by Elon and Hadas Moreh
July 13, 2014

Last night we had our first Air-raid warning siren here in Nahariya as two rockets fell outside of town. This afternoon as I was finishing this bulletin there was another one. At the moment these alerts are of short duration, perhaps a minute or two. By the time we have entered into the security room, closed the armoured window plates and shut the steel door all is over. On the whole the North is relatively safe from Gaza rocket attacks at present. This is not because of any convivial sentiments by Hamas towards Israel's northern residents. Rather it arises from relatively lower numbers of longer-range rockets in the Hamas arsenal, and their preference for using Tel-Aviv for target practice. The missile technology that Hamas fires at Israeli cities is mostly of the "fire and hope for the worst" unguided type, designed for aiming at large area targets, not for individual buildings or satisfying personal grudges, which require something more sophisticated. This is not to say these things are not deadly,-they are. Fire enough of them at a populated area and eventually you will kill someone;--particularly if the area is close by and there is insufficient time for the target population to take shelter. People have been killed in Nahariya in the past and just last night a teenager in Ashkelon was seriously injured by a rocket blast. Hamas' spectacular lack of success is (humanly speaking) at least partly due to the excellent Iron Dome anti-missile system as much as to the unguided nature of their rockets;--it is certainly not due to any lack of effort on their part. Many of these (particularly the smaller) weapons are home-made (produced in workshops which Israel supplies with electricity free of charge, see below) and launched from Heath-Robinson firing platforms, hidden in schools, nurseries, hospitals and mosques or private houses, protected by human-shields and transported to site even in ambulances and even launched from bread-carts. This makes them quite difficult to eradicate. Even after this operation our national leadership know that we are only buying some months or a year or two at best of peace before we have to "take out the trash" all over again.

Riots, Disturbances & Some Observations.

Before the air-strikes began, there were a number of riots and violent demonstrations from Hamas-sympathising Islamic thugs  across the country. These appear to have been orchestrated. Near to us there have been riots in Haifa, Acco (Acre) and other places.  From talking with our unsaved friends, many are frightened. What is actually more worrying than the rockets, (which unless it is a  heavy and sustained bombardment, have only a small probability of causing human casualties), is that across Israel, a number of  attempted kidnappings of Israelis by Muslims have been reported. Students at Universities here, have found that their Muslim Arab co-students, whom they thought to be friends have been publishing anti-semitic or jihadist statements on social media. Some of our  friends are frightened of going into areas populated by Arab Muslims. The attempted kidnappings, riots and rocketings, plus the lies  and hate propaganda belching forth from Islamic media mills also have a cumulative effect of destroying trust between Jews and  Arabs, which of course is what they are intended to do.

Our own alert last night, resulted from rockets launched from Lebanon by a group sympathetic to Hamas;--not, thankfully from the  Hizbullah. As you may be aware, Hizbullah have a truly massive arsenal of far more powerful rockets, which are capable of doing  massive damage to a building. Modern Israeli apartment blocks have reinforced rooms in every apartment designed to withstand  Katyusha rocket attacks of the type that Hamas uses. The Moriel Israel office is situated in such a room;--But the missiles possessed by  Hizbullah are of a type that these reinforced rooms are not designed to deal with. At present Hizbullah is more occupied with events in  Syria than over this side of the border. While we think it unlikely to happen on this occasion, if for some reason Hizbullah decided to  step in and start bombarding Northern Israel, things could become decidedly unpleasant. Our own proximity to the border, means that  Nahariya would have no warning before the first rockets fell and the first damage or casualties were experienced. This would not be a  situation what we would relish too much, nevertheless at present we think this scenario improbable. Hizbullah are biding their time  and building their strength for another occasion. It is considered by some sources that they are preparing for a massive ground assault  into Northern Galilee co-ordinated with saturation-bombing of Israeli population centres. This would extremely serious, as a massive  bombardment would overwhelm our anti-missile defences and their more powerful rockets could cause heavy damage and loss of life,  if coupled with a large-scale ground assault our border defences could be overrun. Especially if this was combined with attacks from  other directions. A number of analysts feel that Israel has not learned from the 2006 Lebanon War in the way that Hizbollah have. Not  only so, but Hizbullah combat units are now acquiring hands-on large scale battle experience in Syria, which will make them a much  more dangerous opponent in a future war. Unlike Israel, jihadi groups are relatively insensitive to high casualty statistics, because in a  culture that thrives on hate, and worships death and violence, the longer the casualty list the better. Israel, on the other hand, is not  prepared for a protracted conflict with a high butchers-bill, and it is highly sensitive to international criticism that would result from  having to slaughter thousands of radicalised muslim youths who would hurl themselves fanatically at Israeli defences, (and it is not  beyond the bounds of possibility that many of such jihadis could come from Western nations like the United Kingdom, as has  happened in Syria). Most Israeli victories in the past were achieved quickly and decisively, and this is the kind of scenario that Israel  prefers, whereas Islamic groups like Hizbullah and Hamas nurture hate and grievance for generation and generation, and are prepared  to throw myriads of their own people under the bus, enduring apparent defeat time and time again, if that is what it takes to hurt  Israel and eventually bring about her destruction by gradual means.

Around us since the Arab Winter, state after state has fallen to Jihadi-style terror governments. Thankfully the Egyptians ejected  theirs and we have at least for a time a government there that is less sympathetically disposed to Hamas and its associates. Jordan  however is weak, its population is mostly comprised of "Palestinians", and a major incursion by I.S.I.S. forces assisted by the large  Palestinian Fifth Column, could overwhelm the Jordanian armed forces, the Hashemite regime would then fall and then we would be  surrounded on all sides by those who are inimical to the idea of our existence. Or if Hizbullah prevails, perhaps we could be eventually  surrounded by Iranian proxy-states equally desirous of our national demise and with possible nuclear capabilities.

At this time our army is poised waiting to see if a full-scale ground assault into Gaza becomes inevitable. This will result in  concentrated urban and house to house fighting, and a much higher potential for casualties, because our armed forces cannot employ  AFV's and tanks in enclosed spaces as they are vulnerable to RPG's and IED's. Not only so there is a high probability that many of the  houses will be booby-trapped and/or contain civilians deployed (willingly and unwillingly) by Hamas as human shields in order to  rack up collateral damage to make Israel look bad. Hamas are so evil and have little concern for human life, that even machine  gunning their own citizens and leaving the bodies around for Western media (already ill-disposed to Israel) to find, and blame Israel  for "atrocities" would not be beyond them.

Militarily, Hamas is extremely unlikely to "win" this conflict. In fact its motives for provoking it are open to speculation. It may be  hoping to lure our ground forces into Gaza in the hope of giving us a demoralising bloody nose or to kidnap soldiers or find some  other way of humiliating us, or in some manner using the situation to paint Israel in an even worse light via the Western media than  has happened so far.

My feeling is that this particular conflict will blow over, and that our eye needs to be on what is happening in the Arab nations  immediately surrounding us. This I.S.I.S. movement and Hizbullah give great cause for concern; it is not impossible that one or the  other of these could mark the beginning of the confederation that we see in Psalm 83:

"The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the  inhabitants of Tyre: Assyria also is joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot."

Ishmaelites would be a general term for the Arab nations, Edom, Moab, Ammon and Amalek (the Amalekites are descendants of  Esau), the children of Lot are all represented in the territory of modern day Jordan. Tyre of course is the Lebanon. Philistia is the  coastal plain area, which would include Hamas-controlled Gaza. Assyria covers most of modern day Iraq with large parts of  Iran/Persia. The Hagarenes would be located somewhere in the territories of Arabia. Gebal appears to be a reference to the Southern  part of modern Jordan. Interestingly enough Egypt is not among these nations.

Any present victory is only temporary, ultimately this confederation of evil will come about, it may be delayed through revival and  repentance, but it will eventually surely come. Israel like the western nations is under God's judgement, which will not be deferred  forever. He will chastise us sorely, but He will not make a full end of us. His judgements on us nationally are intended to be  redemptive in nature. He is using these things to drive us toward Him.

Some Points For Prayer.

However in the interim, there are some prayer needs.

Please pray for the protection of our soldiers, particularly if there is a ground assault. Our enemy is wicked, and mad with hate, but  he is cunning cruel and resourceful, and in the event of a ground attack he will try to make us pay as heavy a price as possible.

Ultimately behind the scenes this conflict is a spiritual one, but we have weapon that can bring down strongholds and shine light  into the darkest recesses of the human heart, and undo Satan's works. The Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation!

Pray for the dissemination of the Gospel among our troops, that those believers who are in the Army may be a shining light of  testimony to their fellow soldiers. Nothing focuses the mind like the thought of imminent possible death. May the LORD use this  situation to provoke unsaved soldiers to call on His name with all their heart. We have His promise that "If you seek me with all your  Already the LORD has used the situation for us and others to provide opportunity to share the Word of God with non-believers.  Pray that this is multiplied many times over, that the LORD will use individuals and local congregations to share His word to the unsaved and that the words spoken fall on good soil.

Pray for our enemies. Particularly those ordinary people in Gaza that really just want to get on with life. That God would use this  situation to disillusion them and expose Islam to them for what it truly is and cause them to seek the truth and cry out to Him.

For the witness of believers in the Gaza strip, that the LORD would grant them opportunities and boldness to spread the Word of Godin power.

Thank you for your prayers. May the LORD bless you.