Shalom friends,

As I was finishing this newsletter, Russia invaded Ukraine. For several days I was under lots of pressure to try and figure out what God was saying and/or doing and how to pray about it. Finally, the Lord spoke to me – not verbally but in one of those outside-of-time revelations that explains so many things in an instant yet takes lots of time to put into words.

He reminded me of my call as a watchman for Jerusalem/Israel (Isa. 62:6-7), and that for the last several years I have daily prayed for Him to make me like a son of Issachar who knows the signs of the times and what Israel ought to do (1 Chr. 12:32). Basically, He was letting me know that my God-given burden centered on Israel – and not on any other nation except when what they did – or did not do – impacted His plans for Israel.

His word released the pressure I was under as I understood that whether one is the head of Intercessors for Israel [IFI] or a disciple of Yeshua working in a secular environment, we need not expect to understand in detail everything He was doing in today's world (Deut. 29:29).

Of course, we can all pray for the obvious issues – such as protection for innocent civilians on both sides, and for the fear of God to run swiftly through Ukrainian and Russian streets, saving multitudes. And of course, for those involved with IFI, that Jews in both nations would make aliyah and come home.

And there is the good news. Bibles are sold out in Ukrainian bookstores and thousands of Ukrainian Jews are requesting help to come to Israel (Jer. 31:8). Also, believers in both Russia and Ukraine are in touch with each other and praying together. Meanwhile Israel once again sees that it has only itself to depend on – and more Israelis are looking to God for His protection (Psa. 44:4-7; 121:4). All of these are specific answers to prayer.

Understanding the last days

How is it possible to know what God is doing in today's world if we do not see the link between Israel's restoration and salvation with end time prophecy? To emphasize the need for the gospel to be declared unto the ends of the earth without also emphasizing the need for the Jewish people to be regathered from the ends of the earth to the land of their forefathers is to see only half of God's current work to wrap up this age.

Do you realize how blessed we are to be alive at a time when the gospel is being proclaimed throughout the world, and also when the Jewish people have been returning to the land of Israel from over one hundred different nations since the mid-1880s.

Now if Israel is seen in its correct, biblical place, is there a clue in His Word to show us where we are prophetically? There is only one verse that I know of in all of Scripture which clearly delineates the timing of the Lord Yeshua's return. It is found in Psalm 102. The first eleven verses of that Psalm graphically describe the horrors of the Holocaust, after which we read that it is God's appointed time to favor Zion (102:13). That began to be fulfilled in one day (Isa. 66:8-9) when He moved on most of the UN member nations to vote in favor of establishing a Jewish State in a small part of what was then known as Palestine (Psa. 33:10-11; Prov. 21:1).

Right after that, and in line with Psalm 102:15, huge revivals sprang up throughout the earth. This was at the end of the 1940s, and into the 1950s, and included millions of Chinese being saved under a wicked Communist regime. Soon after that, the "Jesus revival" followed, sweeping multitudes more in the Kingdom – including many Jews. It is no coincidence that it started around the same time that Jerusalem was no longer under the heels of the gentiles as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War (Luke 21:24).

Then in Psalm 102:16, we read, When YHWH shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. Obviously this refers to Messiah' s Second Coming since the first time He appeared to His people it was in His humility, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech. 9:9), and being crucified in full public display. But when our Lord returns, it will be in His glory as He descends on a war horse with the hosts of heaven accompanying Him (Rev. 19:11-16).

Therefore without Israel being restored to its land, and Jerusalem back in Jewish hands, there can be no return of Israel's King (Zech. 14:3-4, 16-17). Yeshua said that He had to ascend up to Jerusalem to die (Luke 13:33) and fulfill His salvation mission (John 19:30), and after He was resurrected in Jerusalem – He ascended from Jerusalem to His Father's right hand (Acts 1:9; 2:32-34a). When His returns, it will be to Jerusalem to fulfill prophecy (Matt. 23:39; Acts 1:11), and to set up His millennial-long earthly reign – from Jerusalem (Zech. 14:16).

So if Israel and Jerusalem are as central to His return as they were to His crucifixion and resurrection, how can believers who ignore, or misplace, or replace Israel, know where we are in God's end-time calendar? How can they even understand what God is doing in regathering His people to His land (Lev. 25:23) or His very clear judgments on all the nations that stand in the way of His final preparations for the return of His Son (Joel 3:1-2)? They cannot and all their charts and prophetic teachings are at best only partially true – at worse a deception coming out of their own blindness about Gods people, His land and the connection of His Church to both.

Is God's sovereign or do people have free will?

According to Hebraic thinking, which is biblical thinking, the answer is "Yes!" God is totally sovereign (Num. 23:19; Deut. 4:39; Psa. 22:28; 99:1; 103:19; 115:3; 135:6; Isa. 52:7; Lam. 3:37; Matt. 28:18; Acts 10:36), yet people are still going to be held responsible for their free-will decisions (Deut. 30:19; Prov. 1:31; Rom. 2:6-10; 2 Cor. 9:6; Gal. 6:7).

Some think this does not make sense. Yet it does make perfect sense to those of us who understand that our logical-man-centered thinking is fine for us, but it does not alter the truths found in God's Word. This is a real issue for many of the theological questions which believers struggle with today. Are we really willing to allow God to have the final say or do we insist that whatever He says – and does –must make sense to us?

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says YHWH. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:8-9) If this is the case, how then shall we live? We trust completely in the Lord God and His Word while not trusting in our own understanding in that same definitive way (Prov. 3:5). We can do that but it means training ourselves to see things from our position of being seated in heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua (Eph. 1:20), and that comes from eating and digesting His Word and allowing God to have His way with us (Jer. 15:16; Heb. 4:12).

God has promised that as we need it He will reveal His truth to us, and at times, the revelation we get from His Word and His Spirit bypasses our logic – yet if it lines up with His Word, we then are to seek God to hear if this truly is from Him (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John 4:1).

Going back to the second paragraph in this section, humanistic-type thinking puts mankind at the center of the universe and insists that everything must make sense to the human logic-based mind. [Quantum science is doing a great job of shaking this thinking in the scientific realm.] But Hebraic, biblical thinking places God and His Word at the center of existence and then as we submit our thought processes to His revelation, we understand reality from a heavenly perspective. After all, if there is a God who created us, then the only way we can know Him is through His reaching down to us and giving us revelation of how things really are (Psa. 119:130), whether He uses His Word, His Spirit, His Son, or His creation (Rom. 1:20).

Are we citizens of God's kingdom or His democracy?

Recently I have wondered whether believers, especially in the West, have bordered on making "personal liberty" an idol. That has caused me to question whether believers living in various types of democratic nations have skipped over the truth that God's Kingdom is not a democracy. We are called bondservants of our King Yeshua who is never referred to in Scripture as our president or prime minister. [Doulos, the Greek word for servant or bondservant can also be translated "slave".]

New Testament authors often call themselves "slaves/ bondservants" of either God or the Lord Yeshua (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Tit. 1:1; Jam. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1;1; Jude 1:1; Rev. 1:1). They died to self and replaced their egos and rights and desires under the will of their new Master (Matt. 10:38-39; 16:24-25; Luke 9:23; 14:27; John 12:25-26; Rom. 8:13; 1 Cor. 15:31).

As bondservants of Messiah we no longer have the freedom to do whatever we want. Many believers were never taught the basic truth that when they were saved Yeshua took not only their sin, but He also took complete possession of their life. We are now stewards, or caretakers, of our life for Him. He owns our money so that we cannot do whatever we want with it. He took our ambitions and goals, replacing them with His calling on our lives. And He also owns our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19). It is not "my body – my choice", but for believers it is now "His body – His choice"!

If we live in obedience to Him, we should no longer decide what to do or not to do concerning any major changes in our life without first seeking His leading. We are His sheep and He has promised to lead us (Psa. 23:1-3) – but too often believers, especially those raised in democracies, tend to wander off on their own paths because it seems as if they think that when Yeshua said, Know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32), He was using freedom in the personal and political sense – which is how we so often use it today. But He was not. In fact the day of our salvation was not our "Independence Day"; it was rather our "Dependence Day", as independence from God is what got our ancestors kicked out of the Garden of Eden in the first place (See Genesis 3).

Knowing the truth – that Yeshua our Savior is the Truth and His Word is also the Truth (John 17:17) – sets us free from our slavery to sin so that we can become all that we were created to be – bondservants of the Most High God and His Son, in order that God through us, Messiah's servants, as well as through Messiah Himself, will receive all the glory (Psa. 115:1-3; John 15:8; Phil. 2:5-11).

But doesn't King Yeshua call us friends? Looking at the context – which believers tend to ignore as they pull verses out of context, and then fit them to their own theologies – Yeshua was speaking to His disciples. He called them friends because of their obedience and service to Him (John 15:9-15). This is just like an earthly king, who has many bondservants while a few of them whom He trusts to do his will become his close associates – his confidants, his friends.

So we who are blessed to live in democracies need to examine ourselves as to whether we have set up an altar to "personal liberty", or whether we are still walking as humble servants of our Great King.

Israel Today had an article on this issue which focused not on individual believers, but on the nation of Israel. "Can a nation be both democratic and religious? Not religious in the sense that most of its population believes in a higher power, but in the sense that its laws are based on religious edicts. To most Westerners, the very notion is today anathema to modern democracy." They see nations like Iran "as entirely backwards for enforcing as a matter of civil law the doctrines and values espoused by Islam's holy book." And nations where Sharia [Islamic Law] is the rule of the land are "definitively Muslim in character," yet real "democracy and personal freedom are elusive."

In today's so-called "Christian" nations, "democracy and personal freedom" are now more sacred "than the Word of God." While these nations are seen as "free," their basic "character" is no longer "Christian," and the majority of their citizens would be against that anyway.

Israel finds itself "somewhere in the middle, and this is the source of great internal tension. Does Israel need to remain unique as a 'Jewish' state, and what does that even mean?" What should take the lead "in the operation and running of the state, democracy or Judaism? What's more sacred to the character of the nation? What's more biblical?"

A majority of Israeli Jews, including the secular, "would agree that maintaining 3,000 years of Bible-based traditions and values, and having those reflected in national life," is very important. But is this possible in a democratic state? "This is the test for Israel. Will it remain, as a nation, a standard-bearer of biblical faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Can it do so while giving such prominence to liberalism and democracy? Or does this put Israel on a path to becoming a nation like any other, a purely democratic affair that's no longer a 'Jewish state' but rather a state where Jews find asylum?"

Reading the Bible, we see that "the leaders deemed most worthy of esteem are not those who gave the people freedom to do as they pleased. No, we admire the kings who without remorse tore down the pagan altars and punished those who violated the nation's divinely-given laws." Is it possible that "Israel's divine mandate isn't compatible with man-made forms of governance"?

And think about Israel's future. "When Messiah comes, he's not coming as a candidate in the next national election. He's coming to rule, with an iron fist. And not one of us is going to have any say as whether or not we consent to him taking up the throne in Jerusalem. Democracy will be over and done." ("The Jewish State – or a State of the Jews" Ryan Jones, Israel Today, 4 Feb. 2022)

I personally do not want Israel to be run as a kingdom now, as even in biblical days, that did not turn out to be good except under a God-fearing king. But as believers we should at least recognize the unbiblical foundation of today's democracies, where a majority of citizens – a majority of whom are unsaved – get to pick a government that will give them the most goodies. Maybe Winston Churchill was right as he is reputed to have said, "Democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the other forms of government!"

Trump rages at Bibi

In an interview last year with an Israeli writer, ex-US President Donald Trump cursed former Israeli Prime Minister [PM] Bibi Netanyahu and then dismissed Israel as a serious peace-partner with the Palestinians. This is bad news for Americans who want Trump as their next president. And if, in fact, Trump is a Christian, he is a very immature believer who is ruled by the flesh and, according to Paul (1 Tim. 3:5-6) that is a dangerous time for a believer to be in any position of authority.

Trump cursed Netanyahu because Bibi congratulated Biden on his presidential victory. Trump also lied, saying Bibi was the first world leader to congratulate Biden, when in fact he was very late compared to many others and received much criticism in Israel over his delay. Yet Trump was furious, taking this personally, as if Netanyahu was being disloyalty to him. If this is his view on international diplomacy, he has no clue of what relations between nations are based upon – which is national interests. Netanyahu as Israel's Prime Minister had no choice but to congratulate the new leader of Israel's closest ally. Whether the elections were fair or not was not an issue for Israel to judge as that would have been interfering with the internal affairs of another nation.

Netanyahu responded very diplomatically to this personal attack by reiterating that Trump was a real blessing to Israel when he was in office – which is absolutely true – and also mentioning that he had no real choice but to do what he did – which is also absolutely true.

Yet Trump went further, saying that Netanyahu and the Israelis were less interested in a peace deal than the Palestinians, and that he perceived Palestinian Authority [PA] President Abbas as a father-figure. This is a total betrayal of what he said and did while in office, and a huge distortion of the truth as the Palestinians' concept of "peace" with Israel is basically what the Nazis called the "final solution". If Trump really believes this he is a very deceived individual.

Finally, Trump's most dangerous and arrogant statement was when he said that he was the one who prevented Israel from being destroyed by Iran. So he cursed Bibi, sided with the Palestinians, and then took the place of God as Israel's savior. May God give believers in the US much wisdom as they stand in the gap crying out for mercy in the midst of His judgments (Ezek. 22:30-31). And may God touch Trump in such a way that he openly confesses he was wrong in what he said about Israel and Netanyahu and ask for forgiveness. That would take a huge miracle as he is not a humble man, but until that happens, according to the Bible, Trump is under God's curse (Gen. 12:3a; Num. 24:9b).

The JP added that during two interviews with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid in 2021, "Trump repeatedly expressed his suspicion that Netanyahu was not interested in coming to a peace agreement with the Palestinians …" In actuality this is a specific answer to our intercessions and we are most grateful that Netanyahu did not cave in to American pressure.

Trump repeatedly expressed "his sense of betrayal" because Netanyahu congratulated Biden, saying, "Nobody did more for Bibi and Israel than I did…The Golan Heights was a big deal… He would have lost the election if it wasn't for me. He was tied and then he went up a lot after I did Golan Heights." Then, responding to a question about Bibi's message to Biden, Trump said "I haven't spoken with him since… F**k him!"

And again, what was probably most offensive to God's ears was Trump's claim that by pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal he saved Israel. "I'll tell you what – had I not come along I think Israel was going to be destroyed. Okay. You want to know the truth? I think Israel would have been destroyed maybe by now." ("Trump accuses Netanyahu of deceiving him over peace intentions," JP, 11 Dec. 2021)

Palestinian society is very sick

One very good reason why a Palestinian State would be a horrendous idea – regardless of where it would be located – is that the Palestinians have damaged their children and grandchildren greatly by teaching them to hate Israel and the Jews. This is really a form of nation-wide child abuse, but since it is aimed at Israelis and Jews, the world chooses to remain deaf, dumb and blind to it. Yet the hatred is so deeply embedded in their minds and hearts that only a born-again experience in Messiah Yeshua will bring them freedom and peace.

Israel Hayom's Dan Schueftan notes that "The Palestinian struggle presents Israel with a cruel choice: to allow the murder of Jewish children and civilians," in order to avoid striking "a mosque or a Palestinian school where missiles are stored or to kill Arab children and worshippers in an attempt to prevent such murder…

"Palestinian society and its barbaric terrorism…cause more disdain than outrage. Enemies can be respected, even in times of war, but the kind of enemy that does not care about the lives of its children and the sanctity of its places of worship and who praises the murder of its neighbors deserves nothing but contempt and must be deprived of the sovereign tools that a healthy people use to build a state." ("Palestinian struggle has no leg to stand on," D. Schueftan, Israel Hayom Op-ed, 14 Dec. 2021)

Bassam Tawil, an Arab living in the Middle East [ME] wrote on how a "Palestinian teacher and three school children were directly involved in the recent spate of terror attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank. This came as little surprise to those familiar with the ongoing hate and incitement against Israel in Palestinian schools and textbooks, as well as in the media, mosques and university campuses…"

An Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) study showed that even the new PA textbooks "remain openly anti-Semitic and continue to encourage violence, jihad (holy war) and martyrdom while peace is still not taught as preferable or even possible." By this the PA leaders not only "failed to fulfill their promise to Western donors to change the textbooks," but made the new books "even more radical" than the older ones. The study added, "There is a systematic insertion of violence, martyrdom and jihad across all grades and subjects."

These student texts reject any "possibility of peace with Israel," do not mention "any historical Jewish presence in the modern-day territories of Israel and the PA," and falsify "Jewish history and heritage," declaring that all of the Jewish holy places are "Muslim areas usurped by Zionists."

Students are also taught that "Jews control the world," and that they are "sinful liars and fraudsters" who are "enemies of Islam in all times and places."

In the updated books, "Jews and Israel are vilified to a greater extent than in previous curricula," and antisemitism is more prevalent. Israel, called the "Zionist Occupation," is demonized, and Jews are declared to be an enemy of Mohammed himself.

Tawil: "This is precisely the rhetoric that encourages school children to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews." This poison is "being injected into the hearts and minds of Palestinians" while the Biden administration refunds the PA and pressures Israel to revive the two-state solution peace farce, and while PA leaders work overtime to prepare the next generation to become murderers of Jews. ("The Palestinian School of Terrorism," B. Tawil, Gatestone Institute, 22 Dec. 2021)

Here are excerpts from a recent address by Gilad Erdan, Israel's UN Ambassador, to the UN Security Council. "I expressed my hope a year ago that discussions on the ME in this forum would be more balanced and would finally focus on the true threats that plague the region. Unfortunately, I have to convey this wish again for 2022. Indeed, there are today serious actors that threaten regional stability and security. No more so than Iran, whose leaders continue to weave their web of terror across the region."

This Iranian threat "demands the urgent attention of the whole world – none more so than here in the Security Council." Yet once again, we hear "the same false narratives attacking Israel…the same old falsehoods, the same old hypocrisy. And if there is one word that stands out above everything at the UN, it is hypocrisy."

The Palestinian Foreign Minister had spoken at the Council using "all the regurgitated accusations and baseless claims," against Israel, yet "conveniently" ignoring that just in December alone, there were "more than 200 terror attacks…by Palestinians against Israeli citizens." In fact 2021 saw "thousands of other violent attacks against Israelis" which are hardly even mentioned in the Security Council. They included "rockets fired indiscriminately from Gaza, shootings and stabbings of civilians in Jerusalem, and car rammings."

He continued, "Where is the voice of the Palestinian leadership against any violence? Israelis do not hear it, the international community does not hear it, and the Palestinian people certainly do not hear any condemnation. Instead, they hear encouragement and incitement. When Palestinians see the support and honor that their leaders give to terrorists, they clearly see that terror pays…This hypocrisy, this moral bankruptcy, is a poison that is spread online, in the media, in the mosques and even in the schools, under the PA," and they continue to pay terrorists salaries. In fact,"the more Jewish blood you spill, the more money you and your family get." ("Erdan at UN Security Council: 'This rock can kill'," Ambassador G. Erdan, Arutz 7, 19 Jan. 2022)

Iran

Dan Schueftan wrote that the "Democratic West in general and the US in particular, has consistently failed to understand radicalism." They assume radical slogans are empty of real meaning and that national leaders will act rationally and "pragmatically" once they see they "have something to lose." Yet this mindset has led them to misread Hitler, Arafat, Syria's President Assad, Turkish President Erdogan, and others. "A similar 'cultural blindness' has consistently failed Americans when they tried to bring democracy to Iraq, pluralism to Libya, acceptance to the Muslim Brotherhood, women's equality to Afghanistan, and peace to the Palestinians."

Today, no deal with Iran will "curb its nuclear progress but will greatly increase its capabilities and regional aggression." The real danger of a deal is found "in the strategic realm," because by "focusing on curbing Tehran's nuclear enrichment efforts alone will eventually make it easier for the regime to become a nuclear threshold state and strengthen its status as a regional power…Lifting the sanctions will bring the ayatollah regime tens of millions of dollars and will open the door for hundreds of billions more from Europe, China, India, and others," which feared US sanctions.

If the US contributes in any way "to strengthening Iran and its regional control," this will "inevitably lead to a conflict with Israel, which sees such hegemony as an existential threat." ("When it comes to Iran, is the US missing the bigger picture?" D. Schueftan, Israel Hayom Op-ed, 23 Nov. 2021)

When Erdan spoke at the UN Security Council, he pointed out that a recent Houthi drone attack on the UAE "was sponsored by Iran, as are most acts of terror carried out in the region. What the Houthis have in common with Hezbollah and Hamas is that they are all terror proxies of the same malicious sponsor. The whole region continues to live under the shadow of the Iranian threat."

Referring to the Vienna talks, he sees the global community at a crossroads. "If the Iranians are allowed to think the world does not seriously intend to stop them as they race towards the bomb, then they will continue to build a nuclear bomb. If Iran is allowed to think, that it can continue to build a corridor of terror from Tehran to the Mediterranean, then that is what they will do…Iran, the biggest state-sponsor of terror, strives to impose its radical Shi'ite Hegemony on the region and beyond. This is not just a problem for Israel. This is a problem for the whole world." ("Erdan at UN Security Council: 'This rock can kill'," Ambassador Gilad Erdan, Arutz 7, 19 Jan. 2022)

Prophetic events today

The world hates you for My name's sake (John 15:18-19; 1 John 3:13): Hate crimes against both Jews and Christians skyrocketed in Europe, during 2020, as a recently released report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) showed a "70% increase in crimes against Christians," and an increase of almost 400% in anti-Semitic hate crimes.

M. Enzlberger, director of the Observatory on intolerance and discrimination said this "massive increase in the number of hate crimes should open the eyes of political and cultural elites… In the media and politically, hatred for Christians is hardly noticed," and as with all hate crimes, the actual number "is significantly higher than reported."

PI News reported on a war raging in Germany "against everything that symbolizes Christianity: attacks on crosses placed on top of the mountains, sacred statues on the street, churches and recently also of cemeteries." And in France, on average, two churches are vandalized daily.

There is some good news as "a poll by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee of leaders of Jewish communities in Europe found that 23% are considering emigrating."

P. Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, when asked by the media if he feels safer in Moscow where he lives, or in Paris or Brussels where he goes regularly, said, "I feel much safer in Moscow …" Some months prior he had met Jews in Dubai, UAE, "who moved there because they feel safer there than in Paris or Brussels …"

A few years ago, 1.6 million Jews still lived in Europe. Today that has decreased by at least 300,000. ("Record number of hate crimes against Jews & Christians in Europe," Giulio Meotti, Arutz 7 Op-ed, 23 Nov. 2021)

God uses anti-Semitism: Y'shai Amichai is an Orthodox Jew who actually knows and believes the Tanach. He wrote that Jews should be "wise enough to understand" that antisemitism prevents them "from making grave and irreversible mistakes. There are greater forces at play here than most people care to admit. When seeing riots, terrorist attacks, or wars from a greater, historical perspective, what is at risk here in Israel, or in the Jewish communities of the diaspora, is a lot more than Jewish lives. What is at risk is the entire nation of Israel and its role in the world. What is at risk is God's Plan for mankind."

Then he added, "The real peace plan is between us and God." ("The Arabs are doing us a favor," Y. Amichai, Arutz 7 Op-ed, 23 Dec. 2021)

Syrians bless Israel today: Israel Today's Ariel Schneider quotes a Syrian refugee who after listing "the hardships under the rule of Syrian dictator B. al-Assad," adds, "I envy the Syrians who live on the conquered Golan Heights!" That is Syrian-talk for the Golan under Israeli sovereignty.

In Syria there are hundreds of thousands dead, "millions of refugees, no food, poverty and everything has been destroyed." This is since "the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011…" The refugee continued, "If we had been conquered by Israel, we would not be in the dire situation we are in today. Therefore I bless and praise my Syrian brothers and sisters who live on the conquered Golan Heights…the only district in Syria that has been spared and where no one has been killed. The children on the Golan Heights go to school. Not so with us."

He asks, "Why did you [Israel] only conquer the Golan? Why didn't you conquer the entire country of Syria during the war? If you had asked us, the people… we would have said to you, please conquer all of us, all of Syria. The Assad regime let Iran into the country. They destroyed Syria and want to turn us into Shiites.

"The Syrians in the Golan enjoy security, stability and tranquility under Israeli rule. If the Golan were also under the Syrian rule of the devil [Assad], everything there would also be destroyed and dead. May the Israeli conquest of the Golan Heights be blessed and I wish this soon in Syria. May Allah bless the Land of Israel!"

Such voices are often heard among Arabs, but not as publically as this man. Schneider writes, "I can't tell you how many times Palestinians have told us that they thank and praise Allah for allowing them to live under Israeli rule, or how often I hear something similar from Bedouins in Sinai, Egypt, who remember the Israeli rule from 1967 to 1981. For all the criticism that Arab governments may have against Israel, the Jewish state is a light and a blessing to the nations, including the Arab nations." ("Syrians: 'May the Israeli conquest of the Golan be blessed!" Ariel Schneider, Israel Today, 30 Dec. 2021)

Arab-Zionism: Melanie Phillips wrote on a fascinating trend that as "Western liberals and the UN Human Rights Council double down in their determination to demonize, delegitimize and destroy Israel," support for the Jewish State is "coming from a surprising direction."

The 2020 Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE kindled a hope that this historical "linkage might herald an end to the century-old Arab war against the Jewish state. Now there are signs of a new and related phenomenon: the emergence of Arab Zionists. In the Jewish Chronicle, Jonathan Sacerdoti has reported that a number of Arab influencers, with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, have emerged to promote Israel and support the Jews."

Phillips mentions the Syrian quoted above and also reports on an Arab academic who "was moved to tears by visiting Jerusalem's Holocaust memorial Yad Va-shem," and wrote in a social media post, "Today, together, Muslims Jews and Christians, we promise you, it will never happen again."

From Dubai, a 39-year-old Arab wrote, "It's very righteous for the Jews to have their ancestral homeland in the land of Israel." Referring to the Tanach, he said, "Jews are not colonialists or conquerors in the land of Israel because if we would believe that then we would believe that David, Solomon, Isaiah and [Jeremiah] and the prophets were actually colonizers and that would kill the Islamic faith."

While Jew-hatred remains strong among fundamentalist Muslims, or Islamists, Gulf Arabs show that cracks are beginning to appear in the Arab world in general. Led by "the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MbS], the Gulf States are turning away from Islamism…Islamists view modernity as the lethal enemy of Islam and believe that behind modernity are the Jews. To MbS, by contrast, the Arabs must embrace modernity because the Islamist alternative will return them to tribal desert primitivism. And Israel is the key to modernity, as well as to protect against their common Shia Islamist foe in Tehran." And while these sane voices are few in number, their coming out of the closet is an encouraging trend.

"These open expressions of Arab friendship towards Israel indicate a significant movement of the geopolitical tectonic plates. Arab 'Palestinians' are now being abandoned by their erstwhile Arab allies." Islamism has taken over much of the Palestinians thinking. "This doesn't just apply to Hamas… It also applies to the supposedly moderate PA, whose leader Abbas openly venerates the Islamist al-Husseini, who was Hitler's ally in the ME and committed to a 'Final Solution' of the Jews throughout the region…

"As an increasing number of Arabs realize that Israel is not their enemy but their indispensable ally, the Arab Palestinians' last remaining hope is the West's obsessive animus against Israel and the Jews." ("The emergence of Arab Zionism," M. Phillips, Arutz 7 Op-ed, 14 Jan. 2022)

A January editorial "in the Kuwaiti daily Arab Times called for Gulf States to normalize relations with Israel," and questioned why Kuwaitis supported the Palestinians despite their insults to the Gulf States. "When [the Palestinians] are happy, they curse the Gulf leaders and people. When they are angry, they use all of the defamatory and abusive words in their dictionary against us," said A. al-Jarallah, the Arab Times' editor-in-chief, adding that then the Gulf nations "overlook all that by sending them aid."

The editorial pointed out how the Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein, ex-Libyan leader Gaddafi and Iran's IRGC commander Soleimani, noting that this was "just the tip of the iceberg."

Al-Jarallah called on the Gulf Cooperation Council States, "to cut support for the Palestinians and to stop mediating whenever they launch missiles towards Israel." He concluded, "Enough is enough! The camel’s back has been broken from the burden of grief we endure due to the ingratitude of the Palestinians…All the Gulf States should normalize relations with Israel due to the fact that peace with this most advanced country is the right thing to do. Let the foolish fend for themselves." ("Kuwaiti paper pushes normalization with Israel, criticizes Palestinians," JP, 30 Jan. 2022)

E.M. Bounds on prayer

E.M. Bounds was an American author, attorney and a Methodist who was born in 1835 and died in 1913. He is known for his excellent series of books on prayer. This quote from his book, Purpose in Prayer, pg. 3, [1920], is definitely worth contemplating: "God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. The lips that uttered them may be closed to death, the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God's heart is set on them and prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; they outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world." Amen.

Call upon Me in the day of trouble:
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.Psalms 50:15

Blessings from Jerusalem

Chuck Cohen