Creating this illusion of moral equivalence is reprehensible and while the US and Israel are not part of the ICC, this has significant implications  for Israel’s government. If the arrest warrant was formally issued, then Netanyahu, in theory, would have to be arrested, should he visit the UK for example. The ICC’s goal in propagating this slander against the Jewish state is to criminalize the State of Israel and also denies Israel the right to self-defense. Bizarrely the request for the warrant of Netanyahu was made public within a few days of the UN holding a moment’s silence for President Raisi, the President of Iran who was killed in a helicopter attack. Seems like the world have got their enemies the wrong way round - it highlight the antisemitic double standard of the nations.  While it seems that the death of the president was an accident, a joke was propagated on twitter that the president had been killed by a Mossad agent called “Eli Copter”. Apparently, with its usual commitment to truth, Hamas’ Al Qassam brigade then posted this as the cause of death.
Similarly the ICJ, (international Court of Justice) has ordered Israel to halt military operations in Rafah, with various nations making the outlandish claim that an operation in Rafah to kill terrorists would be “Genocidal”. This is one more sign of Israel’s growing international isolation. This allows Hamas to continue to be rewarded for breaking the Geneva conventions in hiding among the civilian population. If all of this wasn’t enough, Ireland, Norway and Spain have announced they will formally recognise a Palestinian state from the 28th May. The only substantive change in the situation in Gaza from a year ago has come from the murderous killing and raping of Civilians by Hamas terrorists. What kind of standard of morality says that murdering Jewish families should be rewarded with a state? It’s no surprise that this murderous foreign policy is coming from nations in Europe, perhaps one of the most antisemitic places on earth. Was the murder of Jews in the Spanish Inquisition not enough for Spain? Apparently not!

This week, the pier built by the Americans in Gaza finally became operational. This pier represents the grandstanding done by the Biden Administration. Recent studies have shown that Israel have provided more than enough calories of aid for the whole population of Gaza. The Biden Administration will be fully aware of this, but the building of the pier is a way of virtue signalling to the world that Israel is not providing enough aid - blatantly obscuring the facts on the ground. 

Some Caveats!

The purpose of this Bible in the News is to compare the outrageous statements and accusations that have been made against Israel in the last few weeks with the reality of Israel’s war on the ground. However, there are a few caveats that are important to remember when discussing this subject:

1. The purpose of this discussion is not to politically stand with Israel or the IDF, but rather to observe the antisemitism & demonisation of the Jewish people that is overtly clear to see. This article is not intended to be a political defence of the IDF. 
2. A consideration of Israel’s war in Gaza inevitably means taking a look at the death toll of both civilians and soldiers alike. However, this does not mean that we should be cold or dispassionate towards any suffering, whether that be Gazan children, due to the repressive Hamas regime, or Israeli soldiers who have been forced to fight in extremely hazardous circumstances in order to save Palestinian lives. The same goes for the hostages still held in Gaza and the bereaved families from the Oct 7th Pogrom. 

Are Israel committing Genocide? 

At the start of May, a major shift was made in the death toll numbers in Gaza. Between May 6 and May 8, OCHA reports decreased the total number of women and children killed during the war by almost 47%. The organization also indicated that men age 19-59 made up 40% of the dead, contradicting previous claims that 70% were women and children. (https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/untangling-uns-gaza-fatality-data) The UN spokesperson present the changes as routine revisions due to the “fog of war”. However, it still remains that around 35,000 deaths have been reported in Gaza since Israel declared war last year. Elon Levy, former Israeli government spokesman has a a podcast called “State of the Nation”. On the 9th May, he interviewed Yaakov Katz about the IDF’s urban warfare achievements in the past months. Yaakov Katz is a former military correspondent and defence analyst for the Jerusalem Post. He has this to say: “While media narratives focus on destruction and accuse Israel of all sorts of atrocities, those who understand military tactics recognise the significance of what the IDF is managing to achieve in a dense urban environment.”Yaakov Katz makes the case that western militaries are sending ambassadors to southern Gaza to learn about the way that Israel is fighting this Urban warfare. While politicians around the world criticise Israel, many of their militaries are taking learnings from Israel’s urban warfare expertise.  The link to this interview can be found at the bottom of the article. Only a small amount of digging demonstrates the untruthfulness of the narrative that is being peddled by the media. This narrative is founded in the antisemitism of the world at large. 

(https://youtu.be/nZR55bgso7Y - Elon Levy, State of the Nation, 9th May)

How much Aid Has been sent into Gaza?

One of the key reasons given by the ICC for wanting to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu is because they are accusing Israel of using mass starvation as a method of collective punishment. The times of Israel put out a new study in the last couple of days that demonstrates that food delivered through border crossings provided a mean of 3,163 calories per person per day for Gaza’s, 40% higher than the accepted humanitarian standard for daily calorie intake. This was specifically for the time period from January to April this year. To quote the conclusion of the study: “This in-depth analysis highlights the fact that the amount of food delivered per capita should be sufficient for the entire Gazan population, and meets Sphere humanitarian recommendations for food aid delivery to conflict-affected populations, during the period examined,” the new study found.” There have been photos in the last few months of so much aid delivered by the IDF, that there has not been enough UN operatives to deliver it to civilians. The wildly inaccurate accusations of the ICC come from a place of Jew hatred rather than being a reflection of facts on the ground. 

The IDF remains the most moral army in the world!

At the end of April, the Telegraph ran an article entitled: “The Israel defence forces are the most Moral soldiers in the world”. It went on to say that not only do Israel’s enemies know this, they also trade in this and take advantage of it. Despite the accusations and best efforts of the media to muddy the waters, this still seems to be the case. There is a disconnect between the reality of Israel’s war on the ground and the outrageous claims that have been made against Israel by many international bodies and well known politicians. Scripture describes the old hatred of antisemitism and how it will rise in the latter days to gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. The humanistic international bodies of the world that have gathered the nations together are demonstrating a deep antisemitism that can only be explained by a hatred that has been ingrained into the nations of the earth for millennia. One day, those same nations will grab hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew and go with him - for all the world will know that there is a God in Israel.

The Future Armies of Israel

The future armies of Israel in the Kingdom Age are also described for us in the prophets. After the return of Christ, warlike metaphors are used to describe the role that the Jewish people will play in the Kingdom Age. Zech 12:1 describes the governors of Judah as an hearth of fire among the the wood that will burn the nations who have come up against Jerusalem to stubble. Jeremiah 51:20 calls Israel a Battle-axe and the weapon that God will use for destruction of Babylon the Great. Mal 4:3 describes God’s people as treading and trampling down the wicked. Finally Revelation 19:11 outlines the natural Jews as a white horse which will be used to make war against the nations. We pray for the day when Israel will be brought into the New Covenant and will be divinely strengthened by God to bring judgements on the nations. 

This has been Daniel Blackburn joining you for this weeks edition of Bible in the News.