“No foreign oppressor will ever again overrun my people’s land.” Zech. 9:8


Dear Partner, August 2005

Greetings in Jesus’ Name!

Most Americans are not aware of what is taking place in Gaza this month. At least 8,000 Jews live in an area known as Gush Katif, within Gaza. These people are referred to as “settlers”, because they went into a remote area twenty or thirty years ago and created an oasis. Here in the United States we call these people “pioneers”. Many of our ancestors were “settlers” or “pioneers”.

Surrounded by hostile “Palestinians” the settlers were forced to carry rifles to protect themselves. Gush Katif was bombarded with 6,000 rocket attacks since 2000, but somehow the “settlers” managed to not only survive, but to create a beautiful, lush homeland. These Jewish people have an amazing story of perseverance, faith, hard work, and courage.

The Bible is filled with promises for the Jewish people regarding their land. But there are 18 exact references to “Gaza” that make very interesting reading, especially in light of the present circumstances in Gush Katif. Two of the passages, Jeremiah 47 and Zechariah 9:5-8, make it very clear how God feels about this part of the world.

Just a few hours ago an article was released to the news media entitled “Miracles in Gush Katif”. If you want to read the entire article go to:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3122056,00.html

But now everything is being taken away from these brave Jewish people. Ariel Sharon has ordered the Israeli army to move all 8,000 of these Jews. But rather than attempt to write about it myself, I’m going to let Dr. Miriam Adahan (one of the Jewish “settlers”) tell it in her own words:


"Imagine" by Dr. Miriam Adahan

* Imagine that you live in Israel, which has suffered 25,500 known terror attacks just since 2000, including 6000 rockets just on your small section of Gush Katif, and instead of attacking the Arab enemy, the government
attacks you.

* Imagine that your teenage children are arrested for handing out orange ribbons on street corners and when you see the police choking them and bashing them with brass knuckles and you come to their aid, you, too, are arrested and charged with harming the police officers who arrested you.

* Imagine that you and your friends come to Kfar Maimon to peacefully protest this outrage and that the government sends 20,000 soldiers and police (the same number President Bush sent to invade Iraq) to encircle the area with barbed wire, creating a virtual prison camp.

* Imagine that it is August 1, 2005 and you are to be evicted from your home on August 15 and you have no idea where to go.

* Imagine that you've been told that you will be allowed to take enough possessions out of your home to fill two small containers and that the rest must be left behind.

* Imagine that you live in a beautiful eight-room home of your dreams with five bathrooms and that you will, at best, be given a cramped caravan which leaks in the winter rains and is sweltering in the summer.

* Imagine trying to decide between your piano and your washing machine, between your books and the beds, between your sofa and your dining room table between your clothing and your photo albums.

* Imagine that you discuss with your neighbors whether you will lock
yourself in your home and make the arresting officers bash the door down, in which case you will forfeit all government compensation or walk silently to the bus which will take you to a detention center, or be dragged out of your home as a way of passively protesting this atrocity.

* Imagine that you discuss with your spouse whether the children should have to see you being dragged out of the only home they have ever known or if it is better to have them sent away.

* Imagine that your son/husband/neighbor is an army officer or policeman and it is their duty to drag you to the waiting buses.

* Imagine that the Israeli press ignores your plight, except to refer to you and your neighbors as fanatical hooligans who have stolen the land you live on.

* Imagine that you have lived in a community for 10, 20, 30 years, have been productive and independent and that you will soon be unemployed, a burden on the state, a humiliated and broken welfare recipient.

* Imagine that you walk around your precious community, knowing that your home, synagogue, mikvah, community center, schools and health centers will be soon be bulldozed into oblivion.

* Imagine having to go from a home with a huge backyard, filled with
flowers and fruit trees to some cramped apartment in a strange city.

* Imagine having to leave your children and grandchildren who could easily run next door to visit you and whom you will now see only rarely.

* Imagine that the government is spending $7 billion dollars to deport you and your neighbors, forfeiting the $2 billion a year earned by the Gush Katif population and that the money for this expulsion plan was taken by slashing pensions for the elderly, closing schools and hospitals, reducing health services, reducing the sick and the handicapped to begging, sending 37,000 abused children were sent back to abusive homes since there was no money to keep them in state dormitories, canceling summer programs for children - and then you are blamed for all this pain.

* Imagine that well known rabbis, teachers and community leaders suddenly disappear and that you are told that they are being held in prison indefinitely and being treated in a most brutal manner.

* Imagine 14-year-old children arrested and sent to solitary confinement for having insulted a police officer.

* Imagine that the government declares war on Judaism, closing down radio stations that used to disseminate inspiring words of Torah, closing down religious councils, cutting off support for religious schools and institutions, threatening rabbis who disagree with government policy and firing government workers who protest.

* Imagine that even before the 25 communities of Gush Katif are destroyed, that the "Peace Now" Organization hands over a list of 120 Jewish settlements in the Shomron to the Israeli Supreme Court to be destroyed, claiming that the land was stolen from the Palestinians (as if there ever was such a people!).

* Imagine that Hamas has already announced that there will be massive parades throughout Gush Katif celebrating their victory over the Jewish people.

* Imagine that the whole world will watch as terrorists take over these communities and think that Jews are the stupidest idiots in the world.
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If you lived in Gush Katif you would be praying for a miracle, too.

Our team will be traveling to Israel next month to see my daughter and her husband. They travel to Gaza regularly to get the Palestinian babies who need operations. Amazingly enough, it is the Jewish doctors who perform the operations which save their young lives. What a strange turn of events!

I do not pretend to understand everything that is taking place in the Middle East. But I feel as though a huge chess game is being played out there—God on one side, and Satan on the other side. We know that ultimately the Lord will be the winner. In the meantime we pray, watch, and even sometimes worry.

Usually the enemy of the Jewish people are Gentiles, and most often Arabs. But in Gush Katif it is Jew against Jew. Let’s be watching the news to see the outcome. And let’s be praying!

Thank you once again for your generous gift to the outreaches of Full Life Crusade: China, Israel, Haiti, and beyond!

In His Service,
Wesley Smith


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