The Word On The Street

"The WORD on the street" is a way for those living in the United States to be connected with those living in the Land. The day's events, politics, pop-culture, family life, maybe even what’s on the dinner menu—all of this and more is likely to be found here. Visit regularly to hear the WORD on the street from our MAs and friends in Israel.

My soldier son and I parted this morning

20 January, 2009

As my soldier son and I parted this morning, I got back into the car, prayed for his safety and the safety of all of our soldiers and wept. My daughter is returning to her base later this morning. She has a heavy responsibility on her shoulders from various perspectives, including trying to arrange for continuing her schooling when she completes her time on active duty (she actually finished her commitment, but signed on for a little longer, in light of the present difficulties).

Demonstrations against Israel continue, accusing us of genocide, causing a "holocaust against the Palestinians" (very interesting use of terms, inasmuch as Abu Mazen a/k/a Mouhamad Abbas did his doctoral thesis on the denial of the Holocaust), war crimes against humanity, etc. The U.S. abstained in the recent vote in the UN, instead of issuing a veto, which would have ended this latest attempt to blame the victim for staying alive despite efforts to kill him. The Israeli security cabinet (made up of 3 left-wingers - Olmert, Livni and Barak [the last of whom is the Secretary of Defense and was the Prime Minister of Israel, when he ordered an overnight exit from Lebanon, which allowed for the rise of the Hizbollah and the Second Lebanon War in 2006]) is considering whether or not to expand the military operation. From a "human" point of view, if we stop the war against Hamas without achieving our declared goals of insuring that no additional missiles will be fired into Israel from Gaza, we will have spent 16 days in a war and end up back at square one. The important thing to understand is the Islamic mentality, which is multi-faceted. But, for the present, it needs to be clarified that in their mind-set, if you don't lose, then you win. And, vice-versa, if your enemy doesn't win, then he loses. A cease-fire without eliminating the threat on Israeli communities will be seen as a loss for Israel and open season on it to bring an end to Israeli occupation of Arab land. In this regard, it needs to be understood that from the point of view of Islam, once Islam controls any land anywhere, that land is considered Islamic land, irrespective of how many people later take control of it or for how long. So, from that perspective, all of Israel is considered occupied territory, because the area was once under Islamic rule (the Ottoman Empire).

There is no "human solution" to the Israel-Arab conflict, irrespective of who is in power in any country. Peace will come to this region only when it is brought and established by the Prince of Peace. Until then, wars will continue, nations will become more and more antagonistic towards God and towards Israel (Ps. 83:1-5) and multitudes will die. One day, Israel "will look on Me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him" (Zech. 12:10), who alone is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the Prince of Peace. Until then, we continue to look "for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Messiah Yeshua" (Titus 2:13). May it be soon!

Hebrew Christian Fellowship