Shootout at the Orient Bazaar – Part Three of Four

Parts One and Two of our last two newsletters deal with the Iranian cruise missile/rocket attacks on Israel – context, background and battle details.. This newsletter (Part Three) presents the perspectives and goals of each nation involved in the mix. Part Four will deal with a wake-up call to Israel, with a focus on the Jewish state’s strategic alliances with unreliable nations – in biblical days and in our own time.

Iran’s perspective

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Chief Commander Hossein Salami recently stated that Iran now feels free to directly strike at Israel from the territory of Iran itself, in response to whatever Iran considers an Israeli attack on Iranian interests: “We have decided to create a new equation [with Israel] . . . From now on, any assault by [Israel] on our people, property, or interests will be met with a counterattack originating from within the Islamic Republic of Iran . . . Operation ‘True Promise’ [the April 13-14 missile/rocket/drone attack] is a distinguished and clear example of this new equation.”

Senior Iranian political and military officials (Senior Advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Akbar Velayati, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Armed Forces General Staff Chief Major-General Mohammad Bagheri, and IRGC Commander Major-General Hossein Salami) declare that, from their perspective, the October 7 Hamas jihadi attack on Israeli citizens demonstrates Israel’s military weakness.

Michael Keays, Senior US Foreign Service Officer, US Department of State, notes that “perceptions of US and Israeli weakness played a role” in Hamas’ attacks on Israel. “The relationship between the Biden Administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been strained” and “various voting districts in the US are now increasingly critical of Israel . . . Iran also stands to benefit from sabotaging the growing rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia that was being built on the success of the 2020 Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and three Arab states: Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco.” Iran’s long-term strategic plans involve the establishment of a ‘Shi’ite Crescent’ – an Islamist dictatorship/caliphate which would crush Saudi Arabia and Jordan, as well as destroy Israel.

   

Hamas’ perspective

Hamas’s perspective regarding Israel is clearly spelled out in its covenant, which calls for the total destruction of the Jewish state without compromise; no recognition of Israel; and the eschatological murder of the entire Jewish nation. “The very identity of Hamas is enshrined in opposition and violent hostility to Israel,” says a senior official in the American Foreign Service.

Sheikh Hassan Yousef, co-founder of Hamas (and father of ‘The Green Prince’), was interviewed while in Israeli prisons. He explained to intelligence reporters Avi Issacharoff [of ‘Fauda’ fame] and Amos Harel that one of Hamas’s goals in its pursuit of the Jewish state’s ultimate destruction is to foment and enhance internecine Israeli strife. Yousef told these reporters that Hamas exploits visible Israeli weaknesses: the calls of the Israeli Left for a complete withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip; the movements encouraging IDF soldiers and reservists to refuse to serve in those territories or to do reserve duty altogether; the well-oiled anti-government protest movement – commandeered by formerly prominent figures – promoting the demonization of the powers-that-be in Jerusalem.

Hamas and its Iranian patron are paying close attention to what they perceive as Israel’s imminent implosion.  Together they are exerting much effort to catalyze deep divisions in the Jewish state. Jerusalem Post writer Ruthie Blum concludes that those who rabidly vilify Prime Minister “Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman [are contributing] to the sense on the part of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic that Israel won’t make it much past its upcoming 75th birthday.”

Matti Steinberg, former adviser to several heads of Shin Bet (Israeli FBI), points out that “someone like [Hamas Gaza Chief Yahya] Sinwar understands the Israelis very well. The leaders of Hamas have basically understood the divisions in the country, and therefore its weaknesses, perfectly well.”

In the months leading up to the Hamas massacres of October 7, the Commander of the Israel Air Force, General Tomer Bar, told his forces in July, 2023 to stay “vigilant and prepared . . . It is possible that at a time like this, [Hamas] will try to test the frontiers, our cohesion and our alertness.”

US State Department Spokesperson, Matthew Miller said on April 22, 2024, that Hamas only wants a hostage agreement which will involve a total Israeli surrender, leaving Hamas free to rebuild and attack Israel again: “Hamas has signaled that they don’t want an agreement. And the ball is very much in their court, and if they really had the interests of the Palestinian people at heart, as they claim that they do, then they would accept this agreement.” Their strategy mirrors that of the ancient Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu, in his 500’s BC ‘The Art of War’: “Instill fear into the heart of your enemy and they’ll hand victory over to you.”

Saudi Arabia’s perspective

A member of the Saudi royal family who is also an official government spokesman, has given an anonymous interview to the Israeli KAN network, blaming Iran for being behind the war in Gaza, and specifically the October 7th attack – all this in order to hobble normalization agreements between Israel and Saudi Arabia: “Iran is a country that sponsors terrorism, and it should have been stopped a long time ago.”

Russia’s perspective

Russia’s long-term goals have focused on establishing naval bases in the Mediterranean. Tim Marshall in his Prisoners of Geography explains: “From the Grand Principality of Muscovy through Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin, every Russian leader has been confronted by the same problem: ports still freeze and the North European Plain is flat …This lack of a warm-water port with direct access to the oceans has always been Russia’s Achilles heel, as strategically important to it as the North European Plain. Russia is at a geographical disadvantage, saved from being a much weaker power only because of its oil and gas. No wonder, in his will of 1725, Peter the Great advised his descendants to ‘approach as near as possible to Constantinople and India. Whoever governs there will be the true sovereign of the world. Consequently, excite continual wars, not only in Turkey, but in Persia … Penetrate as far as the Persian [Arabian] Gulf, advance as far as India.’” Russia has three main ports open to world trade: St. Petersburg (often ice-bound); Vladivostok (ice-locked for several months each year, and accessing only the Pacific); Sevastopol in Crimea on the Black Sea, under Ukrainian rule until recently).

According to KGB documents in the Mitrokhin archives (smuggled out of Russia and now stored in Cambridge, England), the KGB and Politburo heads saw the Zionist and Jewish movements as a clear and present danger to world peace and to the integrity of the Soviet empire – “a danger which is only second to the main enemy, the United States.” “Moscow Center was obsessed with the ‘Zionist subversion’ against the Soviet Union,” notes Professor Christopher Andrew, historian of the British intelligence community. In the Summer of 1982, Vladimir Kryuchkov (later appointed head of the KGB) issued a “work plan for fighting Zionism” stressed that “Zionism is the main threat to the USSR and to the Soviet bloc.”

This is the strategic background and context behind Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia’s comments to the Security Council on April 14, 2024. Defending Iran’s missile and rocket attack on Israel, Nebenzia darkly hinted that “what happened on the night of April 14 did not happen in a vacuum.”

International Atomic Energy Agency’s perspective

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, when asked about the possibility of an Israeli retaliatory strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, answered: “We are always concerned about this possibility.”  He urged that Israel exercise “extreme restraint.”

US perspective

US officials were “frustrated” by Israel’s decision not to inform them about the purported Israeli April 1, 2024 Damascus strike which took out Iran’s terror mastermind Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said on Sunday, April 7, 2024 on ABC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that there has been a “growing degree of frustration that we’ve had with the way these operations are being [executed].” The Biden administration asked Israel to update and consult with the United States before any Israeli response to a potential Iranian attack, senior American and Israeli officials said, according to the Wall Street Journal – in part to protect US forces in the region. 

The US continues to re-iterate its 75-year-old State Department strategy at every available opportunity – the dividing of the Jewish Promised Land into a ‘two state solution’ – a Palestinian state run by jihadis and ‘ex-terrorists’, and a Jewish state run by Israel. This ‘two state solution’ strategy makes its way into nearly every administration statement and declaration – regardless of the open and unchanging Palestinian link to terrorist leadership and strategies.

  

The US is the primary super-power in the Middle East, and it is playing a Machiavellian game, bolstering Shi’ite Iran while counterbalancing with funneling support to Sunni Saudi Arabia (Iran’s arch enemy). America supports Israel with state-of-the-art munitions while placing its main Middle Eastern airbase and CENTCOM connections in Qatar – the main world supporter of jihadi terrorism, including Hamas. America channels billions (in POTUS Obama’s terms of office as well as in POTUS Biden’s) to Iran, which the IRCG then uses to attack Israel though arming Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi terror regime. Superpower diplomacy makes for strange bedfellows. “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be this way!” (James 3:10).

The international community speaks with one voice – Israel must not retaliate or escalate

The world’s immediate response to the Iranian drone/cruise/ballistic missile attack on Israel – the largest such attack in world history – was to warn Israel and threaten the Jewish state that it must not retaliate or attack Iran.

In an April 14, 2024 article appearing in the Jewish News Syndicate, three Middle East specialists comment:

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett succinctly addressed this issue on his tweet of April 14, 2024:

As pointed out in our recent newsletter, Iran’s rocket/drone attack on Israel on the night of April 13-14, 2024 was coordinated with the following American authorities: US State Department, US Intelligence, US Joint Chiefs and the POTUS. Immediately after that attack – the largest of its kind in world history – the US POTUS and State Department demand from Israel that the Jewish state not respond, while the US Secretary of Defense demands that Israel run any even potential Israeli responses by the US for approval or tweaking. Iran has succeeded in moving the Middle Eastern goalposts in a significant way.

One final analytical comment from Lawrence Kadish at the Gatestone Institute on April 17, 2024:

World perspective - WWIII

WWII exploded onto the European battlefields as a result of certain pivotal decisions. These include: the permission which the Allies granted to Germany to re-arm as long as they attacked Russia; the Anschluss and annexation of Austria on March 12-13, 1938;  the Munich Pact of September 30, 1938 handing over Sudetenland (parts of Czechoslovakia) to Hitler; the seizure of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15,1939. Despite breaking the Munich Pact almost immediately, Hitler did not face a military response from the Allies.

Today the world is facing the onset of three major theaters of Word War: Russia, Iran and China. The following articles are instructive and illuminating:

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

Shootout at the Orient Bazaar – Part Two of Four

At approximately 05:00 hours on Friday April 19, 2024, IAF drones attacked a radar base in Isfahan, Iran (75 miles/120 km south of Nantaz, Iran’s main nuclear site; and 274 miles/442 km. south of Tehran). This is a developing story, and it may end up being covered in a possible fourth newsletter.

“I love it when a plan comes together” – Hannibal  Smith, ‘The A-Team’

Part One of this three-part newsletter reveals from open-source material that Iran’s attack of April 13-14, 2024 on Israel had been discussed, pre-planned and finessed with America’s State Department, intelligence and military leaders prior to the first shots being fired. This joint planning and execution involving both countries’ top leadership had a precedent – the Iran-US coordinated ballistic missile attack on American troops stationed at Ayn al-Asad Airbase in Iraq on January 8, 2020.

Between April 4-11, 2024, the US top leadership was drawing up plans in consultation with Iran, contacting allies (though Israel seems to have relegated to the bottom of the list) and pre-positioning intelligence and military assets in preparation. Israel was made aware of the coming strike approximately three days before April 13. CENTCOM Commander General Michael E. Kurilla touched down in Israel on April 11 to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. The subject of their meetings: “rising regional challenges as a result of Iranian aggression via proxies.”

According to American sources, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates shared intelligence with the United States (and through the USA, to Israel) that helped facilitate the successful interception of many Iranian missiles and drones.  Jordan also informed the United States that Jordan would assist in intercepting Iranian airborne armaments.

Post-Sabbath onslaught

Just before the start of the Iranian attack, extensive disruptions in GPS systems kicked in throughout Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

On Saturday evening, April 13, 2024, at approximately 23:30 Israel Daylight Time (IDT), IAF (Israel Air Force) F-15 and F-16 fighter jets took to the skies in pre-planned formations, awaiting whatever Iran would send into their killing zone. At this time also, Iran and Yemen launched their attack on Israel, named Operation True Promise (Persian: وعده صادق: va’de-ye sādeq), with the code name Ya Rasul Allah (یارسول‌الله(ص)).

At 00:30 IDT, Israel’s airspace was closed to international and domestic flights. Ramon Airport also was closed to traffic. A short time before that, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon announced the temporary closure of their airspace. Later on, Jordan publicly denied that it has closed its airspace.

At 01:32 IDT, two Iraqi security sources said that dozens of drones had been spotted flying from Iran toward Israel over Iraqi airspace.

Between 01:42 and 02:00 IDT, the following attacks took place:

Within a few seconds of the firings, air-raid sirens were sounded throughout the country of Israel, including in the Beer Sheva and Negev regions, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, etc. At the same time, Hezbollah launched from Lebanon about 25 rockets aimed at bases in the Golan Heights.

The following map shows the approximate flight patterns of Iranian and Yemeni attack aircraft:

War in the heavenlies

The IDF states that 25 of the 30 to 36 cruise missiles fired by Yemen were shot down by Israeli jets outside the borders of Israel, and that all the rest of the cruise missiles (5-11 in number) were similarly intercepted, but by other air forces.

According to the Wall Street Journal, roughly 50% of the 110-130 Iranian ballistic missiles either failed to launch or crashed before reaching their target. But what happened to the 50% that were able to make their way toward Israel (55 to 65 in number)?

The IDF launched interceptors at the ballistic missiles which were approaching Israel by way of the Syrian Golan Heights, attempting to shoot them out of the skies. Syria’s army attempted to block these IAF interceptors, in a vain effort to help the Iranian drones and missiles to reach their targets in Israel.

What exactly were these ballistic missiles targeting? Based partially on Iranian information shared with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and the US during the previous week, the target estimates were as follows: a military base on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights; the Nevatim and the Ramon Airbases (both in the Negev); and quite possibly the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center (KAMAG) near Dimona.

Operating in the Yemeni theater, USAF forces wiped out a ballistic missile on its launcher vehicle and seven drones on the ground before the Houthis were able to be fire them.

A source close to the Iraqi government told The National that dozens of the weapons (ballistic missiles and drones) were intercepted by USAF in the skies above Baghdad, in Najaf (160 km south of Baghdad), in Western Iraq and in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Northern Iraq. Wreckage of a drone was later found in an open area in the Najaf Governate.

US anti-missile systems at USAF Ayn al-Asad Airbase (shades of January 2020!) in Iraq’s western Anbar province played a key role. At least one Iranian ballistic missile was shot down by a Patriot battery in the Kurdish northern region, landing in the Soran district outside of the regional capital Erbil, 400 kilometers away.

CENTCOM (US Central Command) said on Monday April 15, 2024, that its aircraft “successfully engaged and destroyed” more than 80 attack drones and at least six ballistic missiles. The operation was supported by US European Command destroyers, which deployed the AEGIS missile defense system to shoot down at least three Iranian ballistic missiles.

Shooting down the Prince of Persia

A stratified multi-air defense system combination of Israeli, American, Jordanian, British and French jet fighters (equipped with cannons, air-to-air rockets like the Sidewinder, the Python 3/4/5, etc.) were able to destroy most of the Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, As well, the IAF Arrow 2 and David’s Sling anti-missile system were in use, contributing their ‘Star Wars’ technology to the battle.

US warplanes and British RAF Typhoon jets shot down drones over the Iraq-Syria border, as UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed. Jordan also intercepted dozens of drones in its airspace, on the east side of the Jordan Valley and near the Jordanian-Syrian border. Jordanian jets downed dozens of Iranian drones flying across northern and central Jordan heading to Israel. Jordan allowed the U.S. to use its airspace to shoot down incoming Iranian threats. An Israeli military official said late on Monday April 15, that Jordan also allowed IDF jets to intercept Iranian missiles and drones over its territory, during Sunday’s attack on Israel.

Saudi Arabia assisted Israel and the United States during the Iranian attack on Israel, by providing, along with the UAE, “intelligence that contributed to an overwhelmingly successful defensive response.” That report added that the Saudis stopped short of allowing the U.S. to operate from Saudi airspace.

All of the drones fired at Israel as well as all of the cruise missiles were intercepted outside Israel’s borders, as well the approximately 40 out of 60 remaining Iranian ballistic missiles.

Following the attack, Jordan and Egypt declared a state of emergency. Security sources in Jordan declared that “Jordan is ready to intercept any Iranian drone that penetrates its airspace.”

Slipping through the cracks

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in his Operational Update of April 14, 2024 that “99% of the threats launched towards Israeli territory were intercepted – a very significant strategic achievement.”  When a more comprehensive analysis will be completed, making use of all relevant technical and video information, those numbers may shrink a bit – but they are still an impressive benchmark.

Here is a partial listing of five of these impact sites:

At the Nevatim Airbase, the missiles caused slight damage. A small crater was created beside a small building where one missile landed; an empty airplane hangar was slightly damaged; and possibly a Hercules C-130 transport plane sustained minor damage.

“Prepare plans by consultation, and make war by wise guidance” (Proverbs 20:18)

There is a military term known as BDA – Battle Damage Assessment. This is the attempt to figure out what damage has happened to one’s military forces as a result of recent clashes. For Israel to do proper BDA, some questions should be asked:

Dr. Yigal Carmon comments in his research, saying much the same thing:

“They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones” (Psalm 83:3)

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow, a columnist for the Gatestone Institute, and a brilliant and insightful writer. Here is a précis of his conclusions on this matter in his April 16, 2024 article titled ‘This Was Not the Actual Iranian Attack:’

Iran is known in the Middle East as a chess master, exercising deception, subterfuge and patience. This is how they are building their nuclear program, while twisting superpower leaders around their little pinky. The leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran are even more cunning than Iraqi Saddam Hussein (known as ‘the Butcher of Baghdad’ – Arabic: al Jazaar al-Baghdadi – ألجزار ألبغدادي‎) ever was.

It is good to remember that the God of Jacob has the last word: “YHVH nullifies the plan of nations. He frustrates the plans of peoples” (Psalm 33:10).

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

Shootout at the Orient Bazaar – Part One of Four

The Iranian bombardment of Israel on April 13-14, 2024 is only the second time in modern Israel’s brief history that the Jewish state was attacked by rocket fire from a non-adjacent country – Saddam Hussein’s SCUD barrages in January-February 1991 were the first of such attacks. This is a significant event with geopolitical ramifications. On Sunday April 14, 2024, Israel’s U.N. envoy, Gilad Erdan, told the Security Council regarding Iran’s assault on the Jewish state with over 300 rockets, missiles and drones: “This attack crossed every red line.”

We will be sending out three newsletters on this subject. Part One deals with Iranian background, strategic planning militarily and diplomatically, and unsettling historical parallels going back to 2020. Part Two will delve into battle details – the blow-by-blow description of the Iranian attack, as well as the amazing counter-offensive by Israel and her allies of the massive barrage of Iranian drones, ballistic rockets and cruise missiles – with a 99% successful destruction rate. Part Three will present what American and Israeli strategic perspectives are about the situation, and what their realpolitik goals are for the future.

Instant news in the age of sifting sands

“But as for you, Daniel, keep these words secret and seal up the book until the end of time; many will roam about, and knowledge will increase” (Daniel 12:4).

We live in the age of information explosion. Fiber-optic cables stream the entire body of available information at 70% of the speed of light from data centers in Iceland to the screen of your home computer, laptop or cellphone. The blow-by-blow recounting of battles, or dark superpower intrigues – these happenings (which years ago took months or decades to come to public knowledge) are now brought into your living room at the click of a mouse. The recent Iranian missile, rocket and drone attack on Israel (April 13-14, 2024) is an example of this digital dynamic.

In George Orwell’s magnum opus 1984, wars were constantly raging between the three superpowers Oceania. Eurasia and Eastasia. Shifts in geopolitical alliances meant that the news needed to be re-written, expressing new loyalties, ‘new facts,’ and new political positions. Previously published news items needed to be immediately edited – newspaper columns needed to be retyped, and new photos needed to be glued over old ones. Orwell’s dystopian science-fiction is present reality. A current example touches on this weekend’s military clash. There is a significant measure of behind-the-scenes intrigue which has to be unpacked – in order to grasp what has just happened and what is yet to come.

The assassination of the jihadi General

On April 1, 2024, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force commander in Syria and Lebanon Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi was killed near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus in what is assumed to be a targeted Israel Air Force assassination. Two other top jihadi generals and four IRGC officials (all terrorist masterminds) were also eliminated in the strike. The question begs to be answered: why was he targeted, and what was he doing in a building next to the Iranian Embassy?

The answer was provided by official Iranian authorities two days later, on April 3, 2024. The Iranian Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces (headed by Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as well as father-in-law to Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei) published a notice of mourning and appreciation for General Zahedi: “The strategic role of the martyr Zahedi . . . in the planning and execution of ‘al-Aqsa Flood’ [Tufan al-Aqsa, طوفان الأقصىed – the Arabic name for the Hamas massacres of October 7, 2023] is part of the great pride that will transform the quiet efforts of the great commander into the eternal history of the struggle against the occupation by the Zionist regime.”

This statement was essentially an official admission of Iran’s involvement in both the planning and the execution of the October 7 Hamas jihadi terror attack on Israeli civilians bordering Gaza.

Assuming the likelihood of Israel’s responsibility in helping Zahedi to move on from his terror activities and to come face to face with his Maker, the motive for the Iranian general’s elimination is obvious: Zahedi planned and oversaw the murder of over 1,500 Israelis on October 7 – atrocities planned down to the last detail, including mass rapes, torture, horrific murders and kidnappings.  The God of Israel gives His perspective on the judgment coming to such a man: “Rejoice, you nations, with His people! For He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will return vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His land and His people” (Deuteronomy 32:43).

Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani declared to the Security Council on Sunday, April 14, 2024 that “Iran’s operation was entirely in the exercise of Iran’s inherent right to self-defense. This concluded action was necessary and proportionate.” This is diplomatic double-speak since, in matter of fact, it was not the Embassy which was hit. The building targeted was located outside the fenced compound of the Embassy. The targets in that annex were arch-terrorists, deadly enemies of the Jewish state and of the Sunni world.

The irony is dry: the world’s main exporter of terrorism stands on an international platform at a world forum, appealing to the principle of ‘inherent right to self-defense’ when its state-sponsored terrorist generals are taken out. And the world media offers no ethical pushback or analysis of Iran’s claims in this regard. It should be mentioned that Iran was not the only nation that fired ballistic missile/drone/cruise missiles at Israel. Syria, Iraq and Houthi Yemen, as well as Lebanon all joined in.  Were these countries also “acting in self-defense”?

Iran’s prophetic vision

Iranian war strategy did not begin the day after the Damascus hit. Their Shi’ite Islamic jihadi goals are broader than a focus just on Israel. Fatah Revolutionary Council (PLO) member Muwaffaq Matar writes in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida: “The ultimate goal of the [IRGC’s] so-called ‘Qods Force’ is to take over [Amman], the capital of the Hashemite Jordanian Kingdom, invade the East Bank of the Jordan and eliminate the Palestinian national enterprise” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 2, 2024).

Iran’s goals involve a total take-over of the Middle East and its transformation into a Shi’ite caliphate/dictatorship. This would include overrunning Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. 

Recent confirmation of these plans comes from an April 1, 2024 Telegram post of an Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah (pro-Iranian) militia official, revealing Shi’ite operative plans to establish a Jordanian militia with 12,000 armed members that would act in Jordan against Israel, subordinate to Iranian commands.

In our December 2018 newsletter https://davidstent.org/three-red-cherries-and-a-one-armed-bandit/ the following quotes put meat on the bones here:

Iran telegraphs its punches

Iran’s jihadi leaders were not going to let the April 1, 2024 assassination of Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi go unanswered. Iran began preparations for their attack on Israel, and their labors were intensively covered in world media. At the same time, behind-the-scenes communications with the United States were also going on. Iran passed a message through Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (for it to be conveyed to Washington) concerning the targets and goals of its upcoming attack on Israel. An anonymous Turkish diplomatic source stated: “Iran informed us in advance of what would happen.” A Turkish security source said that CIA chief William Burns had spoken to Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, over the Eid al-Fitr holidays (April 9-12) and asked Turkey to act as a mediator between Iran and the USA. 

On April 4, Fidan and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met in Brussels on the sidelines of a NATO meeting. On April 11, 2024, U.S. Department of State Spokesman Matthew Miller noted that “Secretary Blinken has been engaged in diplomacy over the past 24 hours through a series of calls to foreign counterparts, including Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan . . . [Blinken] talked to the Turkish Foreign Minister last night [April 10].” During that conversation, Fidan conveyed to Blinken Iran’s message. On April 14, 2024 U.S. Department of State Spokesman Matthew Miller said: “Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan . . .  Secretary Blinken thanked Foreign Minister Fidan for his ongoing engagement to prevent further escalation in the region.” According to the Arab news source al-Monitor , “Turkish officials revealed over the weekend that [prior to April 13] Turkey served as a mediator in the escalation, channeling Tehran’s and Washington’s expectations to each other.”

In the exchange of messages between America’s Blinken and Turkey’s Fidan on April 10, the anonymous Turkish diplomatic source explains: “Iran informed us in advance of what would happen. Possible developments also came up during the meeting with Blinken, and they (the U.S.) conveyed to Iran through us that this reaction must be within certain limits. In response, Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus and that it would not go beyond this.

A senior Biden administration official stated on Sunday April 14, 2024, that the US had “a series of direct communications through the Swiss channel” (Swiss intermediaries) both before and after Iran’s mass drone and missiles attack against Israel. That senior US official stated that Iran communicated through the Swiss channel: “We received a message from the Iranians as this was ongoing, through the Swiss. This was basically suggesting that they were finished after this, but it was still an ongoing attack.” Mohammad Bagheri, the Iranian armed forces’ chief of staff, told Iranian state television that “we sent a message to America through the Swiss embassy.”

Iraqi, Jordanian and Qatari officials added that Iran provided them with early warning of the attack, as well as various details concerning targets. An Iraqi security official and a government security advisor said that “Iran had used diplomatic channels to inform Baghdad about the attack at least three days before it happened.” The Iraqi government, said the security official, “clearly understood from the Iranian officials that the US military in Iraq was also aware of the attack in advance.” A senior Jordanian official said that Iran had summoned Arab envoys in Tehran on Wednesday April 10, 2024 to inform them about the coming attack. Asked if Iran had also given details about the targets and kinds of weapons to be used, the Jordanian official did not respond directly but indicated that this was the case.

April 13-14 2024 – a Star Wars clash without casualties

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday that Iran gave neighboring countries and Israel’s ally the United States 72 hours’ notice before it launched the strikes and that these attacks would avoid civilian casualties. A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration denied the Iranian statement, saying that Washington did not get 72 hours notice in advance. “That is absolutely not true,” the official said. “They did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of . . . ‘these will be the targets, so evacuate them.’ They were clearly intending to destroy and to cause casualties . . .  [in a] highly destructive [attack].” U.S. defense officials have characterized the Iranian attack on the ‘high end’ of what was anticipated, and deny reports that Tehran had given three days’ notice of the attack: “The intent was clearly to cause significant damage and death.”

The only person wounded in Israel by the Iranian rocket attacks was a 7-year-old Bedouin girl, Amina Hassouna of the al-Fura Bedouin community between Beersheva and Arad, She was struck while lying in her bed, and was severely injured by shrapnel from an intercepted ballistic missile.

In light of Iran’s public declaration that it avoided causing Israeli civilian casualties, it is worth remembering a sobering event in Iranian history. Two days before Iran’s rocket and missile attacks, on April 11, 2024, the Argentinian Federal Court of Criminal Cassation ruled that Iran and Hezbollah had committed crimes against humanity and are responsible for the bombing murders (300 tons of explosives) of 85 Jews on July 18, 1994 at the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) and the suicide bombing of the Israeli Embassy on March 17, 1992 (29 murdered, 242 injured), both in Buenos Aires. The court said on that the AMIA bombing “was organized, planned, financed, and executed under the direction of the authorities of the Islamic State of Iran within the framework of Islamic jihad and with the main intervention of the political and military organization – Hezbollah.”

January 3, 2020 – The American Reaper over Baghdad skies

On January 3, 2020, just after midnight, a US MQ-9 Reaper drone had been loitering in the airspace above Baghdad International Airport, waiting for an Airbus A320 Cham Wings plane from Damascus International Airport. On board was Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Quds Force) chief Qasem Soleimani (known as ‘the Shadow Commander’) and other Iranian military figures. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (leader of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces) was waiting on the tarmac to welcome him.

According to Saudi-based Arab News, a USAF Air Combat Command drone that attacked Soleimani’s convoy had been launched from CENTCOM US-operated Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, remotely controlled by operators at the Creech Air Force Base in Clark County, Nevada. Iran’s Air Force stated that Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait also participated, According to Ahmed al-Asadi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, drones also took-off from the Iraqi military airbase of Ayn al-Assad and returned directly to the Ayn al-Assad base after carrying out the assassination.

At 00:47 hours Baghdad time, as the jihadi entourage was driving away toward downtown Baghdad in a Toyota Avalon and a Hyundai Starex, the Reaper launched several missiles, striking the convoy on an access road. The two cars were engulfed in flames, and ten people departed from this life.

According to veteran Israeli journalist Ehud Yaari, the taking down of this Iranian mass murderer was “the most important assassination from the Jewish point of view since the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Final Solution, in Prague in 1942 … This man was the brains and the engine of the Iranian machine that is trying to wrap the Middle East in the arms of an octopus … He was the head of the octopus in this regard.”

January 4, 2020 – Initial Iranian response to Soleimani’s assassination

An Iranian government spokesman said the country’s top security body would hold an extraordinary meeting shortly to discuss the “criminal act of attack.” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that “harsh revenge” is waiting. On January 4, 2020 POTUS Donald Trump warned Tehran that any retaliation for the assassination would result in the U.S. targeting 52 Iranian significant sites. The 52 sites were reported to represent the 52 American hostages held during the Iran hostage crisis.

The deep scar inflicted by this January 2020 American assassination of Iran’s top jihadi general has left echoes which still reverberate to this day, in 2023-24. Here is an example: on December 27, 2023, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ramazan Sharif said that the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023 devastating attack on Israel was in revenge for the 2020 American assassination of IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani.

Shortly after Soleimani’s death was confirmed (January 4-5, 2020), US intelligence agencies reported that Iranian ballistic missile regiments had moved to heightened readiness. Iran was about to initiate an attack on US troops stationed at the Ain al-Assad in Iraq.

Iran and the USA coordinate the January 2020 attack against US troops in Iraq

In a January 8, 2020 Iran Wire report, an unnamed Iranian diplomat had revealed that Iran decided to launch a missile attack against US troops after several days of discussion by the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, and was “deliberately aimed at military bases and infrastructure and not personnel.” Some IRGC officers had insisted that Iran’s vengeance against the U.S. must be restrained “because killing Americans will cause an all-out war, which will cause massive destruction in Iran and might even bring down the regime.” Iran’s foreign minister at the time, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that the Iranian regime coordinated with America about these attacks by informing America ahead of time. Iran informed Iraq of its plans to launch missiles at the U.S. bases, with the intention that Iraq would then inform the US – so that precautions would be taken to prevent loss of life. Iraqi PM Adel Abdul Mahdi concurred that his government had been warned by Iran of the coming attack. The PM’s advisor told Reuters that Iran had notified Iraq, another Arab country and one European country (probably Switzerland) of the coming attack on US troops.

POTUS Donald Trump substantiated these events on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, February 4, 2024:

In Yigal Carmon and M. Reiter’s excellent November 10, 2021 MEMRI article ‘Iran’s January 2020 Strikes on U.S. Ayn al-Asad Airbase’, they inform us:

On January 8, 2020, Iranian forces launched ballistic missiles at US troops stationed at the Ayn al-Asad Airbase and at an airbase near Erbil, both in Iraq. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared that the strikes were part of their retaliation for the killing of Soleimani. No Iraqi or American casualties were initially reported, though the later Pentagon confirmed that several dozen servicemen had been injured to varying degrees of severity. According to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), the country’s state-run news outlet, Iran fired tens of ground-to-ground missiles at the base in two waves, about an hour apart. A military spokesman for U.S. CENTCOM said a total of 15 missiles were fired: ten hit the Ayn al-Asad airbase, one hit the Erbil base, and four missiles failed. The attack left gaping craters in the ground, but caused no known US casualties.

In the hours after the attack, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted: “Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defense under Article 51 of UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials were launched. We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”

CENTCOM commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie added on February 28, 2021: “We had a plan to retaliate if Americans died.”

Iran and the USA coordinated the April 2024 attack against Israel

Since time immemorial military strategy has involved confusing enemy decision makers by misrepresenting, obscuring or distorting troop strengths, intentions and positions. This tactic of warfare is called battlefield deception. From the Trojan Horse to Operation Bodyguard (the Normandy Invasion; https://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/future03/future03c.htm), advantage on the battlefield can be gained by lulling one’s enemy into a disastrous lack of preparedness. Israel’s Mossad has as its motto King Solomon’s proverb circa 960 B.C.: “For by stratagems (ed. strategic deceptions) shall you wage war.” (Prov.24:6). The classic Chinese military strategician Sun Tzu (circa 350 B.C.) said, “All warfare is based on deception.”

Yigal Carmon, former IDF military intelligence AMAN expert, is the founder of MEMRI – the Middle East Media Research Institute. His organization presents source documents from the Arabic and Persian-speaking worlds, casting needful light on the dark corners of jihadi realities, including Palestinian doublespeak. As well, MEMRI provides up-to-the-minute access to current Muslim and Arab perspectives. Carmon has pointed out (in Hebrew and in English) that the present developments mirror the events of 2020. Other voices raising the warning include Kenneth Timmerman, Daniel Greenfield, Melanie Phillips, et al.

Carmon’s take on current events is that Iran initially planned its attack on Israel with the intention of minimizing significant damage, as it did vis-à-vis the US four years ago. Carmon asserts that a similar scenario unfolded recently: Iran notified Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey about an imminent attack within three days. These countries then shared the information with the Americans, who subsequently warned Israel. Carmon noted, “When Hamas attacks, there are casualties. When Iran attacks, there are no casualties.” Regarding an incident in the south where a girl was injured, Carmon explains that it resulted from falling interceptor debris, not a direct missile hit, causing only minor damage to the airbase. “Is it possible, under the influence of delusions of grandeur, to explain this as the result of Iranian weakness or idiocy? To do so, one would need to be very naive,” he notes.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

Why are the peoples plotting in vain?

The rebellion and restlessness of the nations (Psalm 2:1) crash like ocean waves (Psalm 65:7) on the shores of this planet. But YHVH rules the waves: “Do you not fear Me? declares YHVH. Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea – an eternal limit, and it will not cross over it. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail. Though they roar, they will not cross over it” (Jeremiah 5:22).

The nations are gathering with evil intent, planning to humiliate and violate the Daughter of Zion. But the God of Jacob proclaims that the Day of Vengeance is fast approaching: “For the Day of YHVH is near for all the nations. Just as you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head!” (Obadiah 1:15).

We are living between the ‘here’ and the ‘not yet’ – between today’s careening events and the coming Day of Messiah’s wrath. With that sober destiny in mind, Yeshua challenges us to consider and to discern. “The Pharisees and Sadducees came up and, putting Yeshua to the test, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, ‘When it is evening, you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.” And in the morning, “There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.” You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but are you unable to discern the signs of the times?’” (Matthew 16:1-3)

In Ezekiel 38:4 YHVH inserts hooks into the jaws of the nations and draws them down to Israel for a battle royal. Those kings of the earth have designs on the Promised Land – to divide and conquer. But instead, they will receive divine judgment on the mountains of Israel.

Look, you blind, so that you may see! (Isaiah 42:18)

Many presidents, diplomats and spies consider themselves authorities on the Middle East, but the truth is 180 degrees in the opposite direction. A peculiar blindness affects most nations regarding the Middle East. Many Israelis are also tone-deaf regarding the clear and present dangers in our Arabic-speaking neighborhood. A short list of these stumbling blocks may help us in praying for the peoples involved.

Most Westerners are unaware of the cultures, sensibilities and sensitivities of the Islamic and Arab world. They do not understand Arab perspectives or how classical Islam sees the world in general, or the Western world in particular. Most of them interpret Middle Eastern events through secular sunglasses. This is true not only for the common man, but also for Christian and Jewish theologians, for Western intelligence agencies, government officials and diplomats. For those who would want to broaden their understanding, a good place to begin is David Pryce-Jones’ penetrating book ‘The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs’ (1989, Harper & Row).

Another area of severe Western blindness involves foundational ignorance of Biblical realities. Yet it is these spiritual matters which hold the keys to unlocking the doors of perception regarding Middle Eastern dynamics, history, paradigms and its prophetic future.

A third area of blindness is the lack of awareness of (or even refusal to accept) God’s irrevocable calling on and gifts to the Jewish people. Included here would be such pillars as the blessing and cursing dynamics of Genesis 12:3, and the sober spiritual dangers of jihad.

A fourth area of blindness involves flat-out anti-Semitism – the endemic anti-Jewish dynamics now rampant in the US State Department, the CIA, the NSA, etc. (as well as European varieties of the same).

Specific examples of Israeli blindness include the following:

Seeing the Oslo Accords, the Camp David Accords and the Abraham Accords as giant steps forward to Middle East peace – similar to how WWI was once seen in the West as ‘the war to end all wars.’

Israeli leaders in government, intelligence and the military still believe that jihadi terrorists will eventually ‘change their spots’ and accept the material benefits of peace with Israel.

These leaders believe that, even if the jihadi armies of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Palestinian Authority are all truly terrorists, Israel should choose one of the ‘lesser evils’ among them and work together with that party.

Israeli leaders understand that there is no love lost between Palestinians and Jews. Nevertheless they ardently believe that Israelis needs a peace agreement – even a shaky one, and even if the price is dangerous to Israel’s survival.

These operating principles shape much of what is transpiring in Middle Eastern current events – diplomatically, militarily and in the intelligence world.

Anti-Semitism – the foundation of Western intelligence organizations

Those Americans who love Israel – whether Evangelical Christians, Jews of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or liberal stripe, or simply secular US citizens – have a quiet respect for plucky Israel, her courage and heroism in battle, her tenacity in the face of many deadly challenges, her sufferings in the Holocaust.

But other Americans are opposed to Zion. Secular isolationists and anti-Semitic professors, self-hating Jews and jihadi Islamists, oil barons and most State Department honchos, CIA movers and shakers – there are significant and influential layers of American society solidly positioned against the land and people of Israel. At the upper echelons of US politics, business and intelligence, powerful people are ensconced – pressuring and persuading, weakening and destroying the apple of God’s eye. Anti-Semitism has been hard-wired into the roots of the US intelligence community and the US State Department. Its poison influences current positions trumpeted from the Rose Garden, the Congress and the main stream media. What is knowable about these roots and this history?

The foundations of U.S. intelligence go back to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), formed June 13, 1942 and dissolved September 20, 1945. OSS evolved into the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) on September 18, 1947, and eventually was overshadowed by its vastly larger big brother the National Security Agency (NSA), established on November 4, 1952. The OSS. The CIA and the NSA have done masterful work in protecting the security and survival of the USA, countering Communist attempts to undermine America and the West, etc. Yet its adversarial role vis-à-vis the Jewish state must be evaluated based on biblical principles. 

The Agency (aka CIA) was at its heart an ‘old boys’ network’ of Ivy League university graduates. They were the ones who recruited and vetted new officers for these fledgling agencies. Liberal Protestant religious affiliations (Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc.) were just about a requirement for a job. Most of these men were thoroughly pickled in old-school anti-Semitic prejudices and attitudes. ‘America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East’ by Hugh Wilford (2017) notes that the CIA’s Middle East division was headed by ‘Arabists’ – men like Kermit ‘Kim’ Roosevelt (grandson of POTUS Theodore Roosevelt); Kim’s cousin, Archie Roosevelt (a Middle East scholar and Chief of Beirut Station); and Miles Copeland (a covert American intelligence operator since WWII). The agency’s Arabists were the intellectual, and often biological, descendants of American missionaries in Arab lands. They believed that a century of American missionary activity had paved the way for a Pax Americana in the region – if only the recalcitrant Israelis could be sidelined. These officials were fiercely anti-Zionist, convinced that American support for Israel was a strategic blunder of the first order. Wilford states that these founders believed “in the overriding importance of American-Arab, and Christian-Muslim, relations.”

The CIA would become known for engineering the destruction of nationalist governments (Kim Roosevelt engineered the coup that toppled Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953); shoring up pro-western autocracies in the oil-rich Gulf States; and (at a much lower level of priority) tending to the growing American-Israeli alliance.  By November 1947, the Agency’s operational Middle East policy was based on three foundational realpolitik concerns:

Reflecting on these organizational anti-Semitic foundations, one former CIA operative explained: “You shouldn't be surprised [at the CIA’s covert war with the Jewish state]. It's [simply a matter of] pure hypocrisy. In public, Israel is our ally. What the public doesn't know is that all Western nations have covert policies to side with the Arabs. It keeps the intelligence community busy” (see John Loftus and Mark Aarons, The Secret War Against the Jews (How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People); p. 510).

CIA anti-Semitic fronts created to weaken support for Israel

In 1949 Kim Roosevelt formed the anti-Israel group ‘Holy Land Christian Committee,’ ostensibly to assist Christians in Israel. Anti-Zionist Jews were invited on to the Board, as well as Allen Dulles, a former State Department and OSS official and future director of the CIA. This organization was directed by CIA employee William A. Eddy, a former US minister plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and consultant to Aramco. Bronson Clark of the (Quaker) ‘American Friends Service Committee,’ then doing refugee relief work in Gaza, notes: “This body, composed entirely of pro-Arab, anti-Zionist elements, was not to be an operating agency but was to serve as a publicity front for the operating agencies . . . This meeting represents another move in a series of moves which, like an iceberg, show only one-quarter on the surface what goes on, while three-quarters of the maneuverings are hidden.”

In 1951, the CIA secretly funded the creation of an ostensibly private outfit of US citizens dedicated to citizen diplomacy, called the ‘American Friends of the Middle East’ (AFME). This group propagated rabidly pro-Arab and anti-Zionist views – perspectives that shaped the CIA in its early years. Roosevelt used his role at the CIA to ensure the organization’s funding the group through the CIA and Aramco. This CIA front sought to weaken support for the Jewish state in the U.S. Though anti-Israelis often aim fire at ‘the Israel Lobby,’ they grow surprisingly mum about ‘the anti-Israel Lobby’ fronts established by the CIA.

A recent Hollywood movie crystallizes the realities of these roots in two brief lines. In the movie ‘The Good Shepherd,’ Joe Pesci plays a Mafia boss named Joseph Palmi – a fictionalized version of either Sam Giancana (from the Chicago Outfit) or Santo Trafficante Jr., a Mafia boss in Florida. Matt Damon plays Edward Wilson (who is going under the pseudonym ‘Mister Carlson’ for this meeting). Wilson’s character is based on the CIA’s Chief of Counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton). Palmi and ‘Carlson’ have been discussing Mafia and CIA involvement in the upcoming Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion, and then move on to discuss philosophical perspectives on how the CIA looks at ethnic minorities in America.

Purge out the leaven from among you (1 Corinthians 5:7)

The Apostle Paul uses the Feast of Passover to draw a pastoral principle for the Jewish and Gentile believers in Greek Corinth. He exhorts them to purge out or remove sinful behaviors in their lives, which he likens to leaven. The Pesach matzah is a leaven-free bread, and quickly rising leaven was sometimes understood by Jews in Paul’s day to be symbolic of sin.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

Enemy at the gates

The Jewish people were born for warfare, even as YHVH promised to Abraham: “Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is on the seashore. And your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies! And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:17-18). The prophetess Deborah agrees, describing her people’s history as one birthed in combat: “Then war was in the gates!” (Judges 5:8).

Israel’s arch-enemy – the seemingly invincible super-power Assyria – received a prophetic word about coming war – the gates of its capitol city Nineveh would be overrun by Babylonian hordes: “The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies. Fire consumes your gate bars!” (Nahum 3:13).

The Bible sadly foresaw that the Jewish people would not be immune to enemy invasions: “The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter the gates of Jerusalem” (Lamentations 4:12). In addition, Ezekiel prophesied that Babylon would crash through the gates of Zion, and that many Jewish soldiers would die in its defense: “Many fall at all [Jerusalem’s] gates!” (Ezekiel 21:15).

The sons of Jacob have a history full of enemies assaulting the gates of Zion. Just recently, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that “we are in a multi-front war. We are being attacked from seven different arenas: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, [ed., the West Bank], Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. We have already responded and acted in six of these areas, and I say here in the most clear way: anyone who acts against us is a potential target. There is no immunity for anyone.”

The entire nation of Israel is today on war footing. But the enemy is not only at the gates. There are enemies inside the gates as well. What happens when the cartoon character Pogo’s words come true: “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”?

The Persian snake’s teeth

The drums of war are beating today in Iran. One of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ top generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi (Deputy Chief of Operations and a virulent active enemy of Israel) was taken out in a pinpoint air attack on Monday April 1, 2024 along with six other top Iranian jihadi terror masterminds. These individuals “were all responsible, in different capacities, for relations with Iranian-affiliated groups, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah.” The April 1, 2024 attack is being attributed to Israel, though the Jewish state has remained silent.

A building next to the Iranian Consulate in Damascus was the target. In the past, Iran has openly targeted foreign consulates in Tehran, including the consular compounds of the USA (November 4, 1979), the UK (November 29, 2011) and Saudi Arabia (January 2, 2016). In this latest unattributed attack in Damascus, the Iranian consulate was actually not attacked, but rather an adjoining building was targeted which was hosting terrorists in the employ of the Iranian government.

Though Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, Iran is nevertheless issuing harshly-worded threats to target Israel. This Persian response is known in the Middle East as brinksmanship – playing ‘chicken’ with loaded weapons. Zahedi was one of the main planners of jihadi attacks against Israel by Hamas (including October 7), by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iraq, by Syria and by Yemeni Houthis. He was particularly close to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, says Clive Jones, a specialist in Israel and the Middle East at Durham University in the UK. Zahedi was under US sanctions, accused of supplying Hezbollah with Iranian missiles.

“For Iran, it’s a loss comparable to that of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander-in-chief of the Quds Force, killed by an American drone in 2020,” states Shahin Modarres, Iran specialist at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) in Verona, Italy.

There is some measure of a déjà vu here. Modarres is recalling a similar but even more significant strike – the previous assassination of Zahedi’s boss, Qasem Soleimani on January 3, 2020, by a US MQ-9 Reaper drone strike near Baghdad International Airport at 00:47 am. Major-General Soleimani was the architect of all of Iran's foreign policies in the Middle East. He was described by US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “Iran’s master terrorist.” On 25 August 2019, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, “Israel is acting to strike the head of the Iranian snake and uproot its teeth . . . Iran is the head of the snake and Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, is the snake's teeth.”

Settling scores at the carpet bazaar

According to official Iranian sources, the January 2020 US strike on Qasem Soleimani took out a total of ten terrorists. These included four Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers (Brigadier General Hossein Pourjafari, Colonel Shahroud Mozafarinia, Major Hadi Taremi and Captain Vahid Zamanian) and five Iraqi members of the Iraqi jihadi Popular Mobilization Forces (including deputy chairmanAbu Mahdi al-Muhandis, chief of protocol and public relations Muhammed Reza al-Jaberi. Mohammad al-Shibani, Hassan Abdul Hadi and Heydar Ali).  At that time, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened “severe revenge for the criminals who bloodied their foul hands with [Soleimani's] blood,” and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “the US act of international terrorism, targeting and assassinating General Soleimani . . . is extremely dangerous and a foolish escalation.”

In January 2020, US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft informed the UN Security Council that this American act was one of self-defense, while senior State Department officials compared this assassination to Operation Vengeance in World War II, when American pilots shot down the plane carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.

On Wednesday December 27, 2023, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ramazan Sharif declared that Hamas’ October 7, 2023 jihadi rape, torture, murder and kidnapping of thousands of Israeli citizens was an Iranian-guided revenge attack for the 2020 assassination of IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike. According to the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency, Sharif said: “The Al-Aqsa Storm [Hamas’ Arabic name for the October 7 jihadi pogrom] was one of the retaliations of the Axis of Resistance [ed.: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemeni Houthis] against the Zionists for the martyrdom of Qasem Soleimani.”

Kidnapping the families of the kidnapped

A storm has been brewing in Israel. Two recent newsletters give helpful background: March 28, 2023 (‘In a wilderness of mirrors’) and July 4, 2023 (‘The wisdom of Ahithophel’). A concerted attempt at overthrowing the current Israeli government is in progress, led by former Israeli military and political figures. We regret to say that these efforts are being openly supported by the U.S. State Department (see recent newsletters of November 2, 2023 (‘You don’t have too many friends here, buddy’) and March 20, 2024 (‘Shaking a fist at the Daughter of Zion’).

The Kaplan street riots (named for the Tel Aviv intersection where their faithful demonstrators gather) became progressively more violent throughout the Summer of 2023. These demonstrations were strategically planned, organized and funded by some former Israeli Prime Ministers, former Generals, and families connected to both Israeli intelligence agencies and opposition parties. All this background is a matter of public record and open source (referenced in the above newsletters). The demonstration leaders first focused on supposed ‘popular opposition’ to judicial reform. But after October 7, they quickly morphed their emphases into two strident demands from the government:

The Kaplan demonstrators and rioters have made their end game clear: “All problems can be immediately solved if we simply throw PM Bibi Netanyahu out of office, by fair means or foul.”

Over the past month the spokespersons for these violent demonstrations/riots have upped the ante, blaming the current government for Hamas’ terror pogroms. Over the past week they have physically attacked the Israeli security forces guarding the Prime Minister’s residence, and have also attempted a brutal attack on the PM himself – led by a violent torch-bearing mob (conjuring images of pogroms, the KKK and Nazi Berlin).

Many Israelis are horrified at the violent and anarchistic tactics of these anti-government spokesmen. They are appalled that the Kaplan protest leaders are claiming that its strategies represent the majority of Israelis and especially the families of the hostages. A significant amount of Israelis and hostage families are not blaming not the government for jihadi atrocities – they blame Hamas and its supporters. These grass-roots people have been organizing and making their own voices heard above the din of the anti-Bibi riots. They are declaring to the Kaplan demonstrators: “You will not burn down our country!”

Unfortunately there are powers in the American administration who are cultivating leaders of the Kaplan movement, offering advice and finances to them in their efforts to bring about a coup d’état in Israel. For those who are new to this aspect of super-power politics, here are three 20th century examples of similar American-guided coups:

Burning down the storehouses

Events from 2,000 years ago shine ancient light on some modern Jewish events. The Babylonian Talmud TB Gittin 56a, describes Jerusalem of 68-70 A.D. just before its destruction, when the Romans were besieging the city and various Jewish political-religious parties were fighting amongst each other:

Josephus Flavius, an eyewitness of these events, notes:

As the crushing power of Rome bulldozed its way to the gates of Zion, the warriors of Jerusalem were in the throes of civil war. Judea was divided; all the Romans needed to do was conquer.

Modern Israelis make use of a phrase from that day – lisrof et ha’asamim [‘to burn down the warehouses’] – to describe how hatred and the desire for vengeance can bring great damage to any people. This ancient term is being used by many today to draw a sober parallel between modern social unrest in Israel and the events which led to the Destruction of the Second Temple on Tisha b’Av in 70 A.D. – while Hamas is waging jihad on the Jewish state, strengthened by its terrorist comrades in Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Iraq, Iran and Yemen.

To add fuel to the fire, on Thursday April 4, 2024  the US State Department and POTUS Biden threatened an arms embargo on Israel unless the IDF immediately retreats from Gaza – something which would defeat the whole strategic aim of this war – for it would allow Hamas to both survive and thrive. And all the while, Qatar’s Muslim Brotherhood TV network Al Jazeera crows with delight, continually broadcasting video clips of Israeli Kaplan demonstrators blocking freeways or attacking Israeli police and security defending the Knesset and the Prime Minister’s residence.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

Enduring the insults of the nations (Ezekiel 34:29)

God said it: a day is coming when Israel will no longer have to endure the insults of the nations. In Ezekiel 35:12, 36:6-7,15 YHVH defines what those insults are: false and unjust claims by the sons of Edom and the surrounding Arab countries concerning the Promised Land – specifically, their attempts to occupy Israel and to steal it away from God’s true heirs, the Jewish people.

Today these insults are politically institutionalized at the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the European Union. As far as the United States goes, its position has gone through a see-saw of policy changes, depending on who controls the House of Representatives. Sometimes American policies have stood with Israel; at other times the US State Department has allowed harmful legislation at the UN to be ratified without US objection.

But YHVH’s perspectives on Israel-related matters do not fluctuate, for they are based on His covenant faithfulness to the Jewish people: “For I, YHVH, do not change! Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed!” (Malachi 3:6). “For the gifts and the calling of God [given to Israel] are irrevocable!” (Romans 11:29).

Biblical history shows us that ancient superpowers like Babylon and Persia could quickly turn from blessing Israel to cursing the Jewish people. The Purim story in the Book of Esther is one such example. Could not such events happen again in our day? The only protection against this trap is a firm foundation based on a rock-solid biblical understanding of Israel’s calling and destiny, as well as a unswerving commitment to honor God by honoring His people. Genesis 12:3 tell us that the one who mocks or despises the Jewish people, the one who treats them as of little consequence, the one who says that God is finished with them – these are the exact shades of meaning in the Hebrew verb used here meqalelecha – these people and nations will be cursed by God.

Prophetic vision – seeing things through the apple of God’s eye

Corrie ten Boom, the brave Netherlands believer whose family sheltered Jews from the Nazis, describes an event in Occupied Haarlem during World War II. She and her father Casper were returning from a walk, and “found the Grote Markt cordoned off by a double ring of police and soldiers. A truck was parked in front of the fish mart; into the back were climbing (Jewish) men, women, and children, all wearing the yellow star.” Corrie cried out in horror. Then “she saw that her father was looking at the soldiers now forming into ranks to march away. ‘I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple of God’s eye’” (The Hiding Place, page 64).

Casper ten Boom was echoing the words of Zechariah regarding God’s judgment over Babylon, “This is what YHVH of armies says, He sent Me for the purpose of glory against the Gentiles who plunder you all. For the one who lays his hand on you lays his hand on the apple of His eye. For I will wave My hand against them, and they will become plunder for their slaves. And you all will know that YHVH of armies has sent Me” (Zechariah 2:8-9).

The nation which raises its hand against the Jewish people – whether in the open or hidden from sight, whether through using terror or supporting terror or not confronting terror – YHVH of armies promises an assured judgment.

In the last volume of C.S. Lewis’ science-fiction Perelandra trilogy, evil men are described as breaking down God’s ordained walls of protection. As a result, divine judgment is about to descend on them. Satan’s rebellious strategies (from the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 to the present) are termed by Lewis as ‘that hideous strength’ (that is also the name of Lewis’ book). In chapter 13, the hero Ransom declares, “The Hideous Strength holds all this Earth in its fist . . . Their own strength has betrayed them. They have . . . pulled down Deep Heaven on their heads.”

The UN, UNESCO, UNRWA, advocates of Replacement Theology and BDS (anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) and all those who work for and call for Israel’s weakening and destruction – certainly, these people’s actions should be opposed. At the same time, these people are to be pitied, for they are calling down the fiery judgment of Deep Heaven upon themselves.

Moses describes a similar dynamic in Exodus 15:7,11 where the judgment of Deep Heaven descends onto the heads of God’s enemies: “In the greatness of Your majesty You overthrow Your adversaries. You send out Your fury; it consumes them like stubble . . . Who is like You, YHVH, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”

The insults of the nations – the Holocaust

Zechariah says that the God of Jacob sees the nations through the lens called ‘Israel,’ the apple of God’s eye. But from YHVH’s perspective, the nations for the most part just don’t get it; they don’t resonate with His heart, and they don’t understand that the Jewish people are a priority in the plan of God. He declares to Israel: “For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, declares YHVH, because they have called you an outcast, saying: ‘It is Zion; no one cares for her’” (Jeremiah 30:17).

During WWII, when the survival of the Jewish nation was being threatened by Hitler and his Third Reich, the nations of the world for the most part turned their eyes and hearts away from rescuing or protecting the sons and daughters of Zion.

It is less than 80 years since these events occurred, and the anti-Semitic roots wrapped around these governments and their leaders which catalyzed them, have for the most part not been decisively dealt with. Today’s diplomatic representatives from the above-listed countries continue to advocate measures quite similar in spirit to their predecessors, when it comes to matters concerning the Jewish people and their land.

The insults of the nations – Islamic moves to destroy Israel

The concerted effort of most Islamic and Arabic-speaking countries to destroy the Jewish state is well documented. The malignant influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and its metastasizing tentacles (like Hamas, al Qa’eda, ISIS, Islamic Jihad, Houthis, etc.) are defined by God in Ezekiel 35:12, 36:6-7,15 as insults against YHVH and against His Jewish people – Islamist and Arab false claims concerning the Promised Land – their attempts to occupy Israel and to steal it away from God’s true heirs, the Jewish people.

Western powers are on record as supporting Islamist terror groups with training, funding, diplomatic muscle and weaponry. Three books (of many) detail these schemes:

Recent Israeli intelligence interrogations of Hamas Nukhba terrorists involved in the jihadi October 7 attacks from Gaza on Israeli citizens, have revealed that Hamas planned even greater destruction in Israel – plans which were thwarted by desperate last-minute IDF countermeasures. The plans involved jihadi attacks on Kiryat Gat, the Shikma Prison in Ashkelon, and the IAF airbase in Hatzerim; the nuclear research facility at Dimona and several points in Tel Aviv, where a mass slaughter of civilians was planned. “There is no doubt that if Hamas had carried out Phase Two, the trauma and disaster would have been doubled . . . [Hamas leader] Sinwar believed that if the news channels reported that he had attacked in Tel Aviv and Dimona, Hezbollah in the north and the other terrorist organizations in Judea and Samaria would also have attacked. It's a demonic plan that, had it succeeded, the reality would have been many times worse.”

The current swelling of murderous rage against Israel and the popular identification among many Middle Eastern Arabs and Muslims with Hamas was on full display in Amman Jordan this past week. On March 27, 10,000 protestors approached the Israeli Embassy, chanting: “O cowardly Arab governments! On behalf of the voiceless, we too stand with Gaza. We are besieged . . . Let the voice rise from Amman. We are part of the flood. Let every traitor and collaborator hear it. With Hamas for liberation!” On March 28, the Amman protestors carried Palestinian flags and chanted: "They said Hamas is terrorist. All of Jordan is Hamas!” Placards were carried declaring “Amman-Gaza – one destiny!” while posters depicted Hamas’ chief spokesman, Abu Obaida. On March 29, the demonstrators shouted out their support of Hamas’ Gazan second-in-command terror chief: “Muhammad Deif, O Chief of Staff . . .  We want to shake the Zionist entity!” At the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the same chants were heard on March 28: “Raise a sword against a sword! We are the people of Muhammad Deif! Blessings for [Yahya] Sinwar [Hamas’ top jihadi commander]!”

These dynamics are alive and well in the Middle East, even if Jordan is considered a US ally and a peace-partner with Israel. Peace is not breaking out in Gaza; the Arabic-speaking populations of the region are fiery supporters of Hamas-led jihad. And American, European, Russian and Chines support of Hamas and their fellow travelers clearly reveal that insults of the nations are PC across the globe at this point. YHVH is watching, and the God of Jacob is writing everything down in His books:

The insults of the nations – cooperating with the enemies of Israel

The famous American baseball player Yogi Berra one spoke a memorable quote: “It’s déjà vue all over again!” A recent event at the UN accurately reflects this same dynamic. Here is some historical background and context:

This Resolution 2334 of December 23, 2016 actually violated previous US-sponsored UN Resolution 242 of November 24, 1967, which recognized Israel’s right to retain and settle in territories it had retaken in June 1967. The Obama administration’s behind-the-scenes muscling though of Resolution 2334 unfortunately established a UN precedent: the world’s highest diplomatic authority condemned a Jewish presence in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount and at the Western Wall. By enabling Resolution 2334, US President Obama violated one of the major operative principles of the Oslo Accords, adopting the PLO/Palestinian Authority’s policy of trying to impose a solution on Israel from the outside.

This tactic (of working behind the scenes to pass UN resolutions harmful to Israel) was harshly condemned by the Jewish state, though the passage of this Resolution was met by loud applause in the packed Security Council chamber (see Psalm 2:1-3). At that time, a senior Israeli official noted:

But POTUS Obama’s abandonment of Israel was not a first for the American State Department. Former US Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford all permitted the UN General Assembly and/or the Security Council to adopt resolutions critical of the Jewish state. POTUS Ronald Reagan saw 21 anti-Israel measures ratified through the UN during his terms of office. POTUS George H.W. Bush allowed nine, POTUS Bill Clinton three and POTUS George W. Bush six. In November 1981 the Reagan administration voted in favor of a General Assembly resolution condemning Israel’s air strikes on the OSIRAK Iraqi nuclear reactor. Not standing up for Israel seems to be a bi-partisan trend at times.

It is worth remembering that, a decade later on October 28, 1991, US Defense Secretary Dick Cheney praised and thanked Israel for that same OSIRAK attack: “Let me tonight in front of this group thank my good friend David Ivry [IAF Chief] for the action Israel took in 1981 with respect to the [Osirak] reactor . . . There were many times during the course of the build-up in the Gulf and the subsequent conflict that I gave thanks for the bold and dramatic action that had been taken [by Israel] some ten years before.”

The insults of the nations – recent cooperation with the enemies of Israel

On March 25, 2024 the exact same scenario (a repeat of December 23, 2016’s Resolution 2334) took place at the UN Security Council, with the US refusing to veto Resolution 2728. This resolution was drawn up by Russia and China, pressuring Israel to accept an unconditional ceasefire – one which would preserve a Hamas terrorist stronghold in Gaza and leave Israeli hostages imprisoned in Hamas’ cruel hands. In another moment of déjà vu, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby echoed former Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2016 fig-leaf avowal: “Our vote does not – and I repeat that – does not represent a shift in our policy.”

As British commentator Melanie Phillips noted: “So both the US and UK are now aligned with the west’s foes Russia and China against Israel, the sole defender of the west in the Middle East.”

Former Director of the CIA and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added his criticism of the Biden administration’s UN abstention:

Hamas has refused many times so far to acquiesce to the release of Israeli hostages, as per its recent announcement:

The US has smoothed the way for a Hamas victory on this point, and for a defeat to its ally Israel – all in one fell swoop. This ‘good news’ was immediately greeted by 12 new rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israel, and by over 100 rocket attacks form Lebanese Hezbollah against northern Israel. A victory meeting was held in Tehran between Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhala, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Haniyeh crowed at the meeting that the US abstention at the UN “indicates the unprecedented political isolation experienced by the Israeli occupation.”

The prophetic acts of YHVH

The Bible describes something which theologians call ‘prophetic acts.’ These are physical acts initiated by a prophet which symbolizes and herald a new action on the part of the God of Israel. The physical act is a prophetic declaration that something has just happened in God’s plan; something has changed on earth,’ and something new is about to be manifested. Here are four such biblical examples:

The ten plagues
“For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments – I am YHVH” (Exodus 12:12)

Samuel’ cloak torn by Saul

But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of YHVH, and YHVH has rejected you from being king over Israel.” Then Samuel turned to go, but Saul grasped the edge of his robe, and it tore off. So Samuel said to him, “YHVH has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you” (1 Samuel 15:26-28)

Ahijah’s new cloak

Then Jeroboam the son of Nebat . . . rebelled against the king . . .  And it came about at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak; and both of them were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for this is what YHVH, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to tear the kingdom away from the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes (but he shall have one tribe, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel’” (1 Kings 11:26-32)

Joash’s arrows and Elisha

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

The wondrous works of God on Planet Earth did not cease in Elisha’s day. God still speaks to Israel and to the nations through prophetic acts. I remember back in 1991 how Saddam Hussein’s forces were defeated and when that defeat was announced in Israel – on the Feast of Purim. As Israelis took off their gas masks that day and put on their celebratory Purim masks, this prophetic symbolism spoke to the hearts of many in that country. And in our day, God seems again to be speaking to the world – the world that He beholds through Israel the apple of His eye.

Broken bridges in Baltimore

The US abstention at the UN occurred on Monday, March 25, 2024. One day later, on Tuesday March 26, just before 01:30 am, the 984-feet long Singapore-flagged container vessel the MV DALI lost power, began drifting, and quickly smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. This bridge, a main commercial artery for America, collapsed in a matter of seconds. That bridge (which opened in March 1977 after five years of construction and cost an estimated $110 million), is named after the poet Francis Scott Key who in 1814 wrote the lyrics for America’s national anthem ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ In 1931 an Act of Congress signed by POTUS Herbert Hoover adopted Key’s song as the American national anthem more than a century after its first publication.

Many commentators were quick to see dramatic symbolism in this tragedy, but few of them have the prophetic software to recognize any connection here vis-à-vis God’s perspectives on America and Israel.

Speaking of a Singapore connection, it is instructive to note that on Sunday March 25, 2024, Singapore’s Minister of Home Affairs, K. Shanmugan, ordered the country’s Foreign Ministry to insist that the Israeli Embassy remove a post on their official Facebook page which Singapore’s authorities deemed offensive. The Israeli post stated: “Israel is mentioned 43 times in the Quran. On the other hand, Palestine is not mentioned even once . . . Each and every archeological evidence – maps, documents, coins – link the land of Israel to the Jewish people as the indigenous people of the land.” This documented fact was deemed dangerous and unacceptable:

Minister Shanmugam stated “that post on the Israeli embassy's social media page is completely unacceptable. I was very upset when I was told about it. The post is wrong at many levels. It is insensitive and inappropriate. It carries the risk of undermining our safety, security, and harmony in Singapore . . . Posts like these can… inflame tensions and can put the Jewish community here at risk. The anger from the post can potentially spill over into the physical realm,” he added.

Shanmugam added: “This post is an astonishing attempt to rewrite history. The writer of the post should look at UN resolutions, see if Israel’s actions in the past few decades have been consistent with international law before trying to rewrite history.” He added that the post had “selectively [pointed] to religious texts” to make a political point and it was “even worse” that the post made use of the Koran for this purpose: “Often embassies say and put out post statements which we may disagree with but we generally don’t intervene because they represent sovereign countries which have autonomy but where it affects the safety and security of people in Singapore, the peace and harmony that we enjoy, we do and we will intervene,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan similarly addressed the Israeli embassy’s post, stating: “It is highly inappropriate to refer to sacred texts to make political points. We have made this clear to the embassy which has taken the post down.”

Outlasting Babylon

There is a popular Hebrew expression: “We survived Pharaoh. This current challenge we will also survive!” The Jewish nation, by God’s grace and protective love, has weathered the fierce storms of the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the jihadi armies of Muhammad, the Crusaders, the pogroms of Ukraine’s Chmielnicki and Tsarist Russia, Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ and Stalin’s Yevsektsiya. Today we are weathering the storms of jihadi terrorism, its comrades and supporters across the globe. “For I, YHVH, do not change! Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed!” (Malachi 3:6).

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

 

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

There’s a Man goin’ ‘round takin’ names

YHVH has a long memory. He remembers His friends and makes note of His enemies:

God’s long memory also extends to those nations who attempt to weaken or destroy the Jewish people. He swears on His own holy Name to take vengeance on Israel’s enemies:

The Feast of Esther (also known as Purim) lays out this divine game-plan. Persia, then the world’s chief super-power, was influenced by Haman (a deep-state actor) to wreak havoc and genocide against the Jewish people. Yet the God of Jacob (whose name is never even mentioned in the Scroll of Esther) moves silently behind the scenes, morphing anti-Jewish conspiracy into Jewish victory:

This international principle (that haters of Israel will be hoisted on the gallows they have built against Israel) is how the Bible fleshes out Genesis 12:3 (i.e., those who disdain Israel will be cursed by YHVH’s own hand)”

The prophetic principle of Persian Purim

Haman pulled the strings controlling King Ahasuerus, taking a full Persian calendar year to choose the most astrologically suitable date for destroying the entire Jewish nation living under the control of the Persian Empire. With deadly calm, similar to how the Nazis planned the Final Solution at Wannsee on January 20, 1942, Haman set his genocidal plan into motion:

The response of the God of Jacob was not long in coming. He granted favor to Queen Esther, brought Mordechai into the King’s council, and gave carte blanche to the nation of Israel to defeat their anti-Semitic enemies:

God established the Feast of Purim as a day for Jews to remember and celebrate for the rest of Jewish history. God’s response to Haman’s planned genocide – even though at that time no Jews had yet been slaughtered – was the annihilation of 75,800 citizens of the Persian Empire. What would the God of Israel’s response be to the Gazan pogroms of October 7 – Hamas’ planned genocide of the Jewish people? And which side would you be on in such a clash – on the side of Haman/Hamas or on the side of those Persians who supported the Jewish people (as it says in Esther 9:27: “The Jews established and made a custom for themselves, their descendants, and for all those who allied themselves with them”)? God remembers and takes note.

Johnny Cash said it well in one of the last songs he penned, titled ‘When the Man comes around’:

“There’s a man goin’ round takin’ names, and He decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won’t be treated all the same.

There’ll be a golden ladder reachin’ down when the Man comes around.

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still. Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still.

Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still. Listen to the words long written down when the Man comes around.”

(American IV: The Man Comes Around; May 24, 2002; John Cash; BMG Rights Management)

In every generation

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

The modern State of Israel has enemies, and some allies who sometimes act like enemies. See Melanie Phillips’ sizzling article ‘The American Betrayal of Israel’ for more. Each time enemies of the Jewish state gathered to attack Israel, declaring that they would wipe her out à la Psalm 83:2-5:

It has happened so many times that, as a result of enemy attacks against Jerusalem, the situation plays out with the Jewish state decisively vanquishing their enemies – massive losses for enemy forces in both ordnance and fatalities; Israel becoming stronger on the geo-political playing field, etc. Here are a few examples:

In 1956 and 1973, it was American pressure which held Israel back from decisively defeating Arab armies. It remains to be seen what the American role will accomplish in the current conflict. Current US administration and State Department moves at the moment do not look good for those who seek the good of Jerusalem. For further historical context, see:

As a weakened America staggers across the international stage, surrounding ‘hyena’ nations who see the US as a big brother – like Canada, France, Netherlands and the UK – have been emboldened to circle the Jewish state, looking for just that right moment to lunge at the throat of the Daughter of Zion.

Happy Purim!

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

Shaking a fist at the Daughter of Zion

Over 2,700 years ago, the juggernaut of Assyria (northern Iraq) marched its military through Damascus and into the Promised Land. Isaiah prophesied that Nineveh’s threatening armies would gather for a deadly assault on Jerusalem: “Yet today he will halt at Nob [modern Mount of Olives]. He shakes his fist at the Mountain of the Daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 10:32).

For nearly 4,000 years, superpowers and marauders have aimed arrow and spear, rocket and RPG at the Jewish people, their country and their capitol. Such attacks are nothing new. What is new for some of us is to learn that the God of Israel has strong opinions about such things: YHVH describes Himself as a warrior on behalf of His Jewish people, dead set against these anti-Jewish enemies: “I will sing to YHVH, for He is highly exalted – the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea . . . YHVH is a warrior! YHVH is His name!” (Exodus 15:1-3).

The God of Israel’s promise – that He will grant military success to His Jewish people on the battlefield against their enemies – is also news for some Christians: “Hear, O Israel: you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted! Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them, for YHVH your God is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you” (Deuteronomy 20:3-4).

King David was not only a worshipper; he was also a brave warrior. He declared divine intentions regarding the Jewish people’s destiny on the battlefield. “Now David spoke the words of this song to YHVH . . .  ‘He trains my hands for battle so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze . . . I pursued my enemies and eliminated them, and I did not turn back until they were finished off!’” (2 Samuel 22:1, 35, 38).

The Rasputin of Iran

Just prior to the Communist Revolution of 1917, a mentally disturbed Siberian peasant monk by the name of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin exercised great and insidious influence over Russian Czar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra. Today, the term ‘Rasputin’ refers to anyone who exercises the same dangerous influence. The Islamic Republic of Iran and its Revolutionary Guards can accurately be labeled a Rasputin-like force for war and instability in the Middle East. Like ancient Persia’s Haman in the Book of Esther, Iran’s leaders are aggressively moving to destroy Mordechai’s people and their reborn Jewish state. Like the Pharaohs of Abraham’s and Moses’ day, Persia/Iran’s goal is the total destruction of Jacob’s seed.  

Over the past 30 years Iran has raised up proxies – jihadi terror groups throughout the ‘Shi’ite Crescent’ – in Lebanon and Syria (Hezbollah), Iraq (Kata’eb Hezbollah), Yemen (the Houthis), and sleeper cells throughout South America, Central America and North America. Iran is concurrently developing nuclear weapons with the clearly stated purpose being Israel’s destruction. The current wars between Hamas and Israel, and between Hezbollah and Israel, are part and parcel of Iran’s regional strategy – the surrounding and assaulting of Israel from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen with an annihilating wave of missiles and drones.

Sweet and bitter from the same spring

James (also known as Jacob or Ya’akov), the half-brother of Yeshua, tells us that sometimes both sweet and bitter words can come out of the same person’s mouth: “With [our mouth] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way!  Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh” (James 3:9-12).

These verses shed light on current dynamics transpiring between the Jewish state of Israel and the leadership of the United States of America. That alliance can sometimes be warm, close and productive. At other times, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment takes the lead, with allies morphing into adversaries. Bob Dylan nails it in his song about Israel – ‘Neighborhood Bully:’ “He got no allies to really speak of. What he gets he must pay for; he don’t get it out of love. . .”

Modern threats to the Daughter of Zion

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the USA found itself becoming the world’s dominant superpower. In our day, the rise of China and its alliances with Iran, North Korea and Russia spotlight a developing dynamic, first spoken about in POTUS George W. Bush’s State of the Union address on January 29, 2002. Soon after 9/11. Bush referenced North Korea, Iran and Iraq, describing these forces as ‘an axis of evil’: “States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.”

Yet recent world events have shown how, over the years, America has strengthened terror groups (PLO, Palestinian Authority), Hamas’ financial backers (Qatar, Turkey), as well as Muslim Brotherhood former President Morsi and the Islamic Republic of Iran. This requires skillful footwork on the part of the CIA, the NSA and the US State Department. It would be helpful to present some bullet points detailing some of these threats over the years, because the constant flood of ‘news’ often blocks out clear thinking and accurate remembering of important details:

Shrinking Israel’s borders, dividing Jerusalem and establishing a Palestinian terror state:

The belief system that guides American policy vis-à-vis Israel was voiced behind closed Parisian doors by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his meeting with Sadun Hammadi, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs on December 17, 1975. A recently declassified State Department NSA document quotes from Kissinger’s words:

POTUS Biden’s recent March 7, 2024 State of the Union address emphasizes these same points:

Threatening a US arms embargo against Israel unless the Jewish state obeys American orders and retreats from destroying Hamas:

Media leaks are appearing that POTUS Biden could condition military aid to Israel on whether or not Rafah (where Hamas’ leadership is holed up along with the 134 Israeli hostages) is invaded by the IDF. 

 

Accusing Israel of indiscriminate slaughter of Gazans – based on wildly inaccurate figures from Hamas:

In every clash between Israel and Hamas, the jihadi terrorists use their own Gazan civilians as human shields, firing against Israeli civilians from Gazan civilian areas. Hamas then blames Israel for any Gazan civilian casualties, and then exaggerates the amount of those casualties. This latest war is no exception:

Attempting to catalyze an American coup d'état – pushing to remove Israel’s Prime Minister and party, and to replace him with someone more responsive to American demands

US administration and intelligence officials have recently been outspoken in calling for Israeli PM Netanyahu’s ouster. Such actions are not considered normal diplomatic behavior in America, and the strong impression is given here that the US government is treating Israel like a banana republic. The cumulative effects of the following facts reveal how the Biden administration is seeking to overthrow Israel’s government at this moment:

PM Netanyahu’s Likud party responded to US State Department attacks, stating that “Israel is not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy . . . Contrary to Schumer's words, the Israeli public supports a complete victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictate to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza . . .  [The senator] is expected to respect Israel's elected government and not undermine it. This is always true, and even more so in wartime."

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog called Schumer's comments “counterproductive”: “Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is unhelpful, all the more so as Israel is at war against the genocidal terror organization Hamas, to comment on the domestic political scene of a democratic ally. It is counterproductive to our common goals.” US criticism of Israel only encourages Hamas in its war against the Jewish state, said Netanyahu.

On March 4, 2024 Israeli Defense Minister was invited by Washington to meet with VP Kamala Harris and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and members of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. The trip was organized without PM Netanyahu’s approval and contrary to government regulations that require “every minister to clear travel in advance with the prime minister, including approval of the travel plan.” “Who's playing who? Is Gantz leveraging his Washington sojourn to position himself as Netanyahu's successor, or is the Biden administration using him to recalibrate its stance towards Israel?” Or is this another piece in the coup d’état puzzle?

Falsely accusing the Israeli settlement enterprise of being illegal

US administration officials under POTUS Biden have reversed former POTUS Trump’s declaration (and POTUS Reagan’s as well) regarding Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (popularly known as the West Bank). Trump and Reagan stated that these settlements are not illegal, but the present administration has reversed that policy.

Professor Eugene Rostow, former Dean of Yale Law School and Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs was one of the main drafters of UN Security Council Resolution 242. His unequivocal legal opinion was that Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is legal. This opinion was included in the Congressional Record of the US government in 2014: “We have no doubt that from the perspective of international law, the establishment of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria is not illegal.”

In the days of Isaiah, similar scare tactics and threats were used against the Jewish people. The prophet declared, “Devise a plan, but it will fail. Declare your strategic plan, but it will not stand, for Immanuel [God is with us]!” (Isaiah 8:10).

In Nehemiah’s day, the inhabitants of Jordan and various Arabs were much opposed to the Jewish people’s restoration to their Promised Land (even as some are opposed to the Jewish people’s restoration to Gaza, part of the Promised Land according to Joshua 15:47): “And when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel” (Nehemiah 2:10).

Two thousand years ago, some Messianic Jewish believers prayed to the God of Jacob, in the name of Messiah Yeshua: “And now Lord, look at their threats!” (Acts 4:29).

These present efforts to block the return of the Jewish people to their Promised Land puts these modern nations in direct opposition to Isaiah 60-62 and Jeremiah 30 et al.

Undercutting Israel’s military leverage – to Hamas’ military advantage and to the hostages’ detriment

In what seems only a few days back, Hamas raped, tortured and murdered its way through kibbutzim and towns next to Gaza. The jihadi terror groups murdered over 1200 Israeli citizens and kidnapped over 250 to cruel prisons, torture chambers and rape facilities in Gaza. As the IDF has attempted to free hostages and exchange Hamas murderers for innocent Israeli civilians, one of the few weapons at Israel’s disposal is the leverage that can come from squeezing Hamas and its supporters (which is the vast majority of all most Gazans) – applying painful pressure until all Israeli kidnap victims are released. But US policy is adamantly opposed to this. As a result, Israeli abilities to exert pressure on Hamas and get back its hostages have been decisively weakened.

The fuel which powers Hamas air conditioning and electricity in its maze of rats-nest tunnels keeps coming through Israel to Hamas – due to American pressure. The food supplies which (if suspended) would have starved Hamas into a quick surrender are being forced through American pressure on Israel, to reach Gazan Hamastan, where nearly all of it is hijacked by Hamas to feed its jihadi fighters.

Israel’s heroic and ethical concerns to avoid Gazan civilian casualties are being ignored by world media, who flood the world’s TV screens with Hamas propaganda about civilian casualties and supposed starvation – even though there is no famine in Gaza according to open source reporting.

American Islamic domestic pressure against Israel

The US Democratic Party is dealing with pressures from certain Arab and Islamic voting blocks in key areas this election year. A group of eight lawmakers known as ‘The Squad’ are anti-Israel activists in Congress. Their influence in Michigan is strategically significant in the coming elections. Biden’s bloc is trying not to offend this group, and as a result is attempting to make moves which will placate pro-Hamas voters.

Henry Kissinger once sarcastically stated that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics. POTUS Biden and State Department officials recently have floated that same idea. But PM Netanyahu referred to the opposite dynamic of Kissinger’s jibe at a recent Washington AIPAC meeting: “The description [from Washington] is you have an outlier prime minister with some extreme fringe groups and that’s what’s driving the policy. False. I would say deliberately false. They know it’s false. But that falsehood is perpetrated and it’s wrong. They keep saying that local politics is interfering with this. They may be right, [he continued]! On which side of the pond?”

Stand your ground!

The accumulated effect of these international pressures reminds one of Ezekiel 38:4, where YHVH is described as putting hooks into the jaws of the nations and drawing them down to Israel, there to face divine judgment.

The need of the hour is a ‘Remember the Alamo!’ resolve – a stiff-necked ‘standing one ground’ in the face of international threats and pressure. Elisha the prophet reminds us to be bold in our efforts – to ‘strike the ground seven times’ if we truly want to see deliverance (2 Kings 13:18-19).

The God of Jacob tells His people Israel: “Arise and thresh, Daughter of Zion! For I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze, so that you may pulverize many peoples, and dedicate to YHVH their unjust profit, and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth!” (Micah 4:13).

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

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

The Emperor’s New Clothes

Hans Christian Andersen published a children’s fairy tale in 1837 titled ‘The Emperor's New Clothes’ (Danish, Kejserens nye klæder). His story was based on an even older Indian anthology of fables – the Nirvāṇalīlāvatī of Jineśvara – dated to 1052.

In the original Indian fable, a dishonest merchant swindles the king of Śrāvastī (a town located in modern Uttar Pradesh) by offering to weave an expensive supernatural garment which cannot be seen or touched by a person of illegitimate birth. The merchant ‘clothes’ the king in these invisible robes, and presents him before his flattering court. They all pretend to admire the wondrous attire. He is then paraded about his city ‘wearing’ the ‘new royal clothes.’ A brave peasant asks him if he has become a sadhu (holy hermits who sometimes walk around unclothed). The Raj at last realizes that he is the victim of a deceptive scam, but it’s too late! The swindler has already made off with his dishonestly gained loot.

In the political sphere, diplomats and presidents also weave ‘the Emperor’s New Clothes’ – verbal fantasies, schemes and traps –which similarly lack truth and reality. In the Middle East these are sometimes described as ‘peace accords.’ But such Machiavellian schemes are unable to protect Israel’s citizens from real jihadi threats. These superpower intrigues are commonplace, but they will never bring peace. They are invisible pipe-dreams built on sinking sand, and their proffered solutions are as ephemeral as the desert winds.  

The current war between Israel and her immediate enemies – the Iranian-supported ‘axis of evil’ (Gaza’s Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Lebanese and Syrian Hezbollah, Iraq’s Kata’eb Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, etc.) – has thrown a spotlight on another ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ dynamic, one to which most news media and op-ed commentators are blind.

Here are the ‘naked’ realities behind these ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ – an uncovering of how these ‘politically correct’ international ‘peace strategies,’ crafted for Middle Eastern consumers, are totally off base.  A look at how some Arab countries (who are supposedly peace partners of Israel) have responded to the jihadi atrocities of Hamas on October 7, 2023, reveals the true state-of-affairs between Israel and its Islamic neighbors, as well as the actual dangers confronting the Jewish state.

The battlefield test of reality

A healthy normal reaction to Hamas’ jihadi massacres, rapes and tortures, would be shock, disgust, anger, compassion and a desire to protect Israel and stand with her as a true ally – if these nations truly were peace partners with Israel. But how has it worked out in reality? The answers are depressing but not surprising. The Psalmist saw those same cruel dynamics nearly 3,000 years ago; they have not changed, even in our day:

Young David had to deal with similar dynamics. At one point before he became king, David had escaped from Saul’s assassination squads to a region just east of Philistine Gaza. There he found protection under the Philistine chieftain Achish. Eventually the Philistines massed their armies in a major assault against King Saul and all Israel. David found himself in a difficult situation. He would certainly not raise his sword against his own people. But how could he extricate himself from following his Philistine ‘allies’ into this fateful battle against Saul and his armies? The opening skirmishes of the Battle of Gilboa reveal what the Philistines’ real attitude was toward David the Hebrew warrior:

These Philistine generals were gruff military men. They knew that the tenuous ‘peace’ between the Philistine king Achish and David was not ‘a marriage made in heaven,’ It could collapse at any moment – even on the field of battle. They knew in their gut that such ‘peace accords’ were not to be depended upon. In the same way, in our day Egypt and Jordan, Morocco and Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are undependable weak reeds, easily breaking apart in times of crisis. These nations are not dependable ‘peace partners,’ as Isaiah so eloquently stated:

Egypt – a cold heart, a cold peace

Egypt is one of the original biblical superpowers. Its power and influence were always a threat to the Jewish state:

Though Egypt was originally a Hamitic (non-Abrahamic) country (see Psalm 78:51; Psalm 105:23) and remains mostly Hamitic to this day, the Bedouin of Mohammed’s jihadi armies conquered that land, forcing the inhabitants to bow the knee to Islam or face decapitation or slavery, and making Arabic the national language. Modern Egyptians are thus a blend of ancient Hamitic Copts, Hamitic Sudanese, and a sprinkling of Ishmaelite Islamist colonizers.

The loathing of the Jewish people which was injected into Egyptian society owes its origins to classical Islam’s anti-Jewish roots.

Asiem El-Difraoui, a Middle East expert with the Berlin Institute for Media and Communications Policy, explains: “The views of the Egyptian people are extremely anti-Israeli . . . The peace created by the Camp David agreement is, in reality, a very cold peace.”

The former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, said in an October 19, 2023 address delivered in the Egyptian parliament:

Egypt – led by a Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas-affiliated President

The former President of Egypt Mohammad Morsi (2012-2013) was an official member of the Muslim Brotherhood – the spawning ground for the PLO, al Qa’eda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. In 1995, he became a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, the group’s highest decision-making body. Morsi was chosen as a member of the Zionist Resistance Committee, and was a founding member in the Egyptian Committee for Combating the Zionist Project. In 2010 Morsi publicly referred to the “Zionists [as] bloodsuckers and warmongers, and descendants of pigs and apes.” In 2012, the year he became President of Egypt, Morsi declared:

On June 24, 2012, just prior to becoming President, Morsi stated to an Iranian reporter from the Fars Network: “We will reconsider the Camp David Accord” the US-brokered ‘peace treaty’ between Israel and Egypt. This ‘peace accord’ involved Israel pulling back from Sinai, taken by the Jewish state in the defensive Six Day War in June 1967.

During that same year Morsi visited Iran, the first visit by an Egyptian leader since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. “We must restore normal relations with Iran based on shared interests and expand areas of political coordination and economic cooperation because this will create a balance of pressure in the region,” he stated.

According to Egyptian journalist Adnan Abu Amer, Mohammed Morsi was a true friend to Hamas in Gaza: “Morsi drew Hamas closer . . . He met them frequently in Egypt, often in the closed rooms of the secret services, which was unusual for an Egyptian president”

Egypt – ripping up the ‘peace accords’

Two recent comments from Egyptian Members of Parliament reveal that anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attitudes are actually mainstream in that country:

On November 21, 2023 Egyptian MP Mustafa Bakri stated to the House:

Many Egyptian voices (since the signing of the Camp David Accords) have repeatedly harped on their burning desire to suspend the ‘peace treaty’ with Israel and to go to war with the Jewish state. In light of that history, the recent anonymous Egyptian high-level calls for suspending the Camp David accords is nothing new, and it is not primarily a response to Israel’s highly successful military campaign, aimed at destroying Hamas’ military abilities and threats to the Jewish state:

“No more war, no more bloodshed”?

Major-General (retired) Yitzhak Brik has been warning for years about concrete threats from Hamas, Hezbollah and Egypt. For the most part, the IDF’s top brass and military intelligence leaders have ignored his jeremiads, which included a clear warning about the possibility of an ‘October 7’ Hamas attack.

On February 11, 2024 Major-General Brik warned again, this time about the threat from Egypt:

The knee-jerk tendency of Egypt to threaten an annulment of the Camp David Accords, shows the tenuous nature both of those accords and of Egypt’s trustworthiness vis-à-vis Israel.

Egypt would happily do harm to Israel

Three power brokers are pushing for a deal between Hamas and Israel – Egypt, Qatar and the USA. All three are on record as pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian state led by terrorists on portions of the Land promised by God to the Jewish people. Egypt’s proposals in late December 2023 contain terms and conditions which would empower both Hamas and the establishment of a jihadi terrorist state in the heartland of Israel:

The third stage of the Egyptian proposal includes the release of many Palestinian jihadi terrorists who have murdered Israelis, including those who raped, murdered and tortured Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.

At present Hamas is able to resupply its terror forces with arms, gas, food, medicine and the smuggling in of many goods that Hamas needs to continue its jihad against Israel. These all come from underground tunnels that start in Egypt and end in Hamas-controlled Gaza. Fat bribes grease the operation of these jihadi tunnels, and the Egyptian leaders of both army and intelligence allow the smooth running of this system. Hamas is very much dependent on Egypt’s support, and Egypt is very much responsible for Hamas’ survival and continuing terror activities.

Jordan – condoning calls for jihad against Jewish Jerusalem

In the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan’s Parliament (House of Representatives), jihadi declarations calling for Israel’s destruction are commonplace.  These are permitted by a country which has a ‘peace agreement’ with Israel.

On Tuesday, July 17, 2018, a Jordanian parliamentarian named Huda Etoom told the gathering of her late mother’s desire to be a suicide bomber and kill ‘Zionist Jews:’

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said on a November 21, 2023 Saudi Al-Arabiya Network program that peace with Israel is Jordan’s strategic choice. However, he added that if Israel breaches the peace agreement in a material and contractual manner that poses a danger to Jordan’s national security, then “all our options would be on the table.” Like Egypt, Jordan is announcing its attempts to hobble and prevent Israel from removing the threat of Hamas’ jihadi forces to the Jewish state.

How should we then pray?

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

The weaponization of intelligence

In the days of Moses, the twelve Jewish spies – one for each tribe of Israel – spent forty days reconnoitering throughout the Land of Israel, from south of Beersheva to the Golan Heights (Numbers 13:25-33):

The God of Jacob uses this historical event to warn his people: Be on guard against evil propaganda meant to sow fear or unbelief!

Warfare is not only prosecuted by force of arms; often it is carried out by striking fear into the heart of the enemy. The ancient Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu said: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

Moses reminds Israel of their recent history, when the ten spies struck fear into the hearts of their own people by overestimating the power of the enemy to resist YHVH and His Jewish armies:

Evil reports in our day

Part of the battle going on between Hamas and Israel involves what can be called ‘information wars.’ Hamas and its main bankroller Qatar (a US ally) smother the media airwaves through their jihadi TV/media platform al Jazeera with negative propaganda. It is meant both to weaken Israeli resolve and to crush pro-Israeli support among the nations.

Those Western power brokers who are connected to Qatar and its strategic goals – including the US State Department and most American media outlets – ensure and enforce ‘evil reports’ against the Jewish state through anti-Israel reporting and op-eds.

Here are some very recent examples, where Israeli mainstream media and American anonymous sources spread unbelief and fear:

A word to the wise, direct from YHVH

When the sons and daughters of Jacob allowed the words of an evil report to enter into their hearts and then to be confessed out of their own mouths, the God of Israel responded very soberly:

There is a spiritual responsibility and an accountability which happens when people buy into an evil report – especially when YHVH has already declared His views and perspectives about that situation.

The children of Israel had expressed what might seem to be a valid concern about the well-being of their wives and children – a fear of what harm the Canaanites and other pagan tribes might do to their families. The God of Jacob revealed that fear and unbelief were lurking behind their supposedly ‘realistic concerns.’ But that desert generation would not enter the Promised Land; their children (for whom they were supposedly afraid), would be the victorious army which would put Canaan’s pagan warriors to flight:

Instead of rebuke – encouragement

Moses’ understudy, Joshua son of Nun, was given strong words of encouragement from YHVH Himself. The God of Jacob refers Joshua back to how Israel believed an evil report, and reminds him of how YHVH promised that their children (about whom they ‘feared’) would triumph against Israel’s enemies on the battlefield:

Some of us are physical descendants of these warriors; others walk in their spiritual army boots! All of us can draw great encouragement and strengthening from God’s strategic heart-message to us at this moment in history!

How should we then pray?

 

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

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

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