"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 26th January 2012 ~
Please note: There will be no report next week due to the CFI Trustees meeting. The next report will be out on 9th February 2012

The Word: To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No-one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long… See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me! Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles. (Psalm 25: 1-5, 19-22)

• Pointers for prayer & On Line bullet points:
• This week in the Middle East, Barak states: “We will negotiate with Hamas if they halt terror”
• Once again the BBC report that UK forces 'could be sent to the Gulf'
• One columnist asks, “Could Iran Trigger Accidental Armageddon”
• Meanwhile, Israeli Air Force (IDF) pilots train under unconventional warfare conditions
• Throughout this week Holocaust Memorial Day Services get under way… We report some stories you may not have seen in the press (see below).
• Please pray that we would have ears to hear, and hearts open to the areas the Lord wants us to be effective in throughout the weeks and months ahead.
• With the Bethlehem Bible College hosting its second "Christ at the Checkpoint" conference, please pray that the Church worldwide awakens to the days in which we live, especially regarding the Nation and future of the Jewish State of Israel. Pray the church would hunger after the complete Word of God and that when they read the promises of God in relation to the nation of Israel - revelation would flow.
• During the prelude to the Holocaust, many Christians and churches remained silent regarding the persecution of the Jewish people. Friday 27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day. Please pray against any “silent protests” and that we - the Church - would honour this special day and reflect on how we can make a difference.
More talks or more trouble?

According to reports this week, Israel will negotiate with a Palestinian unity government if Hamas agrees to Quartet conditions and dismantles its terror infrastructure, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with Israel Radio Tuesday. The big problem with this of course lies in the word “if” Hamas agree, after all they have stated on a regular basis that they will keep up their violent attacks until they take the whole of what they call ‘Palestine’ which includes Tel Aviv and all of Israel’s territory.

The other big problem with this proposal by Ehud Barak is the fact that talks have never yet worked – so why should it be any different today? As an agreed outcome to the conflict, the two-state solution has not exactly been a genuine option so far. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) or Palestinian Authority (PA) - as it likes to be called these days - could have accepted peace deals and two-state-solutions years ago, and on many various occasions, yet they have always found reasons/excuses not to do so.

A decade has passed since former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former President George W. Bush became the first Israeli and American leaders, respectively, to officially embrace a two-state-solution. In terms of the number of years devoted to trying to make it work, the two-state solution is still quite young, however that does not mean it is necessarily still feasible, if ever that were the case in the first place.

There are far too many conflicting issues to really make this work… for example, what would happen to all the Jewish people living in Judea and Samaria? There is no way we would see a repeat of the Gaza fiasco. Yet Abbas has gone on record to state “no Jew would be allowed to live in a Palestinian State”. Could you really imagine the Western Wall Kotel, and the Temple Mount being handed over to an Islamic State? And what of Gilo? According to the Wikipedia site, Gilo is “an Israeli ‘settlement’ in southern East Jerusalem with a population of 40,000 - some settlement! Gilo is part of the Jerusalem municipality, not a settlement and for 40 years, nobody other than Arabs challenged the fact that Gilo belongs to Jewish Jerusalem. It is a 100 percent Jewish-populated suburb of south-western Jerusalem, located minutes from the heart of the city. During the second intifada it was under sniper fire from terrorists located in the neighbouring Arab suburb of Beit Jala. Gilo is as much a part of Jerusalem as any other suburbs of Israel’s capital City. To deny that Gilo is part of Israel is akin to denying that Tel Aviv is part of Israel.

Between the argument of ‘Jewish settlements’ spread on the one hand and on the other, repeated Palestinian insistence on totally unacceptable formulas for the right of return etc., unless Palestinian reconciliation talks surprise us by succeeding in reuniting the Gaza Strip and the ‘West Bank’, we wouldn’t see a ‘two-state’ solution, but in effect, a three-state solution – which is no solution at all, and will never work. Two serious efforts at the highest level have failed, in 2000 and 2008, the latter freezing the peace process as we know it. The Arab world is overwhelmed by revolution and the rise of political Islam, and the PLO-Hamas split is still not resolved. All this should be understood as a mandate to lay the Oslo model to rest and look for a new format for dealing with the conflict.

As mentioned however, Israel is still willing to talk peace and Ehud Barak has stated that they are willing to negotiate with Hamas if Hamas halt their terrorist activity – but, as mentioned earlier, the main problem with this is that the Islamic Resistance Movement considers recognition “of the Zionist regime of Israel as its strategic red line”, a senior Hamas diplomat said on Wednesday. "Hamas considers non-recognition of the Zionist regime as its strategic red line," the representative of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Tehran, Khaled al-Qoddoumi, said. "Therefore no one has the right to review this issue. This cannot be put into debate and is among the firm principles of the Palestinian Islamic resistance," Qoddoumi underscored, addressing a conference on Islamic Awakening in Tehran. So Barak might as well whistle in the wind.

In related news, the Israeli Air Force struck several targets in Gaza on Monday night, an IDF Spokesperson reported. The targets included a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza, two terror tunnels in northern Gaza and a third terrorist tunnel in southern Gaza. According to the statement, the aircraft scored direct hits and all safely returned to their bases. The Spokesperson noted that the attack comes in response to recent firing of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza into Israeli territory in recent days. “The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers and will continue to act against anyone who uses terrorism against Israel,” the statement read. “The Hamas terrorist organisation holds responsibility for any attacks on Israelis.”

Netanyahu, Iran and Palestinian incitement

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday regarding Iran at the start of a Likud Knesset meeting. On sanctions against Iran Netanyahu stated, "Today the EU has decided to impose sanctions on the export of petroleum from Iran. I think that this is a step in the right direction. True, it is still impossible to know what the result of these sanctions will be. Very strong and quick pressure on Iran is necessary. Sanctions will have to be evaluated on the basis of results. As of today, Iran is continuing to produce nuclear weapons without hindrance."

On the issue of Palestinian incitement, Netanyahu stated, “A few days ago we heard very serious remarks by the Palestinian Mufti in Jerusalem” (Click here for Mufti's remarks ). Netanyahu continued, “These remarks are especially serious both because they remind us of the statements of another mufti who called for the annihilation of the Jews. Muhammad Amin al-Husayni was one of the architects of the Final Solution, and because they are being uttered today by people who are supposed to support the building of peace between us and our Palestinian neighbours. The call to murder Jews simply because they are Jews is a terrible thing from an ethical point-of-view and is an obstacle to peace. Incitement in general is an obstacle to peace. What is especially serious is that as of today, not only has the Palestinian Authority neither condemned nor taken exception to the remarks, it enabled them to be broadcast on official Palestinian television. I expect senior PA officials to condemn this act. Those who want peace should not allow such incitement and calls to murder Jews."

Meanwhile, regarding the threat from Iran, the UK’s Sunday Times revealed this week that Israel have advised US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey during his visit that Israel will not ask for the permission of the US to attack Iran and will only give America a 12 hour warning before the attack. According to the report, Netanyahu doesn't trust Obama and is concerned that Obama would do everything in his power to prevent an attack if he knew about it in advance - this out of concern that oil prices would spike during an election year. The Sunday Times further reports that an Israeli security source told the Sunday Times that Israel was shocked when it learned that the US-Israel security exercise that had been planned for two years was postponed by the U.S.
Reconciliation or delegitimizing of Israel?

This next report comes from Israel Today and is something I feel we need to pray about. According to Israel Today (http://www.israeltoday.co.il/), from March 5th to 9th the Bethlehem Bible College will be hosting its second "Christ at the Checkpoint" conference. Here, some 30 Christian leaders will be gathering in Bethlehem to raise the banner of "Palestinian Liberation Theology" as the only true hope for reconciliation and peace in the Middle East.

Israel Today state, “The target of most of these speakers will be "Christian Zionism," that theological viewpoint that supports modern Israel's continued prophetic relevance and destiny, and, in so doing, also supports Israel's biblical claim to the Land of Israel. For Bethlehem Bible College and like-minded institutions, Christian Zionism is a threat to peace and the fulfilment of God's Word. By contrast, these Christian leaders claim their own position is apolitical and biblical. With massive assistance from abroad (some of the speakers head some of America's largest churches) they support the Palestinian struggle for freedom in their "occupied land."”

The report went on to say, “One such speaker is British Christian writer Ben White, who recently published the book Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy. Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, on Monday highlighted the fact that the forward for White's book was written by extremist Israeli-Arab Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi. Two years ago in March 2010, when the Bethlehem Bible College was hosting the first Christ at the Checkpoint event, Zoabi was calling for the start of a third terrorist uprising, or intifada, against Israel. Two months later she was found aboard the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in an international flotilla trying to break the Israeli maritime blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.” It certainly does raise the question: Is Christ at the Checkpoint really about reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, or is it about further delegitimizing Israel and attempting to reverse the fulfilment of biblical prophecy?

Chilling account should warn modern West

As mentioned in the Prayer Pointers, throughout this week Holocaust Memorial Day Services are getting under way, and for the past three weeks, I featured some story regarding the Holocaust. This week, a good friend of mine, Neville Cresdee, wrote to me regarding a Radio 4 programme he’s listened to on Treblinka and the work undertaken by Birmingham University (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019rlns). With his permission, I felt what Neville states worthy of inclusion in this final section on Holocaust Memorial week. Neville writes, “This chilling account should warn the modern West of the global hatred for the Jewish people, who through history are repeatedly made scapegoats. I did not know until tonight that of the estimated 800,000 Jews who were "processed" by Treblinka, just 70 survived.”
Neville states, “One of the driving forces in my life has been to attempt "family ghosts" to rest regarding my own family's experience of Holocaust type behaviour. My late father, Granville H.T. Cresdee, experienced 3 years in a Japanese POW camp at the fall of Changi, Singapore in 1942. Witnessing approximately 200 murders a day, each day for 1,000 days, he arrived home in the U.K., an emaciated skeleton. It took him 12 months to learn how to eat European food again after existing on a handful or rice as forced Prison labour.”
Neville continues, “As an adult I have sought to make a better world than the one my family inherited. As a volunteer Radio Officer I felt honoured to contribute £250,000 of my professional services to "Operation Jabotinsky" between 1997-2000, ferrying fleeing Jews from the Black Sea to Haifa, Israel, to begin a new life. When our ship, M.V. Restoration/3FWI4, called at the Russian port of Sochi to collect the Russian Jews, we had to do so in the dead of night - at around 2 or 4 a.m.. The Russians forbad us to do this work in the daylight. They didn't want the local Russian people to know what was going on. At the time we did this work, the Russian Rouble collapsed -losing 50% of its value overnight. Middle Class Russian Jews were made scapegoats during this period and many were fleeing for their lives and took advantage of our free trip to Israel. The Russian Jews we helped were only allowed onboard 10 at a time and had to run between a shore based warehouse and the ship's gangway in near darkness. An Armed Russian soldier was at the bottom of the gangway to ensure everything went to plan.”

He continues, “As the Rouble went though its devaluation then with each journey we made to Sochi, the Russian port authorities increased port usage payment fees and they wanted payment in U.S. Dollars. Their fees reached very high levels and members of our church, based in Sweden, were flying out with cases stuffed with U.S. Dollars to make payment to the Russian authorities. The Jews were precious to us and we paid the monies demanded. Whilst I lived in Sweden for 6 years during this period the Swedish government brought out a book which was posted to every household in Sweden - called "Tell Ye Your Children." http://www.levandehistoria.se/files/engelska.pdf " All 8,000,000 citizens received this book. It was a dire warning as to what can happen to societies when so-called "Democracy" breaks down. The book, in English format, is no longer available but you can read it in PDF format on the site above. I make mention of this tonight because of the Treblinka programme I've just heard. It is said that those who don't learn from History are doomed to repeat it again. I thought until tonight that the Jewish phrase of "Never Again" was rooted in Masada. I thought wrong, it was rooted in Treblinka.”

Neville concludes, “This pre-occupation in humanity to blame the Jews when societies go wrong gathers momentum in the here and now with the radical Islamic world and the posturing of Iran, which is downright obscene. I'm not a Jew - I'm an Englishman but I know the impact of senseless and indiscriminate torture upon a family. That's why I empathise and sympathise with the Jewish people so readily. When I visited Israel aboard M.V. Restoration, several times, I found out the secret of the Jewish people and why they are so hated so much by the rest of the world. THEY LOVE LIFE. For this they are hated. Every Muslim nation I have ever visited has an air of oppression which I could "feel" in my consciousness. I just wanted to leave and get out of such countries. But Israel and its people breathe LIFE.” (Neville Cresdee)

David Soakell

(CFI Church Liaison Officer (UK)
& Writer & Producer of the CFI News Report & Prayer Update)
Tweet me @David_at_CFI

CFI UK Website: www.cfi.org.uk
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CFI Jerusalem Website: www.cfijerusalem.net