I understand when people—good people—say that Israel should stop the shooting; that there has been enough killing. I heard a good man the other day say that there is anger and hatred on both sides—from Hamas and Israel. I have heard also that the war is senseless; also, that the Palestinians have a right to live there in peace.
Well, I sort of understand; but I don’t think that these people quite understand Israel’s situation. Israel wants to live in peace and they have been giving the Palestinians every chance to live in peace in Israel. But the Palestinians, and especially Hamas, are a people of war and terror. They hate Israel and constantly plan to some day push them into the sea—to destroy them and claim all the land. But Israel’s land was promised to the Jews by God (Gen 12).
Ever since God gave them the land many waring nations have come against them and terrorized them—like the Philistines and the Amorites. And it is the same today. Hamas and the Palestinians (backed by Iran) have been terrorizing them with rockets; and they hide in tunnels ready to pop out with surprise attacks.
In Israel’s history, under the leadership of king David, Israel was constantly at war with their enemies. And God was in favor of it. In fact, He commanded it. War for them was absolutely necessary to keep them at peace, to keep them safe. Solomon even wrote in his book of Ecclesiastes that there is “a time for war” (Ecc. 3:8).
I think we should recognize now in this day that God has given the leaders if Israel wisdom in seeing that for them it is also “a time for war.” They know that they cannot sit back any longer to let their enemies terrorize them. They must protect themselves. They must rid themselves of all those who are hiding in every corner and in every tunnel with every intent to kill them. We have heard that it will take a good year longer to wipe them out and finish the war. I don’t know why we (US) and the rest of the world can’t back them up and support them in this war effort (or at least leave them alone. This war is a good work they are doing, and from God!
This morning my mind is on the US ships that were shot at in the Red Sea. No doubt this Israeli war with Hamas will escalate. Both Israel and the US has many enemies and they will take advantage of any opportunity to kill us. We must pray for the safety of all ships.
I was also thinking of my time at war in Viet Nam. One positive of soldiers being at war is that there is some comradery—a sense of togetherness. I don’t have that so much now since I live alone—it gets lonely. I always look forward to Sundays, to worship together with friends. I try to get out of the apartment as much as possible. I go to restaurants to hang out and talk with people that know me. I love the smiles.
Have a good day. God’s blessings to you. And don’t forget to pray for all those at war and in distress.
Both Herzog and Netanyahu agree that the Palestinians cannot be trusted to govern Gaza. I agree. All of the land promised to Israel should be Israel’s, and that includes Gaza. I don’t even think any of them should be allowed to live there; but if they are allowed, they will have to be controlled.
“We can’t leave a vacuum” that could enable the coastal enclave to turn “into a terror base again,” said the Israeli president.
November 16, 2023
Israel will need to maintain a significant presence in Gaza to prevent the Hamas terrorist group from regaining control of the enclave, President Isaac Herzog said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday.
“If we pull back, then who will take over? We can’t leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism; there are many ideas that are thrown in the air,” Herzog said. “But no one will want to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again.”
Israeli forces have been conducting ground, air and naval operations in the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, in the wake of the terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.
Herzog told the British daily business newspaper that the Israeli government has been discussing ideas about how Gaza will be managed after Hamas is defeated, indicating that the United States and “our neighbors in the region” would have some involvement.
The United States has been pushing for the Palestinian Authority to play a role in governing Gaza after Hamas, but Israeli officials have rejected the proposal due to the P.A.’s support for terrorism.
“In order to prevent terror from coming up again, we have to have a very strong force to make sure that it’s committed enough and it [the attack] doesn’t happen [again],” said Herzog.
Herzog’s remarks echo those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has stated multiple times in recent weeks that Israel will maintain security control over Gaza after defeating Hamas.
“The IDF will continue to have security control over the Gaza Strip for as long as necessary to prevent terrorism from it. The massacre on Oct. 7 proved once and for all wherever there is no Israeli security control, terrorism will return and establish itself; therefore, I will not agree to concede security control under any circumstances,” Netanyahu said at a joint press conference on Nov. 11.
Netanyahu also said during the press conference that Gaza cannot be ruled by “a civil authority that educates its children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to eliminate the State of Israel… an authority that pays the families of murderers [amounts] based on the number they murdered… an authority whose leader still has not condemned the terrible [Oct. 7] massacre 30 days later,” referring to P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas.
During the interview with the Financial Times, Herzog also discussed the hostage situation, among other topics, blaming Hamas for the lack of an agreement on their release.
“We haven’t even received one piece of information about our hostages,” he said. “So we have to fight and get them.”
Herzog also touched upon efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the Strip, saying that Israel is discussing a “major effort” with Cyprus to deliver aid via the Mediterranean Sea and that Cypriot officials were visiting Israel on Thursday to follow up on the initiative.
“It’s under serious negotiations with the Cypriot government,” Herzog said.
I praise Netanyahu for his courage and wisdom for this decision. This is the correct action and will insure Israel’s survival. Israel is acting alone on this decision, so they will need the prayers of Christians everywhere. Israel must not let the Palestinians control the Gaza strip—ever again. It is Israel’s land—what God has given them.
PM speaks to mayors of Gaza border towns on plans to rebuild after Hamas atrocities; meeting comes after premier criticized for failing to meet local leaders since Oct. 7 massacres
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday the IDF will remain in control of the Gaza Strip after the current war ends, and will not rely on international forces to oversee security along the border.
Netanyahu made the comments in a meeting with the mayors of Gaza border towns at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. The local leaders oversee many of the communities that were assaulted and had their residents murdered and kidnapped in Hamas’s October 7 massacres of southern communities. Others have faced daily barrages of rockets from Gaza over the past month, and many communities have been evacuated as Israel presses ahead in its military campaign, leaving tens of thousands internally displaced.
“IDF forces will remain in control of the Strip, we will not give it to international forces,” Netanyahu said, according to a readout from his spokesperson, not saying whether it would do so for the short or long term.
Netanyahu and his government have been vague on what they envision for Gaza after the war. Only hours earlier the premier told Fox News that Israel does not want to re-occupy or govern the Strip. Earlier this week, Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel will have “overall security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip “for an indefinite period” after the war against Hamas ends.
US officials have raised the possibility in recent weeks that an international force, possibly with troops from neighboring Arab allies, could manage security in the Strip for an interim period until it can be returned to a functioning Palestinian government, which Washington hopes will be the Palestinian Authority.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called on Israel not to reoccupy the Strip once its war with Hamas ends.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Friday that the PA is ready to retake control of Gaza, but said that would only happen if the move is part of a comprehensive political solution that includes a Palestinian state established along the 1967 borders. The PA leader made the same pledge on Sunday during a meeting in Ramallah with Blinken.
He also repeated his allegations that Israel is carrying out “genocide” in Gaza as it battles Hamas there, and called for an international peace conference to provide “international guarantees” and a timetable to end Israeli control of the Palestinian territories.
The group meeting between Netanyahu and local leaders was his first since the October 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists, which saw some 1,400 people killed, most of them civilians, and over 240 abducted to Gaza.
The prime minister had come under fire for waiting over a month to meet the local leaders, criticism that intensified this week as he met settlement mayors before sitting down with the municipal heads of the area devastated by Hamas.
The mayors told Netanyahu they want a different security reality after the war is over and urged him not to agree to a ceasefire until all Gaza terrorists are eliminated, the statement from the premier’s spokesperson said. They also called for a robust government support program to support their communities as the fighting continues.
Netanyahu said in a statement: “There is a great determination by [the residents] and the government to restore things to an even better state than before. To rehabilitate, to build, to grow. And first of all to bring back security, to ensure there is no Hamas and that Hamas does not return, but also to ensure there is strong life [in the communities] afterward.”
Sderot mayor Alon Davidi told Army Radio ahead of the meeting on Friday: “The State of Israel is the one that brought our great enemy upon us… The leadership brought us to this place.”
Among the local leaders in the south are a number of figures influential in Netanyahu’s Likud party, where the prime minister has faced growing criticism for the government’s failures that led to the October 7 attacks as well as those that have followed — in the slow pace of financial and other aid to affected communities.
Netanyahu is the only senior Israeli official who has refused to make a full-throated admission of responsibility for the horrors of the Hamas attacks, and is likely to face growing calls to depart office once the war ends or abates.
It appears that God is using the Hamas war and the increasing antisemitism to fulfill His promise to them, that He will “gather them [His people] from every side and bring them into their own land.” Read the following article from the All Israel News Staff.
French and North American Jews show the highest levels of interest
| Published: November 8, 2023
Israel’s Aliyah [gathering] and Integration Ministry reported on Tuesday that there is a notable increase of people interested in immigrating to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, with the largest numbers of requests from France and North America.
Of those considering the possibility of moving to Israel, the ministry reported a 149% increase in interest from Jewish French citizens and an 81% increase from North American Jews.
Ofir Sofer, the minister of Aliyah and Integration, said the Jewish state is ready to face what he called a “state of emergency” due to a 500% rise in global antisemitism, especially against Jewish youths on university campuses.
France has seen an unprecedented uptick in antisemitic attacks in the past month since the war began last month. The number of incidents has risen above peak numbers that were recorded in 2002.
Sofer says his ministry staff is prepared for a large wave of immigrants and a unified desire to support the State of Israel in the coming year.
“We are in a state of emergency,” Sofer said in the ministry’s statement. “The reports I have been receiving are very concerning. Our goal now is to strengthen the ties between us and support the communities that stand with Israel.”
“Precisely now, we are seeing a surge in the number of people interested in aliyah. The waves of unity and Jewish solidarity are bolstering the aliyah movement and strengthening the State of Israel.”
He also said new immigrants would receive strong support when they arrive in Israel.
“The State of Israel awaits everyone,” he added, inviting Jews around the world to move to the Jewish state.
While the numbers of those interested in making aliyah have risen since the war began, the first half of 2023 saw a decrease in immigration.
In July, The Jewish Agency for Israel reported a significant drop in aliyah from Western countries from January to July in 2023, while interest from Russian Jews began to rise.
The war in Ukraine is said to be a significant factor in the rise and fall of immigration numbers and has significantly impacted a sharp rise in Russian immigration.
The numbers of immigrants from Western European countries in the first half of 2023 dropped by 44% compared to the same time in 2022.
Some countries, such as France and Britain, revealed an even larger decrease in immigrants during 2023, prior to Oct. 7.
Only 383 French immigrants made aliyah so far in 2023, a 59% decrease from the previous year, and 171 British immigrants became Israeli citizens, a 40% drop from 2022.
At least 22,851 immigrants arrived in Israel in 2023, a 32% increase compared to the same period in the previous year.
However, according to the Jewish Agency, only about 700 immigrants arrived in October since the war began, compared to last year during the same period, when 5,773 new immigrants made aliyah, 4,553 of them from Russia.
Don’t be fooled. Biden and Blinken are coming to Israel not to aid Israel in the war effort. They want to stall it, and try to do everything possible to prevent Israel’s success in war. Much of Israel’s weapon capabilities are dependent on the US. If Israel is not able to function militarily, it will be because of the US.
Let us pray that Israel is able to somehow break free of the US. Or let us pray that the Biden administration is no longer able to intimidate Israel, that Netanyahu will find a way to break free of the US.
As the entire world knows, there is extreme hatred between the Arabs (those who descended from Ishmael) and the Israelis (those who descended from Isaac). And it seems that it is more on the side of the Arabs. Why is that and where does it come from? We will trace it to its source.
From Genesis 16:1-15, we have the account of when Sarah was unable to bare children and what she did.
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
6 “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
From what we know of those times, when this problem of infertility occurred, it was acceptable to use a slave girl to bring a child into the world. However, we have to question the faith of Abraham, because, as we see in the previous chapter, God told him that His covenant with him would come through his own offspring (Gen. 15:5). Verse five tells us that Abraham believed the Lord, but apparently his belief was not perfect.
Anyway, as it happened, when the salve girl, Hagar became pregnant, she began to despise Sarah, and then Sarah turned on Abraham. So what happened? What caused this anger and hatred in the family? Well, we can only speculate, but apparently, Hagar felt used and hated the situation she was put in; and Sarah also was probably bitter at Hagar and also angry at Abraham.
Then years later, when Isaac was born, and then at his weaning celebration day (when he was about 3 years old) there was an incident that really caused friction. Sarah saw Ishmael laughing at (or possibly mocking) little Isaac, and she became enraged and demanded that Abraham get rid of Hagar and her son. For Sarah was jealous for her son Isaac—saying that Ishmael will never share in the inheritance with her son Isaac (Gen. 21:9-10).
And so, we see that there was real friction and hatred in that early family. And it wasn’t so much with Ishmael and Isaac; it was more between Hagar and Sarah. But over the years, that same hatred has been passed down. And we see that same contention and hatred today.
This hatred is explained to us in Galatians 4:28-31. The entire family problem is a picture of good and evil, or of the flesh and the Spirit. The slave girl Hagar and Ishmael represents the flesh and Isaac (the promised one) represents the Spirit and freedom in Christ.
Now this is a very hard situation, because we must not think that all Arabs are evil and sinful. No. God loves them the same as anyone. For God so loved the whole world and gave His Son for each of us—if we would only believe in Him. All have an equal chance to be saved and to come into His kingdom.
Some Arabs have believed in Christ and have found freedom. But most have not. And the leaders of some of those countries, such as Hamas, are very evil, like Isis. And they are stirring up hatred against Israel and also against Christians. And Satan in now using them to do his evil work.
And so, we see illustrated for us the two kingdoms: the kingdom of Satan in the Palestinians, and the kingdom of God in Israel. (But this is just an illustration or a picture of the kingdoms; we know that there are saved and unsaved people in both Arab countries as well as in Israel.)
So what should we do in our present situation? Well, as far as the Palestinians go, they need to go! The land was given to Israel alone. Hamas and all the Palestinians as a whole represent evil. They need to go! But if any individuals or families can demonstrate that they want peace, they should be allowed to come and live in Israel (under Israeli law). I hope and pray that this will be possible.
We as believers should pray for all people—Arabs and Israelites, Jews and Gentiles, to be saved and to come into His kingdom of peace and freedom.
Iranian backed Hamas terrorists invaded areas of southern Israel as rocket barrages launched from the Gaza Strip struck the area on Saturday, killing at least 100 Israelis in an attack the Islamist movement Hamas is taking responsibility for.
A senior Hamas military commander, Mohammad Deif, announced the start of the operation in which he called on Palestinians everywhere to attack the Israelis, saying in a broadcast on Hamas media that the group launched 5,000 rockets and calling the attack “the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth.”
Local Israeli media reported that at least 100 people have been killed in the wide-ranging assault, while Gaza health officials say that 198 Palestinians have died in Israeli air strikes made in response to the Hamas attack. Hospitals are treating at least 985 wounded people, including 77 who were in critical condition, the Associated Press reported based on public statements and calls to hospitals.
The IDF announced it would mobilize its forces in response to the attacks, confirming that Hamas has taken hostages and held prisoners of war in Gaza. Israeli military forces have moved troops to the Gaza border, where gunfire has already started as the forces move towards each other, Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst reported from Israel.
Stephen Nielsen 