15 August 2024
The situation in the Middle East threatens to explode. It seems like the quiet before the storm. Israel is being pressured by the West to give in to extreme Islamic terror – in order to protect the West from such terror extending beyond the Middle East.
In other words, as always, Israel is being asked to pay the price for Western timidity, with Jewish lives.
This has been a consistent pattern over the past one hundred years: the Islamic world denies Israel’s right to exist and launches terror attacks to kill Jews. Israel’s allies and friends pressure her not to respond. The result is more Jewish lives, and renewed terror.
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"Israel is being asked to pay the price for Western timidity, with Jewish lives."
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Most recently, in 2000, PLO leader Yasser Arafat walked out of peace negotiations with Israel and launched the Second Intifada, resulting in hundreds of deaths in Israel. In an effort to foster peace, Israel handed over West Bank cities to the Palestinians, and withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in 2005, but the area was soon taken over by Hamas in a bitter war with Fatah-led Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah. Since 2007, the Iranian-sponsored organizations in Gaza, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have been attacking Israel with rockets and missiles. On 7th October 2023, they launched a massive invasion of Israel, massacring hundreds, and taking hostages.
Shortly after Israeli forces began a military assault on Gaza in response, Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon began cross-border attacks on Israel. Israeli fire in response, initially confined to Lebanon's border area, has now targeted senior Hezbollah, Hamas and other figures further north. The conflict with Hezbollah/Iran on Israel’s northern border is threatening to escalate.
Iran, which is drawing ever closer to nuclear weapons, is also threatening to attack Israel in response to the recent elimination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, including Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh when he was visiting Tehran, Hamas’s deputy political chief, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of military operations Marwan Issa, and the commander of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif. Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel eliminated Fuad Shukr, also known as “Sayyid Muhsan,” in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Shukr was the most senior military commander of Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In the last months of his term, US President Biden is desperate to avoid an all-out war in the Middle East. The only way to do this is to placate Iran and its proxies. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who has arrived in Beirut, is reported to have said on Wednesday he believed all-out war between Israel and Lebanon's powerful militant group Hezbollah could be avoided but that Israel and Hamas needed to move towards a peace agreement for Gaza without further delay.
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"It seems Israel is being pressured to agree to a deal with Hamas under which Israel would not get back all the hostages"
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It seems Israel is being pressured to agree to a deal with Hamas under which Israel would not get back all the hostages, and Israel will not be able to totally destroy Hamas’s military capabilities. All to prevent Hezbollah/Iran from attacking Israel. This means that Israel’s right to defend itself is being compromised by the Americans’ fear of escalation.
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice has advised the UN General Assembly that Israel’s presence in the so-called “Occupied Palestinian Territory” is illegal and must be ended “as rapidly as possible”, and that all Israelis living there must be removed. This is even though it is widely known that Iran is deeply embedded in the Palestinian-controlled cities like Jenin and Nablus. According to the Forum for Defense of Democracies, “For three years, violence in the West Bank has persisted with no signs of abatement, fueled mainly by Iran-backed terrorist groups. While Israeli forces conduct near-daily counterterrorism raids, attacks on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and civilian targets continue. Branches belonging to Islamic Jihad, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Hamas, and other armed groups not only continue to be operational but are expanding their presence in the West Bank.
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"Rest assured, we stand unwaveringly with the Russian Federation"
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Apparently blind to the reality of Islamic-sponsored terror on the ground, the West is looking to Palestinian Authority to pave the way to establishment of a peaceful Palestinian state living side by side with Israel – the famous “two states solution.” The only problem is that the PA is not only corrupt and totally unable to control the growing radicalization in the West Bank, it is far from benign. It is run by Fatah, which has no intention to create a democratic, peace-loving state. This is shown by the fact that this week, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been in Moscow to meet with Russian President Putin. “Rest assured, we stand unwaveringly with the Russian Federation”, Abbas declared.
The world has turned upside down.
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International Court of Justice: One-sided Advisory Opinion; Israel’s security concerns are not considered in any way
The ICJ’s legal opinion confirms our worst fears. It is one-sided and attacks Israel’s right to exist within secure borders. The ICJ should have initially refused to issue an Advisory Opinion and instead should have pointed out that bilateral or multilateral negotiations would be needed to resolve the conflict.
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Creation of Palestinian state top priority, Putin tells Abbas
"We are making every effort to support the Palestinian people," the Russian president said, citing casualty figures fabricated by Hamas.
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Iran is arming West Bank terrorist groups
Iran has been advocating for arming Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank since 2014. In August 2022, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Chief Hossein Salami stated that the West Bank was “being armed” against Israel. He repeated the claim less than a year later, hinting that the Iranian regime was involved in the surge of West Bank violence.
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“Behind the 'Settlers' Narrative:”
A conversation with Yossi Dagan
Often, the news reports about 'violent settlers' in the West Bank, labeling them as radicals and extremists who allegedly commit acts of violence against Palestinians. But is this portrayal accurate?
To delve deeper into the reality of the situation and to understand more about the people living in the area of Judea and Samaria, we spoke with Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council. He shares his perspective on the matter.
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The Threshing Floor | The Book of RUTH with Johannes Gerloff #41
On the threshing floor grain is threshed and the wheat is separated from the chaff. In the ancient Orient, the threshing floor was a central place for every village. Groundbreaking decisions are made on the threshing floor in the Book of Ruth.
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SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK:
Ezekiel 38:1-16
The word of the LORD came to me:
2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of[a] Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal.
4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. 5 Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.
7 “‘Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. 8 After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. 9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm;you will be like a cloud covering the land.
10 “‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. 11 You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. 12 I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land.” 13 Sheba and Dedanand the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you, “Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?”’
14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? 15 You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. 16 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.'"
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Israel & Christians Today
The goal of Israel & Christians Today is to help Christians to take God’s Word seriously, and study current events in the world in the context of the Bible.
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