Israel's Real BATTLE

On October 7, the worst terrorist attack of the 21st century took place as 3,000 Iranian-funded Hamas terrorists massacred innocent civilians, beheading them, burning them alive, dismembering them, and raping them.

You would have thought the entire world would rally in a much greater way as they beheld the unspeakable pictures of 1,400 dead Israelis, 242 taken hostages, including 30 babies, and more than 4,000 wounded. Instead, the media of the world took the bait as the architects of the slaughter, Hamas, poured propaganda 24/7, claiming that Israel was killing innocent lives.

Students at universities all over the globe began protesting not the massacre of Jews but the war against Hamas. No matter what Hamas said, they reported it as truth. Hamas stated at one time that 10,000 innocent civilians had been killed, as if Israelis were hunting down innocent civilians to kill them like Hamas did.

The truth is Hamas was lying. It was pure propaganda, and the media bought it, fueling antisemitism and terror. Those Hamas videos were free commercials for the Iranian proxy to raise funds from throughout the world—and they did.

Speaking of raising funds, every murderer was promised $10,000 if they could document they had killed a Jew and a new house if they brought back Jewish hostages. I listened to the voice recording of an Arab man at the site of one of the massacres in which he was screaming, “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands,” to his mother and father. “I’m a hero,” he said.

So how many of those 10,000 are innocent civilians? Number one, I doubt the number was even as high as 2,000. And let’s talk about that 2,000. Who are the innocent civilians that Israel has killed? I guarantee you that out of the 2,000, 1,000 of them are terrorists. Hamas doesn’t consider a terrorist to be a terrorist. He’s an innocent civilian, a freedom fighter doing his duty, trying to wipe all Jews off the planet. Just a little Hitler on steroids.

So now we’re down to around 1,000 innocent civilians. You can be sure out of that 1,000 that at least half of them are Hamas operatives who were helping build the tunnels, getting fuel and food to the terrorists, manning the Internet spreading lies, and trying to identify Israeli targets so that Hamas can kill more Jews.

So then we’re down to 500 innocent civilians, not 10,000. And who are those 500? Those 500 are Hamas supporters who refused to move out of Northern Gaza, even though Israel had asked them more than 100 times in 30 days to go south. And why aren’t they leaving? Because they are family members of the terrorists or friends. They are people who celebrate 100% what the terrorists did and want it to happen again and again and again.

You won’t hear any of this in the media. A former chief of staff told me once in the White House when I asked him how are wars started, and how do they end. He said the media decides that. The media decides when we start a war, and we end a war because they influence public opinion.

Israel has a secret weapon. That weapon is they have no place to go. Because of the media’s liberal left godless obsession, antisemitism is surging beyond anything I’ve seen in my lifetime. And it could get a lot of Jews killed throughout the world. It’s called, “Don’t confuse me with the facts. My mind is made up. Don’t distort my reality.”

I was at the home of Benjamin Netanyahu on the 4th of July 1980 when he was grieving the death of his brother Yoni, the leader of the Entebbe raid to Uganda to save Jewish lives. Every day, young Israelis like Yoni are giving their lives saving Jewish lives because they know Hamas has the goal to annihilate all the Jews. Hamas would be delighted to have 100 October 7ths in fulfilling the covenant of the Hamas Charter, which says the Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees and the rocks and trees will cry out, “Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him” (Article Seven).

But as bad as the physical war is and as great a threat as it poses, that is not the only battle Israel is facing. There is also a battle going on in the unseen realm—a battle you and I must do our part to fight and win.

(Students protesting against the war in Cambridge, Massachusetts.)

The Unseen War

“Suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. And he said to me, ‘O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.’ While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling. Then he said to me, ‘Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia’” (Daniel 10:10-13).

In the book of Daniel, we find the great prophet and man of faith praying and fasting and seeking answers from God about the visions he had been given regarding the future. After three weeks, Daniel was visited by an angel who brought him the answer to his prayer. But the angel also revealed to Daniel a spiritual battle that had been taking place in the unseen realm.

The angel said that the answer had been sent immediately, but it had been delayed because a demonic power that he referred to as the “prince of Persia” had blocked it from being delivered. It was not until the archangel Michael, who is seen in Scripture as a great fighter for God’s people, arrived and helped win the battle that the angel with Daniel’s answer was able to come to the prophet and deliver it to him.

The Bible teaches that there are different levels of authority in the spirit realm. Paul wrote, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

One of the most important truths I have ever learned is that no battle can be won in the physical realm unless it has first been fought and won in the spiritual realm. If Daniel had not
been faithful to continue praying even though his answer was delayed, I do not believe that the spiritual battle would have been won. We are not observers in spiritual warfare…we are
on the frontlines of the battle. Our prayers matter a great deal, and they are powerful. The great hymn writer William Cowper said, “Satan trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees.”

We have a responsibility to be active participants in spiritual warfare. We must take this seriously, because these spiritual powers—both demonic and angelic—are actively at work in our world today. This is one of the vital lessons of this story from the book of Daniel. Each of us is facing battles against differing levels or layers of authority in the spiritual realm.

This is not just true on an individual basis; it is true on a national level as well. The demonic being referred to as “prince of Persia” had power and authority over one of the greatest empires of history. And this is not an isolated or special case. Other nations have demonic powers assigned to them. After talking with Daniel, the angel revealed that there was another evil spirit involved. Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come” (Daniel 10:20).

This tells us that just as Persia had a demonic power working in authority over its empire, there was a “prince of Greece” as well. And it was only after the demonic power behind the kingdom of Persia had been defeated by the archangel Michael that the Greeks, under Alexander the Great were able to defeat them on the field of battle. Previous to that time, the Greeks and Persians had fought a series of battles, but there was no decisive victory until the demonic power dynamic was first changed.

This matters a great deal to us today because Persia—modern-day Iran—is once again involved heavily in potential conflict with the nation of Israel. We do not know whether the same “prince of Persia” that was active in Daniel’s day is the same one behind the rulers of Iran today, but there is no doubt that there is a demonic power behind the throne. Satan has hated God’s Chosen People throughout all of human history, and his demonic powers have turned many governments against them. From Pharaoh in Egypt to Hitler in Germany to Iran today, the same evil forces are at work to try to destroy the Jewish people.

The reality of spiritual warfare is that Israel cannot be defended just with tanks and planes and soldiers and intelligence services or any other weapons. The Jewish state must first and most importantly be defended in prayer. That is why the Jerusalem Prayer Team exists—to gather believers from around the world together to fight and win the most important spiritual battle of our lifetime.

As Daniel did, we must be faithful to pray until the victory is won. Only when the “prince of Persia” is defeated in the heavenlies will Israel have victory over the great threat posed against her today by Iran. And that victory will not happen unless and until we do our part to win it.

U.S. Support for Israel Dropping Fast

Although overall support for Israel among the U.S. population remains at a fairly high level, it is not as great as it has been in the past. The change is being driven by the massive shift among young people. A majority of the group between 18 and 30 are willing to say they support Hamas. One poll showed 50 per cent of young people supporting giving the entire land of Israel back to the Palestinians. This is troubling for today but even more terrifying for the future. Israel desperately needs U.S. support. The U.S. desperately needs the blessing of God that comes from blessing Israel. We must do all that we can to reverse this disturbing trend before it is too late.

Pro-Palestine protests were held throughout the United States on Black Friday with activists calling to “shut it down” for Palestine. There were protests in Los Angeles; Chicago; Troy, Michigan; Saint Louis, Missouri, Estero, Florida; and many other cities.