Israel...Things You Won't Hear On The News!

I wanted to pass along an email I received this morning. It has many interesting facts on the Israel-Lebanon conflict that you will not see on the news. Also, some good insider information on how to specifically pray for Israel. Please pray for Israel!

This e-mail came from Dr. Michael Brown of ICN Ministries.


Dear Friends,

I'm sure that you have been following the daily news coming from Israel, and many of you have received updates and prayer requests from other Jewish ministries. Without a doubt, this is a critical time for Israel, for the Middle East, and for the world as a whole. This is the time for God's people to pray! Many of our friends live and work in Israel, and some of our FIRE School grads are currently serving there, along with in several Arab nations. And every day, we receive prayer requests from our friends in the Land whose children are serving in the military. So, on both a personal and national level, it is time for us to cry out to God.

But how exactly should we pray? My friend Avner Boskey has been sending out detailed news reports and insightful prayer updates, and I feel that he has an excellent grasp on the things that are taking place in Israel today, both from a scriptural and a prophetic viewpoint.
So I pass on to you his latest newsletter, which concludes with a good summary of how to pray. God's purposes shall stand!

Blessings and grace,


Dr. Michael L. Brown


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Emergency prayer request for Israel – Day Seven

This is a short report of details of today's fighting, followed by a brief analysis, and then specific prayer requests.

Today (Tuesday July 18) is the seventh day of the "bein hameitzarim" or "dire straits" period (see www.davidstent.org under the "words" section, Feb 21 2005 newsletter, also www.bobjones.org/articles/Basilisk%202002.htm), a period of extreme spiritual danger for Israel. This period lasts up to the 9th of Av (Thursday August 3). It is a time of urgent heightened prayer for Israel and her survival.

Our last prayer request came out at noon Israeli time Sunday July 16. This report sums up the past 60 hours of the war.

• One million Israelis are spending day and night in reinforced concrete safe rooms in the North of the country, a precaution against katyusha rocket attacks. This will probably continue until Hezbollah no longer has the ability to fire katyushas.

• Residents of the coastal plain from Tel Aviv up to Haifa have been told that they need to stay close to buildings and be prepared to take shelter immediately upon hearing a 60-second warning by air raid siren.

• Towns, villages, kibbutzim and moshavim continue to be hit on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. These include major towns like Haifa, Nahariya, Safed, Afula, Carmiel, Kiryat Shmonah, Tiberias, to Arab and Druze villages like Julis, Abu Snaan, Kafr Yasif, Sachnin and Deir al-Assad. On Monday night 70 communities were hit, while on Tuesday 125 katyushas were fired at Israel.

• In Safed the major hospital and a chocolate factory were hit. Power outages occurred in Western Galilee when katyushas destroyed some electric pylons. In Haifa two floors of a residential apartment building were collapsed and 11 people were trapped, requiring IDF combat engineers to dig them out.

• Nazareth and Capernaum, two sites made famous in the Gospels, have both been hit by katyushas.

• 70 families in Carmiel are moving down to Gush Etzion (south of Jerusalem) for shelter while the katyusha attacks continue.

• In the Gaza Strip Kassam rocket attacks fired by Hamas and Fatah (PLO) continue, hitting kibbutzim in the western Negev as well as the Ashkelon industrial park.

Analysis of events

• Hezbollah is increasing the deadliness of the type of rockets it is firing, and boosting the distance they are traveling into Israel's heartland. They began with the Iranian 122mm Arash, and have now added the Iranian-Syrian Fajr 5 (220 mm, 52 kg of explosives, plus steel pellets, with a range of 100 km).

• It seems that Hezbollah is still holding some advanced Iranian weapons systems in reserve. It has not fired the Iranian 333 mm Shahin rockets with a range of 160-200 km, or the Zilzal-2 355 mm. rockets weighing 600kg. Nor have they used their SAM-7 anti-aircraft shoulder missiles (similar to the US Stinger) against Israeli jets. Hezbollah has fired its C-802 Chinese missile only once so far (against an Israeli missile boat) with help from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Pasdaran.

• The Arabic London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat quotes a senior Iranian army official that the Pasdaran has set up dozens of advanced rocket and missile bases in Lebanon and along the border of Israel. Between 1992 and 2006 Hezbollah received nearly 13,000 of these weapons from Iran, flown to Damascus and trucked into southern Lebanon (see Michael R. Gordon, NY Times, July 16, 2006). At present approximately 100 military advisors from Pasdaran are working with Hezbollah operating these weapons platforms. This is probably what Sheikh Nasrallah meant when he said that his forces will yet surprise Israel. Israeli military Intelligence (AMAN) says that Nasrallah hasn't yet pulled his strategic cards out of the hat yet.

• Israel bombed one C-802 site yesterday. The missile was accidentally triggered and lifted off but exploded in mid-air. Its crash was filmed by the media, and Hezbollah TV inaccurately stated that the film clip showed an Israeli F-16 being shot down. Over the past few days this type of disinformation has surfaced on the Hezbollah and Palestinian side. Other examples include Hezbollah's assertion that only 4 of its fighters have been killed over the past week, and Fatah's declaration yesterday that it has kidnapped an Israeli Border Policeman (also false).

• The Shahin, Zilzal and C-802 rocket systems can hit Tel Aviv. The IAF is continuing to target these Lebanese launch sites, most of which are hidden and camouflaged in Shi'ite residential areas. The IAF has stated that if Hezbollah rockets strike Haifa's petrochemical plants, it will consider bombing Lebanese power plants. In this way pressure is being brought to bear on the sovereign Lebanese government to stop Hezbollah from using Lebanese territory to attack Israel.

• Last week Israel called up one reserve division, and today has issued call-up orders for 3 reserve battalions. This will free up regular troops now engaged in guarding and patrolling in Judea and Samaria, and will allow them to be sent to the North in preparation for possible limited ground incursions.

• Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameinei said on Sunday that "The US says Hezbollah must be disarmed. This will not happen". SKY TV noted on Sunday that Iran has sunk over $100 million into Hezbollah's arsenal. Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said that "any aggression against Syria will have a harsh and direct response not limited in time or means". Both comments indicate that Syria and Iran are afraid of losing their Hezbollah proxy mini-state, and are trying to preserve Nasrallah's regime as a military player in Lebanon.

• Back on Sept. 27, 2002, NY Times journalist Michael R. Gordon stated that there is a fear "that Iran or Syria might encourage Hezbollah to stir up tensions along Israel's northern frontier to divert attention from Iraq and complicate the Bush administration's plans…" This is the same scenario now being played out, with Iran's 2006 nuclear program substituting for the Iraq invasion of 2002.

• Nasrallah pre-recorded a poorly produced TV address on Sunday from his underground bunkers in the dahiya, the Shi'ite suburbs of South Beirut. Gone was the laughing sarcasm. His face was grayish and subdued. He spoke to Israelis, saying that Hezbollah has a faith deeper than that of Israel. He threatened to surprise the IDF "beyond Haifa and on the ground", probably referring to longer range missiles directed at civilian population centers, booby traps along likely Israeli invasion routes, and perhaps even chemical warheads or nuclear suitcase bombs. He stated that Allah has given the Arab and Islamic world a historic opportunity to defeat the USA and Israel, and that the Lebanese people's stand will lead to the salvation of the entire Islamic people. Hezbollah is the spearhead, he said, giving an example to the entire Islamic nation on how to fight the enemy with courage and defeat him. "Where are you, Arabs?" he asked, appealing for help in the jihad.

• It has been reported numerous times today that Nasrallah's forces are firing on Shi'ite villagers trying to flee from Hezbollah-controlled villages northward toward Beirut. They are forcing these villagers to stay and act as human shields and potential casualties in the face of Israeli bombardments of rocket launchers and terrorist command and control centers.

How to pray?

• Pray for God to frustrate the weapons used against Israel (see a similar promise in Isa.54:17 – "No weapon forged against you will prevail").

• Pray for God to frustrate the wicked counsel of evil leaders in Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and world terror ("Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us" – Isa.8:10).

• Protection for Israeli soldiers fighting, and especially for those Messianic Jewish believers presently involved in the war.

• Pray for a revelation of Yeshua as Messiah and atonement to many in Israel right now.

Many believers are beginning to realize that God is again protecting His people. There have been over a thousand katyushas fired, and the death total from those rockets hovers near twenty. Continue to ask God for His defensive shield to cover His people Israel.

We thank you for your prayers for Israel, for Messianic believers and for our family. Our two oldest sons are soldiers in the IDF. Our oldest son is presently stationed in the Jerusalem area. Our second son will be traveling to the north tomorrow to work as a medic in one of the cities worst hit by katyushas. We ask for your prayers for his safety, protection and for opportunities to be a light in a difficult place.

PLEASE PRAY URGENTLY FOR THESE MATTERS! THANKS SO MUCH FOR CARRYING THIS PRAYER BURDEN WITH US !

We bless you in Yeshua,

Avner Boskey


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