Shalom from Washington, D.C.! Yesterday, I had the great privilege of sitting with former ambassador to Japan and current U.S. Senator from Tennessee Bill Hagerty. I was so blessed as I found Senator Hagerty to be a great friend of Israel. During our time, I asked him to please put pressure on the administration to allow Israel to finish the job in Gaza. I also asked him to explain to the president that a Two State solution is no solution at all.
In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to present a challenge to 50 congressmen at the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which is the conservative caucus in the House headed by Oklahoma Representative Kevin Hern.
Today I am wrapping up my time in Washington. I started this morning at a bible study with senators and congressmen. I had the opportunity to brief them on what is happening in Israel and the need to pressure the U.S. government to allow us to destroy Hamas quickly. Also, I again asked them to please shut down the talks for a Two State solution. I trust that the Lord will continue to allow me to be His spokesperson to these powerful men and women. I sometimes sit in wonder at the doors the Lord has opened to this former cast-off product of the Israeli foster care system. The Lord has His plans; He just asks that we trust and follow Him.
Ceasefire
Seven days ago, a temporary ceasefire was instituted between Israel and Hamas. In the period leading to today, 75 Israeli hostages were released along with 20 foreign nationals. In return, Israel sent violent prisoners back to Gaza. Just to clarify, we received 95 victims – innocent children, women, and elderly who had been kidnapped and stolen across the border. Hamas received back perpetrators – men, women, and teens who had been jailed for carrying out terrorism and violence.
Originally, the ceasefire was scheduled for four days, but Hamas is dragging it out as long as possible. They were on the verge of annihilation, but now they have already been given a week to regroup, rearm, and redeploy. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are prepared to reengage the moment the ceasefire ends. When they do, they will find an enemy refreshed and ready to resist.
From the beginning, I was against this ceasefire. It was obvious to all that exactly what Hamas had planned was taking place. They knew that there might come a time when they would be facing defeat. At that point, they would need bargaining chips to employ in order to save themselves. That’s all the hostages ever were to these terrorists. They were not humans. They were just pawns in their violent game. This shouldn’t surprise us, because it is the exact same way they treat their fellow Gazans. Those patients in the hospitals and women and children in the neighborhoods and schools were not humans to Hamas. They were simply human shields under whom they could build their vast tunnel system.
That being said, I cannot fault Prime Minister Netanyahu and his administration for agreeing to the ceasefire. I can’t imagine being in his position. He, along with every other Israeli, desperately wanted to see those kidnapped hostages brought home. Beyond that, I don’t know what promises or threats were made behind the scenes by the U.S. The American secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, who today met privately with Prime Minister Netanyahu, announced prior to his trip that he would do what he could to extend the ceasefire. I expect that it will not be long before the international pressure will overwhelmingly be for a permanent ceasefire. That is an action that Israel must not agree to. Hamas must be completely annihilated. Otherwise, Israeli citizens will spend their lives looking over their shoulders waiting for the next attack.
Action in the West Bank
The IDF carried out a major operation Wednesday in Jenin in the West Bank. Two members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were killed in the attack. Both had been involved in terror attacks in Israel, and the cell was planning more. Sadly, an eight-year-old boy and a fifteen-year-old young man were also killed in the operation. This is tragic and it breaks my heart.
Of course, the media focuses on those deaths while ignoring the purpose for the operation. They ignore the truth that the IDF would have never been there had the terrorists not attacked Israel and if they were not plotting further violence. The blood of those children is on the PIJ, not the IDF.
Action in Lebanon
Tensions continue to simmer along the Israel/Lebanon border. Hezbollah is well-armed, well-trained, and well-funded. If they poured across the border like Hamas did, they would eventually be defeated. But the cost in Israeli lives would be much higher. The Iranian-funded proxy militia does have other options for wreaking havoc in Israel. A source in Lebanon announced this last week that Hezbollah intends to attack Israel with thousands of standard rockets in one major barrage.
These munitions, which they already have positioned just across the border, will deplete the Iron Dome and the other missile intercepting systems. At that point, they could switch to their more accurate and more powerful ground-to-ground missiles. The source claimed that already Hezbollah has 240 targets selected. This is a strategy that I had predicted months ago.
Global Attitude Toward Israel
For the most part, the sympathy other nations felt for Israel as a result of the October 7 attack has run its course. It’s now turning back to antisemitism, as usual. The United Nations General Assembly took time away from saving the world through peace and humanity to hold another vote to demand that Israel withdraws from all “occupied” territories and returns to its pre-1967 borders. Not only did it pass, it did so overwhelmingly. Only Australia, Canada, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, the UK, and the US voted against the ridiculous referendum. All others either voted yes or abstained. The United Nations has always harbored a hatred for Israel, and that animosity has shown over the last seven weeks as much as ever. As the hostages have been released, stories have come out including one from a man who said that he was held in an attic for nearly fifty days by a teacher from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). How are we ever supposed to trust an agency whose own workers hold our people hostage?
Israel does continue to have a shrinking group of friends, some from unexpected places. Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier came to Israel and visited Kibbutz Be’eri with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. As nice as that was, the Germans then turned around and abstained from the UN vote. It reminds me of the teen who sometimes hangs out with the unpopular neighbor kid, but won’t acknowledge him in the halls at school.
Billionaire and world social media influencer Elon Musk visited Israel this past week. His eyes were opened as he toured the sites of the violence near the southern border. However, it seems that the overall influencing tide has once again turned strongly against Israel.
Throughout social media, cable and network news channels, the entertainment world, and academia, the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas sentiment is reaching hysterical levels. Marches, riots, and physical attacks stain almost every major city in the West. Last night, mobs of antisemitic Hamas supporters ran wild at the annual Christmas tree lighting in Manhattan. European governments, in particular, are going to have to make some very hard choices very soon as the militant element of the hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants is becoming more emboldened to express its hatred for western values and its desire to usher in Sharia law.
Global Attitude Toward Islam
Some countries have already woken up and realized that the enemy is not at the gates, but is already in the city. As I mentioned last week, Geert Wilders, the man situated to become the Netherlands next prime minister, ran on an anti-immigration platform and won handily. Jimmie Åkesson, a conservative member of the Swedish Riksdag, said on Saturday that the militant Islam concern was great enough that the government should ban the building of new mosques, while also considering the destruction of existing mosques that preach hatred and violence.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first European leader to see the danger, coming out strongly against Muslim immigration into his country. The pro-Sharia element in Europe is only going to get stronger and better organized in the coming months. Eventually, it will come to a very violent head.
