THE MARTYRS OF SYRIA

Precious in the sight of the Lord

    is the death of his faithful servants.

Psalm 116:15

Yesterday afternoon we received this message from the pastor of a church in Syria ( I will not share his name for his protection): 

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,

Our hearts are heavy and broken as we cry out to the Lord in this dark hour. For nearly a week now, fierce fighting has raged in Suweida, Syria, between the Druze and Bedouin (Sunni Muslim) communities. Over a thousand precious souls have perished, and countless others are wounded or taken captive.

It is with deep sorrow and tears that we share the heartbreaking news that our beloved brother and shepherd, Pastor Khaled Mezhir, pastor of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Suweida, has been martyred for his faith along with his wife, his parents, and over 20 members of his family. They were brutally killed today. Pastor Khaled, once a Druze, gave his life to Christ and faithfully proclaimed the Gospel to his people despite opposition and persecution. He and his family stood as lights in the darkness, and now they rest in the presence of the Lord they so faithfully served.

The church in Suweida is now scattered; many believers are unaccounted for. The surviving members are enduring unimaginable suffering—cut off from food, water, electricity, internet, and hope for safety, despite the so-called “ceasefire” declared by a new regime.

We urgently plead with you, our family in Christ, to lift up your voices in prayer:

• Pray for the comfort and strength of Pastor Khaled’s surviving relatives and for the flock he has left behind.

• Pray for the protection and endurance of the remaining churches and believers in Suweida.

• Pray that the Lord would miraculously provide food, water, and safety for His children.

• Pray for wisdom and resources so that we may reach and help those who are suffering and displaced.

May the Lord, who is near to the brokenhearted, rise up as our refuge and strength. Let us stand together as one Body, crying out for His mercy and deliverance over Suweida and all our brothers and sisters in Syria.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

God does not call upon his followers to chose to be martyrs, he does not rejoice in the death of his people, unlike the god of Islam, however should His followers be martyred, having 'run the good race' He receives them into heaven with joy.  These Christians who have been martyred in Syria, in this latest atrocity, and in the earlier massacre in north-west Syria, are now in Paradise. They are now beyond the reach of the Enemy, Satan.

Those however who have been left behind are in deep mourning and need our prayers. They are also in great danger, and need our support. Please spread the word in your churches and if possible to the wider community. Ask your government why it is silent in the face of this slaughter and attempted ethnic cleansing?

For over a week fighting has raged in and around the Druze-majority city of Suweida (also transliterated as Suwayda or similar). It is unclear what triggered the fighting but a massive mob of bedouin (Sunni muslim jihadists) rushed into Suweida and began slaughtering, raping, taking hostages and destroying everything in sight. They even went into the hospital, killing dozens. Official numbers estimate the dead Druze and Christians at around 1100, but many are  missing. The true number we may never know. Al-Sharaa's government forces were sent to quell the fighting but many of them, some bearing ISIS insignias, joined in the massacre, as did other jihadi groups. 

The only entity to have so far come to the aid of the people of the city of Suweida is Israel. And some even dare to accuse Israel of actually starting the fighting ( how absurd are the libels against Israel!). During last night Israel sent 2 million shekels worth of food, medicine and other aid into the besieged city.

Jordan refused to open its borders to allow aid to be taken into the Druze (probably in fear of arousing the anger of its jihadi elements and its Syrian neighbor). Where are the other Arab neighbors? Where is the UN? Where is the US? Where is the 'Christian' world? 

Why is Israel involved?

Many are asking why Israel felt the need to get involved. There are two main reasons:

1. Israel has a sizeable population of Druze who live within Israel with full citizenship rights. The Druze are valued members of our society, they are loyal citizens and are among our best fighters in the IDF, often rising to high ranks. They have also paid a high price for that; many of their soldiers have been killed fighting for Israel, and you also may remember the 12 Druze children playing on a football field who were killed by a Hezbollah rocket last year. The Druze of Syria are close kinsmen of the Druze in Israel, with whom they maintain contact. We here in Israel feel we have a moral duty to the Druze community, a minority scattered throughout the Levant (Syria, Lebanon and Israel). Muslims hate the Druze and regard them as apostates and heretics to be eradicated. 

2. The Druze of Syria live in several cities and towns, along Israel's 87km border with Syria, particularly on Jabal al-Druse (The Druse Mountain), within the region southwest of Damascus reaching to the Israeli border and which Israel declared a demilitarized zone since the fall of Assad and the establishment of the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa. Israel is determined to keep this zone, (the area s-w of Damascus) demilitarized in order to protect our border communities from surprise attacks or invasions from Syria, and also to protect our Druze cousins.  

Why did Israel bomb military sites in Damascus and attack tanks approaching Suweida?

The US and the western world in general are falling for the deception of Ahmed al-Sharaa (once known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani) who is pretending to be a moderate, benign ruler who just wants to stabilize Syria and unite its various warring factions. Israel however is not fooled by his western clothes, his trimmed beard, and his charm and good looks. 

Al-Sharaa is a terrorist once on the US' most wanted list with a   $US 10 million price on his head. He was the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he was captured by US forces and thrown in jail. There he met the leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In 2011 al-Bagdadi sent al-Julani to Syria to start another terror organization called Jabhat al-Nusera. The following year al-Baghdadi went to Syria to establish the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). ISIS wanted to absorb Julani's group but he resisted and declared his allegiance to al Qaeda. When al-Qaeda showed little interest, Julani branched out on his own forming Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), with the goal of establishing an Islamic State in Syria under Sharia Law. First he established a mini-state in the city of Idlib where he imposed strict Sharia Law and ruled it with a government and a milita that suppressed any opposition. It was from this mini-state that in 2024 he launched his push forward to rapidly take Damascus and oust the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

Immediately, al-Julani changed his name back to his given name, Ahmed al-Sharaa. Why? Well, his nom-de-guerre too obviously betrayed his intentions. Julani is the Arabic word for the Golan Heights, now in Israeli territory. His organization also dropped its name for the same reason, transmogrifying into the Syrian government forces.  Al-Sham is the Arabic term for the Levant which not only includes Syria but also Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. That is his goal. To rule all those nations as one, Syria, under Islamic Law. He is being backed by Erdogan's Turkey which has the same aim, the re-establishment of the Turkish Empire as an Islamic State. 

In an Islamic State there is no room for minorities, be they Druze, Kurds, Yazidis, Christians or Jews. They must be converted or stamped out. The irony is that the most pluralistic and tolerant country in the Middle East, Israel, is the one being accused of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Only Israel is standing up against the encroaching Islamic State. Where is the outcry from the western world when Syrian minorities, Alawites, Christians and Druze are being massacred? Jews are not being massacred in Syria because there are only 1-2 very elderly Jews left!!! Once an ancient and thriving community of around 55,000 (in 1948) all have fled because of persecution. 

Sadly al-Sharaa and his ilk are clever and understand the gullible western mind very well. They know they can fool us. They will make deals and 'talk the talk' but they mean nothing. 

In Islam is the principle of Taqqiya which obligates the 'good' Muslim to lie if it is in the interests of gobal jihad. Signing a bit of paper has no value in the Middle East. Shaking hands has no value. Deals are not worth the paper they are written on. 

Israel knows this. We understand the Middle Eastern mentality and consequently do not trust the words and the outward image of al-Sharaa. Leopards do not change their spots. They may cover them for a while, but underneath they are still a leopard. As long as it is in his interest al-Sharaa will pretend to be a moderate, reasonable leader with only the good of his people on his mind, but once his rule is established and accepted he will revert to type. His ultimate goal is to unite the Levant, establish Islamic rule, and to do that he must destroy the State of Israel and control Lebanon and Jordan too. 

Knowing this, after Assad was deposed, Israel quickly established military posts on Mt Hermon and expanded the 'buffer zone' along its border, destroying all of Assad's heavy weaponry and military installations. It has also declared the area west of Damascus to be a demilitarized zone, where heavy weapons are banned. When al-Sharaa's government forces moved tanks towards Suweida they violated this demilitarized zone, and consequently Israel swifty attacked them and military command centers in Damascus, in order to protect the Druze, and our border, and send a clear message to al-Sharaa.

For more on the Syrian question I recommend the following videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8LhWFKIJn0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfzopst14-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01uIA-HnLLc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbLPDJLG7u0

There is much more happening here in Gaza and Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and with the Iranians and Houthis, but I will write about that another day. In the meantime please share the information and pray for the minorities in Syria and for Israel.  

TERROR AT THE LION'S GATE

On Friday morning I switched on the news and learned that two policemen had been killed and another injured by three gunmen at the Lion's Gate in the Old City, near the entrance to the Temple Mount. In addition, a paramedic attending the scene was lightly injured by shrapnel. The three terrorists opened fire on the police guarding the area using rifles and a handgun and then fled towards the mosques on the Temple Mount, but were shot and killed by other police in the area. The gunmen were from the Israeli Arab village of Umm-el-Fahm. The two murdered policemen were Staff Sergeant Major Ha'il Satawi (30) and Staff Sergeant Major Kamil Shnaan (22) from the Druze villages of Maghar and Hurfeish respectively.  

 Shnaan (L) and Satawi (R) - murdered policemen
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4989360,00.html


Satawi's wife gave birth to their first son just two weeks ago. Here is a photo of Satawi with his little son.  What a beautiful but terribly sad photo. This little boy will never know his father. 

Shatawi and his little son.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4989360,00.html

The other murdered officer, Shnaan, was to have become engaged in September. I include these photos to remind us all of the human tragedy of these attacks. We have so many terror victims it is easy to grow seemingly indifferent, but every such loss is like a ripple in a pond that spreads and affects so many others. Deep down we are all in continual mourning for our lost ones. Whether we knew them personally or not we share the loss.   

The Druze community has suffered more than its fair share of such losses. I should explain that the approx.137, 000 member Druze community in Israel swear allegiance to the State of Israel and many of them serve as soldiers in the IDF or as policemen.  They are exemplary soldiers who often serve in the most dangerous situations and often consequently pay a very high price. Nevertheless, their loyalty to Israel never wavers, and they are an example of what could be if we all could chose to live together in peace as they have done. Although Druze speak Arabic and most consider themselves ethnically Arab, they are not Muslim and have their own religion. The Druze religion branched off from Islam in the 10th and 11th Century and incorporated elements from many other religions and philosophies. The religion is monotheistic and they recognize many prophets including Mohammed, Jesus and John the Baptist, but their most revered prophet is Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, the Priest of Midian. Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel the Druze faced discrimination from the Muslim powers, but now they have full recognition and citizenship in Israel, and are the only non-Jewish group who are conscripted into the army, this at their own request. They are respected by Israelis as loyal citizens, many of whom have risen to high positions in both civilian and military life. 

This is just the last of a whole litany of terror attacks in Jerusalem this year, mostly in and around the Old City. Ynetnews published a summary of these attacks, and I quote:

This attack was preceded by several stabbings and shootings in the capital, as Jerusalem's Old City and its surroundings have become a focal point for terrorist activities since the beginning of the year.

In June, three terrorists armed with semi-automatic weapons and knives struck in two different parts of Old City near the Damascus Gate, fatally wounding 23-year-old border policewoman Hadas Malka, who later succumbed to her wounds. Five others were wounded in the attack.

  

In May, a 37-year-old police officer was moderately wounded in a stabbing attack near the Lions' Gate. The terrorist, Mohammad Abdullah Salim al-Kasji, a 57-year-old Jordanian citizen, arrived in Israel a week prior via the Jordan River crossing in Beit Shean. He was critically wounded in the attack.

In April, a British student named Hannah Bladon was killed after being stabbed multiple times in the chest in a terror attack at IDF Square on Jerusalem’s light rail route. Bladon studied at the Hebrew University as part of a student exchange program, for only one semester.

  

Just two weeks before that, two civilians and one police officer were moderately wounded during a stabbing attack on Hagai Street in Jerusalem's Old City. The terrorist was shot dead by security forces after being chased by the police and Border Police.

In March, two 20-year-old border policemen were moderately wounded after being stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist in another attack that took place near the Lions' Gate. The attacker was shot dead by one of the injured officers.

  

In January, four IDF soldiers—three women and a man in their 20s—were murdered and 17 wounded when a Palestinian truck driver deliberately rammed into pedestrians on a popular promenade overlooking the Old City.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4989180,00.html

These attacks are just the latest in the so-called terror wave which began in September 2015. Last month the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published these statistics for this period:

Twenty months of terror – 13 September 2015 to the present

• In 2016, 12 vehicular ramming attacks and 100 stabbing attacks were thwarted by security forces.
• Since 13 September 2015, 50 people have been killed in terrorist attacks and 759 people (including 4 Palestinians) injured.
• There have been 180 stabbing attacks and 124 attempted stabbings; 150 shootings; 58 vehicular (ramming) attacks; and one vehicular (bus) bombing.
• http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Wave-of-terror-October-2015.aspx
• You can see a complete list of attacks on this website. 

Most of these attacks occurred in or around Jerusalem, and are motivated by the lie that the Mosque of Omar on the Temple Mount is in danger. After Friday's attack the Temple Mount was closed to all worshippers as the police combed the area for weapons and/or other terrorists. This of course has caused an outcry from the Muslims accusing Israel of changing the 'status quo'.  The reality, however, is that it is the terrorists who have caused any so-called change to the 'status quo'. It is they who have defiled the sanctity of the site, not Israel.  In fact, there is no change to the status quo as the Mosque will be reopened for prayers on Sunday, and this is by no means the first time the site has been closed because of the security situation.   

It seems to me however that there is a general increase in general tension in the Muslim sector in recent days. Over the past few days there has been a drastic increase in the sound of gunfire coming from the nearby Arab villages of Jebel Mukaber and Tsur Baher. On Thursday it continued most of the day and well into the night. This has not happened since the police cracked down on it and similar activities several months ago. It seems as the summer heat reaches its peak so do tensions. 

Life in Jerusalem continues unabated and summer is the time for many festivities, shows and events which attract thousands of locals and visitors.  Please pray for safety for these events. I thank God that the tourists, mostly Evangelical Christians, are still coming in large numbers. The economy of our city depends largely on this and we also appreciate the support and prayers of these welcome visitors.  I was most encouraged and amused the other day when I went into the city and discovered a group of Korean Christians worshipping God in song right there in the middle of Ben Yehuda St, one of the main streets of Jerusalem. They were attracting a very appreciative crowd, religious and secular alike,  who were all taking photos, sending videos and clapping along in time with them. I was laughing to myself because these people had no idea what these Koreans were singing about - Yeshua (Jesus).  If they had known they would not have been so appreciative!  I thank this group and others like them who with great boldness and love proclaim Yeshua in the streets of our city. 

                                          Korean Christians singing in Ben Yehuda Mall

We are experiencing the hottest July I can remember and temperatures are reaching the mid-thirties Celsius every day over the whole country, and there is little relief even at night. Many of us are struggling with the heat which is tiring and makes every little task seem worse than normal. I am in the throes of packing to move house and it is hard going. I seem to get so little done each day and time is running out on me. However, at least I am indoors. Spare a thought, and a prayer, for those who are working outdoors often doing very hard physical labor in this heat.  Last week I helped a friend move and I felt so bad for the men who were having to tote her furniture and boxes down the equivalent of about 4-5 flights of stairs to the truck and then up two flights into her new home all in the heat of the day which reached 37 degrees. I am praying the day I move will not be so hot.  It is the custom here that leases run from summer to summer which means people are always moving in the worst of the heat, something I have never understood.  I suppose it is a habit that was imported from Europe where it would make some sense, but its one custom I would sure like to change.  

Please also continue to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and especially for the courageous police and soldiers who guard our city. They are often the targets for the terrorists and are putting their lives at risk so the rest of us can go about our daily lives.  Apart from the dangers they must stand about on corners, in full battle gear, in the stifling heat fighting dehydration, heat stress and boredom.  Here is a photo of some of our animal friends who also help protect us - many of the streets and alleyways of Jerusalem are too narrow for cars and horses are used instead. I love these police horses who are so beautifully kept and groomed. Pray also for their safety and also that of the police dogs who also play an important role, without even understanding why, but just out of love and loyalty for their human friends. 

                               A passerby feeding a police horse an apple under the watchful eye of his master (not a practice that is encouraged but she did ask permission). 

  

Israel is a sinful nation and we fall far short of God's standards. We have strayed into man-made religious systems of belief and practice, or at the other extreme, hedonistic materialism. Our rabbis are blind guides, spreading error and lies.  We as a nation are full of dishonest practices and corruption. The poor are oppressed.  As a result there are many gaps in our spiritual wall of protection. We who worship the Lord are called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and for the salvation of Israel. God is looking for people who will stand in the gaps, and stay his judgment. Please stand with us in prayer for God's protection and mercy.

Long ago, when Israel was full of sin God said, 

I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.
Ezekiel 22: 30

On that occasion, he found no one, but I pray that in our day there will be found 'gap-fillers'.    When God purposed to destroy Sodom Abraham plead with God to spare the city and God said if only ten righteous men were to be found in it, He would spare the city. Sadly ten righteous could not be found, and so only Lot and his family were saved out of the destruction.  I am pleased to say that there are way more than ten counted righteous by the right of the blood of Jesus in this city today, but it is my prayer that we all may be found standing in the gaps.  This is no easy task for the spiritual warfare here is intense, and therefore we need your support and prayers.

PRAYER FERVENTLY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM AND THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL IN THE MESSIAH. 


PS. Please excuse all the formatting weirdness.  It is Google Blogs that is not working properly.