GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 175

Strike Iran Now

No Temple Incidents

Going into the Muslim holy month of Ramadan the rhetoric from terrorists leaders led many of us to expect an explosive time. However, as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel that hasn’t been the case:

Afternoon prayers on the third Friday of Ramadan ended at the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Jerusalem Old City Temple Mount, with the Israel Police reporting they passed without incident.

There are varying numbers given for how many Muslims have attended:

The Islamic Waqf, which administers the mosque compound, said 125,000 people took part in the prayers, slightly up from last week. But police put turnout in the tens of thousands and the Foreign Ministry said “over 50,000” attended.

As the site is holy to three major religions, two, Islam and Christianity come to Israel this time of the year for different reasons. The current war, however has influenced how many Christians are coming:

Along with the Ramadan prayers, hundreds of Christians participated in a customary Good Friday procession through the limestone walls of the Old City, commemorating one of the faith’s most sacred days with noticeably thinner crowds amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

It hasn’t been an explosive time, but there are still moments of concern:

Police say they arrested 11 people in the Old City throughout the day, including several suspects for chants of “incitement and support for terrorism” following morning prayers at the Temple Mount.

Overall, it’s been quiet considering the chatter leading up to Ramadan:

Nevertheless, this marked the third consecutive Friday of the Muslim holy month during which mass prayers took place largely peacefully, despite fears of disturbances after the Hamas terror group had called on Palestinian worshipers to barricade themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

At the beginning of the holy month, Hamas called on followers to “participate urgently in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque against the aggression that lurks in these critical times.”

In past years during Ramadan, Palestinians have at times barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, some with explosives and rocks. Police operations to clear them out have often resulted in violence.

The War Is Affecting Good Friday

The normal numbers of Christians attending the Good Friday procession were considerably lower:

As for the Good Friday procession, which normally draw thousands of foreign visitors, this year’s rendition was composed largely of locals. Most observers were Palestinian Christians, joined by some foreigners living in Jerusalem and a few undeterred tourists.

The traditional Good Friday procession passes along the Way of the Cross, or Via Dolorosa, the route believed to have been walked by Jesus to his crucifixion. Squads of Israeli police set up barricades along the path, rerouting shoppers in the Old City’s bustling Muslim quarter to make way for hundreds of pilgrims.

Local believers made up the majority of those who came out:

A young group of Palestinian Arab scouts led the day’s procession, past the 14 stations along the route, each marking an event that befell Jesus on his final journey. Hundreds of Palestinian Christians walked in their wake. Behind them was a small parade of the Franciscan religious order, composed mainly of foreigners who live in Jerusalem.

“We wait for this every year,” said Munira Kamar, a Palestinian Christian from the Old City, who watched the parade pass, waving hello to cross-bearers, who stopped to give her young daughter a kiss on the cheek. “Of course, this year we are unhappy because of the situation with the ongoing war.”

The procession’s final stations are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and laid to rest before his resurrection on Easter. There, the impact of the war was clear: instead of the crowds who normally queue for hours in the church courtyard, entrance to the site was easy.

Christians from the West Bank had a hard time attending because of the war as well:

The city’s streets were noticeably devoid of Palestinian Christians from the West Bank, who normally flock to the Holy City for the Easter festivities. Since Oct. 7, Palestinian worshippers have needed special permission to cross checkpoints into Jerusalem.

In spite of the heighten security and tensions due to the war, some are hopeful for peace:

Sister Harriet Kabaije, a pilgrim from Uganda who moved to Jerusalem three weeks ago to live in a monastery, said she was holding the people of Gaza in her prayers. She said she believed that peace could be achieved in the region.

“Many people think that the war here is natural,” she said. “But when Jesus was in Bethlehem, it was peaceful. We know that people are suffering in Gaza so we carry them in our prayers and pray that peace can return to this land,” she said.

The Time To Strike Is Now

I believe the Bible prophesies that Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear capacity, however an Iranian leader opposed to the current regime says time is running out on anyone doing that. He was in the United States this week to encourage America to act soon as we read in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

Iranian Opposition Leader and former political prisoner Vahid Beheshti told the Middle East Forum in Congress on Thursday that the United States should strike the Iranian regime now, before Iran acquires nuclear weapons.

“The Iranian regime is weak, it’s a paper tiger,” said Beheshti. “The Iranian regime created 18 proxies around the region, but my message to the US is not to spend your time fighting proxies, aim for the head of the octopus. Israel knows that they are not fighting Hamas solely, they are fighting Iran. Without Iran, Hamas wouldn’t have survived a few weeks.

He maintains that the vast majority of Iranians would support such actions:

“90% of the Iranian people are against the regime. The moment Americans and their allies hit the Iranian regime, the people of Iran will rise up and finish the job.”

Behesti went on to note that the United States helped the terrorists:

Beheshti, who addressed Israel’s Knesset in January, told Congress that the massacre and hostage taking during Hamas’s October 7 attack was inspired by the Iranian success in gaining access to significant funds by releasing the Islamic Republic’s Western hostages.

“For four decades, the Iranian regime has taken our people hostage, forcing the West to sit around the negotiating table to provide the funds that they need,” Beheshti explained. “Three weeks before October 7th, the current US administration released $6 billion in exchange for five hostages. Of course, they will push Hamas to take 250 hostages, imagine what they can get for that many hostages.”

He said that Iran is playing the long game and stopping them before they get nuclear weapons should be a priority:

“The Iranian regime has a strategy to ruin the free democratic West from within, to turn our world into an Islamic state,” he added. “They use our system of democracy to weaken America and Europe by aggressive lobbying and radicalizing our youth, to turn them into the enemies of our deeply held values. This is a long-term plan.

“If we don’t defeat it now, soon it will be too late when they gain nuclear weapons capability. They will use it.”

The man in charge of the forum Beheshti spoke to wants us to heed his advice:

Gregg Roman, the director of the Middle East Forum, a think tank that promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats, said “Mr. Beheshti doesn’t only talk the talk but walks the walk. We are glad to bring people like Vahid Beheshti to Washington to deliver their important mission, to push forward the people-led regime change in Iran.”

As for me, I don’t think the current administration has the intestinal fortitude to attack Iran. Israel, on the other hand doesn’t have that problem. While it is relatively quiet during Ramadan, the calls for violence are still out there, but the quiet won’t last for long. When we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we should also pray for Iran. If Iran is taken down, the war in Israel will end sooner since the proxies depend on them for support.