Israel is in a shambles right now. About a hundred families are still waiting for their loved ones, held hostages somewhere in the Gaza Strip in hellish conditions. The country is split between those who want to fight until the last Hamas terrorist is eliminated and those who want Bibi Netanyahu to resign or do into immediate retirement. Add to that the imminent danger of a full-on Lebanon war, Judea and Samaria's unstable situation and whoever else in the region that Iran decides to finance as one of its numerous proxies against the Jewish state, and you start to understand why Israelis are tired, scared and hopeless. Despite all this, life must go on in Israel.

It would be somewhat easier if Israel felt that they have friends around the world, but in an eerie precursor to the prophecy of Zechariah 12:3, it already looks like the whole world is turning against the Jews in Israel and globally. The accusations of colonization, occupation and genocide keep pouring in from all directions. It looks like the terrorist blood bath that took place on October 7th, 2023, has encouraged the enemies of the Jews to speak up and even act violently. The opposite should be happening, and yet, Israel is being painted as the genocidal Jewish State. We need to set the record straight because the media won't.

In the last few days of August 2024, six hostages, including an American citizen, were brutally killed by Hamas terrorists (Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 27.) The IDF believes that the six were murdered shortly before they could be rescued. Hamas also filmed the hostage's "last message" before they murdered them in a fashion reminiscent of ISIS. God only knows how many hostages are still alive after eleven months of captivity.

People are pushing Israel into a ceasefire, forgetting or ignoring that a complete ceasefire was in place as late as October 6, 2023, between Israel and Hamas, and that had been the case since Hamas won the elections in 2005. Hamas broke the ceasefire, killed 1,200 people, and took several hundreds to Gaza as hostages. The world thought that the hostages would become currency for dialogue and prisoner release between Israel and Hamas, but what we are seeing is slow torture to the point of death with no remorse and no intention to release anyone. It should be clear to everyone that we are witnessing a culture that worships death, either through suicide/homicide bombings or through the bloody killing of others on others. Hamas has no respect for human life...Not even the life of their own people, which we have known for a while now, they use as human shields. These monsters are the people who are painted as victims of Israel's "genocide" and "occupation," according to mainstream media, the UN and many NGOs.

What about the other side? What can Israel be accused of? While most of the world is whitewashing the actions of Hamas and like-minded Palestinians and supporters, they all point the finger at the Jewish state and, by proxy, at ALL Jewish people.

Israel is not perfect, but it is clear that Israelis understand the sanctity of human life, and this couldn't be clearer than in the case of the recent IDF rescue of one Muslim Bedouin man from Gaza, Qaid Farhan al-Qadi who the IDF rescued from a tunnel in Gaza.  He is a Bedouin Muslim and an Israeli citizen. He was working as a security guard for Kibbutz Be'eri and was taken hostage on October 7, 2023. Hamas claimed that they released him because he was a Muslim and that he wasn't rescued by the IDF. Really, why, then, would they keep him hostage for eleven months?

What we just witnessed was the rescue of a Muslim man by Israeli soldiers because their main focus was "saving a human life," regardless of what that person believed. Almost immediately, the media started to point the finger at Israel and victimize Hanas.

A group of IDF soldiers risked their own lives to rescue one man, and that man happened to be a Muslim Bedouin, but this had no bearing on their decision because he was a human being first, and he needed rescue, period. That is Israel for you, and that is proper human behavior. Is there a spiritual source for such a behavior?

While not inspired like the Holy Bible is, the Talmud provides much wisdom and remarkable insights into Jewish culture, customs, and spirituality. It is within its pages in Sanhedrin 37a, that we can read: “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.” Incidentally, it doesn’t mention that it only applies to Jewish lives, assuming that all lives matter. It was that reference that Schindler's survivors inscribed inside the ring they gifted him at the end of the war.

Additionally, the Qu’ran also speaks on that topic in Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:32, or so it appears, but unfortunately, that verse is taken out of context. The whole of verse 5:32 is, “Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And Our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.”

Do not miss the fact that the Qu’ran speaks on that topic as it applies to Israel and not Muslims. In fact, the next verse, Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:33 sheds much light on the proper behavior against infidels, “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and spread mischief in the land is death, crucifixion, cutting off their hands and feet on opposite sides, or exile from the land. This penalty is a disgrace for them in this world, and they will suffer a tremendous punishment in the Hereafter.”

There is absolutely zero moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel. The victimization of the Palestinians and the accusations against Israel are proofs of a world turned upside down where irrationality reigns and, as a result, gives credence to terror, torture, and murder.

Western civilization looks like it has passed the point of no return on Jew-hatred, but that doesn't invalidate the actions of the few within our world who still want to make a difference. It brings a true sense of urgency to them, as they will undoubtedly and increasingly go against the flow.

In Matthew 25:31-46, Yeshua speaks of two groups of people: the goats (who will refrain from helping Jews) and the sheep (who will help Jews.) This is a picture of how Gentiles will interact with Jews during the Time of Jacob's Trouble (the Tribulation.) It is a future event but provides a model for interacting with Jewish people TODAY. The urgency is real, the danger is real and God's promises still stand today as much as they stood when delivered to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12:3.

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