GNITN – Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 28
Who Supports Whom

No Ceasefire

As expected, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s called for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian aid to be given including fuel. Although talk of fuel entering Gaza was proposed by other Israeli leadership, Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected such an offer as seen in this quote from The Times Of Israel (see https://www.timesofisrael.com/stressing-support-for-israel-blinken-urges-humanitarian-pauses-pm-rejects-any-halt/) :

Speaking during a visit to Israel Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed Washington’s desire to see humanitarian pauses in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, while acknowledging the challenge of preventing Hamas from using the temporary cessations to its advantage.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Blinken met shortly before holding his Tel Aviv press conference, appeared to push back against such pauses, saying in a statement that he rejected any temporary halt to the fight against Hamas that does not include “the release of our hostages.” He noted that he had said as much to the top US diplomat.

In another sign of some daylight between the sides, Blinken called for supplying fuel to the Strip, alongside other humanitarian aid, saying “mechanisms” could be put in place to ensure it reaches Gaza hospitals. He also noted concerns shared with Israel of Hamas siphoning off fuel for its own needs. Netanyahu, meanwhile, insisted that Israel “will not enable the entry of fuel to Gaza.”

Hamas usually adds conditions to their offers, but this time the shoe is on the other foot with Netanyahu tying any fuel release with hostage being released.

Support For Israel

While many countries are removing their diplomats and their support for Israel, America appears to be standing by her side as seen in another quote from the same Times Of Israel article above:

In his remarks, the US foreign policy chief stressed that “as long as the United States stands, Israel will not stand alone,” adding that he had relayed this message in his meetings with Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and the war cabinet.

And he reiterated that Israel has a “right and, indeed, obligation to defend itself and to do everything it can to make sure that October 7th never happens again.” At the same time, however, he said, “the way that Israel does so matters, adding bluntly: “We need to be doing more to protect Palestinian civilians.”

In this war, avoiding killing civilians is not as easy as people make it sound. Hamas is making it hard by using human shields and putting their headquarters underneath or even inside of hospitals, places of worship, or schools. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) for their part go out of their way to announce when a site will be bombed or attacked to give civilians a chance to evacuate. When these people refuse, there is nothing the IDF can do to avoid the casualties.

Hezbollah Leader Speaks

The anticipated speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was given today and he gave warnings to both America and Israel as seen in this quote from an article in i24news.tv (see https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/1699037829-nasrallah-wider-middle-east-conflict-a-realistic-possibility) :

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday his Iran-backed terror group was not afraid of US warships and "all options" were open for an expansion of the Israel-Hamas conflict into Lebanon.

In his first speech since war broke out almost four weeks ago between Hamas militants and Israel, the head of the Lebanese Shiite terror militia said the United States was responsible for the Gaza war and that Washington could prevent a regional conflagration by the Israeli offensive inside the Palestinian territory."

America is entirely responsible for the ongoing war on Gaza and its people, and Israel is simply a tool of execution," Nasrallah said in a televised broadcast, calling the conflict "decisive".

"Whoever wants to prevent a regional war -- and this is addressed to the Americans -- must quickly stop the aggression on Gaza," he said.

While Nasrallah made these accusations he also threw Hamas under the bus when he said this:

Yet he choose to adopt a distance from the October 7 massacre that started the war, saying it "was a 100% Palestinian operation carried out by Palestinians for the Palestinian cause, with no relation to any regional issues."

Hamas Calls For More Than Talk From Hezbollah

After the speech from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas senior official are saying that they need more than strong words, they need tangible actions as we read in this article from The Times Of Israel (see https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hamas-official-says-time-for-hezbollah-to-walk-the-talk-after-fiery-nasrallah-speech-against-israel/) :

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Lebanon, says Hezbollah must now prove the commitment to Hamas’s victory in Gaza as was voiced earlier this evening by the Lebanese terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“His words about the importance of stopping the attack on Gaza and the importance of Hamas’s victory in Gaza are clear and important. Hezbollah’s commitment to these two goals [now] requires action on the ground,” Hamdan says.

Hezbollah, to date, has avoided fully entering the war against Israel in what analysts say has infuriated Hamas.

The big elephant in the room is who many people are saying is pulling all the strings and that is Iran. There are many who believe nothing happens in the area without first being approved by Iran, although there are some who maintain that Hamas attacked at a time when they weren’t supposed to attack.

West Bank Friction Continues

While walls separate the borders of Israel, in the West Bank no such barriers exist between Palestinians and Arabs and Israelis making it difficult to keep tensions low. Social media sites around the world portray the area as an apartheid state making a reference to South Africa when it had a skin color system that had white skinned people given full rights and all other skin tones lesser rights. In the West Bank, though it is solely based on nationality according to some. Those who live in the area don’t see things happening like that as seen in this quote from a CBN.com news article (see https://www2.cbn.com/news/israel/christians-judea-say-jews-just-want-peace-whole-idea-apartheid-state-bunch-bunk) :

CBN News visited the gate that goes from Israel into the city of Nablus which is an Israeli city that's administered by the Palestinians under the Oslo Accords. There are three zones: A-zone, B-zone, and C-zone. A-zone is a zone where Israelis are not allowed to go. It's governed by the Palestinian Authority.

It is illegal for Israeli citizens to enter this area. Why? Because an Israeli who passes through this gate is going to get killed. Now, Arabs can pass through this gate and come to it through to Israeli-controlled areas without any problems. And in fact, tens of thousands of them do that every day to go to work.

But right now, they're not able to go to work because of what happened on October 7th. And that goes to show that, economically, Arabs are being hurt very badly by what Hamas perpetrated against the Jewish people on October 7th.

HaYovel Production Manager Joshua Waller said, "The whole idea of apartheid state is a bunch of bunk. It's leftist propaganda that's trying to steal this biblical land from Israel. And the signs that you mention, these big red signs, there's no sign. There's no place in all of Israel that says no Arabs allowed. This just doesn't exist. As an Israeli in this area, you would not be able to go to the Arab village next door. No Jews allowed. On the other hand, the Jewish settlement behind me, just Jewish settlement? Yes. We built all those apartment buildings. The Arabs, they hired Arabs to come and build these communities."

Does that mean all Jews are agreeable and don’t act incorrigibly? Of course not, but to portray the situation as Jewish oppression is, as Waller states a bunch of bunk.

The Fourth Front

I’ve been calling the West Bank a front in the war, and the Jews living there agree as we go back to the same CBN.com article:

With tensions already high, and Palestinian Authority leaders calling for a repeat of October 7th to happen here, global calls to support Hamas put people here in danger.

Joshua said, "So this has been unfortunately going on for a long time and people have just been unaware that these radical Islamists here in these surrounding villages of Judea and Samaria have been very active for a long time. We have Gaza in the south, Hezbollah coming from Syria and Lebanon. These are the three fronts that most of us know about."

"The fourth front here in Judea and Samaria is really an undercover. People don't understand. Down south on the Gaza (border), they have these technologically advanced fences between them. Here where I'm standing, we have 500 Jewish families living in a little Jewish community, a hilltop community here called 'settlements' on the news, surrounded by 250,000 Arabs. And there's no fence between me and them."

How the West Bank front is eventually handled is not entirely known, but the IDF is still rooting out terrorist and terrorist sympathizers daily.

Praying For The Middle East

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all go well for those who love you. (Ps 122:6, NLV)

Praying for Israel and really the whole Middle East area is complex, but necessary. As we’ve noted before, there are forces in the heavenlies doing fierce fighting that is also being seen in the physical world and for many of us that is the best arena to fight. Intense intercession is on the docket for believers around the globe as what happens to Israel affects the world as we see in the above verse from the book of Psalms. And we know that this applies to nations as well as individuals. As we also see in Genesis 12:3, blessings and curses are also a part of supporting the nation of Israel:

I will bring good to those who are good to you. And I will curse those who curse you. Good will come to all the families of the earth because of you.” (NLV)

Support in both prayers and actions are needed now more than ever. This war is only going to get harder and more intense as the days go by.