Israel: a country with huge challenges - and massive opportunities
14 April 2022

Israel is a Jewish State, the Jewish national home. But it is also so much more than that - a melting pot of many nationalities, and ethnic and religious groups. In one sense, it reflects the rich diversity across the region. Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Armenians, Arameans, Druze, Bedouin, Circassians etc etc – they all live side-by-side, many of them working together. 
 
Of course, there are problems and tensions, perhaps even discrimination. But that, too, is hardly surprising, and far from unique. Every country with such a wide range of cultures and nationalities experiences these problems. The USA is perhaps the best example: a country with massive problems of discrimination and tensions. But that doesn’t make America illegitimate. 
 
The recent wave of terror attacks should not detract from the reality that in Israel there are many people of good will who are working hard every day to defend the State of Israel and make it an even better country.  
 
On the other hand, Palestinians in the disputed territories are becoming more and more radical. Living for decades in UNRWA refugee camps, generations have grown up in an education system and culture based on hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. As Khaled Abu Toameh writes, “These Palestinians want peace without Israel, not peace with Israel. The only peace they envision is one where Israel would cease to exist. That is why — as this and previous polls have shown — most Palestinians continue to support Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the elimination of Israel.” According to Maurice Hirsch at Palestinian Media Watch, the current terrorist wave “was initiated and is being fueled by the Palestinian Authority and P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.”
 
Israel – and the international community – face an enormous challenge to avoid further escalation in the short term, and in the longer term to resolve the as-yet-unresolved status of the territories captured in June 1967, and the Arab Palestinians living there.   
 
On a more positive note, it is fascinating to see how Israel is becoming an increasingly important ally and partner in the region, and globally. One area in which Israel has a major contribution to make is energy. Although Israel’s government recently decided to focus more on renewables, and its significance in the global should not be over-stated, Israel is an exporter of natural gas. And with many European countries choosing (or being forced) to stop their supplies from Russia, alternative supplies of gas are exactly what they need.  
 
Israel has so much to offer. If the radicalized sections of Palestinian/Arab society would only accept that the Jewish State of Israel has a right to exist, and that it is not the enemy, but a partner for peace and prosperity, then perhaps peace will flow from Jerusalem. 
 
For that to happen, there need to be a lot of prayers that hearts and minds will be changed. 
 
Let us take the time in the coming days, when Jews celebrate Pesach and Christians Easter, to pray even more for the peace of Jerusalem. 

Khaled Abu Toameh at Gatestone: “The celebrations that took place in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the recent terror attacks in Israel are yet another sign of the growing radicalization among the Palestinians and their refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist.”

The PA and Fatah are behind the current terror wave
 
Maurice Hirsch at PMW: “Ramadan is not a month of laziness but rather ... a month of jihad, conquest and victory,” said the P.A.'s Supreme Shari'a judge on the first day of Ramadan.

Israel hopes to step in as Europe looks for alternatives to Russian energy 
 
JNS reports: “The Jewish state could definitely be a serious factor in creating more independence and a wealth of energy sources for Europe.”

JNS: “Officials from Israel, Greece and Cyprus met in Athens to expand their energy cooperation on natural-gas pipeline projects in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine.”

Soeren Kern writes in Gatestone: “Questions are being belatedly asked — and grudgingly answered — about many aspects of Merkel's failed Russia policy, including her decisions to block Ukraine's prospective membership of NATO, gut the German military, undermine the transatlantic alliance, and institutionalize Germany's overdependence on Russian energy supplies.”

“Joy instead of tears”

Aliyah fieldworker Nataliya shares from Ukraine: “Today, on yet another bus ride, I received a word from the Lord: ‘The oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.’ (Isaiah 61:3)

There is deep pain in every story we hear. We weep together with those who weep. We comfort, embrace and bless them. With tears in their eyes, people thanked the whole team for providing food, hot water and a comfortable place to stay.”