Israel’s Enemies Encroaching

Israel’s tactics in its war with the Palestinians suffer from one major flaw: Victory is not the goal. Certainly if Israel was devoted to stopping the Palestinians decisively, it has the military capability to do so, if not the national will or the international support for that sort of action. Instead, the government is focused on the idea that making Israel smaller—giving land to the Palestinians—will make Israel more defensible, a strategy equivalent to sending a football team backward to better protect the goal line. The newly elected Kadima party, led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, is committed to finalizing Israel’s ultimate borders by 2010.

Meanwhile, recent developments show that Israel’s enemies are encroaching on Jewish territory and increasing their ability to wage war.

The Gaza Strip, since being vacated by Israel last August, has become quite a hive of terrorist activity.

Reports show that terrorist kingpin Abu Musab Zarqawi has decreased his activities in Iraq so he can “lay the groundwork for an Islamic war against Israel” (Middle East Newsline,April 5). He has formed ties with Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and begun to cooperate with the head of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli military leaders contend that, in addition, about a dozen al Qaeda agents entered the Gaza Strip this year to form cells.

It appears some of the fruits of their efforts may already be visible. On March 28, a Katyusha rocket was fired from the northern Gaza Strip. Until now, Palestinian terrorists have only had access to far less damaging Kassam rockets. This more powerful rocket with a longer range—about 20 kilometers—is considered a major upgrade in Palestinian military capability.

Consider: No one would fire anything from the Gaza Strip if Israeli officials had secured the area instead of reasoning that leaving would make Israel safer. What has happened instead is that Israel’s enemies happily accept the gift—then use it as their new staging ground for attacks.

Understanding the nature of the terrorist threat, this result of Israel’s unilateralist withdrawal seems painfully obvious. Still, in spite of the proven failure of this strategy of retreat, Israel proposes a similar plan for the West Bank. The more land Israel gives away, the closer its enemies come to their stated primary goal: the destruction of the Jewish state.

The Katyusha rocket attack is even more disturbing when one considers its origin: Military officials say that the Palestinian insurgency groups acquired the rocket from Hezbollah—based in Lebanon and sponsored by the world’s most dangerous rogue nation: Iran.

Iran has taken an active interest in the Palestinian situation. As the rest of the world demands that Hamas denounce violence and recognize Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised to cut off Iranian funding if Hamas stopped its terrorist activities against the Jews. Israel’s Arutz Sheva stated that Ahmadinejad made a special trip to Syria “to be sure that the terrorism against Israel would not slow down for a moment, and would even increase” (January 22). Iran accomplishes this goal by supporting terrorist organizations like Hamas, al Qaeda, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah; Iran’s Revolutionary Guards regularly travel to Lebanon to help train Hezbollah fighters.

Senior Iraeli commanders also say that “Iran has spent tens of millions of pounds helping its close ally, Hezbollah … to set up a network of control towers and monitoring stations along the entire length of Israel’s border with south Lebanon” (telegraph.co.uk, April 4). These towers are located less than 100 yards—the length of a football field—from Israeli army positions, reinforced with concrete and fitted with bullet-proof reflective glass.

Iran has also provided Hezbollah with intelligence-gathering and communications equipment, along with improved weapons and ammunition—heavy mortars and rockets with a range of up to 30 miles.

An Israeli military commander said, “The Iranians are using Hezbollah to spy on us so that they can collect information for future attacks. And there is very little we can do about it” (ibid.). Take note: Israel knows who the enemy is, where the enemy is carrying out its operations, what weapons it has, and what the enemy is going to do: launch further attacks—but remains unwilling to take the action necessary to protect itself.

Israel does not have the pride in its power to stop the encroachment, to decisively take the battle to its enemies and win its war for survival. That is exactly what Bible prophecy said would happen (Leviticus 26:19). To better understand what is happening in the Middle East—and why—please read our free booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy.