DITTO, THE RETURN

Life often feels like another scene in the 1993 film Groundhog Day. Some things change, some things seem to never change.

I just finished a successful set of meetings with some of my Israel Allies Foundation colleagues. We gathered with State Legislators from around the U.S. at the annual American Legislative Exchange Council where we received broad support for our efforts to promote faith-based political advocacy for an undivided Jerusalem. We are fighting for Israel’s right to exist with Jerusalem as its eternal Capital at the legislative level to avoid the need to battle with military forces.

Still in the afterglow of progress made I'm headed home after ten days, listening to CNN's reporting as I await my plane in Dallas, Texas. This network, along with the majority of the worldwide media seems intent upon framing the current Israeli operation in Gaza as a conflict between two governments.

On the one hand, Israel is a sovereign nation, a member state of the United Nations and a country that is a world leader in technology, medicine, agriculture and manufacturing. It has a diverse culture, religious freedom and democratic rule.

Hamas on the other hand is a terrorist organization and is not a legitimate government in the traditional sense. They have violently broken every “humanitarian cease fire” brokered so far in this conflict. The so-called “governing leadership” of Hamas does not even reside in Gaza, their leader, Khaled Meshaal, lives in luxury in Qatar while the Gazans live under the tyrannical rule of multiple Islamic factions loosely governed by Hamas. Instead of building infrastructure that would improve Gazan life they build extensive tunnels from which to wage war against Israel.

While Arab leaders strangely remain mostly silent, protestors, fueled by unbalanced reporting in Europe are attacking Jews in the streets. Rather than addressing the realities of the situation, both the U.N. and the U.S. leadership seem fixed upon temporarily stopping the conflict without addressing the underlying issues.

All the while, the latest humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza that was agreed to last 72 hours only lasted less than 2. And “why?” you may ask. The answer is obvious, as has been the case in every other brokered cease-fire in this conflict, as soon as it began Hamas and its coalition of terrorists killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped another. This is what terrorists do. Why do we expect differently?

It is high time that the U.S. Administration quit pressuring the Israelis to accept cease-fires until they are finished dismantling Hamas’ capacity to fire missiles into the State of Israel and to slip terrorists into Israeli communities to murder and kidnap.

Sane people never want the devastation to families and individuals war brings. At its core, war is evil; its very nature is the antithesis of Judeo/Christian values. May this conflict end soon.

Please pray for peace in Gaza. Pray for the peace in all the Middle East. Pray especially for the peace of Jerusalem.

THE ENEMY ABOVE

The principle problem Israel faces as it seeks to protect its citizens within its own borders is not the enemy it faces on the ground, rather, it is the enemy it faces in the air. No, Hamas does not have an air force; the enemy in the air is the international meddling promoted on the airwaves around the world.

In a recent article, José María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain stated: “Israel's problem lies largely in the international community. At minimum, Hamas leaders know from their own experience that Israel fights with one hand tied behind its back: Israel cannot respond intensely because it would be accused of "disproportionality;" Israel cannot inflict neither much damage nor many enemy casualties because it would be accused of crimes against humanity; Israel cannot take too much time for its military response because nobody wants to see how horrible all wars are.”

Israel must constantly defend its people and property while the rest of the world debates its right to exist. Its leaders must weigh every step, every action and every response to attack against how it will be portrayed by the worldwide media. No other nation in the world is so constantly scrutinized as it seeks to protect its citizenry.

Never has a nation been treated with such insolence as has Israel. They are constantly threatened and attacked. While the Israeli government and people are not without flaws, there is no moral equivalence between a rocket fired toward a town with the intent to terrorize innocent people and a retaliatory, precision airstrike of a rocket launcher in Gaza that has purposely and continually been fired toward homes, schools and synagogues.

While both Israelis and Palestinians alike must ultimately examine the “man in the mirror”, assess their own positions and find a way to live near one another in peace, the attempt to frame terrorism and military retaliation in defense of one’s nation as morally equivalent must stop.

Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem and all the surrounding lands and peoples.

DRILLING DEEPER

The worldwide media almost never puts news stories into sufficient context. The result is a barrage of “urgent” stories that are superficially covered, only to be replaced by the next news flash. A great example is the article published by CNN yesterday under the Headline: “As death toll rises, fighting between Israel and Hamas lights up Gaza skies”

The report outlines many of the events in Gaza over the last couple of days. Buried toward the end of the article is the following: UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) admitted Thursday it found 20 missiles in one of its schools in Gaza and suggested the missiles belonged to Hamas, which is using U.N. sites "to commit a double war crime by targeting Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinians civilians."

While the UNRWA officials did “strongly condemn” the find, there is more to this story than a discovery of a few weapons.

The Qassam rockets used by the Palestinians are over seven feet in length and weigh just under 200 pounds each. There were twenty of these “hidden” in a school run by the United Nations. Does anyone actually believe that twenty rockets, each with a warhead containing 22 pounds of explosives, were secreted into the school and stored without the complicity of those managing the school? In other words, were not the UNRWA personnel involved?

How does this not become a major story? Imagine a private school in your town storing this kind of military weaponry to be used to terrorize, maim and kill innocent civilians. Now imagine that your local government (Hamas in this case) in complicit cooperation with the United Nations was behind it.

It is no longer sufficient to casually trust the general news media’s capability to get the story right.

Pray for truth to prevail and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

THE DOTS CONNECT

It is time to connect the dots.

What does a lunatic in Kansas have to do with the United Nations, or the Middle East Crisis or a growing coalition of disparate groups such as universities, media sources and large corporations? The answer requires thinking beyond a headline or two. It will not be easy to accept. Once understood, actions must follow.

So what is the connection? Jews. To be more specific…hatred of the Jews. An angry 73 year-old man walks in to two separate Jewish Centers and kills random strangers. The scenario of people being killed by out of control lunatics is far too familiar. Our nation has been plagued by this type of attacks for decades. But this story has an underlying connection to anti-Semitism that must be addressed.

As reported by Reuters: “Police said it was too early to determine if Sunday's killings were motivated by anti-Semitism, but a leading anti-hate group said the suspect was a former senior member of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan movement.”

Too early to determine? Well, let me go ahead and take the plunge, it does not mater whatever extenuating circumstances may surface in the coming days, these killings are rooted in hatred. Not just any hatred, mind you, this is hatred of the Jews. On Passover Eve, a brutal attack was perpetrated against innocents.

The constant drumbeat of Jew haters from every quarter feeds this hatred. The Klu Klux Klan is no newcomer to anti-Semitism, but there is a swelling anti-Semitism worldwide that has never gone away. While things have improved in many places, there continues to be a rise of hatred for all things Jewish in Europe, Russia, the worldwide Internet, university campuses and media outlets.

One of the most insidious anti-Semitic characteristics of the modern world is the incessant criticism of the State of Israel, the Jewish Homeland. Hatred of the Jews is reinforced by the constant sniping at Israel.

Now is the time for people of good conscience to rise against this worldwide trend. Standing for Israel’s right to exist within secure borders is a critical element of combating the growing hatred of the Jews. Standing against the forces that seek to divide Jerusalem into an East/West Berlin-type capital is vital to the cause of resisting anti-Semitism.

Remember, the dots must be connected.

Please join me in prayer for the families who lost loved ones in Kansas. Pray for safety for Jewish community centers worldwide. And, as we are commanded by Scripture, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS!

News outlets worldwide are attempting to make sense of the disappearance of Malaysian Airline Flight 370. Like the constant drumbeat of a pouring rain, reports continue to pour out, each one inching us toward a heretofore, undetermined conclusion. So I will step out onto thin ice and make a prediction; the most likely answer to what happened to this flight filled with innocent passengers is that it is somehow related to Islamic terrorism. I know I am jumping far ahead of what is publicly known, but the likelihood that it is connected to some form of terrorism is greater than the improbability.

Why would I so quickly go there? Because, like it or not, believe it or not, the world is currently in a war declared and executed by Islamic radicals around the globe.

Years of engagement with the people of the State of Israel has been very instructive for me. The Islamists have made no secret of their objectives. First, the “Saturday people” must be eliminated, then, the “Sunday people.” To grasp the seriousness of their plan one only needs to read the Jerusalem Post. Take a look at the headlines over just two days this week:

“Rocket fired at Israel from Gaza Friday evening despite cease-fire” JERUSALEM POST 3/14/2014

“IDF (Israeli Defense Force) patrol hits explosive device on Lebanese border, fires back” JERUSALEM POST 3/14/2014

“Morocco says breaks up militant cell sending fighters abroad”

REUTERS 3/14/2014

“Rocket from Gaza lands in open area in Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council” JERUSALEM POST 3/14/2014

“IAF strikes targets in Gaza Strip in response to continued rocket fire”

JERUSALEM POST 3/13/2014

“Rocket falls in Eshkol, open field, no injuries”

JERUSALEM POST 3/13/2014

“One injured after car explosion in Netanya”

JERUSALEM POST 3/13/2014

So there. This week, every week in Israel is the same. Yes, I am jumping, leaping and bounding toward unproven, speculative presumption about the missing airliner. I want to be wrong. I hope that I am. But even if I am in this instance, the evidence is clear; there is a sustained, determined battle being waged.

As Christians we are commanded to love and pray for our enemies; and I do. My prayer is that genuine peace; everlasting peace would come and that God’s promises would be fulfilled. I wish no harm on those who hate both Jews and Christians, but their intents must be exposed, their deeds opposed.

So I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I pray that her enemies would be turned aside and that God’s people would flourish in the land declared holy.

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

A horrible event this week in the Sinai Region of Egypt took me back to a day I will never forget. On September 11, 2001 it seemed like time stood still. As the tragedies in Manhattan, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. unfolded over the airwaves I moved from prayer to hushed conversations to television screens, only to repeat this sequence again and again.

The news outlets were doing their best to keep up with an unfolding tragedy of biblical proportions, all the while, attempting to put the crisis in some sort of understandable geopolitical perspective. Little attention had been given by the general public to the up rise of Islamic Terrorism that had already carried out attacks throughout the world. Words like “Jihad” and “Al Qaeda” had little meaning to the average American. On that day we learned a lot.

I remember a particular video clip being shown over and over again on every news channel. This poorly filmed training video for Islamist Terrorists, begins with two terrorists dressed in black, faces covered, AK 47’s in hand, standing to each side of a door opening. They both step into a room spraying bullets everywhere. As the camera follows them in, painted on the bullet-pocked wall as obvious targets were two religious symbols: a Cross next to a Star of David. They were being trained to kill Christians and Jews.

The Qur’an asserts that both Jews and Christians are “People of the Book” and as such, tolerance and autonomy is accorded to them in societies governed by Sharia (Islamic Law). However, the special treatment they receive today by radical Islamists is special hatred and specific targeting for death.

This recent event in Egypt tells it all. On February 17^th Mitch Ginsberg wrote in the Times of Israel: “Sunday, Feb 16, 2014. An explosion ripped through a tourist bus Sunday near the border crossing between Egypt and Israel, killing at least three South Koreans and an Egyptian driver in an attack that stoked fears Sinai militants have resumed a bloody campaign against tourists. The targeting of foreign tourists was the first in the area in nearly a decade.”

While the focus of this article points to the message this bombing sends to the Egyptian Government and to Israel, there is another, deeper message being sent to Jews and Christians.

The bombing happened just yards from the Israeli border as tourists crossed over to visit religious sites in Egypt. And who were these tourists? They were Christians from South Korea on pilgrimage to the Holy Land who wanted to also visit sites in Egypt.

It can hardly be missed that this is a case of Islamist Militants fulfilling their mission, killing “People of the Book.” For these Islamists this attack is merely another skirmish in their war against People of the Book. No one should be fooled, the reason this bombing took place so near the Israeli border was to send a clear message, both to Jews and Christians around the world.

Never in history has it been so clearly defined, Jews and Christians must stand together against Radical Islam. Support for the State of Israel is not an option; it is an absolute necessity.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE SURPRISE

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE

I grew up watching Gomer Pyle USMC. It was very funny, filled with many “Gomerisms,” none more popular than “Surprise, surprise, surprise.” The audience understood it was a comedy sitcom and not intended to be the best example of the United States Marine Corp. We knew better than to take its content seriously.

I wish the same could be said of the current negotiations initiated by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Palestinian and Israeli leaders and simultaneously, the United Nations negotiations with Syrian rebel factions and the Syrian Government. Unfortunately, if worldwide media reports are to be believed, the audience has been taking all these negotiations seriously. What is even more disturbing is that either Secretary Kerry takes them seriously or these negotiations were nothing but a charade from the start. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Secretary Kerry is ostensibly trying to make peace in the Middle East. That is an admirable cause, but these renewed efforts seem to ignore the insincerity of the Islamic radicals pulling the strings from behind.

In meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Kerry laid out his framework for a peace deal that would establish an independent Palestinian state and end a conflict dating to Israel’s 1948 creation as a nation.

On Tuesday, the New York Daily News stated: “Talks set to begin Tuesday were already beset by problems, including the United Nations reneging on an invitation to Iran, new evidence Bashar Assad systematically tortured thousands, embarrassing flight delays in Greece and a suicide bomber attack in Iran.”

Meanwhile, over the time period of these most recent negotiations rockets are being fired into Gaza, sniper fire has killed Israeli border workers and just yesterday, an al Qaeda influenced plot was foiled in Israel. On Wednesday, Israeli officials said it arrested three Palestinians that it alleged were part of al Qaeda-linked group plotting a suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, along with a simultaneous bombing of the principle Convention Center in Jerusalem.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reported: “The plot marks the most ambitious attack an al Qaeda-inspired group has planned against Israel since the early 2000s, said a former head of the Israeli military-intelligence unit that tracks al Qaeda, and underscores concern here that jihadist groups who have gathered in Syria during the civil war could sow instability in Israel as well.”

Those of us who follow more closely the situation in the Middle East are not surprised. Follow the dots: Iran-Syria, Iran-Beirut, Iran-Gaza, Iran-al Qaeda (though their connection has been rocky at times, there is growing evidence of recent cooperation on various levels), al Qaeda-Tel Aviv/Jerusalem.

So don’t be surprised. Stay informed, pay attention and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.