"Watching Over Zion" (The CFI News Report & Prayer Update)
~ Thursday 8th October 2009 ~
Compiled by David Soakell Tel: 01323 410810 E-mail david@cfi.org.uk Website: www.cfi.org.uk

The Word: I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves... On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them. On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (Zechariah 12:2-3, 7-10)

I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it... Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west… On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name... Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place... It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure... Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain... This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles… And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD Almighty. (Zechariah 14:2-4, 9-11,16-21)
• Pointers for prayer: Can we hear Zechariah's cry? As the Feast of Tabernacles draws to a close on the 10th October, I felt led to look at how this festival will still be celebrated even after the events of Messiah's return. Before we reach that day however, we know both the nation of Israel, and the true Church, are in for a "turbulent time". May we fervently continue to beseech the Lord over the days and months ahead. We can't put a date on Messiah's return, but we can fulfil His commandments. One of His commands is to pray for the shalom (completion/wholeness/salvation) of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). As the nations turn against the Jewish capital, may we continue firm in our intercession.

• Dr. James Dobson once wrote, "Have you ever considered prayer as a gift we've been granted by the Almighty God? We need not make an appointment. There are no administrate assistants or secretaries with whom we must negotiate. He never puts us off to a later date when His schedule is less congested. What a privilege!" And what a privilege it is to pray for the people and nation of Israel. Let us come afresh to His mercy seat, and lift Israel once more before the King of Kings.

• But why keep interceding? Some teaching would indicate that once an issue is prayed for, it is unbelief to mention it again. Yet there is need for balance in this. To keep pleading for something which God has made clear He wants to give us can be unbelief. On the other hand, true intercession is speaking into reality that which is as yet unseen. That usually takes time and repetition. We should not assume that because a certain way of praying “worked” the last time that the next "prayer project" will work the same way. There was a different strategy for different cities as Israel took the Land. Let's us lay aside preconceived ideas. Die to your own imagination. Ask for fresh guidance from the Holy Spirit for this prayer time. We need to cultivate absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit. But let us begin by entering His gates with thanksgiving and praise (Psalm 100:4). Let the high praises of God be in our mouths and a two-edged sword in our hands (Psalm 149:6).

Can we hear Zechariah's cry? As the Feast of Tabernacles draws to a close on the 10th October, I felt led to look at how this festival will still be celebrated even after the events of Messiah's return ~ hence the above Scriptures. Before we reach that day however, we know both the nation of Israel, and the true Church, are in for a "turbulent time". May we fervently continue to beseech the Lord over the days and months ahead. However, before we tackle the latest disturbing news, may we know the deep peace of the Lord within our hearts. May we tabernacle with the God of Jacob and know His love. With the recent news of yet another strong earthquake rocking Indonesia and causing another tsunami, we need to know that our feet are indeed standing on solid ground. Sukkoth teaches us that the circumstances of life can easily put us into temporary, frail conditions whereupon we are much more dependent upon God and the elements, than when dwelling in permanent homes. Sukkoth also makes us realise that our bodies are frail tents and that someday we will live in eternal bodies that will never wear out (2 Corinthians Chapter 5:1-9). That time will be when we Tabernacle, or dwell, with the Lord forever in glory. When we keep life simple, and remain pilgrims on this earth ~ looking for that city whose Maker and foundation is God (Hebrews 11:9, 10, 13) ~ then we have the meaning of Sukkoth in our hearts. Only with God's strength and His peace can we face the battle ahead. This connection was also made by Jonathan Rosenblum of the Jerusalem Post (JP) this week.

JP's Jonathan Rosenblum (http://www.jpost.com/) wrote, "Sleeping outside in fragile, temporary dwellings during Succoth [Festival of Tabernacles], we feel the need for divine protection, and are reminded of the clouds of glory that surrounded and protected the Jewish people in a howling wilderness. The special closeness that we feel to God after the scorching self-scrutiny of the Days of Awe, culminating in the cleansing of Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], gives Succoth its unique status among the holidays as zman simhatenu - the time of our rejoicing. The pattern for a renewed closeness to God was established in the desert. After the sin of the Golden Calf, the clouds of glory departed. Only after Moses received the second tablets on Yom Kippur did the clouds return five days later on 15 Tishrei. Thus the special closeness we feel to God on Succoth is intimately bound to His role as protector of Israel."

Rosenblum continued, "Awareness of divine protection is something we will all need to cultivate during the Hebrew year 5770, which promises to be the most fateful for the Jews of Israel since 1967, and perhaps since 1948. Sometime this year, probably before Pessah [Passover, i.e.. next Spring], Israel will have to decide whether to attack Iranian nuclear facilities or learn to live with a nuclear Iran. Israel continues to pay diplomatic lip service to the possibility that vigorous Western sanctions might convince Iran to shut down its development of nuclear weapons, and the discovery last week that Iran has once again completely hoodwinked international nuclear inspection agencies makes the imposition of some American and European sanctions more plausible. But, as former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton pointed out in the August 31 Wall Street Journal, there is no longer any chance that even the toughest sanctions - which in any event have no chance of being implemented - could still stop Iran. Meanwhile Iran, with China's help, is working assiduously to remove its greatest vulnerability to sanctions - its lack of petroleum refining capacity."

According to Jonathan Rosenblum's report, America has its own vital interests in preventing Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons. An Islamic Republic of Iran with nuclear weapons capability would be strategically untenable. Amongst other issues, this would threaten US national security, and regional peace and stability. Stating that the USA have the ability to stop Iran's nuclear ability Rosenblum states, "American planes could fly far more sorties against Iran from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and bases in Iraq than Israel can, and American ships could blockade Iran's petroleum imports through the Straits of Hormuz. But US Secretary of Defence William Gates, speaking for the Obama administration, has made clear that the administration views the consequences of attacking Iran as even worse than a nuclear Iran. America will not only refrain from military action against Iran; it is unlikely to provide Israel with any technical help in jamming Iranian air defences or providing satellite images and targeting information. Most ominously, I was told by the head of a major conservative think tank in Washington in May that American fighter jets would confront the Israeli planes if they attempted to fly over Iraq, long before Obama campaign adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski went public with that suggestion."

This certainly needs lots of prayer. We know that according to Scripture, Israel will have no international help to turn to in the last days (Zechariah 12 & 14). Ironically, Saudi Arabia, which is deathly afraid of having world oil prices dictated by a nuclear Iran, is more likely to allow Israeli fighter jets over its skies than the United States will allow over Iraq. But the Saudis must also fear Iran stirring up trouble in its oil-rich provinces, where most of its Shi'ite population is located. Jonathan Rosenblum continues, "Against these formidable obstacles and the uncertain success of an Israeli attack must be weighed what a nuclear Iran would mean for Israel. There is no assurance that mutual assured destruction would deter Iran's theocrats from employing nuclear weapons. The world's greatest authority on Islam, Prof. Bernard Lewis, argues that prospects of a nuclear conflagration might prove an incentive to the Iranian theocrats. Just such an apocalypse precedes the coming of the so-called hidden imam in Shi'ite tradition. Long before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian leaders openly discussed the logic of a nuclear war with Israel. The country's most powerful "moderate," former president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, is on record as saying that it is "not irrational" to contemplate a nuclear exchange with Israel. Bringing about the deaths of millions of Iranians, Lewis points out, might be viewed as an act of beneficence by the Iranian theocrats - the provision of an E-Z pass to a glorious reward in the next world. On that premise, Iran's leaders sent hundreds of thousands of boy soldiers to certain death against Iraqi tanks, armed only with the martyr's "key to heaven" around their necks."

These are indeed troublesome days. Events are moving so quickly that it can be difficult to keep track of, much less understand the big picture. However, Joel C. Rosenberg (www.joelrosenberg.com) managed to put it into one sentence: 'An apocalyptic storm is forming over the Middle East.' Rosenberg states, "Consider the data points: Iran has just been caught secretly building a 2nd uranium enrichment facility on a military base in the religious capital of Iran, a city known as Qom; A growing number of Western military analysts say the design of this new facility - and its secrecy, and location - clearly indicates it was being built by Iran for the purpose of creating nuclear weapons; Iran has thus been caught in its third lie since 2002 with regards to building secret nuclear development facilities in Natanz, Arak, and now Qom; Ahmadinejad refused four times during his NBC News interview last week to rule out the building of nuclear weapons; A.Q. Khan - the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons development program - has just admitted selling advanced nuclear weapons blueprints years ago to Iran for millions of dollars; The latest IAEA report indicates Iran has enough low-enriched uranium (LEU) to produce enough high-enriched uranium (HEU) by 2010 to produce two nuclear weapons; Iran has just spent the weekend testing "its most advanced missiles" capable of reaching Israel; Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began his speech to the U.N. by praying for Allah to hasten the coming of the Islamic Messiah, which according to his theology requires the destruction of Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it. Ahmadinejad spoke more openly about his End of the World theology during his U.N. speech than ever before; Ahmadinejad was asked for the first time by an American reporter to describe his relationship with the "Twelfth Imam" and admitted on camera that he is communicating with this mystical Shia messiah."

Joel Rosenberg stated that humanly speaking, war is coming. The West does not seem determined enough to stop Iran from getting the Bomb. So unless the Lord intervenes, Israel might soon feel compelled to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran. It won't be easy, and the entire region could go up in flames. This certainly needs our full attention regarding prayer. War of this scale is the last thing we want to see, and as a Father, I want to see my son grow up and have a fulfilled life. Israeli's too have many sons and daughters, as too do the Iranians, Palestinians, Iraqi's etc etc. May we cry out to God regarding this information and know just how to pray in line with His Word.

Petitioning the Prime Minister over the Goldstone Report In last weeks "Watching Over Zion" report I included what the Israeli Ambassador had to say to the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding the Goldstone Report (all my reports can be accessed on Saltshakers website: http://www.hebrewroots.com/). Under the heading, "Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?" which was a quote from the Israeli Ambassador, I wrote that the Goldstone Report gives credibility to every allegation or hearsay against Israel in the War on Hamas in Gaza, and none to even direct admissions of guilt by Hamas leaders. According to Israel Radio, senior Israeli officials said that as the Goldstone report is full of lies and distortions, Israel should probe how Richard Goldstone and the other members of the commission reached their conclusions. The report, which was released three weeks ago, concluded that Israel should be brought before the International Criminal Court if it did not conduct internal investigations and begin prosecutions within six months.

Now, apart from praying against the Goldstone Report, you can get active in petitioning the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (providing you live in the UK) to declare the UK’s opposition to the Goldstone Report and to ensure its rejection when a vote is taken in the UN Human Rights Council in March 2010. Many believe that the Report was biased against Israel from the announcement of the UN mission’s mandate. This was compounded by its composition, by the selectivity of the incidents it investigated, by the witnesses it interviewed and by its almost complete failure to refer to terrorism and to the defensive context of Israel’s operation in Gaza in January 2009. The deadline to sign up by is 6th March 2010.

The mandate appeared completely one-sided. Mission member Christine Chinkin signed an open letter (11 January 2009) in The Sunday Times in which she wrote "Israel's actions demonstrate aggression, not self-defence"; of the 575 pages of the report, no more than two pages are devoted to the fact that 12,000 missiles and Kassam rockets were fired at Israelis for eight years prior to the action in Gaza. There is no mention either of Israel’s right to self-defence nor of the smuggling of weapons and ammunition to terrorist groups through hundreds of tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. The Mission ignored requests to invite witnesses such as Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan and an adviser to the UK cabinet, and a recognised expert in the field of warfare in conditions similar to that in Gaza. If this biased report is accepted and Israel is taken to the ICC, it will be a setback for the peace which we all wish to see. Sign the petition at the following website: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoToGoldstone/

As mentioned in my News Report last week, often media channels such as the BBC, CBN etc pick up issues such as the Goldstone Report and show a very negative and condemning slant on Israel's actions in the Gaza war amongst other issues. Indeed, this was the approach one such UK media interviewer when questioning Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, that particular interviewer got more than he bargained for. The interviewer asked him: "How come so many more Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza conflict than Israelis?" To which Netanyahu asked, "Are you sure that you want to start asking in that direction?" The interviewer stated, "Why not?" And so Netanyahu began: "In World War II more Germans were killed than British and Americans combined, but there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the war was caused by Germany's aggression. And in response to the German blitz on London, the British wiped out the entire city of Dresden, burning to death more German civilians than the number of people killed in Hiroshima. Moreover, I could remind you that in 1944, when the R.A.F. tried to bomb the Gestapo Headquarters in Copenhagen, some of the bombs missed their target and fell on a Danish children's hospital, killing 83 little children. Perhaps you have another question?"

Another intifada on the horizon According to sources, the Palestinian Authority and Jerusalem's Muslim leaders are urging Arabs in Jerusalem to continue and escalate clashes with Israelis and Israeli security forces, leaving the Jewish state fearful that another Palestinian terrorist uprising, or "intifada," is on the horizon. Pointing to a visit by a small group of Jews to the Temple Mount during Yom Kippur last week, the office of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday accused Israel of trying to conquer the Temple Mount and "Judaize Jerusalem." Fayyad, who is hailed in the West as a moderate and true peace partner, called for even more violence, and insisted that the international community also get involved by assaulting Israel diplomatically.
Israeli Police revealed on Monday that wheelbarrows filled with heavy stones of the type used recently by Muslim Temple Mount rioters were found hidden on the Temple Mount the day before. The discovery indicates that the “spontaneous” Temple Mount riots were planned in advance, police stated. Palestinian Authority Arabs term the bloody years-long terror war that began in 2000 “the Second Intifada” or “the Al-Aksa Intifada.” Many claim that the fighting, which included hundreds of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians, began when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount. Sharon's visit was followed by Muslim riots calling to “protect Al-Aksa.” Several Palestinian Authority Arabs were killed while clashing with police and soldiers during the violent riots.

Israel rejects claims that Sharon's visit sparked a “spontaneous uprising” that led to the terror war. “It is clear that the current wave of Palestinian terrorism, which began in the wake of the Camp David summit failure, has nothing to do with a spontaneous Palestinian action to 'resist the occupation.' The Palestinian leadership had taken a strategic decision to abandon the path to peace and to use violence as their primary tactic for advancing their agenda,” says a government statement on the violence. Fears that the PA would begin inciting towards a “third intifada” surfaced in August, as the Fatah party that rules the PA met in Bethlehem and called for "resistance" against Israel. The "moderate" Fatah conference delegates included several known arch-terrorists.

David Soakell

Sources: Unless otherwise stated: Personal sources throughout Israel along with The Jerusalem Post, BBC News, Arutz-7 News, Israeli Embassy London, Independent Media Review and Analysis & Israel National Radio