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 23rd February 2012 ~

The Word: "And now the LORD says, Who formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him... 'It is too small a thing that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob [or, you shall do more than restore Israel to me], and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be My salvation [my Y'shua] to the ends of the earth.'" (Isaiah 49: 5,6)

• Pointers for prayer & On Line bullet points: As I mentioned in last week’s report, David Horovitz (former editor of the Jerusalem Post), is regarded as one of the most credible and respected figures in the Israeli media industry. Fair-minded journalism, based in Israel, the Times of Israel is a welcome addition to the Israeli and Jewish media landscape. Check out The Times of Israel here. http://www.timesofisrael.com/

• Israel to Obama: Lead, Follow or GET OUT OF THE WAY! Read full report here http://frontlines2011.blogspot.com/2012/02/israel-to-obama-lead-follow-o...

• US president Obama to meet Netanyahu day after speaking to country's largest pro-Israel lobby; Iran expected to be top of the agenda. Read in full here http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=258796

• May we be empty vessels for the LORD, for Him to use in ways He chooses regarding Israel. Let us pray that Israel will allow Him to guide them, protect them and fulfil His word through them in their God given birth-right of the Land, that they will see their salvation. Please pray that in these days of political correctness, the church and Israel would stand on the Word of God as revealed through the Scriptures. Pray that God will hear their heart cries and have mercy. As it says in Isaiah 30:19, “He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer.”

• Let us be alert and have ears to hear what the LORD would have us pray regarding Iran and Syria. Please cry out to God that those who would oppose God's plans would be silenced, and that all those who are incensed against Israel be ashamed and disgraced (Isaiah 41:11).

• As Christians and Jews have come under attack from Arab Palestinians this week, pray against further attacks, and pray that the Lord God would convict the hearts of these Arabs to seek the truth and not be content in living with deception. As you read through this report, please bring each of these areas before the Lord in your intercession.

Believe on His Word In these strange days of ‘Arab springs’ and 'political correctness', it is all too easy for man to shun the Word of God. If we shun the Word of God – it goes without saying that we shun all the issues within that Word, including Israel. We can label it with whatever name we wish, whether it be scepticism, cynicism, unfashionable ideas, myth, or just simple unbelief. In many ways, we can expect the world to snigger at our faith ~ only occasionally might they admire it. The problem comes when, those who embrace the Christian faith, then argue that their theology is correct, even when it contradicts the very Word of God they're building their faith on. In the New Testament, in 2 Timothy 3:16, it is written, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God [or God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." I can remember quoting this scripture to a clergy man once in Manchester when defending the work of Christian Friends of Israel, only for him to reply, "Oh yes, but you don't believe that do you?"

CFI UK’s founder, Derek White once stated, "The preservation and continuity of the Jewish people to this present day is an outstanding and inexplicable miracle of world history. God gives as the reason for this miracle his own, eternal, unchanging covenant and nature (Malachi 3:6). When God says `everlasting' he means just that. The unchanging character of his Word and being is the bedrock of Christian faith. This is summed up in Psalm 105:8-11 where the Psalmist uses a powerful list of words - covenant, word, oath, decree, everlasting covenant - to express God's unchanging commitment to Abraham and his descendants. This emphasis centres round one issue: the ownership of the land of Canaan. The prophetic passages predicting Israel's end-time restoration stress Israel's ownership of the land. The biblical emphasis on Israel's ownership does not diminish, but rather increases with the passage of time. (See Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 36:24; Amos 9:15.)"

So, in these strange days of 'political correctness', are we willing to go against the tide of liberalism, replacement theology and unbelief? Are we willing to be “the voice in the wilderness’, Mr or Mrs Unpopular? If we are, then we need to stand together, encouraging one another, and prayerfully supporting each other. As support for Israel diminishes (Zech 14:2), may we remain faithful, both to the nation of Israel, and to our LORD and His Word.

Being alert and watching the times As I mentioned in the prayer pointers, we need to remain alert, and have ears to hear what the LORD would have us pray about regarding Iran and Syria. Regarding Syria, more than 100 people have been killed in this troubled land since yesterday (Tuesday) morning, the Al-Arabiya network reported, citing members of the opposition. According to reports, 1,237 people have been killed in Syria in the last three weeks alone, and 18,000 were arrested by President Bashar Assad’s security forces. Arabiya network sources reported that among those killed in the city of Homs were three children and one woman. In addition to the neighbourhood of Baba Amr, security forces also shelled the neighbourhoods of Khalidiya and Karam al-Zeitoun, the sources said. Meanwhile, the Red Cross has called on the Syrian regime and the opposition to declare an immediate ceasefire to be held for at least two hours every day, in order to allow humanitarian aid workers to help civilians who have been affected by the violence across the country.

Reports are coming in today (Wednesday) that two Western journalists have been killed in the Syrian city of Homs. American Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, and award-winning French photographer Remi Ochlik died when a shell hit the makeshift media centre in the Baba Amr district. Opposition-held areas of Homs have been besieged since 4th February. Activists say at least 25 other people were killed in Syria on Wednesday. Just what the outcome will be, no one really knows, however with or without the Assad regime, things can’t continue as they are without International intervention. One of the biggest problems of course is that, should the Assad regime be removed, the likelihood is that the Muslim Brotherhood could easily take over here too.

Meanwhile in Iran, after UN nuclear watchdog declares collapse in talks with Tehran, the Ayatollah says "pressures, sanctions and assassinations will bear no fruit...Iran's nuclear course should continue firmly and seriously." Iran's refusal to curb sensitive atomic activities with both civilian and military purposes, and its track record of secrecy and restricting UN inspections, have drawn increasingly harsh UN and separate US and European sanctions, now targeting its economically vital oil exports. Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in bombings over the past two years, attacks that Tehran has blamed on arch-adversary Israel. The Jewish state has not commented. The United States and Israel have not ruled out resorting to military action against Iran if they conclude that diplomacy and sanctions will not stop it from developing a nuclear warhead. However, according to sources, should this be the case, Iran would take pre-emptive action against its enemies if it felt its national interests were endangered, Mohammad Hejazi, deputy head of the Islamic Republic's armed forces told Fars news agency yesterday (Tuesday). "Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions," he said.

Iran is facing increasing international pressure and isolation over its disputed nuclear activity. Western sanctions aim to block its economically vital oil exports and Tehran has said it could retaliate by shutting the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane vital to global energy supplies. Israel and the United States do not rule out military action against Iran if sanctions and diplomacy fail to rein in its nuclear energy campaign. As well publicised by the Iranian government, the Islamic Republic of Iran state their enriching uranium is solely as fuel for a future network of nuclear power stations, not for bombs. The European Union enraged Tehran last month when it decided to put a boycott on its oil to take full effect on 1st July. Last Sunday, Iran's oil ministry announced a retaliatory halt in oil sales to French and British companies, though that step will be largely symbolic as those firms had already greatly reduced purchases of Iranian crude. On Monday, the European Commission said Belgium, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands had already stopped buying Iranian oil, while Greece, Spain and Italy were cutting back purchases.

Temple Mount tensions rise Jerusalem’s Temple Mount has often been the centre of controversy in recent years. Where once stood the Jewish Temple (or rather House of God), tension has never been far away from the very place God commanded King David, through his son Solomon to build the very place - that Jews for century’s have mourned the loss of, and longed to be rebuilt.

The State of Israel recaptured all of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, including the Temple Mount so that legally the Temple Mount is not just under Israeli military control; it is as much a part of Israel as Tel-Aviv or Haifa. That Israel do not exercise their full sovereignty over the Temple Mount is self-evident, as seen with further violence from Arab Palestinians this week. However, many are asking, what right does Islam have to demand Jews and Christians little opportunity to pray upon this ancient site, and what Islamic right do the Arabs have that they should stone people of other faiths? Who actually asks the much needed questions that demand an answer regarding this Holy place? For example, did you know that Jerusalem's role as "The Third Holiest Site in Islam" in mainstream Islamic writings does not precede the 1930’s? According to sources, this statement was created by the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini.

Most of the problems surrounding Jerusalem can be traced to two areas of dispute. One is the political area that asks Jerusalem to be the capital of both Israel and of yet another Islamic Arab state - Palestine. The other and most contentious problem is the holiness of the Temple Mount to both Judaism and Islam. The role regarding the holiness and religious importance of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament is well known and not open to debate; however, there are varying opinions on the importance of Jerusalem, specifically the Temple Mount to Islam. Many, if not most opinions that counter Islam's claim, point out the Jerusalem is not even mentioned in the Koran and did not occupy any special role in Islam until recent political exigencies transformed Jerusalem into Islam's third holy site.

Amazingly, Jerusalem's role as "The Third Holiest Site in Islam" in mainstream Islamic writings does not precede the 1930s. As mentioned, according to sources, this statement was created by the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini. His battle cry was simple and comprehensive: "Down with the Infidels!" The Mufti worked vigorously to raise Jerusalem's status as an Islamic holy place. He renovated the mosques on the Temple Mount, while conducting an unceasing campaign regarding the imminent Jewish "threat" to Moslem holy sites… a threat that even today carries a lot of weight by angry Palestinian youths who know little, if anything of the truth regarding this sacred Jewish site.

So what is this Moslem "claim" to Jerusalem based on? Well, it’s simply on what is written in the Koran, which although Jerusalem is not mentioned even once, nevertheless talks (in Sura 17:1) of the "Furthest Mosque". The passage states, "Glory be unto allah who did take his servant for a journey at night from the Sacred Mosque to the Furthest Mosque." But what, if any foundation is there to the Moslem argument that this "Furthest Mosque" (Al-Masujidi al-Aqtza) refers to what is today called the Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem? The answer is simple… none whatsoever! According to Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann, who wrote for the Algemeiner Journal in 1994: “In the days of Mohammed, who died in 632AD, Jerusalem was a Christian city within the Byzantine Empire. Jerusalem was captured by Khalif Omar only in 638, six years after Mohammed's death. Throughout all this time there were only churches in Jerusalem, and a church allegedly stood on the Temple Mount, called the Church of Saint Mary of Justinian, built in the Byzantine architectural style.”

Therefore it is crystal clear that Mohammed could never have had this mosque in mind when he compiled the Koran, since it did not exist for another three generations after his death. Rather, as many scholars long ago established, it is logical that Mohammed intended the mosque in Mecca as the "Sacred Mosque," and the mosque in Medina as the "Furthest Mosque." So much for the Muslim claim based on the Aksa Mosque. Therefore, is it any wonder that Mohammed issued a strict prohibition against facing Jerusalem in prayer? Is it any wonder that Muslims pray towards Mecca, with their backs toward the Temple Mount? Jerusalem simply never held any sanctity for the Muslims themselves, but only for the Jews.

This week, a group of over 50 Palestinian Muslims stoned a group of Christian tourists on top of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Three of the Israeli police officers who acted to protect the Christian group were wounded by the stone-throwers. Following this, Police arrested 11 Palestinians, several of them minors, for their role in the attack. According to reports, the attack is believed to have been instigated by the former Muslim mufti of Jerusalem, Ekrama Sabri, who told Palestinian media over the weekend that Jewish groups were planning to break into the mosques that occupy the holy compound and desecrate them. Sabri urged all local Muslims to protect the mosques from “the Israeli conspiracy against the city and its holy places.”

Muslim religious figures regularly claim that Israel is plotting to destroy the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque to pave the way for the rebuilding of the third Jewish Temple, which the Muslims now insist never existed. Due to the constant threat of Muslim violence, and despite the fact that the Temple Mount is the most holy place on earth to Jews and many Christians, the Israeli police comply with Muslim demands for harsh restrictions on non-Muslim visitors to the site. For instance, Jews and Christians are forbidden to carry Bibles on top of the Temple Mount or to utter even silent prayers within its walls. Jews and Christians are regularly detained for violating these conditions.

Police say officers had been put on high alert earlier in the day after receiving reports Jewish and Muslim groups were set to clash at the site. The alert was raised after various Muslim groups posted calls online urging people to head to the compound to "protect" it after a group of Jewish pilgrims said they were planning to ascend to Judaism's holiest site. Police were then deployed around the Temple Mount and throughout the Old City "following various calls on different Internet sites by terrorist groups calling on people to go protect the compound after calls from the extreme right to come today," Police spokeswoman Liba Samri said. Over twelve vans filled with riot police were reportedly parked by the Dung Gate near the Mughrabi ramp, which runs from the Western Wall plaza up to the Temple Mount. Last Sunday, police used tear gas to disperse Muslims who were throwing stones at tourists and police inside the compound.

In other violence, Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired rockets at the southern Israel city of Beersheba on Shabbat. The "Colour Red" alert system was activated in a number of Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. On Friday, a rocket launched from Gaza landed south of Ashkelon. There were no reports of injury or damage in that attack either. A Qassam rocket also landed in the Negev's Eshkol Regional Council, without causing injuries or damage.

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