On the anniversary of my dad’s death some years ago shortly after we touched down in Johannesburg in a bid to say our final farewells, I joined colleagues to pray about the fragile peace in Israel.
It was also an emotional time as we wept and lifted the hostages and their families to the Lord and heard some shocking details of the horrors they have endured. They will need considerable healing from their terrible trauma, but God is able.
It was especially encouraging to view the testimony of one hostage who has come through his “living hell” as a believer despite having little or no faith at the start of his ordeal. He eventually realised that God was there for him when he noticed how his prayers were being answered, even in the smallest of ways.
We also prayed that God would expose the tsunami of lies threatening to overwhelm the minds of an ignorant public too ready to accept the media’s perverse ‘moral equivalence’ between Hamas and the IDF.
In the eyes of many, Israel’s military response to the October 2023 massacre was disproportionate. But what of the disproportionate exchange of 20 innocent living hostages (and 28 bodies still not all returned) for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are murderers serving life sentences?
But at least it exposes the real heart of a nation that longs for peace at almost any price. That began in 1947 when they gratefully accepted far less territory than they were originally promised, and it continued in 2005 when, under pressure from many nations including the United States, Israel withdrew from Gaza, causing much suffering to the many Jewish settlers who had made the enclave a better place through their presence.
But this ‘land for peace’ deal didn’t work either – Hamas soon took control and have been firing rockets at their Jewish neighbours ever since. In fact, they have been bombing Israel for 37 years, according to Middle East journalist David Dolan, who covered their very first terrorist attack for CBN.
So, while welcoming the current deal and rejoicing with those families who have been reconciled as a result, we need to remain cautious. For in October 2011, after more than five years in captivity, IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was freed at the cost of releasing more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, including some of the most senior Hamas operatives.
Among those freed was Yahya Sinwar, the principal architect of the October 7th atrocity, who had been serving multiple life sentences for the abduction and murder of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.
Now once again, we are hearing reports of alleged collaborators being executed by those who have supposedly signed a peace deal.
I am indebted for some of this information to my colleague David Soakell of Christian Friends of Israel, who was in Gaza when the 2005 disengagement was taking place.
“Israel left a very fruitful Gaza and handed it over to the Arabs, all in the name of ‘peace’,” he writes in today’s issue of CFI’s excellent Watching Over Zion newsletter.
And David knows all about trauma, having narrowly escaped a bus bombing in Jerusalem some years ago. It was a long while before he boarded another bus in the city.
Please pray for healing from the trauma the hostages and their families have suffered.
Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.
