ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK

It has been three weeks since the massacre of October 7, and it’s becoming clearer what Israel is facing.  Over 230 Israelis and citizens of other countries, young and old, healthy and sick, infants and the infirm, are being held in Gaza or are still missing.  As Israel entered the Gaza Strip, the world erupted with anti-Israel protests, cheering on the terrorists’ brutality and seething with hatred.  Antisemitic attacks have tripled in some areas, and world leaders in the West are trying to dampen down the extremely vocal minority who are expressing extreme hostility with much ‘hate speech’.  Meanwhile, in addition to hundreds of rockets still being fired at Israel from Gaza, there are attacks on Israel’s northern border and grave concerns about Iran.  The US has mobilized warships and planes, as has the UK and troops in the region, and the need for earnest prayer is very great.  Other nations are getting involved, and some are warning their people about a possible war.

This is not about Israel being at war with Palestinians.  Let’s be clear: Israel is at war with Hamas.  The destruction of Hamas is the only viable way the region will see true peace.  We have friends on the frontlines of the battle against Hamas.  It is not about nationalities or borders or an ‘occupying’ nation.

It is a holy war against God’s promises and His covenant.  These terrorists are people who hate the God you and I serve.

The enemies of Israel desire to wipe Israel off the map and, with it, the Jewish people.  Why?  Because without the Jews, God’s Word is not true………… but His Word is true and forever.  Please continue to gather, to worship, and to fast and pray for Israel right now.

There is too much information to distill in one newsletter reasonably!!  Things are changing at a rapid pace, and there is much ‘false news.’ Following are some pieces that we hope you can use in dialogue, in prayer, and in your community.

Michael & Patricia

support for Israel around the world

remains of a residence bombed and burned by Hamas terrorists during their unprovoked attack on Israel, 7 October 2023, in the village of Kfar Aza, killing hundreds,  in Israel near the Gaza border

INFORMATIVE VIDEO ON THE HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST –
ABOUT 2 WEEKS OLD BUT VERY RELEVANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Facts from our friends at the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, Jerusalem, ISRAEL

THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’S PROPAGANDA AT ITS BEST

I’ve had intentions to include this article in the last three issues – obviously didn’t.  The Arabs always seem to ‘win’ the information war – this piece addresses one of the propaganda lies at the root of this conflict.

Webster offers two definitions of “propaganda” – the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person; ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause.

Arab propaganda has systematically covered up the true root cause of the Israeli-Arab conflict – the persistent refusal to recognize a Jewish State, whatever its borders. It covered up the fact that the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, was established in 1964, three years before Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War, during which Israel seized control of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

Where exactly was the Palestine that the PLO sought to liberate before the Six-Day War in 1967?  Judea, Samaria, the Golan, and the Sinai were in Arab hands when the war broke out.  There were no “occupied territories” to liberate when the PLO was established.  Its goal was to annihilate Israel.

Retroactively erasing this simple historical fact in the minds of many in the West was a tremendous victory for Arab propaganda.  This propaganda success turned the results of Arab aggression against Israel in 1967 into its cause.

This echoes a similar ploy used after Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, when the Arab states turned one of the war’s results, Arab refugees, into its cause.  But there wasn’t a single Arab refugee when six Arab armies set out to destroy Israel at its birth.  In fact, the Arab-initiated war on Israel resulted in two refugee problems, not one – a great number of Jewish refugees were expelled from Arab countries after the war.  After the War of Independence, Arab propaganda turned history on its head.

These and other fictions were used by the Arab world to mobilize pressure on Israel to withdraw from the territories of Judea, Samaria, the Golan, and the Sinai, which it took in legitimate wars of self-defense.

Arab propaganda was not limited to falsifying modern history. It sought to falsify ancient history, as well, beginning with its appropriation of the term Palestine, a term whose complex history was deliberately obfuscated for political purposes.

The name Palestine is derived from the Philistines, a seafaring people from Crete who invaded the coast of present-day Israel around 1200 BCE, shortly after the Israelite conquest. The main Philistine dominions never extended much beyond the coastal strip between Gaza and the modern city of Tel Aviv, and the Philistines disappeared as a people under the Babylonian conquest in the sixth century BCE.

It was the Roman Empire, bent on destroying every vestige of Jewish attachment to their land after two successive Jewish rebellions, that invented the name Palestina to replace Judea, the original name of the country, with the intention of obliterating its historic Jewish identity.

While the Roman name disappeared in the land itself shortly after the Muslim conquest in the seventh century CE, Christian cartographers kept it alive in their own lands and bequeathed it to the Allied negotiators at the 1917 Versailles Peace Conference and then to its inhabitants, who adopted it once the British took control following World War I.

Until the twentieth century, the name Palestine referred exclusively to the ancient land of the Jews, as did the names Judea, Judah, Zion, and Israel.  The Arabs who lived there were called Arabs, just as the Armenians, Turks, Druze, and Circassians who migrated into Palestine were still called Armenians, Turks, Druze, and Circassians.  With the exception of the Jews, who called the land “Eretz Israel” (The Land of Israel) and viewed it as their national home, all of those groups considered themselves to be living in “Southern Syria” and never identified the land as a unique national homeland for themselves.

Paradoxically, under the British Mandate between the two world wars, it was the Jews who often referred to themselves as Palestinians.

As Golda Meir once said, “I am a Palestinian.  From 1921 to 1948, I carried a Palestinian passport (issued by the British Mandate.).  There was no such thing in this area as Jews, Arabs, and Palestinians.  There were Jews and Arabs.” (3)

So, before the term Palestine was politized, it was simply a synonym for the geographic area encompassing the Land of Israel and was used as such between the two world wars.  While the Palestinians can argue that their national identity emerged in the first half of the twentieth century, the historical facts simply do not support the false claim that an Arab Palestinian national consciousness goes back earlier than that.
It didn’t.

—
Notes:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda
Moshe Shemesh, “The Founding of the PLO, 1964,” Middle Eastern Studies 20, no.4 (1984): 105-41, http//www.jstor.org/stable/4283033
“Golda Meir Quotes, “ The Iron Lady of Israeli Politics, Thames TV, 1970.

STAND WITH US IN PRAYER

• Supernatural wisdom for Israel’s War Cabinet & Commanders
• Safety for Israeli troops entering Gaza & Judea and Samaria
• That the US and our allies will stand unwaveringly with Israel
• That the hostages held by Hamas will be released unharmed, without conditions
• That the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob will protect His land and people
• That salvation will break forth as God shows Himself strong

STAND WITH US IN FINANCES

We are grateful to receive a partial salary from the King of Kings to help with the work of ministry, and as God opens new doors for us, we know He will supply the needed resources to enable us to minister from America to Israel and to the Nations.  May God continue to bless you as you continue blessing us and Israel.

There are a few options if you are prompted to partner with us financially:

If you don’t need a tax deduction, you can send funds to us via the INTERNET directly through PayPal.  Use [email protected], which is Michael’s account.  Send as a friend, and there is no cost to you or us.

If you don’t need a tax deduction, you can send funds to us by check, payable to Michael Bryan.  Mail to Michael Bryan, PO Box 255, Magnolia, MS 39652.

Tax-deductible donations via the INTERNET can be made through the KKCJ website, www.kkcj.org.  Engage the “Give” tab at the top of the page, select “Staff Support,” and select “Michael Bryan.”

Tax-deductible donations CHECK can be made payable to “King of Kings Ministries” with a note “for Bryan family” and mailed to:

King of Kings Ministries Inc
PO Box 30607
Phoenix, AZ 85046

You will receive a printed receipt and our eternal gratitude.

We appreciate your financial support of our personal ministry.  If you have extra funds and the Lord lays on your heart to help in the Israel war effort, we can provide you with a list of ministries and organizations in Israel providing for the needy in Israel, which we’ve vetted for authenticity.  If you would like that list, please email me, and I will forward it to you.  Standing with God.  Standing with Israel.

Michael & Patricia