Shalom friends,

Is it possible that the wearing down of the saints, which the enemy is prophesied to do in these last days (Dan. 7:25a), is already being accomplished in the West, whether fully or partly, through information overload, leading to a dilution of His specific burden to each individual believer?

There are many things in the world which I do not touch on in my writings or intercessions, like the war in Ukraine, the persecution of believers in China or Nigeria, the 2020 US elections and all the confusion that ensued, plus much more. My burden from the Lord is Israel, its restoration and salvation, leading to Yeshua's return and God being glorified (Num. 14:21; Psa. 72:19; Isa. 6:3; 60:1-2; Hab. 2:14; Mal. 1:11; Rev. 19:1-6).

If something in the news impacts Israel, or aliyah, or anything else that relates to God's burden which He has laid on me, I focus on that. Other end-time events are for those members of Messiah's Body who have received specific burdens concerning them. Regrettably, many believers wrongly assume that everyone must pray into every urgent event occurring today.

Paul writes about this when he compares the believing community to a body (1 Cor. 12:4-20). Not everyone is the eye, or the ear, or the foot. All are important for a body to function properly, but if I am a mouth – and as a preacher, teacher and author, that probably is my spot – yet instead, I want to be another part, then Messiah's Body will end up being handicapped simply because I will be out of place.

To put this another way, we are all assigned specific positions on Jerusalem's walls (Isa. 62:6-7), yet if we move from there and try to take a spot given to another believer, then we leave a gap through which the enemy can enter and cause great confusion in God's city.

This applies to every believer, so if you are not sure what part of the Body you are supposed to be – ask the Lord because it is for sure that He wants you to know your place in His kingdom today (Rom. 12:1-8).

Birth pangs

When a woman is close to giving birth, her contractions and birth pains often hit suddenly and get stronger, more painful and closer together the nearer she is to the birth of her child. God compares the upheavals in the last days to a woman in travail (Isa. 13:6-11; Mark 13:5-8; 1 Thess. 5:1-3). Consider how rapidly and at times painfully, the world has changed over the past few years.

Immediately after the coronavirus plague struck there was a huge change in travel – with places like Israel closing its gates and other nations placing restrictions on who could enter or leave. Also, lockdowns changed the way many people related to each other. Historically speaking all of this happened suddenly.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, all of a sudden there was talk of a new cold war with a chance of it turning into a hot war between Russia and the West. Almost immediately, most of Western nations placed very strict sanctions on Russia and life for both Ukrainians and Russians – changed suddenly.

Russian President Putin's actions breathed new life into NATO by awakening European nations to the danger of a nuclear-armed antagonist. Unfortunately, most NATO members do not view Iran in the same way as Russia and are continuing to trade with it, or trying to resurrect ex-US President Obama's wicked anti-Israel, and anti-moderate Arab nation Iranian Nuclear Deal.

We should expect these types of events to increase leading up to the return of our Lord Yeshua. No one can be totally prepared for changes like this, but as believers we can be led by our Shepherd to know how to walk in the midst of any shadow of death that closes in on us (Psa. 23:3-4).

[Unfortunately Psalm 23 has a reputation in Western Christianity of being read over a grave in a very grave voice (pun intended), yet it is actually a wonderfully encouraging Psalm for today. Read all of it aloud as a confession of your faith in Messiah Yeshua: The Lord [Yeshua] is my Shepherd – I shall not lack! This is the type of confession and mindset we are going to need to feed our spirits on as we get closer to His return.]

Capital punishment

The following excerpt is from Hard Sayings of the Old Testament by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., one of my favorite theologians. It was written in 1988 and has proven to be very prophetic. "But if a society persists in refusing to take the life of those conclusively proven deliberate and violent abusers of others' lives, then that society will stand under God's judgment and the value of worth, dignity and respect for persons in that society and nation will diminish accordingly. It is self-defeating to argue on the one hand for civil and female rights and to turn around on the other and deny them to the one struck down by a murderous blow."

Now read Ecclesiastes 8:11. Believers must decide to trust in God's Word in all things in which the Word is very clear, or we will find that satanic spirit of Humanism, which is running rampant especially in the West today, will warp our biblical worldview. [I wrote a book on the dangers of Humanism which is available from the IFI online store]

America aims to divide Jerusalem again

In June, in a major diplomatic move, the US State Department upgraded its Jerusalem office to the Palestinians. "The Palestinian Affairs Unit changed its name on Twitter to the 'US Office of Palestinian Affairs [OPA] in Jerusalem'." This is significant with an embassy spokesperson saying, "The name change was done to better align with State Department nomenclature." Yet this is more than "just a technical move."

The Palestinian Affairs Unit, now the OPA, "has operated within the US Embassy in Jerusalem since the embassy moved there from Tel Aviv in 2018 under the Trump administration." The name change signifies US President Biden's "desire to stick by his election promise and reopen a US Consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinians…" Yet Israel's government formerly under Prime Minister [PM] Bennett, and today under PM and Foreign Minister Lapid have vocally opposed "reopening the consulate in Jerusalem that in effect functioned as an embassy to the Palestinians."

The US upgrade "has an impact on the status of the city as Israel's capital. The issue is not about whether there should be a consulate to handle Palestinian affairs…but why a US Consulate for Palestinians should be based in Jerusalem and not, for example, in Ramallah, the PA's seat of government."

Israel has remained steadfast against any reopening as it would also "be unprecedented to have both the US Embassy to one country and the de facto embassy to a foreign entity operating from the same city." Also, the US Embassy and the building where the consulate formerly stood "are both in west Jerusalem in areas not under dispute and not considered up for negotiation in any future peace deal."

The JP editorial emphasized that this move actually hinders any future peace process, as America's upgrading of "ties with Palestinians in return for nothing but intransigence does nothing to encourage the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table in good faith.

"Israel must continue to make clear to the US that reopening the US Consulate in Jerusalem is a red line… The friendship and ties between Israel and the US are deep and longstanding," but some "things are not up for negotiation, including Jerusalem's status as the capital of Israel." ("Upgrading US-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem impacts status as Israel's capital," JP Editorial, 12 June 2022)

The fallacy of the "two-state" solution

James Sinkinson asks several hard questions of all the pundits and Western politicians who "have reflexively called for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict for so long, the idea has lost any literal or useful meaning." Modern Israel has existed for 74 years and in that "relatively short time, the Jewish state has become one of the world's strongest democracies. It wields eminent political, economic and military influence globally."

But what would a "Palestine" look like? "We don't know who would negotiate a Palestinian state or who would be in charge of it. We don't know what the terms of a second state would be – like borders and peace agreements with Israel. We don't know what the vision would be for the new state's political, military and economic structure… because none of its proponents reveal them. We don't know what the US or EU envision. Likewise, we don't even know how the Palestinians imagine their new state."

Westerners are either ignorant of or just flat-out reject, most findings of "very negative Palestinian attitudes toward two states…" For example, a November 2021 poll found only "29% of all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria ('the West Bank') believed a two-state solution is the best way to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict." So the question to those advocating a two-state solution is simple: "Why do you support something a majority of Palestinians do not? And: How do you propose to convince Palestinians that your opinion is worth more than theirs?"

Also, the Hamas-led dictatorship in Gaza "violently opposes the two-state solution. Its solution, as defined by the Hamas Charter, is to destroy Israel." So how do two-state proponents answer this: "How realistic is a two-state solution if the militant jihadist group that rules 42% of the Palestinian population objects to it in principle?"

The next question is who will lead the Palestinians as they "live in two disconnected areas and are ruled by two distinct, warring political groups," both of which are dictatorships and bitter enemies who have failed in all "attempts to reconcile over the last 17 years…" Besides all this, neither Fatah in the "West Bank" or Hamas in Gaza, have had elections since 2006.

When diplomats tried to hold peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, they assumed that Fatah were the representatives of the "real" Palestinians, and thought that if negotiations are successful, Hamas would by some miracle "join the peace party. However, Hamas rabidly denies this…"

This poses a big question for two-state advocates: "Even if the Fatah party were to accept peace with Israel – which they have refused to do for some 55 years – what makes you think Hamas would a) accept a peace deal in which they had no part and b) would not start a war to conquer the new 'state' negotiated by Fatah?"

One additional question is who really represents the "West Bank" Palestinians? In the last elections in 2006, "Hamas won the majority of votes. They immediately seized Gaza and threw Fatah out…" Today's PA leader Abbas rules in the West Bank, but "is currently serving the 17th year of a four-year term." Palestinians there are bankrupt as their whole economy is "propped up by financial contributions from Western nations. Most analysts agree, too, that if Israel did not assist in security in the Palestinian areas, Hamas would quickly take over."

Abbas is 87, has no real heir-apparent and 70% of those living under him reject him as leader. "Thus, it's entirely possible that when Abbas dies, Hamas will simply start ruling the West Bank's 2.7 million Palestinians as a thugocracy, just as in Gaza." [Note that the current demographic figures of how many Palestinians there really are in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are challenged by knowledgeable people who claim the figure is vastly exaggerated and is probably at least a million less than what is being put forth.]

This brings us to the question of what will a "Palestine" look like? "We know that Gaza is run by a designated Islamic terror organization, driven by jihadist ambitions and governed by Sharia [Islamic] law…Hamas doesn't believe in democracy or in civil liberties, including elections. We know two of their written precepts: Kill Jews; destroy and conquer Israel."

Fatah is also undemocratic and "opposes the rule of law and basic civil freedoms." In addition, "the PA is notoriously corrupt" benefiting only its top officials and not its people.

"Logically, we would expect the new Palestinian state to look like a toxic mix of the two current governments. Thus, our final question for supporters of the two-state solution: What facts convince you that a new Palestinian state on Israel's borders would be a responsible nation that honors freedom for its people and peace with its neighbors?"

"The idea of a two-state solution has become empty rhetoric – a shallow proposal that raises more questions than it answers. Unfortunately, when we answer those tough questions honestly, rather than portray an inspiring dream of liberation, they portend a nightmare – for the Palestinian people, and especially for Israel." ("3 tough questions about the 2-state solution," J. Sinkinson, Israel Hayom Op-ed, 14 June 2022)

Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh wrote, "The Biden administration is living under the illusion that the 'two-state solution'…is the only way to achieve peace, security and stability in the Middle East [ME]." Yet a large majority of Palestinians reject this, preferring to the Iranian backed Hamas terror group replace the PA.

Shortly before Biden's July trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, a public opinion poll "by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research indicated a significant drop in support among the Palestinians for the 'two-state solution' and a rise in support for a return to an armed intifada (uprising) and terrorist attacks inside Israel."

The results revealed that 69% oppose the "two-state solution," 75% oppose "a one-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians would live together and enjoy equal rights," while 55% support a return to violent confrontations. Also 69% are against an "unconditional resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations," and 65% do not even want to talk with the Biden administration. And if "new presidential elections were held today, Hamas leader Haniyeh would receive 55% of the votes," while Abbas would only get 33%.

Of great concern is that most Palestinians see Hamas as "the most deserving to represent and lead [them]. Hamas' rising popularity…means that the Palestinian state the Biden administration is seeking to establish next to Israel would soon be ruled by an Islamist group whose covenant states that 'Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as Islam obliterated others before it'."

Or as article 11 of the Hamas Charter states: "The Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas] believes the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered … [or] given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king of president, nor all kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that."

So again, all those pushing for a "Palestine" to be created, are in reality aiding a state which will "be used by Hamas and its patrons in Iran as a launching pad to obliterate Israel. Hamas leaders have never been anything but clear and consistent about their intention to eliminate Israel and kill Jews…" ("The 'Two-State Solution' to destroy Israel," K. Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, 4 July 2022)

Ronn Torossian, an Orthodox Jew, defended the Jewish people's right to live in Judea and Samaria – the so-called "occupied territories" – in a very special way. "No one disputes that Jesus (Yeshua) was Jewish. His mom was Jewish; all of his friends, colleagues… were Jewish. He went on pilgrimage to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. And, he was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea. Hence, Yeshua – perhaps the most significant and influential person in history ever – was a settler.

"How can millions worldwide accept the story of Yeshua, claim that a Jewish family raised this Jewish boy in this city – yet claim the Jews do not have history and the right to this land? There is nary a Christian alive who disputes that he was born in Bethlehem in Judea – the same city where King David had been born a thousand years earlier. And if that is the case, how can anyone say that there is any 'occupied' territory in Israel? …

"The Jewish people – from way before the time of Jesus – have a Biblical," and legal, "connection to these areas which are part of the State of Israel, pre and post the 1967 war. All of the Land of Israel is rich with stories from the Bible – and Judea and Samaria belong to Israel as much as Tel Aviv does.

"There is no factual basis to claim that there is occupied territory in Israel. As Israel's former PM Netanyahu put it clearly, 'The connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has lasted for more than 3,500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David and Solomon, and Isaiah and Jeremiah lived are not alien to us. This is the land of our forefathers'.

"The Jewish right to the entire Land of Israel is eternal. The Jewish link to all of the Land of Israel pre-dates even Jesus (and, of course, Mohammed – but that is another article.)." ("If Jesus was born a Jew, how can Jews be 'Occupiers'?" R. Torossian, Arutz 7 Op-ed, 21 July 2022)

Israel Today had a report from Sauveteurs sans Frontières (SSF) Judea and Samaria, stating that in the first half of 2022, Arab terrorists have already committed over 3,700 terrorist attacks against Israelis, resulting in 21 Israelis "murdered, leaving behind 43 orphans and 316 were injured." This is just one more reason why the Palestinians do not deserve a state and why the "two-state solution" is no solution at all.

The figures were "2,692 rock attacks, 577 Molotov cocktail attacks, 542 incidents of roadblocks with burning tires, 178 attempts to blind Israeli drivers with a laser, 33 explosive charges, 41 arson incidents, 30 attacks with fireworks, 25 bottles of paint thrown at vehicles, 21 rock obstacles on the road, 14 shooting attacks, one vehicular attack, and seven thwarted stabbing attacks. 159 Israelis were injured in rock attacks, including 98 civilians, 40 soldiers, and 21 policemen."

The SSF added that in the recording of incidents, if "10 vehicles were attacked simultaneously on the road, this is counted in the report as one incident, and therefore the number of attacks is probably larger than what was documented in the report." ("Over 3,700 terrorist attacks against Israelis in 2022 so far," Israel Today, 31 July 2022)

Israel – the cause of the world's evil

Alan Baker, director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has also served as legal adviser to Israel's Foreign Ministry, noted that the desire to criticize Israel, regardless of what it does or does not do is today "a permanent fixation to the point of being an unbreakable obsession or fetish." Whether it "relates to Israel's internal policies, or to governance of the territories, responses to terror attacks or … to situations with no apparent linkage to Israel, the obsessive necessity to find linkage to Israel inevitably emerges."

This fixation focuses only on Israel – not any other nation. "It singles-out Israel as the butt for criticism for any and every reason," and seems to be deep-rooted in "the psyche of those who revel in it, and who seek out every opportunity to denigrate and delegitimize Israel."

While no societies or nations are "beyond rational criticism," Israel as a state "has never benefited from the equality to which every other state is entitled." Ever since its creation "and acceptance into the UN as a member of the international community, Israel has been denied one of the basic principles guaranteed to all states as set out in the opening articles of the Charter of the UN – the principle of sovereign equality."

This disparaging of the Jewish State "takes the form of exclusion from UN regional groupings," preventing Israel from submitting "its candidacy and candidates to main UN organs such as the Security Council or the International Court of Justice." As this is now considered normal in the UN, being practiced for over 70 years, is it any "wonder that the fixation for singling-out Israel appears to be accepted internationally"? This fuels the incessant focus and obsession with Israel in politics and in the media worldwide, feeding "a fixed agenda hostile to Israel's existence and engaged in delegitimizing" it internationally.

Another source of "automatic criticism" which has been around for millennia and which today has saturated international society is antisemitism. Of course, Palestinian leaders – political and religious – use all this to try and "delegitimize Israel in the international community." Just consider the major anti-Israel shift that has taken place in "respected international bodies such as the International Criminal Court, the UN Human Rights Council" and UNESCO.

With the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Palestinians are concerned that not enough attention is being paid to them so they "seek to equate the low-intensity Israeli-Palestinian dispute with the high-intensity open warfare conducted by Russia against Ukraine…" Of course, these attempts "are false, misguided and presumptuous." They lie about the nature, history and complexities of Israeli-Palestinian dispute, yet the lies have been eagerly sucked up by the world infected with anti-Israelism. (Criticizing Israel has become an unbreakable fetish," A. Baker, JP Op-ed, 25 Apr. 2022)

Anti-Zionism is in reality anti-Semitism

Alan M. Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, addressed why the Palestinian cause gets "so much attention, when there are much more compelling causes around the world," like the Kurds, Uyghurs, and other stateless and oppressed people, Why are there "more demonstrations on university campuses against Israel than against Russia, China, Belarus and Iran"? He says the "answer has little to do with the Palestinians, and everything to do with Israel," the Jewish State, as we are seeing a "political manifestation of international antisemitism." This is why Arab nations which truly oppress the Palestinians – such as Lebanon and Syria – are almost never mentioned.

Today "the hard-left" prioritizes the Palestinians," while basically ignoring other causes, just because Israel is the so-called culprit of this issue. "It has little to do with the merits and everything to do with anti-Semitism. It calls itself anti-Zionism, but it is only a cover for anti-Jewish bigotry…"

The umbrella group of this "crowd of anti-Semitic bigots" is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement which was started "by a Palestinian radical named Omar Barghouti, who does not hide the fact that his goal is the destruction of Israel and the substitution of a Palestinian state 'from the river to the sea', meaning the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea — namely all of current Israel." The aim of the BDS leaders is "to see this entire area Judenrein …ethnically cleansed of more than 7 million Jews who now supposedly 'occupy' Muslim and Arab land…"

There is a serious question of whether the Palestinians even deserve a state having rejected one numerous times. When the two-state solution was first proposed in the late 1930s, the Palestinians' first leader, M. Amin al-Husseini, the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem, declared, "We want there not to be Jewish state more than we want there to be a Palestinian state." This is that al-Husseini who "allied himself and his people" with the Nazis during WW II, and spent the war years with Hitler, "planning to bring the 'final solution' to the Jews of what is now Israel. He was declared a Nazi war criminal." Yet he is seen as a hero to many Palestinians even today.

And although they were allied with the Nazis, "the Palestinians were offered a state on the vast majority of arabe land, as part of a UN proposed two state solution; the Jews were offered a state on a far smaller area… The Jews accepted the compromise two-state solution. The Arabs rejected it and went to war against the new Jewish state seeking to destroy it." This act of illegal military aggression birthed "the Palestinian refugee" problem which is called the Nakba – "catastrophe" – until today, yet "it was a self-induced catastrophe…"

During the years that followed, "the Palestinian leadership under Arafat opted for terrorism against Israeli and international civilian targets." They were offered "a state in 1948, 1967, 2000-2001, 2005 and 2008. They still preferred no Jewish state to a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel…"

How many demonstrators against Israel have any clue of this history? Are most just being used by "those who know the history but want to undo it because it resulted in a nation state for the Jewish people? …The bottom line is that the hard left's irrational opposition to Israel is a modern manifestation of the world's oldest and most enduring bigotry" – anti-Semitism. ("Why is the flawed Palestinian cause so prominent on the hard left?" A. Dershowitz, Gatestone Institute, 10 June 2022)

In June, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) released its annual report on Saudi Arabia education, which reported "that content portraying Jews as disobedient and teachings of anti-Semitic tropes such as Jewish wealth were removed from the Saudi curriculum." This is a part of a gradual improvement in recent years concerning this issue in that Islamic nation.

IMPACT-se added that "Qur'an verses describing Jews being turned into monkeys were removed, as was the anti-Semitic myth that one of the goals of Zionism is a 'global Jewish government'. In addition, Qur'an verses prohibiting friendships with Jews and Christians" has also been eliminated over the past three years.

Miraculously, in 2021, an "entire textbook unit on jihad was taken out of the curriculum, while in 2020, a chapter entitled "the Zionist danger" – dealing with several topics "regarding the delegitimization of Israel's right to exist" was also removed.

Yet some "problematic content remains," as Israel is still missing from textbook maps and Zionism is still labeled as "racist." But overall, IMPACT-se sees a "clear trajectory of improvement" in the Saudi school curriculum. ("Antisemitism largely eliminated from textbooks in Saudi Arabia," JP, 29 June 2022)

Prophetic implications

Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio also writes op-ed pieces for Arutz 7. He notes the dire situation Europe finds itself in. "Germany is beginning to ration heating, electricity in the streets and water in swimming pools. It looks like news from 1942, but instead it is from 2022…Europe's largest and richest country is running out of energy after Russia…cut gas supplies, causing prices to skyrocket and triggering the biggest crisis since 1973. An influential German leader is concerned that "the social peace of Germany is in grave danger."

A Der Spiegel headline read, "Hamburg could ration hot water." Large residential properties are lowering the gas heating temperatures of its tenants at night. A district in Frankfurt shut off hot water in schools, and Cologne dims its night street lights by 30%. Italy is also ready to ration everything from lighting to heating.

"But there is a deeper crisis than the energy one…" It is invisible and it links poor Greece, rich Germany and Italy. "To overcome this crisis it is not enough to ration, the battle of reason will be needed."

Greek PM Mitsotakis, speaking at the conference "Demographics – The great challenge," said that the lack of children being born to European families "is a bomb, whose timer runs fast, and which we are called to defuse in time…it is a phenomenon that is besieging almost all European countries," maybe even all "Western societies with a high standard of living." Yet the opposite problem is seen in the developing world, where there is "overpopulation, an explosion of births that continues to occur on continents such as Africa." He correctly viewed this as "an existential question, which has been operating in the womb of everyday life for decades."

Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency, reports "that in Greece – where more than half of the population is already over 50 – the population will decline by 2 million within fifty years (the country now has 10 million inhabitants). In practice, a nation will be erased from the geographical map, reduced to being a magnificent archipelago rented by foreign tourists."

A recent Greek headline read, "Demographics: 35% population reduction in Greece by 2060." Abortions have now skyrocketed because of the financial crisis. "The country is committing suicide." Italy has a similar crisis: a "collapse of births, aging and flight of young people abroad."

Greek historian Polybius in 150 BC wrote, "In our time all of Greece has been characterized by a reduction in the birth rate and a general decrease in population, due to which the cities have become deserted and the countryside has stopped giving crops." He said the reason was decadence: "The men had fallen into such a state of indolence that they no longer wanted to marry, and if they did marry they did not want to have children, or at most have one or two."

Meotti: "We live longer and we no longer have to plow the land to eat, but basically the West today is no different from that described by Polybius."

Spain has a 1.24 birth rate, whereas the minimum to sustain a society is 2.1 children per family, yet "the government in the last year has obsessively approved three measures that have little to do with life: euthanasia, abortion for minors without parental consent and sex change for girls…"

As Meotti says in his conclusion, "Western Europe is plain crazy." I would add that so are most other Western nations, including America, except for a few former Eastern European countries, and Israel whose birth rate is better than 3 children per family. ("What Europe really lacks is not fuel, but babies," G. Meotti, Arutz 7 Op-ed, 15 July 2022)

The UN, no friend of Israel, seems to get more anti-Semitic/anti-Zionist the longer it exists. The latest blasphemy against God's nation was spewed forth by a UN Indian human-rights expert M. Kothari, who in an interview with the Mondoweiss website warned about a global "Jewish lobby" controlling social media, "and the overuse of antisemitism,". He even wondered why Israel was still a UN member nation.

Number 23:9b does say that the Jewish people shall dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations. So this could be part of that worldwide assault on the Jewish State that is referred to in Zechariah 12:2-3 and 14:1. And while this is God's doing, woe to the nations that decide to come against Israel.

Kothari is one of three members of a "UN Commission of Inquiry [COI] on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel," which was created in 2021 and is to report back to the UN Human Rights Council twice a year. "The COI is unusual in that its mandate is open-ended, and it is tasked with investigating human-rights violations in sovereign Israel as well as in the West Bank and Gaza." Israel has with good reason accused the COI of bias, and the COI "has warned that it plans to investigate Israel for the crime of apartheid."

Kothari "accused Israel of disregarding intentional human-right law and UN resolutions, including snubbing the COI by refusing to cooperate with it and banning it from visiting," and questioned why Israel is even a UN member.

He cautioned that just the issue of apartheid, is not "sufficient to capture the enormity of what has happened in the area… It does not look at the whole history of settler colonialism…Just ending apartheid is not going to end the occupation." It seems that this man has already made up his mind that Israel is guilty of apartheid.

Kothari added that the COI would target "arms supplies to Israel and business dealings that involve human-rights violations, including in West Bank settlements." He arrogantly added, "We want to continue to expose" Israeli actions, as the world cannot allow Israel "to get away with" their, to him, illegal activity. "Israel has no intention of ending the occupation, and the persistent discrimination against the Palestinians lies at the heart of the systematic recurrence of violations."

It is to be noted that the US and several other nations were very upset at Kothari's interview – but there is a question of whether their anger was Israel-generated or whether they came to it on their own. ("UN official: Social media largely controlled by Jewish lobby, NGOs," JP, 26 July 2022)

What is the secret of the Jews immortality?

American author Mark Twain wrote an article in Harper's Magazine in 1898 entitled, "Concerning the Jews": "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.

"He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

"The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, and no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"

Of course, we know the answer. It is most clearly expressed in Jeremiah 31:35-37, and God being faithful to His Word is still making His people – the Jews – both influential and an open witness to Him in these last days.

God's Word, truth and joy

It is not by chance that close to the end of God's Word, the Holy Spirit writes through the Apostle John, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk [+live] in truth. (3 John 1:4) While many in today's world have the mindset of Pilate – questioning if there is any ultimate truth (John 18:37-38a) – Yeshua was very clear in identifying what for Him, the Living Truth (John 14:6), is also the ultimate truth – God's Word (John17:17).

So are we bringing great joy to our God by walking and living in the truth of His Word or are we being tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14), and every headline and lie of this world?

Sanctify them in Your truth; Your Word is truth.John 17:17

Blessings from Jerusalem

Chuck Cohen