Israel Under Attack

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

Psalm 122:6-8

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu Al Ata. The IDF had identified Al Ata as the senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Gaza. They discovered he was planning rocket, sniper and drone attacks against Israeli forces on the Israeli-Gaza border. 

At the time of this writing, over 300 rockets have been fired into Israel in retaliation. Funded by Iran, the PIJ is one of the most violent terror groups in Gaza. The Iranian regime filters money, weaponry and rockets to the PIJ.

To date, more than 50 Israelis have been wounded but there have been no Israeli deaths. However tremendous damage has been caused. One rocket narrowly missed civilian drivers on a busy highway. These numbers could have been much higher if it were not for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

The rockets fired by terrorists are war crimes because they are targeting Israeli citizens while Israel is only attacking military targets. The Israeli envoy to the United Nations has called on the UN Security Council to condemn the rocket fire.

“Nine million citizens are facing an insufferable terror attack by terror groups. I expect a clear and unequivocal condemnation of the side responsible for this and not a statement calling for both sides to act with restraint. The time has come for the international community to understand that silence is a prize for terror,” Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement.

Danon adds: “Israel is not interested in an escalation but will lead the campaign against terror with determination and strength.”

Israeli citizens have spent nights in bomb shelters, schools across parts of the nation closed and hospitals evacuated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Knesset stating, “We will not tolerate attacks on our citizens. We will do all that we need to defend our citizens. We are not bent on escalation, but that we would respond to every attack against us and respond very sharply.”

As a result of these attacks, the IDF was forced to increase airstrikes against Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They have targeted underground terror facilities for storage and manufacturing weapons as well as training camps.

There is an urgent alert to pray for the nation of Israel and the barrage of rocket fire it faces. An IDF spokesman has said it is “preparing for a number of days of fighting.” Pray for the protection of the Israeli citizens to withstand the forces setting out to destroy their country.

Photo credit: Christians United for Israel

Rights of Faith-Based Healthcare Workers Protected

Earlier this month, a federal judge permanently blocked a part of the Obama Administration’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulation that required medical professionals to perform abortions and gender-transition procedures regardless of their religious convictions. If the ACA rule had stood, physicians would be faced with performing surgeries, against their Christian convictions, on children or teenagers who identified as the opposite sex, a girl who wants to be a boy or a boy who wants to be a girl.

Mike Chupp, a Christian physician and CEO of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA), said of the decision, “We would have been in a world of hurt as Christians because we would have been thinking about leaving or limiting our practices so as not to be in a bind. Christians take care of the poor, take lower salaries, take care of refugees, and take care of those on the fringe who are uninsured. That’s why religious freedom is just so critical for us to protect.”

The ruling is just one of many religious freedom court cases being fought in the United States today. For the past six years, the Little Sisters of the Poor have also challenged a mandate of the Affordable Care Act requiring them to provide contraceptive services in their healthcare plans. Becket, a religious liberty law firm representing the Sisters, has petitioned the Supreme Court three times for an exemption to the ACA contraceptive and abortifacient mandate.

Mark Rienzi, president of Becket, said “This is a nonsensical political battle that has dragged on six years too long. These states have not been able to identify a single person who would lose contraceptive coverage under the new HHS rule, but they won’t rest until Catholic nuns are forced to pay for contraceptives. It is time for the Supreme Court to finally put this issue to rest.”

In Chicago, the Thomas More Society, a conservative legal group, has filed a complaint against the state of Illinois over a new abortion law that requires health insurance policies to cover elective abortions. Michael McHale, counsel for the Thomas More Society, told the Christian Post that the new law puts them in a double bind, “Either we purchase health insurance plans that cover abortion and violate our deeply held religious and moral principles, or we abide by our principles and forgo providing insurance, thereby violating our conscientious duties to offer appropriate benefits to our employees and severely undermining our ability to provide a suitable place of employment.”

Christian principles will continue to come under attack. We must pray for those who try to restrict our religious beliefs and for the courts that face the task of making decisions that allow us to continue to have religious freedom.