Amir Tsarfati: Gaza’s Weakening Position

Shalom from Japan! I just arrived yesterday for nearly two weeks of meetings and teachings that will have me in both Nagano and Osaka. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of these two cities, please come and join me! Information on my teaching times can be found on Behold Israel’s Teaching Around the World page. That is also where you’ll find all the details surrounding the whirlwind tour that Pastor Barry Stagner and I will make through Europe with stops in Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium. We can’t wait to see you there!

For those of you who have children, you know that there are certain times when your parental heart swells. I had that experience yesterday as Behold Israel aired our most recent Anchor Podcast featuring my interview with my only daughter, Maayan. What made it so special was that it wasn’t just a dad talking to his little girl, who isn’t so little anymore. Instead, it was an opportunity to highlight her incredible missionary journey that’s taken her to places like Africa, India, Asia, and South America. And the people she was reaching out to were not just the locals, but also fellow young Israelis who just finished their military service and were taking time to backpack around the world. What an incredible ministry to a group of people – Israelis in their twenties – who will likely never hear the Gospel in any other setting than a foreign country! Watch “The Anchor Podcast: With Maayan Tsarfati” and hear of the creative ways that God takes His message around the world.

Saturday morning saw the release our latest edition of Authors’ Corner during which Behold Israel senior writer Steve Yohn and I discussed The Israel Decree. This short book overflowing with biblical truth releases on May 6, just under a month away. Never have I felt so strongly about a book like I do with The Israel Decree. In 128 pages, you will learn the historical, political, and, most importantly, biblical reasons why we can be absolutely sure that Old Testament Israel continues in the Israel of today. So much depends on this truth, which is why it is essential that every believer understands it. Preorder your copy of The Israel Decree today!

The MidEast and Beyond

Prime Minister Netanyahu in Hungary
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed Israel last week on a diplomatic trip that would take him to Europe and the United States. His first stop was to see his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán, in Budapest. Some thought this was a daring move on Netanyahu’s part since he is under an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for war crimes in Gaza. The Prime Minister, however, was unphased. He knew that he was safe in Hungary, particularly with the Budapest government taking the occasion of his visit to announce that it was cutting ties with the sham multinational judicial body. The reputation of the ICC is tarnished beyond repair and only the far left takes them seriously. Its chief prosecutor, British lawyer Karim Khan, is himself under investigation for sexual misconduct and has recently been accused of carrying out vendettas against those who were making the accusations. Germany, Belgium, and other countries have said that if Netanyahu comes within their borders, they too will ignore the ICC warrant.

Prime Minister Netanyahu in the United States
“Well, Bibi’s here to talk tariffs with Trump,” the media said as Netanyahu’s plane touched down outside of Washington, D.C. But then the prime minister and the president pulled a switchy-fakey. They began talking about Iran and when and how they should blow it up.

Well, maybe they didn’t jump right to the “Let’s blow up Iran” conclusion, although Netanyahu may have been up for it. President Donald Trump, however, still believes that there is hope for a new Iran deal. Now, before you panic, understand that Trump’s Iran deal has as much to do with Obama’s Iran deal as lamb kebabs have to do with baklava. The former deal was sort of a “slow your program down for a while so it looks like I’ve done something, then you can ramp it back up and blow Israel to kingdom come once I’m out of office.” When Trump first came to power, he immediately nixed the deal. But now he’s talking about a new, improved deal, which is “shut your entire military nuclear program down or else we’re going to shut it down for you using really, really big bombs.”

While on the surface, a deal like that may seem impossible. But Iran’s leadership is split into two factions regarding the United States. The hardliners are totally against any negotiations with America. The moderates, however, are saying, “Maybe we should just hear them out.” While those two factions battle it out in Tehran, in Washington Trump and Netanyahu discussed three key issues: what is the deadline, what is the carrot to offer Iran, and what is the stick? A deadline is essential, because the Iranians are notable for their foot dragging capabilities. The carrot is that if they dismantle their military nuclear program, sanctions will be lifted and Iran can have an actual economy again in which you don’t need a shopping bag full of money to buy a pack of gum. The stick is annihilation. Already, between 25-50% of U.S. naval strength is in the region. Iran has put out propaganda threatening Diego Garcia, the island on which is the British naval base that America is borrowing for all their jets and bombers. Sadly for them, no Iranian armaments have the capability of reaching that far south. Russia is now pressuring Iran toward negotiating with the U.S. We’ll see if they listen.

Gaza’s Weakening Position
Currently, there are 59 hostages still being held by Hamas. Only 21-22 of them are still alive. From Israel’s position, the terrorist group is in a no-win situation. If Hamas releases the hostages, they will be wiped out because there is nothing left to check the onslaught of the IDF. If Hamas holds onto the hostages, they will still be taken out, only more slowly as Israel’s military surgically destroys them one attack at a time.

The terrorists are feeling the pressure. When the latest round of negotiations began, they offered to return one hostage. Israel pushed further with their offensive. Hamas then offered five. Israel kept driving forward. Now they are offering eight, but still the IDF keeps advancing. Israel is demanding no fewer than 11 live hostages and half of our dead citizens. As of now, no agreement has been made

The genocide sham that Gaza has perpetrated on the world is beginning to crack. They’ve had to revise their bogus numbers of dead citizens numerous times. In the latest reports they issued, the figures for women and children who had perished had come way down, while the totals for dead combatants shot way up.

Lebanon Just Can’t Stop Being Lebanon
Despite the fast-rising percentage of Lebanese who are saying that Hezbollah has got to go, the terrorists are still violating their ceasefire understanding with Israel by keeping weapons storage facilities and other military structures. Every time one is discovered, it is destroyed. At some point, the citizens are going to have to say that enough is enough.

Erdoğan’s New Buddy
There was one very awkward moment in the presser that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu held in Washington. A reporter asked about Turkey, and Trump responded with how much he liked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and how much Erdoğan liked him also. If you have a chance to watch Netanyahu’s body language throughout Trump’s answer, you’ll see him shifting and looking off to the side. It’s understandable. I, too, am concerned about Trump’s love for the virulently antisemitic Erdoğan. This is especially true with the new Syria, which Trump claims Turkey controls through surrogates. The U.S. president’s vision for Syria sees most of the country being overseen by Turkey, the south under the control of Israel, the northeast Kurdish area led by America, and Russia keeping its port region along the Mediterranean. All in all, it fits very well into a strong scenario for the coming Ezekiel 38 war.

Tariffs Promised, Tariffs Kept
I heard an economist say that just like Trump is placing military bombers over Iran, he is placing economic bombers over the rest of the world. The United States has been in a trade deficit for years; Trump is determined to equalize things. Good for America, but bad for the rest of the world which has gotten used to making money off the United States’ imbalanced policies. It’s true that the U.S. stock market has crashed, but its economy is losing billions of dollars a year. It will eventually balance out. Love him or hate him, it’s just good to see a man in the oval office concerned about real issues, rather than DEI, climate change, and gender.

Pool Anyone?
The deciding match of the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 in Wigan, UK, was contested by Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith. The only problem was that both Harriet and Lucy are men. Sooooo…there was that.

Ministry

Tuesday, Pastor Barry Stagner and I hosted MidEast & Beyond: the Deal, the Deep State, and the Countdown to Ezekiel 38. If you missed it, be sure to check it out. It goes deeper into many of the issues we dealt with in the newsletter. Then, mark your calendars for next Tuesday at 10:00 AM PDT for another edition of MidEast & Beyond. Also, if you haven’t yet subscribed to my Telegram channel, do it today to ensure you are constantly on the cutting edge of world events.

Have you ever found yourself reading your Bible and thinking, “I know this means more than it seems, but I just can’t figure it out”? Join me and Pastor Rick Yohn next Wednesday at 10:00 AM PDT for “Explore the Bible: Read Your Bible to Understand It”. Through practical insights and foundational principles, they will guide you in how to observe, interpret, correlate, and apply God’s Word to your life for deeper growth.

Once again, I would encourage everyone to check out our Behold Israel Upcoming Events page. For those of you nearby to one of the speaking locations, it would be great to have you join us. For everyone else, we would greatly appreciate you taking the opportunity to keep each event in your prayers.

As Passover approaches, I always get especially emotional. It’s no wonder this is the day God chose to start our nation’s calendar. What a privilege to celebrate each year the event of God’s deliverance. More than 3,000 years later, my little nation, which comprises less than 0.2% of the world’s population, is still facing the same attempts to destroy us. And, as has always been the case, we can only rely on the same God who promised us deliverance.

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say—
“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
Then they would have swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have gone over our soul;
Then the swollen waters
Would have gone over our soul.”
Blessed be the Lord,
Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
The snare is broken, and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.  (Psalm 124)

I’m excited about my time here in Japan and I’m so thankful for your prayers. May God bless you for your constant remembering of Behold Israel and for your faithful support of the ministry.

Awaiting His Return,

Amir Tsarfati

Amir Tsarfati, a Jewish Christian, is the founder and president of Behold Israel, a news site to correct the scarcity in trustworthy reportage on issues and events impacting Israel, and to resolve the uncertainty about who or what to believe.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.

Photo credit: By Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0, link