HAMAS RATTLES ITS SABRES

Today  (Friday) the sirens blared out again in the south as residents scrambled for cover and the third rocket since the August  "Ceasefire"  slammed into Israel. 





Rocket fired into Israel from Gaza today (19/12/14)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4605554,00.html



We still don't know who fired this rocket, but over the last week Hamas has been indulging in some blatant sabre rattling. They have been test firing missiles into the sea and on Sunday this week, they staged a massive rally to celebrate the 27th Anniversary of the foundation of Hamas.




Thousands attend Hamas rally in Gaza
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4603331,00.html





Gaza's children attend the rally



 Showing off a rocket



Wolves in sheep's clothing?
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25655/Default.aspx
 

At the rally, Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida, had this to say:  

 
"Hamas was able to stop the ambitions of the Zionist enterprise and because of that, it is today on the verge of collapsing and disappearing.
We will not lay down our weapons until we use them to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hamas and its battalions know how to write history. For many years we have produced the al-Qassam army that you and the world sees, the combat units that today are taking part in this spectacular demonstration."
 

 Many are Israel's enemies who  have made such a boast in times past. I thought of the time  when Ben Hadad, king of Syria, and a confederation of 32 other kings with him,  came up against Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel in the time of Ahab, as is recorded in I Kings 20:

Now Ben-Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his forces together; thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria, and made war against it. ² Then he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, and said to him, “Thus says Ben-Hadad: ³ ‘Your silver and your gold are mine; your loveliest wives and children are mine.’”
 “The gods do so to me, and more also, if enough dust is left of Samaria for a handful for each of the people who follow me.” 

 So the king of Israel answered  and said, “Tell him, ‘Let not the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.’” 
 
 Then the king of Israel went out and attacked the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.

 Ever since the August ceasefire we have been bombarded with a continuous stream of boastful threats from Hamas. They claim to have 'won the war' and that the 'Zionist entity' (their euphemism for Israel, which they will not pronounce) is on the verge of collapse and defeat. They perhaps have gained some courage by the recent collapse of the Israeli government but they do not really understand democracy and its processes. Israel, like most democracies, functions just as well with or without a government in power, at least in the short term.  Our military might is in no way diminished and there is nothing like an external threat to bring us all together in unity.

In any case, the real issue is not political stability or even military might. As we read in the passage quoted above, Ahab's army was massively outnumbered and outgunned, but God was with Ahab (on this occasion) and gave him the victory. If God is on our side, no one will ever destroy Israel. They may have temporary victories along the way but ultimately they will fall. Where are the Assyrians, the Persians , the Greeks, the Romans, and the Nazis today? The armies of Islam may win the odd battle but in the end God will destroy them.

This is the word of the Lord against the enemies of his chosen people.

For violence against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And you shall be cut off forever...

 

“For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near;
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.

¹⁶ For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been...

“But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
¹⁸ The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.

Obadiah 1: 10, 16-18

As Hamas is busy rebuilding its terror tunnels and rearming  for the next round of war with Israel, the people of Gaza continue to suffer. Tens of thousands are still living in tents supplied by the refugee agency UNRWA as the winter cold takes hold and the rains flood the streets with raw sewage.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79359000/jpg/_79359383_79359382.jpg
 

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5520/11452173323_e0351cef38_c.jpg

Of the $US 54.4 billion aid promised during the negotiations in Cairo two months ago, barely 2% has been received, at least partly because Hamas has not honored its commitment to hand over control of Gaza's border crossings.  There are also reports that Hamas is diverting those funds which have been received to rebuilding its terror tunnels instead of building homes. http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Report-Material-for-Gaza-reconstruction-diverted-to-Hamas-for-tunnel-reparations-385178 In fact it seems that Hamas  is doing everything in its power to prevent any reconstruction of Gaza so that it can use the suffering of the people as a propaganda weapon against Israel.  Israel Today reported that " Israel, for its part, has been working for months with the UN to advance the reconstruction in Gaza. But every step of the way, Hamas has scuttled any progress, such as when it suddenly raised taxes on imported cement."
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25655/Default.aspx 

Some news just coming in  ( Saturday 20/12) ....
Israeli jets have bombed a Hamas training institution in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza Strip last night in retaliation for yesterday's rocket attack on Israel. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4605646,00.html Tensions are escalating and one cannot help but wonder if we are already about to start the next round of conflict with Hamas in Gaza - just 4 months after the end of the summer's war. I hope not for everyone's sake.

Now for another, but related, topic...


SEX SLAVERY IN THE ISLAMIC STATE

A pamphlet entitled " Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves" published by the Islamic State (ISIS) was recently distributed in Mosul, Iraq. In a question and answer format it explains the official position of the Islamic State concerning female slavery.

The 27 questions and answers have been translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Here are some excerpts as quoted by the Jerusalem Post:

Question : "Can all unbelieving women [  that is, non-Muslim women] be taken captive?”

Answer : “There is no dispute among the scholars that it is permissible to capture unbelieving women."

Question: “Can one have intercourse with a female captive?”

Answer: “It is permissible to have sexual intercourse with the female captive. Allah the almighty said: ‘[Successful are the believers] who guard their chastity, except from their wives or [the captives and slaves] that their right hands possess, for then they are free from blame [Koran 23:5-6].’”

“If she is a virgin, he [her master] can have intercourse with her immediately,” explains the pamphlet. “However, if she isn’t, her uterus must be purified [first]... ” [How to purify a uterus is not explained in the pamphlet].

 

And on child rape....
Question: “Is it permissible to have intercourse with a female slave who has not reached puberty?”

Answer: “It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn’t reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse; however if she is not fit for intercourse, then it is enough to enjoy her without intercourse.”http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/ISIS-published-female-sex-slave-handbook-384510

One can only ask - in what way could a girl who hasn't reached puberty ever be 'fit for intercourse' or rape? What an abomination!!

 All this is not just theory, the Islamic State is practicing mass female slavery in the areas it has overrun. According to researchers of the University of Bristol's Gender and Violence Research Center,  ISIS  has kidnapped more than 2,500 Yazidi women, after killing the men. The women and girls are being subjected to systematic rape and sex slavery. In Mosul in Iraq and in Raqqa in Syria they have been paraded in markets carrying price tags, like cattle. According to one 19 year old girl, Jana,  who managed to escape, the young women of her village were herded into a big house with hundreds of other young women, and ISIS men would come and chose three or four at a time to take home with them. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/30/world/meast/isis-female-slaves/


With so much that is dark and tragic in the world today it is important to search for points of light too. There is still much that is good and beautiful and the apostle Paul, who also lived in dark times, advised us (even when he was in jail) to meditate on,  

whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy.

   Philippians 4:8.

Here are a couple of things that are of good report and lovely:


ISRAELI AID TO SENEGAL

Israel is always in the news and is often painted unfairly and incorrectly as the cause and focus of all the violence in the Middle East. What is not often spoken about is the massive amount of aid that Israel gives to other countries in need, especially in the continent of Africa. For example, earlier this month Israel,  working in cooperation with the ‘Fondation Servir le Senegal' organization, inaugurated an irrigation project in drought prone Senegal.   Fifty farm plots have been set up in the city of Fatick and these will be run by women allowing them to improve their family income.  These plots will use a low-pressure, drip irrigation developed in Israel to improve crop yield and quality.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4603023,00.html

Growing lettuce in Senegal using drip-irrigation (Photo: MASHAV)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4603023,00.html

NEW SONGS OF WORSHIP

On Wednesday of this week I joined around 2000 others in two concerts in which were presented  the best of the new Messianic worship songs written over the last few years. Worship leaders and singers from many congregations around the country joined together to put on this memorable event. These concerts were recorded live and the DVD or CDs will  soon be available for purchase. I am always blown away by the power and beauty of our worship songs in Hebrew. There is a cadence about them that is just so uplifting and special. Many of the songs presented were written and sung by members of the worship team of my own congregation, Shemen Sasson, and that made it even more special for me.

During the concert I felt that God was just smiling at us and saying proudly "They're my people".  At times like that it is encouraging to think that everyone of us is a point of light helping each in his way to hold back the encroaching darkness.

Photo credit: Hannah Nesher (used with permission)

The words on the overhead projector say in Hebrew,

   "God is for us, our covering and strength, our very great help in trouble".
 

HALLELUJAH - THE LORD REIGNS!!!




THE REBUILDING OF GAZA AND POVERTY IN ISRAEL

 

One of todays headlines on Ynetnews reads thus:

US: Israel must play role in rebuilding Gaza

And the article goes on to say:

The Palestinian government has unveiled a 76-page reconstruction plan for Gaza, calling for $4 billion to rebuild the war-battered territory, with the largest amount going to build housing for some 100,000 left homeless

 We do think that Israel will need to play a role in Gaza reconstruction," Psaki stressed, questioned about whether the Jewish state had a responsibility to help repair the damage it inflicted.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4579150,00.html

My first reaction to this statement is "WHY"? Why should Israel be expected to contribute even one cent towards the rebuilding of Gaza? Rather, shouldn't Gaza, as the aggressors, pay us the estimated 9 billion shekels (around $2.6 billion) it cost us to protect ourselves against their attacks, and rebuild our damaged buildings?  Of course we know they do not have the money, but why not? After all Gaza has received more aid money than any other country in the world over the past years. But where did it go? To building up the infrastructure, building hospitals and schools, better housing and creating jobs? No, it went into building miles upon miles of underground concrete tunnels and bunkers, buying arms and munitions, including something like 10,000 rockets to fire at Israel. Any money left over after that went into lining the pockets of certain high officials, building their luxury homes and paying for Khaled Mashal's hotel bill as he hid out in Qatar while his people's homes were being destroyed. In my opinion it should be those countries, especially Qatar, that have poured aid money into Gaza in the past, knowing full well what it was being used for, that should be rebuilding Gaza.

 

The call for Israel to help rebuild Gaza seems to be predicated on the idea that Israel caused the destruction and therefore should bear responsibility for the rebuilding (see my highlighting above).  Is that fair? We didn't start the war. We didn't want it. For years we have been bombarded with rockets from Gaza. What were we supposed to do? It was them or us. The fact that so 'few', some 78, Israeli's died in the ensuing battle is not because Hamas was careful to avoid hitting Israeli population centers, rather they did the opposite. They deliberately aimed their rockets and missiles at population centers. Their aim was to terrorize and kill as many civilians as possible. That they did not succeed was because of two main reasons, first the Iron Dome anti-missile system which shot down many of the largest and most potentially damaging missiles, and  secondly (and more importantly) the supernatural protection of God. In contrast the fact that only some 2,200 Gazan's died, and at least half of those were not civilians, was due to the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces took extreme measures to protect the population of Gaza, often at great cost to us.

In the early days of the latest Operation Protective Edge (15 July 2014), Ynetnews published a lengthy article entitled "Hamas got rich as Gaza was plunged into poverty"
Here are some excerpts from that article:

With multi-million-dollar land deals, luxury villas and black market fuel from Egypt, Gaza's rulers made billions while the rest of the population struggled with 38-percent poverty and 40-percent unemployment. ...

 In 2012, a Jordanian website reported that Mashal had control of a massive $2.6 billion, in large part deposited in Qatari and Egyptian banks. This is likely Hamas' accumulated assets from years through donations, as well as its investments in various projects in the Arab and Muslim world. It is also known that, among other things, Hamas has invested in real estate projects in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Dubai. And, according to reports, Mashal did not always separate Hamas money and his own

 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4543634,00.html

For more on this see

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/18801/hamas-gets-rich-people-gaza-starve/#V3jbjyZHwW0F2s7S.97

It seems to me that if anyone is morally responsible for the plight of the  people of Gaza it is Hamas, its leaders and its supporters.  Let them finance the rebuilding of Gaza, and not the Israeli taxpayer.

The recent war with Hamas in Gaza cost Israel an estimated 9 billion shekels.  To cover these costs, the recently approved 2015 State Budget will include a 6 billion shekel ($1.6 billion) increase in defense expenditure, and a 2% cut on government spending across the board, including cuts in spending on education, health and welfare. It may sound like an egalitarian move, but in reality it is the poorest sectors of society that will suffer most.

Although Israel is a wealthy nation and has a relatively stable economy, the distribution of wealth within is embarrassingly unequal. Israel has the highest rate of poverty amongst any of the countries of the developed world according to an OECD report released earlier this year. Israel has a poverty rate of 20.9% almost twice that of the OECD average of 11.3%.

The annual household disposable income in Israel stood on average at $18,500 while the bottom 10% of society stood at $3,600 compared to an OECD average of $23,100 and $7,100 for the bottom 10%.

 Israel continues to maintain a lower social spending rate of 15.8% of GDP compared to the OECD average of 21.9%

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Report-Israel-has-highest-poverty-rate-among-OECD-countries-345785

These are sobering statistics, but what do they mean on the street? It means that 1 in 3 Israeli children go to bed hungry every day!

I have had the privilege to live amongst both the richest and the poorest of Israelis during my 30 odd years in Israel. The contrast is shocking.  My first apartment was  in a neighborhood in Netanya where families of 5-8 people  lived in squalid, single roomed houses. We would sit outside in the evenings while huge rats played in the rafters above our heads, and cockroaches scuttled unheeded around our feet.  A lot of our social life was conducted during the wee, small hours of the night,  as we walked the streets trying to find some cool air or relief from the intense stuffy heat of our homes. On the other hand I have also rubbed shoulders with the incredibly rich in their museum-like homes filled with priceless antiques.  It is wrong and our government seems to be little interested in doing very much about it.

The statistics are also misleading. The poverty level in Israel is defined as follows:

According to the report, an individual with a monthly income of less than NIS 2,820 and couples earning less than NIS 4,513 per month are considered to be living below the poverty line. Furthermore, a family of five individuals must earn more than NIS 8,500 to be considered above the poverty line. http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Annual-report-shows-17-million-Israelis-living-below-poverty-line-335255

 There is no way an individual earning 2,820 shekels a month, or a family of five earning just 8,500 shekels a month,  can live in Israel. Here in Jerusalem it is impossible to find an apartment for rent  below 3000 shekels a month, and most are more than 4000 shekels a month. The result is that  many more than the reported numbers are living in actual poverty, finding great difficulty in paying for utilities and putting food on the table.  Food  and housing costs have been spiraling upward in recent years.  Since 2005 the price of food has risen 31% while in the European Union it rose only 20% in the same period.  http://www.jpost.com/Business/Business-News/Food-prices-have-risen-more-than-50-percent-faster-than-Europe

The Bible has a great  deal to say about fair business practices and the proper treatment of the poor. Recently we in Israel observed the fast day of Yom Kippur, in which most Israelis, even the so-called secular, fast for 25 hours, abstaining from food and water meticulously in the hope they will thus atone for their sins and be inscribed in the Book of Life.

 

However the LORD has this to say about fasting:

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸ Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

Isaiah 58: 6-9 NJKV 

 The Israeli government's first responsibility is towards its own people.  If you pray for Israel, then pray for justice and a righteous distribution of wealth amongst our own people first. That is not to say we should not care about nor help others, including the displaced of Gaza, and Israel is often first to do so when other nations experience catastrophe, but the poor and needy in Israel must not be overlooked nor shortchanged. Let those who caused and financed the catastrophe in Gaza  be the ones to rebuild it.