ONWARD MESSIANIC SOLDIER? ISRAELI BELIEVERS WEIGH IN ON GAZA WAR!
(Israel Today News)

During these times of wars and rumors of wars, one of the hottest debates among believers in Jesus – be they Messianic Jews or Gentile Christians – is whether or not we should participate in or support the use of armed force against our physical enemies.

Verses like Matthew 5:9 (blessed are the peacemakers) and Matthew 5:39 (turn the other cheek) are presented by many as evidence that as the Body of Messiah we are forbidden to use force or support its use by others.

Many others insist that the opposite is true, and that the above verses are being misinterpreted and taken out of context when applied to national situations. This side points to the many instances where God Himself ordered Israel into battle against its physical enemies.

And if God is unchanging (Numbers 23:19) then surely using and supporting the use of force for righteous purposes remains acceptable for believers today. Right?

It is difficult to adequately speak to this issue without ever having been directly threatened by an armed and hostile enemy. Most Christians in the West have never experienced that, nor have most had to deal with loved ones being called up to defend their nation against looming and potentially existential threats.

Israeli believers, however, are able to speak to the issue from a position of intimate knowledge and experience. For Israelis, the question of whether or not to use and support the use of force is perhaps more relevant than for believers anywhere else in the West. It is not merely an academic exercise in religious morality, but rather a matter of life and death.

With violence flaring in and around the Gaza Strip, we asked local Messianic leaders how they view the use of force against the terrorists, considering that many of their own sons and friends may be participating in the fighting, and that unlike for most Christians in the West, the terrorists pose a direct daily threat to their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

David Silver of Out of Zion Ministries in northern Israel had no qualms about supporting the war effort, and said he believes Israel “should use all force necessray to remove the Hamas leadership and destroy the [Gaza] rocket factories and the teams that fire them.”

Seth Ben-Haim, a Jerusalem-based Messianic leader and former executive pastor at King of Kings Assembly, said that while he supports the current action in Gaza, “unfortunately it is too little too late.”

He hopes that Israel will soon elect a new leadership that will consistently take the battle to “where our enemies sit, and not where our kids go to school,” but insisted that even that will not go far enough.

“The situation became much worse after the tragic uprooting of Jews from our homeland in [the Gaza Jewish communities of] Gush Katif. This provided a fertile ground for the increase in strength of Hamas and the dramatic and qualitative increase in terror,” explained Ben-Haim.

“Israel needs to create a change in the strategic balance of power in the area. In order to accomplish this we need to be located in all of our land.”

Howard Bass is pastor of the Nachalat Yeshua (Yeshua’s Inheritance) congregation in the southern Israel city of Beersheva. Bass and his congregants found their city under attack by Gaza rockets for the first time ever on Wednesday morning.

He voiced support for Israel waging war against its physical enemies, but stressed that the Jewish state will never obtain the peace it truly needs and desires until it likewise engages its spiritual battles.

“A time for war, and a time for peace. To our sorrow the time is not yet when war is no more,” said Bass. “As a nation, Israel is obliged to act to defend itself against Hamas, a self-proclaimed enemy, which has armed and trained itself to wage war against Israel and her existence.

“On the other hand, Israel continues to resist turning back to the God of Israel and His Messiah Yeshua, the Son of God, who alone gives peace, security, healing,” Bass continued, concluding that “only the righteousness of God can bring true and lasting peace to Israel and to all the other nations.”

In their nearly unified support for military action, Israeli Messianic leaders did not forget Jesus’ command to also love Israel’s enemies (Matthew 5:44).

Most local ministries sent out newsletters urging their supporters to pray at this time, both for Israel’s victory and for the protection and salvation of Palestinian Arabs trapped in an ideology of hate that is ultimately directed against the fulfillment of God’s will.

HAMAS DEFIANT IN ITS RESPONSE TO ISRAELI ATTACK!

Israel to press Gaza war; Hamas rockets continue to fall – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a special session of Israel’s Knesset on Monday that he intends to press forward with the war on Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

As Israeli tanks continued to mass along the Gaza border and some 6,700 Israeli reserve soldiers were put on alert, Barak insisted that the Jewish state would expand its efforts against the threat facing its citizens as it sees fit, irrespective of international opinion. Barak noted that Israel had given Hamas every opportunity to maintain the relative calm that had prevailed in and around Gaza over the past six months, and that as such the international community must now lay sole blame for the escalation in violence on the terrorists’ shoulders. “I would like to remind the world that Israel withdrew from the entire Gaza Strip more than three years ago. We gave a chance for a new reality, and all we’ve seen is the Hamas government firing rockets and missiles on our citizens and carrying out attacks against Israel,” said Barak.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke at the session, reiterating his promise of unity for the duration of the war and urging Barak to expand its objectives to include toppling the Hamas regime. “Our goal should be double – stopping the attacks on our cities and eliminating the threat of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip,” said Netanyahu. “Stopping the attacks can be done within a short period of time, while eliminating the threat of rocket attacks from Gaza will entail toppling the Hamas rule over the Strip and uprooting the Iranian base there.” As the two men spoke, Hamas continued to rain down rockets on towns across southern Israel. An Israeli Arab was killed and at least 15 others were wounded when one rocket hit a construction site in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon.

Hamas threatened its own escalation of hostilities when one of its spokesmen told Ha’aretz that the terror group will target Barak and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for assassination.

Senior Hamas official Fatah Hamad also said his group will target members of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ regime in Ramallah and Egyptian political leaders. Hamas has accused both the Palestinian Authority and Egypt of collusion with Israel in its assault on Gaza.

OVER 200 TERRORISTS KILLED IN MASSIVE ISRAELI ASSAULT ON GAZA!

Thanks to a successful use of misinformation, Israel managed to catch Hamas off-guard on Saturday and kill over 200 of the terror group’s members in a massive aerial attack on the Gaza Strip. The strike was described by local media as Israel’s version of “shock and awe,” as a fleet of 60 attack aircraft simultaneously destroyed 50 targets across the Hamas-controlled territory. All of the targets were Hamas command centers, bases and weapons storage facilities.

According to numbers released by the Palestinians, some 215 Hamas terrorists, including a number of senior commanders, were killed in the strike, and hundreds more were wounded. Tens more Hamas members were killed as the Israeli air forces kept up the pressure on Sunday. Despite the scale of the attack, Israel managed to keep civilian casualties to just 15 dead. Israeli military and political officials attributed the success of the strike to their ability to mislead Hamas by feigning disunity over how to respond to days of incessant terrorist rocket fire on southern Israel. Defense Minister Ehud Barak even ordered the border crossings between Gaza and southern Israel opened on Friday despite the terrorists hitting Israeli communities with 25 rockets during the previous 24 hours. The Israeli media was also credited for playing along with the ruse, which resulted in Hamas members gathering in large numbers at facilities across Gaza unaware of the looming threat.

Gaza-based terrorists fired over 80 rockets at southern Israel on Saturday afternoon and overnight in response to the Israeli attack. One Israeli was killed and seven others were wounded when several of the rockets scored direct hits on family homes. One of the victims was listed in critical condition. Israeli officials said the terrorist response would have been much worse if not for a follow-up wave of some 20 Israeli aircraft killing most of the Hamas forces that rushed to their rocket launchers immediately after the Israeli bombs dropped.

WE NEED ANOTHER MACCABEE!
by Sammy Benoit (Arutz Sheva)

Our leaders greatly please their Hellenist kings.

Sunday night was the first night of Chanukah, the holiday with as many meanings as it has spellings. Why do we celebrate? Pick one or pick all:
Instead of remembering what Judah the Maccabee did in Modi’in, they look toward Medina.

1. A successful Jewish revolt against a Syrian empire ruled by the Seleucid dynasty of Greek kings some 2,200 years ago.

2. A revolt against assimilation and the attempt to impose Hellenistic culture on ancient Judea.

3. A celebration of the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

4. Recognition of a miracle in which one day’s worth of oil burnt in the menorah for eight days.

5. A civil war against those Jews who assimilated and ruled Israel without remembering that God was involved in every aspect of our lives, including governance.

It is the last point that relates so much to today’s world. Israel is led by politicians who have no faith in the God who gave them the Land. They allow the Temple Mount – which used the be the “home” of God’s Shekhinah (“Presence”) and hopefully will be again soon – to be mutilated; in fact, they are willing to give it away. They do not protect Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem or Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. They have fallen in love with Western culture and have forgotten how easily Judaism can get assimilated into it.

Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak have worked hard to please their Hellenist kings, George Bush and Condoleezza Rice. Instead of remembering what Judah the Maccabee did in Modi’in, they look toward Medina. Even the Shas party, which entered the government to protect Jerusalem as Jewish, sold themselves for political power.

Israel has leaders who sneak into the side entrance to so they can negotiate with people who want to destroy them, forgetting what others have learned before:

“It is incredible what political simpletons Jews are. They shut their eyes to one of the most elementary rules of life, that you must not ‘meet halfway’ those who do not want to meet you.” — Ze’ev Jabotinsky, “The Iron Wall”, November 4, 1923

And once again, just like all of the other times, Israel has been dumped for political expediency by the Jewish People. The American Jewish Community proved their assimilation by helping to elect a new president with anti-Israel advisers. Our American Jewish Community has fallen in love with their political connections and lost their connection with their Jewish roots.

When push comes to shove, those Jews who believe in God must stand up and fight. Just like they did over two thousand years ago. After all, Maccabee stands for, “Who is like You O Lord”.

As we celebrate this Chanukah holiday, we must redouble our efforts to rally for the cause of right. And we must pray to God that he sends us a Maccabee, instead of the leaders we have now both in Israel and in the American Jewish Community.

“Not by might, not by power, but by My spirit alone….” It doesn’t mean don’t fight; it means don’t fight without God in your heart!

GAZA “CEASEFIRE” ENDS AND THE ROCKETS FLY -ISRAELIS IN GREAT DANGER!

A top Israeli security official on Sunday confirmed the worst fear of many: While a six-month ceasefire with Hamas-ruled Gaza had resulted in relative calm, it had also allowed the terrorist enclave to threaten a far larger portion of southern Israel.

With advanced Russian and Iranian-made missile brought into Gaza over the past six months, some 800,000 Israelis are now within range of Hamas and its allied terror groups, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin reported at the weekly cabinet meeting. The biggest of the missiles, the 122-millimeter Grad, has a range of 25 miles, meaning it can easily reach major Israeli population centers like Beersheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat. Diskin said he is not certain how many of these missiles Hamas currently possesses, but it is enough to put nearly a million Israelis on alert.

Cities like Beersheva, that previously believed they were well beyond the range of the terrorist rocket crews, are now scrambling to set up early warning systems and inspect the condition of local bomb shelters. A number of high-ranking Israeli security experts, including Diskin, warned Israel’s political leadership against entering into a ceasefire with Hamas in the first place precisely because it would enable the terror group to bolster its military capabilities unhindered by Israeli intervention.

But Defense Minister Ehud Barak continued to insist this week that the ceasefire had not been a mistake, even though the Palestinians had repeatedly violated it and Hamas had cynically used it to bring more Israelis within range of its weapons. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, too, defended his refusal to act against the terrorist build-up, and criticized those ministers demanding harsher military action.
With the new threats and renewed heavy rocket fire on southern Israel, both Olmert and Barak say they have ordered the army to prepare for serious action in Gaza.

Israel even launched an international public relations campaign on Sunday that appeared aimed at laying the groundwork for an Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The effort was kicked off with a strongly-worded letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon insisting that Hamas is solely responsible for the escalation of violence in and around Gaza, and that Israel will not allow itself to be held hostage by the terrorists.

But senior army officers told Ha’aretz on Sunday afternoon that they were yet to receive orders to prepare for a major operation in Gaza. Another consequence of the ceasefire pointed out months ago by Diskin and others is that Hamas defenses are now much stronger, meaning that a ground operation by Israel will result in far more casualties. According to intelligence reports, Hamas spent the last six months acquiring new weapons and training for its 10,000-man Gaza army. A network of bunkers, tunnels and fortifications was also created to help Hamas fighters inflict maximum damage on the Israelis.

Confident in his group’s position, Gaza-based Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar invited the Israeli army to invade at its convenience. “If they want to [invade] – by all means,” Zahar said in an interview with a Nazareth radio station. But the Hamas chief doubted that Israel would actually do anything, noting that “for three years we’ve been hearing comments about an Israeli invasion into the Gaza Strip.”

GAZA CEASEFIRE ANALYSIS
by Hillel Fendel

As Hamas renews its declaration of war on Israel, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center summarizes the six months of relative ceasefire.

NOW IT’S OFFICIALLY OVER!

The report shows that though Hamas has only now officially ended the ceasefire, the terror organization has in fact violated it constantly over the past six weeks. Hamas rockets have been increasingly raining down on the Negev, the ceasefire was over in early November, and the Hamas announcement simply makes that official.

The report details the amount of Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza to Israel during the six-month ceasefire, discusses the issue of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, and analyzes the border crossings between Israel and Gaza. Also on the agenda is the strengthening of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza during this period, the underground arms-smuggling industry, and more.

The report begins at the beginning: In June 2008 [following years of incessant rocket attacks on Israel’s Negev from Gaza – ed, Hamas and Israel announced, separately, a “period of calm,” known in Arabic as tahadiye. Though unlimited from Israel’s point of view, Hamas said it would last six months and then possibly be extended to Judea and Samaria.

The goals of the tahadiye were: to bring about the opening of the Israel-Gaza crossings for the passage of food, fuel and goods; to ignite the negotiations for Shalit’s release; and to bring about talks for the opening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

For the first 4.5 months, the ceasefire was basically maintained; various terror groups fired 38 rockets and mortar shells from Gaza into Israel during this period, including 8 that landed in Gaza. During the following six weeks, until this week, over 290 rockets and shells were fired.

During the first part of the tahadiye, when Hamas was careful not to attack Israel, life in both Gaza and the Negev returned to normal. The crossings into Gaza were open nearly all the time, and dozens of trucks passed daily into Gaza with various goods, including even some that Israel had not permitted before, such as concrete and metal, which are used largely for construction. In Sderot and the Negev, residents returned to the streets without fear of being caught by a “Color Red” warning siren.

In early November, however, terrorists in Gaza planned another kidnapping attack, and the IDF responded with a heavy attack on the would-be perpetrators. Seven Hamas terrorists were killed, and in response, Hamas instigated a massive rocket attack towards Israel. Sixty-two rockets and shells were fired on Nov. 5, and another 230 were fired since then; there were only two totally-rocketless days during this period. The past six weeks have also seen a steep escalation in the type of rockets fired, including Katyusha Grad 122mm missiles and 120mm mortar shells (each approximately five inches in diameter).

Hamas and the other terrorist organization did not content themselves with rocket fire during this second part of the tahadiye. They also placed roadside bombs on routes used by Israeli forces and fired at Israelis with light weapons. The IDF responded with air attacks inside Gaza and offensives at terrorists near the border fence. In addition, Israel responded by closing the border crossings more often, leading to shortages in food and fuel in Gaza.

The report notes that the electric power station in Ashkelon, which provides 65% of Gaza’s electricity, has continued to supply power to Gaza throughout this period.

Though a clear link is seen between Hamas rockets on Israel and food shortages in Gaza, Hamas has chosen to deal with the problem not by withholding its fire, but by initiating an international campaign to pressure Israel to open the crossings. Hamas has also tried to bring in goods via underground tunnels and by sea. These methods have been only moderately successful.

Though Hamas gained, for most of the period, an opening of the crossings, Israel’s expectations regarding Gilad Shalit have been totally dashed. Hamas has refused to compromise on its demand for a massive release of terrorist murderers incarcerated in Israel. Neither have Egypt or Hamas expended great efforts to reopen the Rafah crossing between them.

Possibly most significant, however, is that Hamas and the other Gaza terrorist organizations have used these six months to buttress their armaments and military capabilities for the expected clash with Israel. Massive amounts of weapons and ammunition have been either manufactured in Gaza or smuggled into Gaza via tunnels, and military training has proceeded apace.

The full 42-page report goes into much detail on all the above issues and more, and provides charts of the precise amount of rockets and shells fired at Israel, sometimes day-by-day, during the “period of calm.”

UNITED STATES RESPONSE TO HAMAS
The official U.S. response to the Hamas announcement that it would no longer respect the ‘period of calm’ was that the calm “should be respected and extended. The U.S. condemns recent rocket attacks on Israel. Violence will not advance, but retard, the hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which currently is being pursued by the legitimate Palestinian government of President Abbas. Hamas can be a part of the peaceful process by accepting the principles outlined by the Quartet: renunciation of violence and terror, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements between the parties, including the Roadmap.”

US, UN TRY TO “HANDCUFF” ISRAEL BEFORE NETANYAHU IS ELECTED!

At the urging of the US government, the UN Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution declaring peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians “irreversible.”

The resolution makes no room for changing circumstances or non-compliance by the parties involved. It appears to have been passed in response to Israeli prime ministerial frontrunner Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated intention to alter the flow of the peace process as a result of Palestinian non-compliance.

The opening of the resolution, which was co-sponsored by the US and Russia, refers to the Security Council’s “commitment to the irreversibility of the bilateral negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Various UN officials who spoke at the session clarified the meaning of the resolution by insisting that the coming year must see a headlong rush to birth a Palestinian Arab state on most, if not all, of Israel’s biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.

But Netanyahu, who all polls show becoming Israel’s next prime minister in February, has said that due to more than a decade of Palestinian non-compliance, the pace, and perhaps the entire focus of the peace process needs to be reexamined.

In practical terms, Netanyahu plans to continue talking to the Palestinian leadership, but put a hold on land concessions. Instead, he wants to focus on boosting the Palestinian economy and quality of life in the Palestinian-ruled areas, both of which are currently used as an excuse for Palestinian terrorism.

The new resolution also seems to be a swipe at the traditional Israeli position that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. That position has allowed Israel to test different peace offers over the years without prematurely committing to concessions that the Israeli electorate may not accept.

The results of a public opinion poll published on Tuesday showed that nearly two-thirds of Israelis still oppose surrendering Judea, Samaria, the eastern half of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in exchange for recognition from the Palestinians and the wider Arab world.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni both welcomed the new resolution, despite the fact that just a month ago Israel’s Channel One News reported that both the leaders firmly opposed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s plans to introduce the document.

Livni said that Israel was pleased with the resolution because it props up the understandings reached at last year’s Annapolis Summit and the US-authored “Road Map” peace plan, both of which are performance-based initiatives that on paper require the Palestinians to eliminate the threat of anti-Jewish terrorism before receiving any significant concessions.

However, the reality since the Road Map was introduced in 2003 has been that continuing Palestinian violence is overlooked in the name of expediting a final status agreement.

THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT BASHES ISRAEL IN ANNUAL RITUAL!
(reported by FLAME)

The United Nations is back at it again, doing what it does best: Trashing Israel.

This time it was General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann at the helm. In his eyes, Israel is guilty of running an apartheid state, with the solution being “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” by the international community. A few days after these remarks were made, the UN’s annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people took place on November 29th. Where is the UN’s annual day of solidarity with the people of Sudan, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Tibet or Kurdistan?

Let us overlook d’Escoto’s warm embrace of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his vile, hate-filled speech to the UN General Assembly earlier this year. And let us overlook d’Escoto’s clear distaste for Israel’s strongest ally, the United States (for one, he called President Ronald Reagan ‘the butcher of my people’). Instead, let us focus on his false cry of apartheid.

Apartheid is a system for ensuring the rule of the minority over the majority. This is clearly not the situation in Israel. Jews are not in the minority and Israel is a democracy in which Arabs, Jews, and Christians all have the same rights. In calling Israel an apartheid state, d’Escoto essentially expresses his preference for a single state in which all the region’s Jews and Arabs should be living side by side, a notion that inherently delegitimizes the Jewish state’s existence.

Israel and most of the world have continually embraced a two-state solution. The Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to create their own state—largely because that has meant Israel would also exist as an independent Jewish nation. D’Escoto completely ignores the fact that if the Palestinians were capable of finally renouncing and eliminating terror, there would be no need for checkpoints, blockades, and Israeli forces in the West Bank. Then, if they could stop their own bloody internecine battles, they could probably even form a state.

We recently experienced Islamic terrorism again in the despicable terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The Chabad house was attacked specifically because there were Jews there. It is far past due for the UN to call an emergency session on the scourge of global Islamic terror. There have been ten emergency special sessions called by the UN. Six have been on Israel. None on the violence in Rwanda or Darfur. In the current 62nd session of the UN General Assembly there have been nineteen one-sided resolutions against Israel. Are we truly to believe that Israel represents one of the worst threats in the world? That Israel is among the greatest purveyors of human rights atrocities? We simply should not tolerate such blatant and biased attacks on Israel in the UN.

ISRAELIS NOT PLEASED WITH OBAMA’S “NUCLEAR UMBRELLA” OFFER!

Media reports last week suggested that US President-elect Barack Obama will offer Israel a “nuclear umbrella” to deter an Iranian nuclear strike. Israelis reacted to the news with skepticism and alarm.

Alarm because, if true, the reports indicate that Obama is preparing to reconcile himself and the US under his rule to a nuclear-armed Iran. Even the suggestion that that is true undermines already ineffective diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

It further confirms for Iranians that the US and its allies will not intervene militarily to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.

Israel views nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran as completely unacceptable, and may still act on its own if all else fails.

Obama’s nuclear umbrella is meant to dissuade Israel from launching a solo strike, in addition to being a deterrent against an Iranian nuclear strike on the Jewish state.

But Israelis don’t believe that Western powers that were unwilling to do everything to prevent Iran from getting nukes will actually obliterate the Islamic Republic in the event it attacks Israel.

“What is the significance of such guarantee when it comes from those who hesitated to deal with a non-nuclear Iran?” asked one Israeli security expert interviewed by Ha’aretz.

A senior Bush Administration official told the newspaper that Israelis do indeed have reason to be concerned by Obama’s intended offer, noting that launching a nuclear strike against Iran after it has already destroyed Israel would present as many, if not more, political and diplomatic problems than preventing Iran from going nuclear in the first place.

“Who will convince the citizen in Kansas that the U.S. needs to get mixed up in a nuclear war because Haifa was bombed? And what is the point of an American response, after Israel’s cities are destroyed in an Iranian nuclear strike