Over a hundred retired and reserve Israel Defence Force officers are calling for Gaza to be retaken in a massive operation. The only way to stop the massive influx of armaments and the building up of a massive network of tunnels, underground bunkers, and training facilities is for Israel to take back virtually all the ground that was given up in the "Disengagement". I was only one of many saying that this would be the outcome prior to the disengagement, so I am not surprised, but I am concerned. Israel is talking about using surgical air strikes to take out the tunnels and underground bases in Gaza, and as a response Egypt has mobilized 5000 soldiers along the border with Israel stating it is a preventative measure in order to keep the Gaza Palestinians from flooding into Egypt. While it is true that Egypt has no love for the Palestinians, I suspect their motives are more sinister in nature. Egypt has had one thousand troops already stationed in the area, and have done virtually nothing to stem the flow of weapons into Gaza from Egypt, and have turned a blind eye as tunnel after tunnel has been built. The fact that they are massing troops in the south at the same time that Syria and Lebanon are doing the same thing along the northern borders is troublesome to me. To add to the intrigue, Jordan has offered to send troops into the "West Bank" (read that as the mountains of Israel) in order to shore up Mahmud Abbas in his supposed attempt to overthrow the Hamas leadership and retake control of the PA. The really unbelievable part of this is that Israel is considering allowing it. In the meantime, the U.S. has a carrier battle strike group poised in the Persian Gulf, and Iran is threatening to conduct "War Games" as a show of deterrent force. Israel is conducting flyovers of Hezbollah bases in Lebanon, and the UNIFIL forces are claiming Israel is provoking war with them while they admit to the fact that the y are doing nothing to stop weapons from Syria and Iran from rearming Hezbollah. France and Germany are making very provocative statements towards Israel, and Israel is plagued with a bunch of leftist humanist cowards running our government and military. (Please keep your matches in your pocket; this tender box is ready to go up in smoke.) This past week a supposed "Right Wing" politician, Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu party, was swept into the coalition Kadima government of Ehud Olmert. First I want to say that Lieberman also wants to give away land for peace, he just wants to configure it differently. He also has a long history of being investigated on numerous accusations of corruption. He entered not as a matter of principal as he would have you believe, saying that he can be more effective within the government coalition than he can be from the outside, but rather as a matter of grabbing power and influence in order to solidify his future position. Kadima and Labor, who theoretically hate all he stands for, allowed him into the government to save their own skins as public pressure was mounting to throw them all out. Now Olmert and his crew have so much of a majority in the Knesset that it is said Olmert is the most secure Prime Minister in Israel's history. Of course he has a mounting list of corruption charges being logged against him, and he may very well be thrown to the wolves by the time it is all said and done. A friend of mine mentioned the term hoodwinked over a dinner discussion last Friday, and I believe that it is appropriate to apply it to the leadership, and indeed the population of Israel today. They are under a spiritual hoodwink. They cannot see what is right before their eyes. I am afraid this government has been placed in power by the Lord in order to bring divine judgment to Israel. This is not a bad thing in the end, it is part of God's plan to restore Israel to their place of honor among the nations, but it is a fearful and frightening thing in its scope of suffering and bloodshed. Don't get me wrong, God is not taking pleasure in punishing Israel, in fact I know that He deeply grieves over their suffering, but because they have traveled so far from Him, it will take immense measures to bring them back. Many people romanticize Israel in their minds, but let me tell you that if you lived here a while and rubbed up against the reality of the culture and politics you would likely have a different view. You would still love the land and its people, but the romantic vision would wear thin. I must warn anyone who ever takes a realistic look at Israeli society; you must guard your hearts against turning against the Jewish people, or the land of Israel. They are not redeemed yet, but they soon will be, and as watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, your calling is to pray them into the restoration and salvation God has had planned for them for so long. When I give you these insights regarding Israel and her condition today, I do so fearing that I might turn someone sour on their support of God's chosen people. God forbid that I ever do that. If however I can't give you a true picture of the severity of the situation, both in the physical realm and in the spiritual, then I would merely have to give you a sugar coated picture that would not be instructive in how to pray and intercede. Make no mistake about it, Israel and the Jewish people need your prayers more desperately today than ever before. It absolutely leaves me dumb founded how we can only be sixty some years away from the holocaust and yet the world is falling into the very same evil all over again. Only this time it is wider spread and threatens to be even more deadly. In the meantime, Israel is under the control of the spirit of anti-Christ. The government and religious leaders are those of whom Yeshua warned "call themselves Jews but are of the synagogue of Satan". They are banning the protestors from the city for fifteen days in order to protect the Gay Pride Parade that is scheduled to be marched through the city on the sixtieth anniversary of the murderous rampage known as Kristallnacht. I can only think of the Lord's description of the end time Jerusalem as that of Sodom and Egypt. I am often dismissed by people who demand that everything always be uplifting and filled with joy. They seem to think that if you aren't giving a word that 'all is well, will be well, and can only be well', that somehow you aren't walking with the Lord and they insinuate that you aren't probably a true born again Christian. Let me answer them now by saying that what we are facing in the world is the most sobering time of judgment to ever face the earth. God's judgments are good, and in fact I pray for Him to judge me daily in order to purge me of my sinful flesh. But the world is plunging headlong into their final determination and friends, this is a time for realistic assessment of our situations and as James says it, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." James 4:8-10 We cannot skip along in a self imposed joy that is undergirded in denial. We must humble ourselves in repentance and holy sorrow, and mourn not only for ourselves but even more importantly for others, and especially Israel in this time of testing. Only then can we be lifted up, and that will be a place in which we can share God's joy, and also His sorrow and His burdens. I believe that Israel is facing perhaps the darkest hour of its embattled history, and we need to be in earnest prayer, giving God no rest, and taking no rest for ourselves until He makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. Keep on keeping on… God Bless, Neil Cooper