Wednesday, October 11th | Current Events in Israel

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, October the 11th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

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That's right. And on today's episode, we want to devote as much time as we are able to to talk about the situation that's going on over in Israel. I know many of you are aware of what's happening. You've seen it on the news, you've seen it on social media, and it's tragic, the events that are unfolding over there. And so we wanted to devote that time today to talk about that situation and what is our role?

What do we as believers, as a church, what is our part? It's crazy to see history unfolding right before your eyes. I know a lot of people felt similarly during 9-11 where it's like, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt this will go down in the history books.

Dr. Shah, for the benefit of our listeners, maybe there's some people who are tuning in there maybe not as familiar with what's going on or they don't know quite all the details. Can you give us just kind of a brief overview of what's happening, what the conflict is, and kind of where we are? Well, it began October the 7th, which would be, what day was that?

The 7th would have been Saturday. Saturday is when air raid sirens began to go off in areas surrounding Jerusalem and other parts of attacks against Israel. And as many as 2,200 rockets were fired over southern and central Israel, including Tel Aviv, including Jerusalem, and that was the genesis of what's going on right now in Israel. And Hamas, of course, this terrorist organization has claimed at least, at that time, at least 5,000 some rockets were fired, but of course, could be many more and all were landing in southern and central Israel. And I remember Saturday, well, actually it all even began Friday, really. And then Friday evening, I remember somebody asking me about it and I said, I heard some things here and there. I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe, you know, there's always been rockets fired against Israel unprovoked.

And so I said, maybe, maybe something like that. And then Saturday is when come to realize it's an all out attack against Israel. And it began with, of course, destruction of some of their perimeter and even destroying any kind of detection devices. You have drone videos of drones dropping into places in Israel and just destroying some of their capabilities. And then videos of terrorists who are cutting open the fence in various parts of their southern border and just driving in. And it was shocking because it didn't make sense. It's like, this is Israel?

They're supposed to be so well protected and so good with their intelligence services. How in the world is this happening? But it was happening. And especially in that area where there are a lot of kibbutzes, they came in and began to kill people.

I mean, just massacre people, kids, children, little kids, adults, elderly, even past the age of 80, 85, doesn't matter, sick people. All this began to happen. There are videos, clips here and there of seeing even women being dragged and taken away. Rape is happening.

A lot of rapes happen because you can see blood on them, women. And you know that that's coming from that. So it is probably the worst that it has ever been since their war of independence. And it even goes back to the atrocities of the Nazis. This is on that same level.

It's horrendous. It's crazy because I think as a people, maybe not, maybe I'm speaking out of order here, but I think we have almost tricked ourselves into thinking that this was behind us. This kind of violence and this kind of thing was behind us as a human race.

Yeah. We've gotten past this point. Wars are just fought by drones. I've actually had people tell me who are in the army, in the military, they've said that wars aren't really going to be fought like this anymore. That day of warfare is over. And I kind of believed it. And I think it lulled us into this sense of security where we can look back at all those atrocities that happened in the 40s, like you were talking about, Dr. Shaw, and say, well, that's history.

You know what I'm saying? It's almost like all those ancient conquests. And we forget how recent that it was and that it can happen today in 2023. But this is in an age where you think people have more sense and they have more decency. We talk about social media bringing the world closer, where we understand each other. We talked about how a young person, a teenager in North Carolina is more like the teenager in the Middle East or the teenager in Africa or India rather than their own parents.

Kids are more like kids halfway across the world and they're like their own parents. And yet here we're seeing things that just don't make any sense. And so the situation is very bad.

I was able to call a friend and he's been my guide for years and years and been to Israel many times with him. And some of you all know him and talked to him about it. And you could just tell in his voice. He was really down. And he's not the kind of person who gets down. No, he's tough. He's a very tough guy.

He's in his 70s, but he is in better shape than I am and many of us are. But he was down. He said, we haven't seen anything like this since the Nazis. It's crazy to hear that because I do know him personally and I've met him through your connections in Israel, Dr. Shah. But it's one of those things where when you know who's saying it, it hits harder.

So when you see someone who's tough like he is and optimistic like he is and joyful and has a heart that's genuinely full of love and optimism and hope, to hear him say something like that, it would be one thing if this is a downer all the time. But this guy really, really, for him to say that, it holds gravity that I think we here in the West are not really comprehending how serious it is over there. Yeah. What he shared with me is that, and we know this now, it's coming out, that kids, I mean, who kills kids? Right. Who goes into a room and begins to fire and kill at point blank, men, women, children? Yeah.

Okay. Children, little kids. Who does that?

Who rapes women like this? So what he is sharing and what he shared is what we're seeing now on the news. Like even the White House correspondent talking to, I forgot which news network he was talking to, but even he broke down because he said, I've seen the images and they're not good. This is not good. So I don't think most of our Western world has really seen images because we protect ourselves and we have warnings, graphic images coming. So we do all we can to get people to not see bad things.

Maybe it's time to see them and go, this is pretty bad and this is not somebody making this up. I think that's a good way to look at it because even me, I mean, I try to, through you and through your connections, I try to stay abreast of what's happening, but it wasn't until Monday. So like everything happened on Saturday. David and I were in the gym Monday night and that was when we were talking about it and I was like, what all is happening? We were like looking at some of the, and I was like, I had no clue it had gotten to this point.

I just didn't. We kind of insulate ourselves. Like you said, Dr. Char, we sort of protect ourselves from that and just kind of like shrug it off, like, oh, that's happening over there.

It doesn't really, you know, it's not that big a deal. I hope they'll be okay. Yeah. Yeah. I hope they'll be all right. But then when you really understand the gravity of what's happening, when you understand the weight, the horror of the attack, and especially, you know, Dr. Char, for you having somebody over there that you are close to that is a personal friend of yours. I mean, that adds another layer of closeness to the situation.

Right. And to hear in his voice that, and I asked him, I said, what do you think? How did the Israeli intelligence not catch this? He said, that's the question all of us are asking over here.

How did we miss this? Something so colossal, something so horrific, because it's not, as one of their senior IDF officers says, it's not a war, it's not a battlefield, it's a massacre. Which is very different. It's a massacre going from door to door in the kibbutz and killing people, kids. Kids are begging for their lives because they are on the phone with their parents who were not there or who were in the States or whatever, and they're begging for their lives.

And you can hear that on the phone. And it's just horrific. Yeah. Are they targeting Jewish people specifically? Are Palestinians fair? I mean, I assume if they're firing rockets, they're okay with Palestinian casualties. I mean, I don't know if it's something where it's considered an acceptable loss or they, because they're in Israel, they're part of the target. I don't know. I guess I just don't know how that works.

I don't know if there's any discretion there or discrimination, I guess is the word I was looking for. Right. I mean, they are a terrorist organization that currently is in control of the Gaza Strip and one of those two Palestinian territories. The other one being, of course, the West Bank. So this is West Bank of the Jordan River. Right.

And Gaza Strip is what is south of, further south of Tel Aviv, that area. And so this is that organization, Hamas, and it's been around for a long time and causing a lot of damage, founded somewhere in 1987. So we're talking about over 35 some years, maybe 36 some years. That they've been active. Yeah, they've been active and been doing a lot of damage.

Yeah. You see the rise and fall of these groups. Like I remember Al Qaeda back in the early 2000s, how big that thing was. And then they kind of die out and then ISIS comes up and makes its rounds and that dies out. And I guess now Hamas has its time in the limelight, so to speak.

That's a weird way to put it. I guess it's too early to tell how far this is going to go. But this is known as the Operation Alexa Flood is what they call it, what they have called it. Alexa is their mosque in Jerusalem at the Temple Mount.

So this is like flooding to save that, I guess. That's what they're giving it the title. So that's the title that the Hamas organization is giving.

Right, right. Do they see this as some kind of like… The Palestinians are calling it that as well, yeah. I guess have they let motivations be known? Is this some kind of righteous thing for them? Is this… Well, based on what they're saying and people are trying to interpret that is supposedly to, you know, to fight, to fight Israel and to fight them for all that. They feel like, oh, it's a terrible atrocities that have been done or whatever their motivation is. I would assume then that their ultimate target is Jerusalem, like the Temple Mount. If they're trying to retake the Al-Aqsa Mosque, that's in the Temple Mount. Well, ultimately they don't want Israel there. I mean, let's face the facts. They want to take them out. Yeah. I mean, that never has changed, hasn't changed.

And even well-dressed, well-educated people who are their spokesmen say the same thing. They want to push Israel into the sea. So that is the ultimate motive. And that is sad and horrific and should not be, no one should succumb to a threat like that.

Yeah. And that's been an ongoing thing with the nation of Israel, right? That's been an ongoing conflict with, you know, this issue with the Jewish people being in Israel. How does that relate to the Bible?

How does that relate to what we know from scripture that God's people are suffering through this? Well, you know, talking about it goes back to Jerusalem. You know, it goes, of course, it goes back to their homeland, but it goes back to Jerusalem. The legal status of East Jerusalem or East Jerusalem includes the Jerusalem old city, the holy sites, Temple Mount, Western Wall, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

And so since 1967, and I can go further back and maybe we can talk about that as well to give people some kind of a timeline. But since 1967, after the Six-Day War, it has been kind of integrated into Jerusalem with regards to law and with regards to jurisdiction. Administration is part of Jerusalem. And the Palestinians are claiming to the 1949 agreement when Jordan retained control over East Jerusalem. And the PLO declared in 1988 that Jerusalem was the capital of the state of Palestine.

In 2000, the Palestinian Authority made it the law. So this has kind of been continued. So 1967, as you know, the Six-Day War, 1973, the Yom Kippur War, and then many, many other things that have happened through the decades since 1973, the Intifadas and all that. But now here's 2023. Interestingly, that's about 50 years later. As I was just here in 1973, I was like, that's a 50-year anniversary. Yeah. And I think one of the things that we fall at risk to doing is to see like, like, OK, so for instance, seeing those numbers like in the 60s, this Six-Day War happened.

And so there's like a nice little neat package title for it. And I don't really feel any emotion connected to that at all. And same thing with the Yom Kippur War. That's just a part of history. I fear that like years from now, people will look back on what's happening now.

I'm talking about the general public. They'll look back on what's happening now and be like, well, that's war. You know, that's what happens. Things happen and we'll lose the gravity of what's happening right now if we just see it as conquest is part of history.

This is what people do. You know, I mean, think about us growing up. I mean, I when I learned about let's just let's use the example of the Holocaust. When I learned about that in school, I mean, it was hard. It was heartbreaking. It was terrible.

It was awful. But I did not feel like a closeness to it. I didn't feel, you know, this intense like weight, gravity. It was it was another fact that I was learning in history class, unfortunately so. But I mean, just speaking honestly, that was another fact that I had to memorize. And sometimes I don't know if this is a protection mechanism or I don't know if this is God helping us cope.

But sometimes like when something shocks you like that numbness sort of sets in as almost like this detached disbelief. I will say, though, when I was in my my freshman year of college, we took a trip to Austria and the Czech Republic. And they had a museum over there that kind of highlighted some Holocaust activity that was going on in that area that time. And so we had a guy who walked us through and that just just seeing the exhibits and seeing the the names of the people who had lost their lives and seeing the atrocities that were committed. It certainly made it much more real for me than just on the pages of history books.

So I think that with situations like this, it's up to us to do that for our kids. It didn't happen for me until, Dr. Shah, you and I, we went to the one the Holocaust Museum in Israel. Yad Vashem. Yes. Yep. And there's there's a section going through there. I think there's one in D.C. too.

I don't know if it has I've never been to the one in D.C., but the one in Israel has this part of the floor that's hollowed out. And it has this glass covering where you walk on top of it and just shoes. So many shoes. And it was these shoes that they wore. And it was again, it was one of those things where you look at the images, you look at the videos. But there's a detachment.

I'm looking at a screen. But now I'm looking at a shoe that was on someone's feet and all the mountain of shoes. Like it looked like it was almost like the the scene in The Hobbit where you see all that gold, where it just kind of just becomes that's what the room is. Seeing all those shoes, it really stops you. It robs you of breath almost because they're shoes that these people, human beings were wearing on their feet. Right.

Yeah. These are real people. The further we get away from the Holocaust, it seems like this was just a page in the history book of the world. But no, they are real people who really lived, who really had families and wives and sons and daughters and little babies.

And these are real people. And so looking at some of those memorabilia under the glass, to me, it was emotional. The first time I saw it, the second time you sort of get immune to it in a way. So you look at it.

But the second time I was more interested in making sure everybody else were able to see things. There's so much in that museum, Yad Vashem, that if you don't move quick, you won't get to see. But again, it brings history to life and opens your eyes to the evil in human hearts. And there is evil in human hearts right now in what's happened in Israel. There's some stuff that I've been thinking about. We decided we wanted to do this episode.

I think maybe last night or Monday night, we've been talking about it and praying about it, thinking about it as a team here at Clearview today. And one thing that God has worked on my heart, at least, and maybe, Dr. Shaw, you can speak to this, too, is that we as non-Jewish people, Christians especially, should accept the fact that God still to this day, even today right now at this moment, has a plan for his people. And it doesn't involve me.

You know what we don't mean by that? It's this setting aside of myself that I'm not the main character of this story. God has a special plan and I need to accept the fact and be OK with I'm not part of that plan.

I'm lucky to be saved at all. Yeah. Well, I look at it more as this is the plan for the world. And God chose this family to bring that plan into the world. And I am grateful to that family. That's a good point. I'm grateful to that family because having to carry that plan was not fun.

Have you ever seen Fiddler on the Roof or Reddit? God, thank you for choosing us, but once in a while, choose someone else. Right. He's saying that because it's like it's not as wonderful as it's cracked up to be that, oh, you're the chosen ones. No, it's it required a lot of pain and suffering to the point that many have stopped believing. Even my friend, when I was talking to him yesterday, towards the end of the conversation, I said, you know, I am I am going to remember you in prayer.

He said, thank you. You know, I'm not a believing person, but I appreciate you saying that to me. So what he's saying is that he's more than likely an atheist or agnostic, but he appreciates the fact.

And so they went through a lot. And to the point that questioning whether or not there is a God, if he is a God, why did he allow these things to happen? So my job, your job is to stand with them and to encourage them, even share the gospel with the Jewish people, because they too need Jesus Christ as their savior and king. He is the Messiah. He is their Messiah.

And we are grafted into that vine. So our job is to is to share the gospel, but at the same time is to stand with Israel. You know, the Bible talks about that, right? Go back all the way to the time of Abraham. The promise God made to him was those who bless you, I will bless those who curse you, I will curse. And through you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And so that's where we are today. Yeah, I think it's it's one of those things where you really have to take time out of your day to pray for this thing that's happening, because I think a trap that a lot of Christians fall into, and I know you've spoken about this on the show before, is that we tend to think that we are the new Israel, that because they rejected. I don't know if they would ever make this logical connection, but because they rejected Christ, whatever comes happens to you now, you almost kind of deserve it.

And you almost kind of brought this on yourself by rejecting. But we forget that not only has the church not replaced Israel, but God still has a plan for his people. Yeah. When you see that in the Old Testament, too, you see Israel being punished for their sin. You see them bearing the consequences of their sin through various things like the times of the judges or the exiles. But they were never not God's chosen people. They still maintained that status, which and I mean, why would we think any different today? Well, political leaders, other countries have done whatever they can to take Israel away from the Jewish people. For example, United Nations wanted to make it an international city, Jerusalem be an international city with the UN General Assembly Resolution 194. This is back in 1948, which bottom line, it means that someone else other than the Jewish people would control their capital.

Imagine someone else other than us controlling Washington, D.C. Yeah. And then people across the world having very strong opinions on whether or not we should be in our own. Right. Right. And it caused the worst confrontation since 1948, as one historian said, and as many as 1600 Israelis have been murdered and 9000 wounded.

That's four times the death toll in previous 26 years, all because of this this thing. So they they need to have their claim to their homeland. Jerusalem is the identity city of the Jewish people. They don't have if they don't have Jerusalem, they don't have claim to anything else.

Yeah. In Israel. So this violence that is going on, again, very interesting.

What is it called? The Al-Aqsa flood. It has to do with Jerusalem. And so Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, all these organizations have time and again tried to challenge that. And this is the worst possible challenge to the Jewish people in their homeland. And one of the things that is on the news, but one of the things my friend shared with me is that now there are skirmishes happening to the north on the Lebanese border. Wow. And it's sad and scary to think about that now Israel has to fight on both fronts, the south and the north.

Yeah. So my prayer is and I told him that that America should stand with Israel. We always have. And I hope other nations will also not drag their feet or just kind of slowly begin to make their statements. Look here, look there and then say things like, well, you know, this happening because no, it shouldn't happen at all. I think Hamas is making it very uncomplicated for you right before your eyes.

And because I'm the type even or at least I was at one point to kind of blind myself to it and be like, well, you know, that's like you said, that's happened on the other end of the globe and not nothing I can do about it from here. So I'd rather not know. But, you know, as Christians, you know, someone is going to make it very uncomplicated for you very, very soon. And I don't want to have to face God and be like, I didn't stand with your people. I don't know.

It just didn't affect me when I mean, it was a Jewish man who died. Right. Right. So that's right. Yes.

Yes. Jesus is son of God, but he's a Jewish man that died for us. Just before we end the show, do you want to take maybe some time and just pray for Israel right now?

And if you're listening, maybe just stop unless you're driving or something. Just stop what you're working on and just pray with us. I want to read for us Psalm 122. It says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls.

Prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, peace be within you. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. So definitely pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of the Jewish people. Pray for the peace of Israel.

Pray for the hearts of people everywhere. God is not pro-Israel or pro-US. God is for all people. And he wants all to come to know his son Jesus Christ.

He loves the world. And so this show or this conversation is not just to be one sided or whatever. We're simply laying out the facts from scriptures and from evidence. And what we're saying is we need Jesus Christ. We need the savior of the world.

That's right. Amen. Father, we thank you for this day.

Thank you, God, for every day. And we pray for those people who are facing such terrible atrocities as their loved ones are being held hostage. Their loved ones are in body bags. And God, we cannot fathom the evil that is roaming free. And God, we just pray that she would protect Israel. We pray, God, that she would be with their families, their soldiers, all those who are involved in this conflict now. And we pray, God, for leaders all across the globe who will take a stand to be with Israel in all of this. And God, we pray that you would open the hearts and the minds of all people, even the people in Gaza and in the West Bank and all over.

Lord, I pray that eyes and hearts would be open to the need for Jesus Christ. We love you. We thank you. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much, Dr. Shah. Thank you for helping us take the time to do this. It helps us understand what's going on over in Israel and how we play a part in what's happening over there. We encourage you guys, as you go about the rest of your day, the rest of your week, to continue to keep Israel in your prayers. The people over there, the families who are suffering, who have lost loved ones, who are in fear for their lives, keep them in prayer because we know that God has a plan and He's still at work.

Make sure that you text in. If you'd like more information about what's going on over in Israel or how you can help, text in and let us know at 252-582-5028. You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. You can partner with us financially there for more content just like this and to help us get the message of the gospel to the nations. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.