Our prayers must increase as pressure mounts on Israel

As Israel’s war intensifies and the IDF moves closer to defeating Hamas in Gaza, the forces of evil that hate Israel are shouting louder than ever before. The Palestinians and their allies are doing everything they can to stop Hamas being defeated because it goes against their objective of seeing Israel destroyed. As watchmen on the walls for Israel, we must be aware of what is happening so we can defend Israel in prayer.

There are so many arenas in which Israel is having to defend itself – physically, politically, legally and spiritually.

Physically, the war is intensifying as Israel closes in on Hamas and tries to free the remaining hostages in Gaza. Hamas is fighting hard, using every trick in the book and committing dozens of war crimes. Hamas fighters are using Palestinian civilians as human shield, firing rockets from civilian areas, using plain clothes to hide their identities and ambush Israel from the thousands of tunnels they built under Gaza. Attacks against Israel from elsewhere are also increasing. Hezbollah is launching rocket attacks against Israel in the north. The Houthis are continuing to cause problems in the Red Sea. And Iran is behind all of these things, fuelling terrorism against the world’s only Jewish state.

Politically, there is increased scrutiny of what Israel is doing by the media outlets and human rights organisations. The false accusations of ‘genocide’ are nothing less than an attempt to stop Israel from destroying the evil of Hamas. Unfortunately, this propaganda against Israel has started to impact international relations with Israel’s closest allies. President Biden said Israel is going too far in its war against Hamas. The UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has been one of the voices of opposition to Israel’s advance on Rafah. The head of the EU’s Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, even went as far as calling for the stopping of arms sales to Israel, and the Netherlands actually applied an arms embargo when a shipment of F35 parts heading to Israel was blocked.

This moves us on to the legal fight against Israel. The Netherland’s didn’t just decide to stop arms going to Israel, it was because a court ruled they were not allowed because they might be used to commit ‘war crimes’ against Palestinians. . The ruling directly referenced the biased case brought to the ICJ by South Africa, showing just how damaging these court cases are to Israel.

We have also seen the effects of politics and legal fights against Israel taking place. Three Hamas supporters were let off the hook by a pro-Palestinian judge whose biased decision is now under investigation, for example. And there are many other examples of this.

Spiritually, we are seeing antisemitism rising in the UK, Europe, America and, of course, the Middle East. Attacks against Jews are increasing, including a Jewish man in Paris who was stabbed six times in an antisemitic attack. His attacker was known to him and had sent him dozens of antisemitic threats in the past, but the police failed to take action until it was too late. A common occurance when it comes to authorities dealing with antisemitism.

There seems to be a real lack of understand from authorities as to what they are dealing with.

As you can see, Israel and the Jewish people are under huge pressure from all angles. It is now more important than ever before that we stand strong as watchmen on the walls for Israel. We must fight against the spirit of antisemitism by praying in to each one of these situations. Israel needs our prayers.

The Bible teaches us that we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But God Himself tells us we must continually pray and talk to God and give Him “no rest… till Jerusalem is a praise in the earth.” So don’t keep silent this day. Do not hold your peace. Pray, pray and pray some more for Israel. They need our prayers more than ever!

“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
They shall never hold their peace day or night.
You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,
And give Him no rest till He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

Isaiah 62:6-7