Prayer for Israel

The Hamas atrocity has shocked us all. Thirteen hundred are dead, with over a hundred hostages taken into Gaza. It is impossible to comprehend the horror unleashed by these cowardly terrorists who spread out to gun down defenceless, unarmed civilians. Christian Voice stands with the state and people of Israel and with the Christians of the Holy Land as we pray for peace.

Post Script Friday 13th October 2023: Israel has already dropped leaflets in northern Gaza telling the inhabitants to evacuate with 24 hours. Hamas want their people to stay as human shields, of course. Israel are very unlikely to invade on the Jewish Sabbath, but it will be soon. How will Israeli soldiers distinguish between Hamas terrorists (those not firing on them that is) and civilians? How long will it take to eradicate Hamas? Is it even possible, in view of widespread Muslim support for the Jew-hating Hamas Charter? When Muslim England cricketers and UK doctors are tweeting support for Hamas and antisemitic crimes in London are rocketing (see below), is the Muslim mind itself an insurmountable problem?

The Bible says, in a psalm sung at both the King’s coronation and that of his mother before him:
Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

The seer Balaam was paid to curse Israel, but God inspired him to say this instead:
Numb 23:23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!

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BBC ‘has taken sides’

Hamas is proscribed by the UK Government as a terrorist organisation. Yet the BBC has called the Hamas gunmen by the lesser term of ‘militants’ rather than ‘terrorists’. James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, and Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, have all expressed concern about the BBC’s position.

John Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor, said the BBC would be “taking sides” if it labelled Hamas as terrorists, threatening journalistic ‘impartiality’. According to the Telegraph, Mr Simpson’s explanation has cut no ice with four top lawyers, Lord Wolfson KC, Lord Pannick KC, Lord Grabiner KC and Jeremy Brier KC. They have written to Ofcom urging the regulator to investigate the corporation. They say the BBC has taken sides already in describing Hamas in “more sympathetic terms”.

Their letter points out that the BBC referred to the Manchester Arena bombing as a “terror attack”. The BBC Bitesize GCSE guide refers to both Al Qaeda and the IRA as “terrorist” groups. “The use of the word ‘terrorism’ is neither confusing nor imprecise. It is a very accurate statement within the natural use of the English language as to what Hamas is engaged in,” the authors say. “If the BBC is only declining to use the word ‘terrorist’ in the context of Israel then this is further evidence of partiality.”

Protest at Israeli Embassy

Turkish website Anadolu Agency reported: ‘Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters gathered in front of the Israeli Embassy in London on Monday, triggering a tense standoff between demonstrators and law enforcement officers. The rally was organized by several UK groups including Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Muslim Association of Britain (‘Presenting a balanced and calm image of British Muslims’) and the Palestinian Forum in Britain.’

The Daily Sceptic reported on an NHS Doctor who mocked Israeli festival-goers fleeing Hamas gunmen and called on the UK to forcibly remove the entire Israeli population

Dr. Mennah Elwan is a neurologist at the Walton Centre in Liverpool. She claimed “there are no civilians in Israel” in a series of abhorrent posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. Dr. Elwan attended a British Medical Association (BMA) rally at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester last week. In her tweets she showed support for Hamas brutality. She mocked those fleeing the gunmen as just ‘running away’, and said the U.K. should ‘simply take the Israeli population away from Palestine’. BMA bosses said her opinions “do not reflect its values”.

Muslim antisemitism in the UK

The Telegraph reported today that England cricketer Moeen Ali  posted a Palestinian flag on social media in an apparent show of support for Palestine. He paired the picture with a quote from Malcolm X, the American Muslim activist, on ‘oppression’. In truth, it can easily be argued it is Hamas who oppress the people of Gaza, not Israel.

Moeen also said this week that he feared growing a beard would lead to accusations he was a Muslim extremist. Perish the thought. Moeen wants to be seen just as an ordinary Muslim who hates Israel. Earlier this year, Yorkshire County Cricket Club was fined £400,000 over a racism scandal involving Azeem Rafiq, but not before Azeem himself was reprimanded for antisemitic comments he made in a 2011 exchange of messages on Facebook with fellow former professional cricketer Ateeq Javid, another Muslim.

The uncomfortable truth is that hatred of Jewish people is written in the scriptures of Islam. ‘The Victory of Muslims Over Jews,’ is from Mohammed’s sayings in the Hadith, the ‘stories’. This one was narrated by Abi Hurira: ‘The last hour won’t come before the Muslims would fight the Jews and the Muslims will kill them so Jews would hide behind rocks and trees. Then the rocks and tree would call: oh Muslim, oh servant of God! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’

The Hamas attack has sparked an outpouring of Muslim antisemitic hatred within our shores. The Independent reports on a ‘massive increase’ in antisemitic hate crimes recorded by the Metropolitan Police since the eruption of violence.  The paper goes on: ‘In the period between 30 September and 13 October, the force recorded 105 incidents of antisemitism and 75 offences – up from just 14 incidents and 12 offences during the same period in 2022.’ Three north London Jewish schools closed for the day, citing concerns for children’s safety amid the rise in antisemitism.

Labour Party Conference

Last week, the Labour Party Conference allowed the Palestine Solidarity Campaign a stall. The group calls for a boycott of Israel. It also said the Hamas attacks were a ‘response’ to Israel ‘apartheid’.

Furthermore, two Muslim Labour politicians posed at the stall for photographs. First up was Apsana Begum MP. Then came Afzal Khan, the shadow exports minister, who posed with an activist from the pressure group. Mr Khan said later in a statement: “I want to apologise for any offence caused by stopping by the PSC stall at this time. I unequivocally condemn the terrorist actions of Hamas and support Israel’s right to defend itself.” There has been no apology from Apsana Begum, MP for Poplar and Limehouse and no sanction against her from the Labour leadership.

Only today, the Telegraph reported on a Cambridge Students’ Union welfare officer ‘liking’ tweets in support of Hamas’s attack on Israel. Harvey Brown is responsible for improving the welfare of University of Cambridge students. He ‘liked’ a series of Twitter posts that supported Hamas, including one heralding “a day of celebration” as “Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers’ territory”.

Jewish students at the university have said they feel ‘unsafe’. Mr Brown has not explained how liking pro-Hamas tweets improves the welfare of Jewish students.

Why does the left hate Israel?

It is worth asking why so many people on the political left hate Israel so much. I am aware of course of right-wing hatred of Israel, of saying that everything is the fault of ‘the Jews’ or that ‘they’ run the Bilderbergers and the World Economic Forum and the whole banking system.

But why is there so much anti-semitism among those who regard themselves as ‘progressive? American conservative radio talk show host Dennis Prager believes it begins with the absence on the irreligious left of a moral compass. Instead, they have a power compass, a race compass, and a class compass. In the early days, with the leftist Kibbutz system, Israel was good, and fashionable. However, as Israel has won wars and become strong, vis a vis the ‘Palestinians’, it has become ‘bad’, and they have become ‘good’, says Mr Prager. It does not matter how much terror the latter engage in. That does not register because, remember, the left has no moral compass. Because they are ‘weak’, the terrorists are ‘good’.

Next, Jews are perceived as ‘white’ and the Palestinians as ‘non-white’. That might not be true, but it is how they see it. Add in the Labour Party’s assumption that every non-white person must be in their constituency, including every Muslim, and the case is settled. Mix in the class angle and Jewish bankers, being rich, tick all three ‘bad’ boxes, while Palestinian gunmen, being poor, tick all three ‘good’ ones.

Obviously a lot of absurd and illogical thinking along these lines occurs as well. Unborn babies are weak, and mothers are strong, so abortion is wrong, you might think. Not so. women are weak by definition, so they are good. The left must not allow themselves to think of pre-born babies as human beings, so their weakness never comes into consideration.

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

King Charles condemns attacks

On a more positive note, The Telegraph reported on support for Israel from the Royal family.

The King condemned the “barbaric acts of terrorism”, while the Prince and Princess of Wales said they were “profoundly distressed” by the “horrors inflicted by Hamas’s terrorist attack”.

According to reports, His Majesty has spoken to both Yitzhak Herzog, the president of Israel, and to King Abdullah of Jordan on the telephone. The King has also held talks with the Chief Rabbi at Buckingham Palace after expressing his concern about the “barbaric acts of terrorism” in Israel. Charles welcomed Sir Ephraim Mirvis to the London royal residence on Thursday afternoon, meeting in the King’s audience room.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the monarch, 74, who made an historic first visit to Israel and the ‘West Bank’ (aka Judea and Samaria) in 2020, was “extremely concerned” about the conflict and had asked to be kept abreast of developments. “His thoughts and prayers are with all of those suffering, particularly those who have lost loved ones, but also those actively involved as we speak,” added the spokesman.

Two-State Solution is dead

For decades, Western politicians have spoken of a ‘Two-State Solution’ to the presence of the Arab ‘Palestinian’ population in Israel. Following the Hamas attacks, that must now be dead in the water. Middle East Experts are now ‘Confounded’ according to The Atlantic, the journal of the US military establishment.

In the words of the 1988 Hamas Charter, never rescinded, ‘Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.’ (Preamble.)

The Charter says in Article 6: ‘The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas – Ed) is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.’

The Charter claims the Holy Land is ‘Islamic land’ or ‘Muslim land’ in articles eleven, thirteen and repeats the Hamas goal of destroying Israel in Article 15: ‘The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews’ usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.’ (Article 15)

Hamas exists in a constant attitude of war against Israel. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote:
Jer 4:19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

It is impossible to have states next door one of which rains bombs on the other and calls for its destruction. The ‘Two-State Solution’ is dead. Even the Center for Strategic Studies says: ‘The two-state solution may not be dead, but it is close enough to death to make efforts to resuscitate it little more than zombie diplomacy.’

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Destruction of Hamas

Israel has now laid siege to Gaza even as Hamas still holds over a hundred hostages. The terrorists have threatened to kill hostages in retaliation to any attacks. Nevertheless, Israeli forces are massing near the strip preparing for a full-scale invasion to destroy Hamas by killing its leaders. Hamas and its ideology must be eradicated for the people of Israel to sleep safe in their beds.

We can even see Hamas as the spirit of Haman the Agagite (Esther 3:1ff) all over again:

Est 3:6 And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

Hamas, says The Atlantic, was ‘an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’. It has controlled the Gaza Strip since it won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. That was the last time elections were held in Gaza. In 2007, Hamas ousted its rival political party, the equally-corrupt Fatah, in a military conflict.

There is widespread unemployment in Gaza, with no industry or agriculture to speak of. The strip measures 25 miles long by an average of less than 6 miles wide, giving an area of 141 square miles, just less than the Isle of Wight. But whereas the population of the Isle of Wight is 142,00, that of Gaza is 2 million. Gaza borders Egypt to the south-west and the Mediterranean to the north-west, although Israel controls, or tries to control, its shipping. Gaza has a small port in Gaza city, which has been inhabited for four thousand years. It was held by the Philistines in Bible times.

Gaza is probably where Samson destroyed the great hall. It was certainly where he was brought after Delilah’s betrayal:
Judges 16:21 But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

Follow the money

The BBC is reporting as at 17.20pm on 12th October 2023: ‘The situation in Gaza is “dire”, with food and water running out during an Israeli siege, according to the UN’s World Food Programme.’ The reality is, with Gaza totally dependent on Israel for virtually everything, food and water will be running out. If Hamas had spent the aid money they have received on building infrastructure and improving the lives of Gazans instead of on weapons and enriching themselves, it could have all been different.

For example, the Telegraph reports: ‘Hamas and its allies were sent hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of cryptocurrencies in the months before the terrorist group’s attacks on Israel. More than $134m (£108m) was transferred to cryptocurrency accounts controlled by Hamas and the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group during the first half of 2023, according to analysts.’

Why did it happen?

We know this promise in the Bible:
Psalm 121:4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (KJV)

So why did the Hamas atrocity happen? I have seen a post saying it happened because the authorities wanted it to happen. I’m not so sure. We know about false flag operations. The Americans at the highest level are said to have allowed the sinking of the Lusitania in order to bring the US into the First World War. They are said to have had advance intelligence of the attack on Pearl Harbour and to have permitted it so as to build public opinion to join WWII. We can stack up more recent events if we wish. And we know those in power in our own land are tainted by sin. They can be arrogant, ruthless, ambitious, unscrupulous, narcissistic, stupid, self-seeking and plain evil. But I am struggling to see a Jewish mindset, with their deep respect for human life, allowing Hamas terrorists free entry into Israel to cause such devastation.

At the same time, abortion has been legal in Israel since 1977, if approved by a ‘termination committee’. See this Israel government web page. The committee almost always gives approval. Ynetnews reports 99.5% of requests, including for ‘mental damage’, are approved. Abortions are also carried out privately with next to no sanctions.

Johnston’s Archive shows legal abortions running at 16,500 in 2021. Live births were 185,056. The ratio is 8% of pregnancies end in abortion. The Israeli state has allowed over 800,000 infants to lose their lives in this way since 1977.

Such bloodshed cannot please the Almighty. Nor will the abomination of ‘gay pride’ parades, held in Jerusalem now for over 20 years. Much as Israeli politicians want to show the West how ‘progressive’ they are, one might have thought securing the blessing of Almighty God was more of a priority. The man of God, Ezra, asked:

Ezra 9:14 Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?

Beware fake news

Christians are called to be people not just of the truth of the Gospel but of truth itself:

Psalm 144:11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:

It follows that we should beware fake news. Just because something sounds right to us, or is something which just ought to be true, does not mean it is true. Christians are currently circulating a speech attributed to Benjamin Netanyahu. It is undated, unplaced, and supported by no URL at all, let alone any news site. It begins: ‘Only 70 years ago the Jews were led to the slaughterhouse like sheep.‘ Or ‘to slaughter’. And it goes on. And on, and on.

Some may think it is genuine because it is on the website of the Judean People’s Front, but there is no indication there where, when or to whom Mr Netanyahu is supposed to have delivered it. Even a tweet on their page bears no relation to the alleged speech.

In fact, the piece has been doing the rounds for almost four years. There is a version of it dated January 2020 here on Facebook

I have been around for a good while and seen a lot of this sort of time-wasting false witness. Christians share it uncritically, as gullible as the world, if not more so. This ‘speech’ has all the hallmarks of invention. Someone has just confected an impressive collection of things they would like Benjamin Netanyahu to have said.

Just for the record, here is a real speech by Mr Netanyahu, given to the UN in 2012.

Read our previous articles:

Israel’s 70th Anniversary →

University holds ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ →

Conclusions and Prayer

Isa 62:6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, 7 And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

With an Israeli invasion of Gaza expected any day, and so much of the politics intractable, it is hard to draw firm conclusions or advocate smart prayer points. But some targets for prayer are obvious:

1 Please give the Lord no rest as you pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the whole nation of Israel and its people. Pray the Lord will safeguard the hostages. Pray for the Lord to protect the Israeli soldiers and give them wisdom as they go in to Gaza to bring the Hamas terrorists to justice and spare the innocent. Pray for the complete eradication of the Hamas mindset.

2 Pray the Lord will keep safe the Christians of Gaza and those in Jewish and Muslim areas in all of Israel.

3 Pray for an end to Gaza as a terrorist enclave. Pray its people can go about their work in peace and be governed by men of peace.

4 Let us remember the only true hope for peace in the Holy Land is the Son of God who was born there. Pray for an outpouring of the Gospel and Holy Spirit to convict of sin and bring new life and reconciliation.

5 As some (but not us!) predict WWIII: Pray there is no escalation of this conflict.

Please leave additional scriptures or prayerful ideas in the Comments below.

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