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Purim 2018

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“Don’t think that you (Esther) alone will be saved out of all the Jews just because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time…relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source… ‘Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.’”
The very famous verse from the book of Esther is a call also for us today. Are we going to be silent or rise up to the occasion to be used by God as an instrument for the salvation of Israel, both physically and spiritually, in prayer and supplication with faith and confidence in the God of Israel – who is Israel’s protector.

The beautiful Jewish virgin Hadassah, known by her Persian name Esther, was chosen by King Ahasuerus, out of all the beautiful virgins in the Persian Empire to be his queen. She obeyed her uncle Mordechai’s instruction not to reveal her Jewish heritage.

The king raised Haman the Agagite (descendant of Amalek) to a powerful position above all the other princes and ordered all who were at the king’s court to bow down to him. Mordecai the Jew, who sat at the king’s gate was the only one who refused to bow down to Haman and aroused his anger. When Haman learned that Mordecai was Jewish, he manipulated King Ahasuerus into ordering the genocide of the all the Jewish people throughout the empire.
Haman said to King Ahasuerus: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom, their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not worthy it for the king to let them remain…let a decree be written that they be destroyed…“(Esther 3:8-9)

The Pur (lot) was cast and fell on the thirteen of the month of Adar. In one day all the Jews were to be, according to the words of Haman’s decree, “killed, destroyed, and annihilated.” (Esther 3:13) It was done, a decree that could not be changed because “in the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s signet ring.” (Esther 3:12c)

When Esther heard the terrible news of the decree to annihilate all the Jews in one day, Mordecai gave her two options; to remain silent and perish with the rest of the Jews, or to risk her life by going before the king, uninvited, to plead for her people’s deliverance.

Esther realized that the purpose she was chosen to be queen of Persia was for such a time as this, to be used by God for the salvation of His people. She decided to take a bold step of faith and go to the Higher Authority in prayer and fasting. She called for the entire Jewish community in the capital city of Shushan to stand with her in prayer and fasting for three days as she risked her life for the chance of saving her people. She was going to go unlawfully before the king, uninvited, and “if I perish, I perish.”

God always does what he said in His word He will do. Hundreds of years before the story of Esther, the Lord told Moses: “I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” (Exodus 17:14.) King Saul disobeyed God and didn’t kill all the Amalekites, but spared the life of King Agag. Even though the prophet Samuel did kill him, apparently some of his family lived on. Haman was a descendant of Agag the Amalekite.

In a turn of events, the gallows Haman built in order to hang Mordecai was used to hang Haman after the king heard that he was the wicked one who ordered the killing of his beloved queen’s people. He promoted Mordecai to a high position and gave him the king’s signet ring to reverse the decree and save the lives of the Jews. God had turned the mourning of His people to ecstatic joy. Purim “should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.” (Esther 9:28)

At present, Israel is facing another Haman also from Persia, which is modern-day Iran. The Iranian regime has announced time and again that Israel will be wiped off the map of the Middle East. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has warned continually against the existential threat to Israel, posed by the possibility of a nuclear Iran.

The question today is the same one that Mordecai asked Esther. Will the believers choose to be silent while Israel is in danger? Or will they take a step of faith to come before the God of Israel in prayer and fasting for the salvation of Israel?

We know from the word of God that salvation will come to Israel. The question is what role will the body of Christ play? We ask you to stand with us in prayer and supplication, in the face of the evil and wickedness of Israel’s enemies once again. And “who knows whether you have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?”

For a more complete story, go to: http://yeshuatami.com/the-story-of-purim/

The battle against anti-Semitism is fierce, the enemy is relentless, but victory belongs to the Lord. Please stand with us at this time of spiritual warfare as Israel is facing Iranian aggression. Pray for our leadership to have Godly wisdom and strength in facing of these attacks. Please stand with us in faith on the promises and word of God.

Special Report – Israel November 6, 2017

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“For I gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.” Zech. 14:2a, 3

Special Report – Israel November 6, 2017

Iran is closing in, pressing to get closer to Israel’s borders.  Recent developments on Israel’s northern and southern borders seem to indicate Iran’s involvement.  The stability of Israel is tenuous.

Site of the Israeli bombing in Syria

North of Israel

Syria/Israel Conflict

      According to the Syrian claims, the Israeli air force launched a strike from Lebanese airspace on Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center near Masyaf in Hama province in the early hours of Thursday, November 2. (The center is responsible for the research and development of nuclear, biological, chemical and missile technology and weapons.) The strike resulted in the deaths of two Syrian soldiers and material damage.
Israel, not admitting to launching the strike, announced that the Syrian military-scientific site produces precision missiles as well as chemical weapons and barrels of explosives that have killed thousands of Syrian civilians. However, Israeli officials have in the past admitted that Israel has repeatedly struck weapons shipments bound for Hezbollah, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, without specifying which ones.
News expert, Ron Ben Yishai said that the site is using research and knowledge provided by North Korea and Iran. Ben Yishai and other Israeli news commentators warn that Iran is seeking to establish one of its planned weapons and precision missiles production factories to gain a foothold in Syria, and supplying Hezbollah with precision-guided missiles, in addition to the tens of thousands of ballistic missiles that Hezbollah already has. Only recently Israel warned that an expansion of the Iranian foothold on Syrian soil would not be tolerated by the Jewish state.
The Syrian army warned Israel of “serious consequences.” The Syrian army accused Israel of being in cahoots with ISIS. “The attack proves Israel is directly supporting ISIS and other terror organizations.” (How ridiculous!)

Lebanon

     November 5: The resignation of Lebanon PM, Saed Hariri, is the latest Iran-generated shaking in the Middle East. Hariri claims there was a recent attempt to assassinate him so he fled to Saudi Arabia. (His father, Rafiq Hariri was killed by Hezbollah in 2005.)

Why is it important?

     According to Hariri, Iran who is forcibly meddling in his country, has generated “disorder and destruction” in Lebanon and meddled in its internal affairs as well as in other Arab countries such as Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, and Yemen. Especially supporting and funding Hezbollah terror organization. Hariri claims that Iran’s arm is establishing a fact on the ground through the power of weapons. “They have built a state within a state,” he declared. Furthermore, Hariri states that Iran has been working to establish a military presence in Syria and now is trying to do the same in Lebanon.

Iran denied Hariri’s charges and said, “Hariri’s resignation was a US and Zionist plot against the Islamic Republic.”
Meanwhile, the future of Lebanon’s government remains cloudy.

South of Israel

     Hamas’ tunnel network is a vast underground city with dozens of access points located throughout Gaza. Hamas uses these tunnels as weapons caches, bunkers, command centers and a concealed transportation artery for terrorists and weapons, including rocket launchers.
Some of these tunnels lead directly from Gaza into Israeli communities near the border, for the purpose of infiltrating, kidnapping and attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers. The residents of southern Israel live in constant fear knowing that, at any time, a terrorist could emerge from a tunnel near their home.
In 2014 Israel engaged in Operation Protective Edge with Hamas. The fighting lasted 50 days. The Israeli army destroyed 32 terror tunnels, 14 of them crossed into Israel. Unfortunately 64 Israelis, soldiers and civilians lost their lives. Two soldiers’ bodies are still being held by Hamas.
Hamas has resumed the digging of the tunnels, ironically with the concrete materials Israel is supplying for rebuilding the houses that were destroyed in the war.
Since the end of Operation Protective Edge, Israel has invested billions of shekels in the research and development of ways to detect and destroy terror tunnels. Now, a simple Israeli-made smart-sensor system proves to be the most effective solution to the threat.
On Monday it detected the exact outline of a terror tunnel! The tunnel was destroyed by explosion killing 12 terrorists – two Hamas and ten Islamic Jihad terrorists (who dug the tunnel.)
The IDF is making efforts not to divulge the technology it used in the operation against the terror tunnels, thus the claim of IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, “Only conventional measures were used. The secondary damage underground resulted in fatalities. There was no intention to target any specific individual. The operation took place in our territory.” This is a battle of the minds with Hamas, who is also investing in research and development for improving the system of digging the tunnels in order to overcome the advantage of the Israeli technology.
A spokesman for the Palestinian terrorist group called the incident a “clear declaration of war by Israel. We are examining all the options so as not to squander the possibility of responding to this aggression.”
Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip called the Israeli bombing of the tunnel “a desperate attempt to sabotage efforts to restore Palestinian unity and maintain the state of division.” and that “the Zionist enemy will pay for its crimes. We will not sit idly by.”

Israel’s enemies from the north and from the south
are tightening their cooperation.

    With the excuse of being freedom fighters of the resistance against “the Zionist enemy” Israel, needing to liberate the entire “occupied Palestine” since 1948, both the terrorist organizations of Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north, met together in Lebanon to join forces for this cause.
This meeting came a few months after Iran, Hezbollah’s main supporter, and Hamas agreed to restore diplomatic relations to the level at which they were before the Syrian civil war when the sides broke. In a recent phone call, Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, stressed that Hezbollah “stands by the resistance movements in Palestine.”

We know that God is sovereign over All of these events that involve the enemies of Israel on the northern and southern borders. Behind them is Iran who is closing in and pressing in to get closer to Israel’s borders. He is Israel’s protector.
Please pray and stand with Israel as these events continue to rock our region. Pray for wisdom for the leaders, and most of all – for Israel’s salvation.

What is the Waqf?

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The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf is an Islamic religious trust organization, controlling and managing the current religious governing issues on and around the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It was instituted by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after its conquest of the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the War of Independence in 1948. The King of Jordan is still supplying all of the funding needed to operate the Waqf. After winning the Six Day War in 1967, Israel has political and military sovereignty of the Temple Mount but allows the Waqf to retain the civil administration and religious authority for the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount.

What is status quo on the Temple Mount?

In the 18th century, the land of Israel (then called Palestine) was occupied by the Muslim Turkish Ottoman Empire. The leader Sultan Osman III decreed that the status quo be established to preserve the division of ownership and responsibilities of the holy sites in the Holy Land between the various sites important to Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

This status quo for Jerusalem meant that certain statuses for the holy sites would be kept and were recognized as being permanent or at least the way things should be. The city was divided into four quarters. The Temple Mount became a Muslim holy place, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as well as other various Christian sites were recognized as belonging to the Christian world. Despite the arguments over who would control what aspects of these sites, the status quo has remained largely intact from the 17th century to the present and for the most part has not been changed.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the status quo was not respected by Jordan who took control of the Old City of Jerusalem and expelled Jews prohibiting them from visiting their Holy Places in the city.

Now that God has given the Temple Mount, Western Wall and Judea and Samaria back to Israel, the enemy of God and Israel is working very hard to take them away from Israel and he is using the Muslim Arabs.

Even before Israel became a nation, at the time that Jews started to come back to the land as pioneers, the Arabs objected to their coming back and especially going up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. From the beginning, Jews were accused of attempting to take the Temple Mount from the Muslims.

On June 17, 1967, a meeting was held at the al-Aqsa Mosque between Moshe Dayan (Israeli Chief of Staff at that time) and Muslim religious authorities of Jerusalem reformulating the status quo. Dayan offered that the Jews be given the right to visit the Temple Mount unobstructed and free of charge if they respected Muslims’ religious feelings and acted decently, without being allowed to pray. ‘Religious sovereignty’ was to remain with the Muslims while Israel retained ‘overall sovereignty’.

The Muslims rejected Dayan’s offer, as well as totally rejecting the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The Military Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren and a group of other Jews also objected to the proposal, claiming that praying on the Mount symbolizes freedom and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland.

The High Court of Israel suggested that even though it is the right, as part of the freedom of expression, for Jews to enter the Temple Mount, to pray there and to have communion with their God, if it will most certainly cause injury to the public “it is possible to limit the rights of the person in order to uphold the public interest.”

Israeli police continued to forbid Jews praying on the Temple Mount. Several prime ministers have attempted to change the status quo but failed.

A History of the Palestinian People – A new book

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Amazon has removed A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era, a book penned by Israeli author, publicist and editor Assaf A. Voll which inspired a heated debate and became a huge Internet sensation. Before, it was a best seller and the author has sold a lot of books.

The historical account, which reached the impressive second spot on the online shopping site’s list of best-selling books in the category of “Israel and Palestine History” and topped the “Middle East History” section, evoked a lot of fury from many surprised customers.

The paperback, which is described on the site as “the comprehensive and extensive review of some 3,000 years of Palestinian history,” is actually an empty book. All 120 of its pages are blank.