Shalom from Israel! This week around the Christian world, Christmas will be observed. Not surprisingly, it is not a well-observed celebration in my country. There is only a small fraction of us in Israel who recognize that the Messiah has already come, being born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, there is a growing movement of those anticipating the coming of the Messiah. Soldiers can be seen gathered together singing, “I believe in the coming of the Messiah, even if he tarries.” They believe in a messiah. They just don’t believe he’s already come.
On the other side of the coin are those who claim to believe that the messiah has come, but they spread lies about who he is. “Jesus was a Palestinian,” they shout, totally ignoring the genealogies of the Gospels and Jesus’ clear lineage as a Jew. “Bethlehem wasn’t in the land of the Jews when Jesus was born,” they assert. This is simply foolish. Bethlehem was a small but important town to the Jews. It was from this shepherding village that the lambs used for sacrifices in the temple would be gathered.
But these lies fit our times. Our world is not into facts anymore. Instead, we are surrounded by deception. Below, you’ll read about the head of a hospital in Gaza who was actually a leader in Hamas. He used his position to ensure the terrorist organization could use his facility as a front for their terrorist activities that took place above and below the ground. This conning of the UN and the humanitarian watchdog agencies took place in hospitals, clinics, and schools throughout Gaza.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians the following warning:
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 KJV – “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
This is the time we are living in. The delusion is incredibly strong. We are feeling the soon rise of the antichrist. His spirit is already here. People’s gullibility to the lies of the enemy will only increase as time goes on. Our blessed hope is our soon rapture.
Even as life goes on in Israel, we are always aware that war is not far from us. Personally, I am constantly reminded, whether it is by the continuous sorties taking off from Ramat David airbase near my house, hearing the sirens for incoming rockets, or seeing the Iron Dome in action in the night sky taking out the missiles sent from Syria and Lebanon. The southern front continues to rage. In Gaza, Khan Yunis and Shahjaya are under nearly constant bombing. Just yesterday alone, the Israeli Air Force attacked 230 Hamas targets in the area. As a result, yes, President Biden, Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and others look pretty bad. But this is not the result of indiscriminate bombing. I know you sent Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to chastise us, saying we need to make our attacks more surgical. What you are failing to understand is that the underground network of terrorist tunnels is so pervasive throughout those locations that eradicating the cities below the cities will leave a lot of devastation, even when done with precision weapons. So far, 1500 shafts and tunnels have been found, the largest of which stretched 4 km, reached a depth of 50 meters, and was large enough for the passage of vehicles.
There are those who complain that Israel must balance the destruction with humanitarian aid. I’m struggling to think of any war in the past in which that was a requirement. Is President Putin sending humanitarian aid to the Ukrainians who are being displaced by his war? Even should we decide to do so, there is a huge obstacle. Humanitarian aid that is currently being sent to Palestinian civilians is being stolen by Hamas. Don’t expect the United Nations to help at all. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been in the pocket of Hamas for a long time. In the aftermath of the October 7 massacre, at least one member of the UNRWA participated in the holding of hostages. The agency’s schools have been used as Hamas headquarters. Just yesterday, Knesset speaker Amir Ohana told the visiting president of the French Senate, “France funds UNRWA schools with millions of euros every year. It should stop, or strictly monitor the educational content. Hamas terrorists operate from these schools and educate incitement against Israel.”
In the West Bank, there are daily raids rooting out Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists. Up in the north, I, along with most of my fellow Israelis, am still expecting the war in Lebanon and Syria to launch at the appropriate time. In fact, today there is major activity by the IDF towards southern Lebanon. Other countries recognize this escalation as well. The US, Great Britain, France, and Germany are asking their citizens to leave Lebanon and Syria, along with Iraq and Yemen. We will never be safe as long as Iran’s proxies are just across our border with their weapons all pointed in our direction. Terrorist sites continue to be bombed in southern Lebanon, as civilians migrate to the north. In Syria, the IDF struck hard around Damascus and al-Dimas this past week. Hamas in the south had surprise on their side. Hezbollah in the north has funding, training, and 250,000 missiles in their arsenal.
Another front has opened that is affecting more than just Israel. The Houthi rebels in Yemen, another of Iran’s proxies, have apparently become frustrated at their ballistic missiles being shot down before they reach Israel. So, now they are taking their aggression out on maritime traffic in the Red Sea. They have attacked numerous ships in that waterway and have threatened to destroy any ship even loosely tied with Israel. A coalition to guard the Red Sea against the Houthis has been formed with the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, France, and the United Kingdom taking part. Other nations have expressed their intention to also join. The Houthis’ threats are making an impact. Already, the six largest oil shipping companies in the world have stopped all of their activity in the Red Sea. In a related story, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has announced that the Israeli cargo shipping company, ZIM, is no longer welcome at his country’s ports or even in its waters.
As we continue to learn more from our returned hostages about their captivity, the more determined we become to see the rest home safely. Last week, Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout, director of the Kamal Aswan Hospital in Gaza, was arrested by the IDF. Why would Israel take a hospital administrator into custody? It turns out that he is also a commander in Hamas. During his interrogation, he revealed that Hamas used his hospital as a military post, and he registered terrorists as medical staff to shield them from scrutiny. He also admitted to using his hospital to hide a captured Israeli soldier.
China’s President Xi Jinping quite matter-of-factly told President Biden that Beijing will reunify with Taiwan when the timing is right. Their intention is to do it peacefully, which seems quite unlikely. It’s hard to imagine President Xi being that blunt with the previous US administration.
Speaking of the previous US administration, if the Colorado Supreme Court has anything to say about it there will never be a second term for former president Donald Trump. In a narrow 4-3 ruling amongst the seven Democrat-nominated state justices, the court determined that a former president who engaged in insurrection could not be voted back into the position. So, despite him never being convicted, or even tried, for taking part in the alleged “January 6 insurrection” the state court declared him guilty and disqualified him from the ballot. There is little chance of this holding up when brought before the nation’s Supreme Court. Many pundits are saying President Trump could not have asked for a better gift for Christmas.
