Quiet on the Southern Border

At 2:30am this morning we awoke to the good news of a ceasefire. In the last 48 hours: 234 Israelis were injured, 4 killed and the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip had fired 690 rockets into Israel.  Many people are wondering what happened. So, I'm gong to take just a few minutes and explain it in a little more detail, but I will try to be concise.

On Friday, May 3rd, the Hamas arranged a protest along the Israeli - Gaza border called the March of Return. They have repeated this protest every Friday for one year. The stated goal, is not just a protest but an attempt to breach the border and return to the historic family homes that were left in 1948 ~ literally to March and Return to their historic villages.  There is a lot of history here. 

To summarize the history. In 1948, even before the Israel's declaration of Independence [5/20/1948], on November 29, 1947, the UN announced it's partition plan for the British Mandate Palestine creating two states for two people. The Arab leadership rejected this plan and on November 30, 1947 began a war with the Jewish residents, blocking roads, cutting off water and food to most of the Jewish communities, essentially an attempt to starve them to death. Israelis call this the war of the roads. Many Jewish civilians died when ambushed in attempts to bring food and water to the communities that were cut off. In an attempt to open up the blockages, very hostile and aggressive villages became battle grounds and many of these villages fled to the Gaza Strip after losing the Israeli civilian militias. The March of Return is directed at the descendants of these villagers and promises to help them to return to the villages where their grandparents once lived. 

A little more recent background. On May 14th, Hamas launched two long range rockets at Israel. They said it was an accidental launch. On May 25th, while Jason was walking to the bus headed to communities along the Gaza Border, another accidental launch occurred that killed an older woman and injured 7 people in a suburb North of Tel Aviv. The rocket quite literally flew over Jason's head in the early morning hours as he was walking to the bus (although he only found out about it later).  That day, Israel retaliated by attacking the Hamas rocket making factories and other military installations.  Hamas and Islamic Jihad (an Iranian sponsored Shiite terror organization) fired dozens of rockets at Israel. The hostilities lasted for about 24 hours. From that time until Friday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad were negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Israel with Egypt as the intermediary. They were close to signing a ceasefire on Friday.

On March 25, Jason saw Hamas PM Office being destroyed.

So what happened on Friday, May 3rd?  Rather than sign a ceasefire agreement, Islamic Jihad decided that the opposite was better. Using the Hamas Rally called the March of Return, they brought in snipers with long range rifles and shot at Israeli soldiers across the border. Two Israeli soldiers, a girl and a boy were injured. Of course the Israeli Defense Forces retaliated by attacking a terror target in the Gaza Strip. Islamic Jihad, then used that attack as a pretext for firing rockets at Israel in an attempt to start an open war with Israel. According to their public statements, they were trying to stop Israel from hosting the International Music Competition called Eurovision, which is always hosted by the winning country of the previous year's competition. The Eurovision is scheduled for next week and the first delegation arrived on Sunday. After 700 rockets were fired and Israel retailiated by destroying the terror infrastructure of about 300 sites in Gaza, the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip stopped firing their rockets.  Hamas took the brunt of Israel's response, even though the Iranian financed Islamic Jihad was the entity that started the conflict. At the moment, there is peace and quiet. Schools in the south started again.

So what does this mean for the future?  The situation does not look good. Many people in the Israeli public are calling for all out war against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Knowing that a war will cost thousands of lives, especially among civilians in the densely populated Gazan cities, the Israeli government has been very restrained in their responses. On the one hand, it is unlikely that Israel will invade the Gaza Strip in the immediate future, since Israel just held elections and a new coalition government has not been formed yet, meaning it's not even clear who will be the Minister of Defense. However, in the distant future, the next round of rocket fire will be treated with much more severity, because, people have started dying on the Israeli side and the government can't allow the status quo to continue. Most Israelis are against another war. We all know some soldier who died in war and we are interested in grieving again.  The fact that Israel's memorial day for fallen soldiers starts this Tuesday night is quite possibly a factor in the government's decision not to continue military operations in Gaza. 

So what can you do?  Of course, we need to pray for peace. A recent Gallop poll (p.16) demonstrated that the Palestinian people are the fourth angriest people in the world. Armenia, Iraq and Iran were all a little angrier. Looking at those countries and the injustices there, we see that there is a reason for their anger. The Palestinians also have valid reasons for being angry and it is worthwhile to consdier that as part of the problem. The Bible says, "in your anger do not sin" (Ep 4:26). Even believers have trouble not sinning in our anger. For people who don't have the help of the Holy Spirit it is even more difficult deal with their anger in a healthy way. So we shouldn't be surprised that this anger turns to violence and murder. What we should do is pray for peace and the kind of peace that will end the anger and the sin that goes with it, is the peace that passes all understanding, salvation in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). Will you pray for me that God will move mightily among the Palestinian population, especially in Gaza, that He would reveal himself to them and that they would find peace and that the anger would subside.