Posted on 01/13/2024 12:29:22 PM PST by Roman_War_Criminal
Shalom from Israel! Another week has gone by under wartime, and, as seems to regularly be the case, there have been some highlights and there have been some sorrows. Through it all, the people of Israel remain as dedicated as ever to defeat the enemies who are surrounding us. Unfortunately, it appears that the resolve of our allies is waning. As you’ll see below, it may not be long until we are on our own while new enemies step up against us. Rather than bombs and bullets, their weapons will be politics and pressure, sanctions and seizures, judgments and isolation. I mentioned last week the case brought by South Africa to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague accusing Israel of genocide. It is such an asinine condemnation, but I would not be surprised to see it affirmed. The ICC is an organ of the United Nations (UN), and there is nothing that the UN enjoys more than a good, old denunciation of Israel.
But Jews are used to going it alone. It is something we have had to do off and on for millennia. The only difference now is that it may be the first time that we will have been isolated as a state. If that is what happens, then so be it. We’ve been at the pointy end of the world’s swords before, yet here we are, united and stronger as a people than we have ever been. The credit for that fact does not have a human source, but One which is divine in nature.
Israel will never be completely alone in this world. God has made a covenant with His chosen people that still stands today. “But, Amir, Israel is a secular nation that still rejects the Messiah.” True. But when God made His covenant with Israel, He did so without caveats. This is a truth that He emphasized through the prophet Jeremiah, where we read:
Jeremiah 33:25-26 KJV – “Thus saith the Lord; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.”
So, actually, I may be wrong. There appears to be a caveat here. When there is no day or night anymore and all the God-ordained natural systems of the universe cease, that is when the covenant will end. The fact that the sun rose this morning, however, is enough to tell you that God’s covenant still stands, and Israel is still His chosen people. That is where my hope and my peace rests. No matter what we are facing as a nation, we will survive it because God is truly on our side.
Gaza
Fighting is still very intense in Khan Yunis. This is the middle region of the five areas that make up Gaza and is where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) believe that the Hamas leaders who are still in-country are located. A huge find was made in the Bureij area of western Gaza near Egypt’s northeastern border. Hidden under civilian and humanitarian centers, the IDF discovered the largest Hamas underground weapons manufacturing and storage site to date. In this location, long-range missiles capable of reaching northern Israel were assembled and held until Hamas was ready to deploy them. Not all news from Gaza was positive, though. On Monday, three separate incidents took the lives of nine Israeli soldiers, six of them in one explosion. Eight more members of the IDF were wounded in the actions. Israel mourns the loss of these brave men who were fighting for the survival of their country.
One more incident from Gaza must be addressed. On Sunday, during an operation targeting drone operators, two journalists with Al Jazeera were killed. Immediately, there was outrage and sorrow throughout the world. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “heartbroken” at the loss. However, now we have learned that these two “journalists” were part of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and they were operating drones against IDF forces. This is so typical of what Hamas has done. They have destroyed the concept of there being any altruistic professions left in Gaza. Instead, what we find are terrorist doctors, terrorist teachers, and terrorist journalists. Schools, mosques, and hospitals are all used to shelter Hamas and their weapons, along with the shafts to their underground tunnels. Even the ambulances that are supposed to carry the wounded are used to transport weapons and ammunition. They have taken that which is good in most every corner of the world and they have thoroughly corrupted it. It is appalling and it is tragic.
Lebanon
Monday was a bad day for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Wissam al-Tawil, head of the elite Radwan forces and key leader in directing Hezbollah’s actions in the south, was killed when the car he was in was destroyed by an IDF explosive device. The death of al-Tawil marks the highest-level member of the terrorist organization killed to date and is a serious blow to their operations. This targeted killing took place two days after Hezbollah fired 62 rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas bigwig Saleh al-Arouri. Both Israel and Hezbollah are moving soldiers and weapons systems toward the border as everyone expects and prepares for a full war to soon commence. I go into more detail about the al-Tawil killing and state of the war in my short Breaking News update from Monday.
Syria
After the targeted killing last week of Hamas V.I.P. Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon, as mentioned above, the IDF continued its thinning out of the terrorist group’s leadership on Monday. Hassan Akasha, the man responsible for the launching of rockets from Syria into Israel in recent weeks, was permanently taken out of commission through an undisclosed methodology in the south Syrian town of Beit Jinn. Is it possible that Hamas leadership is finally beginning to understand that not one of them is safe no matter where they are in the world?
West Bank
Daily raids continue by the IDF into the West Bank to track down and arrest Hamas and PIJ terrorists who are hiding throughout the region. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a West Bank visit yesterday to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Apparently taking a two-state solution as a fait accompli, Blinken encouraged the 88-year-old Abbas to reform the PA so that it would be prepared to govern Gaza after the war is concluded.
The United States
Secretary of State Blinken’s visit to the West Bank mentioned in the previous story came a day after he met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Foreign Minister Israel Katz. His agenda? “Come on, guys, can’t you wrap this thing up?” In a press conference after the meeting, Blinken criticized South Africa’s accusations of genocide against Israel, alluded to a future two-state solution, and asserted that Israel’s government has some hard choices ahead regarding the prosecution of the war and how it will allow the Palestinians to operate in a post-war Gaza. The SecState comes representing his boss who is anxious to get the hostilities wrapped up before November’s elections. Polling shows him running behind potential return candidate Donald Trump, and he is desperate to mollify the far left of his party as well as solidify the vote of the Muslims of Dearborn in the battle to take the state of Michigan. According to President Joe Biden’s words in a South Carolina church on Monday, he has “been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.” Unless he’s referring to members of the opposition government, then I would expect his success in getting Israel to pull out of Gaza is far less than what he is asserting. I must admit that I am very concerned about the global ramifications of having such a weak administration in Washington, D.C. I believe that it is possible that by the time Biden finally leaves office, Iran might have achieved its nuclear ambitions, China might attempt to take Taiwan, and Russia will greatly intensify its war against Ukraine.
The Red Sea
The largest action by the Yemeni Houthis to date occurred on Tuesday causing the U.S. and British warships to shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile. The Iran-supported proxy terrorist group has been targeting shipping and military vessels since the war in Gaza began. “This is an unsustainable situation,” declared British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps. “This cannot continue and cannot be allowed to continue.” It’s unclear why the Brits and the Americans have allowed this pesky group of terrorists to cause such havoc and cost shipping companies so much money.
Korea
Friday saw North Korean leader Kim Jong-un once again having fun making things go “boom”. Unfortunately, this time he did it with more than 200 artillery rounds fired in a span of two hours into the maritime buffer zone separating the waters of the two Koreas. This obvious provocation spurred South Korea to carry out its own live fire exercise in response. Tensions continue to mount between the two countries, and incidents like this do not help the situation.
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Maranatha!
The only covenant that now exists is through Jesus Christ. There are not two covenants.
That is consequences and punishment for disobedience. Not caveats. God does not break promises.
Such was the case before when is came to allies. Abba Eban was an observer at the UN as countries debated establishing Israel. In his autobiography he said one diplomat told him that 6,000,000 dead Jews had bought no more than two years of tolerance for the statehood issue. Six million is the number most remember, but the Nazis used the complicity of civil governments in occupied countries to kill two out of every three Jews living in Europe in 1940, including those in European Russia.
Careful. Pointing out simple facts like that will get you labeled as "anti-semitic" and accused of supporting "Replacement theology"
Abrahamic Covenant with he and his descendants was unconditional, God making the promises and He alone passing between the halves of the sacrifice.
https://www.bibleref.com/Genesis/15/Genesis-chapter-15.html
As a Jewish Professor I once heard during Q&A after a lecture at Catholic University put, “We Jews have a contract. You Christians have a promise.”
Yes. The Covenant is unconditional, although it certainly doesn’t prevent God from punishing the Israelites.
Agree
God made a promise to Abraham but keep in mind He also said “and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”
Moses laid the contract bare on Mt. Ebal
The law of Moses consists of more than 600 individual laws, or commandments, including the 10 main ones.
(How many is he keeping?)
The Law was not given to all humankind.
God made a covenant, or an agreement, with the descendants of Jacob, who became the nation of Israel.
God gave his laws to this nation only.
The Bible makes this clear at Psalm 147:19, 20.
Then why the Law?
What purpose was it that God gave his law to Israel?
Paul answered: “To make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made . . . Consequently the Law has become our tutor (or teacher)leading to Christ.”
(Galatians 3:19-24)
The special purpose of the Law was to protect and guide the nation of Israel so that they might be ready to accept Christ when he arrived.
So when Christ came and gave his perfect life as a sacrifice, what happened to the Law?
It was removed. “We are no longer under a tutor,” Paul explained.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,there is neither slave nor freeman,there is neither male nor female,for you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.
(Galatians 3:25)
29 Moreover, if you belong to Christ, you are really Abraham’s offspring heirs with reference to a promise.
The removal of the Law was a relief to the Israelites. It had shown them up as sinners, for all of them fell short of keeping that Law perfectly.
“Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the Law,” Paul said.
(Galatians 3:10-14)
The Bible also says: “Christ is the end of the Law.”
(Romans 10:4; 6:14)
You are a hopeless Jew-hater, but Roman Catholicism...
Galatians 3:16
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
Why? Because I want all Jews (and all Muslims, atheists, and everyone else) to convert to Christianity and thus be saved?
First the literal greek translation... with my own comments in bold.
"Brethren, what I have to say is in accordance with common human practice. Even though it be a man’s covenant, when it has finally been ratified, no man annuls it nor adds stipulations to it. Paul then explains... Nor does the text say that the blessings of the covenant were all fulfilled in Christ. It says that the promise was made to Abraham and his ultimate seed, Messiah. As such, there was no possibility that the Law given in between those two would do away with the promises in the Abrahamic Covenant. THAT is the argument being made in this passage - and is one of several that form the whole section - all worth reading.Galatians 3:15-18
The original covenant to Abraham stands as promised by God swearing on Himself. No changes will be made to it and no stipulations added.
"Now to Abraham were made the promises, and to his Descendant. He does not say, And to the descendants, as in respect to many descendants, but in respect to one Descendant, and to your Descendant, who is Christ. And here is the point, Abraham was given unconditional promises. 430 years later, the Law was given. The Law did not abrogate the unconditional covenant to Abraham.
"This now is what I mean. A covenant previously established by God, the law which came after four hundred and thirty years does not render void with the result that the promise becomes noperative, for if the inheritance is from law [as a method of divine dealing], no longer is it from promise [as a method of divine dealing]. But to Abraham, through the intermediate instrumentality of promise, God has in grace freely bestowed it. So first, the covenant to Abraham was a multi-dimensional promise based on the grace of God. It remains so, according to the Holy Spirit inspiring Paul in Galatians. The Holy Spirit, through Paul is making a theoretical argument to those who said the Law did away with the promise covenant of Abraham, and that now salvation came alone through law. Holy Spirit says no.
Wuest, K. S. (1961). The New Testament: a literal translation (Ga 3:15–18). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Don‘t worry. This individual believes that it is in my people‘s DNA to be a Nazi, or such dung. My family members, who were murdered during the Nazi era, must be scratching their heads in Paradise :-)
Very Christian of him indeed :lol:
But most probably he doesn‘t know any better, since he has certainly been fed with hateful propaganda since the day he was born, and now he is unable to break free from his indoctrination. Obviously the effect of this is even clouding his Christian charity.
Or maybe he doesn’t mind to bear false witness, when it suits him. Some people simply are like that, no matter whether they believe to be ‚saved by Him’, or to be good Christians or whatever. Matthew 7, 21-23 should be a warning to desist from such behavior.
——>Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
Not according to Paul:
Romans 9:6Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
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