A Change in the Patriotic Heart of Israel
January 4, 2007
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I have loved Israel for most of my life because I believe they are God’s chosen people.
During my tenures in the Middle East over the past 54 years I have watched a change in the heart of the Jewish public. They h ave gone through much
adversity and, up until 1973, that adversity had molded them into a very patriotic nation. Listening to their tank commander’s chatter during the 1967 brief war was a great lesson in the devotion its soldiers had in their determination to defend Israel to the death.
I noticed a decline in the patriotic attitude of Israel after the 1973 war and, during my numerous excursions as a civilian to Israel after my graduation from the MBS and ATU, I observed an acceleration in the confusion, uncertainty, and lack of confidence the people exhibited in their public assessment of their government officials in general. There were at times, during some administrations, brief revivals of the type of patriotic zeal shown by the founding fathers up to 1973 but, after Ariel Sharon was no longer able to lead the country, things have dramatically headed downhill internally up to the present time. Israel has enough external problems to keep her fully occupied, and I believe the added internal lack of confidence in her government will be able to tip the balance in favor of Islam during the coming war.
Please read the two articles from the Jerusalem Post which follow, and then the continuation of what I have been presenting up to this point.
The following January 4, 2007 excerpt from an article by Herb Keinon in the Jerusalem Post, titled “Public View of Sharon changes a Year after his Stroke,” outlines the internal lack of confidence Israel now has in the moral fiber and ability of its government to make decisions.
Begin excerpt quote from Jerusalem Post Article
“The mind reels at all this country has gone through since Ariel Sharon suffered a significant stroke a year ago on Thursday, and his powers were passed to Ehud Olmert.
Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections, and Kadima won at the ballot box in Israel, although with considerably less support than would have been the case had Sharon led the Kadima ticket.
Amona was evacuated violently, in complete contrast to the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip in August 2005.
Olmert unveiled his realignment plan; President Moshe Katsav and Justice Minister Haim Ramon became embroiled in separate sex scandals; Kassam rockets continued to fall on the western Negev; Gilad Shalit was kidnapped; Elad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were kidnapped; the IDF went to war in Lebanon; the IDF did not decisively win the war in Lebanon; UNIFIL marched into Lebanon; Kassam rockets continued to fall on the western Negev; the IDF could not stop the Kassam rockets on the western Negev; Iran posed an existential threat.
Even by the machine-gun pace of
the news cycle one is accustomed to in Israel, 2006 seemed an extraordinary year of events, tumult and change.
One of the major changes the year wrought was that it is now difficult for the average citizen to look at the various institutions that form the building blocks of this society with much confidence.
Nearly every institution has been tainted: the presidency, by the Katsav scandal; the Prime Minister’s Office, by various allegations of scandals there; the Knesset, by its day-to-day behavior; the IDF, by its shoddy performance during the summer’s war; the Justice Ministry, by Haim Ramon’s kiss and its aftermath; the Rabbinate, by the low public standing of Israel’s two chief rabbis; the police, by the Benny Sela escape; and now the tax authorities.”
End excerpt article from Jerusalem Post Article
The following January 3, 2007 article from the Jerusalem Post by the JP Staff, titled “77% of Israelis dissatisfied with Olmert,” statistically shows the internal lack of confidence in the administration.
Begin Article Quote from Jerusalem Post
“According to a poll taken by the Dahaf Institute for the Knesset Channel, 77 percent of Israelis are dissatisfied with Olmert’s performance as prime minister.
Forty seven percent of the 420 respondents asked to grade Olmert on his performance gave the prime minister a grade of “very poor,” 30% gave him a grade of “fairly bad,” and 20% graded him as “good.” Only one percent thought Olmert was doing a “very good” job.
Only one percent of those asked responded that they think Olmert’s performance has been “very good.”
In addition, 69% of the survey participants said that the prime minister’s leadership skills are not good, and 60% have a low opinion of Olmert’s integrity.
To the question, “How would you rate Olmert’s resilience under pressure?” 62% of the respondents said he does not deal with pressure well, while 37% believe Olmert deals well under pressure.
Asked what would change their opinion of the prime minister, 45% said their appreciation of the prime minister would improve if he would remove Defense Minister Amir Peretz from his post.
Only four percent said they would not appreciate such a move.
Fifty-one percent of the respondents said Peretz’s dismissal would not affect their judgment of the prime minister.
Twenty percent said they would like Olmert to dismiss IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, as opposed to six percent of participants who said firing the army chief would decrease their appreciation for the PM.”
End Article Quote from Jerusalem Post
I did not love Israel until their Messiah came to live in my heart, at which time I became a Jew inwardly. I love Israel fervently and am looking forward to the return of their Messiah.
Romans 2:28,29 – For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: [29] But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose pra ise
is not of men, but of God.
I have never seen the Jew’s Messiah, but he circumcised my heart with the invisible hands of God, when he caused me to hear the Gospel he gave to be preached to both Jew and Gentile after his resurrection form the dead.
Acts 20:20,21 – And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, [21] Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:9-11 – For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. [10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: [11] In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
John 5:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John 5:39,40 – Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. [40] And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Romans 3:26-29 – To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
[27] Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. [28] Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. [29] Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
Romans 10:17 – So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God.
Romans 10:6-10 – But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven
? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) [7] Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) [8] But what saith it
? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; [9] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
[10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:13 – For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Acts 4:12 – Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Romans 2:29 – But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
My praise is not in the letter of the law given to man by God through the man Moses, but of His Son given to man, who kept perfectly every jot and tittle of the Law, and then sacrificed himself for my inability to perfectly keep it, saving me by the grace that is in Jesus through God.
John 1:11-17 – He came unto his own, and his own received him not. [12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: [13] Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. [15] John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. [16] And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. [17] For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
James 2:10 – For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Romans 7:14 – For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
I try to keep God’s commandments perfectly, but I fail daily, so my faith is in the only man who ever kept it all, my Savior, the man Christ Jesus, and God forgives me of my sins through the grace in his Son.
I understand Paul’s answer to his own question, after he cried out to God, confessing thanksgiving to the Son who saved him.
Romans 7:24,25 – O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [25] I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Did God forgive Paul daily when he confessed he served the law of sin with the flesh?
I John 1:8,9 – If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is
not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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