[Thursday, we celebrated] God’s faithfulness to His people when He saved the Jews from annihilation by the nasty Persian royal advisor Haman through the bold actions of brave Queen Esther. Across Israel, children wear costumes, have parties, and, often, listen to a recitation of the Book of Esther, making sure they “boo!” every time that Haman’s name is mentioned.
Today’s world is not much different. Those same Persians (modern-day Iran) are fixated on destroying Israel, the land of the Jews. As we’ll see below in the news section, the Tehran military is well-stocked with missiles, some of which can reach all the way to Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, we no longer have an Esther in the government halls of the Islamic regime. However, we do have something more powerful – the prayers of the saints. Will you commit to praying for Israel as Satan continues to weave his webs of deceit trying to stir up enemies who will seek to destroy God’s chosen people?
We also have the Word of God to give us peace. He has already told us what He has planned, and it is not for the ayatollahs to push us into the Mediterranean. God’s promises endure and His covenants are eternal. That is why I can write this from within range of those missiles and tell you without doubt that I have no fear, only hope.
Jeremiah 31:35-37 KJV – “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.”
The Middle East
Apparently tired of having another country stealing all the bad news headlines, Iran took an unprecedented action on Sunday. Bypassing all of their proxy militias, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired twelve Fatah-110 surface-to-surface ballistic missiles 171 miles from their country toward the American consulate in Erbil, Iraq. The missiles caused significant damage in a neighborhood near the consulate, leading to outrage not just from the US, but from Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, and Yemen, among others.
Why would they take such a bold, and many would say foolhardy, move? There is the official and the unofficial take. The official take is that there was a secret Mossad headquarters operating in Erbil. The IRGC carried out the attack to destroy the Israeli base, because they said that it was from there that a mission was carried out recently that demolished a hangar-full of Iranian attack drones. Residents of the neighborhood that was levelled take issue with the accusation of secret spy headquarters, demanding instead that Iran come and rebuild their mansions.
The unofficial take is that this was a test for the US. The time of the attack, 1:20 A.M., was the same time that Commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC General Qasem Soleimani experienced the business end of a Hellfire missile fired from a US Reaper drone back in January 2020. This is also the weekend of the deceased general’s birthday. The tie-ins are unmistakable, and many see this as a test balloon to see how the current US administration will react to an attack and to gauge just how desperate the Washington democrats are for a new nuclear deal.
Sadly, a test balloon is not really necessary. The US has already expressed its desperation for a nuclear deal in so many ways. The latest of which is their consideration of removing the IRGC from its list of foreign terrorist organizations. This Iranian military force is behind most of the terror militias that are currently operating in the Middle East, and is now spreading their influence even wider. I’m reminded of the words of Winston Churchill written to his friend, Lord Moyne, just before the Munich conference that was supposed to avoid war by appeasing Hitler, but instead led to WWII. “We seem to be very near the bleak choice between war and shame. My feeling is that we shall choose shame, and then have war thrown in a little later on even more adverse terms than at present.”
The missiles fired at the alleged Mossad headquarters was not the only attack by Iran against Israel last week. On Monday, a massive cyberattack was launched against Israeli government websites. It stands as the largest cyberattack ever carried out against Israel’s infrastructure.
Iran continues to stand as an international bad actor and a threat to many. CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie informed the world that Iran currently has 3000 ballistic missiles, some of which can reach all the way to Tel Aviv. They continue their advancement of new types of weapons, including unmanned submarines that are capable of firing rockets and missiles. The country persists in its threats on individuals, among them are former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook. And they remain a threat against Saudi Arabia after peace talks between the two countries broke down following the Saudis’ executions of 80 radical Islamists, 41 of whom were Shiites.
The Russian aggression against Ukraine seems no closer to reaching a conclusion. On the same day that Iran launched its missiles at Erbil, the Russian Air Force attacked the International Peacekeeping Security Center (IPSC), a base where Ukrainian soldiers were being trained by NATO forces. Located 40 km from Lvyv but only 18 km from the Polish border, an attack on this site is just the next step toward an ever-growing possibility of a clash between Russia and NATO.
Israel is doing what it can to come alongside the suffering Ukrainians. The country has opened its doors to fleeing Jews, accepting nearly twelve thousand thus far. According to Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, the country should prepare for “tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of immigrants” from Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in the area. Israel has also come alongside the city of Lvyv by donating six mega-generators which will assist in keeping the lights on for the citizens.
Last week I told you about Israel Defense Forces Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kohavi traveling to Bahrain to deepen his relationship with his counterpart in the kingdom. Now it has come out that on that trip he also met with the Qatari who shares the same position in his own military, Salem bin Hamad bin Mohammed bin Aqeel Al Nabit. Israel does not currently have normalized relations with Qatar, so this was quite a pleasant surprise.
Last Thursday, a refinery in Riyadh was attacked by a drone creating a small fire, but not affecting the flow of oil. Speaking of the flow of oil, Saudi Arabia is in talks about pricing some of its oil sales in China in yuan. This is a blow against the dominance of the US dollar, and could be a major step in China’s goal of making the yuan the world’s currency.
It is with a certain amount of irony that I must report that China is currently battling its worst COVID outbreak in the last two years. Cases are doubling every 24 hours.
