Israel at epicentre of political storms — Charles Gardner

By United Kingdom Correspondent Charles Gardner

There is no panacea for those who refuse to face up to the truth.

Seventy-five years after the D-Day landings paved the way for Europe’s salvation from tyranny, its nations have once more become enslaved to godless ideologies our heroes gave their lives to defeat.

At the same time war and rumours of war dominate the headlines as the world shakes amid fierce political, social and spiritual storms, at the epicentre of which stands Israel, where a couple of real earthquakes (measuring 4.5 and 4.6 on the Richter scale) have struck in recent days.

Having consistently vowed to wipe Israel off the map, Iran is now feared to be just six months away from developing a nuclear bomb. In the aftermath of its announcement that it has begun violating the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers, a former leading official in the International Atomic Energy Agency is warning that Tehran could be as close as “six months away from an atomic bomb”. In an interview with IDF Radio, Olli Heinonen said: “Israelis need to be worried, and the Gulf states also have reason for concern.”¹

Meanwhile Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has thanked Iran for providing the rockets his terror group used to strike deep into Israel and warned the Jewish state that Tel Aviv would be struck again in response to any offensive against the Gaza Strip.²

And as President Trump sweeps through London to howls of protest, his Mideast “Deal of the Century” looks in jeopardy as the uncertainty surrounding Britain’s future is replicated in Jerusalem where Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced to hold another election after failing to form a coalition. We do not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.

Meanwhile, as the once Judeo-Christian nations of the West have turned away from God, so Jew-hatred is on the increase, much of it thinly veiled as “legitimate” criticism of Israel.

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As the Nazis successfully brainwashed the German people to believe the lie that the Jews were behind all the world’s troubles, so much of today’s liberal Western media repeatedly questions the status and legitimacy of Israel, not to mention the civilisation built upon the Scriptures they gave us.

We now hear that British Jews have been forced to close their businesses as a result of the aggression of a pro-Palestine group supported by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Corbyn is patron, targeted shops selling Israeli products in Brighton, London and Manchester, forcing two businesses to fold.³ And this comes as Labour became the only party after the ultra-right BNP to be formally investigated for racism by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.⁴

Meanwhile Israelis are this week celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem, after nearly 2 000 years in Gentile hands, through the 1967 Six-Day War. But Palestinians have predictably responded with riots on the Temple Mount, refusing to acknowledge Jewish claims to the city and its holy sites.

I was fascinated by the film Goodbye Christopher Robin, which focuses on the regrets of children’s author AA Milne. Plagued by flashbacks of his traumatic time in the World War I trenches, Milne sets about writing of his hopes for a world without war before getting distracted by a wonderful world of carefree play with his young son.

His initial determination to make some sense of all the carnage with his call for peace is perfectly understandable – my own grandfather was profoundly shell-shocked at the Battle of the Somme and subsequently sent to Africa to recuperate.

But Milne’s dream was as naïve as that of the Ban the Bomb campaigners which followed decades later. For it failed to grasp the reality of man’s basic propensity for evil so clearly spelt out in the Bible.

Until the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, returns to earth as promised, there will be no ultimate peace, though we should nevertheless strive for peace-making whenever possible, as our Lord urges us (Matthew 5.9).

But as long as godless dictators rule with evil intent, they must be challenged and brought to book. In this respect, President Trump is right to pull no punches with the Ayatollahs of Iran, and he was right to criticise London Mayor Sadiq Khan for saying he (Trump) was a “global threat”.

And yet it’s Trump, almost alone among world leaders, who is willing to call out those who really are a threat to world stability. But we are living in days spoken of by Isaiah when we are plagued by the voices of those “who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” –Isa 5.20

A woman interviewed about Trump as she stood among the crowds outside Buckingham Palace said she was opposed to him because “he has no respect for life”. And yet this is the president who has presided over the introduction of a wave of anti-abortion laws across America. He actually believes life is sacred – even in the womb.

As the culture wars rage on in the US, Britain and elsewhere, we must remember that only Jesus, who came to give us “life that is truly life” — 1 Timothy 6.19, can bring true peace to men’s hearts. And when both Jew and Arab discover this truth, as we are witnessing on an ever-increasing scale in Israel today, reconciliation is the result. As the Apostle Paul wrote: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” — Ephesians 2.14

So why are we not hearing more about this solution to war and violence? The enemy of souls does not want you to know about God’s rescue plan. And the mainstream media and liberal elites are colluding with his evil scheme, while much of the general population voluntarily stop up their ears.

Isaiah himself, when called by God to preach, was told he would be a failure! (Isa 6.9) The people as a whole would not listen to him. But he was urged to preach the message anyway so that those who did have ears to hear and eyes to see could turn to the Lord and be healed.

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Don’t allow the enemy to cloud your vision. Hear instead the word of Isaiah: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light…For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” — Isa 9.2,6

¹World Israel News, 5^th June 2019
²Jerusalem News Network, 5^th June 2019, quoting Times of Israel
³Daily Mail, 31^st May 2019
⁴Ibid