Standing in a divided nation with an undivided heart

“The King’s Heart is in the Hand of YHVH”

Avner Boskey

May 15, 2026

David’s prayer – the gift of an undivided heart

David calls out to YHVH in his distress, asking for a divine work to be done in his own heart: “Give me an undivided heart that I may fear Your name!” (Psalm 86:11 NIV). The greatest commandment in the Scriptures involves serving the God of Jacob with an undivided heart (see Matthew 22:35-38), the SHMA: “And now, Israel, what does YHVH your God require of you, but to fear YHVH your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve YHVH your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12).

King David’s commandos – brave warriors with an undivided heart

Some of King David’s top soldiers came from the tribe of Issachar – warriors who had a clear prophetic “understanding of the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Right after them are mentioned the magnificent special forces of Zebulun – men who could handle all types of weapons, and who followed David with an undivided heart: “From Zebulun, there were fifty thousand who went out in the army, who could draw up in battle formation with all kinds of weapons of war and helped David with an undivided heart” (1 Chronicles 12:33). ‘Semper fi,’ as the US Marines would say.

Israel’s prophetic future – an entire nation with an undivided heart

The God of Jacob promises that a day is coming when He will pour out His Spirit on the entire nation of Israel – after He gathers them back from their planet-wide Exile. At that time He will do spiritual heart-surgery on the Jewish people, giving them an undivided heart:

“Therefore say: ‘This is what ADONAI YHVH says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ Therefore say: ‘This is what ADONAI YHVH says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again. They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:16-19).

God’s true saints long for this hour to come! Join us in earnest prayer, that the God of Isaac will accomplish this prophetic promise for His people Israel – speedily and in our day!

The world has a divided heart toward the Jewish people and their God

The Bible waxes eloquent about how the nations hate both Zion (the Jewish people) and their God:

“Why are the nations restless and the peoples plotting in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against YHVH and against His Anointed (Hebrew, Mashiach), saying, “Let’s tear their shackles apart and throw their ropes away from us!” (Psalm 2:1-3)

“May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward! May they be like grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up” (Psalm 129:5-6)

“God, do not remain quiet! Do not be silent and, God, do not be still! For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.’ For they have conspired together with one mind; They make a covenant against You” (Psalm 83:1-5)

A divided heart sees the Jewish people’s existence as a thorn to be uprooted

The Great Powers of the early 20^th Century for the most part spoke with one voice regarding the hopes of Jacob’s children to re-establish a Jewish state and homeland. To paraphrase Gandalf’s iconic dictum when confronting the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm: “You shall not pass!”

This newsletter limits the following comments to a brief sketch of American State Department officials’ declarations on the subject – their support for what can be described as ‘The Arab Lobby.’ See also my October 16, 2024 newsletter – ‘Military Witchcraft.’ The quotes below reveal not only a divided heart estranged from the Bible’s prophetic promises to Israel, but also no small dose of anti-Semitism as well.

In US POTUS Truman’s personal memoirs (Volume Two: Years of Trial and Hope; 1956), he noted: “The Department of State’s specialists on Near East were almost without exception unfriendly to the idea of a Jewish State. Like most of the British diplomats, some thought the Arabs on account of their number and because of the fact that they control such immense oil resources should be appeased. I am sorry to say that there were some among them who were also inclined to be anti-Semitic.”

On August 28, 1919, Charles Crane (later US Ambassador to China) headed up the King-Crane Commission, having been appointed by POTUS Woodrow Wilson. That official US Report concluded:

“Not only you as president but the American people as a whole should realize that if the American government decided to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area, since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained . . . We recommend, in the fifth place, serious modification of the extreme Zionist Program for Palestine of unlimited immigration of Jews, looking finally to making Palestine distinctly a Jewish State . . . In view of all these considerations, and with a deep sense of sympathy for the Jewish cause, the Commissioners feel bound to recommend that only a greatly reduced Zionist program be attempted by the Peace Conference, and even that, only very gradually initiated. This would have to mean that Jewish immigration should be definitely limited, and that the project for making Palestine distinctly a Jewish commonwealth should be given up . . . There would then be no reason why Palestine could not be included in a united Syrian State, just as other portions of the country, the holy places being cared for by an International and Inter-religious Commission, somewhat as at present, under the oversight and approval of the Mandatory and of the League of Nations. The Jews, of course, would have representation upon this Commission.”

US Secretary of the Navy (1944) and Secretary of Defense (1947) James V. Forrestal reveals in his The Forrestal Diaries (1951) his opposition to American support for a Jewish state. He states: ‘No group in this country should be permitted to influence our policy to the point where it could endanger our national security’. A number of oil companies were suspending investments in the Middle East, he claimed, ‘because of the disturbed condition in Palestine.’

On August 24, 1945, Loy W. Henderson, Director of the State Department’s Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, wrote a memo to US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes warning: “The active support by the Government of the United States of a policy favoring the setting up of a Jewish State in Palestine would be contrary to the wishes of a large majority of the local inhabitants with respect to their form of government. Furthermore, it would have a strongly adverse effect upon American interests throughout the Near and Middle East” Henderson added in a letter of March 20, 1976: “I did, however, oppose the United States playing a leading role in the establishing of a Zionist State in Palestine by force against the will of the inhabitants.”

On May 12, 1948 US Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the renowned World War II General and author of the Marshall Plan, attacked a move to recognize the Jewish state: “ The transparent dodge to win a few votes would not in fact achieve this purpose. The great dignity of the office of the President would be seriously diminished … based on domestic political considerations, while the problem which confronted us was international. I said bluntly that if the President were to follow Mr. Clifford’s advice and if in the elections I were to vote, I would vote against the President.”

Kermit ‘Kim’ Roosevelt Jr. was Teddy Roosevelt’s nephew and the first head of CIA covert action in the Middle East. He also played a leading role in the CIA’s overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. On November 24, 1948 Roosevelt gave a lecture at the National War College in Washington, DC, while serving a Secretary of the anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist Committee for Peace and Justice in the Holy Land. Here is a quote from that lecture:

“The process by which Zionist Jews have been able to promote American support for the partition of Palestine demonstrates the vital need of a foreign policy based on national rather than partisan interests… Only when the national interests of the United States, in their highest terms, take precedence over all other considerations, can a logical, farseeing foreign policy be evolved. No American political leader has the right to compromise American interests to gain partisan vote.”

William A. Stoltzfus Jr, a 27-year veteran of the US Foreign Service and US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates, stated in a private interview to Robert D. Kaplan (author of ‘The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite’, 1993), that the establishment of a Jewish homeland goes against American values and interests: “And it’s pretty clear to me that the powerful, vested interest of a certain group of people, concentrated in the big cities in big states, determines our Middle East policy. If you’re looking for some kind of a plot, that’s where to look.”

On April 18, 1989 Marshall W. Wiley, former US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Oman), was interviewed by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training: Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. Here is one question asked and Wiley’s answer:

Q: “One can say one is close to the Israelis, and looking at this as a retired Foreign Service Officer, it's difficult to see what vital interest we have in Israel. Is this purely a political matter, being the Israeli lobby, which often is translated as being the Jewish voter, as sort of a rather cohesive body? Is it purely political, or is there another reason that you can see for such strong support of Israel”

WILEY: “In my view, it is strictly a reaction to the strength of the domestic lobby, the Israeli lobby. The argument that Israel is a strategic asset to the United States, is essentially a rationalization for the domestic political pressures, because, in fact, they're not an asset, they're a liability. Our relationship with Israel has gotten in the way of much more important strategic relationships that we should have with Saudi Arabia, with the gulf countries, where our real interests lie in the populations, and in the wealth of the area, which is in the oil fields, primarily. Israel is only about 2 percent of the population, and because of our support for that 2 percent, we're willing to alienate the good will of the other 98 percent, which have most of the land area and most of the resources, which, I think, in terms of our national interest, is a mistake.”

These above-quoted poisonous and twisted spiritual roots, rabidly anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli, have lately been sprouting again – like mushrooms after the rain – on the podcasts of American media pundits like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly. The heart of America’s diplomats is divided. This is a matter for prayer!

When a nation has a divided heart

An April 7, 2026 survey published by Pew Research Center reveals that 60% of US adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% last year. In both political parties, majorities of adults under 50 rated Israel negatively, while 28% of all adults polled rated Israel very unfavorably. On the Democratic side of the aisle, 80% of all Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents polled expressed an unfavorable view of Israel, as opposed to 69% in 2022. Democrats under 50 expressed a very unfavorable view of Israel (47%).

It is time to discern the times, as did the men of Issachar ” (1 Chronicles 12:32). What is the spread of anti-Semitism pointing to? What are we facing? The spirit of the dragon, Satan himself, is flexing his muscles and preparing for the final showdown – à la Revelation 12. When Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn are attacked by Islamist marches shouting genocidal Islamist chants, and when Jewish houses of worship like Park East Synagogue on 67^th Street in Manhattan are attacked by terrorist mobs attempting to storm police barricades, the divided heart of America is on global view in all its violence,

Where there is no prophetic vision the people mourn (Proverbs 29:18)

The Scriptures tell us that, without a biblical foundation, a nation’s leaders will always make the wrong choices. They could be diplomats, politicians or intelligence agents. They could be capitalists or oligarchs. All of these will always make the wrong choices regarding the Middle East and Israel – unless they are guided by the Bible, God’s touchstone of national and individual blessing and protection.

As Senator Ted Cruz attempted to communicate to Tucker Carlson in a recent interview, Genesis 12:3 is the touchstone: those who bless the Jewish people and their nation will be blessed, but the one who dismisses, dishonors, mocks or scorns Israel and her calling will be directly cursed by the God of Jacob. This is how the God of the Bible deals with nations – whether obedient ones or rebellious ones.

Israel – God’s touchstone which reveals the heart

Michael T. Benson is an American historian and the 27th president of West Virginia University. He is the author of ‘Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel,’ where he notes: ‘Truman’s support for the Zionist cause…was due to attitudes Truman developed as a young man in Missouri as a result of an upbringing heavily influenced by the Bible’ – a matter of relevance, perhaps, at an underlying level of psychic predisposition, as with Balfour and Lloyd George before him.”

US Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson once made reference to those same biblical truths which touched President Truman’s heart, though Acheson simultaneously scorned and belittled their eternal value:

“From Justice Brandeis, whom I revered, and from Felix Frankfurter, my intimate friend, I had learned to understand, but not to share the mystical emotion of the Jews to return to Palestine and end the Diaspora. In urging Zionism as an American governmental policy they had allowed, so I thought, their emotion to obscure the totality of American interests. Zionism was the only topic that Felix and I had by mutual consent excluded from our far-ranging daily talks." (Acheson, pp. 231-32, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio).

Four solid legs on which to stand

Here are four biblical principles which can guide us to respond to these challenges, according to God’s heart, with an undivided heart:

Romans 1:16 (evangelistic priority to the Jewish people in our outreach)
Isaiah 62:1-7 (focus our prayers on God’s prophetic promises to Israel - terminus ad quem)
Matthew 25 (reach out to strengthen and rescue the Jewish brothers and sisters of Messiah Yeshua through works of rescue)
Genesis 12:3 (let your undivided heart overflow with blessing to Jacob)

How shall we then pray?

Pray that the God of Israel will fulfil His prophetic promises to the Jewish people

Pray for the entire people of Israel to be protected and preserved from their enemies (see Luke 1:68-75), and that they would seek and find salvation in Messiah Yeshua