- “Then YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take vengeance on the Midianites for the sons of Israel. Afterward you will be gathered to your people.’ So Moses spoke to the people, saying, ‘Arm men from among you for the war, so that they may go against Midian to execute YHVH’s vengeance on Midian. You shall send a thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel to the war.’ So there were selected from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war” (Numbers 31:1-5)
YHVH whispered to Moses in Numbers 27:12-13 that he would soon be gathered to his people (see Genesis 25:8). But before Moses’ final trip up the mountain, the God of Abraham gave him some last orders – one of them concerned a crushing military blow, a payback due to the people of Midian for having seduced Israel into idolatry and adultery (see Numbers 25:1-18). The Hebrew phrase that God uses in Numbers 31:5 – ‘armed for war’ (חֲלוּצֵ֥י צָבָֽא; ‘chalutzei tzava’) – describes Jewish soldiers fully equipped in battle gear. It comes from the root ‘chalatz’ or loins. The biblical phrase ‘to gird up one’s loins’ has a similar meaning in Job 38:3.
The modern Hebrew word for ‘pioneer’ (חָלוּץ, ‘chalutz’) is based on this same root. One of the IDF’s infantry brigades – the NAHAL (נח”ל, noar chalutzi v’lochem; ‘pioneering and fighting youth’) – is an acronym based on this same root. This brigade originally combined paramilitary service with pioneering – the establishment of agricultural farms and settlements in dangerous areas on Israel’s peripheries. A total of 108 kibbutzim were established by NAHAL in the last century. But today the Nahal Brigade is no longer a pioneering brigade; it has taken its place as one of the IDF’s main infantry brigades.
“I never asked to be a pioneer!”
Someone has said that “the sons of pioneers never asked to be pioneers.” This proverb is true. Consider the case of Israel’s kibbutz movement. The original generations of Israel’s founding fathers drained swamps, removed rocks and established tower-and-stockade kibbutzim. But by the next generation, and certainly with the arrival of their grandchildren, a significant number of post-army kibbutz members abandoned the kibbutzim, moving on to either Israel’s bigger cities or to other countries. The socialist vision (based on the Hebrew prophets’ dream of the scattered exiles’ return to Zion) did not always get successfully transmitted to the next generation.
- Not only this – the following generations of Israeli military and political leaders (who had themselves been reared on kibbutz) saw their original vision morph drastically, with pioneering idealists often turning into capitalist entrepreneurs. Some ex-generals ended up even idealizing terrorists and championing anti-Zionist causes. A burning allegiance to Israel’s survival and its flowering as a Zionist and pioneering country has given way – bit-by-bit and in some circles – to other dreams. These occasionally included sprinklings of corruption, shady partnerships with foreign oligarchs/superpowers seeking to undermine Israel’s best interests, and public calls for the overthrow of Israel’s established government and leadership. This ‘Greek tragedy’ with a Hebrew accent is being played out in living color, in our day and on the streets of the Holy City of Jerusalem. For those who take seriously the challenge to pray for the fulfilment of God’s prophetic promises over Israel, this newsletter offers some intercessory food for consideration and prayer.
In our day, some ‘sons of the pioneers’ have been corrupted, and some have turned into traitors. In the words of Bob Dylan, “When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?” The Jewish people, state and army all have a divine calling (see Romans 11:28-29) which, in our day, is more important than ever. The revival and redemption of the whole world hinges on Israel turning to YHVH in repentance for cleansing and new life, and passionately embracing that divine calling (see Romans 11:12-15).
Treachery, deceit and conspiracy
As we consider how some modern sons of the original pioneers have been corrupted, we remember that such dynamics are not new. The Bible tells of kings, generals and prophets whose destinies were undermined by the treason, deceit, conspiracy or lies of their opponents and competitors. Examples include Prince Absalom son of King David (2 Samuel 15:12), King Zimri (1 Kings 16:8-20), King Joram (2 Kings 9:22-24), Queen Athaliah (2 Kings 11:12-14), King Joash (2 Kings 12:20-21), King Amaziah (2 Kings 14:17-19), King Ahaz (Isaiah 7:1-9), etc. Jealousy and ambition, desire for control and for reputation – all these have led in Bible days to rebellions. civil war and riots in the street. British-American author under the pseudonym Taylor Caldwell penned a speech which has sobering relevance to the present political machinations in Israel:
- “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.”
Treason, says a Wikipedia entry, is “the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one’s native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state. A person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor.” These are warnings that some leaders in Israel would do well to hear and heed. The following are examples of relevant and recent behavior in Israeli intelligence, military and political spheres.
When a watchmen becomes corrupt
The vast majority of Israelis put a lot of trust in their intelligence and security services, as did most Americans prior to the Vietnam War and 9/11. Yet something happened on April 12, 1984, that shook the average Israeli’s confidence. Just after 7:30 pm on April 12, 1984, four terrorists affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) took over an Israeli Egged bus (number #300) traveling from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon, severely injuring one passenger and taking the 34 passengers hostage. The bus was eventually stopped by IDF troops near Deir el-Balah in Gaza, who shot out the tires and disabled the vehicle. A team from Sayeret Matkal (Israel’s Delta Force) was quickly ferried to the site, where IDF Chief of Staff (Ramatkal) Moshe Levi, Defense Minister Moshe Arens and SHABAK (Israel Security Agency) Director Avraham Shalom gathered in consultation – surrounded by many hangers-on from the Israeli media . The terrorists demanded the release of 500 Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails. The next morning, at around 0700 on April 13, Sayeret Matkal stormed the bus, killing two of the four terrorists as well as a 19-year-old female IDF soldier caught in the crossfire. As the operation began to wind down, two SHABAK agents took the two surviving terrorists by mini-bus in the direction of a holding and interrogation center. But on the way, the SHABAK Director called them and told them to “hit them again and finish them.”
Press releases based on comments by Israeli officials then present reported that all four terrorists had been killed in the firefight. But one news photographer had snapped a hasty picture revealing that two of the terrorists had been apprehended alive. The SHABAK Director Avraham Shalom had lied to the press. Shalom later falsely accused the top-ranking IDF general on site, Itzhak Mordechai, of having ordered the killing of the terrorists, and also attempted to blame Prime Minister Itzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Moshe Arens for giving orders to carry out the killings. But after a lengthy trial with much press coverage, Mordechai was exonerated. Shalom and the two SHABAK agents involved in this incident were subsequently pardoned by Prime Minister Shimon Peres. It was whispered that the SHABAK director had threatened to publicly expose other such security events related to terrorist interdictions if he were to stand trial. This almost successful conspiracy to cover-up and to frame an Israeli general for the acts that Shalom himself had ordered are considered to this day one of the low points of moral and legal corruption in Israel’s short modern history. In this affair, Israel’s head SHABAK watchman was involved in corrupt decisions and was revealed to be untrustworthy in this affair. This was an earthquake for many Israelis, and raised ethical questions which are reverberating anew in our day. Unfortunately, such things happen in intelligence agencies and in politics and, as the Watergate Affair revealed in the U.S.A., they can happen in any country and to any people.
When a hero becomes arrogant
Israel’s top two Special Operations Forces units are Sayeret Matkal (equivalent to Delta Force) and Shayetet 13 (equivalent to US. Navy Seals). These units are respected as among the best in the world’s special operations forces and have highly classified identities and missions. Veterans of Sayeret Matkal (abbreviated as SM) have become IDF Generals, Knesset members, Chiefs of Staff, Prime Ministers, Defense Ministers, SHABAK and MOSSAD directors. SM has a mythical reputation in Israel, and veterans are treated with high honor. ‘The Unit’ (as it is called in Hebrew) has a track-record of “pulling off high-risk, high-yield feats in defiance of convention and caution.” Ehud Barak is probably the most notable example of this: He became Israel’s most decorated soldier; he led stunningly daring raids to Beirut; was IDF Chief of Staff, head of Military Intelligence, and later Israel’s 10th Prime Minister.
At the same time, there has been an ongoing historic rivalry between Barak (who was raised as a prodigy in the socialist Labor Party) and Netanyahu (who was the son of a world-respected Jewish historian affiliated with the more conservative Likud Party). In 1999, Barak defeated Netanyahu in the elections and become PM for a little more than a year. But in subsequent elections, he was defeated by Netanyahu (who at one time had been a sergeant under his direct command) time and again. This is something which seems to have have caused a poisonous root of bitterness to spring up within Barak’s heart over time.
For deeper back ground, see the following newsletters:
February 22, 2023: https://davidstent.org/establish-justice-in-the-gate-amos-515/
July 4, 2023: https://davidstent.org/the-wisdom-of-ahithophel/
July 26, 2023: https://davidstent.org/following-after-the-crowd/
January 21, 2024: https://davidstent.org/the-caesarea-syndrome/
Over the past decades, Barak has spearheaded a vitriolic campaign to bring down PM Netanyahu, no matter what the cost to the nation. This has involved ‘lawfare’ (using the courts as a weapon to attack and remove Netanyahu from office); stirring up public sentiment with repeated and lurid charges of fascism, treason and incarnate evil against Netanyahu; spearheading civil unrest and massive quasi-violent demonstrations attempting to block Netanyahu’s governance and remove him from office (the ‘Kaplan riots’); calling for soldiers and pilots to go AWOL in efforts to bring down the government; and, since October 7, 2023, hijacking the cause of those Israelis kidnapped by Hamas and transforming that movement by catalyzing it into further attacks on Netanyahu, focusing on strident calls for new elections. In pursuit of these goals, Barak has been quoted often in Israeli and world media, threatening blood in the streets and civil war, as well as calling for a revolt against the PM, etc.
A Hebrew Zoom clip from July 23, 2020 (an excerpt with English sub-titles available here) is of a private meeting Barak held with retired Israel Air Force pilots and navigators (‘Forum 555’) including Shikma Bressler and Moshe Redman, present leaders of the 2023 ‘Kaplan’ protest demonstrations. In that meeting Ehud Barak stated that a civil uprising is needed, but it must be presented to the public as an uprising “for the sake of democracy,” rather than an attempt to unseat Netanyahu. Barak discusses strategies for a civilian revolt, including the use of slogans, civil disobedience, and both general and ultimate goals of the protest movement. He stated that he would raise the necessary funds to cover all logistics for the project, including flags, banners and PA systems. He continued, stating that the more there are streets clashes with the government, the stronger would the opposition’s resistance become. This would inevitably lead to the government needing to use force against the demonstrators, which would again bolster the protest movement. In Barak’s own words, when an army shoots into a crowd, the government is bound to fall. Barak also declared on that Zoom clip a snippet of revealing information about his own self-awareness: “Objectively speaking, I am the most suitable person in the state to take control of the steering wheel.” Former POTUS Calvin Coolidge issues a warning here: “When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.”
On July 20, 2023, Yossi Melman, one of Israel’s top intelligence journalists, wrote an analysis in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, reflecting and supporting Barak’s perspective: “A Military Coup Is Underway in Israel – and It’s Completely Justified”:
- “A military coup is underway in Israel. This is the unvarnished truth. At the same time, there is an attempt to play with words in order to avoid looking the reality in the eye. The rebels and their supporters are employing euphemisms and resorting to linguistic acrobatics rather than stating unequivocally that there is insubordination among many Israel Defense Forces reservists. They refer to it instead as ‘ceasing to volunteer’ . . . It’s more comfortable for all involved not to explicitly use the phrase ‘military coup,’ but if the issue is to be effectively addressed, the reality must be faced head-on and called by its rightful name . . . [This] is a military coup for the sake of democracy.”
Barak’s hatred for Netanyahu and his zeal to lead a putsch against Israel’s ruling Prime Minister has catalyzed widening divisions among Israelis. The political opposition here has mobilized these divisions, creating a hate campaign against Netanyahu, against his Likud party and all conservative voters, against religious Jews who believe in the coming of Messiah. These events should move us to pray for a divine change of heart for many in this very troubling situation.
How should we then pray?
- Pray for the repentance to come to Israeli leaders who have strayed off the path, and that God would heal their hearts and restore to them a right mind
- Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers
- Pray for the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel
- Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth
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
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