No. 474
Days Of Great Danger: Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, recently spoke out concerning the Jewish peoples’ regathering to Zion without a vibrant biblical faith. This physical return without a spiritual return is unique in Israel’s 4,000 year history and has set the stage for Israelis to adopt a secular world view concerning their identity, calling and future.
This in turn has now played into the hands of their enemies...who have seized the opportunity to disinvest Israel of her God-given birthright, the land. Naturally all this is being done within the parameters of the morality of the New World Order. Israelis are being told that they have no other option other than to be pragmatic and negotiate. Strangely the goal is always the same, the Jews must give up everything and in return they will be given pieces of paper guaranteeing peace! All this at a time when the international order is witnessing a growth in anti-Semitism.
Moreover the media constantly pushes the idea that Israel has grabbed land as part of its greater Israel philosophy. This too has never been true since she only acquired land in wars sparked by Arab aggression. The Arab agenda in each case was total liquidation, and Israel’s agenda was purely that of survival.
Now slowly but surely Israel is being forced back to pre-1967 borders all in the name of “we have no other option.” But there is another option, the option of belief in and trust in the God of Israel.
Such belief does not turn those who have it into fundamentalist fools – no – on the contrary it gives hope and encouragement and enables Israel to seek peace, as Menachem Begin did, from a position of strength. It must be remembered that major events in Israel’s modern day restoration and pilgrimage all enjoy biblical precedent. God has been with them in a miraculous way, why then should He fail them now?!
All that has failed now is faith and courage. Hereunder then is Jonathan Sack’s comments and our editorial on the tragic events that have transpired in Israel lately.
Chief Rabbi Rebukes Jews For Building A State But Losing Faith: The Chief Rabbi will speak tonight of a crisis in Judaism, arguing that after Zionism’s “return to the land” there must now be a return to faith.
In an address to mark the beginning of Selichot, the penitential period leading up to the Jewish New Year next week, Dr. Jonathan Sacks, who will deliver his address at the Western Marble Arch synagogue in London, says people are losing the will to live as Jews.
“A hundred years ago we had the faith but not the land,” he says. “Today we have the land, but what has happened to the faith?”
Dr. Sacks believes that “whether those who built the state [of Israel] were religious or secular, whether they were driven by love of the land or fear of anti-Semitism, something larger than any individual was at work...the Shekhinah, the Divine Spirit as it enters the human heart.”
Taking as his theme teshuvah, meaning return, he adds that Zionism, founded as a movement in the 1890s, worked for return to the land. But for the Biblical prophets, teshuvah meant a return to the land and to the faith: the two were “inseparable.”
Dr. Sacks says: “That is why Zionism was only half a return. It was the first time in history Jews contemplated a return to the land that was not also a return to the faith, a physical teshuvah without a spiritual teshuvah. And that is why we face a crisis today.” (By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, Christian Action for Israel, 4th Quarter 1995 Newsletter)
Yitzhak Rabin 1922-1995: In Memoriam: In New Orleans, 25 years ago, when he was the new Ambassador to the United States and I was with the San Francisco Chronicle, I spent an early morning hour with him, one-on-one.
I remember him as dour, but courteous; not given to humor (as every other Israeli I have ever known), but seriously thoughtful.
I was enormously impressed with this extraordinary soldier whose photograph I had seen, with Moshe Dayan and the Israeli paratroopers, just after they liberated the Western Wall, only days before I arrived on assignment from San Francisco.
That scene is etched forever in my memory and in the history of the State of Israel, which these two soldiers did so much to help establish and defend. This picture will always be his memorial and most signal honor.
We talked of many things, there in that deserted ballroom of a New Orleans hotel, where he had come to make an award to a convention president whose support for Israel had been significant. I mentioned Britain’s General Orde Wingate, master of guerilla warfare who instructed the Jewish Night Squads in the art of successful combat against the Arab pogromist infiltrators of Jewish settlements; this singularly devout Christian and devotee of Holy Scripture, who took Abyssinia back from Mussolini, accompanied by his Jewish chief of staff, who I once interviewed in Haifa. Rabin’s face lit up at the name of Wingate: “He was my great teacher.”
General and Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin was similarly enthusiastic when I mentioned a friend of my father at West Point, killed in action fighting for Israel on the road to Jerusalem: Col. David (Mickey) Marcus. I mentioned that I had visited Mickey’s monument, but I could not read the Hebrew on the memorial. He said that he would look into that, and when I returned to Israel four years later, I saw that the memorial was in English as well as Hebrew.
I also recall mentioning the use of napalm in Israel’s retaliatory raids. I noted that whenever that happened, every TV correspondent in Amman and Beirut was invited to hospitals, where every available burn victim was exhibited – and televised – as a victim of Israel – whether or not that was true. He said that he would look into this as well, although he noted that napalm is without peer in knocking out artillery and missile batteries.
In my joining with so much of the civilized world in mourning this leader with whose prime ministerial policies I so strongly disagreed, I pray for his soul. Just as I pray for this Holiest Land on earth – which has become one of earth’s bloodiest.
I wonder if the 27 year-old suspect, a law student from Herzliya, is at all aware of the terrible consequence of this assassination with which he is charged.
Is he, there in the closest possible custody, aware that those Jew-hating creatures in Beirut began their obscene celebrations – even as Prime Minister Rabin’s strongest political critics and opponents in the Knesset were joining the worlds decent people in mourning?
Is this assassin aware that his gunning down a Prime Minister may well lead to the continuance of the policies which he and other Israelis – especially the 160,000 residents of Judea and Samaria – so desperately oppose?
Has he heard news reports that there were even some young Israeli over-reactors who told reporters that opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party is a murderer? This brother of the commanding officer who died leading the raid on Entebbe – under Rabin’s watch – would not dignify that extremism with a response. Instead, he called upon the nation to unite, and noted:
“Even in the United States there are loonies. But it would be inappropriate to try to stigmatize parties and debate in Israel. We debate; we shout, but we don’t shoot. It’s an elected government. Bring it down in the polls.”
Perhaps this law student suspect reached his conclusion as a result of so many, many unavenged murders of Israelis (and two Americans) since the first handshake with Arafat at the White House.
Once more, as we have heard incessantly, “The peace movement will not be stopped!” Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres ought to think very, very carefully about this. He must surely remember another horribly harrowing part of the history of modern Israel – which brought the infant nation to the brink of civil war.
It took place in 1948. The regular troops of the new State of Israel had astounded the world, by standing up to and repelling five Arab armies – including the Spit-fires of King Farouk’s Egyptian Air Force, and the heavily armored and well-trained troops of “Glubb Pasha” – Britian’s General John Glubb’s Arab Legion, which invaded from the Kingdom of Transjordan and were able to take the Old City of Jerusalem.
During a truce, one of Israel’s leading guerilla groups, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, attempted to land a shipload of desperately needed arms and ammunition. This ship, the S.S. Altalena, had been sent and supplied by Americans such as the renowned playwright and newsman, Ben Hecht, who staged a benefit musical on Broadway. But David Ben-Gurion ordered the Altalena to surrender its cargo to the regulars, the Haganah, whose elite strike force, the Palmach, was massed for possible battle.
When the Irgun commander refused, the order was given to open fire. And one of that ship’s crew, who I interviewed in New York, recalls that they had to take the Irgun commander by force and get him off the ship – along with several dead and wounded. The name of the Irgun commander was Menachem Begin. (Ed. note: 18 passengers were shot to death as they swam to shore.)
Since the name of the Palmach commander who opened fire was Yitzhak Rabin, I was surprised to read or hear so many American Jews express surprise that one Jew could fire on another. And I hope very much that a similar optimism is not applied to dismissing any possibility of civil war.
Along with my prayers for Yitzhak Rabin, I pray that Peres and whatever government that follows will NOT abandon the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and the Golan; will NOT cede land which is essential for any reasonable hope of national defense; and will NOT be naive enough to expect that Arafat’s U.S. taxpayer-subsidized “Palestine” Police will apprehend – or even try to control – Hamas, Hezbollah, Abu Nidal or George Habash.
Let us remember the good and courageous things done by Yitzhak Rabin. As we commend his soul to the Lord of Hosts.
(Lester Kinsolving is host of “Uninhabited Radio: The Les Kinsolving Show,” which is broadcast in the Baltimore area on radio station WCBM 680)
(By Les Kinsolving, Outpost, November 1995)
Will Israel Be Just A Footnote In History?: Years from now, perhaps when Israel may only be remembered as a footnote in the history of a once strange people called the Jews, social scientists will try to understand what led this tenacious race to commit national suicide. No nation in recorded history survived for so many centuries against such indomitable odds and then suddenly decided to surrender, at the very height of its miraculously resurgent economic and military power. It surrendered, moreover, to a brutal enemy vastly inferior to it in every conceivable parameter but demographics. Animal psychologists will try to understand the behavior of lemmings who plunge into the sea by the countless thousands in periodic frenzies of mass suicide by reference to what happened to the Jews at the end of the 20th century. After emerging victorious in five successive wars of national defense, they accept the fiat of their venal leaders who willingly give up their hard won national patrimony to a gang of international terrorists. One can only assume that many Jews in Israel, in the space of a few years, have become so degenerate and materialistic, so devoid of any semblance of national dignity, that they permit their defeated enemies to dictate the terms of their national existence.
While the century-old Arab threat to the existence of the Jews in the Middle East remains a daily fact of life, a more ominous internal struggle has arisen that threatens the essential cohesion of the Jewish nation. For many decades, an often uneasy truce existed between a dominant secular Jewish nationalism and Jewish religious tradition. The crisis that we witness in the so-called “peace process” is dominated, in my opinion, by this latter factor and it is one that merits far more attention than it has received to date.
Actually a change also has taken place in both the composition and relative strengths of the two groups. The secular Jewish nationalists who controlled the country through their power in Mapai (today’s Labor Party) up to the Yom Kippur War, and for several years thereafter, possessed a vastly different perspective from the Labor/Meretz secularists of today. By the same token, the religious Zionist camp has immensely grown in size, in depth of commitment to the State, and is no longer on the periphery of Israeli society. Religious Zionists have replaced the socialist Zionist chalutzim to become the new dynamic elite, in the military, in pioneering settlement, and in other vital national areas. For example, while the other kibbutz movements are demoralized and losing members, have seen their idealism replaced by the grossest aspects of Western culture, are heavily in debt, and constantly kept afloat by huge government handouts, the religious kibbutz movement has maintained its agricultural base, is not encumbered by debt, and does not have a moral problem.
Secular Zionism reached the pinnacle of its achievements in the Six Day War of 1967. Unfortunately, the government of Israel was totally unprepared to exploit a victory of that magnitude for the long term security of the country. The Arabs never accepted the consequences of their overwhelming defeat and immediately made their position crystal clear in the Khartoum Conference of November 1967 when they enunciated the three famous “nos”; no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no peace with Israel. At the same time, many secular Jewish intellectuals, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, felt uncomfortable with that triumph, even though an Arab victory would surely have resulted in another holocaust for the Jews. In fact, these secularists have difficulty conditioning themselves to the concept that Jews have the same right as all other peoples to exercise military power in their own behalf and to benefit from that success. Jewish leftists (they call themselves “liberals”) have always placed a very low priority on the interests of their own people.
For almost thirty years now, a dangerous polarization has become increasingly apparent within the body politic of the Jewish people, which the Arabs have quickly discerned and taken advantage of. It is between the growing liberal, humanist, internationalist tendencies in some segments of Israeli society and the rise of a stronger Jewish nationalism, based upon traditional Judaism that views the Jewish people from the kaleidoscope of history going back to Abraham.
The so-called “peace process” as pursued by the Rabin-Peres-Meretz Government of Israel is as much an expression of the dimensions of the conflict over critical directions in Israeli society as it is an expression of the government’s support to reach an accommodation with the Arabs. Nationalists – and this today increasingly means traditional Jews – perceive what is taking place as a threat to the basic tenets of Zionism and to the fundamental values of Judaism. They are shocked by the attempt to undermine the distinctive character of the Jewish State, the disregard, even hatred of religious tradition.
Meretz and elements in the Labor Party press for the legalization and expansion of public transportation and entertainment on the Sabbath, homosexuality as a publicly-sanctioned lifestyle, the importation of non-kosher meat, elimination of the Jewish right of return, change of the national anthem so as not to offend Arab sensitivities, et cetera. Yael Dayan, a Labor Party Member of the Knesset, flaunts her contempt for Jewish sensitivities by spending Yom Kippur on a Tel Aviv beach in a bikini. Shulamit Aloni of Meretz boasts of eating pork and scoffs at accepted tenets of the Bible. Yossi Beilin claims that he could not find a rationale for urging his children to marry within their faith. Jewish intellectuals such as Amos Oz berate nationalism as the “curse of humanity.” However, they apply that stricture only to Jewish nationalism, not daring to do so to Arab or to any other Third World nationalism. Toward the patriotic Jews in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza they show absolute contempt because they are devoted to Zionism and to traditional Judaism. The Hebrew-speaking Canaanites of Labor/Meretz tremble with fear at the growing power and numbers of traditional Jews who believe in the Torah and in the destiny of the Jewish people. (It is interesting to note that in the U.S., Jewish Jews are more comfortable with and have far more in common with the Christian Right than the pagan Jewish left.)
Between these two groups there is an unbridgeable ideological chasm that time can seemingly only exacerbate. In the standoff between the secularists and the religionists, there is probably a much larger body of Jews who are in neither camp. However, they are fearful of what they perceive the secularists are doing to their special position as Jews in a supposedly Jewish country. They fear for their security after the creation of still another Arab state in the tiny postage-stamp-sized area between the Jordan Rift and the Mediterranean Sea. The consequence can only be an immeasurably weakened and more vulnerable Israel that will invite aggression.
The cosmopolitan Jews who control today’s Israeli government welcome a strengthening of the Arab position in Israel, despite the security perils that it poses, as a counterweight to the religious Zionist position. The Jews at Israel’s helm claim to advocate a liberal, Western-style democracy, free of rabbinic influence and devoid of the State’s Zionist/Judaic character. Such an Israel, shorn of Jewish particularism, would move to nullify the Zionist dream of a distinctive Jewish homeland. In truth, its survival would become pointless and more difficult to defend intellectually and militarily. The only patriotism it could claim would be that of an amorphous, secular, humanism which has little relevance anywhere in the world and certainly not in the brutal, fundamentalist milieu of the Muslim Middle East.
Many years ago, in fact shortly after the founding of Israel in 1948, people discussed and feared the coming “kulturkampf” that they foresaw breaking out among the Jews. The clash between Jews is now erupting full blown in the framework of the so-called “peace process.” But, in truth, the eruption that is now taking place has a significant history and a number of interesting antecedents.
The Brith Shalom Movement was founded in 1925, soon after the Arab riots of the early 1920s. The society was founded in Jerusalem to foster Arab-Jewish friendship. It boasted some famous Jewish personages such as Arthur Ruppin, Gershom Scholem and individuals from both Mapai and Mapam. They advocated a democratic bi-national state composed of Jews and Arabs. The idea did not elicit the slightest echo from the Arabs and it was attacked by all Zionist groups, including Mapai (Labor).
To prove that the appeasement strain never long remains dormant among certain segments of Jews, the Brith Shalom idea was revived in 1936, at the time of the murderous Arab riots in which hundreds of Jews were killed and wounded. The left wing Zionist groups involved in this effort called their new organization the Society for Arab-Jewish Understanding. Those few Arabs who voiced sympathy with the aims of the Society were quickly killed in typically brutal fashion by other Arabs.
Six years later, the Brith Shalom idea was revived and called Ihud, under the leadership of the distinguished American Reform rabbi and idealist, Judah Magnes, who was then president of the Hebrew University, and Ernst Simon. Strange to relate, when this latest effort at reaching out to the Arabs was taking place in 1942, the Arabs in the Middle East made no effort to mask their strong sympathies for Nazi Germany. In Europe, under aegis of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who found refuge during the war in Berlin, European Muslims from Bosnia were actively recruited to an all-Muslim unit of the SS. Ihud, which did not go out of existence until 1964, was likewise composed of that segment of Jewish intellectuals who were denounced by no less an authority than Josef Stalin, the virulently anti-Semitic dictator of Russia, as “rootless cosmopolitans.”
Obviously, the stark decades of Zionist struggle against indefatigable Arab hostility has not dampened the ardor for a bi-national state in certain ‘progressive’ circles. That formula, although not explicitly spelled out, now lives in the Rabin-Peres-Beilin initiative by which a Jewish government agrees to concession after concession to gain the acceptance and love of the Arabs. The Jews of Israel are promised peace and security if they surrender the heartland of their nation, the strategic military assets of Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, along with precious water resources, to the implacable PLO enemy. Just consider how much greater the prosperity and security of the Jews of Israel will be when they also surrender the Galilee. Transfer of the Galilee to the new “Palestinian” state is already very much on the political agenda of Israel’s Arab citizens. Israel will then have fully fulfilled her contribution to the PLO Grand Strategy for the step-by-step elimination of the “Zionist entity.” (By Irving Kett, Outpost, November 1995)
Days Of Great Danger Continued...: More than ever events in Israel require a careful, unemotional and might I say, biblical response.
To be sure the act of violence that has traumatized the nation is to be soundly condemned and rejected. Neither God nor a civilized society can tolerate this form of evil.
However, while this is true the almost unique status to which Yitzhak Rabin has been elevated is to be questioned. He was not the “pillar of fire” leading the whole camp of Israel as he did not enjoy the overwhelming support of his nation. Indeed the recent vote in the Knesset on the second stage of the “Peace Process” revealed that he enjoyed less than half of the confidence of his people. The five Arab MKs plus the grave consequences of embarrassing the U.S. President, played a major and deciding role in passing the accord. This just happens to be a fact!
In addition to open vilification of the Likud party that attempts to identify them with the fanatical right-wing is to be rejected. To be sure the international order is behind this for reasons of their own. They want peace at Israel’s heavy cost. The polarization of the country has more to do with international pressure than anything else. It is interesting to note that at Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral President Clinton made it clear that Israel will continue to enjoy superpower support just so long as she continues with the “Peace Process.” This is blackmail!!
If we add to this the sad circumstances now surrounding the settlers the picture becomes even more discoloured.
The settlers are largely religious but they are not the monsters the media is seeking to portray them as. They have, because of: (1) Strong religious convictions, and (2) Government policy embracing the labour and Likud governments since 1948, been the backbone of the Zionist dream and the security buffer in times of crisis. In order to fulfill these roles they have toiled in unbelievable hardship and in this they were sustained largely by their faith in the Bible and the God of Israel. Now the Zionist dream has been redefined and they are being vilified by the very people that asked them to do what they’ve done...and by the world media. The behaviour of a few radicals is constantly portrayed as the actions of all!!
It is to be noted that God-fearing Judaism has held the people of Israel together during the dark years of dispersion, persecution and Holocaust. Central to this process of survival has been the weekly gathering of Shabbat.
Now however, belief in the Bible is called fundamentalism and one is labeled “right-wing.” There is no doubt in my mind that the forces now at work, even in Israel, are undermining the very basic tenets of Judaism. All is myths we are told and the Bible is not a reliable document declaring the will and purpose of the only true God. With no “absolute” guiding the affairs of the Middle East we all descend into the murky unreliable waters of secular humanism. For in this scheme of things all things are relative and man is basically good.
The facts declare otherwise! The God who has miraculously sustained Israel over 4,000 years is still around and, as David the King of Israel testified man is born in iniquity or as the Book of Job declares, “He is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward…” or as Jeremiah stated, “The heart of man is desperately sick and wicked above all things.”
The new morality being forced on Israel will plunge her into increased confusion and weakness. This is just what her enemies want!
This tidal wave of new morality is lamented by British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks when he states: “Sin becomes immorality, immorality becomes deviance, deviance becomes choice and all choice becomes legitimate..”
This brings us to the most difficult question of all namely, “has the labour government betrayed the Zionist dream?” There are three ways of answering this vital question: (1) If one is swept up into the trauma and emotion of the last weeks events the answer would be a resounding no!... and... (2) If one subscribes to the New World religion of secular humanism the answer would be no,...but... (3) If one believes in the veracity of the Bible the answer is yes!
The issues now facing us are critical for one cannot believe the Bible and support the Peace Process unconditionally. The solution that honours God’s Word and supports peace is the real one for it invites the engagement of the God of Israel. History clearly affirms this in Israel’s restoration, protection and survival.
Now however Israelis are being faced with one option only. That is the one that discounts the Bible and what God says in favour of a solution that brings war closer. This situation has divided the Jewish people once again – as in the days of the original celebration of Chanukah – the solution is coming from “Greece.”
What principles have brought Israel to this crisis? (1) The principle of “spitting.” An old saying states, “A people frequently spat upon will in the end believe that they are wrong.” For too long Israel has had to endure the spitting of the world. She has finally embraced the accusation of occupier and oppressor. Once this “quantum leap” in Israel’s consciousness was achieved, the road to division, appeasement and danger was easy.
Dave Hunt writes: “In any war, propaganda plays a vital role. In the current war of words over who has the right to the Holy land, the world media seems deaf to Israel and overly sympathetic to whatever complaints the Palestinians may make. Israel is the ogre that stole their land and grinds them down in poverty...”
(2) The “Trojan Horse” Principle. The enemy is now within the gate! Is this exaggeration or merely believing what he himself has to say? In this regard I refer to Yasser Arafat. As recently as October 1995, after the 2 stage accord was signed, he rushed back to Tunis to seek the support of his PLO executive committee and to again assure them that this was nothing more than the implementation of the stage plan of 1974. What principles have brought Israel to this crisis?
Furthermore in a mosque in Johannesburg he called for a Jihad against Jerusalem. Not picked up upon by the media, because of ignorance, was his simultaneous description of the present peace accords as being identical to the one that Mohammed made with the Quraish tribe of Mecca.
Mohammed signed a peace treaty with the Quraish only to break it two years later in a war of destruction. Arafat clearly stated that this is the process now under way.
About this event Israeli analyst Moshe Zak writes: “It was not lies of stupidity that characterized Arafat’s Johannesburg remarks, but stupendous candour. His forthright, unambiguous remarks were reminiscent of Mein Kampf, in which the author Hitler was blunt about his plans, so much so that his adversaries didn’t take him seriously. Arafat did not commit any slip of the tongue in Johannesburg. He used his call for a Jihad and cited Mohammed’s agreement with the Quraish tribe to test his thesis that Israel would swallow that, too.”
(3) Fundamentalist Principle. Anyone believing in the Bible is now a fundamentalist bigot! No longer is the Bible Israel’s title deed to the land. This fact was publicly stated by labour party leaders.
By turning Bible believers into fundamentalist lunatics the international media has swiftly destroyed the mainstay and foundation of Israel’s existence. From this point onwards everything is up for negotiation even the heartland of Israel bequeathed by God to her.
No-one likes being branded and Jews have been branded too long. Now they want to join the international community like any other nation. The problem is this: anti-Semitism has no logic or reason behind it and, as in history, so still now, it will not go away. It is demonic for it endeavours to destroy the glorious future that the God of Israel has for His people. Given these realities; where do we go from here? Well we have to face:
(1) The Reality Of Islam. Much has been said and written about the dangers of Islam. To be sure this is the driving force behind the so-called Middle East conflict. A recent Jerusalem Post editorial stated: “As long as the danger of Islamic militancy looms, all talk of a positive, significant change in the attitudes of the Arab and Moslem world towards Israel is recklessly, dangerously premature.”
We believe this and we must therefore in the light of it continue to press for a well armed Israel protected by defendable borders.
Israel’s existence challenges the credibility of the Quran. For the Quran to survive Israel must be liquidated. One cannot negotiate with this.
(2) The Reality Of The God Of The Bible. Israel’s restoration and survival has been miraculous. No-one can deny this. Her modern pilgrimage has clear biblical precedent even the attempt now being undertaken to divide the land and, by so doing, destroy her. (Joel 3:1-3)
We are to be encouraged since in the final analysis God has pledged Himself to be the faithful protector of Zion. (Zech. 12:1-9)
Israel has returned for the second and final time. (Isaiah 11:11) She will not be destroyed. Difficult days most certainly lie ahead but His Word and promise will not fail. “He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps,” declared the Psalmist. Isaiah states that “No weapon formed against her will prosper.” (Isaiah 54:17)
A glorious day awaits Israel and we must now not lose heart because we have come to the very door of it! Call me a dreamer, a fool or deluded but I believe in it. (Isaiah 66:9-14)
“Do I bring the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.” For this is what the Lord says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.”
(3) The Reality Of The Believers. In closing may I urge you all to pray for Israel. Prayer is not weak and meaningless. It is the great work of all those who love the God of Israel and His Word. Scripture calls upon us to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”(Psalm 122:6)
Those who pray are thus most significant and Israel, now more than ever, needs your regular prayers.
Almost as if foreseeing our day the prophet Daniel writes: “And by smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action and those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many...”
In the light of this, let us be encouraged and prayerful...and let us not be discouraged and fearful. Zion needs us all as never before.
“Fear not, nor be afraid [in the coming violent upheavals]... Is there a God beside me? There is no other Rock... Sing O heavens... For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and He will glorify Himself in Israel.” (Isaiah 44:8,23, Amplified)
(Malcolm Hedding, Chairman – Christian Action for Israel, 4th Quarter 1995 Newsletter)
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