Not since 2014 have so many sirens terrified the Israeli communities that border the Gaza Strip. Last week’s “accidental” missile launch from Gaza – while horrific and tragic for the seven people who were injured – was a symptom of a bigger problem.

Iran has Israel surrounded ‒ and its leaders are obsessed with eliminating Israel.

Iran is ‘On Israel’s Doorstep’

The Trumpet recently reported, “Iran has exploited the conflict in Iraq, the civil war in Syria and the political strife in Lebanon to create an 800-mile land bridge connecting it to the Mediterranean.” Through this corridor, Iran smuggles high-tech weaponry and personnel to its proxies in the countries that border Israel.

On Israel’s southern and eastern borders, Iran funds terrorists in both Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Jordan while Iran-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad threaten Israel from the south in Gaza.

Israel’s northeast neighbor is Syria. The Trumpet reported that Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon disclosed classified intelligence to warn the UN Security Council in January that “the Shiite crescent has reached [Israel’s] doorstep.” He said Iran has 82,000 troops in Syria, has spent $35 billion on weapons factories there and maintains a base just 30 miles from Israel’s border. He cautioned that Iran is using Syrian civilians as “human shields” and “turning the entire country of Syria into the largest military base in the world.”

At Israel’s northern border is Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has built numerous tunnels into Israel from which they plan devastating attacks against civilians. Fortunately, Israel has discovered and destroyed several of those tunnels. But not all. Equally disturbing are Iran’s military bases in Lebanon. Hezbollah’s size and arsenals dwarf those of the Lebanese military.

On Israel’s western border lies the Iran-infested Mediterranean Sea. Iran has a port in the eastern Mediterranean, Hezbollah has a port in Lebanon, and Iran uses Syrian ports. In January, Israeli Adm. Shaul Chorev (Ret.) cautioned that “Iranian ports in the eastern Mediterranean are a real risk for Israel.” He added that Israel’s next proxy war with Iran “could see a focus on the [Mediterranean] Sea.”

During his visit to the Middle East last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Chief Political Analyst David Brody and Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell of the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) in Jerusalem. The interview occurred soon after The Times of Israel reported Pompeo’s visit to Jerusalem’s Western Wall as “the first time a U.S. secretary of state visited Jerusalem’s contested Old City accompanied by a senior Israeli official.”

That senior Israeli official was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

During the CBN interview, Pompeo responded to a question about whether God was using President Trump as a modern-day Esther to save the Jewish people.

“As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible,” Pompeo replied.

It seems Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees.

On March 21 (the last day of Purim), Pompeo and Netanyahu held a joint press conference. Netanyahu mentioned Trump’s pledge to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights – a historic act made official this week – calling it a “Purim miracle.”

“We’re celebrating Purim, when, 2,500 years ago, other Persians, led by Haman, tried to destroy the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said. “They failed then. And today, 2,500 years later, Persians led by Khamenei are trying to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish State. They are going to fail again.”

On March 25, President Trump fulfilled his pledge and signed a proclamation acknowledging Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. 

Saving Israel Means Stopping Iran

As Netanyahu hinted at the joint press conference with Pompeo, Queen Esther 2,500 years ago courageously used her position to intercede in a plot to exterminate the Jewish people by an adviser of Persia’s King Ahasuerus, Haman the Agagite (Esther 3:1). Haman most likely was a descendant of Agag, king of the Amalekites and a bitter enemy of the Jewish people.

Ancient Persia is modern-day Iran.

Steven M. Collins, author of five books documenting the migrations, kingdoms and locations of the biblical “Lost Tribes of Israel,” the 10 tribes from the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel, suggested that the spirit of Haman “lives on in the modern leadership of Iran, which wants to exterminate the Jews, as did Haman long ago.“

Toward this end, Iran is working to surround Israel.

Iran has bases in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. They fund and supply terrorist groups, including Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border in Lebanon and Hamas on Israel’s southern border in the Gaza Strip.

Just two days after Pompeo returned to Washington – on Monday morning of this week – Hamas fired 30 Iran-supplied rockets into central Israel, destroying a family’s home and injuring seven people including two small children. Israel responded within 12 hours by conducting 15 airstrikes on Hamas military sites.

Open Doors to Change Lives

Our theme for 2019 is Open Doors. God is opening doors and providing many new and exciting opportunities to change the lives of His people through medical aid and spiritual care. We need volunteers like you to come alongside us and partner in bringing the love of Yeshua to thousands of Jewish people and their neighbors.

During our first medical outreach of 2019 in Ethiopia, we saw 17,787 lives changed in less than a week. God is moving among His people and you can be a part of it. Join us on one these upcoming outreaches to Ethiopia or Zimbabwe.

Despite the economic damage caused by re-imposed US sanctions on its oil sector, Iran has made significant steps toward a threat made in January to switch strategies from defense to offense regarding its long-term goal of destroying Israel.

Three recent developments reveal this new strategy: a drone operation, a new missile plant in Syria and deploying an armed flotilla.

‘Way to Jerusalem’ Drone Operation

Last week, Iran’s Defense Ministry announced it had successfully completed a drone operation named “Beit al-Maqdis,” which means “way to Jerusalem.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) called it the strongest-ever exercise of its kind. Amir Ali Hajjizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s aerospace division, announced the drill and said Iran has the region’s largest and most advanced drone fleet.

Last November, Hajizadeh bragged of Iran’s unmatched collection of captured or downed American and Israeli drones. Last week’s operation consisted of 50 drones based on a US Sentinel drone that Iran captured in 2011, reverse engineered and modified to perform both bombing and reconnaissance missions. A captured Predator drone was also reverse engineered to be part of the mission.

The Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis (MECRA) issued a report saying the drill was part of a strategy to showcase Iran’s military prowess. MECRA also reported that Iran claims to have “hacked into US drones over Iraq and Syria.”

New Hezbollah Missile Plant in Syria

The Times of Israel reported on Sunday, “Satellite images give credence to reports that a new factory in Syria’s northwest is a facility for the production of surface-to-surface (SSM) missiles. Israeli officials believe it is a precision missile factory being constructed by Iran in cooperation with the Syrian government and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.”

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the factory was intended to “focus on producing precision missiles, dramatically upgrading the threat to Israel from the vast arsenal of rockets and missiles deployed against it in southern Lebanon by Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah.”

Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the IRGC, said in an interview with Iranian media on Sunday that all of Israel is within reach of Hezbollah’s missiles.

Deploying an Armed Flotilla

Also on Sunday, Iran announced that it had deployed its 61st flotilla to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. “The naval group is on a mission to provide security for the routes used by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) in the area of the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait,” Iranian Navy's Southern Fleet Rear Admiral Afshin Tashk said.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the flotilla includes a destroyer and warships. “The deployment comes less than a month after a large-scale naval exercise in the Persian Gulf and strategic Strait of Hormuz,” the Postsaid. “Iran has been working to upgrade its navy, with new vessels and submarines introduced to bolster the country’s aging fleet and recently announced that it had commissioned its first domestically developed submarine capable of firing cruise missiles.”

While Iran claims the ships are meant only to protect its commercial vessels from pirates, some analysts suspect Iran is carrying weapons to the Iran-backed Houthis rebels in Yemen’s civil war.

The importance of these three developments was summed up by statements by Iran’s military leadership.

The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Bagheri, announced in January that Iran would change its military strategy from defensive to offensive. The next day, IRGC Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami declared, “Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map. The Israelis will not have even a cemetery in Palestine to bury their own corpses.”

Please pray with us for God’s protection for Israel as Iran and its proxies in the Middle East take offensive steps to eliminate her. Also pray for protection of the Jewish people, civilians and military personnel alike, targeted by Iran and its proxies with terrorist attacks and bold military operations.

Disguised as a non-partisan rebuke against bigotry, last week’s vote in the US House of Representatives for HR183 hoisted anti-Semitism to a new level. 

Only 23 lawmakers – all Republicans – voted against a resolution originally intended to reprimand Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for remarks she made at a town hall. She had insinuated that American Jewish people have allegiance to Israel rather than the US. 

Jewish member Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), who previously sparred with Omar over anti-Semitic statements, argued that the resolution should have identified Omar. He compared the move to a January resolution condemning Rep. Steve King (R-IA) for remarks considered white supremacist. 

“In January, we condemned white supremacy,” Zeldin reminded the House members before the vote on HR183. “We kicked that member off his committees. This member will continue to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.” 

A Watershed Moment for Anti-Semitism 

Seth J. Frantzman, Op-Ed Editor and Middle East affairs analyst at The Jerusalem Post, analyzed how the attempt to condemn Omar for her brazen anti-Semitic statements backfired. He concluded that between February 28 and March 6, Omar pulled off a brilliant tactic to forever shield herself. 

“Omar and her colleague, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), were smart in how they framed their discussion leading to the foreign allegiance accusation,” Frantzman wrote.  
 

At the townhall meeting in late February, Omar prefaced her offending remarks by claiming she and Tlaib are unfairly treated because of their faith. 
 

“What I’m fearful of, because Rashida and I are Muslim, (is) that a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be antisemitic because we are Muslim,” she said. 

Frantzman argued that anything Omar now says against Jewish people or Israel is already defended by the “we are Muslim” caveat. 

Bringing a Whisper Campaign into the Open 

In several Jerusalem Post articles, Frantzman has warned that an incremental “whisper campaign” against Jewish people is increasingly becoming more toxic in the US, and that Omar and Tlaib have brought it to a crescendo. He cites the three steps of this campaign:

1. Claim anti-Semitism isn’t racism because Jewish people are white (ignoring the many who are people of color)
2. Claim Jewish people are upholding white supremacy (because they are white)
3. Accuse Jewish people of allegiance to a foreign country.

This process, he says, “isn’t hidden away in some conspiracy chat room somewhere, but is being pushed by the rising stars of a new, young and vibrant activist community that has taken hold.” 

This campaign is reflected in Omar’s past and present public statements.

• In January, Omar defended a 2012 tweet claiming Israel had done “evil acts” and “hypnotized the world.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and others explained to Omar how hurtful those words were, and Omar apologized by saying the tweet was “unfortunate and offensive” and that she unwittingly used an anti-Semitic trope. How can ignorance be anti-Semitism?
• In early February, Omar tweeted that members of Congress were pro-Israel because “it’s all about the Benjamins, baby.” She clarified in later tweets that she referred to a lobby group that advocates for pro-Israel policies, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and suggested that AIPAC pays members of Congress for pro-Israel policies. After another talk with Pelosi, Omar retracted the tweets and apologized, again claiming ignorance.
• In late February at a town hall, Omar said, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” meaning Jewish Americans have allegiance to Israel. This time, she refused to apologize.