As the Israeli public mourns the highest daily death toll so far in 26 days of intense Hizbullah rocket attacks upon northern Israel—and that after learning that another five soldiers were killed yesterday during heavy fighting in Lebanon—the Lebanese government has rejected the United Nations draft ceasefire proposal put forward yesterday in New York. This action virtually guarantees that the intensifying fighting inLebanon will continue for the time being. The rejection—mainly based on Lebanese opposition to any IDF forces remaining in south Lebanon until an international force can replace them—came just after an intense barrage of over 80 rockets landed in the upper Galilee region in the space of just 15 minutes around noontime. One rocket landed on the edge of Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, located in the burning Naphtalihills above the border town of Metulla.
The Katyusha crashed down in the midst of a group of reserve soldiers who were resting and saying prayers next to the kibbutz cemetery before joining the battles raging just across the border in southernLebanon. Nine men were instantly slaughtered as rocket shrapnel and ball bearings riddled their bodies, and four others were severely wounded, one of whom has just died. Doctors say at least one more of the wounded will probably not survive. Israeli families are now being informed around the country that their loved ones have perished. A civilian resident of the kibbutz was also killed and nine others wounded. IDF officials say the rocket was fired from beyond the Litani River. Over 200 Hizbullah rockets have struck all across northern Israel so far today, wounding civilians in several locations and causing extensive damage. The bombardments came as news was released that a Hizbullah militiaman who participated in kidnapping two IDF soldiers on July 12th—which sparked the current conflict—has been captured and is being interrogated.
I know Kfar Giladi quite well, having written about it in my first book, Holy War for the Promised Land. I noted that the Israeli family who hosted me for Sabbath meals the year I lived and worked on nearby Kibbutz Hagoshrim had close friends who lived there. In April 1980, just a few months before I arrived in the area, Palestinian terrorists infiltrated across the Lebanese border and took captive a number of KfarGiladi adults and children in the kibbutz kindergarten. Undoubtedly sensing tension from their frightened Israeli caregivers, one of the baby girls could not be comforted. After shouting out commands for the caregivers to somehow shut up the crying infant, one of the terrorists grabbed his Kalashnikov rifle and violently struck the baby’s head with it, killing her instantly. The tiny girl was the daughter of my kibbutz family’s friends. The baby’s remains lie in the very cemetery where nine Israeli reserve soldiers—many of them undoubtedly husbands and fathers—were slaughtered in today’s deadly rocket attack.
Earlier today, I received an e mail from a longtime subscriber to this news service, also named David, who is an American-born Israeli messianic believer and an acquaintance of mine. He informed me that his apartment had been largely destroyed when a rocket struck next to his building last Thursday. The blast set the building’s natural gas canisters on fire, which quickly spread to the building, destroying several apartments, including David’s. He has now moved in with his parents.
Last evening, I kept thinking about another American-born Israeli believer, Adam, who had worked with his wife until recently with one of my closest friends here in Jerusalem. I received word last week from his father-in-law, who established a Christian prayer center here in Jerusalem several years ago, that Adam was being called up to active reserve duty in south Lebanon. I was especially thinking last night how difficult this must be for him—to be suddenly yanked out of normal daily life away from his wife and two young children, and sent into a deadly combat zone. Adding to this, his wife is pregnant with twins. I felt an extra tug to pray for them, and especially Adam, last night. Then today I learned from my friend that Adam had been in intense combat yesterday, and actually spotted a Hizbullah fighter hurling a hand grenade directly at him from a small launcher. Thankfully, the hand grenade exploded in the air before it could strike him. However the action naturally left him shell shocked, and he has been removed from the battle in order to rest.
ISRAELI SUFFERING
I write all of the above after receiving several rebukes from readers of these war updates for focusing more on Israeli suffering and casualties than on the tragedy engulfing Lebanon. I worked and served in southLebanon for two years, and personally know a number of Lebanese who have been caught up in the fighting. Indeed, their situation is a catastrophe, and I grieve over it. But I am not now stationed inLebanon, so it is difficult for me to give an accurate account of what is going on there. On top of that, I think we must constantly keep in mind the ultimate reason why hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians are suffering displacement and other serious grievances today. It is the result of an unprovoked major act of war (infiltrating across an international border and kidnapping and killing soldiers while lobbing rockets at army and civilian centers in the area) carried out by some of their fellow countrymen who were allowed by their government, for whatever reason, to establish a large, heavily armed paramilitary force all along their southern border equipped with thousands of deadly short and long-range rockets, anti-tank missiles, hand grenades, etc. Of course, the local residents could not stop this if their government was either unwilling or unable to do so (some of both is the case, I suspect). But the fact is that a fair portion of the south Lebanese citizens who have been forced to flee the fighting are Shiites who DO support Hizbullah, which is why the militia could take over and control the area with little domestic opposition.
Israeli bombs have obviously killed many Lebanese civilians during the intense conflict, even if the numbers presented by officials in Beirut are probably exaggerated for propaganda purposes (a media war is also raging after all). Certainly EVERY Lebanese citizen is suffering to some degree due to IDF attacks on roads and other public infrastructure, and for many other reasons. But the Israeli public is hardly unaffected as their sons, husbands, brothers, fathers and friends join the intense ground battles to push back Hizbullah rockets from the border. Added to this is the fact that some 300,000 northern residents have also been displaced from their homes that are under daily attack from deadly Hizbullah rockets. Another 700,000 citizens have remained behind in the war zone, living in bomb shelters or rushing to them when warning sirens suddenly sound. Many Israeli families are hosting the northern refugees, just as many Lebanese citizens are housing their relatives or friends from the south. Over 40 Israelis have been killed, and many others seriously wounded, in the daily Hizbullah bombardments, including an Arab-Israeli woman and her two daughters who were slaughtered yesterday (the fact that they were all females, and Arabs at that, has mysteriously not been mentioned in most of the international TV reports I have seen over the past 24 hours).
More than this, no one in Israel is stating that their ultimate goal is to wipe Lebanon off of the world map (although you would think they were listening to some Lebanese government leaders). However that isexactly what Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his Iranian patrons are stating. If you are Jewish and familiar with your people’s tortured history, as most obviously are, then such a threat alone is enough to spark anxious nightmares and intense internal suffering.
The international media continues to focus much more on Lebanese than Israeli suffering, which is another reason why it is redundant for me to do so. Certainly many of the pictures and stories from Lebanon are truly horrendous. But let us not forget that Israel thought it had left Lebanon for good in May 2000 and had no desire to ever return there, nor any claims on Lebanese territory. The IDF is certainly not deliberately targeting civilians, although they have inadvertently done so, as will sadly take place in any hot war. The fact that Hizbullah cowardly operates for the most part from built up Shiite civilian areas, and not from any marked military bases, obviously is a major factor in the relatively high Lebanese civilian death toll. The Shiite group also continues to deliberately fire its vast arsenal of rockets at Israeli population centers every day in order to kill and wound a maximum number of civilians, including fellow Arabs. Now, its jihad-crazed leader is threatening to fire long-rang Iranian missiles at Tel Aviv, which could easily set off a massive regional war.
The Bible tells us that God often allowed Israel’s enemies to strike them in order to discipline or punish His people. There is no reason to think this is not the case today. In fact, an Israeli friend who is not very observant told me just today that he thinks the current crisis is connected to statements from former and current Israeli leaders that the country’s strong military forces will bring them ultimate victory. “We can only prevail with Elohim’s help,” stated my friend. I certainly agree that Israel deserves some chastisement at this time, as does my own native United States, along with every country on earth, including Lebanon. Still, Israel’s enemies openly state that their aim is to finish what Hitler began over 60 years ago. According to the Bible that I read, that will not occur.
Let me end with some more good news. A Lebanese man that I worked with in the mid-1980s, Joseph Haddad, is now a congregational leader in the Haifa area. He recently arrived here in Jerusalem with some 50 of his Lebanese congregants—most of them Christian refugees from Hizbullah’s 2000 takeover of the southern portion of their country. They were all financially able to leave the war zone due to a generous gift from a fellow believer. Members of the group shared their emotional experiences yesterday at one of Jerusalem’s largest messianic congregations, where they were warmly embraced by their Israeli brethren. Don’t expect to see that on CNN or the BBC.
As I noted yesterday, a special interview about my life and work here in Israel is slated to be broadcast by the Moody Network on Monday. It is scheduled to air at 6:15 EST in North America, which is 3:15 in the west, and 22:15 GMT. The interview can be heard on line at that time via this link: www.mbn.org One final note: Some have written to ask what has become of the international “Gay Pride” Parade scheduled to be held in Jerusalem this Thursday. It was quietly cancelled two weeks ago due to the security situation.
DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com
* HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of theIsrael and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.
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* ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 toll free inNorth America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org
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