But we know Someone who holds the future in his hands!

With the climate change protesters bringing London to a standstill in a bid to save the planet, and despairing Brexiteers having virtually given up hope of saving the kingdom from European predators, is there any future for us?

Yes, assuredly so, if we look to the rock from which we were hewn (Isa 51:1); to the One from Israel who brought us salvation. Jesus is doing a new thing in the land that gave him birth, and it carries a message of peace for us all.

What? Peace! You’re telling me Israel has a lesson of peace for us with all the bloodshed that is being spilled in the Middle East? Bear with me.

The ‘Peace Process’

As many in the UK have had their fill of squabbling politicians, so in Israel talk of peace is being treated with contempt. After decades of negotiations surrounding the ‘peace process’, most Israelis realise that they have no genuine partner with whom to make peace – and no longer believe peace is possible.¹

But there is a peace being enacted right before their eyes in the form of believers in Yeshua (Jesus) – both Jew and Arab – embracing one another out of a common love for the Jewish Messiah.

Congregations of such believers are meeting all over the land where Jesus once walked, and have become the ‘one new man’ referred to by the Apostle Paul in a letter to the early Christians, thus:

“For he himself [Christ] is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” (Eph 2:14)

There is a peace being enacted right before their eyes in the form of believers in Yeshua – both Jew and Arab – embracing one another out of a common love for the Jewish Messiah.

One New Man

When Jesus died on the cross, he broke “the dividing wall of hostility” between man and God, and between Jew and Gentile. The barrier has been well and truly smashed, and I have witnessed the beautiful reality of this on several occasions, both in Israel and in Britain.

I have also just written of an Arab woman brought up to hate the Jews who, since finding freedom in Jesus, says: “I love the Jewish people because it is their God and their Messiah I’m following and he told me to love them.”²

When Moses was about to lead the Israelites through the Red Sea, he told them: “Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation [literally Yeshua] of the Lord [Yahweh].” ‘Yeshua’ (Jesus) means salvation; it still does, and it’s where true peace has been won!

Hypocrisy and Appeasement

Instead of peace, however, many people – even in Israel – are being taken in by hypocrisy. Speaking of discriminatory apartheid-type laws denying basic rights to Palestinians in Lebanon, Israeli Arab journalist, lecturer and film-maker Khaled Abu Toameh writes:

Palestinian leaders do not seem to care about the suffering of their people at the hands of Arabs. Yet these same leaders are quick to condemn Israel on almost every occasion and available platform.³

And Bassam Tawil of the Gatestone Institute points out that payments to terrorists and their families lie at the heart of Palestinian incitement to terror that drives the conflict there. For they are entitled to full salaries that are denied to others!⁴

Here in Britain, meanwhile, we are suffering the effects of political appeasers kowtowing to a godless empire supposedly set up to ensure lasting peace in Europe, when they ought to be defending our democracy, decency and sovereignty, as Churchill would have done.

Plumbing the depths of insanity, they have the gall to push ahead with an election to this body - three years after the public voted to leave it, and at a colossal cost of £100 million+.

When Jesus died on the cross, he broke “the dividing wall of hostility” between man and God, and between Jew and Gentile.

A Political Circus

This is surely a political circus led by clowns – a humiliating, soft-touch approach. No wonder that climate change ‘warriors’ have been so easily able to exploit this time of political weakness, grabbing the headlines to have their say on an issue no-one (but God) can do anything about.

The Bible tells us that “the earth will wear out like a garment” (Isa 51:6) and that the real Saviour of our planet, the Lord Jesus Christ, will one day usher in a new Heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1).

Meanwhile these anarchists are putting the country in grave danger of a terrorist strike as police resources are diverted elsewhere and more than a thousand arrests are made.

Writing this on ANZAC Day, when Australia and New Zealand remember the bravery of their soldiers in past conflicts, I conclude with the hope that sanity will prevail and we return as a nation to battles that are really worth fighting.

References

1 David Soakell, Christian Friends of Israel’s Watching Over Zion newsletter, 25 April 2019.

2 News & Views, newsletter of CMJ Israel. Testimony also available on YouTube courtesy of One for Israel.

3 David Soakell, 25 April 2019.

4 Ibid.

Foreign Secretary regrets our turning back refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s apology over Britain’s treatment of Jews during the Mandate of Palestine is an encouraging development to be greatly applauded.

But it has been a long time in coming. Not from him, I mean, but from successive British Governments. He is believed to be the first holder of this office to have acknowledged our criminal behaviour over the plight of Jewish refugees trying to escape the Nazis.

Described by Mr Hunt as a ‘black moment’ in history, it involved denying entrance to the very homeland we had pledged to help recreate for the Jews at the time they needed it most. And Britain has been under a curse ever since, fulfilling the negative part of Genesis 12:3 – that those who curse the seed of Abraham would face judgment.

Mr Hunt was addressing the annual Parliamentary reception of Conservative Friends of Israel, hailing the “very strong relationship” between Britain and Israel and declaring Israel’s right to self-defence as being “absolutely unconditional”.

But he added: “There have been some black moments when we have done the wrong thing such as the 1939 White Paper which capped the number of visas issued to Jews wanting to go to the British mandate of Palestine.”¹

A Step in the Right Direction

Anne Heelis, who heads up a group² dedicated to comforting those who suffered as a result of British Mandate policies, said this “wonderful development” had come just a day after confession for our role was made during a Holocaust memorial service in Northern Ireland.

“Hundreds of thousands of Jewish people could have escaped death in the Nazi concentration camps if they had been allowed free entry into their ancient homeland, but Britain cruelly blocked this way of escape by severely restricting Jewish immigration,” Anne said.

Those who had been praying for a change of heart were “deeply grateful” for this development, but though Mr Hunt’s remarks were “most welcome”, they did not amount to an apology.

The Foreign Secretary’s apology over Britain’s treatment of Jews during the British Mandate is an encouraging development to be greatly applauded – although it is just the start of what is needed.

“They are indeed a wonderful answer to prayer and a great encouragement to continue praying with broken hearts for our Government to make a full apology to Israel. There is still a deep wound in the heart of many Israelis as a result of Britain’s misconduct of the Mandate.”

Rosie Ross, whose organisation Repairing the Breach has also been working with those who suffered under the Mandate, said Mr Hunt’s statement was “a major breakthrough” that was clearly an answer to prayer, some of which has been specifically targeted at the Foreign Office.

She plans to thank Mr Hunt personally and also looks forward to a full apology.

Reneging on Our Promise

The Atlit detention camp, near the port of Haifa, where many ‘illegal immigrants’ were held by the British. Photo: Gemma Blech.

Because the 1917 Balfour Declaration – promising to do all we could to aid Jewish repatriation – had subsequently been legitimised both by the 1920 Treaty of San Remo and the League of Nations in 1922, Britain had all the delegated power she needed to rescue many thousands of God’s chosen people from disaster.

But she failed to act because of Arab opposition, choosing to pursue a policy of appeasement that had never worked with Hitler. And we are still suffering the consequences, with the Middle East up in flames, the rest of Europe in turmoil and Britain in particular in a state of utter chaos and bewilderment.

We lost our empire, beginning with India in 1947, along with much of our power and influence and, as we succumbed increasingly to secularisation, we broke loose from our moral moorings. We also lost our sovereignty as we got sucked into the godless European whirlpool which further weakened our Judeo-Christian foundations.

All this leaves us frantically splashing about in an ocean of confusion with our political elite engaged in a desperate bid to avoid carrying out the people’s wish of regaining our national pride.

Blessing or Curse?

I pray that Mr Hunt will stick to his guns, and I would like to encourage him by emphasising the undeniable link – at both an individual and a national level – between political longevity and treatment of the Jews.

It is worth noting, for example, that the three longest-serving British Prime Ministers of the modern era – Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair – were unflinching in their support for the Jews. I mentioned Wilson last week (see The Forgotten Friend of Israel). Mrs Thatcher not only helped save a Jewish girl’s life from the Holocaust but also served her strongly Jewish constituency faithfully throughout her Parliamentary career. Mr Blair inaugurated the annual Holocaust Memorial Day to help ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Britain had all the delegated power she needed to rescue many thousands of God’s chosen people from disaster, but she failed to act because of Arab opposition, choosing to pursue a policy of appeasement.

Others, including Neville Chamberlain, Anthony Eden, James Callaghan and even Winston Churchill, disappeared from the political scene after letting God’s ancient people down.³

Where are the great empires of the past – Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman – who have treated the ‘apple of God’s eye’ (Zech 2:8) with disdain? They are buried in the dust of history.

Operation Mordechai

With this in mind, Christians United for Israel UK has launched ‘Operation Mordecai’ to highlight the threat to Israel and the West posed by Iran, with the primary aim of ensuring that Britain positions itself on the right side of history by defending Israel against tyranny.

The campaign takes its inspiration from the biblical account of Esther’s cousin Mordecai who, having heard of a plot to annihilate the Jews, sought the Lord, warned about what was planned and took action.

Let’s not go the way of Ireland, Amnesty International or Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. Ireland is currently pushing through legislation designed to boycott the sale of Israeli products from so-called “illegal settlements in occupied territories”.⁴ They are referring to Judea and Samaria, which is the heart of Israel though obviously disputed by those who oppose the Jewish right to the land (which, as I said, is theirs by international treaty as well as God’s sovereign word).

Amnesty International is calling for a boycott of Israel’s tourism industry in the same region, accusing them of “occupation, human rights violations and war crimes”.⁵

Paul Charney, chairman of the Zionist Federation of the UK and Ireland, said the humanitarian organisation thus demonstrates its lack of neutrality by whitewashing any Palestinian culpability for the conflict.

“Amnesty must recognise the incitement, the children’s television programmes encouraging violence and terrorism, and the salaries to convicted terrorists under the Palestinian Authority’s ‘Pay to Slay’ policy, to name but a few of the many disgraces which bear much responsibility for the current situation.”

He added that such boycotts harm the very people they wish to help.

Friend or Foe?

Returning to our relationship with the Jewish state, Labour ties with its sister party in Israel were officially cut last year over its handling of anti-Semitism, which bodes ill for any potential Labour-led British Government.

It was in 2016 that Mr Corbyn refused an invitation from Isaac Herzog, then leader of Israel’s Labour Party, to visit Israel and tour the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

Herzog, now Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, is reported to be “extremely distraught” by what is happening in Britain’s Labour Party.⁶

Christians United for Israel UK has launched ‘Operation Mordecai’ to ensure that Britain positions itself on the right side of history by defending Israel against tyranny.

So should we be. And our Foreign Office has a bad record of dealings with Israel; so let’s hope Mr Hunt’s statement signals a turning of the tide.

For we do not wish to be numbered among Israel’s enemies, of whom the Psalmist wrote: “’Come’, they say, ‘let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’” (Ps 83:4).

And Psalm 146 adds: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing” (verses 3-4).

References

1 United with Israel, 1 February 2019.

2 Nachamu Ami (Comfort ye my people – Isaiah 40:1).

3 Pawson, D. Defending Christian Zionism. Terra Nova Publications, p152/3.

4 Haaretz, 29 November 2018.

5 United with Israel, 30 January 2019.

6 Jerusalem News Network, 30 January 2019, quoting the Jerusalem Post.

Now’s the time for Christians to nail their colours to the mast

Bearing in mind the obvious success of President Trump’s ‘Don’t mess with me’ strategy in getting dictators to the negotiating table, surely lessons can be learnt from this. It certainly gives a whole new meaning to ‘playing the trump card’.

But the stubborn Europeans refuse to take note, or even learn from history. Did not Jesus say that wisdom - and recognition of his Lordship in particular - was hidden from “the wise”, but revealed to “little children” (Matt 11:25)?

I am more staggered than ever at the lengths to which the British Government will go to appease dictators since learning for the first time last Saturday that the England football team had, in 1938, raised a Nazi salute to Hitler in front of a crowd of 105,000 before a friendly match against Germany in Berlin – on the orders of the Foreign Office!¹

This was apparently designed to pave the way for Neville Chamberlain’s efforts to appease the Fuehrer, instead of squaring up to him as Churchill was later to do.

Fearing Man, Not God

This shameful (1938) episode in Britain’s history was a natural progression of her foreign policy in bending over backwards to keep the Arabs happy throughout the 1920s and 30s when she was supposed to be preparing a home for the Jewish people.

Buckling under the pressure of Muslim-inspired riots over the prospect of a Jewish nation in their midst, Britain betrayed both her international obligation and her own Balfour Declaration promising to do all she could to ensure that Zionist aspirations were met.

I am more staggered than ever at the lengths to which the British Government will go to appease dictators.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict could well have been nipped in the bud if we had acted with more integrity and courage. And after all these years, Britain is still batting for the wrong side by refusing to follow President Trump’s lead in recognising Jerusalem as the Jewish capital.

Fear of Muslim-Arab fury, rather than pleasing God in blessing Israel, once again turns us into cowards presiding over the potential ruin of our country (see Isa 60:12).

Not Taking Danger Seriously

Theresa May and her European allies are also refusing to take President Trump (and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu) seriously over the danger posed by Iran, insisting on sticking to the Obama-led nuclear deal designed to keep the lid on the rogue state’s weapons build-up.

The Ayatollah’s threat of removing and eradicating the “malignant cancerous tumour” he calls Israel² is shrugged off in a manner reminiscent of the 1930s, when Hitler’s rantings were not taken seriously.

Mr Netanyahu says it is “amazing that at the beginning of the 21^st century, somebody talks about destroying Israel – that means destroying another six million-plus Jews…”³

This is the same country that was behind the bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish community centre in 1994, leaving 85 dead, an atrocity that has blighted Argentina ever since.

Our weakness with Iran seems to chime with our stance on its terrorist proxy Hezbollah who, last Sunday, were once again free to parade their hate-filled views on Israel through the streets of London despite ongoing calls for a ban.

Refusing to apply an outright ban on the organization (in recognising separate political and military wings which Hezbollah itself does not acknowledge) is not only encouraging ‘hate speech’ which is supposed to be illegal, but is obviously against the interests of our 300,000-strong Jewish community, as well as Israel.⁴

Fear of Muslim-Arab fury, rather than pleasing God in blessing Israel, turns us into cowards presiding over the potential ruin of our country. 

Lessons from East and West

By sanctioning the belligerence of those who seek Israel’s demise, we are certainly not being a blessing to the seed of Abraham, and are thus in grave danger of bringing a curse upon our nation (Gen 12:3). We at least have a chance to begin putting things right later this month when Prince William makes the first ever official visit to Israel from a British royal.

Can we not learn from Brazil where, just a fortnight ago, two million Christians took to the streets of Sao Paulo for their annual March for Jesus? According to one report, the crowd were waving Israeli flags while cheering and praying for the Jewish state.⁵

For the first time in nearly 20 years of the event, Jewish officials were invited to attend. Addressing the gathering, Israel’s consul Dori Goren said: “Attending the march is our way to express our gratitude for the evangelical people and the Brazilian people.”

Argentinian evangelist Andrew Palau, son of Luis, preached the Gospel and a “sea of hands” were raised in response to his call to faith and repentance.

We can also learn from ordinary Iranians, tens of thousands of who have also expressed support for Israel in a Twitter campaign to distance themselves from the opinions of their own regime.⁶

Standing Up for Truth

Christians who know their Bible and are committed to following Jesus are also serious about their love for Jews. For it was they who gave us the patriarchs, the prophets, the Bible itself and indeed the Lord Jesus.

Since God consistently proclaims his unfailing love for his chosen people despite their repeated backsliding, Bible believers naturally follow the same path so that it becomes the case that if you love Jesus, you find yourself also loving the Jew.

Christians are those who follow Jesus – “despised and rejected of men” (Isa 53:3) – and are thus prepared to suffer abuse and ridicule as he did. In the same way they will also be ready to wave Israeli flags, which is to swim very much against the tide in almost every generation.

True Christians are happy to nail their colours to the mast – and to support the real victims of society, not necessarily those groups beloved of our politically-correct world.

True Christians are happy to nail their colours to the mast – and to support the real victims of society, not necessarily those groups beloved of our politically-correct world.

So why do British Christians (on the whole) not get the connection between following Jesus and befriending the Jews? Could it perhaps be something to do with Pentecost, which I touched on last week? For Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit, poured out at Pentecost, would “guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13).

And he also said: “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

Notes

1 Daily Mail, 8 June 2018. A copy of the infamous ‘Nazi salute’ photo, reproduced in last Saturday’s Daily Mail, was sent to Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson from his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in response to Johnson’s suggestion that Russia was using the World Cup for propaganda purposes in the same way that Hitler had done with the 1936 Olympics.

2 Jerusalem News Network, quoting Medialine/Jerusalem Post, 6 June 2018. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, later sought to clarify his position by saying that the conflict should be resolved through a referendum among “all real Palestinians including Muslims, Jews and Christians” who trace their roots back to before the creation of Israel in 1948. World Israel News & Associated Press, 11 June 2018.

3 An obvious reference to the Holocaust and the fact that more than six million Jews now live in Israel – Ibid.

4 Reports that Home Secretary Sajid Javid is to “proscribe Hezbollah in full later this year” have raised hopes that the terrorist group will be completely banned in the UK in response to a 17,000-strong petition. Christians United for Israel UK, 13 June 2018.

5 Gateway News, South Africa, 7 June 2018.

6 Jewish News Syndicate, 13 June 2018.

We must make up our mind whose side we’re on

Fine-sounding words are not enough. Actions speak much louder. The Apostle James berated those who boasted about their faith when it wasn’t matched by their deeds (James 2:14).

Britain’s new Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has said the United Kingdom “will always be Israel’s friend” and spoke of how the Jewish state is a “beacon of light and hope in a region where there is so much hatred and hurt”.

In addressing the Conservative Friends of Israel’s annual parliamentary reception, he also hailed “the wonderful blooming of democracy that is Israel”.

I was heartened by his resounding praise for the Jewish state, and do not doubt his sincerity, but he is part of a Government that in recent days has refused to follow US President Trump’s lead in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and which also continues to desist from applying a full ban on the Hezbollah terrorist organisation.

Mixed Messages

Both these actions encourage Israel’s enemies to believe they have our support for their bloodthirsty jihad (holy war) against the Jews, illustrated once more on Monday with the brutal stabbing to death of a 29-year-old Israeli rabbi at a bus stop in Samaria. Itamar Ben-Gal leaves a wife and four children.

This followed last month’s murder, also in Samaria, of a 35-year-old rabbi and father-of-six in a drive-by shooting outside Nablus (the biblical Shechem, home to Joseph’s Tomb and Jacob’s Well). Ten children in the area are thus left fatherless in the space of a few weeks.

Fine-sounding words are not enough – actions speak much louder.

At best, we are sending out mixed messages, the modus operandi of Palestinian politicians who have often been caught saying one thing to their Arab audience and quite another to the English-speaking world (for examples of this, see Palestinian Media Watch).

A view over Nablus (the biblical Shechem), where a Jewish rabbi and father-of-six was murdered. Picture: Charles GardnerOh yes, I know that diplomats are charged with seeking peace and should try, if at all possible, to accommodate all parties, but appeasement will only ever succeed in putting off the evil day of reckoning which, when it comes, will be much more difficult to unravel. The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is itself an example of the persistent failure of short-term deals made to keep the ‘peace’ with Arab parties ever since the Balfour Declaration was published 100 years ago.

Instead of getting on with it and immediately implementing its declared goal – the resettlement of Jews from the diaspora in the Promised Land – we dithered and dallied for decades in a fruitless effort to please all parties. The enemies of Israel saw it as weakness, which they exploited to the hilt with violence that had us chasing our tails looking for a way out of the awesome responsibility we had been given.

Enemies on All Sides

Now, just days after marking Holocaust Memorial Day in Parliament and all over the country, we hear of rising anti-Semitism in Britain, Ireland and France.

The Community Security Trust, in their annual report on anti-Semitism, said there were 1,382 such incidents in Britain in 2017 – the highest annual figure since it began gathering data in 1984.¹

Our Government’s actions encourage Israel’s enemies to believe that they have our support.

In Paris, an eight-year-old boy was attacked in the second assault on Jewish children in the area in three weeks, drawing condemnation from French President Emmanuel Macron, rightly concerned at the prospect of losing yet more citizens as a result.² France has Europe’s largest Jewish community, but many have made Aliyah (emigrated) to Israel in the wake of increasing anti-Semitism in recent years.

The Irish Parliament, meanwhile, is considering a Bill that would boycott goods produced by Israeli companies based in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights, with up to five years’ imprisonment awaiting offenders.³

Quite apart from the fact that such a boycott would also harm Palestinian workers, it is a shocking form of anti-Semitism which, not surprisingly, provoked anger from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with reported intervention from the United States. The Parliament has now postponed voting on the Bill, which is likely to be re-visited in the summer.

Falling into the Trap

From Britain’s point of view, the situation is aggravated by worrying in-fighting among the ranks of the Conservative-led Government – mostly over Brexit – which could open the door to a Labour Party with its own problems with anti-Semitism.

The Bible says: “When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order” (Prov 28:2).

The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an example of the persistent failure of short-term deals made to keep the ‘peace’ with Arab parties.

The Irish, like the South African Government, have clearly fallen into the trap, set by Palestinian propaganda, of seeing Israel as an ‘apartheid’ state. South African diplomat Clinton Swemmer told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that apartheid, once used to describe black disenfranchisement in South Africa, now applies to Israel because of its policies towards Palestinians.

He said: “Israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apartheid state.”⁴ But as Dan Diker, of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, points out, Swemmer is speaking for many who know little or nothing about Israel and never lived through apartheid. “There is not even one point of similarity (between apartheid South Africa and Israel),” Diker said, adding: “Our parliament, Supreme Court, universities, bathrooms, hospitals and everything else in Israel are fully integrated.”⁵

At the end of the day, the word of God is clear, “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling…” (Ps 132:13).

Notes

1 Christians United for Israel, 2 February 2018.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 United with Israel, 25 January 2018.

5 Ibid.