ESCALATING TENSIONS IN THE GAZA STRIP SINCE MARCH 2018
Palestinian arson terrorism is wearing Israel’s patience. Among many, an assumption appears to grow that a conflict with Gaza will take place this summer.
Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, ‘She is my sister.’ Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, ‘You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.’ Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, ‘Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, “She is my sister,” and didn’t she also say, “He is my brother”? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.’ Then God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.’…
Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelek said, ‘My land is before you; live wherever you like.’ To Sarah he said, ‘I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offence against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.’ Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, 18 for the LORD had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelek said, ‘My land is before you; live wherever you like.’ To Sarah he said, ‘I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offence against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.’ Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, 18 for the LORD had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
GENESIS20:1-7, :14-18.
…At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, ‘God is with you in everything you do. Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness that I have shown to you.’ Abraham said, ‘I swear it.’ …After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time. GENESIS21: 22-24, :32- 34. Line added
…At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, ‘God is with you in everything you do. Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness that I have shown to you.’ Abraham said, ‘I swear it.’ …After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time. GENESIS21: 22-24, :32- 34. Line added
We have had daily reports of events at the Gaza Strip since 30th March 2018. The following articles are some of them, expressing the increasing strain in both camps, especially in Israel.
‘Palestinian arson terrorism is wearing Israel’s patience and increasing the chances of a larger conflict in Gaza, something both sides seem to want to avoid’ on 18th July (www.jns.org), or ‘For the last 100 days not a single day has passed in which fields and forests were not set ablaze by Hamas kites and balloons. During these 100 days, Israel did next to nothing to stop Hamas from burning Israel's southern Negev region’ on 8th July (www.israeltoday.co.il/).
Over the past few months Israel has spared no effort to find any measure to put down border riots, terrorist attacks and the onslaught of arson terrorism with incendiary kites and balloons by Hamas, and she has also continually sent warning messages to Hamas from envoys such as Egypt, Persian Gulf states, Russia, the US and the EU. It has been also reported that Israel tried to stop the terrorism by targeting kite terrorist cells, bombing Hamas posts and destroying Hamas cross-border terror tunnels.
Nevertheless, after all these efforts, Israel has been unable to halt the “Kite Jihad,” using incendiary kites and explosives-laden helium balloons, and as Hamas violated a ceasefire agreement by firing a rocket into southern Israel earlier in the afternoon on 16th July, Israel had to announce the closure of the Keren Shalom crossing in order to cut off fuel and gas supplies passing through to the Gaza Strip, but not medicines and food.
The crossing has provided vital humanitarian goods to those in the coastal territory and Israel provides up to 120 megawatts of electricity to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has a long history of using human shields to maximise Gazan casualties only to smear Israel’s image. Those in the know, know the fact very well that as each of the last three Gaza-Israel wars in 2008, 2012, and 2014 has shown, the more Gazan victims Hamas can produce, the more easily Israel can be tarnished by the media and its consumers.
An article puts it: ‘Hamas knows that most observers will simply focus on images of injured and killed Gazans, rather than blame Hamas for sending children towards a militarized border’. This is Hamas’ deceptive “Great Return March”, repeated assaults on the border with Israel, which Hamas organised and dubbed.
Another article also points out: ‘But the biggest deception of all behind the so-called “Great Return March” is deceiving the Palestinians themselves into thinking that they have any hope of “returning” to any homes or territory in present-day Israel that their ancestors might have occupied before 1948’.
For almost four months, Israel’s southern border has been plagued by massive Hamas-led protests using a new low-tech measure of incendiary kites and balloons, against which Israel’s high-tech Defence Forces seemed to have to implement different methods to combat, including the use of drones but with limited success.
It is natural to think that Israel has by now run out of patience and she is ready for war, while Hamas seems to impudently or innocently convince itself that Israel’s warnings are just for show. Among many, an assumption appears to grow that a conflict with Gaza will take place this summer.
The following link is a fascinating interpretation by Rabb Levi Sudri, an award-wining Bible expert, about the enigma of why Israel, with such strong military power cannot cope with the Palestinians. He believes the appearance of the Palestinians, i.e., ‘Philistines’ is a final attempt to fix a nation that was flawed from its biblical beginnings and the entire world is seeing the final fixing of them.
a “nation that is not a nation”
As quoted at the beginning of this letter, Abimelek, the king of the Philistines made a covenant with Abraham and Isaac when they freely stayed in the land of the Philistines. However, the covenant was broken by the Philistines in Joshua’s days and again in Saul’s days, and today as well.
Concerning the Palestinians’ success in challenging Israel despite its military inferiority, Sudri explains its reason to lie in the fact that the Philistines are a “nation that is not a nation” and it has no angel.
On a spiritual level a fight is going on between the angel of one nation against that of the other nation. In other words, according to “the Zohar” (the seminal source for Jewish mysticism), every nation has an angel but the Philistines do not, whose meaning is ‘wanderers ’ or ‘foreigners’.
Thereby you cannot make war or peace with the Palestinians.