SIMMERING SUMMER
 

Summer is now in full swing in Jerusalem. The schools are on vacation and the streets are full of tourists, while the locals are flocking to the pools or the cool shopping mall, or just hiding from the heat indoors. However if you do venture into the city streets you are in for a delight. Many of the streets are brightly decorated with fun and colorful displays. Here are some of the things you might see:

 

Colorful parasols decorate a Jerusalem street

https://rjstreets.com/

 

https://rjstreets.com/2016/07/06/have-you-seen-jerusalems-new-colors/ben-yehuda-decorated-028b/#main

Jerusalem is a city full of quirky imagination, creativity, color and the joy of life.





A kind of quiet settles over Jerusalem  in summer as the heat drives us indoors. Many of the city's inhabitants travel abroad to visit family, take vacations or just to flee the heat. Tourist numbers drop. As a result Jerusalem takes on the appearance of a sleepy, peaceful town. However we can never forget that just below the surface violence is simmering away and could at any moment boil over.

This week I read an article which claimed that Israel's real enemy was not Iran or the Palestinians but the idea of 'the Crisis' itself. It pointed out that,

"serious indignation is reserved only for the one true topic worthy of attention: The Crisis, a perpetual feeling of imminent doom that dominates the hearts and minds of leftists and rightists alike".

As a consequence a whole plethora of serious internal social issues are overlooked or ignored, and this has the potential of destroying Israel from inside. Some of the issues the article mentioned were :

" the soldiers in the asbestos-ridden tanks; the young Arab women and children in Umm al-Fahm, pushed by stupid neglect right into the arms of Islamic fundamentalists; the barely functioning police; the medical interns who are struggling with 26-hour shifts when their colleagues in Europe and America typically work between 12 and 16 hours at a time; the students down south who, unlike their peers in wealthier communities elsewhere in Israel, are repeatedly falling behind in math and other core subjects; the 150,000 toddlers who attend unsupervised day-care centers and receive abysmally unhealthy lunches; the residents of Jerusalem, many of whom are Arabs or fervently Orthodox Jews, more than half of whom are currently unemployed; the tens of thousands of Arab and Bedouin children in the Galilee and the Negev who benefited from three mobile libraries that the Ministry of Culture, for some reason, chose to shut down". 

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/204146/israels-enemy-is-crisis-itself

And I could add many more neglected social issues - the fact that 1/3 of Israeli children still go to bed hungry, the gulf between the rich and the poor, the neglect of the elderly, the sick and the handicapped, the failure to get reparations to the desperately needy holocaust survivors, the teachers who get paid a pittance while being expected to teach 30-40 children in the classroom, the understaffed hospitals run by exhausted and underpaid doctors and nurses, and so on.
 
I think this article made a good point that perhaps one of the important consequences of terror and war is that important social issues are overlooked. Its the tyranny of the urgent over the important, or the immediate threat over the one we can push off to another day. It is however also true that in spite of the ever present 'Crisis' Israel has accomplished much. Take a drive around the country and you will see growing towns, green fields and vibrant agriculture, burgeoning industry, and a lot of happy and healthy people enjoying life. 




A Tel Aviv beach in Summer
https://www.facebook.com/ynetenglish/photos/a.384316348269521.94744.129653250402500/1204468559587625/?type=3&theater

 

I read just this week about the new Tel Aviv - Jerusalem railway that is currently being constructed.  When it opens, in about 2  years time, it will carry trains travelling at 160 km/h, departing 4 times an hour, bringing passengers between TA and Jerusalem in only 28 minutes. The dual track will pass over Israel's largest bridge ( 1,250 m long), its highest bridge (95m) and the longest  tunnel (11.6 km) in the Middle East. It also incorporates a nuclear fallout shelter for 2000 people at its Jerusalem end (may we never need it!). Not a bad effort for a tiny country living in the shadow of constant Crisis!http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4825986,00.html  

The longest bridge

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4825986,00.html

That said, it is inescapable that we must always put our national security first. We can have no social stability or improvement without it. I fear that as a nation we are suffering somewhat from crisis fatigue. We have heard for so many years about the Iranian threat, the threats from our neighboring countries, the threats from Hezbollah, Hamas and ISIS,  and the threat of ongoing terror, and as a result we have become a little complacent and disinterested. This is natural. One cannot live in  constant state of anxiety and fear. One becomes to some extent habituated, as you do to an unpleasant odor or sound. I do fear however the risk of becoming complacent and failing to prepare for the 'next war'.

For years we have been listening to the rhetoric of Iranian leaders, and their constant threats to destroy Israel. Its like an annoying background hum that you eventually just tune out.  It is tempting just to ignore it, to get lulled thinking it will never happen. However just this last Friday, during violent anti-Israel demonstrations in Iran on their Al-Kuds (Jerusalem)  Day, the Deputy Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, proclaimed that,

“Hezbollah has 100,000 missiles that are ready to hit Israel to liberate the occupied Palestinian territories if the Zionist regime repeats its past mistakes,”. He continued saying, "Today, the grounds for the annihilation and collapse of the Zionist regime are [present] more than ever". And he boasted "tens of thousands of destructive long-range missiles” are aimed at Israel from Islamic territories".

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/71142/iranian-commander-100000-missiles-poised-strike-israel-arab-world/#1fO3OOxQXdsyw4Cp.97

A statue depicting the US Statue of Liberty decorated with a Star of David on its head is set ablaze by Iranian protestors during a parade marking al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran on July 1, 2016. (Atta Kenare/AFP
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-holds-annual-anti-israel-rallies-to-mark-al-quds-day/

There are no grounds for complacency in the face of such rhetoric. The IDF is busy planning for the next war and last Sunday realistic drills were held recreating a massive missile attack on civilian areas in the north and in the south.  Since the War of Independence in 1948 there have been very few civilian casualties in the many wars we have fought, for example in the 1967 Yom Kippur War there were no civilian casualties (though 2,500 soldiers died) and in the 2014 Gaza war only 6 civilians were killed. Even the Scud Missiles of the 1991 Gulf war killed only two Israelis directly (though another 11 died from heart attacks or the incorrect use of the gas masks).

An Israeli family in a Safe Room during a scud attack in the 1991 Gulf War
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/History/Pages/The%20Gulf%20War%20-%201991.aspx

We all know that in the next war however,  if Hezbollah succeeds in releasing even a portion of its massive arsenal of missiles and rockets, we can expect massive civilian casualties and the IDF are putting evacuation and defense plans in place for the population in the north and south especially. However these will inevitably be sadly inadequate. Many, many homes in  Israel do not  yet even have safe rooms or bomb shelters within reach.  

A Haifa building damaged in a rocket attack during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Nir Kafri
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.72971

 

 

 

Analysts say that in the next Lebanon War

Israel could see 1,500-2,000 rockets shot across its borders per day, compared to the 150-180 per day  we experienced in the Second Lebanon War of 2006. Todays rockets and missiles are more sophisticated, can be aimed more accurately and reach much greater distances - reaching every part of Israel - than those we saw in the Second Lebanon War.

Israel has also greatly increased its attack and defense preparedness but there is no way we could stop a barrage of rockets of such dimensions, and massive civilian casualties are expected. 

 

 Reports are coming in that Hezbollah forces have already amassed along the Israeli border taking over civilian homes in which they have hidden military equipment and weapons. http://observer.com/2016/07/third-lebanon-israel-war-not-if-but-when/. It is believed that Hezbollah now maintains a sizeable army of 40,000 to 45,000 soldiers evenly divided between conscripts and reservists.

 http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/JPost-Editorial-Ten-years-later-459790

 

 

 

 

Homes in southern Lebanon occupied by Hezbollah forces and separated from Israel only by this wire fence
http://observer.com/2016/07/third-lebanon-israel-war-not-if-but-when/

It is important to understand that Hezbollah is essentially the striking arm of Iran. A colonel and brigade commander of the IDF put it this way,

"You also have to realize, that Hezbollah is the outpost of the Iranian empire. Iran does not govern Lebanon, but it controls Lebanon. Don’t be fooled.   This, out here, [pointing to Lebanon] is not Lebanon—it’s Iran.”

Earlier this month, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Hossein Salami declared at a sermon  “Today, more than ever, there is fertile ground—with the grace of God—for the annihilation, the wiping out, and the collapse of the Zionist regime. In Lebanon alone, over 100,000 missiles are ready to be launched.”  When it serves Iran's interests the command will be given and these missiles will “pierce through space, and will strike at the heart of the Zionist regime,” preparing the ground for its great collapse in the new era.”  He also said that  “Tens of thousands of other high-precision, long-range missiles … have been placed in various places throughout the Islamic world. They are just waiting for the command, so that when the trigger is pulled, the accursed black dot [Israel] will be wiped off the geopolitical map of the world, once and for all.”

http://observer.com/2016/07/third-lebanon-israel-war-not-if-but-when/

 

At the same time as war preparations are being made in the north of Israel so too is the tension along the Gaza border continuing to build. Just this week a rocket hit a kindergarten in one of the southern towns. Fortunately no one was in the building at the time and only two people were slightly wounded. Hamas however is continuing to dig tunnels, arm and train its forces preparing for the next Gaza war.

 

Meanwhile civil unrest is growing in both Gaza and the West Bank as various factions express dissatisfaction with the current regimes. This could result in a chaotic situation in the Palestinian areas as warring factions vie for power such as we see in Syria today. http://www.brecorder.com/market-data/rates-a-schedules/118/65012/ 

 

All in all there is no room for complacency. Please pray for Israel. Our enemies outnumber and outgun us enormously but we have the LORD God Almighty on our side.

 

 

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.

¹⁹ The South shall possess the mountains of Esau,
And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
²⁰ And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Shall possess the cities of the South.
²¹ Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

 

Obadiah 1: 15-21

 Finally: here are some links to some interesting videos and articles you may be interested in seeing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYMviMHH0nc  "Inventing the Palestinian People"- video about the origin of the Palestinians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNcXMXy1Jw  "Palestine Festival for Childhood and Education" - video about the hate education and brainwashing of Palestinian children.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSwifGaSYaA  Philistine Cemetery found at Ashkelon - archaeological discovery

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4826103,00.html   Israel trauma center "Natal" - overwhelmed by those needing trauma counseling and help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKEgjeCbgWQ  video about Jerusalem


http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/CNN-explains-U-turn-to-list-Tel-Aviv-terror-attack-in-graphic-459772 - article about biased reporting by CNN


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4826913,00.html  - Talpiot bus terrorist sentenced




A REQUIEM FOR THE SINAI

 

Mt Sinai
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25500/Default.aspx
 

One of the greatest dangers of the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) is not so much that it is conquering territory, committing horrendous humanitarian crimes, practicing ethnic cleansing,  and imposing barbaric Medieval Sharia laws on the populations it rules, but that it has drawn the entire world's attention away from all the other threats to peace, especially Iran and its nuclear program, and the spread of radical Islam throughout the world.

 

One area which is largely escaping the world's awareness is the threat crouching in the Sinai Peninsula. When I first came to Israel in 1979, half the Sinai was still under Israeli control. I worked at the Eilat Field School for several months and on our days off we would freely wander and explore the Sinai. I often travelled alone on foot in the desert accompanied by my little terrier dog, and never felt any threat or danger at all from the local Bedouins. Quite the opposite. They always treated me with respect, hospitality and kindness. In those days, the Sinai was a mecca for Israeli holiday makers with the beaches being filled shoulder-to-shoulder with tents and the air filled with the aroma of roasting barbecues. The Bedouin too were enjoying the presence of the Israelis, who brought with them employment, hard dollars, healthcare and schools. The Bedouin drove Mercedes, had fat healthy flocks of sheep and goats, sleek camels and warehouses full of smuggled electronic goods. They had never had it so good. Then in 1982 Israel was forced to return the last of the Sinai to Egyptian rule, and the Peninsula became a neglected backwater, a kind of no-man's land. Over the ensuing years a series of terror attacks, and the absence of any effective law and order, eroded the tourist industry to the extent that no one, certainly no Israeli, will venture there any more. The local economy crumbled and the unemployed young men grew angry and discontent. A perfect recipe for the incursion of the ideology of the Islamic jihadists. A plethora of jihadi terror organizations moved in, recruiting as they came. Now the whole peninsula is a hotbed of terror.

 

The most active and most dangerous of the terror organizations operating in the Sinai is the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Supporters of the Holy House), a Salafi Jihadi group, which has been active since the Egyptian Revolution in 2011.Its activities escalated dramatically after the 2013 overthrow of  Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood controlled government in Egypt. It claims to be acting in retaliation for the consequent crackdown against Islamist supporters in which 1400 have been killed and around 15,000 imprisoned, hundreds of whom are sentenced to death http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/11/15/Ansar-Beit-al-Maqdis-militants-claim-deadly-Sinai-attack.html .  Over the last few years Ansar Bayt al-Maquis  has been responsible for repeated attacks on the pipelines that bring oil from Egypt to Israel (part of the Sinai return deal), a number of missile attacks on the Israeli city of Eilat, assassinations and bombings in Egypt,  and the brutal beheadings of so-called Israeli collaborators (none of whom were known to Israeli Intelligence). They have also attacked and killed scores of Egyptian police and soldiers. The deadliest attack occurred on October 24th  this year when an explosives-filled car was rammed into a military checkpoint , near the border with Gaza, killing 31 Egyptian soldiers.

 

Immediately following this attack, the Egyptian government created a buffer zone, 13 km long and 500m wide, on its side of the border in Rafah, the 'Palestinian' city that straddles the Egyptian-Gaza border, in order to stop the infiltration of terrorists and arms. In clearing this strip they evicted around 600 - 1000 families (estimates vary), with only 48 hours notice, and destroyed their homes. When they razed the homes they found hundreds of smuggling tunnels.  According to the Times of Israel, this buffer strip will be monitored by surveillance cameras and feature a water-filled trench that will extend to the Mediterranean Sea. (What an outcry there would be if Israel had dared to do such a thing!!!!).  

http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-steps-up-efforts-for-gaza-buffer-after-discovery-of-more-tunnels/ 



Homes being demolished in Rafah, Wednesday 29 October 2014
http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-steps-up-efforts-for-gaza-buffer-after-discovery-of-more-tunnels/

Today a video was posted on Twitter, purportedly by Ansar Bayt al-Maquis, claiming responsibility for the October 24th attack. This comes after a week of yo-yo-ing claims and denials that they had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) and renamed themselves the Sinai Province (of that State). http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Ansar-Bayt-al-Maqdis-posts-video-of-deadly-attack-that-killed-30-in-Sinai-381854.  In a statement cited by Reuters Monday this week,  a spokesman for Ansar Bayt al-Maquis said that they had decided to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (leader of ISIS), who has declared himself to be the Caliph of the Muslims in Syria and Iraq and in other countries. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25500/Default.aspx . The next day, Ansar Bayt al-Maquis denied all involvement with the Islamic State. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/187044#.VF-TXJscRLM  It is difficult to know where the truth lies but there is no doubt they share the same ideology and goals as the Islamic State, namely to ultimately destroy Israel and spread Islamic rule over the whole world.  If they have joined forces however, this will effectively bring the Islamic State right onto the doorstep of Israel.

 

Meanwhile, what are our other neighbors doing?   Hamas in Gaza is busy rearming itself and boasting that it will renew missile attacks on Israel very soon. It even boasts that it is rebuilding the tunnels and will carry out a massive terror incursion via those tunnels. Hezbollah boasts at least 200,000 missiles currently aimed at Israel, enough to virtually obliterate every Israeli city and town.  Iran, laughing at the West, continues its development of nuclear weapons,  and at the same time  is supplying  more and better missiles to Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria http://yalibnan.com/2014/11/14/iran-confirms-supplying-missile-production-plants-to-syria-hezbollah-hamas/. According to the Times of Israel today,

"A top Iranian military commander announced Wednesday that Palestinian terrorist groups and Hezbollah received Fateh-class missiles that are able to attack any target in Israel.

 

Tehran has also provided Hezbollah and Hamas with advanced rocket training, Revolutionary Guard Brigadier General Sayed Majid Moussavi said, according to the Fars News Agency.

 

If true, this would be the first public revelation by Iran that the Palestinians are in possession of Fateh missiles that have a range of 200 kilometers, according to the Israel Missile Defense Association.

“Considering the range of their missiles, they are able now to attack all targets from southern to northern parts of [Israel]” .

 http://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-general-palestinians-have-longer-range-missiles/

As our enemies are busy arming themselves with the aim of obliterating Israel, our main ally, the USA, led by a vague, ineffectual  and seemingly ambivalent  President Obama, is faltering in its support. One student of the situation, Noah Beck, gives voice to how many Israeli's see the situation with the USA in a rather tongue-in-cheek article published today. Its worth a read. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25522/Default.aspx ) 

http://yalibnan.com/2014/11/14/iran-confirms-supplying-missile-production-plants-to-syria-hezbollah-hamas/

Given the scale and malevolence of these threats to Israel's existence, is it any wonder we are feeling alone here in our fight against the jihadist Islamic threat?

  

But we are not alone.

 

 King David declared,

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”

 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
 “Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”

 “I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
 You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
 Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
  Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Psalm 2

Addressing Jerusalem, the LORD God of Israel has this to say:

Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
    I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
    your foundations with lapis lazuli....

 Terror will be far removed;
    it will not come near you.
 If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;    whoever attacks you will surrender to you. ‘See, it is I who created the blacksmith
    who fans the coals into flame
    and forges a weapon fit for its work.
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc;
   no weapon forged against you will prevail,
    and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
    and this is their vindication from me,’
declares the Lord.

Isaiah 54: 14-17

God raises up kings and rulers for his own purposes, sometimes in order to bring Israel to its knees in repentance, but those same rulers and kings will eventually be punished for coming against the LORD's anointed, and in the end, repentant Israel will be victorious.

The day of the Lord is near
    for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
    your deeds will return upon your own head.
Just as you drank on my holy hill,
    so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
    and be as if they had never been.
But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
    it will be holy,
    and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

Obadiah 1: 15-17

The LORD stands for Israel, today as in the past, and though our enemies might rise up against us in immeasurable might, the LORD is greater than all the armies and all the weapons, and He will fight on our behalf. I pray that we all will be found fighting  alongside Him on the side of righteousness, and prayerfully doing battle against the powers of darkness, when that day comes.