Below is a first person account of the recent violence in Israel and Gaza written by a personal friend of mine and sent to me – the Rev. James Wilson – because he is my friend. Out of respect for both his privacy and security I will not use his real name. We can call him Yitzak. American born, he has devoted the last several decades of his life to living amongst and serving his birth people – the Israelis of Eretz Yisrael.
From Crisis to Crisis Here in Israel
Instead of trying to rehash events over the months since we sent out our last
newsletter, most of which you probably know about, I want instead to give
you some idea about how those events affected us and our fellow Israelis.
We hear so much about conflict and violence these days that I suspect we are
just about inoculated against feeling their impact emotionally. It isn’t that
way for us here in Israel. When the three young men were kidnapped last
summer and we didn’t know what had happened to them, banners appeared
on the sides of buses and on fences and barriers along the roads proclaiming
“BRING OUR BOYS BACK HOME!” When it was discovered that they had
been murdered shortly after their abduction we all mourned and felt
tremendous admiration for one of the mothers, originally an American, who
spoke with such courage, apparently without bitterness, about the death of
her son and his friends.
When the missiles and mortar shells began pouring down upon us from Gaza,
especially in the cities in the South of Israel, we all felt the horror of what it
was like for those of our fellow citizens who were constantly under the threat
of death and had virtually to live in bomb shelters for many hours. Here in
Jerusalem we only heard the warning sirens six times, letting us know we had
to go quickly to our shelters. We have our shelter right in our apartment and
each time we experienced God’s peace ruling in our hearts as we sat waiting
for the all-clear. When Operation Protective Edge began and our soldiers had
to go into Gaza, each time the deaths of those soldiers were reported most of
us felt as if one of our own sons had been killed. We knew of a number of
those who are Believers who were there, some the sons of friends, and we felt
the urgency to pray for their protection, even as we prayed for all of those
who were laying their lives on the line to halt the murderous attacks, both
from the missiles and from the tunnels which were discovered that Hamas
intended to use to attack and kidnap or kill our citizens. Our hearts were also
deeply affected when we learned that despite Israel’s efforts to warn and
protect the civilians in Gaza when we were prepared to strike targets among
them from which Hamas was either shooting their rockets or using in some
other way to support their attacks, that Hamas refused to let them flee and
were using them as human shields. At least among us as believers in Yeshua,
we cried out to the Lord to have mercy upon them and to free them from
such a callous regime. During those fifty days of conflict the Body of Messiah
here in Jerusalem gathered twice to intercede before the Lord and there were
other prayer gatherings throughout the Land among Believers.
After the cease fire came and our Prime Minister decided to withdraw the
troops, many of us felt that the task of destroying our enemy’s ability to rain
death upon us had not been completed. Even a number of the soldiers
expressed to the press that they were willing to go into Gaza and finish the
job. However, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not want to have many more of
our soldiers pay the terrible price that would have been required, and also
probably to see many more Arab civilians killed in the process. With much
sadness and disappointment we believe that we will in the near future face
another round of conflict with Hamas and its allies; very likely having to pay
an even greater price for the resumed conflict. It is hard to express the
dismay that we feel as we observed the worldwide demonstrations against
Israel as we were branded the offenders and the aggressors in the effort to
defend ourselves against those who have openly sworn to destroy us.
As a number of national parliaments, especially in the European nations, are
voting to openly support a Palestinian State without negotiations of a peace
agreement with Israel, it seems as though we are seeing the beginnings of the
fulfillment of the ancient words of the Prophet Zechariah in 12:3, that “all
the nations of the earth” will be gathered against Jerusalem. And in the midst
of this gathering storm, with the whole region now aflame, with Israel being
singled out for accusation and blame, our present government has fallen and
new elections are set for next March 17th. While it seems that most Israelis
understand that the present coalition government, with its inner strife on the
part of some ministers, could not continue, it is disconcerting to the citizens to
face another election campaign after the present government was only in
power for twenty one months. For those of us who look to the Lord God of
Israel as the source of our hope, His promise to preserve and save us and to
defend us against our enemies (Zechariah 12:8-10) is the ray of hope that we
see shining through the descending darkness.
Threats and attacks have not only come in recent days from beyond our
borders. Within Jerusalem itself there have been violent demonstrations in
the eastern, predominantly Arab, neighborhoods. How shocked we were,
when added to the rock throwing and fire bombs, several Arabs drove their
vehicles into crowds waiting at bus and light rail stations killing several
people, including a three month old baby that was resting in a stroller near
her mother. When two Arab young men broke into a synagogue in a Jewish
neighborhood in western Jerusalem and with a hand gun and meat cleavers
brutally slaughtered four rabbis at early morning prayer and shot and killed
a policeman who bravely tried to intervene, fear gripped many hearts as the
realization came that the attacks were no longer confined, but were reaching
any area of the city chosen by the terrorist assailants.
In Philippians 2:15 Paul reminds believers that they are to appear as lights in a crooked and perverse generation. Thus beyond the blessing of our eternal hope we are called to remember that we have a witness within us of the light of God’s life, even more so in the descending darkness. An African pastor recently
reminded us that diamonds are usually displayed against a black cloth so that
their brightness appears even greater. That is what we are called to
remember about how the Lord wants to display His life within us in the midst
of these present dark circumstances.
In Him,
Jim
