MIDEAST UPDATE: 11.19.22 - ‘Tainted With Hatred For The State Of Israel’

 ‘Tainted With Hatred For The State Of Israel’: United Nations Begins Biased ‘Commission Of Inquiry’ – By TV7 - https://harbingersdaily.com/tainted-with-hatred-for-the-state-of-israel-united-nations-begins-biased-commission-of-inquiry/ The so-called independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) was established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Despite claims that it would be “impartial” and examine allegations from both Israelis and Palestinians, the COI opened its five days of hearings with an inflammatory statementfrom the Al-Haq group. Al-Haq is among 6 organizations Israel deemed as terrorist last year. The group’s General Director, Shawan Jabarin, denied the terrorism charge and called the closure an “arbitrary decision,” while accusing Israeli security forces of using “mafiamethods” against it in a years-long harassment campaign. “They used all means, I can say. They used financial means; they used a smear campaign; they used threats,” he said, saying his office was sealed with a metal door on 18 August. Israel has dismissed the process overseen by the panel as a sham, and has declined comment on the specific allegations. “This (COI) and the convening of these sham trials shame and undermine the Human Rights Council,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) declared in an earlier statement, sayingthe commission had an “anti-Israel” agenda. The MFA rejected an 18-page UNHRC report released last June, entitled: “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including eastJerusalem and Israel,” as the first of what it said will be an annual report to the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva. “It is a biased and one-sided report tainted with hatred for the State of Israel and based on a long series of previous one-sided and biased reports,” said the Israeli ministry,stressing that, “the report disregards years of murderous terrorism by Palestinian terrorist organizations against Israeli citizens, as well as the Palestinians’ long-standing obstinacy and the vicious and antisemitic incitement carried out by the PalestinianAuthority and its networks.” Insisting that it “ignored the real reasons that led Israel to defend its citizens against the murderous terrorist organizations that are committing a double war crime: firingat Israeli civilians from within civilian areas in the Gaza Strip,” the MFA condemned both the COI and its brief as “the result of the Human Rights Council’s extreme anti-Israel bias.” Moreover, “the Commission members, who claim to be objective, were only appointed to their roles because of their public and well-known anti-Israel stances, in direct oppositionto the rules set out by the United Nations,” stated the MFA, while emphasizing that, “The State of Israel will continue to protect its citizens in accordance with the highest international values and standards.” The three-member COI was commissioned after the 2021 Operation Guardian of the Walls war between Israel and terror groups in Gaza. It maintained that Israel must do more thanend “the occupation” of land Palestinians want for a state. The Islamist Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, opened the 11-day war with rocket attacks over claims of “Israeli violations” of the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, built atopthe ruins of both Biblical Temples in Jerusalem’s Old City. The report accused Israel of having “no intention” of ending its presence in what it referred to as “the Occupied Palestinian Territory” -including the eastern side of Jerusalem,which was captured by the Jewish State in the 1967 Six Day War. Israel boycotted the inquiry and barred entry to its investigators, based on longstanding accusations of deep bias demonstrated by the UNHRC. The United States also condemned the report. “As we have stated repeatedly, we firmly oppose the open-ended and vaguely defined nature of the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the situation in Israel,the West Bank, and Gaza, which represents a one-sided, biased approach that does nothing to advance the prospects for peace,” said US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, adding that the report “does nothing to alleviate our concerns.” He went on to point out that, “Israel is the only country subject to a standing agenda item at the HRC and has received disproportionate focus at the HRC compared to humanrights situations elsewhere in the world. While no country is above scrutiny, the existence of this COI in its current form is a continuation of a longstanding pattern of unfairly singling out Israel. We reengaged with and later re-joined the HRC in part tobe in a better position to address its flaws, including this one, and we will continue to seek reforms.” The administration of former US President Donald Trump resigned from the organization in 2018 after repeated warnings against its anti-Israel bias. Then-US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley observed that, “You know something is seriously wrong when the Council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel – which hasa strong human rights record – and just 7 resolutions against Iran, whose history is abysmal.” Haley further cautioned that if the UNHRC failed to alter its platform, it would risk becoming “a showcase for dictatorships” as well as a “cover for some of theworst atrocities being carried out” worldwide. The administration of US President Joe Biden only fully re-joined the UNHRC earlier this year, after pledging it would seek to eliminate a “disproportionate focus” on allyIsrael. Hamas predictably welcomed the report and urged the prosecution of Israeli leaders in what it described as crimes against the Palestinian people. The Palestinian Authority(PA) also praised the report and demanded accountability “in a manner that puts an end to Israel’s impunity.” One of the first items on the agenda during the current COI hearings will be the death of Al-Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in May. The UNHRC predictably said its ownfindings suggest that she was killed by Israeli forces, while an IDF investigation concluded she was likely to have been shot unintentionally by an Israeli soldier during a fierce firefight with Palestinian terrorists in the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin. Neither the hearings nor the UNHRC have any legal powers, but its probes are sometimes used as evidence before national or international courts. HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant? The Bible has a great deal to say about supporting and blessing Israel. In Genesis, we read that those who despise and work against Israel place themselves at enmity withGod. Genesis 12:3 KJV – “I will bless them that bless [Israel], and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” This warning also, if not especially, applies to nations. In the Book of Numbers, a man named Balaam was hired to curse the people of Israel. However, despite his best efforts, God insisted Balaam bless the Jews instead. When explainingto the king why he could only bless Isreal, he told him that God shall “eat up” nations who make themselves enemies of the Jews (Num. 24:8). He then echoed Genesis 12:3, saying, “Who shall stir [God] up? Blessed is he that blesseth [Israel], and cursed ishe that curseth thee” (Num. 24:9). ---------------------------- Why Should the Re-Establishment Of The State of Israel Matter To Christians? � By Amir Tsarfati - https://harbingersdaily.com/god-in-action-why-should-the-re-establishment-of-the-state-of-isreal-matter-to-christians/ Now, why should it matter for Christians if Jews are returning to Israel? Because this is God in action! Despite the nation�s repetitive disobedience � and they are disobedient � God preserved it from the agenda of its enemies time and time again, even up to the War of Independence in 1948. And now we live in 2022 and all of you belong to that generation that can see the fig tree come back to life. We live in an unprecedented age where countless ancient prophecies,or precursors to them, are happening right before our eyes. While some may be more subtle and others are like the spokes on a larger wheel, there is none more clear than the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Isaiah 54:5-8 KJV � �For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from theefor a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.� Today we can see that the Lord�s promise to gather His �momentarily forsaken� people by His great mercy and everlasting kindness is being undeniably fulfilled. Yet in spiteof this incredible miracle fulfilling a 2700 year old prophecy, antisemitism is rising around the world, including in the church. However, this too is prophetic. Zechariah 12:3 KJV � �And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the peopleof the earth be gathered together against it.� Zechariah�s 2500 year old prophecy is also coming to pass right before our eyes, and yet there are many in the church who say that God is finished with the nation of Israelor that the church has replaced Israel in God�s redemptive plan. Not only are neither of those things true, they are anti-biblical and present a series of major theological problems, not the least of which is this: Romans 11:16-18 KJV � �For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou,being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.� The firstfruit, the lump, and the root all point back the believing patriarchs of Israel. The broken-off branches represent all unbelieving Jews. The cultivated olive treeis Israel, and the wild olive tree grafted in is believing Gentiles, or the predominantly Gentile church. In verse 18, Paul skips over the agrarian and ceremonial metaphors and reaches back to the root � Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. � and says you donot support the root but the root supports you. If the root, believing Israel, has been cast off then who are Christians grafted into? If modern Israel is not Biblical Israel then why are the things prophesied about Israelhappening to the nation? What tragic spiritual loses are suffered when we follow the errant teaching of God casting off or replacing Israel. We miss the majesty of God protecting His chosen peopleand their eternally covenanted homeland in our day. We miss the mercy and grace of God towards even the most rebellious of people by recognizing it is He who has regathered them as promised. We miss the closeness of the Day of the Lord and do not have a referencepoint from which to see the day approaching. 1 Peter 2:9-10 KJV � �For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou,being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.� Christians should rejoice in the the faithfulness of God to Israel and take heart in the fact that God does not cast off people He calls chosen. If He did so with Israel,he could do so with the church. The fig tree buds three times a year in spring, late summer, and fall. Hosea 9:10a KJV � �I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time:� Here Hosea refers to the Patriarchs as the firstfruits on the fig tree. Jeremiah 24:5-8a KJV � �Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent outof this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will givethem an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord� Here, the faithful of the captives of Judah are referred to as �good figs�, and at the time of the regathering God will set His eyes on them for good in preparation for whatJesus said in the Olivet Discourse: Matthew 24:32 KJV � �Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:� The tender branch speaks of the new wood on the fig tree that would support an upcoming harvest of good figs. This pictures Messianic Jews, including the 144,000 and all theJews who they lead to faith in Christ, and also the good fruit among the Jews that happens at Jesus� second coming: Zechariah 12:10 KJV � �And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon mewhom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.� Don�t let anyone rob you of the majestic mercy and goodness of God toward Israel by saying He has cast them off or replaced them with the church. They�re back in the landto tell us He�s coming for us soon. Then, not long after, He�s coming back for the believing Jews and we will be with Him. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. -----------------