War With Hamas – Context and Clear Thinking

“A text without a context is a pretext.” Bible college students are taught this proverb when they begin to tackle the fundamentals of exegesis. Reporters doing a stint on the Middle Eastern beat would surely benefit from similar advice. Often the main actors and leaders on the Middle Eastern stage are misunderstood by the media, their behaviors and beliefs ignored or glossed over. Apart from access to greater depth of analysis, it is hard for the average consumer of news to make sense of what is actually happening in the Middle East.

What follows is some context – light and background enabling the reader to better understand the behavior and strategies of five of the recent Gaza-Israel war’s main players: Egypt, Fatah, Hamas, the Arab world and the United States.

Egypt

On Sunday January 25 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak praised Egypt for preventing stockpiles of weapons in the Sinai desert from reaching Hamas in the Gaza Strip. President Obama also recently thanked Egypt for playing a constructive role in developments. On Friday President Sarkozy of France announced that a French helicopter-carrying frigate will now patrol the waters off Gaza, while on Saturday the US announced that it has diverted the Combined Task Force 151 to track Iranian seaborne weapons smuggling in the Red Sea. On Monday Germany sent six Foreign and Interior Ministry experts to assess how to beef up security on Egypt’s border with Gaza. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, “Effectively fighting weapons smuggling is one of the key questions for a lasting truce and the opening of the borders.”

What goes unsaid here is something so simple that it seems to be in poor taste for anyone to call attention to it.

Gaza does not only border on Israel. It also touches the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt. The Israeli Navy effectively prevents arms smuggling by sea into Gaza. And of course, arms are not smuggled into Gaza overland from Israel, as the borders are protected by Israeli security fences. It is an open secret that all weapons are smuggled into Gaza through Egypt. Egypt physically observes all Hamas smuggling operations, and allows them to continue because it is in Egypt’s interest for such smuggling to occur. Were Egypt to turn off the faucet on the Hamas arms flow, it could achieve near-perfect results overnight. Why has this not happened?

Egypt allows weapons smuggling for its own good reasons. It has a large and restive Islamist population which is pro-Hamas and pro-Muslim Brotherhood. As long as weapons flow to Gaza, some of this potential revolutionary anger toward Mubarak’s regime is dissipated.

President Mubarak realizes that control of the arms spigot affords Egypt some influence over Hamas as well, specifically making sure that Hamas focuses its jihadi endeavors on the Gazan side of the Egyptian border. Egypt also recognizes that an active Hamas weakens Israel, and this is definitely part of Egyptian geopolitical strategy. When Israel is preoccupied, Egypt has more room to breathe and influence Arab-Islamic politics.

The US, Germany and France understand Egypt’s way of thinking. They know that Egypt will never willingly or effectively prevent arms smuggling. As a result, these nations smilingly describe their current activities as “helping Egypt” and (as long as these foreign navies don’t set foot on Egyptian soil) Egypt smiles in return. Even Israel lends faint praise to the “constructive” Egyptian role. The world smiles and forgets about the Middle East for a few days. Everyone is happy.

But, as Delaney and Bonnie once said, “Where there’s a will, sure enough honey there’s a way!” Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan declared on Sunday that nothing “will prevent us from using weapons or smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. No one has the right to prevent the Palestinians from equipping themselves with weapons as long as the occupation continues. From the first day of the ceasefire we began to return what we’d lost and to improve what we have in our hands. No ships, planes, or technology and satellite imagery will prevent the weapons smuggling.”

➢      Pray that Egypt’s leaders and people will receive the biblical revelation that their blessing and safety will come from blessing Israel (Isaiah 19:16-25)

➢      Pray for Egypt’s leadership to have courage to know, speak and do the truth

Fatah

Yassir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has had major problems with corruption since its inception. Palestinian communities throughout the world have been very aware of PLO financial sleaze, yet have made sure that their disgust is carefully voiced in private settings alone. It was this disgust with PLO corruption that led to a landslide victory for Hamas in the Gazan elections in January 2006. Gaza’s electorate chose Hamas to lead them, an Islamist political party whose covenantal platform calls for eliminating Israel through jihad, and setting up an Islamist state (“raising the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine”). Its organizational motto is, “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”.

Though the US and Western Europe accept Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (the new name for the PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian people (in Gaza, at least) are not quite as sure. Gazans actually chose jihadi terror representation (Hamas) over more secular and corrupt terrorists (PA and Fatah).

But it is not only Hamas that engages in terrorism. The PA’s armed wings (Fatah and al-Aqsa Brigades) are up to their hip boots in terrorism, though Western politicians turns a blind eye and don’t let on that the PA’s “naked emperor” is actually sporting terrorist fatigues.

Israeli Colonel Moshe Elad served as the head of the security coordination mechanism with the Palestinian Authority during the Oslo Accord period. Today he is a lecturer at the Western Galilee Academic College. Elad remembers a statement made by a senior Palestinian (Fatah) figure at a fateful moment during the Oslo negotiations: “No Arab leader has the right to renounce the right of return, because the return is beyond anything.”

This Fatah politician was stating that, even if a future peace deal would divide the land of Israel into two states (one Israeli, one Palestinian), all Palestinians will still insist on the right to settle in any spot within the Jewish state and claim it as their own. If the Jewish state refuses to allow this, then Fatah will once again wage war against Israel until “every inch of Palestine” is conquered by Arab Palestinians. This is the Palestinian Authority’s not-so-secret strategy. And this Palestinian Authority is what the West calls its “Palestinian peace partner.”

➢      Pray that the God of Israel will grant revelation to Palestinians about His heart for Israel the people and the land (Zechariah 2:8-13)

➢      Pray for salvation in Yeshua to come to many Palestinians through evangelism, dreams and visions

Hamas

Hamas has the unique challenge of being a jihadi group trying to get its message across to a secular Western world. It has hit on a successful media strategy which has evoked world sympathy – its spokesmen champion freedom from occupation; they call for open borders; they stir up the world to hate Israel for civilian casualties in the Gaza war. Hamas has been rather effective in its strategy. But what Hamas does not communicate is even more important.

Though it calls Israel an occupier, Hamas does not explain that Israel does not occupy the Gaza Strip. Israel totally evacuated Gaza in August 2005, leaving not even one soldier behind. What Hamas wants Israel to evacuate now is Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheva and Jerusalem – the whole State of Israel. That is what it means by the term “occupation”. It wants the Jews of Israel to fold up their tents and move en masse to Europe or America or to just disappear from the face of the earth. Israel’s existence is what Hamas wants to destroy – not any invisible occupation in Gaza.

Hamas’ call for open borders is also a euphemism. It is another way of saying that Hamas wants freedom to continue smuggling in weapons through Egyptian tunnels and unmonitored Egyptian borders. Open borders between Hamas and Egypt would lead to Israel’s destruction – by the same Gazan rockets, IEDs and gunmen who fired on Israel for the past 8 years.

Television footage of civilian casualties in Gaza have been used by Hamas to label Israel a criminal and evil state. Yet the context of those tragic pictures must be re-emphasized: civilian casualties occurred because civilian population centers were where Hamas stored its rockets, placed its rocket launchers and from where it fired its missiles into Israel. Hamas chose its battlefield carefully, knowing that Israel would have to respond, and knowing that civilian casualties could turn world opinion against Israel if the images of these casualties were marketed wisely.

Casualty figures were inflated by Hamas and the majority of the casualties were described by Hamas as innocent women and children. The IDF’s latest intelligence is that 1,100 to 1,200 Gazans were killed in Operation Cast Lead, out of which at least 700 were combatants, with another 200 fatalities of men in their 20’s whose identities are still being established. IDF’s Military Intelligence believes that most of these 200 will be proved to be Hamas operatives. That is an approximate ration of 3:1, or 75% of the fatalities being Hamas operatives. This is convincing proof that the IDF was targeting Hamas and not civilians. Indeed, significant precautions were taken not to harm civilians. It was Hamas’ strategy of using Gaza’s civilian population as human shields which made the carrying out of surgical strikes with no “collateral damage” an extremely difficult undertaking.

But it seems that for Hamas not all news is sad news. Even though Hamas’ locations of firing zones guaranteed that many of their own fellow Gazans would become cannon fodder, on January 22 Hamas spokesman Tahar al-Nunu announced that the families of Palestinians killed in the war will receive 1,000 Euros, and those whose homes were destroyed will receive 4,000 Euros.

The Arab world

In the Middle Ages, blood libels against European Jews were commonplace. False and vicious charges were often made that Jewish people had captured and then murdered Christian children, draining their blood to mix with unleavened flour for ritual Passover matzot. Even in the Middle East such charges became commonplace. In Damascus, Syria a blood libel was backed by the French Consul in February 1840, and it led to the murder of two Jewish leaders and the torture of seven Jewish citizens, as well as the hostage-taking of 63 Jewish children. Other notorious Middle Eastern blood libels include Damascus (1848, 1890), Aleppo (1810, 1850, 1875), Antioch (1826), Beirut (1862, 1874), Tripoli (1834), Jerusalem (1847, 1870, 1895), Jaffa (1876), Dayr al-Qamar (1847), Istanbul (1870, 1874), Izmir (1872, 1874) and Edirne (1872).

The blood libel has been resurrected by Syria’s Vice-President and Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas in his book The Matzah of Zion (1983). Egypt’s government-sponsored al-Ahram newspaper published an article on October 28, 2000 entitled “Jewish Matzah is Made from Arab Blood”. Other modern variations on an ancient theme involve Jews supposedly using Arab blood to make Purim pastries. The false equation of Zionism with Nazism has also been drilled into Arab minds for more than 40 years in succession.

In Israel’s counter-terror Operation Defensive Shield (April 2002), Palestinian sources claimed that Israel had massacred more than 500 civilians in Jenin. The numbers were later downsized to between 53 and 56, 6 or 7 of whom were civilians. Hamas’ recent attempts to paint Gazan fatalities as being all or mostly civilians is an up-to-date example of the same libelous strategy.

A few days ago I watched a British TV network interview a Gazan man who insisted that he watched an IDF soldier get out of his tank and shoot a number of small Palestinian children with his personal M-16 while two other IDF soldiers looked on, munching on chocolate bars and potato crisps. No evidence was shown, nor was it requested. No IDF reaction was asked for. No other eyewitnesses were interviewed. Yet this libelous “testimony” was broadcast around the world as “gospel truth.”

Other deliberately slanderous charges against Israel in the Gaza war involve accusations of using white phosphorus anti-personnel bombs and uranium shells. In each case attempts are made to portray Israeli behavior in battle as sub-human or even demonic. Unfortunately, some human rights groups with a strong anti-Israel bias have taken up these calumnies and used the media to spread these hateful charges against Israel. In this they are unwittingly used by Hamas as willing accomplices in their drive to weaken and destroy the Jewish state.

American political strategies

President Obama declared on his first day in office that he “will make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority from day one.”  He “will make a sustained push … to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.” Obama stated that he would pursue peace in the Middle East “aggressively” and that he appointed Senator George Mitchell as his new Middle East envoy. Senator Mitchell is supposed to arrive in Israel on Wednesday to begin his mission.

Mitchell was the facilitator of the Belfast Agreement (1998) in Northern Ireland. He then “formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended”. His Mitchell Report, commissioned by President Clinton and handed in to President Bush, became the basis for President Bush’s Road Map concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mitchell’s plan then called for a total freeze on Jewish housing growth and settlement (including natural growth, which means normal population increase through births) between Beersheva and Jerusalem, and between Jerusalem and Afula (the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria).

His present perspective is summed up in this quote from May 21, 2001: “Two proud peoples share a land and a destiny. Competing claims, religious differences and many other factors have led to a grinding, demoralizing and destructive conflict here”. Mitchell sees the Biblical prophecies and Islamic claims over Israel as in conflict. He does not believe that the God of the Bible is restoring the Jewish people back to their own homeland. For Senator Mitchell, that train of thought is irrelevant and even potentially destructive. His solution is to sidestep all claims and to attempt to establish peace and stability through American influence and pressure. To Mitchell, “the alternative is unacceptable and should be unthinkable” (this last quote was also given word for word on December 18, 2008).

Though perhaps well intentioned, it is clear that President Obama’s aggressive priority to establish peace in the Middle East leads back to the same black hole that swallowed the Bush Administration – a commitment to divide the land of Israel and give part of it to Israel’s enemies. Without truly understanding what he is getting himself into, President Obama is running up against the promises and warnings of the God of Jacob in Zechariah 14:1-3 and Joel 3:1-3. When Yeshua returns, He will judge the nations based on their dividing up of the land of Israel and their re-division of Jerusalem. Dividing the land of Israel (even if one calls it “the peace process”) actually forms the basis for the judgment of the nations at the Second Coming of Messiah Yeshua. Concerted pressure on Israel by any nation will bring the concerted pressure of YHVH right back on that nation.

➢      Pray for President Barak Obama, his advisors and wise men – that the Lord God of Israel will grant him a revelation regarding the land of Israel and God’s strategy for it as the Jewish homeland and world capitol. Pray that the President will only push for the things that will bless America, things that will dovetail with God’s heart and strategies for the Promised Land.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – A perspective on the broader picture

This newsletter is a break from the near daily prayer updates regarding the war between the IDF and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In this letter we consider some issues that most of the news media do not delve into. These matters concern the background to the conflict, as well as present directions for prayer and intercession.

Blowback – the backfiring of best-laid plans

Kings and presidents throughout history have discovered that occasionally their wisest strategies come up short. Assyria ruled the world until it snarled at the God of Israel and His people (Isaiah 10:1-19). King Hezekiah thought it was a wise idea to show the Babylonian delegation the splendor and riches of his kingdom, but Isaiah the prophet rebuked the king, telling him that Babylon would one day cause great damage to the Jewish people and their kingdom (Isaiah 39).

At the close of WWII the OSS (Office of Strategic Services – the precursor to the CIA) recruited Nazi Major-General Reinhard Gehlen to head up counter-intelligence work against the USSR. What the OSS did not know is that the Gehlen Organization was thoroughly penetrated by Soviet double agents, thus compromising Western spying efforts for years to come.

In 1983 the CIA funded and trained Islamist jihad fighters (see the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War”) in order to successfully sabotage Russia’s imperialistic conquest of Afghanistan. The blowback from this operation came through the very same Islamists that the CIA trained. These jihad terrorists used CIA tradecraft to successfully bomb the World Trade Center (1993),  the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam (1998), the USS Cole (2001), and of course the 9/11 attacks.

Today much of Western intelligence efforts are focused on degrading the ability and operations of these US-trained Islamist jihad fighters.

“The enemy of my enemy …”

There is a well-known Middle Eastern proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Sometimes this adage is not 100% accurate.

Hamas was birthed out of the womb of the Muslim Brotherhood, and specifically out of an Islamist welfare charity called Mujama, established in 1973 by  Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Israeli security officials in charge of the Gaza Strip were concerned about how to weaken and destroy Yasser Arafat’s PLO terror gangs. They encouraged Sheikh Yassin’s welfare group, hoping that it might loosen the PLO terrorists’ grip on Palestinian society.

In the early 1980’s Yassin’s Mujama secretly began to stockpile weapons in preparation for jihad activities. By 1984 Sheikh Yassin was arrested by Israel for commanding jihad activities against Israel, but was released as part of a prisoner exchange in 1985. At the outbreak of the first Arab civilian revolt or intifada in December 1987, Yassin secretly gathered six other Gazan Islamists and founded Hamas.

They drew up a charter which declared loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood, to jihad, and to the Islamist vision of Israel’s subjugation and destruction. In 1989 Yassin was re-arrested for ordering the kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldiers. In October 1997 he was released from jail through the efforts of Jordan’s King Hussein. Out of jail again, Yassin returned to spearheading Hamas terrorist operations until he was killed in a targeted Israeli helicopter attack in March 2004.

Hamas began as a secret and poisonous flower growing in a Gazan ‘garden plot’ – using the freedoms that Israel had allowed – whose goal remains the destruction of Israel. Operation Cast Lead is Israel’s attempt to weaken and crush this “blowback” terror movement.

To learn more about the origins, ideology and strategies of Hamas (and for all archived newsletters on the war) see www.davidstent.org, under “words”, newsletters February 2006, June 2007.

Hamas roots and Muslim Brotherhood fruits

Hamas’ older brother is The Muslim Brotherhood (hereafter MB), or Society of Muslim Brothers (Jama’at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin), founded in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, a school teacher. From the MB perspective most Arab and Islamic states are evil and need to be overthrown. Only strict Islamist rule and the re-establishment of the Muslim Caliphate or khilafah is ultimately acceptable to the MB.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) had links with the Nazis, and Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler’s main contact in Jerusalem was Haj Amin al-Husseini.

MB assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud Fahmi al-Noqrashi Pasha in 1948, and attempted to overthrow Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. That revolution failed, and many MB members were jailed in Egyptians concentration camps and severely tortured. Sayyad Qutb, a main MB theologian, was imprisoned, tortured and later executed in 1966. Qutb’s brother moved to Saudi Arabia and later became the mentor of Ayman al-Zawahiri (later Osama Bin Laden’s deputy).

Yasser Arafat joined the Egyptian MB in 1952.  MB members in East Jerusalem established a shadow organization in 1953 called Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation) which today is a worldwide terror organization.

In the late 1970’s MB members established Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Al-Jihad al-Islami) led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Jamaat al-Islamiyya or al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) led by the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman is now serving a life sentence in Florence, Colorado for his role in directing the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, as well as for thwarted plans to bomb NY tunnels and bridges as well as FBI and UN headquarters. Both organizations’ primary goals are to overthrow the Egyptian Government, to replace it with an Islamic state, and to attack American and Israeli interests in Egypt and abroad.

Ayman al-Zawahiri was jailed in Egypt for his part in planning and carrying out President Anwar al-Sadat’s 1981 assassination. He was later released and went on to become Bin Laden’s deputy in al-Qa’ida. He was involved in planning and executing the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

➢      Pray that the God of Israel would confound and nullify the Islamist strategies and plans of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood (Psalm 83:9-18).

Egypt and Hamas

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt fears the MB, for an Islamist MB-led revolt is the main threat to his rule. For more background, read “A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam”, Mary Anne Weaver, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000). A victory for Hamas in Gaza would encourage anti-Mubarak forces in Egypt, while a defeat of Hamas would create Egyptian civil unrest as well. Mubarak’s strategy seems to be “to do as little as possible and hope for the best”.

As a result, he has turned a blind eye to Hamas’ tunnel-smuggling of rockets and weapons into Gaza, while delusionally protesting that the weapons are actually being run successfully by the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza!

He refuses to totally open Egypt’s borders with Gaza, since this would be a violation of signed peace agreements with Israel. Yet he allows Hamas officials to travel freely through Egypt and to plan attacks on Israel from sovereign Egyptian territory, and to smuggle weapons into Gaza for use against his peace partner Israel.

PM Mubarak has been hoping that Operation Cast Lead would severely downgrade Hamas’ strength and, indeed, he recently has had key leaders communicate this desire in off-the-record conversations with Israeli leaders.

Were Mubarak to decisively dry up Hamas’ smuggling activities, the rocket fire would cease. Operation Cast Lead would not have happened had Egypt reined in Hamas. One of the reasons that Israel has gone to war is to get the world to pressure Egypt into stopping Hamas’ smuggling operations.

➢      Pray for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, that he will have the courage, wisdom and backbone to turn off the Hamas weapons faucet which runs through sovereign Egyptian territory.

Jihad – God speaking to a secular West

In Romans 1 the Apostle Paul describes a socio-spiritual process of handing nations over to demonic influence and control, through His removing of restraints on major sins. Some of these sins include idolatry, materialism, sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, greed, deceit, faithlessness, hatred of the God of the Bible, boastfulness, insolence and ruthlessness. These sins increase their manifestation in society incrementally. God’s divine judgment is a process, a route which descends quietly into darkness.

Europe and North America once adhered to the Hebrew Scriptures and to the New Testament, albeit in a faltering and halting fashion. Today, however, the intellectual forces of secularism have fashioned an atmosphere of political correctness, intolerance and scorn toward biblical truths. The West now views life, politics and strategic thinking through secular lenses, and in many ways it is opposed to a Judeo-Christian worldview and lifestyle.

In the Book of Judges 2:10-23 the God of Israel responded to His people’s cooling hearts by raising up plunderers – evil and cruel invaders.  God raised up brutal marauders to attack Israel, hoping that these trials would cause His people to cry out and turn back to Him.

In a similar way, God has allowed jihadi Islam to arise and to threaten a secular West – a West which to a large extent scorns faith, God and the Bible. God is involved in a process of testing and judging the nations. Yet if we allow Him, these challenges could drive many Westerners to cry out and turn their hearts back to the God of Israel.

➢      Pray for the secular West to turn their hearts back to the God of Jacob and to embrace His heart for Israel.

➢      Pray also for the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora, that through these shakings our hearts would be quickly moved to cry out and turn back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through Yeshua the Messiah.

Israel – at the forefront

The Scriptures tell us that Israel is God’s billboard to the nations (Isaiah 11:12; 49:22; 62:10). God uses the Jewish people to reveal His ways, to reveal His heart, to shout out His message to all countries. Senator Hillary Clinton once called Israel “the canary in the mineshaft”. By that, she meant that Israel is an indicator – an air-raid siren, an advance warning alarm – to the world. What happens with Israel is a preview of coming attractions; these same challenges or trials or wars will soon be coming to the whole world.

The anti-Nazi Pastor Martin Niemöller put it this way, The Nazis “came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, for I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me”.

For decades Islamist and Arab terrorists have attacked the Jewish people and the State of Israel. These atrocities have for the most part been brushed under the carpet by the nations of the world. The United Nations even passed a resolution condemning Zionism (the Jewish people’s national liberation movement) as racism (General Assembly Resolution 3379, passed in 1975, revoked in 1991). At this moment Iran is openly pursuing nuclear weaponry in its self-confessed drive to wipe Israel off the map.

Over 10,000 Hamas rockets and mortars have rained down on Israel for the past 8 years, and for the world this has been merely business as usual.

Through all of this God is communicating a message to the world: what comes first to Israel (Islamist attacks) surely comes to the rest of the nations (9/11 etc). Hamas’ attempts to establish an Islamic state and to destroy Israel through rocket fire, indicates that unless the nations of the world get with the plan, they will see similar things happening in their neck of the woods.

Green tide rising

We are living in the days of the restoration of the Jewish people to Israel, their promised land. God’s restoration movement has been opposed by Satan in many ways – through Communism, Fascism and now through Islamist hatred and murder of the Jewish people. The flags and colors of these movements are red, black and green. Today the anti-Semitic charge is currently being led and catalyzed by those carrying green banners – the banners of Islamic jihad.

As Europeans and the Islamic world march in their tens of thousands against the Jewish state, it is time to “wake up and smell the coffee”. We are living in the days of Satan’s renewed and murderous onslaught against the Jewish people. These are the “days of the hunters” (Jeremiah 16:16-17).

➢      Pray for believers worldwide to wake up and recognize that the Jewish people are being strategically targeted by the enemy. Pray that believers worldwide will target the Jewish people in prayer, for blessing, protection and salvation.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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War With Hamas

The First 40 Hours

This is a brief analysis of the war, followed by a report of details of today’s fighting, and then specific prayer requests.

The war with Hamas began at 11:30 am Israel time on Shabbat (Saturday) December 27 – the sixth day of Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication). The Operation was given the military name ‘Cast Lead’ or Opheret yetzuka in Hebrew, referring to the leaden dreidels (sevivon or spinning tops) played with on Hanukkah. These festive tops were once made of molten lead poured into a metal mold, and a popular Hanukkah children’s song refers to a dreidl made of “cast lead.” As God would have it, this war will be identified in the annals of Israeli history as the Hanukkah war.

Israelis have a lot of experience with war, and many significant wars are connected with certain Jewish holidays. The Yom Kippur War of October 1973 began on the Day of Atonement. The First Gulf War ended in 1991 on the first day of Purim, the Feast of Esther. The Second Intifada broke out on The Feast of Trumpets in 2000. On the Ninth of Av (Tisha b’Av) in 586 BC and 70 AD, both Jewish Temples were destroyed in Jerusalem. God is still speaking to Israel and the nations by using His prophetic calendar and His feast days (see Leviticus 23:2, 4), and this includes minor feasts like Hanukkah (see Daniel 11:29-35 and Hebrews 11:34-38).

Background to this war

After Israel withdrew or retreated from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, that region was taken over by the Islamist group Hamas (‘The Islamic Resistance Movement’; for deeper background see newsletters February 2006, June 2007 at www.davidstent.org).  This group is linked with the Muslim Brotherhood, a world jihadi group ideologically connected to Osama Bin Laden.

Hamas refuses to recognize the state of Israel. Hamas calls and plans for Israel’s military destruction. Over the past three years it has fired more than 10,000 Qassam or Grad rockets and mortars against civilians only – towns, farms and cities within Israel. And over the past week it fired between 36 and 80 rockets per day into kibbutzim, small villages and large towns. Last Saturday I went to visit some believers on a kibbutz bordering on Gaza, and during my 30 minute visit five rockets fell close by.

The government of Israel has strangely tolerated a buildup of these rocket attacks over the past three years. Though originally then-Prime-Minister Ariel Sharon soothingly promised Israelis that the disengagement from Gaza would bring peace, and if even “one rocket were fired” Israel would reconquer the Gaza Strip, the 10,000 rockets fired starkly contradict the soundness and wisdom of his policies. Part of the recent tolerance is due to the fact that the Kadima party Sharon founded is still in office, and these officials owe their political positions to these failed policies.

Over the past few weeks Israel has repeatedly warned Hamas and surrounding countries that if the rocket attacks continue, it will decisively and powerfully respond. These Israeli warnings have gone unnoticed by the world’s media, as have the rocket attacks. No country that is worthy of the name would allow terrorists to rocket their civilian populations for so long without an overwhelming response. For both Israel and Hamas, that day of response has come.

The surprise attack

As Palestinian rocket attacks have increased, Israel has spent the past year culling intelligence in preparation for a decisive counter-attack. Hamas command and control (CC) centers, arms depots, senior residences, training camps, rocket launcher sites and Qassam factories – all were located and charted.

On Saturday at 11:30 am 64 Israeli fighter jets and attack helicopters attacked and destroyed 50 strategic Hamas sites in 3 minutes and 45 seconds. A half hour later, another sortie of 20 plans hit 50 more sites, including underground launchers and bunkers. 95% of the hits were ‘alpha’, meaning exact strikes with no collateral damage.

Strategic targets

Over 240 strategic sites have been hit in the past 40 hours. One site hit was the Hamas police compound, where 80 gunmen were gathered. At other ammo dumps and command centers at least another 50 terrorists were killed. At other smaller CCs a total of 92 terrorists were killed.

On Sunday Israeli jets struck and destroyed 40 underground tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle in significant amounts of weapons, explosives and anti-tank/anti-aircraft missiles in a 3 minute 20 second sortie. This area is called the Philadelphi Corridor, and was surrendered to Hamas by Israel due to significant U.S. State Department pressure in 2005. Over 700 tunnels have been dug, and most are still operative.

Up to this point Hamas rocket squads have managed to fire more than 70 rockets at Israel, and Israel’s Military Intelligence believes that Hamas has the ability and reserves to fire up to 200 rockets daily for quite some time.

On Sunday one Hamas rocket traveled 37 kilometers, hitting Gan Yavne a bedroom community east of Ashdod. This means that other towns including Gedera and Beersheva (where we live) are in possible range of Hamas rockets. The Home Front Command has ordered public bomb shelters to be opened in these two ns beginning Monday morning. Pray for the Israeli civilians in rocket range of Hamas mortars and rockets (Qassams and Grad rockets, capable of reaching Ashkelon, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat and Beersheva).

The question of casualties

The casualty rate in Gaza has now reached 300 (most of these terrorists), with over 1,000 wounded.

The IDF takes great pains to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas deliberately locates its centers and fires its rockets from within civilian centers. Hamas rockets only target civilians, while the IDF tries very hard to only target terrorists. Due to the immediate proximity of civilians to rocket launchers and Hamas headquarters, there have certainly been some civilian casualties.

Israeli army intelligence has warned and even done mass telephoning of Gazan civilians, urging them to stay away from potential target areas. Though civilian casualties are deeply regretted, they are known in military parlance as collateral damage. General William Tecumseh Sherman once remarked (based on his American military experiences) that “war is hell.” We agree, even though it is sometimes necessary.

The Palestinian terror groups unfortunately see these casualties in a positive light – as helpful grist in their propaganda mills. They immediately tell the world media that Israel is targeting civilians and causing massacres.

One prime example of this tactic was during Operation Defensive Shield (March 2002), triggered by Hamas terrorists who killed 30 Jews (including Holocaust survivors) and injured 140 at a public Passover meal in Netanya Israel. IDF troops retook control of major West Bank cities which had become suicide bomber havens. The army took great pains to avoid civilian casualties, suffering many fatalities in this process. Nevertheless, the Palestinian media accused Israel of a bloodthirsty massacre of over 500 civilians in Jenin. That number was eventually dropped to approximately 56 terrorists, most in uniform, and  7 or 8 civilians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Defensive_Shield).

One 58 year old Jewish man was killed this Saturday in his apartment by a Hamas rocket, and 10 Israelis have been wounded. We thank God for the protection He has granted so far to Israelis, and we strongly encourage you to pray for continued safety!

Prayer requests

➢      Pray for the leadership of Israel – that the God of Israel will give them clarity, strategy, courage and discernment (2 Kings 6:8-12)

➢      Pray for Gaza’s leadership – that God would frustrate their plans, operations and strategies (Psalm 83:4, 9-15)

➢      Pray for the civilian population of Gaza, many who support the terror – that God in His mercy would reveal Himself to many as their Savior and Prince of peace (Jonah 3:8-9)

➢      Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1)

➢      Pray for the struggling tiny community of believers in Gaza, some who have been tortured or martyred by Islamists in recent days

➢      Pray for the Jewish believers in the Negev area bordering on Gaza, some who contend with daily rocket attacks

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Three

This is a report of details of today’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis of the war, and then specific prayer requests.

Monday has been another day of air attacks against the infrastructure, military leadership and weaponry of the Islamist group Hamas. It has also been another day of rocket fire against Israeli cities, towns and farms.

Air attacks

IAF planes targeted weapons caches, some of which were hidden inside mosques. Video footage from Israeli UAVs (drones or unmanned aerial vehicles) show Hamas pickup trucks being loaded with long-range Grad missiles and then heading to the northern Gaza Strip to be relocated or fired against Israeli cities. The truck was taken out by air-to-ground Israeli rockets, causing a huge explosion of ordnance.

In one case, a mosque was hit and its ammunition dump destroyed. As the mosque toppled over, it crushed an adjoining house, causing five fatalities. For these reasons the Israeli Military Intelligence has been telephoning civilian house in Gaza prior to the air raids, and warning civilians to immediately vacate the premises and to stay away from weapons caches.

Today government building associated with Hamas and symbolizing their rule over the Palestinian populace were targeted, including the Ministries of Culture and the Interior. Though the buildings were empty, they have enormous symbolic value for Gazans.

A concerted effort is also being made to target military leaders of Hamas, most of whom are underground in deep bunkers – similar to Viet Cong strategies in the late 1960’s. On Monday Maher Zakut (age 30) the commander of Hamas’s rocket-firing forces, was successfully targeted, as well as Ziyad Abu-Tir, 36, a senior activist in the Islamic Jihad terror group.

Two research-and-development laboratories located on the Islamic University campus in Gaza City were destroyed. These labs were involved in weapons development, as well as in work to increase the range of the Qassam and Grad rockets.

A total of 350 Arab fatalities to date have been tabulated by Hamas. Although Hamas insists that they are 99% civilian deaths, according to yesterday’s UN figures, only 51 of these were civilians. Again of these 51, approximately 30 were women or children. This relatively low figure shows how strenuously the IAF is trying to avoid civilian fatalities, even though Hamas deliberately sets up its command and control (CC) centers and ammo dumps in the heart of civilian areas.

Pray for the Israeli pilots who need to make split second decisions where many lives could hang in the balance. Pray that God would give them the necessary accuracy, wisdom and discernment. Pray for the salvation of many Gazans (physically and spiritually) during this time of trial.

Hamas rocket fire

On Monday over 73 rockets have been targeted against the cities of Sderot and Ashkelon, as well as against kibbutzim in the area.

At 9:29 am a Grad rocket fired by Hamas struck a construction site in Ashkelon, killing an Israeli Bedouin Arab worker, Hani al-Mahdi (27) from the Negev village of Aro’er, and injuring 30 others.

On Monday over 30 Israelis have been hospitalized, either from wounds or from shock. As I write, three attacks happened in short succession: a Hamas Grad rocket hit a moving civilian car in Ashdod (seriously wounding 2 women) and a Qassam fired by the PRC (Popular Resistance Committee, a PLO break-off group financed by Hezbollah in Lebanon) seriously wounded two Israeli men near the Gaza Strip. As well, a mortar shell killed an Israeli soldier and seriously wounded three others near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, bordering the Gaza Strip.

Much has been made in the world media of the fact that many Hamas terrorists have died but only a few Jewish people so far. The logic of these statements is obscene, because it infers that warfare should involve and equal number of fatalities on both sides for it to be a fair fight. Allow me to paraphrase a famous American Army General, George S. Patton, “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other b----- die for his.”

Pray for Gaza’s leadership – that God would frustrate their plans, operations and strategies (Psalm 83:4, 9-15)

We thank God for the protection He has granted so far to Israelis, and we strongly encourage you to keep praying for continued safety! Pray for Yeshua to reveal Himself to many through these trials.

Possible developments

The prima facie cause of Operation Cast Lead is the continuing rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza’s Hamas against Israeli civilian cities, towns and farms. Over 10,000 of these have been fired at Israel over the past three years. Israel has stated that Hamas’ ability and will to fire these missiles and rockets must be degraded and absolutely stopped. Even though the air attacks have been quite powerful and accurate, Hamas is continuing to fire rockets and cause Israeli fatalities and casualties.

On Monday Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced, “Unless the criminal fire at Israeli citizens stops immediately, Israel will utilize all the legal means at its disposal in order to halt the enemy’s aggression.” These words convey a meaning that all Israelis understand. A ground operation is only a short matter of time.

Over the past few days a total of 6,500 Israeli reservist have been called up, while tanks, APCs, artillery batteries, Paratroops and Golani Brigade infantry have been taking up holding positions facing the Gaza Strip. Monday morning all access roads leading to the Gaza Strip have been closed to civilian traffic.

Pray for the leadership of Israel who are even now making monumental decisions regarding the upcoming ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment (2 Kings 6:8-12)

Other prayer requests

➢      Pray for the Israeli special forces, infantry, tanks and artillery who will be involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20)

➢      Pray especially for the believing soldiers who will be participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16)

➢      Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1)

➢      Pray for the struggling tiny community of believers in Gaza, some who have been tortured or martyred by Islamists in recent days

➢      Pray for the Jewish believers in the Negev area bordering on Gaza, some who contend with daily rocket attacks

War With Hamas – Day Four

This is a report of details of today’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis of the war, and then specific prayer requests.

Tuesday has seen a reduced number of air attacks against the infrastructure, homes and offices of military leadership and weaponry of the Islamist group Hamas. It has also been another day of extended rocket fire against Israeli cities, towns and farms.

The air war

Continued targets included houses and offices of Hamas leadership, both military and administrative. More tunnels used for smuggling weapons were bombed along the border with Egypt, which has allowed Hamas over the years to bring in vast quantities of armaments to Gaza . Flyers were air-dropped prior to these bombing runs, urging civilians to evacuate the area immediately. Approximately 60 tunnels have been destroyed, though there are at least 600 still functioning. Many potential targets have not been hit (ammo dumps, weapons factories, missile silos, etc) because they are totally surrounded by civilians populations.

Israeli Military Intelligence (AMAN) made over 100,000 telephone calls into Gaza urging Gazans to stay away from Hamas weapons caches and command and control centers. Calls have been placed to Hamas leaders’ homes, ordering families out before bombing runs were made. As well, Hamas radio stations have been hijacked by the IDF at times to broadcast warnings of impending bombings.

These efforts flatly contradict the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s rebuke to Israel that it is using “excessive force in Gaza.” When the most advanced air force in the world is attacking terror nests deliberately placed in the middle of civilian populations, and after 4 days of pinpoint bombing has only caused 80 civilian casualties, one should expect that a man of Ki-Moon’s stature would make more accurate and less propagandistic declarations.

In more than 500 IAF sorties, a total of 380 Arab fatalities and 1,800 injured to date have been tabulated by Hamas.

Pray for the Israeli pilots who need to make split second decisions where many lives could hang in the balance. Pray that God would give them the necessary accuracy, wisdom and discernment. Pray for the salvation of many Gazans (physically and spiritually) during this time of trial.

Hamas rocket fire

From Monday night to Tuesday night over 40 rockets have been targeted against Israeli cities and farms. There have also been four Israeli fatalities to date. Among them:

Late Monday night a mortar fired by Gazan Arabs killed an Israeli Druze Arab serving in the IDF, Master-Sergeant Lutfi Nasser ad-Din (age 38) from Dalyat al-Carmel near Haifa, and wounded 4 others near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, adjoining the Gaza Strip.

At 9.00 pm Monday night a Grad rocket fired by Hamas killed Irit Shitrit, age 39 and mother of 4 children. She was returning home from a workout at a local fitness center in Ashdod when the rocket struck her and her sister Ayelet.

Hamas increased the range of rockets fired on Tuesday, hitting the towns of Ofakim, Netivot and Yavne (41 kilometers from Gaza), as well as near the cities of Kiryat Malachi and Rahat (Rahat is Israel’s largest Bedouin Arab town with a population of more than 40,000).

At 8:56 pm air raid sirens wailed in our own community of Omer adjoining Beersheva, and we heard two explosions. Hamas shot two Grad rockets toward Beersheva, Israel’s sixth largest city. One landed in an open field and the other struck an empty kindergarten, causing devastation and fire. Fifty five civilians were hospitalized for shock. All schools are closed today in Beersheva (43,000 children) as well as in 91 other kibbutzim and regional farms in the Negev.

Nearly 200 rockets have been fired by Hamas to date.

World media continues to stress that fewer Israelis are being wounded or killed than Gazans, as if this were not a war but a macabre chess game. Would it be fair to ask if too few British or American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as they battle al Qa’eda? Such questions are disgusting, and only give succor to the enemy.

Pray for Gaza’s leadership – that God would frustrate their plans, operations and strategies (Psalm 83:4, 9-15)

We thank God for the protection He has granted so far to Israelis, and we strongly encourage you to keep praying for continued safety! Pray for Yeshua to reveal Himself to many Israelis through these trials.

Other news

Over 100 trucks carrying humanitarian aid (food and medical supplies) were allowed into Gaza by Israel, much of the aid coming from Jordan and Turkey. Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan accused Israel of crimes against humanity, while an Israeli flag was publicly burned in Jordan’s Parliament session.

In Iraq one hundred Sunnis demonstrated against Israel, but the demonstration was interrupted by a suicide bomber on a bicycle who blew himself up, killing and wounding many.

Over 300 Israeli Arabs have been arrested for rioting against the war. Approximately 170 are still in custody. Most of these demonstrations have been in Jerusalem (93 arrested) and in the North.

Top Saudi and Taliban Islamic clerics have called for world jihad and indiscriminate international attacks against Israelis and Jews. Mass demonstrations against Israel occurred in Beirut, Amman, Cairo and Teheran. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, addressed Beirut crowds from an undisclosed location. He has only been seen once in public since the Lebanese war of August 2006, fearful of an Israeli assassination attempt. He called for the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who sees Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as his own mortal enemies. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that Hezbollah want “for there to be chaos in Egypt as there is in their country.” Gamal Abdel Gawad, head of the international relations unit of Egypt’s Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, said that “the Palestinian cause is a major bribe used by the radicals to legitimate their aims and further Iranian hegemony in the Middle East.”

A vessel charted by the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement attempted to run a blockade of Gaza, and was turned back by an Israeli missile boat. Al Jazeera and CNN reporters were on board, as well as Sami El-Haj, a former detainee at Guantanamo and ex-Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (Georgia, 2008 Green Party candidate).

Israeli children in Ashkelon are studying in bomb shelters.

Boots on the ground?

Israeli tanks, artillery batteries, infantry and special forces continue to mass at the edge of Gaza . Navy ships are hovering just off shore in the blue Mediterranean waters. After the Beersheva rocket attacks, another additional draft of 2,500 reservists was authorized, bringing the total to 9,200 (apart from regular standing armed forces).

Hamas has at least 2,000 rockets in hiding including long-range Grads, and advanced anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles. A former Palestinian Authority security official estimates that Hamas’ Izz ed-Din al-Qassam terror wing has over 20,000 rockets and mortars stored, as well as tens of thousands of tons of explosives. The bulk of Hamas trained army fighters (15,000) is intact, as well as the top commanders and underground command and control bunkers. Rockets are still being fired. The need to remove this threat to Israel’s population is even more pressing than ever before. The Israeli security establishment does not feel that Hamas has yet sustained a long-term strategic blow.

The mood on the street is very positive about dealing Hamas a decisive death-blow. Late Tuesday night a rumor surfaced (quickly denied by the IDF) that the Israeli Minister of Defense was examining the possibility of a 48 hour cease-fire. Hamas quickly refused any such suggestion, insisting that Israel pull back and refrain from attacking Hamas; that the borders with Egypt be opened for greater smuggling of weapons; and that Hamas would hold onto its rocket arsenal for use as and when it sees fit.

On Monday Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced, “Unless the criminal fire at Israeli citizens stops immediately, Israel will utilize all the legal means at its disposal in order to halt the enemy’s aggression.” These words convey a meaning that all Israelis understand. A ground operation is only a short matter of time.

Tuesday night the heads of security, defense and government met in a closed door session. Decisions were taken as to the next steps, but there is a total media blackout on their decisions.

Pray for the leadership of Israel who are even now making monumental decisions regarding the upcoming ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment (2 Kings 6:8-12)

Other prayer requests

➢      Pray for the Israeli special forces, infantry, tanks and artillery who will be involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20)

➢      Pray especially for the believing soldiers who will be participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16)

➢      Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1)

➢      Pray for the struggling tiny community of believers in Gaza, some who have been tortured or martyred by Islamists in recent days

➢      Pray for the Jewish believers in the Negev area bordering on Gaza, some who contend with daily rocket attacks

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Five

This is a report of details of Tuesday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

Tuesday has seen another red line crossed with escalation of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel’s fifth largest city Beersheva, and a corresponding escalation on the Israeli side through targetings of Hamas leaders. Preparations for a ground operation are complete.

The Islamist group Hamas has fired over 10,000 rockets and mortars against civilian targets in Israel over the past 8 years. Sporadic firing of rockets against Israel continued during a recent temporary “cessation of hostilities”, and that season was used by Hamas to build up forces and weaponry in preparation for the present continued attacks on Israel.

Two weeks ago Hamas refused to extend even that partial cease-fire and began intensive rocketing Israeli kibbutzim, towns and cities on the average of 40-50 attacks a day. We thank the God of Israel that He is granting an amazing measure of protection to His people (see Leviticus 26:8; 1 Samuel 18:7; Psalm 91:7) and encourage you to pray for the safety and peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1).

Escalation – Hamas attacks Beersheva

Taking a page from Hezbollah’s tactics in August 2006, Hamas has long threatened to hit major Israeli cities. Their weapon of choice are Katyusha rockets manufactured in China and Iran, packed with screws, bolts and ball bearings to maximize casualties, and topped off with ammonia to increase explosive power.

The 122 mm Grad-model has been used recently to hit Sderot, Netivot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gan Yavne, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Rahat, moshavim just outside of Beersheva and now Beersheva itself. These rockets are smuggled through Yemen, Eritrea, and Sudan, and finally brought across the very porous border with Egypt. Hamas’ demand that these borders (the Philadelphi Corridor) be thrown wide open is basically the demand to be allowed to resupply and continue rocket attacks against Israel.

Over the past 36 hours 80 rocket attacks have struck Israel from Gaza. Nine Grads have been fired into Beersheva, and have made impact not far from our home. One demolished a children’s playground (Tuesday evening), another destroyed a high school classroom (Wednesday 9:30 am). There would have been many casualties, but the Mayor of Beersheva had decided at 4 am Wednesday morning to close all schools in the Beersheva area, keeping 43,000 children at home.

A total of 200,000 schoolchildren are sitting at home today from Ashdod through Beersheva. Grads have fallen within the municipal boundaries of these cities, and air raid sirens sound from time to time. Those who have lived through the London Blitz or Saddam Hussein’s Scud attacks have a sense of déjà-vu all over again.

In the over 540 IAF sorties which have been carried out, a total of 400 Arab fatalities and close to 2,000 with various injuries to date have been tabulated by Hamas.

Pray for the Israeli pilots who need to make split second decisions where many lives could hang in the balance. Pray that God would give them the necessary accuracy, wisdom and discernment. Pray for the salvation of many Gazans (physically and spiritually) during this time of trial.

Israeli response – targeting leaders

In response to the rocket attacks on Beersheva, increased IAF over flights have been taking place. A top Islamic Jihad terror leader was successfully targeted.

A mosque used for storing rockets was destroyed. In Muslim tradition, mosques have sometimes been gathering places for encouraging, stirring up and supporting jihad. They have been used to shelter combatants and as a base from which to attack unbelievers. In recent UAV reconnaissance flights over Gaza, Israeli drones have positively identified terror leaders gathering and using mosques as command and control centers – to brief ground forces and distribute rockets. Though such behavior is not an accepted part of modern Western culture, the Islamist use of houses of worship in jihad or holy war has definite historical precedent in the Middle East.

More than 250 rockets have been fired by Hamas into Israel over the past 6 days.

Pray for Gaza’s leadership – that God would frustrate their plans, operations and strategies (Psalm 83:4, 9-15).

Ground operation approaching

Though there is a total news blackout on Israeli military preparations and timing, it is being reported that all preparations have been completed for a ground forces invasion. Only the green light is lacking.

Though the IAF air attacks have been comprehensive, the military forces of Hamas are still untouched. This terror army is waiting for an Israeli incursion, convinced that they will be able to inflict heavy casualties on the IDF. Roadside IEDs (improvised explosive devices), huge explosives concealed under newly paved roads, anti-tank and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles certainly await the IDF.

➢      We ask you to pray for the military leadership of the IDF regarding the decisions they are making concerning the upcoming ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment, as He did to the prophets and armies of Israel in Elisha’s day (2 Kings 6:8-12).

➢       Pray for the Israeli special forces, infantry, tanks and artillery who will be involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

➢      Pray especially for the believing soldiers who will be participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen their families with His power and sovereign love.

A special prayer request

We would ask for special prayer for Jerusalem’s Border Police. They have been working 12 hour shifts around the clock, and all leaves have been cancelled. Night duties involve apprehending terror suspects. Some fatigue is setting in, and they have been away from their families for an extended period of time (2 Samuel 11:9-11). The MAGAV (Border Patrol) is expecting serious riots on Friday at the Temple Mount and in some Arab areas of East Jerusalem. We believe that praying saints can seriously alter the plans of the enemy in Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem in a special way today and tomorrow!

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Six

This is a report of details of Thursday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

➢      Hamas long-range Katyusha rocket attacks continue against Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheva.

➢      The IAF successfully targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders.

➢      Preparations for a ground operation are complete, but there seems to be hesitation on the part of Israel’s political leadership to move ahead.

Hamas rockets Negev cities

Hamas fired 52 rockets on strictly civilian targets on Thursday, focusing on Israel’s 5th, 6th and 13th biggest cities – Ashdod, Beersheva and Ashkelon. Yesterday our city of Beersheva was hit 8 times by Grad katyushas, while Ashkelon was hit 9 times. There were no Israeli fatalities, and only a handful of people were injured, though many are suffering from shock.

➢      We thank the God of Israel that He is granting an amazing measure of protection to His people (see Leviticus 26:8; 1 Samuel 18:7; Psalm 91:7) and encourage you to pray for the safety and peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1).

In close to 600 IAF sorties, approximately 450 Arab fatalities and over 2,000 with various injuries to date have been tabulated by Hamas. Possibly up to 25% of these figures are civilian human shields who lived beside or on top of Hamas facilities, ammo dumps and command-and-control (C3) centers.

➢      Pray for the Israeli pilots who need to make split second decisions where many lives could hang in the balance. Pray that God would give them the necessary accuracy, wisdom and discernment. Pray for the salvation of many Gazans (physically and spiritually) during this time of trail.

IAF targets top Hamas commanders

The IAF targeted top Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists with some measure of success. Five leaders were bombed, including Hasim Drili (Hamas weapons lab in North Gaza), Nabil Amrin (senior Hamas Battalion commander in Sheikh Radwan), Mohammad Baroud (PRC head of all North Gaza rocket cells), Tafik Abu Raf (Hamas weapons lab in central Gaza) and Nizar Rayyan (senior Hamas top echelon commander in Jabalya). In every case, after the IAF bombing a lengthy series of secondary explosions revealed that each home base was being used as an ammunition depot for rockets, mortars and explosives.

Due to intense media coverage of the Nizar Rayyan bombing, it would be beneficial to give some background which is germane for all of the above bombings.

Sheikh Nizar Rayyan was one of Hamas’ senior leaders and the spiritual leader of Hamas’ military wing Izz ad-Din al Qassam. Married to four wives, he had 12 children. He was considered an authority on Mohammed’s teachings which are found in the Hadith. He was a mufti or issuer of fatwas (religious rulings) supporting suicide bombings. Recently he was intensively advocating for a return to suicide terrorism.

On October 3 2001 Rayyan (age 60) sent one of his twelve sons on a suicide attack against the Israeli kibbutz Alei Sinai, where two Israelis were murdered. On march 14 2004 he masterminded a terror attack on Ashdod Port where 10 Israelis were murdered. He remained in personal communication with the kidnappers of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Prior to the IAF bombing, he received a phone call from Israeli Military Intelligence urging all inhabitants to leave the building. In response, some Hamas security personnel went up on the rooftop and indicated that they would not leave. IAF pilots then executed a tactic known as “knocking on the roof” (ed., and not the door – ‘hakesh bagag’ in Hebrew). An air-to-surface rocket with a low explosive charge was fired into one corner of the roof. Immediately the protesters fled the building.

After a few minutes a 2,200 pound bomb was dropped on Rayyan’s home, killing him, all four of his wives, most of his children, and two bodyguards. Secondary explosions quickly followed; the building was used as a munitions depot, a communications center and a hub in a network of underground military tunnels.

Nearly none of these pertinent facts were communicated by Western media. The focus was on the physical damage and the fatalities. As it is said in Bible study methods, “a text without a context is a pretext.”

Other developments

Gazan residents of al Nada near the Erez Crossing have been evacuating in fear of a possible IDF incursion, as have most Gazan villages close to potential IDF invasion points.

The IAF struck five mosques around Gaza, all of which were being used as command-and-control centers, ammo dumps and terror centers – as secondary explosions of rockets and explosives indicated. Also targeted were five contraband tunnels on the Philadelphi Corridor bordering Egypt, used to smuggle in Katyusha rockets and explosives.

All access routes from the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) into Israel have been closed until Saturday night based on security considerations.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a passing car in the Arab area of Nazareth, Israel, with no injuries. There is a security concern in Israel that some Israeli Arabs amy engage in seditious activities at this time. Pray for the Israeli Arab communities that they would choose to bless and not curse the Jewish people and state (Genesis 12:3; Psalm 120:5-6).

The London Times reported that Israeli defense officials believe that Hamas has obtained dozens of long-range Iranian Fajr-3 missiles (240 mm, range 45 km or 30 miles) which might bring the nuclear installation of Dimona within range of Hamas.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri declared that Israel has crossed red lines by targeting Nizar Rayyan (who of course seemed to have not crossed any red lines when he targeted Israeli civilians!) and that painful responses would be forthcoming.

➢      Pray for Gaza’s leadership – that God would frustrate their plans, operations and strategies (Psalm 83:4, 9-15).

Ambivalence regarding a ground invasion?

Though the IAF air attacks have been comprehensive, Army Intelligence (AMAN) believes that the military forces of Hamas are still untouched. Hamas is anticipating an Israeli land-based incursion, convinced that they will be able to inflict heavy casualties on the IDF. Roadside IEDs (improvised explosive devices), huge explosives concealed under newly paved roads, anti-tank and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles would certainly await the IDF.

On Tuesday Defense Minister Ehud Barak floated a trial balloon suggesting a potential 48 hour cease-fire, supposedly in the name of army, security and diplomatic leaders. This elicited an immediate denial from Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who believes that Hamas’ military capabilities and rocket inventories are mostly untouched. Prime Minister Olmert also disagreed with this balloon. Within 24 hours the trial balloon was punctured, but troubling questions remains. Perhaps because of concern about political fallout in the coming elections (or other unnamed reasons) the Defense Minister has been unwilling to take advantage of Hamas’ weakened state by initiating a military incursion into Gaza. General consensus is that only this type of incursion could sufficiently weaken Hamas’ ability to rebuild and utilize its rocket forces.

➢      We ask you to pray for the military leadership of the IDF regarding the decisions they are making concerning the upcoming ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment, as He did to the prophets and armies of Israel in Elisha’s day (2 Kings 6:8-12).

➢       Pray for the Israeli Special Forces, infantry, tanks and artillery who would be involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

➢      Pray especially for the believing soldiers who would be participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen their families with His power and sovereign love.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Seven

This is a report of details of Friday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

Note breaking news at bottom regarding the start of an artillery barrage

➢      30 Hamas Katyusha attacks continue against Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheva.

➢      The IAF successfully targeted Hamas leaders, smuggling tunnels

➢      Ground operation preparations are complete.

Continuing Hamas rocketing of Negev cities

Hamas fired 30 rockets on civilian targets on Friday, focusing on Beersheva, Ashdod and Ashkelon. There were no Israeli fatalities, and only a handful of people were injured, though many are suffering from shock.

➢      We thank the God of Israel that He is granting an amazing measure of protection to His people (see Leviticus 26:8; 1 Samuel 18:7; Psalm 91:7) and encourage you to pray for the safety and peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1).

IAF attacks

More than 750 targets have been destroyed to date in IAF sorties. According to Hamas sources, there have been approximately 450 Arab fatalities and over 2,200 with various injuries to date. U.N. sources said that more than 60 fatalities were civilians. Certainly Hamas has many civilians who live beside or on top of Hamas facilities, ammo dumps and command-and-control (C3) centers. They are for all intents and purposes Hamas’ human shields.

IAF successfully targeted Hamas military leaders senior commanders Abu Zakaria al-Jamal and the home of Imad Akel, Isma’il Ghanem (supervisor of Grad attacks in Bet Lahiya area), Izz ad-Din Haddad (Hamas commander in Gaza’s eastern sector), Muhammad Madhoun and Muhammad Ma’tuk (Jabalya). Approximately 25 targets were struck on Friday, including a control tower at Dahaniya Airport beneath which were ammunition depots, weapons stores and labs, rocket squads launching rockets, etc.

The IAF dropped Arabic leaflets urging residents to keep far away from Hamas C3 centers and weapons depots. Israeli military intelligence continued to warn residents by phone prior to air strikes.

➢      Pray for the Israeli pilots who need to make split second decisions where many lives could hang in the balance. Pray that God would give them the necessary accuracy, wisdom and discernment. Pray for the salvation of many Gazans (physically and spiritually) during this time of trial.

Background on Imad Akal

Senior commander Imad Akel, whose house was targeted yesterday by the IAF, has long been involved in terror – even against fellow Palestinians. On October 7 2002 he led a team of Hamas operatives camouflaged as Palestinian Authority (PA) police officers, and hijacked Colonel Rajeh Abu Lehiya, head of then Yasir Arafat’s PA riot police. Ikal oversaw the torture of Abu Lehiya, which included him being shot 20 times in the arms, legs and torso. His body was then dumped on a Gaza street, after which Ikal went off to a public celebration at a local market.

Other developments

Limited violent confrontation occurred on Salah ad-Din Street in East Jerusalem and in Bet Safafa, with stone throwing in Arab Jerusalem neighborhoods of Sur Baher, Shuafat, Ras al-Amud and Wadi Joz. The Border Patrol groups there were amazed that the confrontation did not explode, and at one point 500 hostile demonstrators ended up dispersing without violence. Thanks for your prayers!

An Islamist group based in Morocco hijacked many Israeli websites yesterday, including Bank Discount and ynetnews. Arabic jihadi music, pictures of US soldiers at Abu Ghreib prison and anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews were briefly posted on the web site.

Pray for the Israeli Arab believers and their communities – that they would choose to bless and not curse the Jewish people and state (Genesis 12:3; Psalm 120:5-6).

Ground invasion imminent

Though the IAF air attacks have been comprehensive, Army Intelligence (AMAN) believes that the military forces of Hamas are still untouched. Hamas is anticipating an Israeli land-based incursion, convinced that they will be able to inflict heavy casualties on the IDF. Roadside IEDs (improvised explosive devices), huge explosives concealed under newly paved roads, anti-tank and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles would certainly await the IDF.

General consensus is that only a land incursion will sufficiently weaken Hamas’ ability to rebuild and utilize its rocket forces.

➢      We ask you to pray for the military leadership of the IDF regarding the decisions they are making concerning the upcoming ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment, as He did to the prophets and armies of Israel in Elisha’s day (2 Kings 6:8-12).

Breaking news

As of 4:44 pm Saturday, January 03, 2009 IDF artillery started to shell targets in the northern Gaza Strip. This is probably the beginning of a land incursion, to be followed by a lightning insertion of Special Forces and ground troops.

➢       Pray for the Israeli Special Forces, infantry, tanks and artillery who would be involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

➢      Pray especially for the believing soldiers who would be participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen their families with His power and sovereign love.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Days Eight & Nine

This is a report of details of Saturday’s and Sunday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

➢      The IDF began its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip

➢      Over 40 Hamas terrorists and one Israeli soldier killed.

➢      Close to 100 Hamas Katyusha rocket attacks continue against Ashdod, Ashkelon and Sderot.

Ground invasion begins

The first news of the ground invasion broke at 4:44 pm Saturday with IDF artillery batteries firing into the Gaza Strip for the first time in three years. Within 75 minutes troops from Engineering and Armored Corps, Paratroopers, Golani and Givati infantry; Special Forces, Military Intelligence – at least four brigades worth – were entering into Gaza. The IDF’s military spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovitch, said, “The objective is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations. We are going to take (ed., out) some of the launch areas used by Hamas.”

Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi had met with his troops before the invasion and stated, “I have complete faith in you, the commanders and fighters. I count on you, I trust you, and I’m backing you. The people of Israel could not have asked for a better team of commanders and fighters.”

Israeli tanks, APCs and infantry broke into the Gaza Strip from four directions – Bet Lahiya and al-Atattra in the North (near Erez crossing); Bet Hanun and Jabalya (Northeast); Karni crossing (central, South of Gaza City); and Kerem Shalom crossing (South, toward Rafiah).

IAF planes dropped leaflets in Gaza on Saturday afternoon which read: “Area resident, as result of the acts undertaken by terror activists in your area against Israel, the IDF is forced to respond immediately and operate in this area. For your own safety, you are asked to leave the area immediately.”

Miltary developments

Within less than 24 hours more than 150 tanks had broken through to the shoreline south of Gaza City, effectively cutting the Strip in half and preventing resupply to Hamas’ central command holed up in Gaza City. That city has been surrounded by IDF troops, though counter-terror operations have not yet begun in the alleys of Hamas’ unofficial capital. Engineering Corps are blowing up networks of tunnels and rocket launcher sites throughout Gaza.

A naval blockade of 30 km (approximately 20 miles) has been placed on Gaza by the Israeli Navy. The land invasion has been focused on North Gaza, for that is where the majority of the Grad rockets have been fired against Beersheva, Ashdod and Ofakim.

IDF troops have been capturing Hamas gunmen who will be used in a prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Israel soldier kidnapped by Hamas and in captivity for 924 days to date.

Over 40 Hamas gunmen have been killed. One Israeli soldier, Golani Staff-Sergeant Dvir Emanuelof,  22, of Givat Ze’ev, died after being wounded in a mortar attack on Sunday close to 9 am. Twenty-five other IDF soldiers have been lightly wounded by mortar or sniper fire, and five have been seriously wounded. All have been medevac’d to Soroka Hospital in Beersheva.

➢       Pray for the Israeli Special Forces, infantry, tanks and artillery who are involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

➢      We ask you to pray for the military leadership of the IDF regarding the decisions they are making concerning the ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment, as He did to the prophets and armies of Israel in Elisha’s day (2 Kings 6:8-12).

➢      Pray especially for the more than 30 believing Messianic soldiers participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen them, grant them victory, and strengthen their families with His power, love and confidence.

Responses to invasion

The Iranian Speaker of Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday, saying “The Zionists have encountered a strong opposition on the part of the brave Palestinians and have suffered a great blow.” This was an extremely clumsy attempt at disinformation, in light of actual facts on the ground.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expressed support for Israel’s ground operation in Gaza on Sunday, declaring that “every nation has the right to defend itself against terrorism and cold-blooded attacks on its people. Israel is no different and is right to defend itself against the unceasing violence of rocket attacks launched by Hamas.”

Egyptian President Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II (the only two Arab countries to have official peace treaties with Israel) called on the UN Security Council to order a ceasefire in Gaza. The palace said that “Jordan is furious and will take whatever means necessary to stop the aggression.” Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi said that his country will re-examine its relations with Israel. Behind the scenes both countries see Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as a clear and present threat to their governments. But publically they feel the social and political pressures of the Middle East, and have taken an official stand opposed to the incursion.

According to the Iranian news agency IRNA, a senior Iranian military official called for an oil embargo – that Islamic nations should cutback on oil exports to countries supporting Israel. On Friday Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, met in Damascus to discuss strategic plans with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Hamas Politburo head Khaled Mashal, and Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Salah (see Psalm 83).

In Sakhnin, Israel a large anti-Israel demonstration of 10,000 was addressed by Sakhnin Mayor Mazen Ghnaim who declared, “Long live Palestine, whose capital is Jerusalem, and long live the shahids (ed., jihad martyrs)!”

➢      Pray for the Islamic world and for Israel’s Arab communities – that they would choose to bless and not curse the Jewish people and state (Genesis 12:3; Psalm 120:5-6).

IAF attacks

More than 800 targets have been destroyed to date in IAF sorties. On Sunday IAF successfully targeted Hamas senior military leaders Hussam Hamdan, Muhammad Shalpuch and Muhammad Hilou in the Khan Yunis area, responsible for overseeing rocket attacks on Beersheva and Ofakim. Bridges connecting North and South Gaza have been destroyed as well.

According to Hamas sources, there have been approximately 550 Arab fatalities and over 2,200 with various injuries to date. U.N. sources said that more than 60 fatalities were civilians. Certainly Hamas has many civilians who live beside or on top of Hamas facilities, ammo dumps and command-and-control (C3) centers. They are for all intents and purposes Hamas’ human shields.

➢      Pray for the Israeli pilots who need to make split second decisions where many lives could hang in the balance. Pray that God would give them the necessary accuracy, wisdom and discernment. Pray for the salvation of many Gazans (physically and spiritually) during this time of trial.

Answers to prayer re rocket attacks

Hamas fired more than 40 rockets on civilian targets on Saturday and 50 on Sunday, focusing on Ashdod, Sderot and Ashkelon. There were no Israeli fatalities, and only a handful of people were injured, though many are suffering from shock. In one miraculous answer to prayer, a Grad struck a wooden house in Netivot, which was totally demolished. The old woman inside the house was lightly injured with a shrapnel scratch on her knee. Keep praying!

➢      We thank the God of Israel that He is granting an amazing measure of protection to His people (see Leviticus 26:8; 1 Samuel 18:7; Psalm 91:7) and encourage you to pray for the safety and peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1).

Up to Saturday night, 57 Israelis have been wounded in rocket attacks, 350 suffered shock, and 4 were killed. Over 440 arrests have been made of violent demonstrators in the Arab sector, of which more than 140 were minors.

Hamas execution of fellow Arabs

On Saturday night and all day Sunday, Hamas’ Internal Security Apparatus oversaw the shooting of at least 75 Palestinian Authority supporters in the legs, while others had their hands broken – all this to prevent them from supporting the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas. Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by ISA agents for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets. More than 35 Palestinians imprisoned in Hamas jails on suspicion of collaborating with Israel were summarily executed over the weekend.

➢       Pray for mercy on the people of Gaza; that the God of Israel would grant them deliverance from evil leaders and safety and salvation amidst the storm.

Truth is stranger than fiction

On December 19 2008 Hamas refused to extend the tottering cease-fire and began to rocket Israeli kibbutzim, towns and cities. On the evening of January 3 2009 IDF forces entered the Gaza Strip.

Those two dates eerily echo two other significant dates in the life of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the author and finisher of Israel’s “disengagement” (read “retreat”) from Gaza in August 2005.

On December 19 2005 PM Sharon had his first stroke and on the night of January 3-4 2006 he experienced his second and final stroke.

It is sobering – it brings on the fear of the Lord – to realize that, as the Author of history would have it, three years later to the day of Sharon’s two strokes, the disastrous Gaza disengagement plan has found itself sovereignly turned upside down.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Ten

This is a report of details of Monday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

➢      The IDF tightens its grip on Hamas leadership in Gaza City and Jabalya

➢      Over 100 Hamas terrorists killed, and more than 100 taken prisoner

➢      More than 50 Hamas Katyusha rocket attacks continue against coastal and Negev cities

Root canal operations

On Sunday the IDF focused on three goals: destruction of Hamas’ terror infrastructure (weapons caches, rockets and rocket launcher pads); killing Hamas gunmen; and taking prisoners (for on-site intelligence in real time and in preparation for a prisoner exchange). Minister of Defense Ehud Barak stated that the aim of the operation “is simple. No terror activity from Gaza, either against civilians or against our soldiers; a dramatic change in weapons smuggling, and quiet in the South.”

Over 100 Hamas terrorist have been killed. Over 100 have been taken prisoner and are undergoing questioning in Israel.

Heavy fighting is occurring in Gaza’s North (Beit Hanun, Beit Lahiya) and Center (Al-Bureij).  IDF troops are engaged in dismantling booby-trapped house and roads, wiping out sniper nests, blowing up rocket launchers and pads, eliminating Hamas gunmen and taking prisoners. Hidden weapons caches are being discovered in mosques, public institutions and private homes, according to Major-General Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin. There is also strong intelligence that the Hamas High Command is hiding in bunkers dug beneath Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. These same tactics were used by the PLO in Lebanon in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, by Fatah forces in the West Bank, and by al Qa’eda in Iraq.

A Hamas spokesman boasted on Monday that they were fighting the IDF using tens of thousands of American rifles, heavy machine guns, night-vision goggles and bulletproof vests – equipment seized from the Palestinian Authority when Hamas staged a violent coup in June 2007. Then the PA collapsed as quickly as did the Shah’s Iran in January 1979, leaving much American ordnance to fall into the hands of the U.S.’s (and Israel’s) sworn enemies.

IAF planes hit 40 targets Monday, while Navy gunships hit bunkers full of Grad katyusha rockets.

➢       Pray for the Israeli Special Forces, infantry, tanks, artillery and engineers who are involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

➢      Pray especially for the close to 50 believing Messianic soldiers participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen them, grant them victory, and strengthen their families with His power, love and confidence.

On Sunday night Hamas forces attempted to kidnap an Israeli Golani Brigade soldier, luring him into a tunnel where he cornered a group of gunmen and engaged them in a firefight. He was rescued by his brothers in arms.

➢      Pray that Hamas’ demonic threat to kidnap IDF soldiers will be totally thwarted by divine revelation (2 Kings 6:8-12).

Hamas rockets and  declarations

Hamas continued to rocket Israeli Negev cities and farms on Monday, firing off more than 50 Grad and Qassam rockets against Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim. The Israel Ministry of Health said that up to this point in Operation Cast Lead, 128 Israelis have been wounded (4 seriously and 6 moderately) and 661 have been treated for shock. Four Israelis have been killed.

Of the more than 300 rockets fired by Hamas since the start of Operation Cast Lead, 220 (73%) were fired from areas in Gaza now under IDF control.

According to Hamas sources which are not currently verifiable, fatalities in Gaza are somewhere between 500 and 555, while wounded are between 2,200 and 2,500.

Hundreds of Palestinians are fleeing the al-Atattra and Beit Lahiya areas and moving toward central Jabalya. Gaza is seeing its infrastructure go through various stages of collapse, as electricity, sewage and water services are down or sporadic. Cesspools in the streets bear mute witness to the very real spiritual sewage that Hamas has brought to the inhabitants of Gaza.

➢       Pray for the inhabitants of Gaza who have chosen to put their trust in Hamas – that God would rescue them from evil leadership and bring physical rescue and deliverance to many.

The IDF has continued to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza throughout the conflict, though Hamas has perversely shelled these very border crossings. Over the past few years it has shot and murdered Israeli truck drivers bringing in fuel supplies, as well as Jewish electricity workers repairing power lines bringing Israeli electricity into Gaza.

Hamas is threatening to fire longer-range Grad rockets which conceivably could reach Israeli cities like Rishon Le Zion and Rehovot, potentially bringing another 333,700 Israelis within rocket fire range.

Hamas senior leader Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar stated on Monday that “the problem is not the rockets, but the (ed. Israeli) occupation.” Hamas spokesman Moussa Abu Marzouk said that Hamas would rather continue to fight Israel than accept a blockade of its borders with Egypt. All of Hamas’ weapons, rockets and cash come through that border, and Hamas would not be able to attack Israel if that border were properly sealed and administrated. Hamas believes that international pressure will force Israel to stand down its operations, leaving Hamas with rockets to spare, and an open border through which to restock and prepare for the next round of terror attacks.

➢       Pray that the terror strategies of Hamas will be thwarted; that weapons smuggling through the tunnels will be totally shut down; and that righteousness will prevail over the entire Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza.

Responses to invasion

Islamic Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan declared on Monday that “Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents.” He added that Israel’s actions would “lead to its destruction.”

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem declared that the international community “must judge those responsible (ed., Israel) for the war crimes.” Such language is unseemly, coming from a leadership which, on February 2 1982, bombed, shelled and gassed 25,000 residents of Hama, Syria, killing most of them – in order to also destroy a small number of Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas-related) activists who were hiding among the city’s residents (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre).

On Monday Egyptian secret police arrested and jailed 50 members of the Hamas-related Muslim Brotherhood who wanted to protest against Egypt’s handling of the Gaza situation.

Huge demonstrations took place against Israel in Istanbul (200,000), Rabat, Morocco (40,000), Montreal (5,000), Athens (4,000), Beirut, Melbourne and Sydney. US and Israeli flags were burned at these demonstrations, as were effigies of President Bush and President-elect Obama (Athens), while in Rabat shoes were thrown in honor of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush (a deeply insulting and highly offensive gesture in the Arab world).

Cease- fire?

Israeli military strategists understand that the world nearly never protests when Jews are killed, but immediately becomes livid if Jews fight back and defeat their mortal enemies. The paradigm of Jews as victims seems to be more acceptable than Jews as victors. Ever since Israel “refused to lay down and die when its’ door was kicked in” (as Bob Dylan sings in “Neighborhood Bully”) in June 1967 during the Six Day War, the world has replaced anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, and has happily justified Islamic and secular hatred of the Jewish state.

Israel fights its wars knowing that a window of only one to two weeks exists, before the UN and other international bodies will threaten Israel into backing down from decisively destroying clear and present threats to its survival as a nation. As the European Union, Russia, Britain, France and the United States begin to exert pressure for a cease-fire – one which may leave Hamas in power, possessing its rockets and weapons, and with an open door to smuggle in an endless supply of weaponry –

➢      Pray that a cease-fire will not come to pass which will preserve Hamas’ organizational ability to damage Israel ever again (Isaiah 8:9-10).

Saddam Hussein roams the streets of Gaza

US forces entering Iraq on March 19 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom were surprised at the low level of resistance encountered. It took military brass some time to understand that Saddam had given his Republican Army orders to fade into the woodwork and prepare for a drawn-out campaign of low-intensity urban conflict – guerilla warfare in the alleys of Iraq. It could be that Hamas is trying to duplicate this same strategy in Gaza.

➢      We ask you to pray for the military leadership of the IDF regarding the decisions they are making concerning the ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment, as He did to the prophets and armies of Israel in Elisha’s day (2 Kings 6:8-12).

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Eleven

This is a report of details of Tuesday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

➢      The IDF engages Hamas gunmen around Gaza City and Jabalya

➢      Total of over 150 Hamas terrorists killed, more than 100 taken prisoner

➢      More than 30 Hamas rocket attacks against Negev cities and Gedera

➢      Four “friendly fire” Israeli casualties

➢      Hamas uses civilians as shields

➢      Egyptians, U.S. and French work toward possible cease-fire

Air, naval and ground operations

On Tuesday the IDF continued to focus on three goals: destruction of Hamas’ terror infrastructure (weapons caches, rockets and rocket launcher pads); killing Hamas gunmen; and taking prisoners (for on-site intelligence in real time and in preparation for a prisoner exchange). Prime Minister Olmert restated the two goals that are keeping the military operation going –  no smuggling of weapons into Gaza from Egypt, and no terror of any kind against Israel.

Over 150 Hamas terrorist have been killed. Over 100 have been taken prisoner and are undergoing questioning in Israel.

IAF (Israel Air Force) planes hit 40 targets on Tuesday, eliminating Ayman Siam, head of all Hamas rocket and artillery forces in Gaza. Navy gunships succeeded in eliminating a combined group of 6 terrorists (Hamas and Islamic Jihad) near Dir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Heavy house-to-house fighting is occurring in Saja’iya, al-Atattra and Jabaliya (north & central Gaza). Intensive close-quarters combat is occurring on many fronts. The IDF is dealing simultaneously with attempted ambushes by Hamas gunmen, rooftop snipers, roadside IEDs, mortars and kidnap attempts. Engineering Corps are disarming booby-trapped tunnels, houses, mosques and schools. In one case a child’s doll on the ground concealed the entrance to a booby-trapped tunnel.

Two amazing answers to prayer occurred. In one case a Hamas suicide bomber leaped into a squad of soldiers but his bomb-vest failed to detonate. He was captured and disarmed. In another case, a unit of Givati infantry went in to relieve themselves inside an abandoned school building, and noticed wires leading to a booby-trapped row of cannon shells. They were able to escape before the trap was sprung. A third instance involved Paratroopers who managed to kill a Hamas suicide bomber dressed in an Israeli army uniform who had infiltrated their ranks.

➢        Pray for the Israeli Special Forces, infantry, tanks, artillery and engineers who are involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

The next step in this operation will involve enfolding the reserve soldiers recently called up, and then intensifying the attack on Hamas strongholds.

➢      Pray especially for the close to 50 believing Messianic soldiers participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen them, grant them victory, and strengthen their families with His power, love and confidence.

Friendly fire

Monday night saw two tragic cases of friendly fire, where Israeli tank crews mistakenly fired two shells at the troops they were supposed to be protecting. In the first case three soldiers of Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion were killed (including an Israeli Druze Arab) and 24 wounded near Saja’iya, including the Brigade Commander Colonel Avi Peled. He oversaw the evacuation of all the wounded before he would leave the battlefield. Within a few hours he checked out of the hospital and went back to his command at the front. In the second case a deputy company commander was killed by friendly tank fire near al-Atattra. Friendly fire unfortunately has accompanied most battlefields throughout history (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire).

➢      Pray that the God of Israel will grant exceedingly clear communication between battle units, and that He would guard the IDF from further friendly fire tragedies.

Tuesday morning saw the IDF’s sixth fatality, Staff-Sergeant Alexander Mashvitsky (21) of Beersheva, a combat engineer in a recon unit, killed in a firefight in the northern part of Gaza City.

Rocket attacks

Hamas fired more than 30 rockets, striking Gedera, Beersheva, Sderot, Netivot and surrounding kibbutzim and farms. To date they have succeeded in killing four Israelis, but this is not for lack of trying. Their intentions are murderous, and they are aiming specifically at civilians, whereas the IDF and IAF are trying to avoid all civilian casualties.

Hamas forces have lost operational oversight of Gaza. The leadership is hidden in bunkers and cannot communicate with ordinary Gazans. Armed gangs of Izz ed-Din al-Qassam gunmen roam the streets, hijacking humanitarian aid trucks and kneecapping anyone who resists. They are forcing children to accompany them as they fire rockets and mortars, hoping that Israeli forces will hold their fire. Families are prevented from fleeing the area, and terrorists often take refuge in apartment stairwells.

IAF unmanned drones presented videos on Israeli TV Tuesday night showing Hamas gunmen setting up and firing mortars and rocket launchers on school grounds, beside homes and next to UN properties. Hamas figures that it will win either way – either the IAF will hesitate to strike, but if not, the civilian “collateral damage” can be used to turn Arab and world opinion against Israel.

Civilian shields

The Arab world is no stranger to human shields, and Israel has had plenty of first-hand experience in these matters in Lebanon and in the West Bank. On Tuesday three incidents reveal that Hamas is using civilian shields as a matter of standard operational strategy.

The UNRWA al-Fahoura school in Jabaliya has been an abandoned building for some time. On December 31 Israeli UAV’s captured video footage of Hamas terrorists operating mortar shells against Israeli troops from the sidewalk less than a meter away from classrooms. Other up-to-date intelligence revealed that Hamas terrorists were hiding out in the building. On Tuesday afternoon tank shells were fired at the building, killing many Hamas operatives, including verified Hamas operatives Imad and Hassan Abu-Askar.

Unfortunately a number of refugees had meanwhile taken shelter in that building, and some of the 42 fatalities included these people. However, Israeli intelligence estimates that 70% of the fatalities were Hamas operatives. In the fog of war it is impossible to ascertain exact numbers at this point. What is clear is that Hamas is using civilian peacetime buildings and civilian shields to hide behind as it targets the IDF.

The Arab media have been repeating footage of these fatalities all day, showing propaganda clips which are Nazi-like in their demonizing of Israel and the Jewish people. A tidal wave of hatred is sweeping across the Muslim world. A few hours ago, referring to the Gaza operation, Dr. Ayman Zawahiri (Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man) called on Muslims to “hit the Zionists and crusaders (ed., Westerners and Christians) wherever and in whichever way you can.”

Fighting to the last Palestinian

Year ago Abba Eban once quipped that the Arab world would fight Israel “to the last Palestinian” – in other words, the Arab world was happy to use the Palestinians as cannon fodder but did not themselves want to dirty their own hands with dangerous combat. The Islamic Republic of Iran (Shiite Islam) is using Hamas (Sunni Islam) in a similar way, while the Hamas High Command is content to sit in bunkers under Gaza’s burning soil, or in palaces in Damascus, while their gunmen on the ground engage in kamikaze attacks on the IDF.

The reason most rational armies refuse to build bases in civilian areas is because they want to avoid civilian casualties. Hamas however operates under different codes of military conduct. It sees civilian casualties as a powerful propaganda bonus that will shock the world into siding with Hamas – and thus unwittingly support Hamas’ clearly stated publicized strategy to destroy Israel.

War involves fast and aggressive actions and responses. It is not a kind sport. In the fog of war, any sources of attack must be immediately and devastatingly destroyed. Hamas knows this, and that is why it sets up its rockets between homes and in schools, why it stores it ammunition in mosques and hospitals. It is courting overwhelming response. This is a cynical and damnable strategy, but the world media are all too gullible in these matters.

Life for Gazans right now is very hard. No schools are operating, and no police enforce law and order. There is no garbage removal or television. Electricity comes on every other day for a few limited hours if at all, and this means that the water supply is also sporadic. Food is available on the black market, much of it being humanitarian aid stolen by Hamas gunmen and sold for a tidy profit. Cell phones are charged at night from car batteries. The ICRC (Red Cross) head of operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl stated Tuesday that he sees a “fully blown” humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza.

➢       Pray for the inhabitants of Gaza – that God would rescue them from evil leadership and bring physical rescue and deliverance to many.

True and false cease-fires

Hamas is hoping that world outcry will force Israel to suspend its operations, and that Hamas will be allowed to keep its arsenal of rockets while freely continuing to smuggle in fresh weaponry through the Egyptian border. Egypt bears a huge degree of blame for the current war, as it has blithely allowed Hamas to import weapons into Egypt and has watched as Hamas smuggles them into Gaza through tunnels dug in sovereign Egyptian soil. Some Israeli politicians unwilling to upset the governmental apple cart have downplayed Egypt’s criminal role in this process, all in the interests of a counterfeit peace process.

Any cease-fire must insure that these weapons can no longer pass, and that Hamas can no longer terrorize Israel. Political pressure to force anything different on the Jewish state would bring a direct curse on the Jewish people (see Genesis 12:3).

➢       Pray that any cease-fire will be grounded in justice and will prevent Hamas from holding onto terror or power (Isaiah 8:9-10). Pray for your country’s leaders, that they will be a blessing and not a curse to Israel at this moment of crisis.

World responses

According to London’s Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, Hezbollah forces in Lebanon have been placed on their highest level of alert.

President Mubarak of Egypt has dropped broad hints to his aides that it is important for Israel to defeat Hamas. A victory for Muslim Brotherhood offshoot Hamas would severely weaken Mubarak’s hold on power in his own country.

On Tuesday Venezuela expelled the Israeli ambassador and all embassy personnel for “state terrorism” and causing a Palestinian “holocaust.” The Israeli Foreign Ministry commented: “Israel will continue to defend itself before its enemies including Hamas and Iran, with which Venezuela has created strong ties … Venezuela needs to choose which side it is taking in this war. It must choose between those who fight terror and those who support it. It’s not surprising that Venezuela is once more clarifying to the world which side it is on.”

Israeli basketball team Bnei Sharon was forced to flee the court and hide in their changing rooms, in a scheduled match with Turk Telecom. Hundreds of screaming fans yelled “Allahu akbar” and “Killer Israel”, throwing shoes and punches at riot police who were protecting the Israeli players. Before the game was cancelled, an Israeli flag was set afire by a pro-Islamic group.

On Tuesday Israeli President Shimon Peres addressed a group of EU foreign policy leaders and the Foreign Ministers of Sweden, France and the Czech Republic with frank words, “Europe must stop playing this double game with Israel . Not one of you would sit with your arms crossed in the face of missiles being fired at your country.”

➢      We ask you to pray for the military leadership of the IDF regarding the decisions they are making concerning the ground operation – that God will grant them His strategies, wisdom, courage and discernment, as He did to the prophets and armies of Israel in Elisha’s day (2 Kings 6:8-12).

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Twelve

This is a report of details of Wednesday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

Breaking news of 4 katyusha rockets fired from south Lebanon at Nahariya, Israel at 0730 Thursday morning.

➢      The IDF destroys booby-trapped tunnels and rocket launchers on the outskirts of Gaza City and Jabalya

➢      IAF intensively bombs smuggling tunnels in Rafiah beside Egyptian border

➢      More than 30 Hamas rocket attacks against Negev cities

➢      IDF holds fire, opens humanitarian aid corridor for 3 hours

➢      Egyptians, U.S. and French continue to work toward possible cease-fire

Ground operations

On Wednesday IDF ground operations focused on the destruction of Hamas’ terror infrastructure – weapons caches, rockets and rocket launcher pads – with a specific focus on disarming hundreds of booby-trapped tunnels. The Engineering Corps’ Special Forces Yahalom unit revealed that over the past few days they have neutralized hundreds of IEDs, and booby-trapped houses, tunnels, schools and mosques. IDF’s sixth fatality, Staff-Sergeant Alexander Mashvitsky (21) of Beersheva, a combat engineer in this recon unit, was killed in a face-to-face firefight in the northern part of Gaza City as a Yahalom/Golani unit was on such a neutralizing operation. In another incident, Steel, a K-9 Oketz (Special Forces) dog was able to reveal the presence of two booby-trapped floors and terrorists hiding in a suspicious house before he was killed by Hamas gunmen. The terrorists were then eliminated and the booby-traps were neutralized.

➢      Pray for the brave soldiers in these units who are risking their lives a hundred times a day, that the Lord of hosts would give them steady hands, cool nerves and total protection as they disarm terror bombs throughout Gaza (Number 10:9).

IDF forces are ready to enter stage three of the operation – deployment throughout the Gaza Strip and what is charmingly called “low-intensity urban conflict” – house-to-house counter-terror operations in Gaza’s major cities. These combat operations are similar to what US and British Special Forces have experienced in Afghanistan and Iraq. A limited number of these operations are already taking place in the Zeitun suburb east of Gaza City.

➢       Pray for the Israeli Special Forces, infantry, tanks, artillery and engineers who are involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

➢      Pray especially for the close to 50 believing Messianic soldiers participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen them, grant them victory, and strengthen their families with His power, love and confidence.

Air operations

IAF (Israel Air Force) planes have hit more than 1,000 targets in 12 days of operation. On Wednesday 40 targets were eliminated including rocket launchers positioned on house rooftops and between residential homes. This Hamas positioning strategy is meant to increase civilian casualties.

In the 1982 Peace for Galilee Lebanese War against the PLO, I spoke to eye-witnesses who reported the same strategic behavior on the part of the PLO. In the August 2006 war with Hezbollah small arms and heavy machine gun fire, as well as Katyusha rocket fire, were all directed at Israeli troops and civilians from a Viet Cong-like network of residential homes and tunnels. IAF released video footage Wednesday evening of rocket teams firing Qassams from the courtyards of mosques. This is the nature of modern Middle Eastern war.

On Wednesday afternoon, thousands of Arabic leaflets rained down on the Rafiah salient abutting the Egyptian border. The IAF message was brief but clear, “Because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons, the IDF will attack the area between the Egyptian border and the beach road.” Residents were warned to vacate the area by 8 pm. At 8 pm massive bombing began, destroying many of the 300 Hamas tunnels used to smuggle arms into Gaza from Egypt. Over 30,000 Rafiah residents moved a few kilometers north, out of bombing range.

It must be stressed that Hamas would not today have any military weaponry were it not for the cold fact that Egypt has allowed Hamas to supply and resupply its forces by importing arms into Egypt, and by Egypt turning a not-so-blind eye to the smuggling which is taking place under the fairly astute noses of the Egyptian Army and Intelligence services. The hypocrisy involved in Egypt’s “championing” a cease fire is quite brazen, since it is Egypt which has helped fan the flames for Hamas.  Nevertheless both President Mubarak’s and King Abdullah II’s (Jordan) governments have much to fear from Hamas’s sister organization al-Ikhwan al Muslimin, the Muslim Brotherhood. (Article Two of the Hamas Charter states, “Hamas is one of the wings of the Ikhwan al-Muslimin … the largest Islamic Movement in the modern era”).

➢      Pray for the Israeli pilots who need to make split second decisions where many lives could hang in the balance. Pray that God would give them the necessary accuracy, wisdom and discernment. Pray for the salvation of many Gazans (physically and spiritually) during this time of trial.

Hamas military activities

On Wednesday Hamas fired close to 30 rockets at civilian targets, striking Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, and surrounding kibbutzim and farms. Rachel and I were one kilometer away from the impact of one of these Grads at 4:25 pm Wednesday afternoon. We could hear the piercing “crack” followed by a loud boom. This rocket landed in the middle of Beersheva, narrowly missing some significant targets. We were awakened twice last night by air-raid sirens and more booms in the Beersheva area.

➢      We are so thankful for how God’s angels have pushed rockets and mortars off-course and spared many Israeli lives. Pray that this continues to happen (Hebrews 1:14).

Hamas forces have been attempting to explode IEDs close to IDF forces, and then kidnap the wounded soldiers (or their bodies) into their mazes of underground tunnels.

➢      Pray that the Lord of the armies of Israel (1 Sam. 17:45) will supernaturally thwart such kidnap attempts and bring to nought all the evil plans of the enemy (Isaiah 8:10).

Humanitarian aid

On Monday a convoy of humanitarian aid was permitted by the IDF to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. It was fired upon by Hamas gunmen and the trucks were hijacked. In many cases this aid is then redirected only to Hamas personnel, or it is later sold by Hamas on the black market at exorbitant prices. Those who complain are shot. Early this week a 70 year old man was shot to death by Hamas gunmen for refusing to disclose where his son (a Fatah/PA man) was hiding. Western and Arab media in Gaza would be killed by Hamas as well if they publicly reported on these events.

The IDF nevertheless opened a humanitarian corridor between 1 pm and 4pm, contingent upon Hamas also holding their fire. For three hours Gazans were able to replenish stocks of food and water, fuel and medical supplies. The humanitarian crisis does not involve lack of food, but inability to open markets due to the war in the streets. Were Hamas to desist from rocketing Israeli civilians, there would be food and not war in the streets. These two events are linked.

➢      Pray that God will overrule Hamas’ leaders, and establish an uprising for peace in the Palestinian street.

Cease-fire discussions

Egypt and France are working for a possible cease fire, with the US helping to keep the process alive and somewhat on track. Hamas Deputy Politburo Chief Dr. Moussa Abu Marzouk stated on Wednesday that as long as “the occupation continues” there will be no negotiations for a long-term cease fire. In layman’s terms, Abu Marzouk is stating that Hamas will never desist from trying to destroy Israel. Any cease fire will only be used to rebuild, re-arm and strategize anew. What has changed in the equation is simply one factor – Israel is no longer willing to live with such suicidal conditions.

➢       Pray that any cease-fire will be grounded in justice and will prevent Hamas from holding onto terror or power. Pray for your country’s leaders, that they will be a blessing and not a curse to Israel at this moment of crisis (Genesis 12:3).

World responses

Anti-Israel marches and attacks continue throughout the Islamic and Western world. Attacks on Jewish people worldwide are also increasing. It is important to discern this and to pray accordingly.

Whereas in the West, Hitlerian anti-Semitism is still considered in rather poor taste (but not in the Islamic world!), a simple sleight-of-hand – substituting the word “Israel” for the word “the Jews” – and ‘hey presto!’, attacks on the same Jewish people are now simply expressions of “moral outrage” and “humanitarian concern.” Where were these militant heroes of tender conscience for eight years when Hamas rockets were falling on Israel, and when Hamas suicide bombers were shredding the Jewish flesh of mothers and children in the Jewish state?

➢      Pray that the Holy Spirit, God’s Heavenly Restrainer, will suppress and foil a resurgence of Jew-hatred in our day (2 Thessalonians 2:7; Zechariah 2:8).

A thought to ponder

The Book of Obadiah teaches that the God of Israel weighs and judges the nations based on their heart and actions toward His chosen people Israel. From Babylon to Britain, from Assyria to America, from Persia to the Palestinians, this “divine foreign policy” holds true. The world has basically treated 8 years of Hamas rocket attacks and suicide bombing as no big deal, as a contained Middle Eastern mini- soap opera. Only when Israel finally responded in a restrained and targeted way, did the world react – but amazingly, the majority of the media-fueled reaction is against Israel.

Obadiah’s words should cause us to get down on our faces and intercede for the survival of our own nations as well as for plucky little Israel. Now is not the time for saccharine pseudo-prophetic words about peace, prosperity and self-contentment. Let the body of Messiah wake up from a Persian banquet of wine (Esther 1:8-10) and read the handwriting on the wall of the nations (Daniel 5:4-6). It’s time to pray!

Because of the violence (Hebrew word here is “hamas”) against your brother Jacob,

you will be covered with shame...

On the day you stood aloof

while ... foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem,

you were like one of them.

You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune,

nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction,

nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.

You should not march through the gates of My people in the day of their disaster,

nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster,

nor seize their wealth  in the day of their disaster ...

The day of YHVH is near for all nations.

As you have done, it will be done to you;

your deeds will return upon your own head”  (Obadiah 1:10-15)

Breaking news

At 0730 Thursday morning a barrage of 4 Katyusha rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into the Israeli city of Nahariya, striking a retirement home and lightly injuring three, with 14 suffering from shock. Within minutes, IDF artillery struck the sources of that fire, shooting into Lebanon.

This could be an al Qa’eda or Palestinian attempt to open up a second front against Israel, or it could be an initial Hezbollah opening shot in a new Lebanese war. Though UN Resolution 1701 (Israel’s only diplomatic achievement in the 2006 Lebanon operation) prohibits all paramilitary forces from operating south of the Litani River (in south Lebanon), in defiance of this resolution Hezbollah forces have retaken all areas from which they were pushed out by Israel in August 2006. The Lebanese government has been either unwilling or unable to stop this process – not surprising considering that Hezbollah is now a major coalition party in the Lebanese parliament.

➢      Pray that God will grant 100% accurate revelation to Israel’s governmental, military and intelligence leaders regarding the source of this fire, and wisdom, discernment and accuracy in their response, as He did to the prophets and armies of Israel in Elisha’s day (2 Kings 6:8-12).

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Thirteen

This is a report of details of Thursday’s fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

➢      The IDF fights Hamas gunmen in central and northern Gaza (three fatalities)

➢      IAF continues to bomb smuggling tunnels, weapons warehouses and rocket launchers

➢      More than 30 Hamas rocket attacks against Negev cities

➢      Unidentified group fires 4 Katyushas into Israel from Lebanon

➢      IDF again holds fire, opens humanitarian aid corridor for 3 hours

➢      UN passes Resolution 1860 calling for cease-fire; rejected by Hamas

Selected quotes from Hamas’ Charter (1988)

As we pray over the war between Israel and Hamas, it is important to remember how Hamas understands the nature of that conflict. Here are six representative quotes from the Hamas Charter which throw some light on the spiritual nature of the conflict.

• “The Platform of The Islamic Resistance Movement (ed., acronym for ‘Hamas’): Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it” (Introduction)

• “The Islamic Resistance Movement…strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine. (Article #6)

• “Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Qur’an its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the case of Allah its most sublime belief” (Article #8 - ed. this is also the slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood)

• “In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad ... We must imprint on the minds of generations of Muslims that the Palestinian problem is a religious one, to be dealt with on this premise. ‘I swear by that who holds in His Hands the Soul of Muhammad! I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah! I will assault and kill, assault and kill, assault and kill.’” (Article #15)

• “The Arab states surrounding Israel are required to open their borders to the Jihad fighters … The other Arab and Islamic states are required, at the very least, to facilitate the movement of the Jihad fighters from and to them ... Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.” (Article #28)

• “(Peace) initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement … Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the nonbelievers as arbitrators in the lands of Islam ... There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.” (Article #13)

The spirit which motivates Hamas is similar in nature to the one which controlled Adolf Hitler. As with Hitler, negotiations were only an obfuscating delaying tactic which led to further evil empowerment and conquest. Hamas is at least clearer and more transparent than Hitler about its goals and strategies – Jihad is the means, and the destruction of Israel is the goal. However, today the world’s moral vision is perilously close to being blinder than it was in Hitler’s day (Luke 6:39; John 9:39).

Reconciliation was not possible with Hitler, though a few misguided or deceived believers thought so at the time. In our day, any call for true reconciliation between Arab and Jew can only be realistically actualized after the power of jihadi Islam is broken in Arab hearts and lives. This is not the only step, of course, but it is a sine qua non.

➢      Pray for the defeat of Hamas, its leadership and its ideological hold over many Gazans.

Ground operations

On Thursday IDF ground operations focused on the destruction of Hamas’ terror infrastructure – weapons caches, rockets and rocket launcher pads. Close-quarter firefights were breaking out in Jabalya, Zeitun, Karara, al-Atatra and Khan Yunis. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in Thursday’s fighting by sniper fire or anti-tank weapons: Major Ro’i Rosner of the Kfir Brigade (Haruv Company – age 27); Sergeant Amit Robinson (Armored Corps 71st Battalion – age 20); Captain Omer Rabinovitch (Golani Egoz Special Forces – age 23).

A detailed Hamas map detailing their military theater of operations map for al-Atatra was found by the IDF, with Arabic markings of locations of snipers, IEDs and booby-traps (including civilian houses and gas stations). This map reveals how civilian casualties are planned for by Hamas, and are part of their war strategy vis-à-vis the media.

➢      Pray for the brave soldiers in these units who are risking their lives a hundred times a day, that the Lord of hosts would give them steady hands, cool nerves and total protection as they confront Hamas gunmen throughout Gaza (Number 10:9). Pray that the God of Israel would give them a saving revelation of Yeshua (1 Kings 8:37-44; Zechariah 12:10).

IDF forces are on the cusp of entering this operations’ stage three – deployment throughout the Gaza Strip and what is charmingly called “low-intensity urban conflict” – house-to-house counter-terror operations in Gaza’s major cities. These combat operations are similar to what US and British Special Forces have experienced in Afghanistan and Iraq.

➢       Pray for the Israeli Special Forces, infantry, tanks, artillery and engineers who are involved in the fighting. Ask God to send angelic warriors to stand with them, to protect them and to grant them victory (Judges 5:20).

➢      Pray especially for the close to 50 believing Messianic soldiers participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen them, grant them victory, and strengthen their families with His power, love and confidence.

Hamas military activities

On Thursday Hamas fired 30 rockets at civilian targets, striking Ashkelon, Beersheva, Sderot and surrounding kibbutzim and farms. One Grad Katyusha rocket struck the gymnasium of an elementary school in Ashkelon. Since all Israeli schools within rocket range are temporarily closed, no one was injured.

An unknown group fired 4 Katyushas from southern Lebanon (near Naqoura) into the Israeli city of Nahariya, striking a retirement home’s kitchen while 25 pensioners sat eating breakfast. Three people were lightly wounded, though many suffered shock.

➢      We are so thankful for how God’s angels have pushed rockets and mortars off-course and spared many Israeli lives. Pray that this continues to happen (Hebrews 1:14).

Humanitarian aid

On Thursday the IDF opened a corridor for a convoy of humanitarian aid reach to Gaza, contingent upon Hamas also holding their fire. Hamas in fact broke the cease fire within the first hour. The UN has since stopped distributing aid after one of its drivers was killed. UN spokesman Chris Guinness said that the driver was killed by Israeli tank fire, though the IDF medics who examined the body saw only sniper wounds to the chest, presumably from Hamas snipers operating in the area.

Cease-fire deliberations

On Thursday night the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1860 which “stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza” (clause #1). The resolution calls upon Israel to withdraw but never mentions Hamas. No mechanism for preventing Hamas from smuggling weapons or firing rockets is discussed. The US abstained on the vote. The Resolution also calls for the dividing up of the land of Israel into two states, Israel and Palestine (clause #8) and recommends a further conference in Moscow (clause #9).

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said, “This resolution does not take the Palestinian interest into consideration, and does not address lifting the siege or opening the crossings” adding that his movement is not bound by the current resolution. Hamas’ deeds backed up these words, with more than 30 rockets fired Friday morning and afternoon against Beersheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod and outlying farms.

Hamas’ objection to the Resolution is based on the fact that Hamas is opposed to a democratic state. Its Koran-based vision is only for an Islamist Palestine. Hamas also demands the freedom to smuggle rockets and weaponry into Gaza to be used its the never-ending jihad against the Jewish state.

Abu Abir, a spokesman for the Gazan Palestinian terror group PRC, said, “I admit, we never thought the IDF operation would be so extensive or at such a pace. However once it happened there was no going back. Only war and jihad are the way, there is no way for a cease fire…”

Israel’s perspective is that the Resolution allows a terrorist body to continue to exist and thrive, to regroup and prepare for further attacks on Israel’s civilian population. The resolution is unacceptable for Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni responded to the UN Resolution saying that “Israel has acted, is acting, and will continue to act only according to its calculations, in the interest of the security of its citizens and its right to self-defense.”

Prime Minister Olmert added, “Israel has never allowed an outside source to determine its right to defend the security of its citizens. The IDF will continue acting to defend the citizens of Israel and carry out the missions laid before it in the operation. The rocket attacks this morning against residents of the south only prove that the UN’s resolution is not practical and will not be upheld by the Palestinian murder organizations.”

The words of Jeremiah the prophet ring down through the corridors of time, and they have lost none of their pungency: “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace ... We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror” (Jeremiah 8:11, 15).

➢       Pray that God will soften the hearts of the leading nations of the world to deal favorably with Israel (Genesis 12:3) and so receive a blessing from the God of Israel.

World responses

In Oslo 1,000 anti-Israel demonstrators attacked a group of 500 pro-Israel demonstrators on Thursday. Thirty one anti-Israel demonstrators were arrested for violence against police and bodily harm. Five of the six injuries were Norwegian police officers.

Fourteen leading UK Muslims wrote a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Browne warning him that the hostilities in Gaza “revived extremist groups (ed., in England) and empowered their message of violence.”

In Rome Giancarlo Desiderati, leader of the Flaica-Uniti-Cub union, representing 8000 shop assistants in Rome, proposed that Romans “identify and boycott” Jewish-owned shops in the Italian capital in protest of Israel’s operation in Gaza.

Desiderati stated that he and his supporters were drawing up a list of Jewish shops, “though it might be better to publish a list of streets in which a majority of the shops are Jewish and ask people to avoid those streets when shopping … For fifty years we have been concerned for the Jews because of what they suffered in the Holocaust, but now it is time to be concerned for the Palestinians, who are the Jews of today”, Desiderati said, in an amazing parallel to the words and works of Benito Mussolini, WWII fascist dictator.

Anti-Israel demonstrators physically blocked the entrance to Montreal’s Israel Consulate, and had to be forcibly removed by city police.

The US Senate unanimously approved a non-binding bipartisan resolution S.6 affirming support for Israel in its fight against Hamas terrorism. The resolution looks forward to a cease fire which “would not allow a reestablishment of the status quo ante where Hamas can continue to launch rockets out of Gaza.” It also noted that Hamas “was founded with the stated goal of destroying the State of Israel.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said: “I ask any of my colleagues to imagine that happening here in the United States. Rockets and mortars coming from Toronto in Canada, into Buffalo New York – how would we as a country react?” Co-sponsor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican also remarked: “The Israelis ... are responding exactly the same way we would.”

➢      Pray that the Holy Spirit, God’s Heavenly Restrainer, will suppress and foil a resurgence of Jew-hatred in our day (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Pray that He would increase revelation concerning His heart for the Jewish people, the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8).

A thought to ponder

Bob Dylan wrote one of his most powerful (yet widely unknown) songs about the Jewish state of Israel, which he tongue-in-cheek calls “Neighborhood Bully.” His cutting prose and caustic verse are a surprisingly up-to-date commentary on the present round of hostilities. Here are a few selected verses, and we encourage you to listen to the whole song.

Neighborhood Bully

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man,

His enemies say he’s on their land.

They got him outnumbered about a million to one,

He got no place to escape to, no place to run.

He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,

He’s criticized and condemned for being alive.

He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin,

He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.

He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,

Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.

Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.

The bombs were meant for him.

He was supposed to feel bad.

He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim

That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him,

‘Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back

And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.

He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,

They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.

Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly.

To hurt one they would weep.

They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.

He’s the neighborhood bully.

What’s anybody indebted to him for?

Nothin’, they say.

He just likes to cause war.

Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,

They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.

He’s the neighborhood bully.

(Copyright ©1983 Special Rider Music)

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Days Fourteen, Fifteen Sixteen

This report contains details of three days of fighting, a brief analysis, and specific prayer requests.

➢      The IDF kills over 50 Hamas gunmen in central and northern Gaza

➢      IAF continues to bomb strategic targets, eliminates head of rocket forces

➢      More than 100 Hamas rocket attacks against Negev cities in three days

➢      IDF again opens humanitarian aid corridor for 3 hours per day

➢      Two Muslim countries recall ambassadors from Israel

➢      US Congress and Senate pass resolutions supporting Israel’s right of self-defense

➢      Anti-Semitic riots & demonstrations internationally

Seeing the forest and the trees

Understanding events is more than simply scanning a list of facts. These reports attempt to give accurate, up-to-date facts – necessary information which often is unreported by the “fast food” media matrix. But there is also a need for perspective – what do these events mean –a need to communicate background dynamics which decisively influence developments on the ground. Today and tomorrow two newsletters will be sent out – this first one focusing on the fast moving events, and a second newsletter laying out seven mini-perspectives to help the reader obtain a better grasp of what is going on.

Ground operations

For the past three days IDF ground operations focused on the destruction of Hamas’ terror infrastructure – tunnels, weapons caches and weapons labs.  More than 50 Hamas gunmen have been killed in close-quarter firefights. Heavy fighting has occurred in Sheikh Ajleen, a northern suburb of Gaza City, where ten Hamas gunmen were killed in an ambush on Sunday. The IDF is clearing a security zone close to the border with Gaza, removing buildings which could serve as forward command posts and tunnel exits for any future attacks on Israel. Israeli reserve soldiers are beginning to be enfolded into the order of battle.

➢      Pray for the brave soldiers in these units who are risking their lives many times a day – that the Lord of hosts would give them steady hands, cool nerves and total protection as they confront Hamas gunmen throughout Gaza (Number 10:9). Pray that the God of Israel would give them a saving revelation of Yeshua (1 Kings 8:37-44; Zechariah 12:10).

➢      Pray especially for the close to 50 believing Messianic soldiers participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen them, grant them victory, and strengthen their families with His power, love and confidence.

Air operations

Since the onset of Operation Cast Lead, over 2,200 air sorties have been carried out by the IAF. Friday saw 70 sorties, while Saturday and Sunday each saw 60 sorties. The home of Ahmad Ja’abari (commander of Hamas’ military wing) was bombed Saturday in northern Gaza City suburb of Saja’iya. Amir Mansi, commander of all Izz ed-Din al-Qassam rocket squads, was successfully targeted as well.

IAF planes dropped Arabic leaflets throughout the Gaza Strip which said, “Strip residents ... In the near future, the IDF will continue to attack tunnels, arms caches, and terror activities with greater intensity all across the Strip. For your safety and the safety of your families, you are required to refrain from staying near terror elements or sites where weapons are being stored.” Other leaflets asked Gazans to call an Israeli phone number and pass on the locations of rocket launchers, weapons warehouses, tunnels and terror groups operating in the area – confidentiality guaranteed.

Hamas rockets

Over the past three days Hamas fired 104 rockets (Friday 32, Saturday 49, Sunday 23) at civilian targets. Over 700 rockets have been fired so far in the last 16 days of hostilities. The cities Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Ashdod, Beersheva, Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat were hit, along with moshavim and kibbutzim. Kindergartens and school buildings were struck in some of these rocket attacks. Recently small orange and black billboards have been erected around the Negev, warning civilians to listen for air raid sirens on certain radio frequencies.

➢      We are so thankful for how God’s angels have pushed rockets and mortars off-course and spared many Israeli lives. Pray that this continues to happen (Hebrews 1:14).

Hamas casualties

Close to 400 Hamas gunmen have been killed since the war began. Israeli Military Intelligence had stated that over 200 of these corpses are being kept in morgue refrigerators and are not being buried, in order to keep these losses hidden from ordinary Gazans. Media reporting from the Gazan side are not showing any Hamas fatalities due to Hamas censorship.

An amazing answer to prayer was revealed Sunday, when video was released of a school and zoo in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City that had been booby-trapped by Hamas. A group of 150 Givati soldiers spent the night there, and one Israeli soldier answering the call of nature at first light discovered an explosive trigger with suspicious wires – left on the grass by a Hamas operative who had fled the building the previous evening. A major disaster was avoided, and much of this is connected to prayer.

➢      Keep praying for safety for the Israeli soldiers! God is answering your prayers.

Hamas’ strategy of civilian casualties

The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008. Hammad explains that using civilians as a human shield is not an accident on Hamas’ part; it is a strategic military and propaganda tactic.

“[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahidin (ed., jihad warriors) and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahidin, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: ‘We desire death like you desire life.’ “ (www.memritv.org/video.html).

Karam Jaber, Egyptian editor of Roz al-Youssef magazine, recently stated that Hamas has “inflicted death and destruction on the Palestinians … We hope the Hamas leaders will realize that they are fighting a destructive war on behalf of the Iranians and Syrians.” A Fatah (Palestinian Authority) official in Ramallah was quoted Monday regarding Hamas, “Ever since they came to power, they brought death and destruction to our people.”

➢      Pray for the defeat of Hamas, its leadership and its ideological hold over many Gazans.

Humanitarian aid

For the past three days the IDF has allowed convoys of humanitarian aid to reach Gaza for three hours per day, contingent upon Hamas also holding their fire. Hamas in fact broke this mini-ceasefire on Sunday, firing mortars at the convoys coming through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and again on Monday when they rocketed Ashdod and Beersheva during the temporary hold-fire times.

The IDF conducted two internal investigations regarding recent UN charges concerning IDF conduct, and revealed its findings on Monday. Regarding the 39 deaths in a recent mortar attack, it was found that a Hamas rocket attack was launched on IDF troops from beside the UN school. IDF mortars responded with 3 shells, two of which struck their targets, killing approximately 10 positively identified terrorists. The third shell went off course and struck the school. Regarding the UN driver of a humanitarian aid truck, it was ascertained that he was killed from non-IDF fire, and not from tank fire (as was originally charged by the UN). Nevertheless, the charges made against the IDF were widely circulated around the globe by world media, though the careful IDF investigations and their results have not been so widely disseminated.

Poll on Israeli attitudes

A poll taken by the War and Peace Index 6 days ago discovered that 90% of Jewish Israelis surveyed believed that this war should continue until it has achieved its goals – total cessation of rocket fire and terror attacks, and a total halt to smuggling of weapons into Gaza. A high 93% have strong confidence in the IDF’s abilities and 87% believe that Israelis in the Negev and South have the stamina to bear up under the rocket attacks. However, 93% of Israeli Arabs surveyed want an immediate ceasefire and open borders for Hamas.

Since the outbreak of the war more than 700 Israelis (mostly Arabs) have been arrested in riots. Over 600 events (demonstrations or riots) have taken place in Israel over this time period, mostly in the Arab sector, with over 90 police injured.

Cease-fire deliberations

Hamas politburo Khaled Mashal responded to UN Resolution 1860 in Damascus on Saturday, rejecting any security arrangement “that infringes on the right of resistance against Israeli occupation.”  He added that Hamas “rejects the presence of international forces or inspectors in the Gaza Strip.” As mentioned in our last newsletter, this is due to Hamas’ Islamist beliefs never to recognize Israel and always to work for its destruction through jihad.

An Egyptian government official said on Sunday. “This conflict serves the interests of the Iranians,” he said. “They are satisfied because the violence in the Gaza Strip has diverted attention from their nuclear ambitions.” Magdi Khalil, an Egyptian political analyst, said that Hamas was weakening Egypt’s national security: “By endorsing the Iranian agenda, Hamas has brought the Iranians to Egypt’s eastern border.”

World responses

Mauritania and Jordan have recalled their ambassadors from Israel, These are two of the four Islamic countries which have diplomatic relations with Israel, the others being Egypt and Turkey.

Anti-Semitic riots and demonstrations are spreading across the Islamic world and Western Europe. Here is a partial list of events in the past three days:

Israel –

•      Hebron (1,000 people)

•      Nazareth (3,000)

•      Baqa al-Gharbiya (10,000)

Islamic world –

•      Amman (2,000)

•      Beirut (2,500)

•      Nabatiya, Lebanon (20,000)

•      Jakarta (20,000)

•      Alexandria (50,000)

Western Europe –

•      Berlin (8,500)

•      Duisberg (10,000)

•      London (12,000)

•      Paris, Brussels and Barcelona (30,000 each)

•      Madrid and Seville (100,000 total)

In London 2,000 violent demonstrators were stopped by police before they attacked the Israeli embassy, with 15 arrests. Outside of Paris 2 Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Jewish synagogue Sunday night at Seine-Saint-Denis, while a Toulouse synagogue was rammed by a flaming car last week. In Brussels violent mobs overturned cars and broke shop windows.

In Milan white sheets with bloody handprints, and swastikas turning into bloody Stars of David were paraded. An impromptu Islamic prayer service was carried out in the main square across from Milan’s Cathedral a week ago, and on Saturday another call to prayer was carried out across from the main train station. Italy’s Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said, “I say enough of the provocations of Islamists in Milan. In Milan, a legitimate demonstration ended in a deliberately provocative mosque under the open sky. What would have happened if a group of Christians gathered together to pray with a rosary before Mecca? They probably would have been stoned.”

In Duisburg Germany 10,000 people marched with placards reading “Down with the murdering of children”, while in Barcelona blood-stained blankets and mock dead babies were carried by demonstrators.

America also witnessed crass anti-Semitic displays. In New York’s Times Square, anti-Israel marchers carried placards reading “Israel: the Fourth Reich”, Stop Israel’s Holocaust”, “Stop the Zionist Genocide in Gaza”, and “Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors.”

On December 30 the Israel Consulate in Los Angeles was picketed with signs including “Every Israeli committing the genocide in Gaza is a ‘Hitler’“ and the swastika/Star of David morph above the words “Upgrade to Holocaust Version 2.0.”

Tampa had demonstrators on the same day who carried placards reading “Zionism is Cancer; Radiate it” and showing an Israeli flag with the word “Nazi” written on it. Calls were made by Tampa Muslims in hijabs, “Jews go back to the ovens” (a reference to Nazi crematoria).

Chicago has seen four synagogues attacked in the past three days with anti-Jewish spray-paintings, bricks and death threats. These include Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation; Young Israel of Roger’s Park; Congregation Anshe Motele; and the Lubavitch Mesivta. Earlier, on December 29 Temple Shalom in Lakeview IL had a Molotov cocktail thrown at the building.

These very serious events show an explosion of anti-Semitic words and deeds. The Director of the Yad Vashem Libraries Dr. Robert Rozett, commented, “By accusing us of being Nazi-like, Europeans alleviate some of their own feelings of guilt and responsibility for the Holocaust … Moreover, by saying that the Jews are acting like Nazis, they are delegitimizing the very existence of the State of Israel.”

The National Director of B’nai Brith’s Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Araham H. Foxman, added, “Anti-Semitism in Europe was never really rooted out, just contained.”

Though this may partially explain European manifestations of anti-Jewish hatred, there are roots darker and deeper still that have also infected Islamic and American societies.

➢      Pray fervently that the Holy Spirit, God’s Heavenly Restrainer, will suppress and foil this explosion of Jew-hatred in our day (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Pray that He would increase revelation concerning His heart for the Jewish people, the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8).

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Days Seventeen through Twenty-One

This report contains details of five days of fighting, a brief analysis, and specific prayer requests.

➢      The IDF encircles Gaza City and eliminates Hamas’ #3 leader

➢      More than 113 Hamas rocket attacks against Negev cities

➢      IDF keeps opening humanitarian aid corridor for 3-4 hours per day

➢      Egyptian brokered ceasefire nears

➢      Anti-Semitic attacks continue internationally

Hamas rockets

Over the past five days Hamas fired more than 113 at civilian targets. Over 800 rockets have been fired so far in the last 21 days of hostilities.

On Thursday at 4:55 pm two Grad Katyusha rockets were fired at Beersheva. One hit a civilian car which had pulled over to the side of the road upon hearing the air-raid sirens. Six people were injured, 2 seriously. One of those was 7-year old Uriel Elazarov, who was comforting his mother as they huddled, saying “Don’t be scared, Mom, it’ll be alright!.” Uriel is in serious condition at Soroka Hospital in Beersheva. This rocket fell approximately one mile away from our home.

Other rockets have recently landed only meters away from believers in the Western Negev.

Here is a day by day breakdown of the number of Hamas rockets fired at Israeli farms, towns and cities since the war began: 67 (Dec 27), 31 (Dec 28), 71 (Dec 29), 54 (Dec 30), 77 (Dec 31), 53 (Jan 1), 38 (Jan 2), 40 (Jan 3), 47 (Jan 4), 40 (Jan 5), 35 (Jan 6), 28 (Jan 7), 27 (Jan 8), 29 (Jan 9), 26 (Jan 10), 20 (Jan 11), 24 (Jan 12), 22 (Jan 13), 17~ (Jan 14), 30 (Jan 15), 22 (Jan 16).

One of the main objectives of Operation Cast Lead is to stop the firing of rockets at Israeli civilians. Another is to stop all violent terror attacks coming out of Gaza. If war is another method of communicating to the enemy, it seems that Hamas has not fully accepted the message. Here are some relevant quotes showing that Hamas is determined to keep opposing a ceasefire, and is quite willing to use Gazan civilians as human shields in the process.

Hamas declarations in the past days have said that they “will not agree to harm the tunnels connecting Gaza to Egypt … As long as there is occupation, the resistance will continue” (January 14, Rafaat Nasif, senior Hamas official). “The resistance won’t stop, and Gaza won’t surrender. Victory is near” (January 15, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, Islamic Jihad Secretary-General). Hamas states in its covenant that the “the occupation” means the existence of the State of Israel anywhere. The tunnels referred to are those used for smuggling Iranian and Chinese rockets into Gaza.

“Gaza is writing a new chapter in history today, and the future will be different from the past ... Israel thought it would end the situation with a blow from the air, but this is the 20th day and Israel hasn’t achieved a thing. It hasn’t broken the resistance, hasn’t dictated its conditions. Our losses are fewer than the ones on the Israeli side” (January 15, Khaled Mashaal, Hamas Politburo chief). Losses to date (fatalities) in Operation Cast Lead are ten Israeli soldiers, and between 500 and 700 Hamas gunmen.

“We will not accept Israel’s conditions for a ceasefire” (January 16, Khaled Mashaal, Hamas Politburo chief). “Don’t suggest that we surrender because we haven’t been defeated and won’t be defeated. Our determination grows stronger every day, because our debt to the shahids (ed., jihad martyrs) whose blood has been spilled is bigger. We shall continue fighting, so don’t suggest that we surrender … Just like the resistance was victorious in Lebanon in 2006, (ed. Hamas) will win in January 2009” (January 17, Osama Hamdan, senior Hamas spokesman in Lebanon).

➢      We are so thankful for how God’s angels have pushed rockets and mortars off-course and spared many Israeli lives. Pray that this continues to happen (Hebrews 1:14).

Israeli intelligence in Gaza

Since the start of Operation Cast Lead the Israel Air force has carried out more than 2,500 sorties. This includes the bombing of 250 smuggling tunnels. On January 15 the number three Hamas leader, Sa’id Siam was successfully targeted, along with his brother Ayad and Salah Abu Sharah (head of Hamas’ security organization). Siam was head of Hamas’ internal security department, and was responsible for the murder of hundreds of Palestinian Authority workers in Hamas’ violent putsch of June 2007. He oversaw the kneecapping of any Gazans who expressed public opposition to Hamas rule in recent days. He was also the most hard-line of the Hamas political leadership.

The IDF has eliminated more than 400 known Hamas operatives, and at least 200 more who were not wearing battle fatigues (deliberately hiding their military affiliation, as per explicit Hamas instructions). It is worth pausing for a moment and considering the deep penetration that Israel’s SHABAK security services have done in Gaza, to be able to have such comprehensive details on Hamas gunmen all the way up the chain of command. It also reveals the ignorant lack of professionalism of most media reports who willingly accept Hamas casualty figures without understanding the propagandistic nature of these twisted casualty reports.

IDF engineers discovered a terror tunnel dug underneath the border fence from east-central Gaza to the Nahal Oz fuel terminal. The purpose of the tunnel was to attack the Israeli fuel trucks which have continued to bring diesel fuel into Gaza for years and have continued to do so throughout Operation Cast Lead. On April 9 2008 Hamas terrorists fired mortars and small arms fire on an Israeli mechanic and a driver at the Nahal Oz terminal readying trucks for fuel deliveries in Gaza, killing two. This fuel terminal exists for the benefit of ordinary Gazans. The level of self-destructive hatred which motivates Hamas is staggering to most Western minds.

Misleading media charges – phosphorus shelling

Charges have been made by some human rights activists regarding Israel’s supposedly illegal use of white phosphorus shells against civilians. Peter Herby, the head of the Red Cross’s mines-arms unit said “In some of the strikes in Gaza it’s pretty clear that phosphorus was used, but it’s not very unusual to use phosphorus to create smoke or illuminate a target. We have no evidence to suggest it’s being used in any other way.” Illegal uses of phosphorus armaments would include burning down buildings or consciously putting civilians at risk.

All the major media carried the false charges against Israel, and most did not refer to the clear Red Cross denials. The same media outlets chose not to carry verified reports of Hamas firing phosphorus mortars at civilians in the Eshkol area of Israel on Tuesday, one of them landing very close to a farm owned by believers.

Tightening the ring around Gaza City

Starting on Tuesday IDF forces began tightening the ring encircling Gaza City, where Hamas’ main command center operates in bunkers under the large Shifa Hospital building. On Thursday 80 tanks made their way into the suburb of Tel al-Hawwa, in southwest Gaza City. Thousands of Gazans began to flee their homes and seek safer ground. The home of senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar was struck on Thursday, killing five of his personal bodyguards.

Hamas mortar and RPG squads targeted IDF forces from UNRWA facilities (the UN HQ in Gaza City). IDF forces returned fire, and one of the major UN warehouses was set ablaze. This prompted a cry of outrage from visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Prime Minister Olmert responded, “This is a sad incident, and I apologize for it, but our forces were attacked from there and the response was harsh. We did not wish for such an incident to happen, and I don’t know if you are aware of this, but Hamas attacked from within the UNRWA building during our humanitarian pause in Gaza.”

During WWII George Orwell once noted that “we sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” He added, “War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.”

➢      Pray for the brave soldiers in these units who are risking their lives many times a day – that the Lord of hosts would give them steady hands, cool nerves and total protection as they confront Hamas gunmen throughout Gaza (Number 10:9). Pray that the God of Israel would give them a saving revelation of Yeshua (1 Kings 8:37-44; Zechariah 12:10).

➢      Pray especially for the close to 50 believing Messianic soldiers participating in these battles (Galatians 6:16). Ask God to strengthen them, grant them victory, and strengthen their families with His power, love and confidence.

Humanitarian aid

For the past five days the IDF has allowed convoys of humanitarian aid to reach Gaza for three hours per day, contingent upon Hamas also holding their fire. Hamas in fact broke this mini-ceasefire every day. On Tuesday 100 truckloads of humanitarian aid were allowed in to Gaza through Israel, while on Friday 130 trucks entered. More than 1,136 truckloads of aid, supplies, fuel and medical equipment have been allowed into Gaza by Israel throughout Operation Cast lead.

Proportionality and international duplicity

Each Gazan civilian killed or wounded is a tragedy, and each one is precious to the God of Israel. Though the IDF and IAF are taking pains that NATO forces never took in the Kosovo conflict, Hamas is spoon-feeding the world media vicious, false and misleading spins on the matter of civilian casualties. Civilian casualties are a factored-in part of Hamas’ war strategic planning.

The reason for civilian casualties (perhaps 25% of the 1,200 fatalities and 5,000 wounded to date) is unfortunately simple – the Hamas High Command  were cowardly and callous when they decided to establish their rocket bases in the midst of Palestinian urban areas.

Between March and June 1999 NATO led 90 air attacks (the air forces of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Holland, Italy, Turkey, Spain, UK, and US) which caused between 500 and 1,500 civilian fatalities. Cluster bombs were used in civilian areas and these caused a minimum of 150 deaths. Operation Allied Force struck old-age sanitariums, hospitals, markets, columns of fleeing refugees, buses, trains, etc. No casualties were suffered by NATO forces, since they chose to “remain above the conflict” by primarily using high-altitude bombing – a decision that led to a drastic increase in civilian fatalities. Certainly a comparison of NATO and Kosovar fatalities in that air force operation would be a textbook example of “disproportionately.”

Yet the NATO spokesman Jamie Shea declared on BBC News  (May 13 1999), “There is always a cost to defeat an evil. It never comes free, unfortunately. But the cost of failure to defeat a great evil is far higher.” He added that NATO planes had bombed only “legitimate designated military targets … We try to do our utmost to ensure that if there are civilians around we do not attack; NATO does not target civilians...let’s be perfectly clear about that.”

The Israel Defense Forces are actually defending their own country against Hamas rocket attacks – terror which is targeting Israeli civilians. The ten national air forces listed above were never physically targeted by any side in the Kosovo conflict prior to the air sorties. Another outstanding comparative difference between NATO conduct in 1999 and IDF conduct in Gaza 2009, is that IDF troops have chosen to walk into extreme physical peril in order to limit Gazan civilian casualties. The IAF continues to abort bombing runs when innocent civilians accidentally stray directly in front of strategic targets.

World responses

President Evo Morales (a close friend of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez) has broken relations with Israel, saying that the IDF’s activities have “seriously threatened world peace.”

Turkish PM recap Tayyip Erdogan called for Israel to be thrown out of the UN, “How is such a country … allowed to enter through the gates of the UN?”

Syria’s Bashar Assad and Sudan’s Omar al-Bashar have called for “Arab efforts to put an end to the barbaric massacre that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinians people.”

Libya attempted to have the Security Council condemn Israel attacks, but withdrew its push when told that it would have to also allow a discussion of Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians.

Britain and other EU UN ambassadors attempted to pass a resolution declaring Israel responsible for the situation in Gaza. Gerald Kaufman, a British Labour Party legislator who is Jewish (though not kindly disposed toward Israel) declared during a House of Commons debate that “the present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.”

Dozens gathered in Teheran, burning posters of President-elect Obama and crying “Death to Obama” while waving Palestinian flags.

Anti-Semitic attacks against Jews in France (Molotov cocktails and spraying of Nazi slogans) continue apace, with synagogues attacked in St-Denis, Lille, Mulhouse, Paris and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. A Jewish man was stabbed on Friday in Paris; French police believe that anti-Israeli motives are involved.

On a more positive note, over 1,000 people demonstrated in Vienna in a pro-Israel rally on Monday, while last Saturday in Germany there were three pro-Israel demonstrations of approximately 1,000 each in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. In the kingdom of God numbers are not the ultimate test of power, influence or significance. We remember that One Man’s death – whipped, naked and abandoned by His friends – continues to bring salvation to untold billions.

➢      Keep praying and keep blessing Israel! The God of Israel watches and makes not of ever positive and significant blessing of His people Israel.

➢      Pray fervently that the Holy Spirit, God’s Heavenly Restrainer, will suppress and foil this explosion of Jew-hatred in our day (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Pray that He would increase revelation concerning His heart for the Jewish people, the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8).

Cease-fire deliberations

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday in Washington. The US agreed to help prevent Hamas’ smuggling of weapons through Egypt. Perhaps this step will help, since Egypt is also an American ally, and it is Egypt’s passive approach to this issue (by allowing Hams to smuggle weapons and rockets into Gaza) which is one of the main causes for this war. At the same time, Livni stated that Israel reserves the right to respond with fire if Hamas attempts to re-arm itself.

It is rumored that discussions between Israel, Egypt and the US will lead to a declaration of a temporary ceasefire. That ceasefire (if honored by Hamas) might lead to further discussion regarding the establishment of an apparatus to prevent weapons smuggling. Such a step might in turn lead to a staged Israeli withdrawal parallel to a Hamas guarantee not to attack Israel for a certain period of time (a renewal of a tahadiya, or lull in the battle – see www.basicsproject.org/terrorism/ideology/tahadiya_houdna.htm).

This potential ceasefire is shot full of problems. If carried out as diplomats are hinting at, it would not remove Hamas from being a potential “spoiler” and major player; it would leave Hamas with sufficient rockets to re-initiate hostilities at a later date (and potentially extend the range of its rockets in a future battle); it would leave Hamas terror in charge of Gaza; it would leave Staff-Sergeant Gilad Shalit (the kidnapped Israeli soldier – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilad_Shalit) still in a dank Hamas secret prison – where he has languished for more than 930 days.

➢      Pray fervently that God will guide Israel’s and America’s leaders, showing them how to pull the plug on Hamas’ abilities, influence and control in Gaza.

➢      Pray that Israel’s leaders would have great courage to insist on Staff-Sergeant Gilad Shalit’s release, and that he would be released now.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Day Twenty-Two and Unilateral Cease-Fire

This report contains details of Saturday and Sunday’s events, a brief analysis, and specific prayer requests.

➢      The Israeli cabinet declares a unilateral cease-fire late Saturday evening

➢      22 Hamas rockets and mortar attacks after Israeli cease-fire declaration

➢      IDF begins partial redeployment Sunday afternoon

➢      On Sunday afternoon Hamas announces gradual cease-fire

➢      Majority of Israelis opposed to cease-fire

➢      Double press conferences of 6 European leaders (Sharm eh-Sheikh, Jerusalem)

➢      The Obama factor

IDF activity

Throughout Saturday IAF planes bombed 100 smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egyptian border, as well as targets throughout the Strip. Firefights between IDF and Hamas gunmen erupted throughout Gaza. Booby-trapped buildings and homes were disarmed or blown up by IDF sappers.

On Sunday 170 truckloads of humanitarian aid (including fuel, food and medicine) were allowed through IDF checkpoints from Israel into Gaza.

Unilateral Israeli cease-fire

Just after 2300 Saturday night Prime Minister Olmert announced that the cabinet had authorized a unilateral cease-fire, which would come into effect on Sunday at 0200.

Olmert said, “Our targets, as defined when we launched the operation, have been fully achieved, and more so.” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “We’ve met our military objectives.” On Sunday morning Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi added “The objectives set for the operation have been achieved in full.”

Fine-print on the cease-fire

There are some troubling aspects to this cease-fire which are not being emphasized in the news.

PM Olmert added, “This is not a ceasefire with Hamas … These understandings do not guarantee a ceasefire of Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.”

DM Barak said, “Hamas may fire at (IDF) forces and the home front.”

Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said, “No-one expected (Hamas) to stop firing immediately after the ceasefire had gone into effect.”

C.O.S. Ashkenazi added, “We have created conditions to fundamentally change the security realities in southern Israel.” Note the fluid and amorphous (and extremely non-military!) definition that does not allow for clear or definable benchmarks in judging military success. No wonder; that strategic aim was devised by the cabinet and given to the IDF just prior to the Operation’s inception.

Hamas responses

Hamas’ immediate response to Olmert’s ceasefire declaration was to fire 22 rockets into Israel over the next 18 hours. Cities hit included Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, Kiryat Gat, Netivot and Sderot. IAF strikes took out some of these rocket launchers and cells.

Hamas released reports on Sunday morning that IDF choppers were firing on civilians near a Palestine Bank branch in Jabalya. These reports were immediately picked up by world media. Only later, after a few hours, did the facts come out: six hours after the Israeli ceasefire declaration, Hamas gunmen fired on IDF soldiers, who returned fire and called in tank and IAF reinforcements.

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan responded to the ceasefire with these words: “Either we hear what we want or the result will be continuing the confrontation.”

Abu Ubeida, Hamas spokesman for Izz ed-Din al-Qassam, stated “Do what you like, but the manufacturing of holy weapons is our goal. Bringing arms into Gaza is not smuggling. The natural situation would be for all Arab and Muslim countries, along with the rest of the free world, to formally allow weapons into the Strip… Meanwhile, we believe it is our right to bring arms in any way we find fit.”

Though Hamas had secretly communicated to Egypt that it would accept a ceasefire, Hamas sources declared with bluster, “Rocket fire is intended to send the message that we are the ones who decide when there is a ceasefire, not some unilateral decision in Israel.”

Ayman Tahu, Hamas spokesman in Cairo, declared at 1431 on Sunday that Hamas would accept a limited ceasefire: “Hamas and the factions announce a ceasefire in Gaza starting immediately and give Israel a week to withdraw.” From the tenor of these words it sounds like Hamas had pummeled Israel into submission and not vice-versa.

Gaza’s “victorious” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke from his secret bunker hidden under Shifa Hospital, declaring that “the enemy has failed to achieve his goals” and that Hamas had pulled off “a popular victory.” Hamas’ sponsor Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that “this is only the beginning of victory,” while Mushir al-Masri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza said “We are in a powerful, victorious position. Israel will soon learn that the balance of power has changed in Hamas’s favor.”

In an unintentionally dry comment on Sunday, Hamas sources added, “The Palestinian organizations have no intention of drawing IDF fire that could harm Palestinian populations.”  There might be some Gazans who are thankful that this statement was made although, since it came after a ceasefire and after 22 days of Hamas’ totally opposite strategic war policy which made use of Gazan civilians as human shields, it is probably a moot point.

David Horovitz, Editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, notes that Hamas will never “fundamentally change a mindset that emphatically places the destruction of Israel above the well-being of Palestinians.”

Egyptian responses

Egypt, like Johnny Cash, is trying to “walk the line” between scorning and yelling at Israel (on the one hand) and insisting that it is a viable peace partner with Israel and America (on the other hand); between placating Islamist popular forces which could overthrow or assassinate President Mubarak (on the one hand) and arresting and imprisoning Hamas’ sister organization in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood (on the other hand).

On Saturday Mubarak (who already had spoken with Israeli representatives and knew that Israel would declare a ceasefire within a few hours) proclaimed, “I demand Israel today stop its military operations immediately. I demand from its leaders an immediate and unconditional cease-fire and I demand from them a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip.”

On Sunday Egyptian security sources announced that they had detained 620 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest roundup of MBers in recent months. The arrests were due to pro-Hamas demonstrations and “membership in illegal organizations.” It seems that Mubarak considers the MB to be a threat to Egypt’s stability, but feels that Israel should not at all be heavy-handed in dealing with its own home-grown MB organization – Hamas.

At the Arab Economic Summit in Kuwait on Sunday, Mubarak spoke approvingly of Islamist armed resistance (to the State of Israel), saying “We support the right to resistance, but feel it should be responsible. We believe that resistance, like the decision to start a war, should be responsible, and should be subject to profit and loss calculations. There are factions that admit the balance of power leans very much in Israel’s favor, and it will take many years to reach a balance of power. Should the Palestinian people wait that long?”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit commented on the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Israel and the United States (which is supposed to impede Hamas smuggling of rockets through Egyptian territory) in these words: “We have no commitment towards this memo whatsoever.” The US and Israel can “do what they wish with regard to the sea or any other country in Africa, but when it comes to Egyptian land, we are not bound by anything except the safety and national security of the Egyptian people and Egypt’s ability to protect its borders.” Aboul Gheit reiterated that no weapons were being smuggled into Gaza from Egypt; he again stated that Hamas was rearming by sea. It seems that the Foreign Minister feels that the Israeli Navy is simply falling down on the job.

Aboul Gheit added that Israel is the main obstacle to an Egyptian sponsored peace, and that “Israeli intransigence” is due to that Jewish state being “drunk with power and violence.”

Israeli responses

A poll taken by the War and Peace Index after the first week of fighting showed that 90% of Jewish Israelis surveyed believed that this war should continue until it has achieved its goals – total cessation of rocket fire and terror attacks, and a total halt to smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Polls taken Sunday indicated that approximately 40% of Israelis are in favor of a ceasefire. This is due to the fact that the two main objectives listed by the cabinet were not totally achieved.

Knesset Member (MK) Avigdor Lieberman commented, “The Israeli people cannot live in peace while Hamas is in control of Gaza. Any armistice will surely be used by Hamas to prepare for the next conflict.” He stated that what was needed was “crushing Hamas’ motivation to fight us”; “Past experience shows us that ceasefires become deathtraps.”

SHABAK (Israeli FBI) Chief Yuval Diskin stated that “if Israel doesn’t deal with the problem of the Philadelphi route (ed., the smuggling tunnels), the situation will go back to the way it was within a number of months.”

MK Yuval Steinitz (former Chairman of the following Israeli Government Committees – Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee; Subcommittee for Intelligence and Secret Services; and Joint Security Committee Between the Knesset and the US Congress) said, “I fear that the main objectives of the IDF operation in Gaza have not been met. It is not clear what mechanism will prevent the arms smuggling into Gaza or why we can rely on Egypt.”

Likud whip MK Gideon Sa’ar added; “We assume Hamas will continue to arm itself, and we will find ourselves in another conflict with the organization in the near future after it has obtained long-range rockets.”

The Jerusalem Post’s David Horovitz says that “a definitive result has not been achieved” in this war.

Former Prime Minister MK Bibi Netanyahu noted that “the IDF has dealt Hamas a severe blow, but unfortunately the job has not been completed. Hamas still controls Gaza and will continue to smuggle improved rockets through the Philadelphi route. We cannot show any weakness in the face of the Iranian-backed Hamas terror and must act with an iron fist to defeat the enemy.”

Televised interviews with two mothers whose sons were recently killed in Operation Cast Lead revealed that both mothers were opposed to stopping the operation, and both felt that their sons would have wanted the operation to continue until the rockets are stopped, Hamas control over Gaza is broken, and Staff-Sergeant Gilad Shalit (kidnapped by Hamas and held incommunicado for nearly 940 days) is freed.

An article in Yediot Aharonot (Israel’s leading Hebrew paper) noted that “many soldiers in the field” see the unilateral ceasefire as “a missed opportunity to crush Hamas.”  “We could have done a lot more. There’s a feeling the operation ended too early” said soldiers.

Avi Farhan, a resident of Sderot (who had been evacuated from Yamit in 1982 under PM Begin’s Camp David pullout, and again from Gaza in August 2005 under PM Sharon’s disengagement) commented, “We have witnessed a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and we’ve seen what has happened since then. Now they decide on a unilateral ceasefire with no one asking what part Egypt has played so far in the smuggling of all the weapons to the Gaza Strip. All we want and demand is to let the IDF win. We don’t want decisions to be made now for election considerations and other political considerations.”

European responses

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said, “Hamas must halt rocket attacks on Israel and the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, UK PM Gordon Brown, Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi and Czech PM Mirek Topolánek all flew in for a whirlwind series of press conferences and photo opportunities at Sharm esh-Sheikh, Egypt and Jerusalem, Israel.

British PM Gordon Brown said, “We are prepared to provide British naval support to stop arms trafficking … At the same time, we’re prepared to provide European support for monitoring at the (Gaza-Egypt) crossings.” Considering that Hamas’ rockets enter Gaza by land through Sudan and Egypt, even the Royal Navy may find that assignment somewhat challenging.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Walner declared that the “ceasefire should be followed by the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.”  Would it have been too much to have hoped for some comment about peace being somehow connected to Hamas no longer attacking Israel?

France’s Nicolas Sarkozy stated, “Israel should state immediately and clearly that if rocket fire will stop, the Israeli army will leave Gaza. There is no other solution to achieve peace.” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier added that “an international conference should be quickly organized” for launching “a dynamic for negotiations” on creating a Palestinian state. Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair said that the Arab initiative for peace between the Palestinians and Israel is “not dead” but requires a new endorsement of the two-state solution from all parties involved.

Most Israelis do not think that now is a good time for peace, and that a continuing Hamas presence in Gaza will do nothing to aid tranquility in the region. And of course, from a biblical perspective, the dividing up of the land of Israel (as Blair and Sarkozy et al advocate) is a rather dangerous assignment for any world power to attempt.

The Obama factor

Having surveyed the significant glitches and strategic problems inherent in a unilateral ceasefire, one must ask what compelling reason might there be in favor of ending Operation Cast Lead so suddenly. The compelling reason is the calendar date of January 20 – the Inauguration Ceremony of President Barak Hussein Obama, soon the 44th President of the United States of America.

According to senior Israeli cabinet officials, Israeli PM Olmert decided to withdraw from Gaza prior to the inauguration “as a gesture to the incoming President”, not wanting to “embarrass” President Obama as he takes office. These senior officials added that the cabinet reached its decision approving a unilateral ceasefire because political considerations began to outweigh the military considerations. As well,  intense international pressure to stop the fighting was brought to bear on Israel.

➢      As we pray for the continued safety of Israel and the defeat of her enemies, we need to lift up Israel’s political and military leadership, asking for the God of Jacob to grant them courage, strength, clarity, discernment and revelation, and for the fear of God to triumph over the fear of man.

Riots and anti-Semitism

A Saturday demonstration in Paris organized by EuroPalestine brought 2,600 demonstrators marching towards the Israeli Embassy before they were stopped by the local gendarmerie. Israeli and US flags were burned, and for good measure the windows of a nearby McDonald’s were shattered. London , not to be outdone, witnessed the shattering of a local Starbucks shop window on January 10 in an anti-Israel demonstration. These two rather powerful examples of political activism spilling into pseudo-revolutionary violence find their common ground in pogrom-like anti-Semitism.

On Sunday, 200 violent Beirutis were stopped with water cannons and tear gas as they attempted to cut through the barbed wire perimeter surrounding the US Embassy.

Also on Sunday Indonesian Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir (founder of Islamist terror group Jemaah Islamiah – see https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ji.htm), called for a jihad against Israel in his sermon to 500 at a local mosque in Bekasi, east of Jakarta: “The war in Palestine isn’t a war between one country and another, it is a religious war. The Jews try to destroy Islam, and so Muslims must join, to fight in their own capacity.”

On Saturday a Berlin court struck down an administrative ban on demonstrators using Hamas flags, clothing and banners, but felt constrained to prohibit calls to murder Israeli or Jews at public demonstrations. Recent demonstrations in Germany have been marked by calls to “kill, kill Israelis”, “kill, kill Jews” and “Juden raus!” (“Jews out!”, a Nazi slogan). Though Hamas is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations (September 2003), freedom of speech for anti-Semites won the day in Berlin.

In an article in the German Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger entitled “Vom Wegsehen und Vergessen” (“About averting one’s gaze and forgetting”), political commentator Tobias Kaufmann notes that in today’s Germany “blatant anti-Semitism is blossoming. Germany is currently experiencing perhaps the largest anti-Jewish manifestations since World War II. Jews are called child-murderers, and Israel is compared with the Third Reich.”

Precedents, jihad and Arab shame

Three thoughts in closing:

1. Israel took unilateral steps in its withdrawal from West Bank cities (1994) after which Yasser Arafat’s PLO filled the vacuum; in its withdrawal from Lebanon (2000) after which Hezbollah filled the vacuum; and in its withdrawal (“disengagement”) from Gaza (2005) after which Hamas filled the vacuum. In each case terror was subsequently directed against Israeli civilians as the relinquished territory became a jihadi base for killing Israelis. Unilateral withdrawals have an abysmal track record in this part of the Middle East.

➢      Pray for Israel’s leaders to have the veil of fear lifted from their eyes and hearts vis-à-vis the displeasure or opposition of the nations.

2. Islamic jihad is a powerful spiritual force. Most Westerners are far too secular to appreciate this, and have ignored jihad to their national detriment. Until the power of jihadi Islam is broken over the Middle East and Central Asia, there will be no peace for the Western world and no peace for the Middle East. That, and not  a Palestinian state, is the real deal-breaker.

➢      Pray that the God of Israel will cause the anti-Christ religion of jihadi Islam to collapse, and for a new harvest to take place throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

3. Embedded deep with the Arab and Islamic culture is a life-and-death polarity between honor and shame (highly recommended is The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs, by David Pryce-Jones; Ivan R. Dee Publishers, Chicago 1989). Leaders in the Arab world know that their survival depends on their supporters’ honoring them, and these leaders’ demise is directly connected to the level of shame they tolerate. So Hamas boasts that it has won the recent war, because if it admits the truth (that it has been decimated by Israel, a non-Islamic power) it will lose its status, its influence and eventually its head in Gaza. Mubarak refuses to stop smuggling on Egypt’s Gaza border because he knows that if he allows foreign forces to operate on Egyptian soil, he will be targeted by Osama Bin Laden and his followers – as another apostate Arab ruler who has allowed the “Western infidel” to obtain another foothold on Islamic soil.

➢      Pray for deliverance and salvation for President Mubarak of Egypt, for the Hamas leadership, and for Mahmoud Abbas and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. While you’re at it, pray for the salvation of many Hezbollah adherents, and for many Syrian and Jordanian seekers of truth.

➢      And end your prayers with one penultimate prayer for the salvation and deliverance of Israel and the Jewish people!

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

War With Hamas – Post-Ceasefire

Background to the recent war

Hamas or ‘The Islamic Resistance Movement’ (for deeper background on Hamas and all archived newsletters on the war see www.davidstent.org, under “words”, newsletters February 2006, June 2007) is linked with the Muslim Brotherhood, a world jihadi group ideologically connected to Osama Bin Laden.  Hamas has fired over 10,000 rockets and mortars against civilian targets in Israel over the past 8 years. Sporadic firing of rockets against Israel continued during a recent temporary “cessation of hostilities”, and that season was used by Hamas to build up forces and weaponry in preparation for the present continued attacks on Israel.

On December 19 2008 Hamas refused to extend even that partial cease-fire and began intensive rocketing Israeli kibbutzim, towns and cities on the average of 40-50 attacks a day. On Saturday December 27 Israel Air Force jets attacked Hamas forces in Gaza, finally responding to years of Hamas rocket attacks. On January 3 2009 a land invasion of Gaza was initiated. The war lasted for just over 22 days. A unilateral ceasefire was declared on Saturday evening January 17, going into effect Sunday January 18 at 2 am, after which Israel troops evacuated the Gaza Strip by January 20.

Gaza after the cease-fire

IDF troops pulled out of Gaza on the evening of Tuesday January 20, President Obama’s Inauguration Day. Their pullout had been delayed by post-ceasefire Hamas mortar fire and sniping. Sporadic Hamas mortar fire continued up to January 24, though most of the mortars which were fired landed within the Gaza Strip.

Since the ceasefire Hamas gunmen continue to hijack humanitarian aid trucks and steal much of the aid, as well as to assault UNRWA drivers. They have prevented Gazans from accessing Israeli medical clinics at the Erez crossing (set up to treat Palestinian Gazans).

Hamas is currently engaged in a vendetta against Palestinian Authority (PA) members of Mahmoud Abbas’ former PLO/Fatah.  Ehab al-Ghsain, Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman, said that “the Internal Security Service was instructed to track collaborators and hit them hard.” This euphemistic “tracking” refers to Hamas rounding up, torturing and killing PA loyalists. Well over 100 confirmed PA people have been shot in their legs or have had their hands broken; at least three have had their eyes gouged out; many are being tortured at a children’s hospital and at a mental health center in Gaza City, as well as at school buildings in Khan Yunis and Rafah. An unnamed Fatah operative said, “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip is a new massacre that is being carried out by Hamas against Fatah.” It remains to be seen whether or not the world’s media will care that much about Palestinian deaths when they are “only” caused by fellow Arabs in Hamas.

Photos of smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza are front page news in Israel. These tunnels are being re-dug and are in busy operation. Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon estimates that it will take Hamas one year to re-arm and make up for its losses before it is ready to attack Israel again. This explains Hamas’ strategy in seeking only a one year lull (tahadiya in Arabic) in the fighting.

How “moderate” is Fatah in Gaza?

The US and Europe classify Hamas as a jihadi terror organization, while its sister organization the Muslim Brotherhood is illegal in Egypt. Another major Palestinian organization exists in Gaza called Al-Fatah. Fatah is the largest faction of Yassir Arafat’s PLO (also called the PA or Palestinian Authority). It is considered by the Western world to be a moderate Palestinian organization, and most Western aid has been funneled through the PA.

Active in terror for more nearly three decades, in September 1993 Arafat gave public commitments to Israel, Norway and the USA that the PLO would abandon terror and armed struggle against Israel. As a result Israel co-signed the Oslo Accords, recognizing the PLO/PA/Fatah as “the representative of the Palestinian people” and “commencing negotiations with the PLO.”

Though the accepted Western perspective is that the PA is now moderate and committed to non-violence, the truth is rather different. Arafat may have publicly declared pacifism on the White House lawn, but he continued to fund and administrate terror for a decade post-Oslo. Occasionally Israeli intelligence has been able to present “smoking guns” – incontrovertible evidence – incriminating the PLO and blowing their cover.

On May 7 2001 the Santorini arms smuggling ship (loaded with Iranian arms and headed for Gaza) was commandeered by Israel’s Shayetet 13 Navy commandos. On January 3 2002 the Karine A was boarded, again by Shayetet 13, again under control of Arafat’s people, again full of Iranian and Russian weapons (packed in 80 submersible containers to be tossed overboard at the Gaza coast). Documents seized by IDF special forces from Arafat’s Muqata HQ in Ramallah (April 2002) confirmed his paying of terrorists’ salaries for specific attacks against Israelis. The PLO’s declarations of moderation were simply lies 15 years ago, and the Palestinian Authority’s “peace declarations” today are also lies.

Arafat’s successor today is Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority. He graduated from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow in 1982, and his thesis was later published as a book titled “The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism” in which Abbas described the Holocaust as a “the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed.” His conviction is that the “number of Jewish victims (was) only a few hundred thousand.”

After Operation Cast Lead, Fatah in Gaza declared that they had fully participated in the jihad against Israel, firing 137 mortars and rockets on Israeli towns, farms and cities.

The first phone call that President Obama made (8 am on his first day of work in the White House) was to PA head Mahmoud Abbas. In that conversation Obama pledged to work with Abbas as a partner for a lasting peace in the region.

Hamas declares “unilateral victory”

Hamas and its allies continue to declare that Israel has been defeated. “With full trust and full confidence I say the Palestinians people and the heroic resistance have won this battle. Hamas today is stronger than any time before”, said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri. On January 20th banners carried at Hamas’ victory parade read, “The resistance will be victorious; Israel has been defeated.”  Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal declared that Hamas had “gained legitimacy through struggle” and insisted that the EU should begin dialogue with Hamas.

On the other hand, Lt.-Col. Rick Francona, a former US Air Force intelligence officer and military analyst for NBC News, said to Israel, “You’ve won the battle.” It is his perspective that the ceasefire is “just the end of this round, and that seems to be Israeli policy right now. The best Israel can go for is to manage the conflict until Hamas can be made to go away,” Francona said.

Lt.-Gen. Thomas McInerney, a 35-year veteran of the US Air Force and a Fox News military analyst, said on January 20 during a visit to Israel, “I think you achieved what one Israeli general called ‘changing the reality’ in which Hamas operates, but I think you were too restrained and could have gone deeper into Gaza … The Israeli public’s support for this war mutes global opinion. When a nation is united in its right to defend itself, it makes it more difficult for Europeans, the Left or the Arab media to counter that … Your leadership is too sensitive about world opinion. I know why Israel didn’t (drive deeper into Gaza) - you have an election coming up and a new (US) president taking office, but you need to gain the freedom of operation in Gaza that you have in the West Bank.”

His take on the Israeli unilateral ceasefire?  “Israel did not want to destroy Hamas. I believe you should have.”

Israeli perspectives

Dr. Dan Shiftan (head of National Security Studies Center, University of Haifa) recently wrote an article “Limits of Restraint.” In it he analyzes the strategic nature of Israel’s response to Hamas rocket fire targeting its citizenry and originating from within Gazan civilian areas. Israel’s willingness to sow disproportional destruction on its enemies is a clear message to some of its unfriendly Middle Eastern neighbors: “Destruction in Gaza contributes to the prevention of war with Lebanon and Syria, assists Egypt and Jordan in fighting radical elements, and signals Israel’s limits of restraint to Iran.”

Colonel Yigal Slovik, Commander of Armored Corps’ 401st Brigade, described how entering his first booby-trapped house in Gaza removed his moral reservations about low-intensity urban conflict. “When you see one house that is laden with explosives, and then the one next to is also booby-trapped or serves as a weapons cache - then there is no dilemma … As a father, looking into the house and seeing a photo of children – then clearly it touches the heart - but if there is a possibility that my soldiers will get hurt as a result of an explosion from inside that house, then I’d rather feel bad over the photo than bury five of my soldiers. We did not destroy homes; we acted against terror infrastructure.”

European perspectives

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France stated at the Sharm esh-Sheikh press conference, “In our minds, this is the beginning of our journey. We should continue and we should accelerate our efforts in order to achieve a settlement based on the creation of two states, a Palestinians state living side-by-side with an Israeli state that has the right to its security.” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner added that this should happen “very quickly.”

Trine Lilleng, First Secretary of the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh, sent out a newsletter juxtapositioning Holocaust pictures of Jews alongside of color photos of Operation Cast Lead. She stated, “The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from WW II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany.” Does Lilleng actually believe that death camps and gas chambers exist in Gaza?

The amount of anti-Jewish attacks has risen more than 300% since the same time last year. Most of these anti-Semitic attacks have focused on the Gaza war, and have involved verbal and physical attacks on Jewish people and Israel supporters.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called on the leaders of eight countries – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland (where recent demonstrations were starkly anti-Semitic in nature) to publicly condemn “the explosion of anti-Semitic rhetoric.” Posters and banners with Nazi imagery, as well as genocidal chants comparing Jewish Holocaust victims to Gazans have been widely used at anti-Israel demonstrations in the past three weeks.

The ADL statement said, “Blatantly anti-Semitic displays have contributed to an unacceptable wave of anti-Semitic threats of violence, intimidation and attacks against Jewish communal institutions and individuals in many countries … While it is important to take immediate steps to increase security measures for the Jewish community for the protection of property and the personal safety of individuals, there is also an urgent need for your government to publicly and forcefully speak out against such anti-Semitic attacks to make it clear that anti-Semitism, hatred and bigotry of any kind has no place in your country.”

The Time of The Hunters

The prophet Jeremiah described a time (yet future in his day) when God would bring the Jewish people back to Israel in an Ingathering greater than the Exodus from Egypt (Jeremiah 16:14-15). At that time there will be a movement of fishers – people who benignly participate in and catalyze this return (verse 17). As well, Jeremiah said that there will be a last-days movement of hunters – men and women who will hunt down and destroy the Jewish people in a scenario very similar to Hitler’s Final Solution.

A dear prophetic friend James Goll told me of how God spoke to him on the morning of September 11 2001. The Lord told James, “Turn on your TV.” He did so and saw the second jet crash into the Twin Towers in NYC. Then the Lord told James, “The time of the hunters has begun.”

We are now in the season where anti-Semitism is increasing exponentially, and it will grow until it even outstrips that of Hitler’s Nazi Reich. The war in Gaza is being used by Satan to catalyze and jump-start a European and Western anti-Semitism that has merely lain dormant, and an international Islamist anti-Israel movement that daily prays and strives for a jihadi vision of Israel’s future.

➢      Pray for the protection and salvation of the entire Jewish people; that Diaspora Jews will wake up to the growing danger of world anti-Semitism; and that believers in Yeshua worldwide will be ready to stand with the Jewish people and the Jewish state, having counted the cost.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN  37212-1971 USA

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

The Coming War With Hamas

As 2008 comes to close, it’s time for a week of happy memories with family and friends. Here in Israel, however, Christmas is just another day. Apart from Israel’s tiny Christian community, there are no special celebrations, family gatherings, trees or twinkling lights. The people are intensely focused and are making preparations, it is true, but in Israel the preparations are for war – courtesy of Islamist firebrands Hamas and Iran.

The Prince of Persia – more than a video game

The Bible tells us that demonic forces are organized in governmental or military-like formation (see Isaiah 24:21; Daniel 4:35; Romans 8:38; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1:16; 2:15; 1 Peter 3:22). One of the clearest biblical descriptions of strategic-level spiritual warfare is found in Daniel 10:12-20. The prophet describes a demonic principality called the Prince of Persia (sar Paras, in Hebrew, verses 13, 20) who actively influences the physical ruler of Persia (modern day Iran). The biblical worldview is that high-level demons oversee and influence world superpowers (see also Daniel 10:20, where the prince of Greece, the next superpower, is described) and are in turn overseen or ruled by the prince of all demons (Matthew 12:24; John 12:31) – Satan himself (Revelation 12:9).

Not only ancient Persia and the Greek empire of Alexander the Great were overshadowed and influenced by demonic powers. The Bible’s perspective is that all the superpowers and mighty kingdoms of this world are influenced and overshadowed by spiritual forces of great wickedness – what author Frank Peretti has labeled “this present darkness” (see Jeremiah 25:15-33; Zephaniah 3:8; Luke 4:5-6; Revelation 11:15).

Though this perspective may be revolutionary to some, the Bible pulls no punches here. Once again, the plumblines are obedience to the God of the Bible and honor for His Jewish people. Psalm 2 sees mankind’s history as a long list of kingdoms and superpowers who are in rebellion against God and who act hatefully toward His Jewish people. To put it another way, the psalmist’s prayer is “Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name; for they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his homeland” (Psalm 79:6-7).

The stark biblical facts are that every superpower which inflicts harm on the Jewish people isn’t acting in a spiritual vacuum. The burning of the Talmud in Paris (1242 AD), the Clifford’s Tower massacre of York’s Jewish community (1190 AD), the Nazi mass murders, the closing of the doors to Jewish Holocaust victims by the USA, Canada and the UK in WWII – all of these historical actions have dark spiritual roots.

As we speak, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s manic efforts to develop nuclear weapons in order to destroy the Jewish state are one more clear and present danger. This present darkness is inspired and overshadowed by the same Prince of Persia as found in Daniel 10:13, 20.

At the moment, the nations of the world are caught in molasses, responding to Iran’s actions without any great urgency. Some voices in the US are deeply concerned. But Israel’s concern goes way beyond deep. It is existential.

There is a biblical principle of urgent importance here, especially as we seek how to respond to these challenges.

For Daniel the prophet, the key to this heavenly vision revolved around two things:

➢      Daniel was repenting for the sins of his Jewish people and humbling himself through prayer and fasting (Daniel 10:2-3, 12),

➢      Daniel was seeking God about the physical welfare and spiritual survival of the Jewish people (10:14, 21).

These two prayer focuses are still central to a balanced end-time last days revelation of God’s strategies on Planet Earth.

Hamas and jihad – the popular choice

The next Middle Eastern limited war is just around the corner and undoubtedly will be broadcast live on all the major networks in prime time. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will be attempting to destroy significant elements of the leadership and rocket squads of Hamas (the acronym of Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya, translated as ‘The Islamic Resistance Movement.’ For deeper background see newsletters February 2006, June 2007 at www.davidstent.org).

Originally established by Osama Bin Laden’s revered teacher Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, Hamas is spiritually linked with the Muslim Brotherhood – a world jihadi group closely associated with the Nazis in World War II. In another jarring connection with the Prince of Persia, we note that Hamas receives much of its military and financial support from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Here are some quotes from the official Hamas Charter (1988): “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”.

To restate the obvious, Hamas is not a movement that “one can do business with,” as British Prime Minister Chamberlain once said of Adolf Hitler. Hamas is zealously committed to violent jihad, to the physical destruction of Israel, and to the establishment of an Islamist dictatorship over every inch of Israeli territory (as well as over the entire globe).

Hamas won a democratic election in Gaza with a solid majority. It truly represents its own people. And its people are daily firing rockets, mortars and missiles into Israel’s civilian farms, villages and cities. Over the past three years, since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip under Ariel Sharon’s oversight, over 8,000 rockets, mortars and missiles have been fired by Gazans against Israel. On one recent Saturday alone (December 20, 2008) 36 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel.

The worse it gets, the better it is

Back in the late 1960’s I became aware of one aspect of Communist revolutionary strategy. According to this worldview, the economic kingdoms of this world are moving in a pre-ordained evolutionary march toward world communist government. However, since the working classes do not yet grasp or understand this, they may actually be content with their lives and unwilling to engage in violent acts to bring down their own governments.

The revolutionary solution is to engage in terror operations which will actually make life harder for the workers! By committing acts of violence against the capitalist governments, this will move those governments to “show their true colors” as they attempt to suppress the revolutionaries and limit civil liberties for all. In the short term the workers will experience greater suffering and oppression. Through that suffering (so the theory goes!) the workers will decisively recognize that capitalism has an evil face and that the revolutionary cause should be supported.

This may seem like twisted logic to some, but one must grasp it in order to understand the very similar strategic logic of Bin Laden, Hamas and al Qa’eda.

Bin Laden was actually counting on and hoping for a US counter-strike in Afghanistan after 9/11. He believed that this American invasion would radicalize the Islamic world against the West and increase support for world jihad. For more on this, see Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s, 2004, Michael Scheuer). Scheuer was a CIA analyst who headed the Counterterrorist Center’s Bin Laden station ‘Alec’ from 1996-1999. Though Scheuer lionizes Bin Laden and is heavily prejudiced against Israel, some of his analyses regarding jihadi strategy are spot on.

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas is applying this strategy of “making it worse to make it better.” They are hoping that a constant barrage of missiles and mortars falling on peaceful Israeli farms and towns will trigger a massive Israeli invasion of Gaza – which will in turn increase the sufferings of Gaza’s population and force them even more solidly into the arms of the jihadi camp. Hamas also hopes that the surrounding Islamic nations will jump on the jihadi bandwagon, and that a worldwide Islamic holy war uprising will result.

➢      Pray for the leadership of Israel – that the God of Israel will give them clarity, strategy, courage and discernment (2 Kings 6:8-12)

➢      Pray for the Israeli civilians in rocket range of Hamas mortars and rockets (Qassams and Grad rockets, capable of reaching Ashkelon, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat and Beersheva).

➢      Pray for Gaza’s leadership – that God would frustrate their plans, operations and strategies (Psalm 83:4, 9-15)

➢      Pray for the civilian population of Gaza, many who support the terror – that God in His mercy would reveal Himself to many as their Savior and Prince of peace (Jonah 3:8-9)

➢      Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jewish people (Psalm 122:6; Romans 10:1)

➢      Pray for the struggling tiny community of believers in Gaza, some who have been tortured or martyred by Islamists in recent days

➢      Pray for the Jewish believers in the Negev area bordering on Gaza, some who contend with daily rocket attacks

No news is bad news

You may wonder why the constant shelling and rocketing of Israeli towns and farms – the prelude to the next Gaza war – is not getting much Western media coverage. The answer is simple. Western media puts the spotlight on what sells. They do not offer in-depth or balanced coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict. When they mention it, usually it is in the context of “strike and counter-strike” or “tit for tat”. As a result their audiences are left unprepared, not able to comprehend the nature of the conflicts to come.

Pray for your media organizations, that both leaders and reporters would receive God’s heart for Israel, and would embrace His views about the Middle Eastern jihadi movements.

“Whom the gods would destroy they first tempt to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict” (Irving Kristol)

As America is about to experience a changing of the guard, pray for this great country. There are many voices (some are even Jewish and Israeli) which are pressuring the President-elect to make the dividing up of the land of Israel and of Jerusalem a national and urgent priority. Let’s remember the above-quoted words of American political philosopher Irving Kristol, and pray that the God of Israel would grant great clarity, spiritual perspicuity, wisdom and the courage to do what is right in God’s eyes, to President-elect Barak Hussein Obama as he enters the Oval Office.

In Messiah Yeshua, a Light for revelation to the Gentiles and the Glory of His people Israel (Luke 2:32),

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

Fast-food and the Prophetic

“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the heart” (Proverbs 17:3).

In every generation the hearts of Adam’s sons are tested. These temptations are tailor-made for each generation, crafted to appeal to contemporary culture, style and pace of living. Some examples of how previous generations have succumbed to such temptations include Victorian England, which embraced a belief in “the White Man’s Burden,” (a worldview which sanctified racism and colonialism). Britain’s Chamberlain spoke delusionally of “peace in our day,”  leaving his nation woefully unprepared for Hitler’s attacks. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush each proclaimed the soon arrival of a “new world order” as darkening clouds of Fascism, Communism and finally Islamism rolled across the world.

I would like to briefly draw attention to one of the temptations confronting the modern prophetic movement.

Fast-food Prophetic

Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher and communications theorist, spoke of how media culture shapes one’s worldview, perspectives and even one’s values. He coined a famous proverb, “The medium is the message” (in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man). The speed and ease with which a McDonald’s hamburger appears at the fast-food counter can lead consumers to expect the same service, friendliness and lack of surprise in other areas of life.

For some believers this type of expectation can bleed over into spiritual or prophetic areas – expecting a tamed prophetic ministry which will not rock the boat or cause controversy; or accepting only prophetic words which are uniformly upbeat, victorious, devotional and positive.

He who develops an appetite for mass-produced look-alike hamburgers, can end up caving in to a similar cultural/spiritual pressure and end up facilitating the “mass production of prophetic words.” Like fast-food, the result in such cases can turn into a homogenized “product,” a castrated form of the prophetic – less than fully authentic in its truth and power.

This spiritual dynamic is not new. In 1 Kings 22, we read of Ahab’s royal displeasure with Micaiah the prophet. King Ahab’s 400 court prophets were in the habit of uniformly prophesying good news – prosperity, victory and rejoicing. Only one prophet begged to differ.  ”The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man through whom we can inquire of Yahweh, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.’  ’The king should not say that,’ Jehoshaphat replied.” (1 Kings 22:8). Evidently Ahab was used to hearing bad prophetic news from Micaiah for quite some time – perhaps even for many years. It is equally obvious that Ahab preferred to give the microphone to what he saw as a more jovial and “positive looking” prophetic ministry.

The desire for positive prophetic words is as old as the Bible. Certainly, Scripture itself teaches that one of the important and valuable characteristics of the prophetic is to strengthen, encourage and comfort (1 Cor.14:3). But from a God’s-eye perspective, what is important is the ultimate result, the practical effect of the prophetic word. Jonah’s message to Nineveh may have indeed sounded harsh, but its result led to a season of real repentance for the Assyrians. Conversely, what sounds sweet to prophetic consumers’ ears in the short run may lead to audio agony in the long run.

Fast-food Superpowers

As a young Jewish child, I attended a YMCA summer camp and had my first experience of attending Sunday chapel. The words of one hymn written by Isaac Watts made a strong impression on me, even to this day (“O God Our Help In Ages Past”).

Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away;

They fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the op’ning day.

Like flowery fields the nations stand, pleased with the morning light;

The flowers beneath the mower’s hand lie with’ring ere ‘tis night.

Even at eight years of age, I was struck by how Watts painted a picture of the fleeting and ephemeral nature of the world’s kingdoms – namely, that human history is like a perpetual slow-motion “instant replay” of proud superpowers crashing into the dust, one after the other. It is also worth noting that this hymn was sung at the first and last services on the Titanic, prior to the sinking of this “unsinkable” ship.

Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book and All the Mowgli Stories, said something similar in a poem he wrote for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebration. These words speak deeply to the heart of any superpower:

God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far flung battle line,

Beneath whose awful hand we hold dominion over palm and pine –

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget.

 

Far-called, our navies melt away; On dune and headland sinks the fire.

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the nations, spare us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget.

 

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,

Such boastings as the Gentiles use, or lesser breeds without the Law –

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget – lest we forget!

 

For heathen heart that puts her trust in reeking tube and iron shard,

All valiant dust that builds on dust, and guarding, calls not Thee to guard,

For frantic boast and foolish word – Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!

In Kipling’s day, the United Kingdom of Great Britain was the world’s strongest superpower. Its colonies were so vast that it was said that “the sun never sets on the British Empire.” Its armies and navies controlled the Indian Ocean and the Middle East. Its weaponry was second to none. Yet Britain’s cursing of the Jewish people (its abandonment of European Jewry to Hitler’s murderous savageries, its attempt to destroy the Jewish state while it was yet in utero , its armed aid and strategic counsel to the Jewish state’s enemies, its attempt to divide up the land of Israel) – all these brought the speedy collapse of its fabled empire. A “once in an (empire’s) lifetime” opportunity had been lost. Even today anti-Semitism is alive and well in England, and most British citizens are blind as to what actually catalyzed the Empire’s demise.

Castles Made Of Sand Fall In The Sea Eventually

While living in the U.K. Jimi Hendrix spoke of the fleeting nature of life in his famous song “Castles Made Of Sand”. Another lyricist of “rock star” status in Britain, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley said something similar about superpowers in his famous poem “Ozymandias”:

I met a traveller from an antique land who said:

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert.

Near them on the sand, half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

 tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,

 the hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains: round the decay of that colossal wreck,

boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

These are the days of kingdoms staggering and trembling. International public confidence in the economic strength and national destiny of people’s own countries is weakening, Now is the time for clear prophetic input. It is essential. It is strategic. It will bring life itself to those who are shaken and afraid. And it will break the fear of man from off of some aspects of the prophetic movement. As the Apostle implores us all, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols!” (1 John 5:21).

“I also raised up prophets from among your sons

and Nazirites from among your young men ...

But you made the Nazirites drink wine

and commanded the prophets not to prophesy”

(Amos 2: 11-12)

 

“You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth;

 therefore I will punish you for all your sins.

Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey?

Does he growl in his den when he has caught nothing?

Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set?

Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch?

When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?

When disaster comes to a city, has not Yahweh caused it?

Surely Yahweh the Lord does nothing without revealing His plan

 to His servants the prophets.

The lion has roared – who will not fear?  

Yahweh the Lord has spoken – who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:2-8)

In Messiah Yeshua’s bonds,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN  37212-1971 USA

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

The Perfect Storm – natural disasters, economic tremors and the oil weapon

Nearly five months ago a dear prophetic brother shared with me an extremely sobering word. The Lord had showed him that America was on the verge of a perfect storm. America’s cup of judgment is full, even overflowing (see Isaiah 59:4-8). The blood of nearly 50 million unborn children is crying out from the ground (see Genesis 4:10). The international pornography industry is centered in the USA, covering the earth with uncleanness (see Isaiah 24:5-6). Only two things have held back judgment from America – the love of the poor (see Isaiah 58:7), and standing with the nation of Israel (see Genesis 12:3; Zechariah 2:8).

For how secular media are presently using this concept of a ‘perfect storm’, see “Zakaria: Perfect storm hitting U.S. economy”

(https://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/10/zakaria.useconomy/index.html);  “Zuckerman Says U.S. Economy May Face ‘Perfect Storm” (www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anevAV5cN_hU&refer=home), etc.

What say you?

Bible believers do not always believe the Bible. Adherents of the prophetic do not always cleave to the prophetic word. To paraphrase Irving Berlin’s famous song, “It ain’t necessarily so” that Bible believers know and accept the things that they’re liable to read in the Bible.

Let’s consider two foundational bedrock questions:

1. Is the God of the New Testament the same God as the God of the Old Testament? Does He have the same passions, the same intellectual brilliance, the same strategic abilities? Would He do the same things today as He did in the Hebrew Scriptures – things like the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, the invasion of Canaan, etc?

2. Does God have a covenantal priority with Israel and does He deal with the nations based on their treatment of Israel?

The answers to these two questions will determine how well one will grasp current events and shakings. To a large extent your two answers will also determine the solidity of your prophetic foundation and the clarity and accuracy of your prophetic perspective.

Briefly stated, Malachi 3:6 says “For I YHVH do not change. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed”. Hebrews 13:8 says that Messiah Yeshua is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Isaiah 45:23 and Philippians 2:10 affirm that YHVH is Messiah Yeshua – that They are the same Deity. Revelation 4 and 5 teach that the worship due to YHVH is the same worship which is given to Yeshua. Since God is the same and He does not change, we need to be raising our expectations about what this God can and will do on this planet, especially in the days immediately preceding His return!

In the Hebrew Scriptures God judged superpowers (usually unfavorably) based on their treatment of Israel. Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans all learned firsthand that one does not ‘mess with’ the God of Israel, with His people – or with His land. The two scriptures which most clearly depict the return of the Messiah (Zechariah 14:1-3 and Joel 3:1-3) stress that Yeshua returns with great anger and judgment toward the superpowers of the world – because of their dividing up of the land of Israel and of Jerusalem, and due to their forcibly removing Jewish people from portions of their promised land of Israel.

Summertime soldiers

Most of us intuitively grasp that it is unfashionable and ‘politically incorrect’ to interpret modern events in light of this above biblical worldview. Even many believers get cold feet when they need to take a stand on these bedrock biblical truths.  It may be helpful to remember the words that Thomas Paine penned in his tract ‘The Crisis’ (published in 1776),

“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from…service…; but he that stands…deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value”.

If I had a bell, I’d ring out a warning

Beginning in May 2001 (and due to Saudi oil threats against the USA), America changed its longstanding position and has become an advocate of dividing the land of Israel. Put in other words, the setting up of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River means a dividing up of the biblical land of Israel. As detailed in these newsletters (and also in Bill Koenig’s book “Eye to Eye”, as well as in the Washington Post) the foundational agreement between the Saudis and the US government to push for a division of the land of Israel was completed on September 10 2001. The ink was barely dry before 19 Saudi citizens rammed their hijacked jets into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Due to the terror attacks, the US declaration was understandably postponed until June 2002.

In previous years we have described how continuing US pressure on PM Ariel Sharon led to Israel’s one-sided disengagement from the Gaza Strip, the election victory of Al Qaeda’s spiritual cousins Hamas in Gaza, and the firing of over 7,500 rockets into Israeli cities, kibbutzim and farms. The day after the Gaza disengagement ended in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina began churning its way to New Orleans. To paraphrase John 11:26, do you believe this? Do you believe that the God of Israel means what He says in His word, that He is sifting and judging the nations based on their treatment of Israel the people and Israel the land? Is this God whom you serve, the same One who is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored?

It’s a hard rain’s gonna fall

America has continued (through State Department moves and White House declarations) to push for a decisive ‘shelf’ program by December 2008 which will later used to hold Israel to a comprehensive withdrawal from significant portions of both the biblical land of Israel and much of the city of Jerusalem. Though these efforts may be well meaning, or based on the desire to leave a ‘legacy of peace’, they are leading to a direct conflict with the heart and strategies of the God of the Bible. Hence the prophetic word given to my prophetic friend.

The past 5 months have seen major shakings in the West. Hurricanes and tropical storms have battered the southeastern USA four times in a row. The last episode, Ike (short for Isaac) has caused an estimated 6 billion dollars of damage to date. A mass exodus of more than a million people resulted, and four and a half million Americans were without power for a significant period of time. Over ten oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were damaged. Tropical storms Gustav (Scandinavian for ‘staff of God’) and Ike were heading straight for New Orleans and Houston, where 25% of US oil is processed and distributed. God is trying to get someone’s attention. Has He got yours?

Storms have hit the shores of the continental USA. This ripple effect is rocking the oil industry. The American economy (e.g., Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch etc) is also trembling and trying to catch its balance. What is needed is not ultimately an economic bailout, but a spiritual infusion of repentance.

These shakings in the natural are not over. We have yet to see the zenith of this current process.

God is speaking to America first, not because it is more corrupt or prideful than Europe, Asia, Russia or the Middle East – but because it it the front runner of all nations at this point – the world’s foremost superpower, the ‘point man’ in the world jungle, to use military terminology. In the same way that God uses Israel (a relatively tiny country) with worldwide consequences, in this case God is speaking to the world’s biggest superpower – but other countries had better be listening too!

In 1962 Bob Dylan sang a prophetic song which says,

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’,
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’,
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’,
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’,
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Keep hanging on in prayer!

On May 29 2008 we sent out a newsletter asking for increased prayer for America. This cry for intercession still stands! Here is a quote from that e-letter:

In those days the political advisors to Pharaoh did not recognize the finger of God until it was too late. If the leadership of Israel and the USA continue to push for the re-division of Jerusalem, there will be war in the Middle East and great shakings in America. The time is urgent. Pray for the leadership of the USA and Israel to hear God’s voice and to pull back from needless war and destruction. This is ‘a severe storm warning.’

Keep praying for America, that the leadership would not be led into temptation regarding pressure to divide the land of Israel, and that whoever is chosen as the new President will receive God’s heart for Israel and God’s strategies for the Middle East.

Also, on April 6 2008 we asked you to pray and ask God to blunt the Islamist attempts to make Islamic Shari’a law the religion of the land in the West, especially in England. Here is a quote from that e-letter:

This new Islamist attempt to censor free religious expression is the shape of things to come for the West, and it is what the West should expect if Islam and Shari’a become the religion and law of the land. Pray!

This past week the British government has given powers under the Arbitration Acts to Shari’a courts to enforce their decisions.

Keep praying for Britain, that the light of God’s truth would shine on her, that believers would become bolder in their witness, and that a new Great Awakening would take place in that country!

And keep praying for Israel, that the leadership of God’s choosing would come to pass; that the gospel of Yeshua would make significant inroads in the country; and that God’s strategies for preserving life and defeating Israel’s enemies would be amply given to those who need to make such decisions.

In Messiah Yeshua’s bonds,

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

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph”: Super-Power Politics and the New Anti-Semitism – Part Two

Super-Power Politics and the New Anti-Semitism – Part Two

This is the second part of a three-part newsletter dealing with the rise of worldwide anti-Semitism. Part One can be found on-line at www.davidstent.org. This new anti-Semitism, motivated by the same demonic spirits that energized the Nazi Reich, focuses interchangeably on the Jewish people and on the Jewish state. Medieval libels of Jewish control and spiritual evil combine with Islamist calls for genocide, resulting in a new anti-Semitism which finds its justification for Jew-hatred in the plight of the Palestinians. This foundation of hatred is getting the world prepped for the rise of the anti-Christ (the anti-Messiah); for an international wave of new persecutions and a holocaust against the Jewish people (see Zech.13:8-14:3); for the military invasion of Israel and the re-division of Jerusalem; and for the soon return of Messiah Yeshua the victorious Son of David.

This second newsletter considers some prophetic parallels between the original Exodus from Egypt and the coming Exodus – the final redemption of the Jewish people from their enemies.

The Exodus – a prophetic pattern?

The ancient prophets of Israel spoke of a future Exodus of the Jewish people from all the nations of the world. This would occur at the end of days, and it would eclipse the original exodus – both in scope and in number. This exodus will be international and it will result in the entire Jewish people coming back to and repossessing the entire Land of Israel. The Jewish people will no longer focus on Moses’ exodus as the greatest gathering of YHVH, but will highlight this second Exodus as THE sign and wonder of Jewish history.

“Therefore behold, days are coming, declares YHVH, when it will no longer be said, ‘As YHVH lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As YHVH lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers” (Jer. 16:14-15).

It is worth paying attention to an important prophetic key here – the world will be able to recognize when the season of this Second Exodus is happening, when the Jewish people begin to return to Israel from the “land of the North.” Take a world map, pin a string into Jerusalem and go straight North – and the string touches a world capital called Moscow. The return of nearly one million Russian speaking Jews over the past 18 years indicates that we are 18 years into the season of the Second Exodus. What is coming next on the prophetic agenda? The return of the Jewish people from the USA, from Europe, from South America and from all the other nations of the world! Keep your eyes wide open and don’t close them! You don’t want to miss a thing!

Whistler’s Father

Zechariah tells us that God will whistle for His people who are scattered in exile among the nations, and He will bring them out of all countries (including Egypt) into the Promised Land, until the Land of Israel will be “chock full” of Jewish people. YHVH will again do mighty miracles, and that includes drying up the seas and the rivers – supernatural signs which will even be greater than those done by Moses:

“I will whistle for them to gather them together … When I scatter them among the peoples, they will remember me in far countries … I will bring them back from the land of Egypt …and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, until no place can be found for them … And He will pass through the sea of distress, and strike the waves in the sea, so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up, declares YHVH” (Zech.10:7-12).

The Second Exodus

Isaiah prophesies a mighty work called “the second Exodus.” This exodus will result in the return of Israel to the Gaza Strip, as well as Israeli control over significant areas in what is today the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. And again, there is a description of a supernatural splitting of the Red Sea and also the Euphrates River – a repeat of the Exodus story but more dramatic and widespread!

“Then it will happen on that day that Adonai will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth … And they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west (ed., present day Gaza); together they will plunder the sons of the east; they will possess Edom and Moab (ed., present day Jordan); and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them. And YHVH will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; and He will wave His hand over the River with His scorching wind; and He will strike it into seven streams, and make {men} walk over dry-shod. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of His people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt” (Isa 11:11-16).

No more Jewish Diaspora

This total regathering of the Jewish people will leave none of them behind in the Exile (see Ezek.39:27-29). There will be no more scattered Jewish communities throughout the world – only one central land of Israel where all the Jewish people will live in peace. This Second Regathering will be announced by the blowing of a great shofar (a ram’s horn) which will call the Jewish people back to Israel – from Egypt and from all the nations of the Exile:

“And it will come about in that day, that YHVH will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship YHVH in the holy mountain at Jerusalem” (Isa.27:12-13; see also Hosea 11:10-11).

Signs and Wonders of The Second Exodus

The prophet Micah declares that the season of the Second Exodus will see Israel’s international boundaries being extended. It will also witness major catastrophes across the globe. The Jewish people will again repossess Bashan (the Golan) and Gilead (northern Jordan), and YHVH will again show world-class miracles rivaling and even surpassing those of Moses’ original exodus! The nations of the world (including the Arab and Islamic powers) will deeply and openly repent for their violence against Jacob.

“On that day your boundary will be extended. It will be a day when they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, from Egypt even to the Euphrates, even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain. And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants, on account of the fruit of their deeds. Shepherd Your people with Your scepter, the flock of Your possession which dwells by itself in the woodland, in the midst of a fruitful field. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, I will show you miracles. Nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hand on their mouth, their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like a serpent, like reptiles of the earth. They will come trembling out of their fortresses; to YHVH our God they will come in dread, and they will be afraid before You” (Micah 7:11-17).

Desert Casualties of The Second Exodus

The Second Exodus will be a time of judgment on all the nations for their anti-Semitism, their destructive thoughts and deeds toward the Jewish people and their land. But it will also be a time of shaking and judgment for the Jewish people, as YHVH purifies the sons of Levi and all of Jacob.

Ezekiel uses Exodus language and word pictures to describe this time – terms reminiscent of a full generation of Jewish people whose bodies fell in the Sinai desert, and who never entered the Promised Land.

“And what comes into your mind will not come about, when you say: ‘We will be like the nations, like the tribes of the lands, serving wood and stone.’  As I live, declares Adonai YHVH, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. And I shall bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; and I shall bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I shall enter into judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares Adonai YHVH. And I shall make you pass under the rod, and I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant; and I shall purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I shall bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am YHVH” (Ezek 20:32-38).

The Pharaoh of The Second Exodus

As we consider this Second Exodus and the rise of world wide anti-Semitism, we need to pause and ask the question, “Who will play the Last Days role of Pharaoh? Who will be the evil world mega-leader who will attempt to annihilate the Jewish people and to crush and divide the Land of Israel?”

This is none other than the anti-Christ (the anti-Messiah) who will spearhead this final attack on Israel. The Book of Revelation tells us that in the last military campaign (where Satan is defeated) the Archangel Michael throws Satan down out of heaven. At that point Satan in the person of the anti-Messiah makes one last attempt at a final murderous holocaust again the Jewish people – the “woman who gave birth to the male child” Yeshua..

“And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him…And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child” (Rev 12:7-13).

This anti-Messiah is described as “the abomination who makes desolate” (Dan 9:27). He will invade “the Beautiful Land, and many will fall” (Dan.11:41). A “last days” angel prophesies that the anti-Messiah will be limited in the destruction that he will be allowed to cause: “And I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time. And as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed” (Dan. 12:7).

We are living in the days of the Second Exodus

In Messiah Yeshua’s bonds,

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

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph”: Super-Power Politics and the New Anti-Semitism – Part One

Super-Power Politics and the New Anti-Semitism – Part One

The Passover season has come and gone. Jewish families across the globe have broken the matzah and eaten bitter herbs. We recalled our slavery in Egypt and God’s triumph over the mightiest nation of ancient times. Yet the majority of Jews who celebrated this Pesach sang the songs of Zion in a strange land – still in the Exile, still “living in Egypt.” The awesome curse – the reversal of the Exodus – of Deuteronomy 24:64-68 is still a factor in our day: “Moreover, YHVH will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth … And YHVH will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘‘You will never see it again!’”

But that is not the only prophetic parallel which flashes a warning light at us in our day. In the same way that a new Pharaoh came to the united throne of Egypt (see Exod 1:8) – a king whose heart had grown cold, indifferent and hardened to the Jewish people and their contribution to Egyptian society through Joseph son of Jacob – so in our day men of influence are rising up who are bringing the leaven of Judenhaß (German for ‘hatred of the Jews’) to the table of world politics. They are setting the stage for a renewed popularization of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli feeling, action and governmental policies. These stirrings are leading to the re-emergence of the same demonic spirit that energized Hitler’s Reich, and they are helping to build an altar for the soon revelation of the anti-Messiah – the anti-Christ.

Here is a brief consideration (and certainly not a comprehensive one) of some present manifestations of the above spirit on anti-Semitism, followed by a challenge to prayer and action.

American manifestations – the intelligence community

The opposite of love, Holocaust author and Nobel Prize recipient Eli Wiesel once said, is not hatred but indifference. Voices are being raised within American public forums which are indifferent to the fate of the Jewish people. These voices urge the President to cut free of any ties to Israel, seeing these as an impediment both to American influence in the Islamic world and to American trade in Middle Eastern markets. One current example is former long-term CIA officer and  analyst Michael Scheuer, formerly involved with the South Asian desk (Pakistan and Afghanistan), and who headed the Bin Laden counterterrorism desk from 1996 to 1999.

In his recent book “Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror” (Brassey’s, 2004) Scheuer makes the following astounding declarations:

These quotes seem to rise up like wraiths out of a “roomful of mirrors”. They present worrying historical parallels, comparable to the strident barkings of an Austrian corporal-turned-Reichschancellor and Fuehrer.

American manifestations – the political community

Two recent manifestations of a similar nature can be found in the writings and actions of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Carter has authored two books “The Blood of Abraham” (1985) (www.danielpipes.org/article/4166) and “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid” (2006) (www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/books/14cart.html?_r=1&oref=slogin, www.frontpagemag.com/media/pdf/Carter4b.pdf, www.adl.org/carter/reactions.asp).

The first book revealed a cold and unfriendly bias against Israel’s leadership and a strong presupposition of Replacement Theology. The second book attacks Israel, falsely labeling her as an apartheid state even worse than South Africa, and calls for the dividing up of the land of Israel. In the past few weeks Carter has traveled to Syria in the last week to meet with Khaled Mashaal, politburo leader of Hamas (a group on the US list of terrorist organizations). Former President Carter insists that Israel must negotiate with sworn enemy Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood Islamist organization dedicated to the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt recently published “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” (2007) (www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/books/06grim.html, www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/060403/3edit.htm) in which they make similar charges as did former CIA analyst Scheuer above.

The book has ignited a firestorm of debate in the USA and has been widely condemned as exhibiting poor scholarship. Its publication has created fear among many American Jews that this is a harbinger of a new escalation of American anti-Semitism.

British manifestations

In a recent lecture on British anti-Semitism at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, renowned Neuberger Professor of Modern European and Jewish History Dr. Robert S. Wistrich of Hebrew University (author of  ”Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred”, Pantheon, 1991) stated that “Britain has become the center point for the meeting of anti-Semitic trends in Europe”. Wistrich sees four factors which encourage these trends:

Wistrich noted that “the loss of Christian identity in what was the most Bible-believing culture of its day is one of the deeper layers of what has happened here”.

Professor Wistrich also pointed out that today’s British media has adopted an almost universally anti-Israel bias. “You cannot read a British newspaper without encountering a variant of the libel that Zionism is racism or Zionism is Nazism . . .  If you bring up the subject of anti-Semitism you are ‘playing the anti-Semitism card’ and you are ‘a dishonest deceitful manipulative Jew’ or ‘lover of Jews’ who is using the language of anti-Semitism ‘to disguise hide or silence criticism of Israel.’”

Islamist manifestations

A recent Jerusalem Post article “Report: Muslim anti-Semitism ‘strategic threat’“ by Haviv Rettig notes that, according to a recent intelligence report, Muslim anti-Semitism is growing both in scope and in extremism, to the point where it has become a credible strategic threat for Israel.

The semi-official Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC, chaired by former Mossad head Efraim Halevy) maintains close contact with Israel’s intelligence community. ITIC’s recently released report notes the worrying growth over the past thirty years of a new hybrid of ancient Koranic anti-Semitism which has now been grafted onto European and Nazi roots. This new perspective views the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians as a “historic, cultural and existential struggle for the supremacy of Islam.”

The researchers noted that their report’s focus was on anti-Semitism, not on anti-Zionism. Yet they discovered that these anti-Jewish articles or speeches used terminology which was “confused and intertwined. You can’t distinguish the anti-Zionism from the anti-Semitism.” One of most radical expressions of Muslim anti-Semitism comes from Iran, the report notes, which “is the first example of its kind since Nazi Germany in which a state officially adopts an active policy of anti-Semitism as a means to further its national interests.”

ITIC director Col. (res.) Dr. Reuven Erlich, formerly of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate, stated, that this Muslim anti-Semitism is now widespread, popular and expanding. “The anti-Semitism that fed the Holocaust isn’t dead. It is prospering.”

Rees Howell – a sign and a challenge

During WWII a determined intercessor names Rees Howell was led to pray for the protection, restoration and salvation of the Jewish people. He believed that this was one of the last great moves of God in the world, and a matter that all believers in Yeshua should hold near and dear. In the hills and valleys of Wales Howell led his prayer community in pleading with God for the fulfillment of the ancient promises of the Hebrew prophets – the return of the scattered sons and daughters of Israel to their Promised Land, and the return of the Jewish people to their Promised Messiah Jesus.

As this latest wave of cold-hearted and bitter anti-Semitism begins to rain down on our planet, pray for the Lord God of Israel to birth His purposes as the labor pains increase:

In Messiah Yeshua’s bonds,

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

“Fitna” – Hate Speech or A New Islamist Take on Censorship, Mind Control and Rightspeak

Recent world headlines have focused on a 15 minute film called “Fitna” (Arabic for ‘conflict’, ‘division’, ‘strife’, ‘‘discord’ or ‘disagreement’) produced by Dutch MP Geert Wilders. This movie has been a hot commodity on the internet, and the Islamic world has responded with much heat and little light. What is all the fuss about?

Fitna casts a spotlight on aspects of the Koranic faith that some Islamist leaders would prefer to sweep under the rug. Quotations from the Koran are shown which command violent jihad against non-Muslims who refuse to convert to Islam; the beheading of ‘unbelievers’; the obligation to hate Christians and Jews, etc. Each quote in the film is sung by a Muslim muezzin (or mu’azzin) in Arabic, and then real footage of terror attacks, frenzied sermons, anti-Western demonstrations, the beheading of a non-Muslim hostage, etc are shown. Interviews with Muslim religious leaders are also presented – interviews which justify terrorism and are based on these Koranic passages. The result is a chilling presentation of Koranic Islam – one which is definitely not “politically correct!”

None of Fitna’s footage is staged; it is all documentary. The quotes are straight from the Koran. The film shows that central aspects of the Koranic faith advocate violent terror against non-Muslims. The film also shows that a connection exists between obedience to these commands of Mohammed and the terror attacks – whether they be 9/11 in New York, 7/7 in London, the train bombings in Madrid, the disco bombing in Bali, or the raging flood of terror attacks against the Jewish people in Israel and around the world. Fitna then challenges Muslims to purify their religion from these violent aspects.

“He hits me and then he cries!” (old Arabic proverb)

The response of the Islamic world to Fitna (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitna_(film)) is just heating up.  The 56-member “Organization of the Islamic Conference” based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said the film would “incite disturbances, conflicts and to threaten the security and stability of the world.” They declared that “it is essential that in every country laws are created against works such as those produced by this Dutch politician and other fanatic groups that encourage violence and hatred by insulting religions and misusing freedom of speech.”

Iran’s prominent Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said, “Behind these satanic acts can be found the oppressive powers and the Zionist regime … and we cry ‘death to Israel’ .” Morocco’s Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said Wilders was “mentally retarded.” An organization related to Al Qa’eda has proclaimed a fatwa (an Islamic religious ruling) calling for the murder of Wilders.

These declarations reveal both hidden and not-so-hidden agendas. Remember that across the Islamic world the mosques ring with Islamist preachers railing with hatred against Christian and Jewish ‘unbelievers’ and against the secular Western world. These Muslim preachers believe that their attacks are truthful, that their slurs are valid. But these leaders cannot accept freedoms of speech, thought or expression that would allow Westerners, Christians and Jews to critique Islamic theology or practice in any way. As far as they are concerned, anything less than 100% submission to Islam is offensive, inciting and hate-speech.

An old Arabic proverb describes the strategies of a local bully, “He hits me and then he cries!” In other words, the attacker first beats up the victim and then protests that he is the one being treated harshly! Islamic leaders openly deny Jesus’ deity, the crucifixion, the name of YHVH and the reliability of the Bible. They mock the Jewish people and the choosing of Jerusalem. They oversee the jailing, beating and beheading of Christian missionaries, the funding of Islamist terrorism and the gross oppression of women – and in all this they see no reason for Christians and Jews to be offended. But when a Christian or Jewish believer in the Scriptures (or even a pagan) points out that the Koran calls for violent jihad, for religious enslavement and terrorism – then these leaders consider those critiques “a threat to the security and stability of the world.”

Why Fear A Religion of Peace?

On September 17 2001 (less than a week after 9/11) President George Bush made the following remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington, “These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that… the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war. When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world…”

Yet the picture that Fitna reveals, taken from impeccable Islamic sources, is that the only way Islamists will bring peace to the world is after they have crushed all religions and have enslaved or destroyed all dissenters. This is not “peace in our time” but the false peace of dictatorship. Keeping this ‘peaceful’ framework in mind, some Western leaders are afraid that by shining light on these skeletons in the Islamic closet, Fitna will actually trigger further Islamic violence.

Let’s be frank. The West is not deeply interested in safeguarding Islamic freedom of speech and expression. Nor are Western governments earnestly attempting to bring about deeper debate concerning the relative values or truth-claims of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the marketplace of ideas.  But the West is scared spitless about Islamic violence and oil embargoes. Therefore hypocritical yet politically correct wisdom says that if you’re scared about Islamic violence, you need to loudly proclaim the opposite – that Islam is a religion of peace.

Here are two recent examples of the threat: the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party sent a letter to the Dutch Embassy in Malaysia a few days ago warning that the film would “invite vengeance” and called for a worldwide Muslim boycott of Dutch goods. Spokesman Bin Mohamad said: “If the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims unite and say they won’t buy, then it [the boycott] will be effective.”  And NATO announced that it feared that the consequences of Fitna would affect the safety of its troops in Afghanistan.

Guilty of incitement – Fitna or the Koran?

Recent statements from the UN, the EU, etc do not interact with or intelligently respond to Fitna’s message. There is no weighing of its arguments. Instead the untrue charge is made that the film presents a false picture of Islam. Are we to assume, then, that the Koran’s teachings do not give a true picture of Islam?

The European Union’s Slovenian President said the film served “no other purpose than inflaming hatred.”  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, “I condemn in the strongest terms the airing of Geert Wilders’ offensively anti-Islamic film. There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free speech is not at stake here.” Australia‘s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, “deplored” Fitna’s release, saying that it is “an obvious attempt to generate discord between faith communities.”

The UN, the EU and even Australia seem to be more concerned about “keeping the peace” than whether or not Islam truly is “a religion of peace.”  But no one ever assumed that the UN and the EU are specialists on Islamist theology and practice – only on politics and ‘compromise solution’, as Mick Jagger would say. It still does give pause for thought that some of these world leaders are able to get away with such glaringly ludicrous and misleading pronouncements.

An Islamist strategy to censor Western freedoms

The Islamic world leadership is currently pressuring for the passage of laws which will make it illegal for non-Muslims like Dutch MP Geerts to speak freely, to disagree with or critique Islam, or to show the connection between Islamist terrorism and Koranic teachings.

On April 1 2008 Islamic and Arab UN representatives pushed through a statement and resolution by a vote of 32 to 0, requiring the UN Human Rights Council’s Investigator on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, to also report acts of “racial or religious discrimination” that constitute “abuse of the right of freedom of expression.”

In other words, the UN now has to not only be the watchdog on the violation of civil and religious liberties around the world (and the Islamic nations are some of the biggest offenders in this area!); the UN is now legally required to investigate any freely expressed criticisms of Islam.

Warren W. Tichenor, US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, stated, “The resolution adopted attempts to legitimize the criminalization of expression .. (It seeks to impose) restrictions on individuals rather than to emphasize the duty and responsibility of governments to guarantee, uphold, promote and protect human rights.”  Slovenian Ambassador Andrej Logar, speaking on behalf of the European Union, warned that the UN’s role was shifting from protecting free speech toward limiting it. The French organization Reporters Without Borders condemned the amendment. “It turns someone who is supposed to defend freedom of opinion into a prosecutor whose job is to go after those who abuse this freedom.”

Pakistan’s ambassador, Masood Khan, speaking on behalf of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, denied the resolution would limit free speech. “It only tries to make freedom of expression responsible,” he said. But one must understand that the term ‘responsible’ here means ‘no criticism of Islam allowed whatsoever.’

The Islamic world leadership is attempting to silence open and free research and/or criticism of Islam, the Koran, jihad, Islamist terrorism, etc. This behavior is part of a new strategy – call it an international Islamist Inquisition if you will – whose goal is to muzzle the watchmen in the West as well as internal political opposition in their own countries.

This new Islamist attempt to censor free religious expression is the shape of things to come for the West, and it is what the West should expect if Islam and Shari’a become the religion and law of the land. Pray!

In Messiah  Yeshua’s bonds,

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

A Prophetic Perspective on Choosing National Leaders – Peretz Uzzah

The citizens of America are in the throes of choosing national candidates for upcoming November elections. Newspapers and TV programs are tunneling in to anything deemed newsworthy – from passport details, comments on race, candidates’ pastors, voting records, etc. Does God have anything to say on these matters? Do the Scriptures offer any guidelines to believers – to humanity – on how to weigh these important issues? What is God’s heart for these elections, this country and all other countries?

A son of the people

Moses speaks on behalf of YHVH the God of Israel in Deuteronomy 17, instructing the Jewish people on how to choose a king.

His first point is that the ruler must be a native born Jewish person, and not a foreigner. “When you enter the land which YHVH your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom YHVH your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman” (Deut.17:14-15).

This biblical perspective is reflected in the laws of the United States of America, in the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger was permitted to become Governor of the Golden State of California, but he is not allowed to run for the office of President and Commander-in-Chief.

Keep your heart pure

The leader of God’s people needs to keep his heart and body pure. God decrees that he must not place his ultimate trust in military might (see also Psalm 20:7; Psalm 147:10-14), in his own wealth or in the wealth of his nation (see 1 Tim.6:17-19), or allow himself to have multiple sexual partners (see also 1 Tim.3:2; Matt.19:8).

“Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since YHVH has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself” (Deut.17:16-17).

Recently New York Governor Eliot Spitzer stepped down as a result of the disclosure that he had frequented a prostitute and had violated his marriage vows. He was replaced by Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, who quickly proclaimed that he and his wife had both had affairs. These two disclosures cast a giant shadow, exposing the gap between biblical requirements and current political realities.

Rule your country based on God’s word

The king is commanded to begin his reign with the following action – he is to copy out by hand the entire Five Books of Moses in the presence of the Levitical priests (no cheating or photocopying allowed!). This handwritten personal copy needs to be beside his bed or in his office every day, and he is to immerse himself in God’s word on a daily basis all the days of his rule and his life.

“Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear YHVH his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left; in order that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel” (Deut.17:18-20).

Moses tells us the results of such personal spiritual discipline: the national leader will learn to respect and obey God from his heart; he will base his rule (legislatively, judicially and executively) on the principles of the Scriptures; he will not become prideful and expect that, as king, he can follow a different law; he can expect a solid and continuing rule for himself and for his spiritual and physical progeny.

*                                  *                                  *                                  *

Whoever is chosen to lead the mighty nation of the USA, all believers need to pray that these values will fill that person’s life and characterize that person’s rule.

One of the conspicuous examples of an absence of these guidelines in the lives of some previous US Presidents has been the lack of knowing the Scriptures regarding Israel and acting on them. Even the present Commander-in-Chief does not seem to be aware of what the Bible teaches concerning God’s judgment on those dividing the land of Israel.

Indeed, it is sad to say that this President (who has been the clearest of all regarding his personal faith in Israel’s Messiah Yeshua) has also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territory of the Promised Land. It is not enough to declare a belief in the Word of God; one must follow what that Word teaches. And one must “not turn aside from the commandment,” either to the right or to the left, all the days of one’s rule.

In 1 Chronicles 13 King David called together the entire leadership of Israel in order to come to a consensus regarding bringing the ark of God back to Jerusalem. A unanimous popular vote got the ark on its way, but not even David knew the Bible well enough to remember that God has specific guidelines and boundaries of behavior regarding how the ark was to be carried. It was to be only carried by Levites and on poles – not by ox-cart (Exod.25:12-14; 40:21; Num.4). Ignorance of the commandment led to Peretz Uzzah, the outbreak of God’s judgment against Uzzah, a well-meaning helper whose well-meaning attempts ran afoul of God’s order.

Pray for the next leader of the USA, that this person will line up with God’s heart and opinions in every area, and especially regarding the Jewish people and the land of Israel!

In Messiah’s bonds,

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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