Asher Intrater is a highly respected voice in Israel and beyond. He is also
personal friend of Pastor Frangipane. Asher is a Jewish believer in Jesus, the
Messiah. Francis has asked us to pass on this urgent prayer request for Israel.
Urgent Prayer Request for Israel
Increased Military Action in Gaza
by Asher Intrater
Almost three years ago, Israel pulled out all
of its citizens (9,000) who were living in homes
in settlements in Gaza, as well as all of its
military units. Shortly after that the Hamas
movement took over the government of Gaza. Since
that time, to the disappointment of Israel, the
Hamas government has continued terrorist actions
and Jihadist propaganda against Israel.
Last Wednesday, 27 of February, Hamas began
increasing missile attacks on Israel. In the
five days from Wednesday to Sunday, until the
time of this writing, 183 missiles were shot
from Gaza into Israel, including 20 Grad
missiles, several of which even reached the
city of Ashkelon (population: 120,000).
Israel was faced with a dilemma. We could not
just let the attacks continue. No country in
the world would allow another country to fire
missiles into its population centers. Yet to
reoccupy all of Gaza would lead to a much larger
number of casualties and to a nearly impossible
situation to control afterward. The government
decided on a firm, but moderate operation into
Gaza to deter the rocket attacks.
In the middle of the night between Friday and
Saturday, the Givati division of the IDF entered
Gaza, primarily to the area of Gibaleah, opposite
the Israeli town of Sederot, which received most
of the rocket attacks. The Israeli attacks were
aimed at destroying the following targets:
1.) Hamas headquarters and leaders,
2.) weapons warehouses,
3.) missile firing sites,
4.) trucks carrying weapons,
5.) Hamas active military units.
One of the difficulties in the fighting is that
Hamas purposefully fires its missiles toward
Israeli population centers, and locates its own
weapons units in the midst of their own Palestinian
population. Hamas propaganda blames Israel for
atrocities and at the same time, calls for its own
civilians to assembly and stand in as "human shields"
in areas that are likely to be military targets.
In one instance, Israel blew up a truck with 160
missiles in it, located in a populated neighborhood
of Gibaleah. In the recent fighting, hundreds have
been injured on both sides, thousands struck with
"shock" from the bombings. Militarily, of course,
the Palestinians have suffered much greater losses;
3 Israelis have been killed and approximately 100
Palestinians. Gazan civilian conditions are tragic.
Israel's military goals are to use force to stop the
terror and the bombings, yet to do all that is reasonably
possible not to injure innocent civilians.
In our congregation on Shabbat, we dedicated a good period
of time to interceding for the situation. Prayers ranged
from military victory for Israel to mercy for the
Palestinians. Interestingly, some of the prayers offered
for mercy for the Palestinians came from young Israelis
with first hand battle experience; while some of the
prayers for decisive Israeli victory over the terrorism
came from Israelis with much experience in helping and
supporting Palestinians.
The warfare here ranges from military issues to spiritual
ones, and can be quite complicated. Here are a few
discernments to help us sort out the issues:
1. Arabs (Palestinians) - are a people group that God
loves like all people; and we love them as well. We pray
for their salvation, support humanitarian and evangelistic
efforts, and demonstrate reconciliation with Palestinian Christians.
2. Islam - is a religion based on the teaching of Muhammed
and his followers. We believe that to be false teaching.
Islam as a religion must be dealt with by correct biblical
teaching and education.
3. Jihad - is an attitude within Islam that calls for
destruction of western civilization and of Israel in order
to achieve its goals of Islamic takeover. It comes from a
demonic spirit, in my opinion, that is connected to what
the book of Revelation refers to as the "beast".
4. Terror - is a method of killing innocent victims to
create an atmosphere of fear in order to influence people
toward political or religious goals. Terror was at first
a kind of criminal activity, but has increased over the
years to a full military offensive. Terrorism must be
fought with strong and decisive police and military action.
5. Hamas - is an extremist Islamic organization, that has
now become the head of the government of Gaza. Their election,
putting them in the place of representing the people of Gaza,
has made the situation more difficult. Since their coming into
power, they have encouraged not only hatred to Israel but
persecution of the small evangelical Christian community
that was left in Gaza.
There are many Messianic Jews in the Israeli army, several
from our congregation. We pray for their safety. Just this
evening I received a report of a pastor's son who was shot
in the calf, but the bullet went straight through without
causing major damage.
How are we to pray?
- For the Israeli army to destroy terrorist infrastructure,
- For as few as possible Gazans to be hurt, and humanitarian
aid given to them
- For the gospel to go forth to the Arab people and rescue
them from the lies of Islam,
- For the demonic spirits behind the Jihad mentality to be
bound and divided,
- For the refuting of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda,
- For the Holy Spirit to guide the Messianic believers
within the army,
- For the downfall of the Hamas and other organizations like them,
- For the gospel to go forth to the Jewish people,
- For the testimony of reconciliation between Israeli
Messianics and Palestinian Christians to increase
Note 1: Why and Why?
Since the Israeli pull out of Gaza, Hamas continues to incite
terrorism. They say they are fighting the "occupation". How
can they say that when Israel has removed all of its forces?
- Because by "occupation", they mean the very existence of
the state of Israel. They are fighting for the elimination
of our people.
Since Israel has a stronger military force, why don't they
just go in and wipe out the enemy forces in Gaza? They could
do this easily. The answer is that, despite international
propaganda, the Israeli people and government do not want to
see innocent people killed. They are holding back their power
for humanitarian reasons.
Note 2: Military force and the Gospel
Many Christians are confused by the call of reconciliation
in the gospels with the need to use military force at times.
There is no contradiction. Police and military are ministers,
just as pastors and evangelists (Romans 13:4). We should never
use force against anyone who rejects our message or our ministry.
That is the wrong spirit of vengeance that Yeshua addressed in
Samaria (Luke 9:55). In fact, that is the problem with Jihad:
they use violence to force people to accept their religious views.
When people reject us, we respond with love, blessing in return.
We do not reject Arabs for being Arabs - God forbid, that would
be racism. We do not use force on Muslims because they are Muslims.
We use force on criminals, murderers, terrorists and tyrants -
whatever their religious or ethnic background. We do not use
force against people for spiritual goals; we use force when they
break the law. In that respect we treat terrorists as we would any
form of organized crime or despotism.
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