Israel under attack — Vivienne Myburgh

Israel, God’s nation on the earth — under attack again from all angles!

God has always warned that those who represent His Kingdom would come under attack from the forces of darkness, who would seek to destroy His Name, through destroying His representation on the earth. 

Israel is the nation God Himself chose to place on the earth as a physical representation of His Kingdom. A practical demonstration for the nations to witness the outworking of a covenant keeping God with His people!

Psalm 83:2-4 speaks of the plight of this nation: 

“For behold your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted their head.
They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
They have said. “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, 
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

The Scriptures and our history books both record that this has been Israel’s lot from the very beginning and throughout the ages. Current events continue to report, if anything, an increase in the illogical manifestation of this ancient hatred.      

The prophets foretold that it would be so — and even more so in the latter days, where evil will rise against those who represent His Kingdom more intensely than ever before!

A glimpse into current events in Israel and the nations: 

Recent ruling by a French court not to put a man on trial for murdering an elderly Jewish women.  

Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish women, was attacked, brutally beaten and thrown off her  balcony, to her death, by her neighbor, Kobili Traore, in April 2017. He is a Muslim immigrant from Mali and shouted “Allahu akbar” while beating her and called her a “dirty Jew” before pushing her out the window of her Paris apartment.   

The French courts recognized the antisemitic nature of the murder but declared that Traoré could not be tried due to the claim he was in a drug-induced “delusional fit” and, therefore, not in control of his own actions. By ruling that Traoré was under the influence of drugs, the French court absolved him of criminal culpability in one of the most horrific anti-Semitic murders in Europe in recent times. 

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Paris, Tel Aviv and around the world against the recent ruling by the French Court.

While the main demonstration was held in Paris’s Place Du Trocadero, hundreds of protesters also took to the streets in Tel Aviv, London, Jerusalem, New York, Los Angeles, Miami and different cities throughout France. 

In Tel Aviv, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevich expressed her solidarity with the Halimi family. “From Tel Aviv to Paris, the Jewish people in Israel and around the world stand united in solidarity with the Halimi family and the French Jewish community,” Yankelevich stated. Yankelevich stressed the antisemitic nature of the murder. 

“Sarah Halimi was murdered only because she was a Jew. Especially today, with the alarming rise in radical Islamic antisemitism throughout France, this court ruling sets a dangerous precedent that jeopardises the security and wellbeing of our brothers and sisters in France,” she said. 

French President Emanuel Macron also expressed support for the country’s Jewish community and its efforts to bring the killer of Sarah Halimi to trial and said he said he would seek a change to laws to prevent such a case from happening again.

France is currently home to the largest Jewish community in Western Europe, numbering almost 500 000 people. It is also the third-largest Jewish community after Israel and the United States. 

USA antisemitism on the rise.

It is reported that in 2019 the USA recorded the highest number of antisemitic events ever (2 107 incidents) and that 63% of US Jews encountered antisemitism in the country over the last five years.

Escalation of Rockets from Gaza into Israel: 

Terrorists from Gaza fired over 40 rockets into Israel over the past weekend and launched another three rockets early on Monday morning. The Iron Dome missiles intercepted two, with one projectile exploding inside the Gaza Strip.

This was as a consequence of the Gaza leadership calling for Palestinian resistance in Jerusalem. The IDF carried out strikes against terror targets in Gaza in response to the rocket fire and Israel announced on Monday that it has closed the fishing zone off the Gaza coast.

Rocket sirens were heard in the Gaza border community of Kissufim early yesterday morning due to the launching of two rockets which fortunately landed in open fields. The tension remains high and the IDF has warned that they will defend their communities by attacking the points in Gaza from where the rockets are being launched. 

Tension on Israel’s northern borders: 

Syrian missile exploded in southern Israel on Thursday April 22

An Israeli military spokesman identified the projectile as an SA-5 surface-to-air missile fired by Syrian forces against Israeli aircraft. He said it overflew its target to reach the Dimona nuclear area, 200 km south of the Syrian border. It fortunately did not hit the reactor but exploded 30km away. This followed weeks of heightened tension between Israel and Iran, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, amid renewed global negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Thousands of rockets, supplied by Iran, are also aimed at Israel from Lebanon, which continue to cause tension in the northern areas of Israel.  

Iranian threat intensifies

Iran, who openly calls for the destruction of the Jewish State, continues to equip Israel’s enemies as part of their eventual goal to destroy Israel. Their ongoing uranium enrichment towards a nuclear bomb is a major concern for all in the region and Israel has taken the lead in taking whatever steps are needed to prevent this taking place.

Israel was most likely behind the extensive blast that occurred at their Natanz site on Sunday April 11 which caused extensive damage to thousands of centrifuges. Pres Hassan Rouhani says that Iran will produce 60% enriched uranium in retaliation.

Attacks from within Israel:

On April 15, the second day of Ramadan, a Palestinian man attacked two ultra-orthodox Israeli boys on the Jerusalem light rail. The footage of the unprovoked attack went viral on the video-sharing app TikTok. In the days that followed, more and more clips of attacks on Israeli civilians started appearing on the platform. The alarming development was quickly dubbed the “TikTok Intifada,” a reference to the Arabic term for a violent uprising. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh hailed the rioting as “scenes of heroism emerging from the streets and alleys of the city of Jerusalem… [that] confirm once again the failure of Israeli plans to Judaise the Holy City. Ayman Odeh, head of Israel’s Joint Arab List, which holds a sizeable six seats in parliament, also incited violence: “This [the clashes] will be the case until the intifada comes to end the occupation and hoist the Palestinian flag above the Al-Aqsa mosque, above the churches and above the gates of Jerusalem,” he said.

The surge in violence began on the first night of the Muslim month of Ramadan and last Thursday night (April 22) may have been one of the “darkest” nights that Jerusalem, has seen in a long time. Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli police close to the Damascus gate of the Old City. The protests were some of the most violent in years and dozens of police and Moslem Arab rioters were injured. A number of Jewish right wing youth also got involved and this caused the tensions to escalate before the police got the situation under control.   

International Criminal Court ruling against Israel

Scholars call it “Holocaust inversion” – accusing Israelis of being just as bad as the Nazis!

This is outrageous, of course! Yet it is now being practiced on a grand scale by the world’s highest criminal court. So how did this happen?

The Nuremberg trials of senior Nazi officials for war crimes against Jews and other victims was perhaps the most gripping trial in human history. It led to a global movement for establishing a permanent international tribunal to ensure that those who commit heinous war crimes which “shock the conscience of humanity” will be held responsible for their actions. It took 50 years, but the International Criminal Court in The Hague was eventually founded to carry out that task.

Yet now, the ICC is exercising its mandate in a truly perverse manner, by launching a war crimes probe against Israel which would equate Israel’s legitimate efforts to defend itself with the worst Nazi crimes against the Jewish people in the Holocaust. This is a truly shameful decision, and we must stand up against it!

Thus, the International Christian Embassy is launching a global petition addressed to the ICC judges and state members urging them to abandon this appalling perversion of justice.

The ICC probe against Israel was prompted by a biased, overzealous chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who spent the past six years privately consulting with Palestinian Authority officials to build a fraudulent case against Israel. This means the PA can now exploit the Court to further its longstanding agenda of depriving Israel of its right of self-defence, while also criminalising the legitimate rights of Jews to live in peace and security in their ancient homeland.

This devious probe against Israel must be stopped! It must be opposed by everyone concerned with fairness and justice in world affairs. Christians, in particular, have a historic and moral duty to stand against such discriminatory actions against Israel.

ICEJ launches petition in support of standing with Israel against the ICC ruling !

Please join your voice to our effort to turn back this corruption of justice. Sign our ICC petition today!

Go to: on.icej.org/iccpetition

 

Support our petition for Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng

You can also help us to reach 150 000 signatures in our petition in support of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s constitutional right to express his Christian views!

  Go to: http://chng.it/hZK2HC2D4K

 

We remain steadfast in the knowledge that He is faithful to watch over and to keep His Word to His nation Israel!

Sing to God you kingdoms of the earth;
Oh, sing praises to the Lord,
To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old!
Indeed, He sends out His voice, a mighty voice.
Ascribe strength to God;
His excellence is over Israel,
And His strength is in the clouds,
O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places.
The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people.
Blessed be God! — Psalm 68:33-35