““God brings him [Israel] out of Egypt, He is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He will devour the nations who are his adversaries, And will crush their bones in pieces, And shatter them with his arrows. “He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you.”” (Numbers 24:8–9, NASB95)
Israel is at war with Hezbollah, NOT Lebanon!
Despite what the media wants you to believe, Israel is not at war with Lebanon, rather it is at war with Irans proxy terror organisation Hezbollah which has infiltrated Lebanon since the 1970’s. In 1971 the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) moved it’s headquarters from Jordan to Lebanon, a country that gained independence in 1943 following the French Mandate after World War 1. Divided along religious and ethnic lines Lebanon fell into a civil war between 1975-1990 requiring numerous Western and Israeli interventions. During this time there were a number of significant terror attacks committed by Hezbollah that killed hundreds of Westerners and Israelis. Why? Well Hezbollah’s (“Party of God”) mandate is to rid the region of Western (Christian) influence in order to enshrine Islam as the ruling party. As a result of the persisting terror attacks, in 1997 the US designated Hezbollah a terror organisation. Learn more about Hezbollah here
Operation Northern Arrows
On the 23rd September Israel announced it had launched “Operation Northern Arrows”, in response to the continued rocket, missile and drone attacks Hezbollah have been making since October 8th 2023 when Israel responded to the unprecedented attack by Hamas from Gaza. Watch the IDF briefing HERE.
Israel under persistent attack: Responds accordingly.
Over the past 24hrs Israel has seen hundreds of rockets and missiles launched from Southern Lebanon by Hezbollah and most recently a ballistic missile from Yemen was intercepted by the Arrow aerial defence system. It has been nothing short of miraculous to see how many interceptions have been made in Israel and how many rockets have fallen in open spaces, or in the Mediterranean Sea. God is truly fighting for Israel at this time. However, there are instances where injuries and fatalities have occurred within Israel, and in the North over 65,000 people remain displaced and many more forced to spend lengthy periods confined to bomb shelters.
Israel maintains a strategy to eliminate the leadership structure of Hezbollah along with weapons and assets positioned to attack Israel from Southern Lebanon. Israel has also been attacking the corridors between Syria and Lebanon used for trafficking weapons.
TROOPS ON THE GROUND
Right now, Israel has repositioned reserve units from Gaza to the Northern border in readiness to join regular battalions that will begin the ground battle to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River. This will create a roughly 30km buffer zone for the majority of the North but significantly less for parts of the Golan which is far less inhabited.
Is a Ceasefire likely?
Once more we are hearing on our news about a ceasefire. We saw this with the war against Hamas in Gaza where the international community continually pressures Israel to roll back their military operations. This can be confusing for the casual observers of Middle-East conflicts and geo-politics in that there seems to be so much “double speak”. On the one hand there is pressure to stop the war, and on the other, the US just confirmed over USD 8 billion to Israel will be released to Israel for the war, including over 5 billion for upgrades to their critical defence systems. Then there is the rallying cry of the United Nations gathering the nations votes to condemn Israel as they did most recently with a Palestinian sponsored resolution (adopted) designed to pressure Israel to withdraw from areas that persistently attack the Jewish State. But the resolution is non binding and will have little sway against Israel who is continually fighting against an enemy that wants to eradicate them.
This is a battle that cannot be won, nor can it be resolved peacefully since it involves deep seated Islamic religious beliefs that fundamentally will never reconcile with a world that refuses to bow the knee to Allah.
The ultimate resolution is found only in the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ, in the meantime, everything else is temporary.
So while a ceasefire is possible, it is unlikely to happen until Israel has fulfilled their objectives to dismantle Hezbollah as much as possible, create safer borders so their citizens can return to a secure normal life, and stop the transfer of weapons used to attack Israel.
Thankfully, God remains faithful to His Word to protect and fight for Israel. Israel shatters his enemies with arrows and those that curse Israel will be cursed, yet those who bless Israel will be blessed.
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