O JERUSALEM O JERUSALEM - HOW I HAVE LOVED YOU!

http://www.iba.org.il/pictures/P487945.jpg

A short time ago I was driving a friend home across town on a Shabbat afternoon. Passing along a major street in Jerusalem I was confronted by about 30 men and boys, all wearing the black garb of the ultra-orthodox, shouting and throwing stones at all the cars passing by. A small boy, about 7-8 years old, threw a stone at my car and shouted abuse at me.  No real harm was done but on the way home I was struck by the incongruity of a religion that forbids a peaceful act of kindness towards a friend, but condones the throwing of stones (surely much harder 'work' than driving a car) on the sacred day. I wondered what the Lord was thinking of this scene in his Holy City and this verse came to me

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!

Matthew 23:27 (RSV) 

             http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/89/d0/1334979648_hen.JPG?itok=YhTF7Y-g

To me this verse resonates as an expression of  the passionate love of God for his people. I grew up on a farm and often watched as a mother hen, at the first sign of danger, would  emit a few clucks and immediately all her chicks would scramble for safety, and she would tuck them under her wings. I never once saw a chick ignore this warning call, nor did I ever see a hen turn a chick away. We could learn something from the humble fowl.

When Yeshua (Jesus) uttered this heartfelt cry he had been   speaking to his disciples against the hypocrisy of the leaders of the organized religion of his day, the Pharisees. He said, "They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders..." and "They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,   and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues,   and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men." Jesus goes on to say "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.."  (Matthew 23: 4-7, 13).  In the following verses Jesus called the Scribes and the Pharisees  hypocrites, children of Hell, blind fools, whitewashed tombs full of hypocrisy and iniquity, serpents, and a brood of vipers. Harsh words indeed.

But it was the teachings and example of these so-called men of God that caused the majority of the people of that day to reject  Yeshua as the promised Messiah, and thus brought death and destruction upon Israel, and two thousand years of exile, wandering, and suffering.  And so it is still today, when in the synagogues and yeshiva's of Israel the "Pharisees" of today lay on our shoulders the heavy burden of a plethora of  man-made laws and regulations that go far beyond the commands of God, impossible to keep and which detract from the true commandments and teachings of our LORD as revealed in the Torah. No wonder so many Jews today reject their religion. It is these leaders too who forbid the reading of the New Testament and conveniently ignore the passages of the Scriptures that point clearly towards Yeshua as Messiah, such as Isaiah 53. Just as in Yeshua's time  they prevent those who would enter the Kingdom of God from doing so.

"...but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.  Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.   As it is written:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 9:31 -33 (NKJV)

The teachings of man-made religion, and the religious spirit driving them, make up much of the veil that prevents revelation to Israelis and Jews all over the world today. (In the same way as empty religion and hypocrisy turn many Gentiles away from the Truth ).

So what is the solution?  We need to pray fervently for the lifting of the veil, and I believe that at this time we are beginning to see this happening here in Israel. Ironically I read an article  today about how a group of religious women are busy trying to make a new veil to separate the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place for the  coming Third Temple. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24644/Default.aspx?archive=article_title
However we do not need a new temple, for the Temple of the LORD is within us who believe in Yeshua  (I Corinthians 3: 16-17). What is more, we certainly do not need a new veil. The temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom when Yeshua died on the cross (Matthew 27:51), signifying that the partition between men and God was broken down as Yeshua paid the price for the sin of all mankind for all time.  

Nevertheless there remains another veil, one blocking the way to God for those who are perishing.

God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,To this very day.”  Romans 11:8

What constitutes the veil today? It is partly the emptiness and lies of man-made religion as I have explained above, but that is not the whole story. The veil that hides Yeshua from Jews today is also made up of 2000 years of anti-Semitism and persecution, often perpetrated by the Church in the name of Jesus.  Jews today believe that Hitler was Christian, and are taught that believing in Yeshua is a terrible betrayal of their people.

What can possibly break through such a heavy veil? Only the love of God. I believe that when a Jew calls out to God from the depths of their heart, He will answer and will reveal himself to them in Yeshua. Thousands of Jewish believers in Israel and throughout the world can testify to this truth personally. The same is true for the Muslim or anyone else. And what will bring a person to this point, when they are willing and ready to give up all in order to know God? In a word "trouble". When we are at the end of all other hope we will call out to God. Ask any soldier going into battle. Even the most godless will pray at such a time.

"But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.  Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away".  2 Corinthians 3: 15- 16

When we look around us and read the news, it seems the whole world is in terrible turmoil and it is getting worse by the minute. Why is God allowing this to happen?

I think it is because of his mercy. He is shaking the world up, shaking us out of our complacency, our trust in human endeavor and material things, revealing the emptiness of religion, whether it be Judaism, Christianity or Islam, so that we will cry out from our hearts for Truth and Salvation, and be saved. In recent times we have begun to hear reports of many Muslims and Jews, disillusioned with their religions, who have cried out to the living God and he has come to them in dreams and visions, and they have believed in Yeshua. I have heard that even amongst the Orthodox Jews of Israel there are  many who secretly believe. There are more Jews who believe in Yeshua at this point in history than ever before, and there has never been so much interest in the person of Yeshua amongst Jews since the first century.

Ironically it may be the rise of brutal and fanatical groups like the Islamic State, Al Qaida and Hamas, that will bring about the collapse of the Islamic world, as moderate, decent Muslims wake up to the Satanic lies that have given rise to their religion.  Similarly it may be the fanaticism of extreme ultra-orthodox Judaism that will in time drive many Jews to seek out a better truth and find Yeshua.

I have believed in Yeshua for over 40 years now. I came to know him in the '70s when there was a great expectation of the imminent second coming of Yeshua. This was largely based on the belief that the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 marked the budding of the fig tree (Matthew 24:30-34)  which was the sign that Messiah would come within the lifetime of the generation that saw it. As the years have passed that expectation somewhat dimmed, but now, with world events gathering pace, the news lining up with the prophecies of Scripture more and more, I am beginning to believe again that the arrival of Yeshua is not far off. I think many agree with me, particularly here in Israel.

Is the current  turmoil in the Middle East, the dramatic rise in blatant anti-Semitism all over the world, and the intense criticism leveled at Israel from every corner whenever we are forced to defend ourselves against terrorism, all setting the stage for the day when all the nations of the world will come up against Jerusalem as was prophesied long ago? It doesn't seem too far-fetched any more:

Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: ² “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. ³ And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. ⁴ In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵ And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’ ⁶ In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem.⁷ “The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. ⁸ In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. ⁹ It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
¹⁰ “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

Zechariah 12  (NKJV)

AMEN!

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

 

 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
May they prosper who love you

Psalm 122:6 New King James Version (NKJV)

 

It may come as a surprise to many who read the news these days  that in many respects Jerusalem could be held up as a model of peaceful coexistence. I live in a Jewish suburb surrounded by Arab villages. The large  majority of my Arab neighbors  live, work, shop and play quite peaceably with their non-Arab neighbors, and want nothing more than to get on with their lives in peace. I shop in the same shopping center  as my Arab neighbors, a center where shops are owned and operated by both Jews and Arabs. We get along just fine and I often see the little acts of kindness that ordinary people, both Arabs and Jews, carry out towards each other: a sympathetic smile for the mother with a crying baby, a seat for the elderly and so on.

 

However, sadly, there is another face of our city.  Recently there  has been a significant increase in the number of  incidents of violence, perpetrated in the main by a small minority of angry, disaffected young men.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24932/Default.aspx

Scenes such as the one above are becoming a daily event in Jerusalem but are largely going unnoticed by the press and even  by the residents of the city.  In the last two months there have been some 152 incidents of stabbings, rock-throwing and firebomb attacks, mainly occurring when Jews dare to stray into Arab-dominated neighborhoods.

Last  Monday (8 Sept) dozens of masked men stormed the gas station between French Hill and the Palestinian neighbourhood of Isawiyah, setting it on fire and looting the store, after a 16 year old Palestinian, Mohammed Sanuqrut had been killed during a riot earlier in the day. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.615781

A few days later a family coming to Jerusalem from Ramat Gan narrowly escaped a lynch attempt  when their GPS led them to  make a wrong turn and enter the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, where rioters threw a volley of rocks and bricks at the vehicle  in which they were travelling.
Noam (Dabul) Dvir

Published:  09.12.14, 12:58 / Israel News

The main target of this 'silent Intifada' is the city's new light rail transit system.Since the beginning of July, there have been over  100 instances of stone-throwing, and the throwing of Molotov cocktails  and paint at the trains, which were meant to be a symbol of the city’s unification.  CityPass, the company operating Jerusalem's light rail system, announced last Sunday morning that "due to continued and repeated rock throwing that inflicts damage to the trains, this morning we only have 16 operable trains out of a total of 23."http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4570596,00.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.615781



ISLAM AND VIOLENCE



Obama speaking to the American people about Islamic State (Photo: AFP)http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4569912,00.html

On the 10th of this month, President Obama made a speech to the American people, "about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL."

In this speech, among other things, he said,

"Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not "Islamic." No religion condones the killing of innocents. And the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state".

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4569912,00.html

Is he right? Does Islam condone the killing of innocents, or not? We can analyze the Koran, verse by verse, we can study the Hadith and Sunna, and argue academically either way. However the 'proof is in the pudding' as the saying goes. Take a look around you. Where is there violence and warfare in our world today? What drives the main terror organizations that threaten us today?  Of the 10 most deadly wars currently in progress around the world, 9 involve violent Islamic terror organizations or militias,  or struggles between competing Islamic sects or ideologies . http://www.internationalrelations.com/wars-in-progress/#syria
   
True, not all Muslims are violent, and not all Islamic sects or movements espouse violence, however violence has been an integral part of the spread of Islam since its very inception. During his lifetime Mohammed ordered 100 military expeditions and he himself took part in 27  of these. By the time Mohammed died  Muslim forces had conquered most of  the western Arabian peninsula.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_expeditions_of_Muhammad. During the period of the first four Caliphs,(632-661 AD) Islam had conquered most of the Middle East and a large part of North Africa. Under the  Ummayyad Caliphs (661-750 AD) Islam had by force  spread across northern Africa and entered even into Europe,  conquering Spain.   

Map of the spread of Islam from 622-750 AD

 http://www.maps.com/ref_map.aspx?pid=11393 

Certainly it would be difficult to convince anyone living in the Middle East today that Islam does not at least condone violence, even it does not actively promote it. 

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the five founders of the Hamas movement, put it this way:

"Islamic life is like a ladder, with prayer and praising Allah as the bottom rung. The higher rungs represent helping the poor and needy, establishing schools, and supporting charities. The highest rung is jihad.

The ladder is tall. Few look up to see what is at the top. And progress is usually gradual, almost imperceptible ... Traditional Muslims stand at the foot of the ladder, living in guilt for not really practicing Islam. At the top are fundamentalists, the ones you see in the news killing women and children for the glory of the god of the Qur'an. Moderates are somewhere in between. "

"Son of Hamas " Mosab Hassan Yousef , 2010,Tyndall, USA

The Salafist-Jihadist movements such as Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and now ISIL, just to name a few, attract those zealous Muslims who are drawn to desire the highest spiritual levels of Islam, namely Jihad. Although Jihad is not necessarily violent, it  has the goal of spreading Islam to the whole world by any means available. Historically and still in our times, Islam does not prohibit violence and even condones it. In Islam there is no way to be certain of forgiveness of sin, or of everlasting life, except through active participation in Jihad.
 

The Koran says this in Surah 3:157  "And if, indeed, ye be killed in Allah's way or die, surely forgiveness from Allah and mercy is better than what ye could have had on earth"  and again in Surah 16:110, "Then, verily, thy Lord, will be forgiving and merciful for those who left their homes after they had been tried and then carried out Jihad and were steadfast".  (Palmer English Translation)

 

For a fuller exposition on the violent nature of Islam see  "Islam: Religion of Peace or War?    http://my.cbn.com/pg/file/06823b10-ae06-4364-be15-72e351272f98/read/11546237/islam-religion-of-peace-or-war/

 

Day 11 of Open Ended Ceasefire

It is a quiet Shabbat morning in Jerusalem and the Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is holding. I can hear the children playing in the swimming pool down below.  Life is returning to 'normal' in Israel. Most families in the southern towns and kibbutzim have returned to their homes to repair their damaged homes and put their lives back on track. Some families however have decided that 'enough is enough' and they will not be returning to their homes in the south.

On Monday this week two million  Israeli children went back to school for the new school year. It was not a normal start however. The Education Ministry decided that the first two weeks would be devoted to allowing the children to express their experiences of the war and doing relaxing activities designed to enable children to process their emotions.  Although most children seem to take  rockets and sirens in their stride, long term emotional trauma is evident in many and can affect them all their lives. Many suffer bedwetting, nightmares, and excessive anxieties. 

http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/fn2/feeds/Associated%20Press/2014/09/01/876/493/Mideast%20Israel%20Back%20to%20School-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

 One mother reported that  "At age 5, kindergartner Daniel Neardea of Rishon LeZion recognizes the different sounds of incoming rockets and Iron Dome interceptors and can identify Israel's chief of staff and the top Hamas political leaders"
.
Describing the summer as "loud," his mother, Enav Neardea, said her children mostly took the rockets and sirens in stride, even when they disrupted their activities at the playground or swimming pool. "I guess they understand this is part of their lives now."
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-schools-20140902-story.html

Although the ceasefire is holding it is possible the rocket fire and hostilities will resume once the talks aimed at bringing about a permanent ceasefire begin in Cairo begin soon. No doubt Hamas has taken the opportunity to rearm and regroup. It is already boasting about the 'next round' as I reported in my last post. Hamas' demands for Israel to remove the 'blockade' of Gaza entry points and ports will never be accepted by Israel. I would hope that this latest war would have made it abundantly evident to all that Israel cannot allow Hamas to have open borders. We have seen how, even with the so-called blockade, they were able to smuggle in thousands of rockets and other military supplies, and build miles and miles of tunnels - a whole underground network. Imagine what they could do if there were no controls on their imports.

On the other hand Israel is demanding that Hamas will submit to disarmament, something they are not likely to agree to, unless the world was to unite against them and force the issue, something it seems little inclined to do.



Victory celebrations in Gaza

So the question now is merely, not whether Hamas will resume rocket fire upon Israel, but rather when. It could be tomorrow or next week or next month or next year, but sooner or later it seems inevitable. Hamas is not cowed nor defeated but  feel they have won a great victory over Israel in that they held out for 50 days and successfully turned many governments and people in the free world against us.

Furthermore, as a result of this campaign Hamas' popularity has skyrocketed amongst Palestinians. Polls  carried out after the Ceasefire began by the Ramallah based Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and Gaza show that 88% of Palestinians support Hamas, and 79% believe that Hamas had won. 94% were satisfied with Hamas military performance and 78% were satisfied with Hamas' defense of its civilian population. 86% support the launching of rockets against Israel should current negotiations fail. http://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/489 

These figures are astounding and reflect the disconnect with reality resulting from biased media reporting, and brainwashing that takes place in Palestinian schools and homes from an early age. It also gives a lie to the concept of 'innocent civilians'. Clearly most of the people of Gaza back Hamas and are therefore very far from innocent.

This is what 'victory' looks like in Gaza

Now the UN World Court is intending to try our political and military leaders for 'war crimes'. HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?
The British Colonel Richard Kemp, the former leader of the British forces in Afghanistan, and who observed the IDF operations at close quarters during the Operation Protective Edge, had this to say in an interview with the BBC, " There has never been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing in Gaza . " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WssrKJ3Iqcw. He tells of one Israeli pilot he spoke to who had aborted a mission 17 times because civilians were spotted in the vicinity.

One might ask, why is the UN  not trying the Hamas leadership for their war crimes - firing over 4000 rockets at Israeli civilians and using their own civilians for living shields and propaganda? What about  the 160 Gazan children who died while being forced to construct the underground tunnels for Hamas? http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/38316-140726-report-hamas-used-child-labor-in-tunnel-building  Is that not a war crime or at least a terrible violation of human rights?

Instead of criticizing Israel at every turn (we are quite good at doing that for ourselves) the world should be thanking Israel for its courageous stand at the very front line of the war against terror, which threatens all of Western civilization and the free world. The world is under its greatest threat since World War II  and slowly, slowly, and perhaps too late,  it is beginning to wake up to that fact. Sadly the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern people, and the displacement of millions more,  were more or less overlooked by the West as the Islamic Salafi - Jihadist groups advanced. It was not until an American journalist was brutally beheaded that the Western world has begun to wake up to the threat.
Today a conference of 19 NATO countries  signed a pledge to bring down the Islamic State (ISIS) using both financial embargoes and military might. Time will tell if they will do so. Will they use 'proportional force'  or hold back when the first civilian casualties occur? Does the Western world have the moral courage to carry out its threats? We will see.

Even if the Nato coalition can bring down the Islamic State militarily it cannot stop the ideology, which thrives on violence and opposition. The battle is spiritual not material or military. It can only be won by spiritual means. This week I was reminded of the part we Christian believers need to play in all of this. Not many of us are soldiers in the armies of the 'free' world but we are all soldiers of God's army. This week I was watching the movie "The Hobbit" on TV. At one point Gandalf, the good wizard, remarked that in his long experience it was not the great and mighty that held back the darkness but the ordinary folk, the little people, with an act of kindness here, a smile there or a word of encouragement. Words of wisdom indeed. No matter how small we may feel ourselves to be we have a part to play in holding back the forces of darkness that are threatening to overwhelm us. Prayer is our weapon and we need in these days to wield it with strength, courage, perseverance and hope. We are all on the front line of the battle and we know that the victory is already won in the heavenly places.

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. ³ Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He^[ is taken out of the way. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

        II Thessalonians 2 (NJKV)

Clearly the call for Christians today is to stand fast in prayer and to discern clearly on which side they stand. The passage above predicts a  'falling away' in the last times, and a strong delusion in which many will believe the lie. Let us all take great care we are all lovers of truth and diligently search for it.

In our praying we need to pray with understanding and in the Spirit. For this reason  I have put together a short history of Salafi-Jihadism and the Islamic State, outlined below.

Salafism 101 or 'Know Your Enemy'

Most non-Muslims have no idea what Salafist Islam is but it is important we understand what we are facing. Salafism is a fundamentalist movement that arose during the second half of the nineteenth century as a reaction against the spread of Western ideas and the perceived corruption of pure Islamic culture.  Salafists desire a return to the 'pure' form of Islam that was practiced in the earliest days of their faith, particularly during the period when Islam was ruled by the first four Caliphs (religious leaders who succeeded Mohammed). The world Caliph (Khalifa) means 'successor'. They promote jihad which is the  struggle for the supremacy of Islam and this term usually carries a military connotation. Persons who are engaged in jihad are called the mujahideen. Salafists are Sunni Muslims and regard Shiite Islam as heresy.

The Salafi-Jihadi ideology thus aims to:

• return to the authentic beliefs and practices of the pious ancestors who were the companions of Mohammed,
• To establish an Islamic State or Caliphate ruled by the strict and harshest interpretations of Islamic Sharia Law
• promote the concept of tawhid  or the oneness/unity of God ( and the denial that he has a Son!)
• endorse the waging of jihad against regimes they regard as idolatrous, including the Shiite, Jewish and Christian 'infidels'.  

Salafi-Jihadism has been growing amongst the people of Jordan and Lebanon since the 1990s and it is therefore not surprising that the founder of the ISIS (ISL or the Islamic State or Da'ish as it is now called), Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, came from the Salafi stronghold of Zarqa in Jordan. 

After the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Zarqawi, set up the forerunner of today's Islamic State in Iraq. At that time it was made up mainly of Iraqis. This organization first directed its jihad at the Shiites and in August of 2003 it bombed the Imam Ali shrine in Najav, the holiest place of Shiite worship in Iraq, killing 95 worshippers including  Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, the  leader of the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) .  

  After Saddam Hussein was toppled Shiites replaced Sunnis who had long ruled in Iraq, and this fueled Zarqawi's war against the Shiites. Zarqawi sent dozens of suicide bombers to blow themselves up in schools, cafes and markets in Shiite dominated towns. By 2004 he had joined Bin Laden's al Qaeda and he called his group Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

Al Zarqawi began to see himself as not only an emir (a political and military commander) but as a spiritual leader or caliph. He never reached this goal however because in June 2006 he was killed by a US air force bomb.  Zarqawi was succeeded by Abu Bakr al Baghdahi, who is still the current leader. Under al Baghdadi's leadership the movement became less of a guerilla style terrorist organization and more of an organized army, numbering thousands of trained and armed men.  They opened a second front and attacked  the Shiites of Syria, and the organization was renamed ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Baghdadi imposed strict Sharia Law on the towns he conquered,  and harshly enforced it.

By 2014 President Assad's forces had regrouped and were fighting back. He retook the city of Homs which was the symbolic heart of the ISIS uprising. Consequently Baghdadi planned a bigger strike which led to the taking of the city of Mosul, initiating a new phase in which he demonstrated a willingness to seize and control territory. Baghdadi also promoted himself to "Caliph and renamed his group "The Islamic State".  His ambition is to rule the whole region from the Mediterranean to the Gulf.  In Mosul he gave the command that 'infidels', Christians and Kurds, pay a special tax, leave, convert or face death. Thousands fled as the ancient Christian community there was targeted and those who were unable to flee were beheaded, stoned, crucified and enslaved.

In declaring himself Caliph Ibrahim, as Bagdhadi now styles himself, he may have overplayed his hand. Many more moderate Muslims see it as illegitimate, since according to the tradition, Caliphs were supposed to be chosen in consultation with all Muslim scholars. A Caliph could not appoint himself.  What is more, the institution of the caliphate has not been functioning for around 1000 years. A Caliph must also be physically whole and mentally sane, and must be of the Quraysh tribe of the Arabian peninsula. On the other hand, amongst Muslims there is a mystical belief that if you can establish a caliphate then everything will fall into place, something akin to the Messianic idea in Judaism and Christianity. The promise of  the inexorable, righteous expansion of Islam draws zealous  recruits from all over the world.

Salafi-Jihadist ideology has given rise to many  competing groups and terror organizations, and this lack of unity is their weak underbelly. Al Qaeda, although also Salafi,  disagreed with ISIS' focus on fellow Muslims (albeit Shiites) and were disgusted by their brutality and therefore broke off all ties with them in 2013. ISIS, as it was then called, was too brutal for al Qaeda!

Hamas is also based on a Salafi-Jihadist ideology but ISIS failed to support Hamas in the latest round of violence against Israel, not because it does not want the overthrow of Israel but it has a clearly defined and systematic program and the Hamas offensive did not fit in with its plans. This is its plan:

1. Build a firm base for the Islamic State in Iraq to serve as a springboard for waging war in Syria and Lebanon
2. Weaken the USA politically and economically by means of terror attacks on the USA mainland an US interests in Muslim countries
3. Expand the Islamic State to cover Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and possibly Gaza
4. Then, conquering Jerusalem and destroying Israel.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/isis-a-short-history/376030/2/

If the Islamic State’s history is any indication, then one should be concerned about it deepening political polarization and sectarianism in both Lebanon and Jordan, let alone trying to further its appeal by carrying out spectacular acts of violence in the Middle East or the West. The international community should internalize the fact that the Islamic State is theologically driven to apply Salafist ideology in belief and manifest action by way of jihad in the path of Allah against idolatrous regimes and unbelievers to expand “God’s realm” on earth

Robert G. Rabil  Robert G. Rabil is a professor of political science and the LLS distinguished professor of current affairs at Florida Atlantic University. http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-isis-chronicles-history-10895?page=3





Hamas soldiers in Gaza
http://patdollard.com/category/middle-east/page/11/

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY HAMAS FIGHTERS ARE ALWAYS MASKED?