Midrash - Japanese
April 3, 2025
ミドラッシュ
ジェイコブ・プラッシュ
新約聖書の著者が旧約聖書を扱った方法
ミドラッシュとは、イエスやパウロの時代の古代のラビが用いた聖書解釈の方法です。改革者たちが 16 世紀の人間主義から拝借した、西洋の聖書の解釈、つまり文法的・史実的な解釈を含んでいますが、ミドラッシュはそれを単に第一歩と見なします。
聖書の様々な文書のジャンル－物語、知恵文学、ヘブライ的な詩や黙示文学－を扱うときに、それぞれを考慮に入れて理解するため関係性を探求します。そのアプローチの方法は書かれた順序に従うというよりかは、テーマに注目した読み方です。(※最初に必要な第一歩は、書かれた順序に従って読むことです。例えばそれはヨハネの福音書を章ごとに学んでいく方法です。テーマに注目した読み方は、ヨハネ 10 章の「わたしは良い牧者です」
という箇所によって、詩篇 23 篇「主は私の羊飼い」やエレミヤ 23 章「牧者たちについてこう仰せられる」のような箇所を理解するということです)
最も明らかなミドラッシュの指針は、ラビ・ヒレル（Hilell） による七つの基準（七つのミドロット）です。ヒレルは「ヒレルのパリサイ派神学校」の創設者で、そこでパウロがラビとしてガマリエル（使徒 5 章 34 節） に教えられました。ガマリエルはヒレルの孫にあたります。
ミドラッシュは教理を例証し、教理を明らかにするために、たとえ話や象徴を大いに用います。しかし、象徴は決して教理の基礎となりません。それは聖書の本文にある複数の層のようになったより深い意味を見出しますが、象徴的な解釈をする、フィロン（Philo
20B.C.－50A.D.） やオリゲネス（Origen 185－254 A.D.） と関係のある、グノーシス主義やアレキサンドリア学派のようなものとは基本的に違っています。ヘレニズムの哲学観や神学観よりも、むしろヘブライ的なものを反映させます。
ミドラッシュは預言を、反復し、繰り返す、歴史的なパターンであると解釈します（預言が複数の成就を持っているということ）。そして、最終的な成就は、贖いの中心である終末と関連しています。ユダヤ教の中の古典的なミドラッシュの文献は、「創世記のミドラッシュ・ラッバ（Midrash Rabba）」ともう一つは「哀歌のラッバ」です。
ミドラッシュはある形式に従います。ひとつは、マシャル・ニムシャル
（Mashal/Nimshal）形式です。それは箴言に見られ、物質的なものが霊的なものを象徴するというものです。新約における比喩的なミドラッシュの説明は、例えば、ユダの手紙やガラテヤ人への手紙の 4 章 24 節から 31 節に見られます。ミドラッシュが、新約聖書が旧約聖書を扱う方法を明らかにしているのです。
もうひとつの形式はパラシヨット（parashiyot）です。これは注解が節の後に続いているものです。聖書を解釈するミドラッシュに加えて、説教のミドラッシュもあります。これらは福音書の中でイエスによってしばしば用いられた、イェランメデヌ・ラベヌ
（yelammedenu rabbenu）形式に従います。この二種類のミドラッシュはどちらもハガダー的なものです。広範囲に及ぶ、ミドラッシュ的な文献であるハラカーもありますが、新約を学ぶ上で、これはそれほど重要ではありません。
もし、ユダヤ教、ヘブライ語や神学の教育を受けていない人であれば、ミドラッシュを解説するよりは実際に適用することのほうが簡単です。モリエル・ミニストリーズではいろいろなテープやビデオを提供しています。それらの中で、みことばを読み解くときに、ミドラッシュ的な解釈を実際に用いて論証しています。そのひとつはヨハネ４章のミドラッシュ的な解釈である、『井戸のそばの女』です。これはローマ・カトリックに関して解説しているものです。
新約が旧約を引用している方法を見るなら、使徒たちが西洋プロテスタントの解釈や、 解説の方法を用いなかったことは明らかです。イエスはラビでした。パウロもラビでした。彼らはミドラッシュと呼ばれる手法にしたがって、他のラビも用いた方法で聖書を解釈し たのです。
ところが初代教会で問題が起こりました。そのユダヤ的なルーツから遠ざかってしまったのです。そして、多くの異邦人がクリスチャンになるにしたがって、パウロが警告していたこと（ローマ 11 章）が起こってしまいました。人々はそのルーツを失ってしまったのです。
世界観の変化がある時はいつでも、神学にも変化が起こります。その変化の肯定的な扱 い方は「再文脈化」と呼ばれるもので、否定的な扱い方は「再定義」と呼ばれます。ウィ クリフ聖書の翻訳者がイザヤ 1 章 18 節を、赤道直下のアフリカの部族のために訳したとき、福音を「再文脈化」しました。『たとい、あなたがたの罪が緋のように赤くても、雪のよ うに白くなる。』雪を一度も見たことが無い人たちのために、彼らはこの箇所を、「ココ ナッツのように白くなる」と訳したのです。これが「再文脈化」、同じ真理を誰かの言語、
文化や世界観の背景に合わせることです。再定義に対して、これは完全に有効です。メッ
セージに何の害も与えません。
「再定義」は聖書が何を意味しているかを、再び説明する代わりに、聖書の意味していることを変えてしまいます。これは間違っています。そして、これが初代教会で起こったことなのです。コンスタンティヌス大帝（272－337 A.D.） がキリスト教を国家の宗教に変えてから、人々は福音をますます、極端な方法で「再定義」し始めました。初代教会の教父たちの中には、トーラー（旧約聖書）がユダヤ世界にイエスの到来の道備えをしたように、ギリシアの神智学で最高のものだったプラトンやソクラテスの唯神論の考えは、ギリシア世界に対しての道備えであったと信じる人もいました。この点までは、もっともな意見だと言えるでしょう。
ギリシア（ヘレニズム）的な考え方があれば、ヘブライ的な考え方もあります。パウロは両方使いました。パウロがユダヤ人と話すとき、ヘブライ的な考え方を用いました。しかし、アテネのアレオパゴスで福音を伝えているときには（使徒 17 章 22 節－31 節）、ギリシア的な考え方を用いました。ユダヤ人はしるしを求め、ギリシア人は知恵を要求します。もし、聖書的に使われるならばどちらも有効なのです。
問題は人々がユダヤ的な信仰を、ヘレニズム化しようとするときに起こりました。ギリシア人のために福音を再文脈化する代わりに、ギリシア的な表現をもって、再定義してしまったのです。これは特に、オリゲネスの時代のアレキサンドリアで起こりました。しかし、それが大きな問題となったのはコンスタンティヌスと、ヒッポのアウグスティヌス
（354－430 A.D.） の教え、また彼に影響を与えたカルタゴのキプリアヌス（Cyprian 200?
－258 A.D.） やアンブロシウス（Ambrose 339?－397 A.D.） がやって来た後です。
ギリシア人はプラトンやソクラテスの教えから、人は神の御姿に似せて造られたというような真理を多く知っていました。しかし、ユダヤ・クリスチャンの背景や聖書とつながりを持っていない人でも、本能によって誰でも、ただひとりの神がおられることや、人が罪深いということは知り得ます。（ローマ 1 章 18 節－20 節）
私たちは聖書と一致する点まで、ギリシアの神智学と同意します。しかし、人々がギリ シア的な世界観の理解をもって、福音を再解釈し、再定義し始めるなら、それは問題です。ギリシア人は二元論、すなわち、すべて物質的なものは悪で、すべての霊的なものは善で あると信じていました。『初めに、ことばがあった。ことばは神とともにあった。ことば は神であった。』（ヨハネ 1 章 1 節）この言葉を読むとき、意見の一致はするでしょう。し
かし、ギリシア人は『ことばは人となって、私たちの間に住まわれた。』（ヨハネ１章 14
節）という主張に賛成することは出来なかったのです。ギリシア人はただそれが物質的であるというだけで、物質的なものは悪だと信じていたのです。聖書は霊的なものと物質的なものは、お互いの調和によって働くべきだと教えています。そこに何の矛盾や争いがあるわけではありません。確かに肉は堕落していますが、物質的な要素自体に悪いことは何もないのです。
アウグスティヌスが現れたときに、彼はキリスト教を再文脈化するのではなく、ギリシアのプラトン的な宗教として再定義してしまったのです。アウグスティヌスは次のようなことを言いました。「結婚について唯一価値のあることは、独身者になる者を産むことだ」結婚の関係が最初の罪であったと教える、マニ教がこの考えをギリシア世界に持ち込んだのです。そういうわけで、今日まで、ローマ・カトリックは性を扱うことが出来ず、多くの制限や悩みがあり、夫婦間の営みについてさえも、ためらいがあるのです。
人々はユダヤ的なミドラッシュの方法を用いずに、ギリシアの方法を用いて聖書を再解釈し始めました。ミドラッシュは型やたとえ話（象徴）を用います。それは教理を例証し、教理を明らかにするためです。たとえば、イエスは「過越の子羊」です。ユダヤ人の過越の象徴は贖いの教理を完璧に例証しています。しかし、決して、贖いの教理が象徴に基づいているわけではないのです。象徴は教理を例証し、その教理自体は、みことばの中のどこにおいてもはっきりと主張されています。ギリシア的な考えのグノーシス主義の世界では、反対のことが起こります。グノーシス主義は象徴に対して、自分たちが神秘的な洞察力（グノーシス 訳注…１テモテ 6 章 20 章）を持っていると主張し、そのグノーシスの理解を持って、本文の明らかな意味を解釈するのです。古代のユダヤの方法と違って、グノーシス主義にとって、象徴が教理の基礎なのです。
このような手法は初め、フィロンによって影響された人たちを通して、教会に忍び込ん できました。彼の教えはだんだんとローマ・カトリックに入り、アウグスティヌスが「も し、神がパウロを回心させるために暴力を使ったのなら、教会も人々を回心させるのに暴 力を使うことが出来る」と言うまでに至らしめたのです。その結果として十字軍やスペイ ンの宗教裁判などがあります。再文脈化の代わりに、彼らはみことばを再定義したのです。彼らはユダヤ的な本を、ギリシア的な本であるかのように読みました。これが誤りだった のです。
東はオリゲネス、西はアウグスティヌスから端を発したこの教えは、何世紀にも渡って、徐々に悪化の一途をたどりました。それはスコラ学と呼ばれるものと合わさって、中世に さらに悪化しました。アリストテレスの考えはイスラムに吸収され、後に十字軍がヨーロッパの中世ローマ・カトリックに持ち帰ったのです。モーセ・マイモニデス（Moses
Maimonides 1135－1204） はユダヤ教をアリストテレスの宗教に書き換え、トマス・アクィナス（1225－1274）もキリスト教をアリストテレスの宗教として、書き換えました。
宗教改革者が現れると、彼らは中世ローマ･カトリックの間違いを正そうとしました。残念なことに、宗教改革者たちは力強い性格の持ち主でしたが、思想家としては力強くなかったのです。宗教改革は人間主義と呼ばれるものから生まれました。（注：最初の人間主義者は無神論者ではなく、クリスチャンでした）人間主義者の中で名高いのは、トマス・ア・ケンピス（1380－1471）、ジョン・コレット（John Colet 1467－1519）やルフェーヴル・デタープル（Jacques Lefevre 1450?－1536）などです。しかし、その中で最大なのはロッテルダムのエラスムス（1467?－1536）でした。ルター、カルヴァンやツヴィングリなどはほとんど彼から意見を得たような人たちです。エラスムスと他の人間主義者たちは、中世ローマ･カトリックの行っていたみことばの悪用を防ぐために、聖書をその文字通りの意味で学び、教えようとしました。彼らは聖書を文学や歴史として読むことを強調し、今日のプロテスタント教会で使われるような、文法的・史実的な解釈のシステムを構築したのです。
改革者たちの問題は、そこまでしか行かなかったということです。彼らは中世ローマ・カトリックに異議を唱えるために、その文法的・史実的なシステムを適用するルールを作って、そのルールは現在まで神学校でも教えられているのです。そのようなルールのひとつはこれです。「聖書箇所の適用は多く存在するが、解釈はひとつしかない」全くくだらないことです！複数の解釈が存在するとタルムードは教えています。イエスは誰に賛成するでしょうか？改革者でしょうか？それとも他のラビでしょうか？
『イエスは答えて言われた。「悪い、姦淫の時代はしるしを求めています。だが預言者ヨナのしるしのほかには、しるしは与えられません。』（マタイ 12 章 39 節）「ヨナのしるし」とは何だったのでしょうか？ひとつの箇所でイエスは『ヨナは三日三晩大魚の腹の中にいましたが、同様に、人の子も三日三晩、地の中にいるからです。』（マタイ 12 章 40 節）と言っています。しかし同時に、ニネベの住民がヨナの説教によって悔い改めたことであると言いました。（ルカ 11 章 32 節）ユダヤ人が悔い改めなかったのに、異邦人は悔い改めました。これもまた預言者ヨナのしるしでしょう。イエスは、何がしるしかということに関して、共に有効なふたつの解釈を与えたのです。従って、プロテスタントの解釈がひとつだけで、あとは適用という原則はイエスの教えと違うものです。
もうひとつの聖書解釈学のルールは、聖書の簡単な言葉遣いが意味をなしているなら、 他の意味を探してはいけないというものです。文字通りにとって、そこで終わりなのです。
これもまた全くくだらない考えです！
一世紀や二世紀のユダヤ人クリスチャンがヨハネの福音書、1 章、2 章、3 章を読むと、
「新しい創造」の物語だと言ったことでしょう。創世記では神が地の上を歩いているのを見、ヨハネの福音書の「新しい創造」の中では、再び神が歩いているのを見るのです。創世記では、水の上を御霊が動いて被造物を生み出しました。ヨハネの福音書では、水の上を御霊が動いて新しい被造物を生み出すのです（ヨハネ３章５節『人は、水と御霊によって生まれなければ、神の国に入ることができません』）。創世記の創造では、小さい光と大きい光がありました。ヨハネの福音書の新しい創造では、小さな光であるバプテスマのヨハネがいて、大きな光であるイエスがいます。いちじくの木は、ミドラッシュ的に、ユダヤ人の象徴では、創世記の園、エゼキエル 47 章や黙示録にあるいのちの木を表わしています。なので、イエスがナタニエルに『あなたがいちじくの木の下にいるのを見たのです。』
（ヨハネ 1 章 48 節）と言ったとき、ただ単にナタニエルを、文字通りのいちじくの木の下
で見たということではなく、（それも含まれていますが）イエスは彼を園から、創造のときから、世の初めから見ていたということを言っているのです。
人間主義者たちがしていたように、文学や歴史として読むことによっては、聖書を部分的にしか理解出来ません。人間主義者たちはローマ･カトリックが基礎を置いていた、中世のスコラ学やグノーシス主義に反応していたのです。とはいえ、彼らの手法は人々がみことばの深みを理解するのを妨げたのです。文法的・史実的な方法によって、彼らは信仰義認やみことばの権威などの真理を発見したのですが、それが理解したことのすべてでした。その範囲を越えることは出来なかったのです。マルティン・ルターはローマ人への手紙を聖書の中で中心になる本だと言いました。そして、黙示録を完全に退けました。しかし、黙示録は終わりの時代のための本なのです。ルターも、その本をプロテスタントの考えでは理解出来ないと認めました。
何が問題なのでしょうか？黙示録が悪いのでしょうか？それともプロテスタントの考えが間違っているのでしょうか？よく注意してください。ダニエル（ダニエル 12 章 4 節）と
ヨハネ（黙示録 10 章 4 節）は終わりのときまで「このことを封じておけ」と書きました。神の時が満ちるとき、これらの本の解釈は忠実な者に明らかにされるのです。誰かが図や表を書いて、黙示録が示しているすべてのこと、すべての終末の計画を理解したと言うときは、用心してください。それは適切なときまで封じられているからです。神はみこころに合う方法とその時にそれを明らかにされます。しかもそれを段階的になされます。その第一歩は聖書をギリシア的な本としてではなく、ユダヤ的な本として読むことです。
書簡（手紙）は他の聖書の注解書です。それらは他の聖書箇所の実際的な意味について
教えています。書簡を文法的・史実的な方法を用いて、文学や歴史として読むことは構わ
ないことです。しかし、聖書にはさまざまな種類の文学があり、神さまがさまざまな理由のために、違った文学のジャンルをそこに置いたのです。詩篇（ヘブライ的な詩）や黙示録（黙示文学）、福音書（物語）、箴言（知恵文学）です。
あなたは詩を読むように手紙を読まないでしょう。ふるさとにいるナツ子おばあちゃんからの手紙を、ナルニア戦記（C・S・ルイス著）を読むようには読まないでしょう。あなたが書簡を読むとき、使徒たちは他の聖書箇所を、文法的・史実的な方法で解釈していなかったことが分かるでしょう。ヘブル人への手紙は、レビ人の祭司制度や神殿の象徴に関しての注解書です。ガラテヤ人への手紙 4 章 24 節を読み進めてみると、ふたりの女の話があり、それは律法の目的に対してのミドラッシュです。ユダの手紙はミドラッシュ的な文献です。使徒たちはみことばを、プロテスタントの文法的・史実的な方法をもって扱わなかったのです。
聖書にはさまざまな種類の預言があります。終わりの時代を理解するために、重要な二種類の預言は、メシアに関する預言と、これに関連した終末的な預言です。聖書の預言を理解するにあたって、これはとても重要です。なぜなら、16 世紀の人間主義に基づいた西洋の考えによると、預言は予告と成就で成り立っていると言うからです。古代のユダヤ人にとって預言は、予告されて成就するというものではありません。むしろ、彼らにとって預言とは、繰り返すパターンだったのです。預言が複数の成就を持つということです。そして、それぞれの成就、それぞれのサイクルは最終的な成就について教えているのです。例を挙げると、飢饉のとき、アブラハムはエジプトに下りました。（創世記 12 章 10 節－
20 節）神はパロを裁き、アブラハムとその子孫はエジプトの富を携えて、エジプトを出、
そして約束の地に入りました。アブラハムの子孫も同じ経験を繰り返しました。すなわち、飢饉でエジプトに下り（創世記 42 章）、神は邪悪な王であるパロを再び裁き、アブラハム の子孫はエジプトの富を携えて、エジプトを出、そして約束の地に入ったのです。
アブラハムに起こったことはその子孫にも起こります。そして、イエスにも同じことが 起こりました。『彼らが帰って行ったとき、見よ、主の使いが夢でヨセフに現われて言っ た。「立って、幼子とその母を連れ、エジプトへ逃げなさい。そして、私が知らせるまで、そこにいなさい。ヘロデがこの幼子を捜し出して殺そうとしています。」そこで、ヨセフ は立って、夜のうちに幼子とその母を連れてエジプトに立ちのき、ヘロデが死ぬまでそこ にいた。これは、主が預言者を通して、「わたしはエジプトから、わたしの子を呼び出し た」と言われた事が成就するためであった。』（マタイ 2 章 13 節－15 節）
マタイは、邪悪な王ヘロデが死んで、イエスがエジプトから出てきたとき、ホセアの預
言が成就したと言いました。『イスラエルが幼いころ、わたしは彼を愛し、わたしの子を
エジプトから呼び出した。』（ホセア 11 章 1 節）とてもはっきりと、ホセア 11 章はモーセに関して起きたこと、出エジプトのことを語っているのです。文法的・史実的な文脈において、メシアのことではなく、出エジプトのことを語っています。しかし、マタイはすべての可能な文脈から一節を取って、イエスに合わせてゆがめているように見えます。果たしてマタイが間違っているのでしょうか？それとも、プロテスタントの聖書の解釈の仕方に問題があるのでしょうか？
マタイにも、新約聖書にも何も問題はありません。プロテスタントの考え方に問題があるのです。ユダヤ的な預言の考えは、予告ではなく、パターンです。アブラハムがエジプトを出て、パロは裁かれました。彼の子孫もエジプトを出て、邪悪な王が裁かれました。そして、また別の邪悪な王が裁かれ、メシアがエジプトを出ました。預言には複数の成就があるのです。ミドラッシュ的には、「イスラエル」がメシアであるイェシュア（イエス）を暗に示しています。「イスラエルはわたしの栄光、わたしの長子」というような箇所を見つけたなら、ミドラッシュ的な隠喩なのです。
１コリント 10 章ではもうひとつのことがあります。パウロが言うには世の象徴である、エジプトから私たちは出てきました。エジプト人に神格化され、神として崇められていたパロは、悪魔、この世の神の象徴です。モーセが山に行って、血で契約をし、人々に振りかけたのと同じことをイエスはしました。モーセは四十日間断食しました。イエスもそうです。イエスこそ申命記 18 章 18 節に予告されたモーセのような預言者です。モーセがイスラエルの子らを、水を通してエジプトから連れ出し、約束の地へ導いたように、イエスも私たちをバプテスマを通してこの世から連れ出し、天に導くのです。これはパターンです。
そして、馬と乗り手は海に投げ出されました（出エジプト 15 章 1 節）。私たちは黙示録
の 15 章 3 節で、――馬と乗り手が海に投げ出されたことについてである――モーセの歌を歌います。なぜでしょうか？パロと彼の戦車が紅海に投げ出されたように、白い馬に乗った反キリストと彼の軍隊は燃える海に投げ出されます。それはパターンだからです。「エジプトから出ること」の最終的な意味は復活と教会の携挙です。出エジプト記でなされた裁きは黙示録で再現されます。なので、パロの魔術師たちがモーセとアロンの奇跡を真似ることが出来たように、反キリストとにせ預言者はイエスとその証人たちの奇跡を真似るでしょう。彼らはエジプトを出るときに、ヨセフの骨を携え上りました（出エジプト 13 章
19 節）。なぜでしょうか？なぜなら、キリストにある死者が初めに上げられるからです（1
テサロニケ 4 章 16 節）。パターンなのです。
新約聖書を生み出したユダヤ的な考え方は預言を、予告ではなく、パターンであると見
なします。未来に起ころうとすることを理解するには、過去にあったことを見る必要があります。複数の成就があり、その一連の成就は、最終的な成就に関することを教えているのです。
黙示録を理解するためには、プロテスタントの神学校で教えられているような、限定された聖書の解釈法によっては無理なのです。ミドラッシュはたとえて言うなら、二次方程式や、とても複雑な二階微分方程式、13 や 14 の手順を経て解ける方程式のようなものなのです。ある人は最初の文法的・史実的な解釈の段階を経て、方程式は解けたと考えるかもしれません。彼らのしていることに何も問題は無いのですが、彼らのしていない多くのことが問題なのです。方程式は解けていません。文法的・史実的な解釈に何も問題はありません。それは必要な最初の段階であり、必要な準備であって、書簡を読むには最適なのです。しかし、それだけなのです。
これらのことを理解するには古代の知恵が必要です。『思慮ある者はその獣の数字を数えなさい。』（黙示録 13 章 8 節）16 世紀の知恵ではなく、紀元 1 世紀の知恵が必要なのです。
Staying The Course Amidst Isolation Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Living in Israel one gets the feeling that the metaphorical walls are closing in. Israel's reputation is being tarnished all over social media and the mainstream media, and this is reflected in massive public disdain towards this country. We are constantly told that there is near consensus amongst academics and commentators that a genocide was committed in Gaza. The very legitimacy of the state is brought into question. The majority of Americans are now hostile towards Israel. There is real fear that the next U.S. administration will turn against Israel. Even if this were to happen passively, by the U.S. refraining from exercising its veto power towards Security Council Resolutions condemning Israeli actions this could be catastrophic. Internally it is a fractured society leaning increasingly right wing which further alienates Israel from world opinion. An example in point is how Ben Gvir mocked the most recent participants of a global aid flotilla to Gaza. Such conduct further agitates outrage at Israel. The left-wing media presents the ruins of Gaza as a mortal wound in Israel's side. When the world observes this level of carnage no degree of public relations can ameliorate the sense of indignation towards Israel. We can liken the situation of Israel to that of a depressed person. All he sees is hopelessness and gloom. But this isn't the first time that the Jewish nation has been faced with such darkness. Things change and we don't know how the geo-political map will reconfigure in the future. We need to ride out this storm and keep going. On a historical note, the situation is reminiscent of what our ancestors faced when we returned from the Babylonian exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was faced with constant lies and conspiracies designed to entrap him by hostile actors: Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab. They employed deception, slander and ridicule in order to maintain their political eminence. There was also a certain sense of abandonment amongst the Jews in Israel then as in our own day. We read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah about the anguish of the leadership in Israel concerning the lack of assistance from the Babylonian diaspora towards the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. Only 20% of the exiles returned to the land. It was largely the poor who returned. Most of the affluent, established Jews remained in Exile. This is a continuing theme in Jewish history. It is also important to observe that from its very beginnings there were bible believing Christians who spearheaded the return of the Jews to their land. The idea of organizing a return of the Jews to Israel began as a Protestant Restorationist objective that can be traced to 17th century Puritan England. The protagonists of the Cromwellian Republic viewed themselves as the new Israel fighting the Papist forces of Satan. Alongside this, interest grew in the notion that biblical prophecies pertaining to the return of the Jews to Israel were a necessary precursor for the return of Christ. The growth of the British Empire in the 19th century lent political clout to Christian Restorationism with specific missions to the Jews established. Although there had been a longing to return to Israel as written in the thrice daily Amidah prayer, Jewish Zionism arose in the midst of mid nineteenth century nationalism and was further fermented by European antisemitism. It was an altogether secular enterprise. Although Israel's situation appears rather stark, we can draw strength from the Providence afforded to our ancestors in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when they too were faced with defamation. This is also an opportunity to grow closer to our natural allies in the evangelical world who from the beginning of Zionism were steadfast supporters of the project to establish a Jewish homeland in Israel. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
Signs of the Times Tony Pearce Left, right or center – is our democracy in danger “Things fall apart, the center does not hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” W.B Yeats ‘The Second Coming. ’ Labour’s losses in the council elections and the battle for succession to their unpopular leader Kier Starmer have raised the possibility that we may soon have our seventh Prime Minister in ten years. Local elections saw Reform and the Greens make sweeping gains, leading Green Party leader, Zack Polanski to say that we are seeing ‘the end of the old two party system’. Maybe we are. In which case what comes next? Will we head to the far left, the far right or will the center hold on to power? Or will it end with ungovernable chaos as unqualified people take control of local and national government? Behind all this there are fundamental questions, ‘What is government for? Who does it represent and where is it going?’ According to the Bible (Romans 13) the purpose of government is to promote good and restrain evil. The government has the right to raise taxes for the common good of society and people should pay them. In 1 Timothy 2 Paul encourages us to pray for the government that ‘we may live a godly and peaceable life’. In other words, pray that the government will create an orderly and peaceful society and not interfere with our right to set up communities that teach and preach the Word of God. The situation becomes more difficult when we see government promoting things which are harmful and restraining things which are good and clamping down on freedom of speech with a threat to our ability to live a ‘godly and peaceable life’ Since becoming a Christian in my early twenties, I have wrestled with the question of how our faith applies to contemporary political issues. I started this quest on the left politically after leaving university and working as an English teacher with sympathies for Marxism. I then became a born again Christian in 1970, and joined my late wife Nikki in evangelizing the radical left, by handing out leaflets at their marches and demonstrations in London and attending their meetings to discuss matters of faith and politics with them. We had some good discussions with people and hope we made some consider the Christian alternative. However as we looked at Marxism from a Christian point of view and its practice in Communist countries, we understood that behind this ideology there is a strong anti-christian spirit. It denies the existence of God and promotes the idea of human perfectibility by our own effort. This is exemplified in the words of the Internationale, the socialist battle hymn, ‘No saviour from on high delivers, no faith have we in prince or peer, our own right hand the chains will shiver, chains of hatred, greed and fear.’ This Antichrist spirit led to the persecution of Christians in the Communist countries of eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China. Far from creating the socialist paradise on earth that Lenin wrote about in ‘Socialism and Religion’, it created a society ruled by hatred, greed and fear, controlled by secret police, prison camps and responsible for the death of millions. In western society we have witnessed the growth of ‘cultural Marxism’ a movement aimed at infiltrating and changing society from within, rather than fomenting the workers’ revolution. Labour’s Fabian Society, with its (now discarded) logo of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, has been engaged in this process since the beginning of the 20th century. Social change really took off with the permissive society in the 1960s, which succeeded in changing traditional values, especially in the area of sex and the family. It replaced biblical values with a new ‘morality’ that is fundamentally anti Christian. These ideas have permeated large swathes of our society including the education system, the judiciary, the Civil Service, much of the media, mainstream political parties (including even the Conservative ‘wets’ and parts of the established church). Melanie Phillips describes the results of this in her book, ‘The Builder’s Stone.’ ‘Having decided that the West was rotten to the core, western elites set out to create a new culture that would usher in the brotherhood of man and eradicate hatred, prejudice, and war. Their Brave New World junked biblical religion with all its constraints on behaviour and revolved instead around self gratification. Everybody had the right to live as they wanted; nobody could say that their way of life was better or worse than anyone else’s; no one had the right to say that their culture was better than any other culture. That was ‘racism.’ At the heart of all this was the doctrine that there was no such thing as objective truth. Everything was relative; everything was a matter of opinion. Because there was no truth feelings became more important than facts. So the West abandoned the codes of morality, conscience, truth and lies, personal responsibility, and duty to others in favour of a culture of the self. In the process it junked its inherited traditions and biblical codes on which western culture was based.’ Britain changed from being a society that respected values based on the 10 Commandments and the teaching of Jesus Christ to one that discarded them for relative values. Ideas of ‘diversity, inclusion and equity’ became the norm, together with and a form of ‘tolerance’, that is really very intolerant if you oppose it. This ‘tolerance’ means accepting the virtues of multiculturalism and humanism and believing that all gods are equally valid or true (or none are). We must also accept that all lifestyles and family arrangements including homosexual and transsexual ones are just as valid as traditional two parent heterosexual families, with a father and mother committed to each other in lifelong matrimony looking after their own children. As society accepts this radical change in how we view culture, morality and religion, we are told not to criticize other cultures and world views or imply that they are anything less than equal to the culture, morality and faith derived from the Bible. All this has not improved society. Instead we have a collapse of values with no central idea to hold it together, just a group of competing ‘communities’ which are often only united in opposition to the traditional values and culture of Great Britain. A good example of this is the ‘red – green alliance’ of radical leftists and Islamists who come together to denounce Israel and campaign to ‘globalise the Intifada’. In practice this means a world wide war against Israel and Judaeo-Christian society and a desire to replace it with their version of either Islamism or Communism. However if one of them were to come to power, you can be sure that the Islamist’s would get rid of the leftists or vice versa. In fact that happened in Iran’s 1979 revolution, when Islamist supporters of Khomeini and Communists came together to get rid of the Shah. Then the Islamists seized power, turned on the Communists and wiped them out. Alisteir Heath wrote in the Daily Telegraph: ‘Ruined by decades of political vandalism, the Britain we knew and loved, a land of stability, pragmatism, and ancient freedoms, is no more. Today’s UK is uglier, impoverished, volatile and disorderly. We’ve lost our level-headedness. Anger and frustration have become our defining emotions. Our institutions have wasted away, and we have been taught to despise our history. The decline of family, community and faith have led to alienation, dependence on welfare and the rise of novel ideologies, mostly secular but also sectarian, turbocharged by social media. While the state becomes unnervingly authoritarian, the air reeks of insurrection and every variety of extremism. The British public’s sense of betrayal is as well-founded as it is dangerous. The machinery of state is incompetent and self-serving, a vehicle for social engineering in the global interest.’ Criticism of this process now risks being classed as ‘hate crime’ with a growing authoritarian society monitoring social media posts and public teaching of alternative ideas in ways which risk shutting down free speech in our society. A Christian teacher Enoch Burke is currently in prison in Dublin after he was suspended from his job and jailed after refusing to accept and teach transgenderism in the school. Nick Timothy, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, got into trouble when he questioned mass Muslim prayer in Trafalgar Square. He wrote: ‘Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan – which declares there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger – is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. The domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook.” He is right in this. Allah hu Akhbar actually means Allah is greater, greater than your God, Muhammad is greater than Jesus and the Koran is greater than the Bible. Tim Dieppe of Christian Concern for our Nation wrote: “The fact that we have mass Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square at all is indicative of the massive culture change that we have seen in the last few decades. A culture change that was not voted for or ever agreed to by the British people. And, a culture change that can hardly be described as having been entirely beneficial to our culture as a whole. I only need to mention grooming gangs involving mostly Pakistani Muslim men , sharia courts, honour crimes, terror attacks, the assassination of an MP, an attempt to blockade Parliament, mass antisemitic marches through London, a convicted terrorist standing for local elections, sectarianism, and many other examples to make the point. Earlier this month, the Government gave Muslims special protection with the adoption of an official definition of anti-Muslim hostility .” You are not really supposed to question this in public life today. A message circulating on social media is an apt commentary on all this. ‘First they overlook evil, then they permit evil, then they legalise evil, then they promote evil, then celebrate evil, then persecute those who call it evil.’ Soviet dissident Solzhenitsyn wrote: ‘A Communist system can be recognised by how it spares criminals and criminalises its opponents.’ The root cause of all this is the rejection of God and biblical values. The 18th-century French philosopher Joseph de Maistre coined the phrase "people get the government they deserve." David Pawson followed up on this idea, arguing that in democratic societies like ours, the moral and spiritual condition of a nation's citizens is directly reflected in the leaders they elect. If the general public abandons moral truths, they will inevitably vote for governments that reflect those same compromises. David Pawson taught that God may use governmental leadership to judge or bless a nation, depending on the people's obedience. He noted that Hebrew prophets saw wicked rulers as a form of divine judgement on a society that has strayed from God's laws. Therefore a nation's ultimate hope rests on repentance rather than just political change. His conclusion is that Christians should actively stand for moral truth in society. He believed that the church is meant to influence culture upward, and that a decline in national morality inevitably leads to deteriorating governance. Sadly much of the church today has become the ‘salt that has lost its savour’ through compromise with antichristian forces in society and government. It may be too late to save our country and western democracy as social and economic pressures create a collapse of democracy and push us either towards anarchy or dictatorship. Yeats’ poem quoted at the beginning of this article ends with the enigmatic line ‘Some rough beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.’ Most likely he is referring to the coming anti-Messiah who is labelled the Beast in the book of Revelation. Many believe his is now waiting in the wings to replace the true Messiah (born in Bethlehem) and bring in the dictatorship prophesied in Revelation 13. The Bible indicates that the Beast or Antichrist will have power for a moment, but it will be short lived and doomed to destruction at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11.15) and the ‘government shall be on His shoulder’ (Isaiah 9.6). Maranatha come Lord Jesus. Water, water nowhere and not a drop to drink. (Apologies to the Ancient Mariner) While nations worry about supply of oil and gas as a result of the war in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a much more vital commodity for human survival is water. And it is in short supply in a growing number of nations. As of 2026, over 25 countries face extremely high water stress, with the most severe crises located in the Middle East and North Africa. This region is home to the world's most water-stressed nations, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, and Libya. India and Pakistan face critical water scarcity due to overexploitation of aquifers and population density. Much of Africa , Somalia and Ethiopia in particular are facing severe shortages due to drought and climate change. Mexico and parts of the United States (particularly Texas and the west coast) are experiencing significant water shortages and declining groundwater levels. Iran is facing a severe, multi-year water crisis as of May 2026, with major cities like Tehran, Mashhad, and Karaj approaching the point where taps could run dry due to depleted reservoirs. Groundwater is depleted across most of the country, and nineteen provinces are experiencing severe drought. The crisis is driven by a combination of climate change and decades of poor water management, including excessive dam construction and inefficient, water-intensive agriculture. China is facing a severe, multi-faceted water crisis defined by extreme scarcity in the north, widespread pollution, and mismanagement, threatening its food supply and economic growth. Several countries are significantly affected by upstream dam construction that reduces downstream water flow, causing, environmental, and diplomatic crises. These countries include Iraq, heavily impacted by dams built on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by Turkey and Iran, leading to reduced water for agriculture, destruction of forests, and increased sandstorms. Egypt and Sudanface significant water security risks due to the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laosare affected of dams built by China on the upper Mekong River One country which bucks this trend is Israel. Israel manages its water resources by transforming a chronic shortage into a surplus through large-scale desalination, extensive wastewater recycling, and a centralised national water carrier system. The agriculture sector has shifted away from freshwater, using treated effluent instead. Advanced drip irrigation technologies are widely used to minimise waste. Israel has exported its water technologies to countries around the world, particularly Africa where it has given advice on how to use limited water resources to great effect. Without water no society on earth can survive. Bible prophecies indicate that water shortage and pollution will be a global problem in the last days. Most obviously no water equals no food, so famine is an inevitable result of water shortages. Jesus warned of this as a sign of the last days in Matthew 24.7. Revelation 8.10-11 speaks of something called ‘Wormwood’ falling on rivers and springs of water causing it to become bitter and many to die from drinking it. Prophecy speaks of the two great rivers of the ancient world, the Nile and the Euphrates, being affected by a crisis causing the Euphrates to dry up (Revelation 16.12) and the Nile to become contaminated and its waters turn foul (Isaiah 19.5-11). Isaiah 24 speaks of a curse devouring the earth in the last days causing the earth to be ‘defiled (or polluted) under its inhabitants.’ According to the New Scientist, there are massive amounts of water hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface. Scientists have found evidence of a reservoir of water three times the volume of all surface oceans combined, located roughly 250–400 miles underground within the mantle. It may be that the Lord will release this water to replenish and clean up the earth in the Millennial kingdom when ‘waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.’ Isaiah 35. Zechariah 14.8-9 says, ‘In that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.’ Zechariah 14.8-9. See also Ezekiel 47. Rethinking Russia Things are not going well for Vladimir Putin in his ‘special military operation’. Four years after invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia is not making advances and actually losing ground. Russia is losing as many as 25,000- 35,000 casualties a month and over 1.2 million have been killed and wounded since the war began. Ukrainian skills in drone warfare have destroyed large quantities of Russian equipment, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and rocket systems, helicopters, and naval vessels. Russia is spending an estimated 40% of the entire federal budget on the war effort. As a result of this and western sanctions, Russia is increasingly unable to fix chronic infrastructure problems at home. During the bitter Russian winter thousands of people were left without heat, light, or even water. All forms of transport, trains, trucks and planes, are facing logistical problems, making it difficult to transport goods and people across the vast Russian regions. Russia is on the way to an infrastructure collapse that will likely take decades to recover. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov warned the State Duma that Russia's faltering economy risks stoking a 1917-style revolution. He demanded urgent financial and economic measures by autumn to avert a potential economic collapse. This raises the danger of the Russian Federation fracturing. The Caucuses are restive, the far east is looking to China and Siberia is facing an acute problem as a result of melting permafrost, causing buildings, bridges and pipelines to collapse. In the present circumstances it is hard to see how Russia could lead the Gog and Magog invasion of Israel (Ezekiel 38-39). Some have said that it is more likely that Turkey is the lead power in the War of Gog and Magog. They say that Meshech and Tubal are not Moscow and Tobolsk, but regions of modern Turkey. Erdogan’s Turkey is backed by an Islamist world view hostile to Israel, seeking the recovery of its Ottoman Empire. He has his eyes on taking control of Jerusalem. Turkey is possession of a large land army already stationed in the region, some of it occupying part of Syria. The alternative is that the War of Gog and Magog is some way off, possibly part of Armageddon, giving time for Russia to recover from its present distress. We wait and see, but meanwhile spare a thought and a prayer for the people of Ukraine and Russia, suffering as a result of Putin’s futile war, oppressed by his corrupt dictatorship and facing an economic and social collapse caused by his failed policies.
Trump's Visit with Xi Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM The tempest path of Sino-U.S. tensions came to a head during Trump's first term in office with the outbreak of Covid. Many commentators believed that the deterioration in relations was in terminal decline and that a major confrontation in the straits of Taiwan was fast looming. Trump held China responsible for the spread of Covid, insisting that he would pursue reparations. The election of Biden halted this commitment. Biden sought a non-confrontational policy towards Beijing. In the aftermath of the disastrous premature withdrawal from Afghanistan handing that country over to the Taliban and the Russian invasion of Ukraine under his watch, Biden became too preoccupied to assertively engage with China. Chinese State media portrayed Trump's visit as being rather unremarkable in the context of other foreign dignitaries lining up to meet Xi, pointing out that just a week later Putin would arrive in Beijing. China manifests that it is winning the trade war that Trump began in 2018, beating America at its own game of capitalism. They frame the U.S. as being in a position of weakness because China is able to source whatever products they buy from the U.S. elsewhere like oil from Canada, and soybeans from Brazil. The oil, soybeans and 200 Boeing's Xi agreed to purchase from Trump were presented as a mere gesture to placate Trump as China has already bought 350 Air Buses in the last year. China would have the world believe that it is only semi-conductors where America has the edge. Here China hints that it is not likely to buy H200 Invidia Chips because it would mean that China will always lag behind the U.S. in building their AI tech. China's major contention and concern is that the U.S. may impose export controls to contain China. China's strategy instead is to invest massively on indigenous innovation. China wants to become an innovation powerhouse that will export its own Chips to the Global South. China is fast catching up with America's lead in AI with the launch of Deep Seek and they claim similar progress with Chip making. China is now ostensibly only eight months behind the U.S. on Large Language Models. Running contrary to this narrative Trump insists that China is desperate to trade with America. China's economy has now peaked. Emblematic of this stagnating growth is rising youth unemployment. China is no longer America's biggest trading partner. Trump has shifted manufacturing back to the U.S. and Trump believes that China can't revive its economy without America. Lined up to meet Xi with Trump were the heads of some of America's biggest Tech Corporations. Corporations like nvidia seek a relaxing of export controls for Chips as they want short term profits, ignoring the risk that China will reverse engineer this technology. More broadly, China and the U.S. are playing a geopolitical chess game spanning the globe. Trump outmaneuvered China in Latin America with the removal of Maduro from power in Venezuela. China is exploiting its influence on Iran in order to get Trump to refrain from taking more active steps towards the defense of Taiwan. Indeed, Trump didn't say anything about Taiwan during his visit. Trump's instincts are of a transactional approach towards alliances, where he is only willing to underwrite defense assistance if allies pay up as an insurer would. It is also important to note that saber rattling the Taiwan card also serves the CCP agenda to distract internal dissent concerning the state of the Chinese economy. Most imminently Trump needs China to pressure Iran to open the Straits of Hormuz and get oil prices down before the midterm elections. China has largely insulated itself from the Gulf energy impact due to stockpiles. Trump would also like China to stop providing Iran with GPS for its missiles. Other Chinese weapons systems and technology sold to Iran have failed to perform well against U.S. and Israeli military hardware. Matters boil down to a leverage between whatever Trump can do on Taiwan, China can do on the strait of Hormouz with Iran. Human Rights concerns, espionage and the alarming rate of Chinese acquisition of U.S. land have been placed on the back burner for the time being. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Phil Malone and family “Please keep me and my family in prayer. My mum passed away on 13th May at the age of 93. It's a time of mourning, but may it be a time for the Gospel of Christ to be preached to my unbelieving family, especially my brother.”
Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Sister Joanne Rizzetto, wife of Pastor Dave Rizzetto of Church of The Open Door in New York City. Joanne has developed painful complications and adverse side effects from medications following knee surgery. May The Lord intervene for healing and give guidance to her physicians. Lord, we humbly ask you to intervene in the life of our dear sister. We know you can do all things and that you hear our prayers and consider your servants. Please put a stop to the adverse reaction. Restrain and reverse its effects and restore our sister so that she can continue to serve you in the ministry that you have called them to. We do glorify Your Name. We don't ask as those who treat you as our debtor, but as those who have tasted your goodness and found such mercy and compassion at your feet. Grace and peace and mercy be with Joanne and Pastor Dave.
Will Lebanon miss its golden opportunity? Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Converging new facts on the ground have transformed the political landscape in Lebanon. With Assad removed from power in Syria, a vital lifeline of arms supplies for Hezbollah originating in Iran has diminished. Hezbollah suffered considerable losses in its last round of fighting with Israel. The decapitation of its leadership with the targeted pager attack inflicted a severe blow. Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem is a weak substitute for the charismatic Nasrallah who was assassinated by Israel in 2024. Hezbollah in its frail state foolishly fell into line with Iran's instruction to join the fighting against Israel following the recent American-Israeli war with Iran. This was contrary to the wishes of the Lebanese government which was fearful of the inevitable destruction that would be wreaked by the Israeli response. The differing attitudes to Israel amongst Lebanon's population is reflective of its ethnic composition. The predominant groups in order of plurality are Christians, Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims with a smaller minority of Druze. The major concern of most Christians in Lebanon is the dire state of their economy. They have no appetite to further their plight by invoking Israel's rage. During the colonial inter war period the French envisaged the demarcation between Lebanon and Syria as carving out enclaves for Christian and Druze control. Within Lebanon there would be a shared government that by convention would have the Executive power split between a Christian President, a Sunni Prime Minister and Shia Speaker of Parliament. The Christians in southern Lebanon (particularly Maronite Catholics) saw themselves as being anthropologically descendants of ancient Phoenicians as opposed to an Arab identity where the Arab Christians were largely Eastern Orthodox. The schism between the Maronites and the Arab Eastern Orthodox dates back to the time of the Crusades. The Maronites were culturally French, speaking French as their main language and held precedence in much of the Lebanese economy. The first threat to Lebanese stability and cohesion was settled by the U.S. Eisenhower administration in 1958 which landed Marines in an amphibious operation. A repeated attempt at this by the Reagan administration in 1983 ended in a military disaster for the U.S. due to suicide bombings by Iranian controlled terrorists. Israeli efforts to bring in stability during the Lebanese Civil War in conjunction with its Lebanese Christian allies led by Major Saad Haddad likewise came to calamity when the Sabra and Shatila revenge attacks took place following the assassination of Lebanese leader Bashir Gemayel. The ''Good Fence'' policy of an Israeli friendly free Lebanon zone in Southern Lebanon eventually ended badly following Menachem Begin's second incursion into Lebanon called ''Shalom HaGalil'' aimed at stopping the PLO rocket attacks on Israeli border communities like Metulla, Kiryat Shmona, Naharya, Rosh Hanikra, Tzfat and Carmiel. The proxy Israeli occupation from the Israeli border to the Litani river became an imbroglio that many in Israel viewed as Israel's Vietnam with widespread domestic protest and a collapse of morale within the IDF. Eventually Israel absorbed Christian war refugees from Lebanon, while the Vatican and most of the Christian world turned their backs on the Lebanese Christians. Lebanon was then saddled with two states within a state. The first was in the aftermath of Black September in 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan defended his Hashemite throne and government from Yasser Arafat's attempt to take over Jordan due to Jordan having a 70% Palestinian Arab demographic majority. The Jordanian legion drove tens of thousands of its pro Arafat Jordanian citizens into Lebanon, creating a population base for the first state within a state under Arafat. However the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other factions had their niche interests. Courtesy of the Israeli Air Force Arafat relocated what he saw as his government in exile to Tunisia. This was a missed opportunity by the Lebanese government to assert its autonomy and full territorial control by making a Camp David type peace with Israel inclusive of economic and mutual security provisions. Instead an Iranian backed Syrian intervention replaced Arafat's state within a state with a new one that morphed into Hezbollah. The fall of the Assad regime and the Israeli counter-offensive against Hezbollah re-presents Lebanon with the opportunity that it once lost. The predominantly Christian controlled Lebanese military could and should operationally coordinate with the IDF, to obliterate and remove Hezbollah as the Israelis relieved Lebanon of Arafat's state within a state. Such a rapprochement would likely have strong American and possibly French and British support, allowing Lebanon to be at a non-combative peace with Israel along the lines of Egypt and Jordan, and now some of the Emirates. The natural comradery of the Lebanese Druze community with the Israeli Druze and the pro-Israeli Druze of Syria would additionally re-enforce a regional harmony, as would the Maronite Christian community in Israel with their co-coreligionists in Lebanon. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
PASTOR JOHN ANGLISS It is with profound sadness that we learned of the temporary separation from our friend and brother Pastor John Angliss. We look forward to being reunited with John in the millennial reign of Christ and indeed in God's Eternal Kingdom. Jacob Prasch visited John a few weeks ago in the UK while John was in hospice care having been diagnosed preterminal in his illness. While medically correct, it was of course a misdiagnosis. John is now cancer free and is alive and well in the presence of Jesus awaiting us in glory while his mortal body is being renewed for resurrection and immortality. In the meanwhile, during this temporary season of bereavement we do request prayer for his beloved wife Mary and for his congregation, The Ark Fellowship in England near Reading, England. Because he has recently arrived in the USA and is scheduled to address the Moriel Canada branch conference in Winnipeg, Jacob Prasch will regrettably not be able to attend the memorial service in Britain. Our condolences however are very much with Mary and our brethren in the UK who like us knew and loved Pastor Angliss. John was one of a minority of faithful voices who upheld a traditional biblically based Pentecostalism in the era of counterfeit revivals and apostasy that overtook most of British Pentecostalism. John was a faithful friend of Israel & The Jews standing on the prophetic purposes of God for Israel and the salvation of the Jews. John was a loyal friend to Moriel and Jacob Prasch and a colleague of David Pawson and Derek Prince, both of whom likewise stood by God's promises to Israel. John was also a founding leader of CMFI - the Christian Ministerial Fellowship International, former pastor of Three Mile Cross fellowship , and former board member of Focus On Israel (a Pentecostal Ministry to the Jews). While this separation is temporary, John's eternal gain will be our temporary loss. O GRAVE - WHERE IS THEY VICTORY, O DEATH WHERE IS THY STING ? Hosea 13:14 / 1 Corinthians 15: 55-57
We made it this far: Israel at 78 Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Since the last anniversary milestone of Israel at 75, we have been embroiled in relentless wars. Citizens had little respite to enjoy this year's festivities, coming on the heels of a lull in fighting on the Iranian and Lebanese fronts. We are constantly waiting for a breakthrough on the horizon that will normalize our relations with our neighbors and secure our position on the world stage. It is acutely exhausting to be the focus of the world's attention. But also there is a sense of inevitability accompanying the Zionist project. Specifically that Israel is destined to be central in the wider region and global affairs. Why is this? Is it due to it being a western transplant? Being geographically positioned on the crossroads of three continents? Religious believers would point to prophetic fulfillment. It is short sighted to only look at how our problems are rooted in today’s' reality. Greater forces are at work that will dictate the direction that Israel is heading. The Jewish diaspora will likely find itself in a growing precarious position that will lead to increasing Aliyah (immigration to Israel) and will perhaps ferment the emergence of a second Jewish commonwealth that will not need to heed international pressure in the same way that todays' polity finds itself doing. In this light it is interesting to ponder how our posterity would view our predicament and gains. And I frame matters in these terms with intentionality. We are enmeshed in a seemingly intractable conflict with the Palestinians, and yet Israel has made great gains particularly in the technological fields. There is a current of thinking that perceives Israel's way out of its quagmire is by making itself indispensable to technological advancements. We don't know how tomorrows' world will be shaped by the rapidly advancing AI revolution but so far Israel has proven to be uniquely adaptable and innovative to technological change. This has proved to be a boon to Israel's economy, as have offshore natural gas discoveries being developed in concert with Greece, Greek Cypriot and American energy interests that are geographically and strategically removed from any Straits of Hormuz shipping impediments that strangle the Persian Gulf deposits shared by Qatar and Iran. On another note we should contextualize the situation. How different are Israel's challenges from other nations? Is Israel any less stable than other countries (particularly in the region)? Israel doesn't find itself uniquely challenged to define its identity (most European countries do also, particularly in light of immigration). Nor does the government experience any more volatility than other comparable democracies. Israel's real problems lay in the nature of how its Jewish citizens desire to govern themselves. It is arguable whether the judicial reform protests that occupied public discourse in pre-October 7th Israel would have led to serious civil strife. But it is without doubt that this impasse was allayed by the external attack. The underlying tensions remain unresolved and there are many ways that they could play out. It has been framed as a battle for Israel's soul. Israel's enemies predict that Zionism is imploding and that the State won't survive another 5-10 years. Supporting this claim, they point to Israel's increasing alienation and growing pariah status on the international stage. Our Prime Minister has been indicted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Even public opinion in our staunchest ally the U.S. has turned sharply against Israel. With 80% of the Democratic Party being anti-Israel in a growing climate of anti-semitism we have even witnessed the shift of Alan Dershowitz to the Republican Party which must be seen as emblematic of a trend. There is apprehension in Israel of a post-Trump America dominated by the Democrats. However, these seeming incontrovertible facts may be offset by other measures of fortitude. This may be partially countered by the high investment by Silicon Valley in the Israeli Hi-tech sector, making Israel an asset for purposes of Research and Development in America's AI race against China. New opportunities for economic relations have also been opened with Arab nations through the Abraham Accords and with the powerhouse India. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine a world in which Israel's technological prowess will not carry the sway of western decision makers in the long run. Israel's 78th anniversary is a moment to take pause and not catastrophize what the future may behold. The entire world is currently in a state of transformation and Israel is not an outlier in this context. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
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A critical juncture in NATO'S future Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM NATO was originally established in 1949 to keep the Russian hordes at bay from toppling those European countries not forked over to the Soviet sphere of influence at the Potsdam conference. Europe lay in ruins. Britain had passed on the torch of global hegemony to the U.S. by tacitly acquiescing to the decolonization of its Empire when Churchill and Roosevelt agreed terms of the Atlantic Charter for the post-war new world order in 1941. So from its start NATO was very much an American driven endeavor. American money with the Marshall plan was propping up western European economies and its military might was forming the bulk of their defensive capabilities. The lopsided nature of this dynamic has informed how tensions have persisted and recently erupted in the Alliance. During the Cold War the U.S. felt obligated to shoulder the costs of underwriting Europe's security in light of the broader interests to keep the Soviet's in check. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain European complacency became a sticking point with the 'peace dividend' further exploiting American largesse. European NATO allies spent ever smaller percentages of their GDP on defense expenditure at U.S. expense. Now in a multi-polar world U.S. and European perceived threats are less aligned. This was first tested in the aftermath of September 11th when for the first time NATO elected to trigger its article 5 collective defense protocol. And since then the U.S. has sought to continue to expand the traditional theatre of operations beyond Europe's borders. No longer is Russia perceived by America as being a proximate existential threat to its interests, but rather containing Chinese expansion in the Pacific arena. Parallel to NATO a discrete 'five eyes' intelligence sharing alliance comprising the Anglo-sphere (the U.S., U.K., Canada and New Zealand) emerged. This stands at the center of the U.S. – U.K. 'special relationship'. A relevant question would be can this signals intelligence (NSA-GCHQ) partnership persist should the U.S. withdraw from NATO? Conventional thinking would have led one to believe that with Brexit the U.K. would naturally pivot towards closer U.S. relations but under Starmer the U.K. is distancing itself. European powers misrepresent the present conflict as an aggressive, rather than defensive U.S. adventure while they themselves are more likely to be at risk. In this the Starmer government resembles the Labor party led committee for nuclear disarmament in the 1980's. It opposed the Thatcher supported deployment of U.S. cruise missiles in response to the Soviet SS20's pointed at Britain's cities. The British left branded their response to Soviet strategic escalation to U.S. aggression. This time however there is for the moment no Thatcher to bring common sense into an equation dominated by emotionally driven ideologies in the face of an aggressor with definite aims. In terms of the Russian-Ukraine conflict we are reverting to the old question dating back to the Napoleonic war era: to what extent is London happy with the European nations fighting it out alone for dominance of the continent. Britain was never willing to accept a single power in control. Many variables will dictate what kind of world emerges from the current conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. How will power be extracted from potential gains? What will be the strategic impact of this? What is sure, in the age of Trump this pattern of reliance on U.S. muscle is becoming quickly exhausted. Dating back to the Roman Empire, a factor in the decline of major powers has always been astronomical military spending, a budgetary demand that the U.S. under Trump is no longer willing to shoulder alone. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
