Promised Land, where YHVH Himself would settle them in their houses:

ü  “They will walk after YHVH. He will roar like a lion; Indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt. and like doves from the land of Assyria. And I will settle them in their houses, declares YHVH” (Hosea 11:10-12).

This end of days scenario is also described in Isaiah’s end of days vision:

ü  “When YHVH will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of YHVH as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors” (Isaiah 14:1-2).

Through the words of the prophet Joel, YHVH declares that the issue of the land of Israel as an inheritance for the Jewish people is so significant, that all the nations of the world will be judged on this matter at the return of Messiah Yeshua.

The matter of settling the land is one of the major last days’ issues confronting the nations at this time.

ü  “I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land” (Joel 3:2).

Jeremiah prophesied concerning the last days:

One of the Messiah’s great works at the end of days (given to Him by His Father) is not only to restore the Jewish people to their own land, but also to restore the desolated land:

This end-times prophetic restoration includes the mountains of Judah (what is today called the West Bank), Sharon (the coastal plain between Tel Aviv and Caesarea), Achor (the Jordan valley) and many other areas in the land of Israel:

The restoration of the Jewish people will involve their return from all the countries of the world (Ezekiel 39:27-28), including countries north of Israel like the former USSR (which lies due north of Jerusalem):

When Messiah Yeshua returns, YHVH Himself prophesies that the entire land will be reclaimed by the Jewish people and will be re-divided into tribal territories.

The prophetic Scriptures reveal to us time and again that God’s restoration of the Jewish people to their land is not an afterthought. Neither is it a heartless gathering of His people for destruction. It is first and foremost a sign of His faithfulness to the good promises He gave by covenantal oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in ancient times – and now being fulfilled in our day.

As the nations move against Israel and condemn this resettling of the land of Israel as provocative and as a threat to world peace, believers in the prophetic word need to gird up their loins and 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

Why do the nations rage? – UN Resolution 67/19

On November 29, 2012 a grand total of 138 nations of the world passed Resolution 67/19 on “The Question of Palestine” (www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/67/L.28) at the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

What does this resolution say?

What does this resolution mean for the Middle East?

What does this resolution mean in light of Scripture?

What does this resolution say?

The authors (including outstanding examples of democracy and human rights such as Algeria, China, Cuba, North Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, Yemen and Zimbabwe) declare in their own words that:

  1. they are being guided by the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, freedom, equality, justice and respect for fundamental human rights, and the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force
  2. any Palestinian prisoners jailed for terror activities would be subject to the legal protection of the Geneva Convention, including those in East Jerusalem
  3. the Palestinian people have a right to their independent State of Palestine
  4. Israel must withdraw from military occupation of Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem
  5. Palestinian refugees have the right of return to territories within Israel
  6. Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and all “the Occupied Palestinian Territory” must completely cease
  7. The term “Palestine” should now be used instead of the designation PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), which is the representative of the Palestinian people
  8. The authors of this resolution are committed to a democratic and contiguous State of Palestine living side by side with Israel in peace and security on the basis of pre-1967 borders
  9. The authors of this resolution hope that the Security Council will admit the State of Palestine to full membership in the United Nations
  10. The General Assembly hereby accords to Palestine non-member observer State status
  11. There is an urgent need to resume and accelerate peace process negotiations, referring to the Madrid Conference, the principle of land for peace, the Arab peace Initiative, and the Quartet road map

A brief survey of the United Nations’ Resolutions concerning Israel shows that the overwhelming majority of these Resolutions are negatively biased, one-sided and jaundiced (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Nations_resolutions_concerning_Israel).

Of the many points worthy of comment, space permits that only eight will be discussed here.

When Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), presented this resolution to the U.N. he carried out a basic breach of the Oslo Accords (signed in Washington D.C. on September 13, 1993, and then supported by the European Union, the United States, the U.N. and Russia). These Accords require Jerusalem and Ramallah to engage only in direct negotiations. By appealing directly to the U.N., the Palestinian Authority has technically violated and potentially forfeited the entire Oslo process.

Israel could take the following steps, should it choose to:

Stop supplying electricity, communications services and land access to Gaza from Israeli territory. Israel currently supplies 70% of Gaza's electricity, as well as telephone services, fresh water etc (www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=353702; www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3496729,00.html)

Though Resolution 67/19 urges the parties involved to resume and accelerate peace negotiations, there is no longer much Israeli interest to do that. Why should Israel hammer out agreements which involve handing over territory to its enemies and allowing those Palestinian forces to carry arms and train forces – all with international help – and then to discover that the U.N. comes along and actually undermines the foundations of these agreements?

Indeed, Abu Mazen expressed common ground with the jihadi Hamas organization in his UN address, accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing, colonial occupation, “excavations which threaten our holy places”, “besieging our Holy City of Jerusalem,” targeting Palestinian citizens with assassinations, massive destruction of mosques, killings at military checkpoints, etc. (https://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/2/8/22286/World/Region/-Mahmoud-Abbas-speech-at-the-UN--The-full-text.aspx). He nowhere admits to the use of terror against Israel, and says that Palestinian resistance is only non-violent and peaceful. His only reference to terrorism, amazingly, is to “state terrorism,” by which he means Israeli counter-terrorism activities.

By not recognizing Israel as the national State of the Jewish people, the PLO’s “program of stages” is still very much in force (see points 2,4,8, 10 of the Political Program Adopted at the 12th Session of the Palestine National Council, Cairo, June 8, 1974 –www.un.int/wcm/content/site/palestine/cache/offonce/pid/12354;jsessionid=ED2AC7E70A82F5C7CCB42BC6357FCDEC).

This staged program allows for acquisition of territory, along with armed struggle, as a way to gain possession of the entire land of Israel (for more information, see The Palestinian Covenant and Its Meaning, Yehoshafat Harkabi, 1979, Valentine Mitchell).

The PA plans to do this, as the language of the resolution makes clear. It is assumed that the PA would declare its commitment to peace and dialogue while trying to arrest and imprison Israel’s leaders. Though this could become a two-way street (Israel arresting various echelons of the PA, Hamas or Islamic Jihad), such a turn of events would in no terms be described as a peace process.

Abu Mazen declared in his U.N. address. “I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the birthplace of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the Diaspora, to say, after 63 years of suffering of the ongoing Nakba: Enough. It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence.”

However, in this regard, based on the countries advocating for its inclusion in the U.N., the Palestinian Authority is in good company.

By recognizing Abu Mazen as the sole leader of the Palestinian people, the U.N. has stepped into the wrestling ring to crown one of two wrestling partners who at present are locked in mortal combat. This fact alone undermines the accuracy, wisdom, legality, ethical nature and efficacy of Resolution 67/19 on “The Question of Palestine.”

Right now there are four territories where Palestinian Arabs live – Gaza, Israel, the Palestinian Authority (in Judea and Samaria) and Jordan. The PA has a hold on only one of these four areas, and that hold is curtailed and limited by Israel. The U.N.’s hesitant crowning of Abu Mazen is an international attempt to break the internal Palestinian logjam between Hamas and the PA, an internal Palestinian jockeying for power.

One of the main questions which needs to be asked here is simple yet telling: “What are the long term intentions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades?” Are they ultimately peaceful – an acceptable risk? Or is their ultimate strategy the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state, and its substitution by an Islamic/ Islamist entity?

When is a state not a “State”?

The United Nations’ granting of non-member state observer status (given in this case to the PA/ Palestine Liberation Organization/ PLO/ Palestine) has happened in other dissimilar cases (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_observers). Sixteen countries have been granted this status, and later were recognized by the U.N. as full members. The Cook Islands and  Taiwan have non-member status today, as does the Vatican. In light of this, it is worth noting the Vatican’s response to the Palestine Resolution 67/19:

“The Holy See welcomes with favour the decision of the General Assembly by which Palestine has become a Non-member Observer State of the United Nations. It is a propitious occasion to recall also the common position that the Holy See and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation expressed in the Basic Agreement of 15 February 2000, intended to support the recognition of a internationally guaranteed special statute for the City of Jerusalem” (https://catholic.net/index.php?option=zenit&id=36067).

What does this resolution mean in light of Scripture?

If one approaches the Israel/Palestine divide from the following presuppositions, certain matters will become more clear.

The nations are girding up their loins to divide Jerusalem, to declare what her borders will be, to insist that Israel must consent to handing over its biblical patrimony to terrorist enemies. We are all eyewitnesses of these events (see “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot vain things” September 7, 2011; “The world has entered into the time of dividing up the Land of Israel” August 23, 2005;“Something is happening here, Mister Jones,” April 11, 2011, www.davidstent.org).

As the nations rage over YHVH’s plans, over His Messiah and over His Jewish people (Psalm 2; Psalm 83), let’s be encouraged in our prayers:

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

War in Gaza

Over the past few days limited warfare has broken out between Hamas (Muslim Brotherhood) terror groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel. Over 110 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza and Sinai onto Israeli civilian farms, villages, towns and cities. Israel Air Force Iron Dome anti-missile batteries have brought donw the lion’s share of these rockets. Apart from a few score cases of shock and light scratches, there have been no Israeli fatalaties.

Over the past week Israel has warned Hamas that if the rocket fire would continue, Israel would be forced to respond strongly. For the past week nearly one million Israeli have had to run to the safety of bomb shelters at any hour of the day or night, with between 15 and 60 seconds of advance warning. Similar rocket attacks have gone on over the past ten years, with Hamas firing over 10,000 rockets at Israeli civilians. Operation Cast Lead in 2009 was an attempt to quench the rocket fire, and it was succesful for a season.

Targeting the terror masters

Finally on Wednesday afternoon November 14, an IDF team composed most probably of spotters within Gaza, airborne drones and missile-equipped helicopters successfully targeted a KIA vehicle containing 52 year old Ahmed al-Jabari, commander of Hamas’ military wing, as well as up to two other highly connected Hamas operatives. Al-Jabari was originally a PLO operative who was jailed by Israel for 13 years for terror activities. In jail he came under the influence of Muslim Brotherhood terrorists, and switched his affiliation to Hamas. After his Hamas mentor (and previous commander of Hamas’ military wing) Saleh Shahadeh was killed in a targeted assassination on July 22, 2002, and Mohammed Deif (former commander of Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam military wing) was wounded in a targeted assassination attempt and went deeply underground, al-Jabari became the de facto leader of all Hamas terror activity emanating from the Gaza Strip. He was involved in the imprisonment of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit for over five years, taking the public reins in the prisoner exchange of 1,027 terrorists for Shalit.

Immediately with the successful targeting of al-Jabari, the IAFstruck multiple Hamas targets in Gaza, including other top commanders as well as hidden long-range rocket silos. These al-Fajr 5 Iranian supplied rockets have the abilitiy to hit civilian targets in the Greater Tel Aviv area, including Kfar Saba and Herzliyah. Pin-point intelligence enabled Israel to achieve surgical precision in its hits with minimal civilian collateral damage. The IDF Spokesman then announced that Operation Pillar of Cloud was being carried out, with its goals including stopping Hamas rocket fire as well as radically altering the military balance and equation.

With two hours Hamas terror rockets, located within civilian-populated areas of the Gaza Strip, began to ain down on civilian population centers in southern Israel. Ashdod, Sderot, Netivot and the farms and kibbutzim close to Gaza were all targeted. Beersheva, the city we live in had a barrage of over 20 rockets fied at it this evening, with 13 shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense. Two rockets managed to slip through the defensive umbrella, stricking a small shopping center and a parked vehicle, but only slight scratches and shock were the main results. So far 83 rockets have been shot in the past six hours, with over 25 of them successfully intercepted.

Communicating through war

The Italian philosopher Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli saw war as an essential part of political interaction. The current outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel should be seen from a similar perspective. As Muslim Brotherhood forces are strengthening themselves in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Jordan, Sudan and other countries, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate Hamas feels more ready to take chances and bolster its reputation among Gazans, many of who are favorably swayed by the more Salafist al-Qaeda terror wings who advocate immediate jihad against Israel. Swept along by this populist appeal (and agreeing with it 100% in principle if not always in practice), Hamas has publically encouraged and participated in firing of the 110 rockets in the past week, taking public credit for these attacks in world media.

Yet while Hamas wants to maintain its iron grip on power in the Gaza Strip, it is not overly thrilled about another Israel ground invasion. So it is attempting to dance on both sides of the fence, encouraging rocket fire from its own thirsty squads and Islamic Jihad, while secretly communicating to Israel that it might be interested in a soon cessation of hostilities. In the meantime Grad and Qassam rockets and mortars are being fired, while the IAF plays cat and mouse with the terror rocket-teams.

War in Gaza – Day Three: crossing red lines

The limited warfare between Israel and the jihadi terror group Hamas (Muslim Brotherhood) in the Gaza Strip has entered its third day. Hamas rocket squads are firing on the average 12 rockets per hour, or a minimum of 300 per day, at last count.

As the Sabbath evening fell on the Jewish state, over 550 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza and Sinai onto Israeli civilian farms, villages, towns and cities. Israel Air Force planes have responded with over 600 air attacks on long and medium range rocket silos and warehouses in Gaza, often hidden next to mosques and schools in Arab civilians areas. Israeli concerns not to injure Gaza civilians have resulted in a very low number of Arab casualities – 23 according to Palestinian sources, most of whom were armed terrorists.

Over 330 Grad and Qassam rockets fired by Hamas fell in open and unpopulated regions within Israel, while 26 have fallen in civilian areas. Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile batteries have shot down 185 rockets which were aimed at civilian areas. Three Israeli fatalaties occured Thursday morning in Kiryat Malachi (a sister city of Los Angeles), where a missile scored a direct hit on the fourth floor of a residential building. The individuals concerned were not in the safe room of their own house at the time, which was not available at the time.

The Prime Minister of Egypt paid a visit to the Gaza Strip today, and Israel declared that it would not initiate air attacks during that time. However, Hamas continued to fire missiles into Israel, lobbing more than thirty rockets against Israeli civilian targets during the Egyptian PM’s visit.

Crossing red lines

On Thursday afternoon and evening Hamas sent its missiles against the greater Tel Aviv region, striking Rishon LeZion and areas just south of Tel Aviv’s municipal boundaries. On Friday evening three rockets struck just outside of Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries. These rocket strikes are considered by Israel to be red lines whose violations cannot go unpunished.

Whereas up to this point, Israel has been willing to dialogue on a winding down of hostilities (provided that Hamas ceases its rocket attacks on Israel’s civilian population), Hamas’ escalation of targets and trajectories signals that the IDF must strike in one or more of three areas:

A selection of Israeli army reserves has been called up. Tanks, armor, reserve special forces and infantry are flowing toward the Israeli Kisufim crossing, the usual entry point for a military invasion, allowing an effective cutting of the Strip into two.

Unless Hamas makes a very strong appeal for stand-down, it is quite likely that one or more of the three scenarios mentioned above will become a reality within 48 hours.

War in Gaza – Day Five: Terrorists morph into victims

Shabbat in Israel and Gaza has seen a continuation of the fighting. Over 700 hundred jihadi rockets have been fired by Hamas squads against Israeli civilians in the last four days. Over 240 of these rockets have been downed by the Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile batteries. Using Beersheva as a microcosmic example – of the 250 rockets fired on Shabbat, 31 were fired against Beersheva, and of these, 16 were shot down.

The IAF has made over 1,000 bombing sorties in four days, and as of Saturday night, a total of 45 Gazans have been killed in these four days of sorties, the majority being Hamas fighters. Gazan sources say that 400 have been wounded.

To give a Middle Eastern perspective on comparative casualties, in Syria on one day of fighting (Friday November 16) 103 Syrian civilians were killed by shelling and bombing. Over 37,000 Syrians have been killed in ongoing hostilities, while 416,000 Syrians are refugees.

On Saturday at 1:20 pm  immediately after one of the Hamas rocket attacks on an apartment building in Ashdod, a man stepped out onto his smoldering balcony dressed in a Jewish tallit (prayer shawl) and shouted out to those below, “All is well!”. He had just managed to take shelter in his reinforced room before the missile struck his home. Below in the streets, a delivery truck had received a direct hit from a Grad missiles, and was covered in flames – yet no one was injured.

At 4:37 pm on Shabbat, a Fajr-5 Iranian built missile was fired at Tel Aviv. A new Iron Dome battery had gone fully operational in the greater Tel Aviv area exactly two hours before, and now received its baptism of fire, shooting down the missile aimed at the heart of Israel’s largest city. At the same time rockets were also fired (and intercepted) at Rishon LeZion, a large metropolitain area just southeast of  Tel Aviv. (Breaking news – two more Fajr-5 rockets were just fired – and intercepted - at Tel Aviv Sunday November 18 10:38 am)

Isaiah 62 turned upside down

I was driving not far from Gaza last night, and tuned into a Hamas radio station. Warlike music filled with tribal drums and boisterous male choirs chanted passages from the Koran, followed by announcements in Arabic that Grad missiles had been fired at Tel Aviv. “Allahu akbar!” (transl., Allah is the greatest) was cried out after every statement.

Two things struck me as interesting here. One is that Hamas views its rocket attacks as a valid Islamic expression of jihad. This is not about alleged Israeli injustices, or a supposed refusal to honor peace treaties. It is classic Islamic jihadi theology, as expressed in al Qaeda’s terror attacks, in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards worldwide assassinations and bombings, and in both the Muslim Brotherhood’s  covenant and Hamas’ jihadi declarations in Articles 6 and 8 of their 1988 constitution (Article 8 is also the offcial slogan of Hamas):

“Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it … The Islamic Resistance Movement…strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine … Allah is our goal, the Prophet our model, the Qur’an our Constitution, Jihad our path and death for the cause of Allah our most sublime belief.”

What is rearing its head in Gaza is not a liberation movement or the cry of oppressed Arabs. It is a jihadi attack – one which begins by targeting the Jewish people, but ends up striking the Twin Towers of the West.

The second point is that the above-mentioned Hamas radio announcer kept repeating that Hamas would not stop the jihad until they reach and conquer al-Quds (the holy city of Jerusalem).

“I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day or night. You who call on YHVH, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7).

When terrorists cry crocodile tears

There is an Arabic proverb, “He hit me, started to cry, and went straight to the judge to sue me.” There is alot of Middle Eastern truth in this folk saying. In order to unpack its application in the current situation, a short history needs to be given:

As a result of these terror activities, Israel had put Hamas on the alert that it would retalitiate quite painfully if these attacks continued. No cessation of Hamas terror came to pass; indeed, Hamas attacks increased. This is the context for Israel’s targeted killing of Ahmed al-Jabari, Hamas’ top military commander.

As a result of this successful killing, Hamas unleashed a storm of rockets on Israel, while IAF planes continued to succesfully downgrade long-range rockets storehouses in Gaza, and pull off various targetings of mid to high level Hamas operatives.

Israel’s successes in shooting down terror rocket attacks in the air while destroying Hamas rocket stores on the ground (hidden among Gaza’s civilian population) has engendered a conflicted response on the part of Hamas and the Islamic world. Instead of proudly boasting that Muslim Brotherhood forces are being martyred on the path of Allah’s jihad, they are complaining that Israel is guilty of aggression, massacre, war crimes etc. The Arab League (which has been strangely silent for many months about the mass murders, massacres and slaughter in Syria) has sprung into action, crying that Israeli aggression must not go unpunished.

Recent history shows that the Arab League is not only hypocritical in these matters, but has itself advocated genocide against the Jewish state. In May 14, 1948 the Secretary-General of the Arab League Azzam Pasha declared at a Cairo press conference (reported the next day in the New York Times) regarding the coming Arab invasion of Israel, “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.”

The present strident shouts coming from the Arab and Islamic world are both cowardly and deceptive. Unfortunately they are causing the hearts of the leaders of the European Union, the United Nations and the United States to tremble. In order to placate these volatile customers and clients, the leaders of the West are pressuring Israel to stand down and not crush its mortal enemy Hamas’ ability to murder Israel’s civilian population.

Egypt the broken reed

In Isaiah 36:6 the prophet describes Egypt’s political and military reliability in the following words, “Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.”

Egypt is ruled by Muslim Brotherhood follower President Mohammed Morsi, who is hoping to shortly receive over 11 billion dollars in international aid in the near future (from the EU, IMF, and USA) if he plays his cards right. To do this successfully, he must not appear too jihadi, even though he, his constituency, his organization’s constitution and his holy book all call for jihad. Hamas creates a peculiar trial for Morsi. They are his comrades-in-arms, so to speak. They are standing as the spear point against the “infidel Zionist entity.”  Yet their rocketing of Israel forces Morsi to squirm, since he does not prefer to side openly with Hamas in this war. His strategy is probably to try to redefine the hostilities in a way that makes Israel look monstrous, thus allowing to stand with Hamas as “the terrorist who has become a victim.”

War in Gaza – Day Six: Context of the conflict

Fighting continues between Hamastan and Israel. As of Monday morning local time, 850 Jihadi rockets have been fired at Israeli cities, towns and farms, and 302 of these missiles have been downed by the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries. The Israeli Air Force has successfully done over 1350 sorties, mostly targeting Hamas command and control centers, rocket silos, and training camps. In most cases these locations have been deliberately placed by Hamas in the middle of population centers. Locations and personnel of the Islamic Jihad  terror group have also been targeted.

Sixteen Gazans have been killed over the past day, and 51 injured. Six of these fatalaties were members of one family who had refused to leave their home though warned by IDF text messages. Their home was located over an ammunition warehouse, while the husband was a Hamas designer and builder of terror rockets.

In one case IAF bombed a Gazan soccer field. Though that attack might be interpreted by some as being ‘anti-sport,’ in reality it is because Hamas has been using the field for rocket launchings. (As I am typing out this newsletter, I have been interrupted four times by sirens warning of missile attacks).

More than 45 rockets have been fired through the day at Negev towns, farms and cities, at Ashkelon, Ashdod and cities northeast of there, and also at Tel Aviv. In most cases these missiles have been shot out of the skies by the IDF Iron Dome teams. Rockets which make it through the Iron Dome have either landed in open areas or have hit buildings, homes and cars. Yesterday Hamas managed to fire 156 rockets, while on Saturday the amount fired was 230. This seems to reflect a downgrading of Hamas’ military ability.

There has been intense international discussion pushing for a ceasefire, with Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and the USA involved. The UN Secretary-General is due in the region some time today for discussions. The Arab League is condemning the Jewish state, while world media are beginning to turn against Israel, focusing on Gazan casualties without bothering to explain to their viewers  ‘unimportant matters of context’ – like how Hamas-initiated rocket fire and terror attacks triggered this round of hostilities.

Israel’s government has insisted that as long as rocket fire continues, and as long as Hamas continues to shoot at Israeli soldiers and civilians, there will be no ceasefire or negotiated agreements. However, since rocket fire continues unabated, it looks increasingly likely that a ground military incursion will kick in rather soon.

“Why can’t they all just sit down and talk? ”

It is difficult for many Westerners to understand the depths of religious hatred and motivation found throughout the Islamic and Arab world. These are directed sometimes at the West, sometimes at Russia, but always at Israel. The foundations of these attitudes are Koranic, and are amplified in the Islamic hadith (a kind of Oral Law compilation, considered authoritative by all Muslims). According to these perspectives, the Jewish people have no right to any part of the land of Israel, and it is the duty and obligation of all Muslims to wage jihad against the Jews and all who stand with them. It is not a war about borders, or about refugees, or about Western influence. It is a war of Islamist annihilation targeting Jews both in Israel and around the world.

This last point (Article 8) is also the slogan of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.  It is curiously perverse that Western governments insist on describing Egypt’s government as peaceful, while all the while the Islamic world and serious students of Islam know what the Brotherhood really stands for (see “Hurtling through the fog of war: a Messianic perspective on the new Hamastan” at www.davidstent.org, February 2006).

Deceptive ceasefires do not equal peace

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to attend President Obama’s address at al-Azhar University (Islam’s equivalent to Oxford) over precisely this point. President Obama had insisted that representatives of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood be given place of honor at the meeting. Yet the Muslim Brotherhood was Mubarak’s mortal enemy, as well as the enemy of Israel and of the West. President Mubarak realized that the handwriting was on the wall for both him and his regime. His days were numbered.

Now Egypt’s government is ruled by Mubarak’s jihadi enemies, while Hamas smuggles rockets into Gaza under Egypt’s watchful and benevolent Brotherhood eye. And Egypt’s President Morsi is a prime player in working out terms whereby Hamas can survive to fire jihadi missiles at Israel another day.

As Khaled Mashaal (Secretary-General of Hamas) declared on April 26, 2008 concerning tahadiye or hudna (Arabic words for temporary cease-fire while simultaneously preparing for renewed hostilities, “It is a tactic in conducting the struggle... It is normal for any resistance that operates in its people’s interest...to sometimes escalate, other times retreat a bit... The battle is to be run this way and Hamas is known for that...In 2003 there was a cease-fire and the operations were resumed” (Mashaal: Truce a ‘tactic’ in Palestinian struggle; AP, April 26, 2008).

Hamas really believes that its terror campaign caused Israel to withdraw from Gaza in August 2005, and that Hamas terror will cause the Jewish people to withdraw from Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the near future. In much the same way Hezbollah believes that its terror campaign drove Israel out of southern Lebanon in May 2000.

Back in July 2005 senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Dr. Mahmoud al-Zaher declared, “History has proven that the rockets…have forced Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and they will end the occupation in the future. It’s the resistance and not the negotiations that brought about the end of the occupation” (“Hamas says rockets, not talks, brought pullout decision”, Khaled Abu Toameh, JP, Tues July 19 2005, p.3).

The bitter fruit of Sharon’s disengagement

Back in 2005 there were one or two Messianic Jewish voices in Israel which lauded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for what they said was his ‘strategic brilliance’ in withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. More than 12,000 rockets and two wars later, let us call the things by their correct name – these declarations were mistaken and caused confusion in intercessory ranks.

PM Sharon was himself deceived into handing back Gaza into the hands of those who would quickly turn it into a terror haven. All of Israel has eaten the bitter fruit of this strategic blunder. And blunders were not only on the side of Israel’s Kadima party. The Labor party headed up by Yitzchak Rabin (and later by Shimon Peres) decided under pressure to hand over territories in Judea and Samaria (in what is called the Oslo Peace process) to the remnants of the PLO terror faction.

These areas have been used by Hamas and PLO-related terrorists to murder hundreds of Israeli citizens. As war rages in southern Israel, let us carefully consider what lessons should be learned and applied regarding Sharon’s bunglings, especially as we consider the future of central and northern Israel.

Ezekiel’s army – a preview

In Ezekiel 37 the prophet describes how YHVH will raise Israel up from spiritual death and transform her into a huge and mighty army. Psalm 110 also describes this prophetic vision in powerful colors. One of the descriptions of this last days’ military force is that God’s youth army will volunteer freely in the day of His power. As a preview of coming attractions, the past few days in Israel have seen over 91% of Israeli citizens surveyed come out strongly in favor of this military operation, and an overwhelming turnout of reserve soldiers reporting for duty.

For those who love the Jewish people and believe in their physical and spiritual destiny, praying for Israel can sometimes feel like being on a roller coaster. We recognize that Israel has not come into its full inheritance, and that repentance and return to Messiah Yeshua the Son of David is the key. Yet at the same time YHVH Himself has caused the Jewish people to return to their land, and He has no problem using them to fight battles and win wars. God even sees attacks on the Jewish people as attacks on Him as well (Psalm 83:2, 5, 12)

Bluster, bold lies and disinformation

During the Six Day War in June 1967, even as the Egyptian and Syrian airforces lay tattered on the ground and the cream of the United Arab Republic’s tanks burned in the Sinai desert, the Egyptian media rabidly proclaimed that Israel had been vanquished, that the IDF lay in ruins, that Tel Aviv had been captured etc. Facts on the ground bore a strikingly different witness.

Hamas TV programs have been doing much the same thing in the past two days  (www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7998). Announcers with wide grins insist that Hamas missiles have landed on the Knesset (Israel’s parliament buildings in Jerusalem); that Tel Aviv is being deeply bombarded and its electric grid destroyed; that Ben Gurion International Airport has been shut down and flights redirected to secret military bases; that an IAF F-16 has been shot down – none of which is true. The appeal to exaggeration, propaganda and lies which has characterized some Arab nations at their worst, is once again surfacing in Hamas’ patently false panicked declarations.

Just a few minutes ago, it was revealed that Iran had in the past few hours planted a false news item in the Egyptian media – that the Egyptian government had issued a call-up for its military reserves. As soon as the Egyptian government became aware of this disinformation campaign, all media transmissions were shut down, and then immediately a public denial of this Iranian attempt to stir up war in the streets of Egypt was broadcast.

Unity in battle

Political commentators have noted that the only time the Arab world is united is when it engages in war against Israel. Similarly, the people and country of plucky little Israel are never as united as when their very existence is threatened. There is a sense of “now the gloves are off” and “now at least the pretense of peace has been stripped away.” Though many in Israel are indeed concerned about the missile attacks and are functioning with a higher level of stress, there is also a sense of hope and even the energized anticipation that often accompanies approaching battle.

Most Israelis understand that the Hamas rocket barrage cannot go on, and that only a serious degrading or crushing of Hamas’ abilities will solve that problem. Yet most Israelis also realize that the world has little interest in truly helping Israel to defeat its enemies. In fact, international pressure has tended to blunt decisive defeat of Israel’s enemies in nearly every major war Israel has fought. There has always been a race to achieve military objectives before media sympathies sour on Israel, and before the Great Powers back Israel into a corner.

As well, most Israelis do not rejoice in having to search out and destroy terrorist rat’s nests which are honeycombed among Gaza’s innocent civilians – for that will entail loss of life on both sides.

There are those who look at warfare as some perverted form of tit-for-tat. Drawing up obscene scoreboards of comparitive casualties, they pompously proclaim that if more Gazans die than do Israelis, then this is an “unjust war.” Most of those who hold these opinions know nothing about war, and are only armchair revolutionaries and summertime activists. The obscenity of these opinions is that they are unwittingly calling for more Israelis to die. This is poor math and even worse morality.

War in Gaza – Freeze frame

Fighting continued until the declaration of a cease-fire on Wednesday night, November 21, 2100 hours local time. Throughout the day Hamas continued to fire rockets at all the major cities across the Negev, including Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva and Rishon LeZion, as well as a few missiles toward Tel Aviv and south of Jerusalem (near Arab villages in the vicinity of Hebron and Bethlehem).

In the Beersheva region, Hamas rockets hit the Israeli Bedouin municipality of Tel Sheva, barely a mile from where we live; Laqiya, another Israeli Bedouin town seven kilometers (four miles) from our home; and Lehavim, an Israeli Jewish bedroom community near Beersheva. Over fifty missiles exploded on or above Beersheva in the last 48 hours before the ceasefire. A house owned by a Messianic leader in Beersheva was struck by a missile; the believers at home were saved from harm by God’s protection after having taken shelter in their safe room.

As the onset of the American-Egyptian-Turkish brokered cease-fire rapidly approached, Hamas fired a crescendo of missiles at Israeli cities and towns. Even after the deadline had passed, for up to half an hour Hamas took perverse delight in firing 12 more missiles. Islamist machismo is very much a part of the equation here (see Genesis 16:12).

Six Israelis have been killed by Hamas rocket fire, while over 240 Israelis have been wounded.

Gazan casualty figures given out by Hamas are not verifiable by Western journalistic standards. Israeli sources give 120 terrorists as killed and 30 as wounded, while Hamas sources says 60/29. Israeli figures give the figure of 57 Gazan civilian casualties, while Hamas says 102.

In NATO airstrikes in Libya (up to July 13, 2011) 1,108 civilians were killed and 4,500 were wounded. No loss of life was reported on the NATO side.

What does Hamas mean by a “cease-fire”?

Israel has been dealing with Hamas terror for close to 30 years. For more background, see the following articles at www.davidstent.org:

Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, an Islamic teacher who devoted his life to worldwide Islamic jihad (www.religioscope.com/info/doc/jihad/azzam_caravan_1_foreword.htm), is considered the spiritual founder of Hamas. His slogan was “Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences and no dialogues.” One of his famous students and disciples was Osama bin Laden.

Hamas defines itself in its 1987-88 charter as being a Gazan/Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood: “The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin)…the largest Islamic Movement in the modern era” (Article #2; in www.acpr.org.il/resources/hamascharter.html).

Article #8 in the Hamas charter is lifted from the Muslim Brotherhood’s official slogan, “Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Qur'an its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the cause of Allah its most sublime belief.”

Here are clear statements from the Hamas Charter proclaiming that a perpetual state of jihad exists between Hamas and Israel – one which requires Egypt, Turkey and the whole Islamic world to join in the destruction of Israel.

Why a cease-fire?

Simply put, there are a handful of reasons explaining why this has happened:

Vox populi

The overwhelming response of Israeli citizens at the beginning of Operation Pillar of Cloud was 91% in favor of ending rocket fire and terror attacks from Gaza’s Hamas against Israel. This was understood to mean “proportionate response” – whatever is required in order to get the rocket fire and terror attacks to stop. If that could be done by diplomacy, fine; if only by targeted air attacks, fine; if a ground incursion is necessary, that is also fine. “Whatever is necessary” was the consensus.

When the possibility of a cease-fire was announced, over 70% of Israelis surveyed were not in favor. They understood that a cease-fire would only delay a day of reckoning, and that Hamas is still actively committed to Israel’s destruction through jihadi terror.

Jerusalem Post op-ed writer Caroline Glick in her book Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad (Gefen Publishing House 2008) underscores the point that, though Israel has the ability and the motivation to strike a mortal blow to the regional forces of jihad, it is the deceptive power of international pressure that often strikes fear in the hearts of Israel’s leaders, causing them to abort victory on the battlefield.

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

Freeze-frame on the Middle East Tsunami

Intercessors for the salvation and protection of Israel try to stay focused and on target in their prayers. Recently there has been a tsunami of war drums – anxious voices prophesying the imminent outbreak of apocalyptic hostilities in Israel. How can those not living in Israel accurately sift through this information? Here is an attempt to help catalyze discernment, sharpen sensitivity and lead to clearer judgment about these matters.

The ‘inside track’

Everybody likes a secret. How many times has someone whispered to us, “Please don’t pass this information on. You’re the only one I’ve told about this!” Intelligence agencies the world over make their living on such secret confessions.

My Communist parents saw malignant capitalist plots lurking under every tree. In similar fashion Islamists conjure up fantasies of Zionist machinations as the main threat to dreams of a resurgent Caliphate. In the 1950’s Senator Joe McCarthy and many John Birchers obsessed over their own right-wing mirror image of Communist schemes, and “a Red under every bed” dominated their conspiracy worldview.

“A specialist is someone fifty miles away from home”

Having lived in Israel for over 30 years, I have come across many publications purporting to reveal the inside track, the last-days’ truth about Israel. In most of these publications the writers in question do not speak Hebrew, have not done military service, and are largely ignorant of basic building blocks in Israeli culture, that even a sixth grader in this country would know. For the most part, these ‘specialists’ have neither done their homework nor even double-checked their ‘facts.’

Recently I have received many queries about a sensationalist e-mail purporting to come from the brother of someone supposedly living in Israel.  I am not aware of this man’s identity. He is described as a minister who has lived in Jerusalem for many years. He purportedly lives close to one of Israel’s largest underground military bases, supposedly located in Jerusalem. All that sounds suitably ‘inside track,’ yet the problem is that Israel has very few large underground bases, and none of them are in the Jerusalem area. An Israeli reading those words would immediately know that what follows is of questionable veracity.

The e-letter continued, describing that the ‘insider’ witnessed massive deployments of troops and anti-aircraft batteries in Jerusalem.  The letter describes very large contingents of armor moving at top speed to the Sinai, and Egyptian armor racing into the Sinai.

Israel has an overactive free press on hormones, which reports on anything that moves, including every rock thrown and every bullet fired. Yet no Israeli media have noticed these supposedly secret (and massive) events. The media did mention the movement of one Patriot anti-missile battery to Mount Carmel near Haifa, and the redeployment of another battery from the Negev to near Tel Aviv. One simple news story on page three has morphed into crying wolf about a massive war footing deployment. But the plain truth is quite different – no massive troop movements, in Jerusalem or elsewhere.

A reference was made in the above-referenced e-mail to top military leaders meeting with Israel’s senior rabbi, something that the ‘insider’ asserts has happened “preceding every prior military campaign.”

Actually, what was being described is a distorted take on the regular meeting (prior to Rosh Hashanah – the rabbinic Jewish New Year) of the Israeli Prime Minister with cabinet, Chief of Staff and rabbinical leaders (Israel has two senior rabbis). A blessing is spoken, a small glass of whiskey is raised, a piece of dry honey cake is hastily swallowed – something that happens year in and year out and is duly reported in boring colors by the Israeli media. Only a person unaware of this yearly event would be tempted to recast it in Armageddon-like colors.

The ‘insider’ noted that he passed by the Western Wall and saw something he had never seen before – 200 soldiers and 20 military buses. The e-letter concludes that this is a clincher, that war is on the way, that this situation has the makings of a perfect storm, and that these ‘insider’ conclusions are in no way alarmist.

‘And now, the rest of the news’

Nearly all new recruits into the Israel Defense Forces experience their swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall. Most of my four sons came to the Wall with their fellow recruits in civilian buses (hired by the military), and usually in groups not of 200 but often 500 soldiers. Just about every Israeli has participated in these swearing-in ceremonies. The ‘insider’ in the above-mentioned report shows his lack of awareness of basic Israeli rites of passage by his use of language, by his response of perhaps shock or fear, and by his unfounded conclusions.

‘Crying wolf’ at a dangerous time

Inaccurate or sensationalist information should be avoided by every person who loves truth. Sometimes ‘insider’ information is simply inaccurate. This can also said about some websites purportedly run by ex-Shabak (Israeli General Security Services, equivalent to FBI) or ex-Mossad agents, which some believers read avidly, trust implicitly and quote regularly.

For the sake of truth, it should be asked, “What is the actual track record for accuracy on these websites?” If it is not high, why do people continue to turn to such muddy waters for succor? Could it be that there is an inner appetite for ‘insider’ information?

We appeal to believers to use greater care in choosing, believing in and passing along tainted sources. Rather than ‘crying wolf,’ it is better and needful to use greater care and more prayer in both choosing accurate resources and in doing dependable research. 

The elephant called ‘Palestine’

A few more comments and suggestions on Middle Eastern matters:

Believers should be very careful and reticent about using the name ‘Palestine.’ An old Persian proverb warns us not to invite an elephant trainer into the living room unless one also has room for his elephant.

The term Palestine in this scenario is the elephant trainer, and the ramifications of accepting and using that term is the elephant.

The word Palestine is based on the ancient Roman/Latin word for Philistine. The Philistines were Aegean Greeks and not Arabs. When the Roman Emperor Hadrian crushed the Bar Kochba revolt in the land of Israel in 135 AD, he decided to punish the Jewish inhabitants of the Land by naming the country after their hated biblical enemies – the Philistines. So, simply stated, the term Palestine was chosen by the pagan Romans as a curse, replacing the words Judea or Israel with the name of Goliath’s cohorts.

A similar dynamic was at play in the development of Islam – the replacing of God’s personal name YHVH by the name of an Arabian desert deity/demon named Allah (see Exodus 3:13-15). Today, in spite of clear biblical testimony, most Arab believers are reticent to buck the tide of ‘Islamic political correctness.’

A survey of posters from the Holy Land in the first part of the 20th century shows that Palestine and Palestinian were terms used to describe Jews and Jewish undertakings. A 1936 poster for the Levant Fair advertises it as taking place in Tel Aviv, Palestine. A 1938 poster encourages consumers to support the citrus industry of Palestine by purchasing Jewish-grown orange, grapefruit and lemon juice-based beverages. And today’s Jewish-run Jerusalem Post used to be called the Palestine Post (also run by Jews back in the day) prior to 1948.

Only after the brutal battles of 1948, when five Arab armies invaded the Holy Land, each claiming the territory for their own country, did terminology change. The new state of the Jewish people was called Israel, while the term Palestine gradually morphed over the next 20 years into a concept exclusively referring to Arabs.

Today the politically correct wisdom is that the term Palestinians applies only West Bank or Gazan Arabs, and not to the majority of Jordan’s population or to the 1,500,000 Arab citizens of Israel. But actually the Arab people living in today’s Jordan, today’s West Bank and today’s Israel are all the same people, of the same ethnic stock. Today Arab tribal connections run on an east-west basis crisscrossing the Jordan River, meaning that Arabs in Israeli West Jerusalem, in Palestinian Authority areas north of Jerusalem’s Old City, and in Jordanian Amman, all have a common tribal heritage. Arabs in all three geographical areas are all of the same origin. And if you prefer to use the term ‘Palestinian,’ this entire population could be accurately called Palestinian Arabs.

But is the word ‘Palestinian’ a spiritually neutral term? The attempt to use the word Palestine carries some baggage with it.

Today, the Palestinian Arab people live in four separate areas – Jordan (ruled by a Hashemite king), the Palestinian Authority (ruled by a corrupt and violent kleptocracy), Israel (ruled by the Jewish people), and Gaza (ruled by “al Qa’eda’ s uncle,” the jihadi Muslim Brotherhood). None of these four areas is currently recognized as a Palestinian state. But were an independent state called Palestine to be established, it would lead either to the collapse of the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan, or the disintegration of the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, or to the destruction of Israel.

All those in favor say ‘divide!’

The coming US elections are approaching at breakneck speed. It is worth noting that both major American parties are on record as calling for a two-state solution – in other words, the dividing up of the Land of Israel. Not only this, nearly all Israel political parties either call for the same thing, or accept it fatalistically as unstoppable.

Amnesia and ‘bull’s-eye on the canary’

As the Islamic Republic of Iran rushes toward nuclear terror, a dreamlike amnesia seems to be hanging fog-like over some Western politicians. Years ago Hillary Clinton spoke of Israel as the ‘canary in the mineshaft’ – a touchstone or tripwire for the West. Clinton declared that any threat of an attack on Israel was an urgent wake-up call to the West, since Israel’s enemies would not stand down after removing the Jewish state, but would move on to dismantle Western democracies as well.

Yet in a recent comment, Clinton explained that America has a more patient and less concerned perspective on Iran-Israel events than do the Israelis. The Secretary of State opined that it is Israel and not the USA who is “more anxious about a quick response because they feel that they’re right in the bull’s-eye, so to speak.”

Why is this night different from 1939?

The parallels between the rise of jihadi Islam in the current season and Hitler’s satanic rise in 1939 are many. In 1939 Western nations refused to call demonized dictatorship by its name, but rather declared (in the words of Britain’s Neville Chamberlain), “Hitler liked me and thought he could do business with me.” Chamberlain also publically declared, “I believe it is peace for our time… Now I recommend you go home, and sleep quietly in your beds.”

Western powers are haltingly responding to the threats of radical and jihadi Islam, not wanting to face the social, spiritual and political consequences of the rise of Islamic population and influence in their own countries. Some Western nations have gone so far as to even make it illegal for their own government officials to use clear terminology like jihad, mujahedeen and Islamic terror. Instead, placebos like ‘militants’ and ‘violent extremism’ must be substituted.

The Department of Homeland Security, the National Counter Terrorism Center and the U.S. State Department agreed that, “we must carefully avoid giving bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders the legitimacy they crave, but do not possess, by characterizing them as religious figures … We should not concede the terrorists’ claim that they are legitimate adherents of Islam” (www.jihadwatch.org/2008/04/jihadist-booted-from-government-lexicon.html )

How can we pray?

One of the main differences between 1939 and today is that a sovereign State of Israel exists, defended by its own armed forces and intelligence services.

And today more than ever, an army of intercessors, burning with fiery prayers birthed out of YHVH’s heart for His people, are calling out day and night for protection, salvation and justice for the Jewish people in Israel and those scattered worldwide.

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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