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The Story of Purim

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The central character in the story of Purim is the Jewish girl Esther (originally Hadassah.) Hadassah was an orphan, raised by her uncle Mordechai. They descended from exiled Jews who lived in the ancient Persian Empire. On one occasion, the Persian King Ahasuerus (Artaxerxes) became furious at his beautiful wife Vashti for refusing to appear at his great banquet and decided to replace her. An order was issued to bring to the Palace all the kingdom’s beautiful virgins from whom Artaxerxes would choose a new queen.

Esther, being very beautiful, also was brought to the Palace. The king loved Esther more than all the other virgins and chose her to replace Queen Vashti. Esther’s uncle Mordechai advised her to hide her Jewish origins.

The King had elevated a certain man, Haman the Agagite (descended from Amalek) to the powerful position of Prime Minister of the Empire. Haman was extremely wealthy and influential and according to the King’s command, all the royal servants at the king’s gate had to bow down to and revere Haman. However, Mordechai who also sat in the king’s gate worshiped only the true God of Israel.

Mordechai could not bow down before any man. When Haman heard of Mordechai’s refusal to bow before him, and that he was a Jew, it aroused his anger and hatred, not only toward Mordechai but toward all the Jewish people. Haman schemed to destroy them. Haman persuaded the King to sign a decree authorizing the extermination of the Jews. A date was set for this purpose by casting lots (“PUR”). The lot fell on the 13th of the month of Adar.

It was a time of mourning for all the Jews in the kingdom of Persia and Media.

Esther realized that she was chosen as Queen of Persia for such a time as this; to be used by God for the salvation of His people. She rose to the occasion by taking a step of faith and went before the Highest Authority (the God of Israel) in prayer and fasting after calling all the Jews in the capital city of Shushan to stand with her in prayer and fasting for three days before she risked her life by approaching the king uninvited.

Although Esther was the king’s beloved queen, she was part of his harem. As such, coming to him uninvited meant certain death unless the king extend his royal scepter. Esther was now willing to take this risk in hope of saving her people and said, “After that (the three days of prayer and fasting) I will go to the king, although it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

Even though God’s name is not mentioned in the story of Esther, His hand is visibly at work. It is obvious Esther and the Jews fasted and prayed to the God of Israel during those three days. God not only used Esther’s beauty to find favor in the eyes of the King, but He also gave her wisdom and a strategy.

On the third day of the fast, Esther, dressed in royal attire, stood in the inner court in front of the hall where the King sat on his throne. When he saw her, he remembered his great love for her and extended his golden scepter, inviting her to approach.

 “What is your request?” he asked. “I will grant you up to half the kingdom.”

Esther simply requested that the King and Haman attend a private banquet she had prepared that day in the King’s honor. Neither of them knew Esther was Jewish.

During the banquet as they were enjoying the food and wine, the King sensed there was something more on her heart and asked her again, “What is your request? I will grant it up to half the kingdom.”

Her request was that they come again the next day to another private banquet she would prepare for the King and Haman. In his pride, Haman bragged to his loved ones how important he was that Queen Esther chose to invite only him, besides the King, to her banquet.

At the second banquet, as they were enjoying the food and drink, the King again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

This time, Queen Esther revealed she was Jewish and asked that her life and the life of her people, the Jews, be spared. “This is my request, for I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as slaves, I would have kept silent and not disturbed the King.”

When the King asked who dare do such a thing, Esther pointed to Haman and said, “An adversary and enemy! This wicked Haman!” The King was enraged, left his drink, and went out to the garden to absorb all this new twist of events.

Haman was terrified of what the King might do to him and stood in front of Queen Esther to beg for his life. At that very moment, the King returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall and saw Haman falling on the couch where Esther was. Alarmed, the King exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

The King ordered that Haman be hanged on the very pole Haman had set in his house to hang Mordechai the Jew. (Esther 7: 9-10)

Mordechai received the honor of being placed in the highest position and was given the King’s signet ring to reverse the edict. It was a day of joy and celebration for the Jews, and the Purim holiday was established for all generations.

What is the PIJ?

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Map of Gaza Strip, Arutz Sheva

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant terrorist organization that operates mainly in the Gaza Strip where most of its military strength is located. The PIJ also operates terror cells in cities in Judea and Samaria, mainly in Jenin and Shechem (Nablus.)

The PIJ has headquarters in Lebanon and Syria and is a proxy of Israel’s archenemy, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Both are determined to eliminate Israel as the state of the Jewish people.

With Iran’s help, the PIJ has grown militarily and now has an arsenal that includes:

  • Rockets that reach up to 120 km (north of Tel Aviv)
  • Mortars of various ranges
  • Cornet-type anti-tank missiles
  • Anti-aircraft missiles
  • Sniping capabilities
  • Attack tunnels (that penetrate Israel for terror attacks) 
  • Explosive drones and 
  • A naval unit. 

Here is a short film that shows the scope of their rockets:

In the 1990s, the PIJ began suicide attacks against Israelis in Israel and Judea and Samaria, and carried out more than 400 bombings in the years 2000-2005, murdering 134 Israelis and injuring 880.

When in 2007 Hamas, the larger Palestinian terror group, took over Gaza, the PIJ became the secondary terror group. Yet it continued rocket attacks on Israelis across the border.

The PIJ was founded in 1981 in Egypt but was expelled from the country. Its leaders moved to south Lebanon, where they collaborated with the militant Palestinian organization of Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran is the main sponsor of PIJ. It funds the organization with tens of millions of dollars annually, as well as providing it with weapons and military training. Although the PIJ is Sunni, and Iran is mostly Shiite, they nevertheless unite to achieve their common goal, the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

Concerning the Middle East crisis: Iranian leader, Khamenei states that Palestine is “a part of their body and the only solution is the elimination of the root of this crisis, which is the Zionist regime – the Jewish state of Israel

The PIJ claims to be the indigenous people of the land of Israel which they call Palestine and is determined to continue the armed struggle until Israel’s defeat. They do not accept any “Two State Solution” and refuse to acknowledge Israel’s existence under any conditions.

The Deal

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“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority”            I Tim. 2:1-2.

Posted: May 8, 2018

The Deal

“Iran lied” – announced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he presented material on Iranian nuclear weapons development. Netanyahu, who has repeatedly called for the deal between world powers and his country’s main enemy to either be altered or abolished, gave a PowerPoint presentation live on TV. He displayed maps, illustrations, and animations that he said provide proof that Iran pursued a nuclear program.
Netanyahu claimed that after signing the deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its nuclear files. In 2017, Iran moved its secret nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Teheran. From the outside, this was an innocent looking compound, but inside it contained Iran’s secret atomic archives locked in massive vaults. Very few Iranians knew of its location, and also a few Israelis.
          In a great intelligence achievement, the Israeli Mossad agents were able to get in and take out half a ton of the material inside the vaults where the files were kept. They were able to get them to Israel, 55,000 pages in big folders, and 55,000 files on 183 CDs. “We’ve known for years that Iran has had a secret nuclear weapons program,” he added, presenting slides of what he called Iran’s secret nuke files.
Netanyahu said Israel had obtained the documents in February and shared all of the information with the U.S. “I’m sure he’ll do the right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel and the right thing for the peace of the word,” Netanyahu said of President Trump. “The Iran deal is based on Iranian lies and deception,” he added.The incredible Israeli intelligence operation of obtaining this huge treasure of information did several things:
First, it proved that Iran didn’t abandon its nuclear program and that Iran’s claim that the ballistic missile program was not intended to carry nuclear warheads is untrue.
The Iranians themselves admit they planned to build nuclear warheads and install them on missiles. Thanks to this new and powerful information, it is now crystal clear that the Iranians never stopped their uranium enrichment efforts and plans to build nuclear weapons, which Israel vehemently opposed and consistently fought against.
No one knew the archive existed before Israeli intelligence agents located it. Now the question prompted by the revelation of the archive is, what else is Iran hiding?
It is obvious now that Iran has safeguarded all its nuclear documents so that once the deal expires, it could pick up where it left off with research and production aimed at building nuclear weapons. The secret files also revealed that the Iranians lied about their nuclear weapons-building capability. There is a huge difference between what the Iranians say and what they actually do in reality.U.S. President Donald Trump has already spoken positively about Netanyahu’s unveiling, and European experts have traveled to Israel to study the findings. After this unveiling, it is no longer possible to ignore Israel’s warnings about Iran.
While all the other nations who signed the agreement with Iran, Britain, Germany, France, Russia, and China agree that Iran is a manipulative nation, they also agree that walking away from this imperfect deal would be far more dangerous than maintaining it. They claim that such a move would push Iran into a corner and that they would see developing nuclear weapons as their only way to break free of it. There is some logic to their position, but their interest is more economic and financial; European countries and Russian and Chinese companies desire to sign huge contracts with Iran.
The US and Israeli position is different. Israel and the U.S. hope to use the extremely narrow leeway, of at least three years until Iran will have the ability to develop nuclear weapons, to push Iran into potentially agreeing to a revised agreement that would include Tehran’s ballistic missile program and curb Iran’s regional interference, especially in Syria, where Israel determined not to let it happen.
“The argument that a bad agreement is preferable to no agreement is nonsense,” a senior US official said this week. “Without an agreement, Iran is exposed to an attack, to sanctions, and to diplomatic pressure.”  He believes the agreement frees Iran to continue lying and pursuing its goals.
Israeli officials said they believed even if the US was alone in re-imposing sanctions – while Russia, China, and European countries stayed in the deal – it would still put Tehran under major economic pressure.  Iran said about the huge amount of money they received from signing the deal that it was an “engine for empire” and allowed Tehran to bankroll proxy groups across the Middle East.   So, “The first thing sanctions would do is smash their “cash machine,” an Israeli official said.

     President Donald Trump to announce his decision on the deal at 2:00pm
US President Donald Trump was expected to announce his decision on whether to uphold the 2015 nuclear deal, which he has long criticized, by his May 12 deadline. Trump has hinted that he will pull out of the agreement unless it is revised. However, he is facing opposition from the other nations that are signed on the deal.
Trump decided to announce his decision on the Iranian deal today from the White House at 2:00 pm, 9 pm Israel time.
If Trump does announce that he is re-imposing sanctions on Iran, the sanctions would not kick back into force straight away – creating a window of time where the US might try to force Iran and Europe to accept a renegotiation of the agreement. President Trump “would be negotiating from a position of extreme strength” in such a scenario, an Israeli official said.
In case of the possibility that Trump will announce today that the US is pulling out of the deal. Iran is signaling conflicting messages, whereas the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani is hinting that the deal can be renegotiated, the foreign minister Muhamad Zarif warns the United States that Teheran will retaliate.
          Rouhani said yesterday that if the Americans will withdraw from the deal, Teheran’s condition to stay would be if the European Union will guarantee that his country will continue to benefit from it. “The United States would be then the main loser from the withdrawal.” He said. “Trump must know that our people are united, the Zionist regime (Israel) must know that our people are united.”
Iran has warned that if the US re-imposes sanctions it may resume enriching uranium, potentially putting it back on a path towards conflict with the US, Israel and its Arab rivals like Saudi Arabia.
          Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: “They know if they enter a military conflict with Iran, they will be hit multiple times.”
Please pray, before 2:00 pm central time, for wisdom to President Trump, Iran’s leaders, world leaders and Israel. For God’s will to be done, He is sovereign.

We would love to hear from you – any comments, question and/or prayer requests. Thank you for your faithfulness in standing with us for the salvation of Israel, in prayer and financial support. We pray for you too from Zion, for God to supply all your needs and bless you greatly.

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.