Sustained by God

When we stop and think about how a small nation of people on such a tiny sliver of land can have such a vast and daunting effect on their enemies, we have to look at the promises made by the God who called them back to their rightful homes. He says in Deuteronomy 33:29,

Earlier this year, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit the Alma Research and Education Center¹, which is situated in northern Israel, overlooking the Hezbollah terrorist base at the border of Lebanon.  We sat in a very realistic situation room with at least a dozen huge TV screens playing mock news reports and 3D mapping.  On other walls in the room were wall-to-wall maps of Israel's entire Middle East and surrounding borders.  To say it was an impressive setup is an understatement.  

But why does this room or organization even exist at all?  Is it for role-play geeks to come and feel like they are in some war movie?  Did the inventor of Battleship get a little too giddy about the idea that they spent thousands of dollars to pull off such a fantastic situational room?  Not at all.

This organization built this structure to invite regular citizens, often from other countries, into an environment that Israel deals with every day.  The goal is to show just how strategic they must be to survive.  Admittedly, this was a completely foreign concept to someone like me who lives in the utmost safety of the United States of America.  However, seeing what they deal with daily was nothing short of eye-opening.  I so wish every person could experience this as I did to gain a proper understanding of what Israel faces. (The red circular area on the map below shows the surveillance area we were seeing on the screens.)

As part of our situation room mock exercise, we had to decide between two possible outcomes.  Here’s the skinny . . . Israel has just received information about an Iranian truck carrying dozens of Shahab 3 missiles traveling through Syria on its way to the Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon.  Which of the following do you choose?

• Intercept and dispose of the weapons on the truck, which would be considered an act of war and possibly stir up the bordering countries to attack Israel in response to their coming into Syria and destroying the weapons.
• Do nothing and allow the truck to reach its destination, where you also know that those missiles will one day rain on your country when Hezbollah decides it’s time to use them, which is a historically accurate probability.

I'm not sure about you, but that’s a grim picture either way and something I pray we all thank God for so that we don’t have to wrestle with these situations as a typical day at work.  I learned that Israel must be very intentional and strategic about what they do.

A few little-known facts I would like to share are how tactfully and ethically the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has operated, not just now but in past wars.  The IDF is one of the most advanced military operations in the world.  They are not stupid, nor do they act ignorantly or do anything impulsively.  Situational awareness in tactics by the IDF is something they practice every day.  Global effects based on their decisions are considered, while also considering what would happen if they did nothing.  They find themselves in dire situations daily—something we could never understand from the safety of our living rooms here abroad.  

When Israel determines precise locations of missile launch sites that are bombing them from the Gaza Strip, they will first drop thousands of leaflets into the area, warning the residents to flee by a specific time to avoid becoming a victim of Israel’s military responses to stop the missile launches.  The IDF has also made personal phone calls and sent text messages to the citizens of Gaza to warn them to leave areas that they are about to attack.  In some cases, the Israelis fired missiles without explosive warheads onto roofs to get Palestinians who had gathered there to leave. The Israelis have named this approach “the knock on the roof.”² Israel, by all means possible, tries to minimize civilian casualties.  Conflict is NOT what they want.  

In contrast, Hamas has been documented to use their own people as human shields³ in an attempt to thwart the IDF’s plans.  When the terrorists read the leaflets (mentioned above) or intercept a phone call, rather than evacuating the citizens as the warnings instruct, they place women and children on the rooftops of these missile launch locations. Their goal is to create a moral dilemma for Israel, to get them to draw back from a counter-attack.  (The only thing that will change the Israeli response, however, is Hamas issuing a cease-fire from those locations, which, in many cases, are hospitals and schools.⁴)

In the outside world, “We want peace in the Middle East” is another popular notion promulgated by keyboard warriors who want to become known for being a bold voice against social injustice.  In actuality, their ideas are wholly supported by the Jewish nation of Israel.  Israel wants peace, not war.  However, unlike these very vocal keyboard warriors, Israel has put their land where their mouths are.  In 2005, the IDF forcibly removed 21 Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip⁵ to give that land to the Palestinians in the hopes that peace could be made between them. It was a compromise that has cost them thousands of lives through the years. They left behind fully equipped hospitals, farms, and greenhouses that produced enough vegetation to feed the entire place. When Hamas took over in 2006 to “govern” the Palestinian people in Gaza, they immediately started using this land as an Iranian war base.  As we all know now, Gaza was used, yet again, as the main stage for the horrendous Hamas attack on October 7.  

God promised the Jewish people through the prophet Isaiah 46:4b,

King David knew of this promise as well when he penned Psalm 121:4–5, 7:

It is only through the lens of Scripture that we can look at what is currently going on in Israel and understand that this is a spiritual war that will have an ultimate ending. One only has to read the book of Revelation to see how it all ends.

Without a doubt, much of what is happening in the Middle East is Scripture being fulfilled. To the believer, this conflict should not be unexpected, and we must continue to boldly share the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15) and pray for the nation of Israel and the Palestinians affected by the atrocities of war—that they will come to seek the one true God.

¹ See https://israel-alma.org/education/ for more information.
² For more information, refer to  https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/world/middleeast/by-phone-and-leaflet-israeli-attackers-warn-gazans.html.
³ Referenced in https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/14/hamas-human-shields-tactic/.
⁴ Referenced in https://www.memri.org/reports/hamas-known-use-hospitals-ambulances-mosques-churches-and-schools-shields-its-military.
⁵ See https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/Israels Disengagement
Plan- 2005.aspx for more information.

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