Watching over Zion" (The weekly News Report & Prayer Update)
Compiled by David Soakell Tel: 01642 469663
E-mail david@cfi.org.uk Website: www.cfi.org.uk

~ Thursday 5th January 2012 ~

The Word: But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, “Let Israel be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!” But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand His plan, that He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. “Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion, for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hooves of bronze, and you will break to pieces many nations.” You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. (Micah 4:11-13)

Pointers for prayer: Due to a severe viral infection I’ve had since Christmas, this is a shortened version of WoZ this week. I would welcome your prayer for full recovery.

As we begin a new year, please do remain strong in yo ur stand with Israel. May all our actions, support & prayer be led by the Holy Spirit.

Please pray that we would have ears to hear, and hearts open to the areas the Lord wants us to be effective in throughout 2012. As you read through this report, please bring each of these areas before the Lord in your intercession.

Knowing the thoughts and plans of the LORD

Almost one year ago to the day, I wrote in my first Watching over Zion report of 2011: “As we enter the New Year, I would love to be able to say that this year will be different. Peace will reign in the Middle East; the Jewish nation of Israel will be free from terrorist attacks; Iran will decide to plough their millions of dollars into blessing their own people instead of building nuclear war heads, and the church will fast and pray and commit serious warfare on Satan instead of allowing some of the church to attack Israel ~ the very people they are engrafted into... but sadly, to announce all this would only make me a false prophet. The reality isn't so good: A serious new threat to the peace and security of Israel is rapidly emerging. The prospect that the Palestinian leadership will unilaterally declare their own independent, sovereign state and attempt to divide Jerusalem is drawing ever closer. And sadly, the world will try to force Israel to accept this new state rather than require the Palestinians to sit down and negotiate a fair and just arrangement that both sides can accept.”

We always need to be so careful when looking ahead at “what might happen”. The serious threat to the peace and security of Israel is close at hand, yet hasn’t this always been the case since 1948? The issues regarding the potential Islamic Palestinian state in the “West Bank” haven’t gone away, but thankfully have not materialised either, and of course Iran’s threat still looms large. 2011 was indeed a year of global tumult, marked by widespread social and political uprisings, economic crises, and a great deal more. There have also been ‘spiritual shakings’ in most areas of the world, yet despite all of this, the LORD God remains the same! There are no emergency crisis meetings in the LORD’s chambers of heaven.

To listen to the political leaders and the media in the West, the "Arab Spring" of 2011 was hailed as ‘the rise of democracy and personal freedom in the Arab Middle East.’ Yet as I’ve written on many occasions in the past, the reality is quite different. The ‘Arab Spring’ has really given rise to the kind of Islamic forces that seized power in Iran which swept aside a fairly pro-democratic movement in 1979. All the Arab nations that have had power struggles and violent demonstrations throughout 2011, will soon wake up to the Muslim Brotherhood using democracy to destroy democracy and soon demanding sharia law, even in countries such as Egypt. With this in mind, I was interested to hear Israel's deputy prime minister and former IDF chief, Moshe Ya’alon, telling reporters that the problem is “Western powers instinctively promote and support pro-democracy movements as though elections alone will give birth to democratic freedoms.” Ya’alon then stated, "We believe you cannot reach democracy by elections… We believe it is a long process that should start with education."

Moshe Ya'alon stated that it took Europe hundreds of years to fully develop real democracy. Yet for some reason, the West believes the Arab world will transition from totalitarianism to that same real democracy overnight. As evidence that this is simply the wrong approach, Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University told Israel National News that it is precisely this ill-advised rush to elections that has now given rise to Islamists across the region. In reality, we only need look at Lebanon to see how this country has drastically changed with the rise of Hezbollah. Or one should look at Gaza with the landslide electoral victory of Hamas in 2006 and realise that democratic freedom is well off course. Sadly, the Islamic-dominated Middle East is simply not fertile ground for ‘Western-style’ democracy.

So… what should we expect throughout 2012? Well… let’s distance ourselves from any people like last year’s Pastor Camping’s self-proclaimed ‘rapture’. Also to be clearly avoided is those who proclaim this is our final year! Impressive movie special effects aside, the 21st of December 2012 won't be the end of the world as we know. It will I believe however, be another difficult year for the Middle East and Israel in particular. As we prepare for another year of supporting and praying for Israel, the words of Micah 4:11-13 came to mind. Let us all remain faithful, and may we all know for certain that the Lord is firmly in control and His plans stand alone. Pray that we would have ears to hear, and hearts open only to the areas the Lord wants us to be effective in throughout 2012.

Archbishop Nichols’ message ‘out of focus’

Well here we go again… it appears to be the same old problem… solve the Palestinian refugee issue in Israel and we’ll have ‘world peace’… it doesn’t matter that thousands of Palestinian refugees suffer worse circumstances in Jordan… that’s not a problem it would appear! On Christmas Eve, as thirty five Catholics were killed by bombs set by Muslim terrorists in Nigeria, in London Archbishop Vincent Nichols focused his Christmas message on land disputes between the people of Israel and residents of Bethlehem yet completely ignored the massacre of Christians by Muslims in Egypt, Nigeria, and other parts of the Islamic world.

What really annoyed me with this latest attempt by certain church leaders to blacken Israel’s name is that the cause of the many problems facing the Christians of Bethlehem has nothing to do with Israel. Since the Palestinian Authority gained control of Bethlehem, the Christian population has gone from 80% to almost zero. The reason for this decrease in population is the systematic persecution of Christian Arabs by Muslims. Just like in Egypt and within Gaza, the Christians of Bethlehem find Muslim populations intolerant of their continued existence.

The news coming out of the Middle-East in the last twelve months has focused on two principal areas: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the so-called Arab Spring. The headlines have been restricted to these two topics. Yet rarely ever covered are stories of the on-going destruction and persecution of the millennia-old Christian communities within the cradle of Christianity. This of course is not new as it’s been going on for decades if not centuries, but the growth and spread of Islamic fundamentalism within the last decade has set in motion a rising tide of anti-Christian behaviour that threatens to wipe out Christianity in the Middle-East in what amounts to a repetition of what has occurred to Jewish communities throughout the “West bank” of Israel.

Five nations that demonstrate the on-going obliteration of Christianity in the Middle East are Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Lebanon. Yet instead of doing a public service by stating the truth, the Catholic Archbishop attacked Israel. "See more clearly all those things which disfigure our world," Archbishop Nichols said. "We too live in a land of deep shadow. That shadow falls particularly heavily on the town of Bethlehem tonight." The Archbishop said the people of the parish of Beit Jala in the “occupied West Bank” are preparing for a legal battle to protect their land and homes from further “expropriation” by Israel. One wonders if this ‘man of the cloth’ knows anything about the legality of Israel in the San Remo agreement?

Archbishop Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, also made a comparison between Arab Palestinians and Jesus’ passion. “We are to be freshly attentive to the needs of those who, like Jesus himself, are displaced and in discomfort”, he said during his Christmas Mass sermon at Westminster Cathedral. “A shadow falls particularly heavily on the town of Bethlehem tonight…” Ironically, Bethlehem, in the town of Judah (from where we get the term ‘Jew’) is where the Jewish Messiah Yeshua was born… and again, ironically, the State of Israel protects the rights of its Arab Christian and Muslim populations. Yet Archbishop Nichols appears to ignore this, and sadly forgot the persecuted church throughout the Muslim Middle East.

What now for Syria?

According to sources, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is due to announce his intention to establish a new government which will allegedly include opposition members as independent politicians. According to sources linked to Assad's regime, the president has conducted many meetings with senior officials in the past three days, and was briefed on their discussions with Syrian opposition members.

A Syrian website claimed Assad will emphasise the importance of local law on protests, as well as ‘stress’ that Syria's armed forces are operating according to that law. However according to the United Nations, more than 5,000 people are now believed to have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on protests. The UN's Navi Pillay said on Monday there were reports of increased attacks by opposition groups on President Bashar al-Assad's security forces but highlighted "alarming" events in the besieged protest city of Homs. More than 14,000 people are estimated to have been detained and at least 300 children are among the dead, Pillay told the 15-member council. She estimated that at least 12,400 have fled into neighbouring countries since the anti-government protests erupted in March. So why is Bashar al-Assad announcing his intentions of a new ‘unity’ government?

According to Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak, he reiterated that all signs are indicating to the fact that "Assad's regime in Syria is on its ‘last legs’." Barak went on to say it's hard to pinpoint when it will meet its end, but there's no doubt that it's nearing the end of days. The Arab League said on Monday that its monitors in Syria were helping to stem bloodshed 10 months into a mass uprising against Syria's ruling family, and asked for more time to do their job. However, since the team's arrival last week, security forces have killed at least 129 people, according to Reuters. Activist groups have said 390 have been killed.

We hope to be back to full speed next week, but for now, do pray into these current issues.

David Soakell
(CFI Church Liaison Officer (UK) & Writer & Producer of the CFI News Report & Prayer Update)

Tweet me @David_at_CFI

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