29 August 2024
On 19th July, the International Court of Justice issued its Advisory Opinion, concluding that Israel must end its presence in “the West Bank, including East Jerusalem” and Gaza “as rapidly as possible”.
In an amazing mix of historical revisionism and legal acrobatics, the Court has opined that Israel is acting illegally by annexing territory, and that its activities are preventing the Palestinians from achieving self-determination. This makes Israel’s presence in the territories illegal, according to eleven of the Court’s fifteen judges.
The Court is playing perfectly into the gameplan of those states and non-state actors that want to destroy the Jewish state – especially the revolutionary regime in Tehran.
Demanding Israel to unilaterally withdraw its military and civilian presence from Judea and Samaria, would effectively be a demand that it must commit suicide. This is because there is no real governing authority with capacity to maintain order and peace in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority not only is corrupt, it supports violence against Israel in many ways, including its “pay-for-slay” policy that provides financial rewards to terrorists who kill Jews.
Iran is deeply involved in the West Bank. It is financing and training “battalions” in all the main Palestinian cities in the West Bank, like Jenin and Tulkarem.
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"The Court is playing perfectly into the gameplan of those states and non-state actors that want to destroy the Jewish state – especially the revolutionary regime in Tehran."
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Israel is currently carrying out an intensive campaign in the West Bank to root out these battalions. At least eleven Palestinians have been reported killed so far in clashes and IDF drone strikes. Several wanted Palestinians have also been detained amid the operation, according to the military.
Without Israel’s strong presence, this area will collapse into a bitter Palestinian civil war in which extremist Islamist jihad groups like Hamas will take over – as they did in Gaza back on 2006-2007.
As investigative journalist Jonathan Spyer reports, “Tehran has succeeded in establishing and maintaining an arms route in which military materiel, brought from Iran into Lebanon, is then transported across the Syrian-Lebanese border, via Jordan, into the West Bank.”
According to Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, for Iran and its allies, the conflict does not concern borders, refugees, prisoners, settlements, or checkpoints. “It is actually about Israel’s continued existence in the Middle East. They contend that Israel has no right to exist on Muslim-owned territory ( Waqf) and that it is the responsibility of all Muslims to carry the banner of Jihad in the world toward the objective of wiping out Israel. In their eyes, this is a religious war between Muslims and non-Muslims who have “usurped” Muslim-owned territory.”
Typically ignoring this reality, UN’s Guterres calls for ‘immediate cessation’ of IDF operations in the West Bank.
All of this happening while Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza continues. In a remarkable development, on Tuesday, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, from the bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev Desert, was rescued from a tunnel in southern Gaza in a “complex operation.” A father of eleven children, Alkadi was released from Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon. He was held in captivity for 326 days after being abducted by Hamas from Mivtachim on Oct. 7. |
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"In a remarkable development, on Tuesday, Qaid Farhan Alkadi (52) was rescued from a tunnel in southern Gaza in a complex operation."
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In another development this week, the UN Security Council on Wednesday extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon for another year while demanding a halt to the growing attacks between the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon and Israeli forces.
The council’s fifteen members unanimously approved a resolution that urges the “relevant actors” to restore “calm, restraint and stability” across the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon, and warned that further escalation “carries the high risk of leading to a widespread conflict.”
Israel insists that the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah is responsible for the conflict in the north. According to Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon:
“The State of Lebanon and the Hezbollah terrorist organization, operating under the guidance of Iran, bear responsibility for the deterioration of the security situation on the northern front. These actions have been carried out as part of a wider strategy by the Iranian axis aimed at the destruction of Israel through attacks from multiple fronts. The Hezbollah attack against Israel planned for this morning unequivocally demonstrates the presence of illegal weapons in southern Lebanon, in flagrant violation of UNSCR 1701 (2006), and serves as a reminder of the threats Israelis have been facing on a daily basis for the past 11 months. This situation highlights the urgent need to demilitarize the area south of the Litani River and achieve the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed militias operating in southern Lebanon.”
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Iran's War Against Israel - From the West Bank
Khaled Abu Toameh writes at Gatestone: “Armed and funded by Iran, the "battalions," whose members are affiliated with PIJ, Hamas and the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, began operating in the northern West Bank more than three years ago.”
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Tracking Iran’s weapons route into the West Bank
Jonathan Spyer at JPost: “Tehran has succeeded in establishing and maintaining an arms route in which military materiel, brought from Iran into Lebanon, is then transported across the Syrian-Lebanese border, via Jordan, into the West Bank.”
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The Jihad to Destroy Israel
Khaled Abu Tuomeh at JCPA: A letter sent recently by the Palestinian “resistance” groups in the Gaza Strip to Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hizbullah militia, serves as a reminder that Iran and its terror proxies view the conflict with Israel as a Jihad (holy war) to eliminate the Jewish state.
For Iran and its allies, the conflict does not concern borders, refugees, prisoners, settlements, or checkpoints. It is actually about Israel’s continued existence in the Middle East. They contend that Israel has no right to exist on Muslim-owned territory (Waqf) and that it is the responsibility of all Muslims to carry the banner of Jihad in the world toward the objective of wiping out Israel. In their eyes, this is a religious war between Muslims and non-Muslims who have “usurped” Muslim-owned territory.
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SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK:
Zechariah 12:2-6
“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem.3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’ 6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepotin a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
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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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