Displaying items by tag: Middle East

Christians across the Middle East are now experiencing or preparing for Holy Week (those churches that follow the Eastern Christian calendar being a week behind the West). Streets and squares overflow with believers celebrating Palm Sunday in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iraqi Christian towns in the Nineveh Plain, along with believers in Lebanon and the Holy Land. Thus they demonstrate the deep faith of the region’s Christians as they worship a Saviour who showed strength through love, service and sacrifice.

On 10 April Benjamin Netanyahu emerged as the winner in Israel’s election, supported by right-wing and religious parties. However, one right-wing party, led by former education minister Naftali Bennett, seems not to have passed the electoral threshold; it demanded a recount, claiming ‘someone is cheating the right-wing out of votes’. The vote was split: Netanyahu's Likud and the Blue and White party, led by Benny Gantz, received 35 seats each. The prime minister, however, secured his path to re-election by having a clear right-wing majority bloc in the Knesset. Many believe the political storm created by soft-spoken Mr Gantz has not blown over. Netanyahu recently said he would declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if he won the election. This would be fiercely opposed by the three million Palestinians living there, and by much of the Arab world. See

The Iranian Church is growing with increased momentum, with daily encouraging reports. Despite persecution, Christians are courageously preaching Christ. Hundreds who have received training through mission agencies are teaching the Gospel. Over one million Scriptures have been distributed to Iranians since 2003. Christian TV is beamed into millions of homes, reaching families who otherwise may never have heard the Gospel. Thousands respond to programmes every month. An estimated 28 million have access to satellite TV as dishes (officially banned) are hidden in upper rooms and lofts. ‘Underground’ house churches serve people from all segments of society. Former hard-line Islamic mullahs and drug addicts worship Jesus together. Highly educated university professors, lawyers, taxi drivers, street vendors, and nomads follow Christ together.

Israelis will vote in national elections on 9 April. The campaign has been divisive, confusing and ugly, yet our prayers can declare the fundamental truth that our God reigns. The Friday prayer points sent by Intercessors for Israel can inspire our prayers for God’s chosen leader for His nation at this time. ‘Lord of all, rule over these elections so that the government of Your choice will be chosen. May Your will be done in Israel as it is already done in heaven. Raise up righteous men and women to lead this nation. Remove all confusion and bring clarity to Your people. Let there be light to guide Israelis as they decide who to vote for. Overrule any plans of the enemy that are trying to manipulation these elections for his demonic schemes. Protect all Israel from manipulation and witchcraft. Move the Arab-Israelis to vote against Arab politicians who are more concerned with the Palestinians that with their own constituents.’

Many Christians have fled Syria’s violence. Before 2011 Christians made up 8-10% of a 22 million population. By 2017 80% of them had left. Pastor Abdallah chose to stay and care for his congregation. He said that there are questions around the fate of kidnapped Christians, including three members of his church. The media focus on the disappearance of high-profile church leaders, but many ordinary Christians were abducted or disappeared during IS occupation. Hope is that more will become known about their situation soon. They could have been moved outside the area. As pastor Abdallah helps the Aleppo community rebuild, his main problem is securing long-term funding. NGOs are stopping aid throughout Syria, and many are suffering. He has now heard that banks have stopped transfers, and he said that the media don’t shed much light on the difficult situation citizens are enduring.

Following New Zealand’s terror attack, there have been six recorded incidents in just seven days. In Israel two rockets launched from Gaza terrorised residents around Tel Aviv; explosions and sirens were heard throughout the region. Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Two Israelis were killed in another terror attack, and two days later a shooting attack on an Israeli bus traumatised passengers. In the Netherlands a gunman opened fire inside a tram, killing three and injuring others. In Kashmir 44 soldiers were killed and dozens injured by Pakistan terrorists. In Stanwell, UK, a far-right terrorist was arrested for attempted murder and racially aggravated public order. American experts say white nationalist threats are growing. Prayer leader Brian Mills says, ‘Satan undermines truth, is full of self-importance, is vehemently anti-Jewish and anti-Christian, seeks to interrupt our communication with God, and is a terrorist! We see a spirit of violence, intrinsic within Islam, being turned outwards.’

A few militants defending a Syrian river bank are all that is left of IS’s ‘caliphate’. 40,000 foreigners from 110 countries joined it; many have gone home, creating security challenges. Thousands are in Kurdish detention camps awaiting relocations. Distinguishing between regretful and repentant hangers-on and truly dangerous fighters is a legal and political nightmare, creating relationship cracks between Europe and US. Meanwhile IS’s black flag flies over an enclave on the Philippine island of Basilan, where a cathedral was bombed. IS-linked groups are still active in Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and stretches of northern Africa and the Sahel. While they may not have access to the oil revenues that enabled IS to claim to be an actual state, they remain a security threat. IS is also alive and well on the web, with gruesome and well-produced propaganda.

Ahed Tamimi is a Palestinian provocateur who slapped Israeli soldiers while her mother filmed the incident and then sent film to the media. She later said, ‘The world should not panic or be appalled by a Palestinian slapping an IDF soldier. Everyone should do it, not just me.’ With such comments, she and her family incite suicide bombings and stabbings. She is to come to Britain for a three-month crash course in the English language. Tamimi says she is on ‘the path of the martyrs’ who are not aiming for a two-state solution, but for ‘the liberation of Palestine’, and for ‘Jerusalem to be the eternal capital of Palestine’. Jeremy Corbyn supports her, and Labour MPs have been lectured by her father inside the UK parliament. In an interview with Jordanian media she said that after her crash course in English she will visit her brother in Palestine when he is freed from prison, then return to the UK to study international law. See

Elections are on 9 April and a new poll, taken after the attorney general said he would indict prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges, shows that he could not form a right-wing government if elections were held today. 68% of the public want him to resign now or after he is formally indicted. Following the announcement of pending indictments for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust through receiving gifts from supporters, and alleged media collusion to give him favourable coverage in return for political and regulatory favours, Netanyahu’s response was a combative speech declaring the investigation a left-wing witch hunt to aid the election of his primary rivals - the Blue and White party The poll currently gives Blue and White 37 seats and Likud 29. Netanyahu holds the record for the longest sitting single term of any Israeli prime minister.

Tensions bubble on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount after the ‘Gate of Mercy’ structure near the Al-Aqsa mosque was certified as another mosque. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued an order to remove equipment from the site and disallow prayer there. The structure was recently fitted with rugs and other furnishings and renovations for it to be used as a permanent Muslim prayer area. The Waqf, which oversees Muslim holy sites, comprises officials from Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Waqf breached the site two weeks ago and has appointed an imam for the ‘Gate of Mercy’ structure. Israeli police arrested its head and other leaders, following violent protests last week on the Temple Mount, but released them a short time later. After the Six-Day War there was just one mosque on the mount: if the trend continues there will soon be five mosques there. Before 2005 the compound didn’t function as a mosque, and people normally didn’t use it for worship.