Dear Brethren,

On May the 8th (this coming week), Israel celebrates the day its first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of the State of Israel. So come this Thursday modern Israel will be 60 years old. Back in May of 1948 the tiny nation was encircled by its enemies and hopelessly outnumbered. On the day after Ben-Gurion declared its independence, six Arab armies invaded and tried to annihilate the Jewish state. It is by the grace of God the nation did survive, but to this day it is surrounded by nations continually plotting her destruction. With the current exception of Egypt and Jordan, the Arab and Muslim world has been trying to destroy the Jewish homeland.

For six decades the western nations, including America, have expressed deep sympathy for the Holocaust while at the same time foolishly trying to appease Arab violence against Jewish citizens of Israel. What is so strange is that polls in many European countries reveal that nearly 60 percent of people believe that Israel poses the biggest threat to World Peace. Hatred for Israel clearly simmers below the surface in many European countries.

Israel is the only country whose creation was approved by the UN but whose right to exist is constantly questioned. The West demands that Israel compromise with Palestinian Arabs who kill through terrorism. Israel is the only nation which provides electricity, hospital and water service to thousands of her enemies, including treating terrorists in Israeli hospitals. The international community places no such demands on other nations. But this of course reveals much of the world’s underlying animosity toward Israel.

At present, dark clouds hang over this tiny nation. Israel is threatened on several fronts by Iran which denies the Holocaust and threatens to kill the Israeli “bacteria”. In Lebanon Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iranian-sponsored army Hezbollah, boasts that the next attack on Israel is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.

The tragedy of late is that Israel’s sense of direction and resolve was greatly weakened by the 2006 Lebanon war because it ruptured Israel’s confidence in its military. So now we wait for the next war against Israel, whether that war be 6 months from now or 6 years--but we know for sure it is coming.

What the Arab/Islamic nations do not understand is that when they treat Israel as an enemy they are treating God as their enemy. This is made clear in a prophecy in Psalm 83: “Do not keep silent O God! Do not hold your peace…For behold your enemies make a tumult and those that hate you have lifted up their head… they have said let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more (verses 1-4).

The verses that follow then describe the identities of the nations that conspire to do harm to Israel in the end time.

I will be scanning the news as President Bush and Israel celebrate Israel’s 6oth birth date this week… once again bringing the world’s attention back to the fulcrum point of the world.

With Love,
Steven LeBlanc