TUESDAY the 319th day of Swords of Iron War.

Nahariya, Israel. 20.08.2024

Jeremiah 31:36

God is good and His mercy endurance forever.

God is the only sure thing in our lives right now. It is the truth we stand on. The war is getting closer not only in proximity but also in its intensity. We feel the heaviness for longer periods and moods change more erratically.

More intense fighting is taking place, civilians and soldiers are dying, and while all of our borders are under attack, some Arab Israelis choose to participate in suicide bombing in main cities such as Tel Aviv. There is no sight of an agreement to free the hostages as Hamas refuses to agree to all and any suggestion put on the table, even the American negotiators are putting up their hands in frustration.

Today, our prayer group prayed for mercy and comfort for the mourning families. It was also led to pray for the Jews in the diaspora. We added prayers of protection for the pro-Israelis from the nations who are attacked by pro-Hamas neighbours. This hateful behaviour is escalating.

The large expected Aliyah from the western corner of the world is the hardest to bring home.

The comfort and gloss-over feelings that everything is fine and no one will touch them is the same type of comfort that caused the European Jews in WW2 to deny the hate attacks which led them to the burning gas chamber of the Holocaust.

Only now there is a country that belongs to us. Yes, it is at war, but this is a war on our land in our-promised-by-God country, not on another nation's land.

I left Israel at 20 years of age and lived in Canada for 40 years. Even at 60, I was reluctant to return to Israel. It is not easy living here. The wars are just part of the problem. Cultural differences and adjusting to the diversified lifestyle of so many backgrounds and languages are added burdens. Living in North America, for example, is living in luxury and comfort and a seemingly peaceful existence that is the most opposite to the Israeli experience. I understand why people don't want to move to Israel.

But, it is getting to a place and time where there will be no choice.

From France, we heard of Jews who were physically attacked on the light train and no one came to help them. In Venezuela, businesses owned by Jews are being burned. In Australia, a reporter from the New York Times became a member of a Jewish WhatsApp group and copied the entire information of the membership – 600 names, addresses and phone numbers and published it for all to see. She was arrested and is being dealt with but the damage is done, the list is public and anti-Semitic groups are attacking already. In Canada, “Canada's tax authority announced the decision to revoke the status of JNF, as well as the Ne'eman Foundation— another nonprofit that funds philanthropy in Israel — on Saturday in notices published by the Canada Gazette, the government's official newspaper”.

Statistically, 50% of Jews in the West are married to Non-Jews. I thank God for Willie, my Gentle Gentile, who insisted that we return to Israel. Even though the Gentiles who married Jews seem to be the ones holding the Jews in the Western countries, this is not always true. We prayed that the non-Jew spouses would insist on the family's return to Israel.

There are some obstacles from the Orthodox party who controlled the Israel Population and Immigration Authority, but they will have to accept the Jews and Non-Jew spouses and their families from the West, once the Aliyah flooded the country as the Russian Aliyah in 1990 did when over a million arrived.

With all its difficulties and needs for adjustments, there is no place like home. Israel is the home of the Jews and their families.

God, please go gently on Your people, but please bring them home.