Shalom all,

It has been a difficult week from many perspectives: forward movement in Rafiah (Rafah); returning to places partially “cleared” to fight Hamas terrorists that are imbedded in those places; death of 5 IDF soldiers by “friendly fire”; the IDF recovering 3 bodies of civilians taken captive by Hamas terrorists on 7th October; defending, again, against baseless claims of South Africa in the International Court of Justice; an agency of the U.N. published updated casualty figures, cutting in half previously cited civilian death figures; threats from friends to cease sending military supplies to Israel; public disagreements between members of the War Cabinet; renewed rocket fire from inside the Gaza Strip; the media field day, as some proclaimed a “second Nakba Day”; the refusal of Egypt to coordinate with Israel on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafiah (Rafah) Crossing; the refusal of the “Palestinian” Authority to take responsibility for humanitarian aid going into Gaza from the Shalom Crossing; increasing hostilities between the Hezbollah; Memorial Day and Independence Day, back-to-back events; acceptance and rejection of the Israeli entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, and many more. Each situation is a story in itself that needs to be told and repeated. 

But, perhaps, one of the most difficult events was described by one of my sisters-in-law, who lives in the northern city of Acco (Acre). She tearfully related the story, simply and directly. She heard screams that could only be the result of severe pain, agony, anguish, loss and sorrow. The screams were so loud and shrill and unrelenting, that they were heard throughout a multiple-story dwelling and the adjoining buildings. And worst of all, they were coming from her neighbor’s apartment, which was directly opposite that of my sister-in-law. They are in a good relationship as neighbors and my sister-in-law went to her thinking that she might be in trouble. Upon entering the apartment, she learned the cause of the outcry: the neighbor’s 20-year-old grandson, Sgt. Ben Avishay, was killed while fighting Hamas in Jabaliya, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The neighbor was widowed and earlier lost her daughter due to illness. The grandson was the child of her son, who lives with his wife in the northern city of Nahariya. My sister-in-law helped the soldier’s grandmother in a number practical ways after entering her apartment, including informing other relatives. Please pray for this grandmother, and her family, as well as for other families who have lost sons and daughters due to the present war.

Sgt. Ben Avishay – May His Memory Be Blessed

There is not much that one can say or do after receiving that kind of tragic news. Most people simply don’t know how to react when they hear of someone’s painful loss of a relative. As the number of IDF losses since the beginning of the ground operation is drawing close to 300, more and more families throughout Israel are feeling the personal impact of the war, either because of direct loss, or acquaintance with those who lost loved ones, or are relatives or friends of those injured since the Gaza War began, or of those who were taken hostage. We were traumatized on October 7th as a nation and continue to suffer from trauma, both active and passive. 

In this regard, I want to share with you a post published today by Seth D. Postell, formerly Assistant Professor of Old Testament at the Charles L. Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies (in partnership with Talbot School of Theology), and currently Dean of the Israel College of the Bible in Netanya, Israel:

“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy” (Psa 137:5-6).

In his book “The Body Keeps the Score,” Bessel van der Kolk speaks of two kinds of trauma experienced by children: abuse and neglect. As damaging as parental abuse is for a child’s psychological development, parental neglect is far more damaging according to van der Kolk’s research. Since the tragedies of October 7 and the surge of antisemitism in the West, the nation of Israel is definitely a people in trauma. The trauma we are feeling is also the result of abuse as well as neglect.  The former trauma (abuse) is inflicted upon us by our foes; the latter (neglect), by those who are supposed to be our friends.

Fundamental Islam on the one hand and replacement theology on the other may be likened to the two types of trauma inflicted upon the Jewish people today. According to the holy writings of Islam, their messiah (the Mahdi) will come and help the Muslims kill all the Jews. Because of this Satanic eschatology, we are not surprised by the current hostilities, and we do not expect the Muslim world will ever truly love and embrace the Jews. But at least Muslims are passionate about Israel and the Jewish people because of their eschatology. At the hands of fundamental Islam, the Jewish people suffer the trauma of abuse.

According to the tenets of Christian replacement theology, however, the Jews play no role whatsoever in their eschatology. Because replacement theology teaches that God rejected the Jews and replaced them with the church, many Christians who love the Jewish Messiah, particularly younger woke-evangelicals, are completely indifferent to the rampant antisemitism all around them. Sadly, some have even imbibed this anti-Jewish, anti-Israel sentiment from their news sources on social media. At the hands of these Christians, the Jewish people suffer a far greater trauma: neglect. Not a word of protest. Just a deafening and condemning silence. To be completely honest, Christian indifference to the Jewish people is far more painful to me as Jewish believer in Yeshua than the Muslim hatred for us. Don’t these Christians realize that their best friend (Yeshua) is Jewish?

Despite the pain, Israel still has amazing friends around the world who, because of their love for Yeshua, also love the Jewish people. These godly men and women typically love the Muslims too (as they should) and pray for their salvation. These amazing Christians are truly following in the footsteps of their Jewish Savior and the Jewish apostle to the Gentiles who could never be accused of being indifferent to Jewish suffering or of inflicting upon them the trauma of neglect!

“When He [Yeshua] approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes'” (Luke 19:41-42). “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom 9:1-3).

Earlier this week, we entered into a time of national mourning and remembrance for our fallen war dead and victims of terrorism. A staggering increase took place during this past year, primarily related to the disastrous events of October 7th and their aftermath. A total of one thousand, six hundred soldiers and civilians were added to the victims of war and terror Memorial Day of 2023. The numbers are made up of 766 members of the military and an additional 834 civilians, bringing the total number of casualties to 30,140, in our deadliest year in the past half century. Israel celebrates Independence Day immediately at the end of Memorial Day (“There was evening and there was morning [one] day” – Genesis 1:5). How this is accomplished year after year is an amazing gift of grace. As the Psalmist said (Psalm 30:5): “Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.” Needless to say, this year’s Independence Day “celebrations” were mostly cancelled or greatly reduced in number and character, in light of the ongoing Gaza War, the hostages who remain in the grips of Hamas and its cronies, and out of respect for the families who lost loved ones and the thousands who have been wounded. May next year bring about a return to a joyful celebration, with victory achieved, the hostages returned, the wounded restored and the war behind us.

The IDF Spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, in a special, midday press release, reported yesterday that the IDF recovered the bodies of three victims of October 7th, two of whom were previously presumed to have been alive and held as hostages. The details of the operation were not immediately made available, but it was revealed that intelligence for the recovery effort came from “Palestinian” terror suspects, who were captured by the IDF and interrogated by the Israeli Security Services and that the bodies were retrieved in an overnight operation in Rafiah (Rafah), in southern Gaza. The bodies were identified by the Israel National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Ministry of Health.

Upon receiving the news of the recovery of the bodies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he and his wife “grieve with the families; all of our hearts are with them in their hour of heavy sorrow…[adding] We will return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased alike.” At the same time, Netanyahu commended the actions of the IDF, who returned our “sons and daughters to their own border” (an indirect, and unfortunately, an  mistaken interpretation of the passage in Jeremiah 31:17 – “There is hope for your future,” declares the LORD, “And your children will return to their own territory.”). 

An additional comment about the IDF’s successful operation which brought about the return of the three bodies, was made by Lt. Col. (res.) Peter Lerner, also an IDF spokesman, who published on “X” (formerly Twitter): 

“This bitter sweet moment is not just about closure, it is about justice and humanity.

When we bring our fallen home, we reaffirm our commitment to these principles. We send a clear message to Hamas, and the world, that we will not abandon our own, that we will stand by each other in life and in death. These are our values. 

In these moments of heartbreak and loss, we also find hope. Hope in the determination of our forces, the unwavering spirit of our men and women, and in the enduring power of our resolve.

We will bring our loved ones back. Shani, Itzik and Amit will be laid to rest in the soil they called home. And in doing so, we will honor their memory and reaffirm our commitment to bring back all of our hostages.

As reported in prior posts, Israel still does not have conclusive proof, or even reliable information, of how many hostages are still alive, who they are or what their medical condition is.”

While this post was being prepared, it was reported that a fourth body, that of Ron Benjamin, 52, was found and recovered from Gaza at the same time as the other three bodies. He was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th. After receiving the news about the recovery of his dead body, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued the following statement:

“The Families Forum bows its head and mourns upon receiving the difficult news of the murder of Ron Benjamin by Hamas terrorists and the taking of his body to Gaza as a hostage…Returning his body to Israel is a sacred mission that allows his family to grant him eternal rest in the land of Israel.”

May 15th came and went, but it brought with it a plethora of misinformed statements about what “Palestinians” refer to as “Nakba Day”. HonestReporting puts it simply this way: “Nakba” means the failure to destroy the Jewish State. In its essence, the Arabic term “al-Nakba” means “the catastrophe” and, in its context, it refers to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. A full discussion of “Nakba Day” can be seen here. But, this year, media sources had field day, trying to present the ongoing Gaza War as a second Nakba. I won’t waste time or energy trying to summarize the different articles dealing with this subject and the misguided support of “Palestinians”, who are trying to portray themselves as eternal victims. For those interested, the article in Algemeiner is a good starting point.

The Dry Bones Blog – 13th May, 2024

As colleges prepare for graduation ceremonies, or announce the cancellation of those ceremonies because of protests and demonstrations, one wonders what students today are actually learning in academia that will further their education and enable them to become productive members of society having socially-redeemable value. A few, simple questions that, theoretically, college students should be able to answer without difficulty, can be found here. Yes, theoretically. If they are able to assimilate the true answers to the questions, they might readily change their minds about their involvement in protests and demonstrations that are mostly disguised, but some are blatant, expressions of antisemitism. As the media has discovered, but somehow fails to properly communicate, some students just join in protests and demonstrations without knowing what they are protesting for/against.

The Dry Bones Blog – 16 May, 2024

Most of the nations that condemn Israel and who seek an early end of the war cite the number of civilian deaths, which they parrot from lists prepared by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Department. Israel has long contended that the civilian casualty figures were highly inflated and that it makes every effort to minimize civilian loss. Earlier this week, a spokesman for the United United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published new figures of civilians killed in Gaza, as the result of Israeli strikes, cutting the previous numbers almost in half, without giving any explanation for the revised count. Israel contended that most of the deaths were those of Hamas terrorists and affiliates, rather than civilians.

Amidst the seven military fronts that Israel is dealing with, the two most active are, of course, Hamas and “Palestinian” Islamic Jihad, in Gaza, and the Hezbollah, in Lebanon. All are terrorist organizations dedicated to the destruction of Israel and its removal from all soil and sand between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. While Israel is heavily embroiled in the fighting in the Gaza enclave, the Hezbollah continues to pose a serious and potentially immediate threat. Poised on the border between Lebanon and Israel, the “Radwan Force”, Hezbollah’s elite commando unit, they constitute an immediate threat to the north of Israel. According to Tal Be’eri, head of the Israeli Alma Research and Education Center “Our assessment is that instead of hundreds of rockets, missiles, and precision munitions, Hezbollah holds thousands. Out of 250,000 munitions, we estimate they have several thousand precision ones…Radwan still poses a clear and immediate threat regarding any invasion of Israeli territory…We estimate that the Radwan Force, if desired, could still operationally implement a limited invasion plan in the north, with a force of 100-200 operatives and a smaller area than previously prepared for before Hamas’s attack…Even if the government tries to reach a diplomatic agreement, it will only delay the war, which will break out the moment Hezbollah wants and on its terms…In my estimation, at the latest, within two years – by the end of 2026.”

So, we have much to pray about. Whatever one might want to say about Israel, it can never be said that life here is boring.

And, whatever your situation, remember to bless, be blessed and be a blessing.

Have a simply great week.

Marvin