Intercessors for the salvation and protection of Israel try to stay focused and on target in their prayers. Recently there has been a tsunami of war drums – anxious voices prophesying the imminent outbreak of apocalyptic hostilities in Israel. How can those not living in Israel accurately sift through this information? Here is an attempt to help catalyze discernment, sharpen sensitivity and lead to clearer judgment about these matters.
The ‘inside track’
Everybody likes a secret. How many times has someone whispered to us, “Please don’t pass this information on. You’re the only one I’ve told about this!” Intelligence agencies the world over make their living on such secret confessions.
- Most of us are attracted to hidden information. We all like to be ‘in the know,’ and to have access to the ‘hidden agenda.’ Witness how many people gravitate to conspiracy theories, to paranoid belief in hidden organizations controlling the world.
My Communist parents saw malignant capitalist plots lurking under every tree. In similar fashion Islamists conjure up fantasies of Zionist machinations as the main threat to dreams of a resurgent Caliphate. In the 1950’s Senator Joe McCarthy and many John Birchers obsessed over their own right-wing mirror image of Communist schemes, and “a Red under every bed” dominated their conspiracy worldview.
- The Lord God of Israel is stronger than any satanic conspiracy. Satan falls short of being in any way comparable to the God of Israel – either in knowledge, power, discernment, beauty or omnipresence. His currency is paranoia and pride. His perfume is fear and hatred. Let us give his dynamics and motives a wide berth.
“A specialist is someone fifty miles away from home”
Having lived in Israel for over 30 years, I have come across many publications purporting to reveal the inside track, the last-days’ truth about Israel. In most of these publications the writers in question do not speak Hebrew, have not done military service, and are largely ignorant of basic building blocks in Israeli culture, that even a sixth grader in this country would know. For the most part, these ‘specialists’ have neither done their homework nor even double-checked their ‘facts.’
Recently I have received many queries about a sensationalist e-mail purporting to come from the brother of someone supposedly living in Israel. I am not aware of this man’s identity. He is described as a minister who has lived in Jerusalem for many years. He purportedly lives close to one of Israel’s largest underground military bases, supposedly located in Jerusalem. All that sounds suitably ‘inside track,’ yet the problem is that Israel has very few large underground bases, and none of them are in the Jerusalem area. An Israeli reading those words would immediately know that what follows is of questionable veracity.
The e-letter continued, describing that the ‘insider’ witnessed massive deployments of troops and anti-aircraft batteries in Jerusalem. The letter describes very large contingents of armor moving at top speed to the Sinai, and Egyptian armor racing into the Sinai.
Israel has an overactive free press on hormones, which reports on anything that moves, including every rock thrown and every bullet fired. Yet no Israeli media have noticed these supposedly secret (and massive) events. The media did mention the movement of one Patriot anti-missile battery to Mount Carmel near Haifa, and the redeployment of another battery from the Negev to near Tel Aviv. One simple news story on page three has morphed into crying wolf about a massive war footing deployment. But the plain truth is quite different – no massive troop movements, in Jerusalem or elsewhere.
A reference was made in the above-referenced e-mail to top military leaders meeting with Israel’s senior rabbi, something that the ‘insider’ asserts has happened “preceding every prior military campaign.”
Actually, what was being described is a distorted take on the regular meeting (prior to Rosh Hashanah – the rabbinic Jewish New Year) of the Israeli Prime Minister with cabinet, Chief of Staff and rabbinical leaders (Israel has two senior rabbis). A blessing is spoken, a small glass of whiskey is raised, a piece of dry honey cake is hastily swallowed – something that happens year in and year out and is duly reported in boring colors by the Israeli media. Only a person unaware of this yearly event would be tempted to recast it in Armageddon-like colors.
The ‘insider’ noted that he passed by the Western Wall and saw something he had never seen before – 200 soldiers and 20 military buses. The e-letter concludes that this is a clincher, that war is on the way, that this situation has the makings of a perfect storm, and that these ‘insider’ conclusions are in no way alarmist.
‘And now, the rest of the news’
Nearly all new recruits into the Israel Defense Forces experience their swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall. Most of my four sons came to the Wall with their fellow recruits in civilian buses (hired by the military), and usually in groups not of 200 but often 500 soldiers. Just about every Israeli has participated in these swearing-in ceremonies. The ‘insider’ in the above-mentioned report shows his lack of awareness of basic Israeli rites of passage by his use of language, by his response of perhaps shock or fear, and by his unfounded conclusions.
‘Crying wolf’ at a dangerous time
Inaccurate or sensationalist information should be avoided by every person who loves truth. Sometimes ‘insider’ information is simply inaccurate. This can also said about some websites purportedly run by ex-Shabak (Israeli General Security Services, equivalent to FBI) or ex-Mossad agents, which some believers read avidly, trust implicitly and quote regularly.
For the sake of truth, it should be asked, “What is the actual track record for accuracy on these websites?” If it is not high, why do people continue to turn to such muddy waters for succor? Could it be that there is an inner appetite for ‘insider’ information?
We appeal to believers to use greater care in choosing, believing in and passing along tainted sources. Rather than ‘crying wolf,’ it is better and needful to use greater care and more prayer in both choosing accurate resources and in doing dependable research.
The elephant called ‘Palestine’
A few more comments and suggestions on Middle Eastern matters:
Believers should be very careful and reticent about using the name ‘Palestine.’ An old Persian proverb warns us not to invite an elephant trainer into the living room unless one also has room for his elephant.
The term Palestine in this scenario is the elephant trainer, and the ramifications of accepting and using that term is the elephant.
The word Palestine is based on the ancient Roman/Latin word for Philistine. The Philistines were Aegean Greeks and not Arabs. When the Roman Emperor Hadrian crushed the Bar Kochba revolt in the land of Israel in 135 AD, he decided to punish the Jewish inhabitants of the Land by naming the country after their hated biblical enemies – the Philistines. So, simply stated, the term Palestine was chosen by the pagan Romans as a curse, replacing the words Judea or Israel with the name of Goliath’s cohorts.
A similar dynamic was at play in the development of Islam – the replacing of God’s personal name YHVH by the name of an Arabian desert deity/demon named Allah (see Exodus 3:13-15). Today, in spite of clear biblical testimony, most Arab believers are reticent to buck the tide of ‘Islamic political correctness.’
A survey of posters from the Holy Land in the first part of the 20th century shows that Palestine and Palestinian were terms used to describe Jews and Jewish undertakings. A 1936 poster for the Levant Fair advertises it as taking place in Tel Aviv, Palestine. A 1938 poster encourages consumers to support the citrus industry of Palestine by purchasing Jewish-grown orange, grapefruit and lemon juice-based beverages. And today’s Jewish-run Jerusalem Post used to be called the Palestine Post (also run by Jews back in the day) prior to 1948.
Only after the brutal battles of 1948, when five Arab armies invaded the Holy Land, each claiming the territory for their own country, did terminology change. The new state of the Jewish people was called Israel, while the term Palestine gradually morphed over the next 20 years into a concept exclusively referring to Arabs.
Today the politically correct wisdom is that the term Palestinians applies only West Bank or Gazan Arabs, and not to the majority of Jordan’s population or to the 1,500,000 Arab citizens of Israel. But actually the Arab people living in today’s Jordan, today’s West Bank and today’s Israel are all the same people, of the same ethnic stock. Today Arab tribal connections run on an east-west basis crisscrossing the Jordan River, meaning that Arabs in Israeli West Jerusalem, in Palestinian Authority areas north of Jerusalem’s Old City, and in Jordanian Amman, all have a common tribal heritage. Arabs in all three geographical areas are all of the same origin. And if you prefer to use the term ‘Palestinian,’ this entire population could be accurately called Palestinian Arabs.
But is the word ‘Palestinian’ a spiritually neutral term? The attempt to use the word Palestine carries some baggage with it.
- Historically, when one calls the Jewish land by the name of the Jewish people’s biblical enemies, one is participating in a historical curse against the Jewish people, and activating the Abrahamic curse of Genesis 12:3.
- Secondly, the terms ‘Palestine’ and ‘Palestinian’ are expressions of a Replacement Theology perspective. When one replaces the biblical name of the land with a Roman curse word, and when once replaces the biblical people of the land (the rightful and biblically promised owners) with Ishmael’s and Esau’s descendants, that truly is an expression of Replacement Theology.
- Thirdly, it strengthens the hand of those whose political agenda is to divide the Land of Promise, who are trying to enact a UN declaration calling one half of the land ‘Israel’ and the other part ‘Palestine.’ Yeshua promises to bring a curse on those who set their hand to that undertaking, at His Second Coming (based on Joel 3:1-3).
Today, the Palestinian Arab people live in four separate areas – Jordan (ruled by a Hashemite king), the Palestinian Authority (ruled by a corrupt and violent kleptocracy), Israel (ruled by the Jewish people), and Gaza (ruled by “al Qa’eda’ s uncle,” the jihadi Muslim Brotherhood). None of these four areas is currently recognized as a Palestinian state. But were an independent state called Palestine to be established, it would lead either to the collapse of the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan, or the disintegration of the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, or to the destruction of Israel.
- Please be careful when you use the name Palestine. The elephant that accompanies it is huge and rather unwieldy.
All those in favor say ‘divide!’
The coming US elections are approaching at breakneck speed. It is worth noting that both major American parties are on record as calling for a two-state solution – in other words, the dividing up of the Land of Israel. Not only this, nearly all Israel political parties either call for the same thing, or accept it fatalistically as unstoppable.
- As we pray for God’s will to be done in the elections in both countries, pray that YHVH will reveal His heart and opinions to these men and women, and bring the leader of His choice to office.
Amnesia and ‘bull’s-eye on the canary’
As the Islamic Republic of Iran rushes toward nuclear terror, a dreamlike amnesia seems to be hanging fog-like over some Western politicians. Years ago Hillary Clinton spoke of Israel as the ‘canary in the mineshaft’ – a touchstone or tripwire for the West. Clinton declared that any threat of an attack on Israel was an urgent wake-up call to the West, since Israel’s enemies would not stand down after removing the Jewish state, but would move on to dismantle Western democracies as well.
Yet in a recent comment, Clinton explained that America has a more patient and less concerned perspective on Iran-Israel events than do the Israelis. The Secretary of State opined that it is Israel and not the USA who is “more anxious about a quick response because they feel that they’re right in the bull’s-eye, so to speak.”
- How should believers pray for the Jewish ‘canary in the bull’s-eye?’ “In all their afflictions, He was afflicted” says Isaiah 63:9. That would be a good place to start (see also Jeremiah 30:17)
Why is this night different from 1939?
The parallels between the rise of jihadi Islam in the current season and Hitler’s satanic rise in 1939 are many. In 1939 Western nations refused to call demonized dictatorship by its name, but rather declared (in the words of Britain’s Neville Chamberlain), “Hitler liked me and thought he could do business with me.” Chamberlain also publically declared, “I believe it is peace for our time… Now I recommend you go home, and sleep quietly in your beds.”
Western powers are haltingly responding to the threats of radical and jihadi Islam, not wanting to face the social, spiritual and political consequences of the rise of Islamic population and influence in their own countries. Some Western nations have gone so far as to even make it illegal for their own government officials to use clear terminology like jihad, mujahedeen and Islamic terror. Instead, placebos like ‘militants’ and ‘violent extremism’ must be substituted.
The Department of Homeland Security, the National Counter Terrorism Center and the U.S. State Department agreed that, “we must carefully avoid giving bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders the legitimacy they crave, but do not possess, by characterizing them as religious figures … We should not concede the terrorists’ claim that they are legitimate adherents of Islam” (www.jihadwatch.org/2008/04/jihadist-booted-from-government-lexicon.html )
- Without a clear recognition and location of the threat, how are Western defense forces supposed to hit the target?
How can we pray?
One of the main differences between 1939 and today is that a sovereign State of Israel exists, defended by its own armed forces and intelligence services.
And today more than ever, an army of intercessors, burning with fiery prayers birthed out of YHVH’s heart for His people, are calling out day and night for protection, salvation and justice for the Jewish people in Israel and those scattered worldwide.
- The intercessory target remains: prayer for the salvation, protection, evangelism and rescue of the Jewish people, and that they would speedily enter into their national prophetic calling through Messiah Yeshua!
Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do!
In Messiah Yeshua,
Avner Boskey
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