Hello, I'm Steve Conover, Executive Vice President and VP of Media Ministries here at the Friends of Israel. This is Israel at War. I've asked Dr. Jim Showers, Executive Director of the Friends of Israel, back for the next two episodes. He'll discuss the current situation in Israel now that Israel is several weeks into the war following the brutal terror attacks on October 7th. We're going to discuss Gaza today and I can't help but think about the fact that we are celebrating Friends of Israel's 85th birthday on December 1st. This is significant because we are still standing against violent anti-Semitism all these years later. Hello Jim. Hi, Steve. Thanks for inviting me to come today. And your point is very well taken. Here it is, 85 years after the Friends of Israel began, and we came into existence to stand against anti-Semitism, to help Jewish people who are being persecuted, and the persecution continues. And so our mission is as vital today as it's ever been. But, you know, for those who hold to the idea, the concept that the church has replaced Israel or that God's fulfilled all the promises to Israel, what's going on today in Israel makes no sense. There would be no reason for that to be going on because we understand it is a spiritual battle. It's not just a political battle. And we see the forces of evil playing out here in what's been going on for the last month and a half. And here we are several weeks later. We've looked at Israel at war from several different angles in the series. So if we were to pull the lens back a little bit and analyze what's happening in Gaza, do you think the Hamas could have anticipated how massive an united attack that Israel would have made? It's a great question because it's a yes-no answer. We know from the intelligence that's been collected from terrorists who were captured and the materials they left behind, those that perished in their materials they left behind, that Hamas's goal that day on October 7th when they launched the attack was to drive all the way into Israel going as far as the West Bank. But we also know that they recognized that Israel would strike them, and the next day they would be under attack from missiles as the IDF responded to their attack. So on the one hand, yes, they did anticipate Israel would strike back. But where they got it wrong was that they thought it would be similar to past conflicts with Israel, where they would go through a few weeks of targeted strikes by the Air Force, maybe the ground forces would go in for a few days, and then there would be a ceasefire, and they'd go back to business as usual. What they did not anticipate was the united effort by Israel, the fact that Israel was so divided politically at the time of the attack, they thought that they could drive a wedge between that. Instead, it's unified the country. There's no talk about political division right now. Parties that were out of power have joined the parties in power to have a unified government during this war. And so from every report I'm getting, the people of Israel are virtually, everyone's united behind what is going on, and they all are of one mind. They cannot permit somebody who would carry out such an evil attack, not just killing innocent people, but torturing and mutilating them beyond what we can even imagine. They cannot allow them to be able to come together and do that again. So they have to totally put Hamas out of business. And that's what Israel says they're there to do. And we've seen, over the last three weeks, incredible progress. The last three weeks, the end of October, after three weeks of targeted, high-value attacks, missile attacks by the Air Force and artillery attacks, We've seen the ground troops go in with incredible success. So Israel's, that is part of what they miscalculated. The other part Hamas miscalculated was the support of the international community, beginning with the U.S., who was sent two aircraft carriers into the Mediterranean. along with submarines. We know from some of the leadership in the comments they're making, they've acknowledged they never anticipated that the U.S. would step in. They're trying to get the U.S. out of the Middle East, and this has backfired in terms of bringing the U.S. more involved in the Middle East. So, But we're even seeing like in Europe, the Western world is pretty united from a government leadership standpoint of supporting what Israel is doing and understanding why Israel has to continue what they're doing in Gaza until there is no more threat from Hamas. There's the human plane and then there's the spiritual plane. We talked a little bit about the human success that Israel has had. What do you attribute the overall success of Israel's military campaign? Well, you know, as you say, you begin to think about, you know, the political plane. Israel has the best military in the Middle East. They have the best technology, the best training. They've learned from past experiences in battling Hamas and Hezbollah. And so they are coordinating unprecedented in what they're doing, but they have a whole team. And all they do is monitor what each of the IDF units are doing in Gaza, collecting information, and then determining how to support them. as they see units moving through Gaza, they are striking ahead of wherever they're going, wherever there's resistance. So by the time the ground troops get there, the resistance is pretty much defeated. They just have to mop up, if you will. And so, It's an amazing way they're operating within Gaza. It's having great success. We're seeing low number of casualties. Every casualty is unfortunate. We wish no IDF soldiers would die. And yet when they talk to IDF soldiers, they say, we realize we're putting our life on the line, but we have to do that. So there's the political plane, the human plane, if you will, but spiritually, You know, the forces of darkness, I don't know if you saw that Abbas, Mr. Abbas, the leader of the PLO, has already come out and denied that Hamas created any of these atrocities. They're blaming the deaths on the IDF and their response. And so, just like the Holocaust denial, we're seeing that the other leadership, the Palestinian leadership in Israel, is denying what Hamas did. And so, you know, when Israel gets control of Hamas at some point, they want somebody to take over the political leadership and run Gaza. And our government, the U.S. government, wants that to be the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization. But somebody who's denying the massacre took place and denying the Holocaust can't be the ones to be put in charge because they will allow Hamas or another organization like them to rise to power and continue the campaign of trying to eradicate Israel from the land of Israel. So the Hamas is going to be under control or Israel will have control of that area. How long do they stay? Is there any way we can know? Because we know that governments should have the right to stay and occupy land until they're given guarantees of security. Well, the images we're seeing coming out of Gaza, particularly northern Gaza, where Israel has been getting control, are pretty stunning. We're seeing missile launchers next to schools and mosques. We're seeing weapons stored under mosques, schools, hospitals. The al-Shifa Hospital, which is the major hospital in Gaza City, taken over by Hamas, and that was one of their main command centers in all of Gaza. So they have an extensive tunnel network underneath, but they use the hospital for entrance points. We saw videos this week of hostages being taken into the hospital on October 7th when they were brought back to Gaza. And we've seen how they put a lot of their missile launchers and weapons storage right on the hospital properties and close by. This is what Israel cannot permit to happen again. We know that the campaign is having great success, but they're saying four, six weeks, maybe longer. Nobody can say for sure how long it'll be till Israel gets control of all of Gaza. But the plan seems to be now that they've gotten the major control of the north is to begin moving south. They've already dropped leaflets saying they're coming to get out of the way. And they have to get control of the south as well. Once that's accomplished, Israel says they do not want to stay in Gaza. They want somebody to come in that can put order back to Gaza, create a stable government. That's a real challenge, because who is that? Is it other Arab nations? Is it European nations, U.S.? Who is that? Is it, for example, in Egypt or Jordan or Saudi Arabia? And certainly our government's stepping in to say we want that to be the PLO, but that seems to be a game plan to go right back to where they started. We have yet to see how that's going to work out. Nobody can predict right now. But Bibi Netanyahu has been very consistent in saying we are not going to stay in Gaza like they did before. They want to pull out once they're done, but only when they can be certain that Hamas or a terrorist organization won't rise up again. The other thing Israel's talking about is possibly maintaining a police force presence in Gaza, much like they do in the West Bank, where local control in certain areas is given to the Palestinian Arabs, but the police control, Israel pretty much handles that. And they have great experience doing that, so they know how to make that work. So I don't believe in a long-term Israel will stay in Gaza. That could change. Circumstances could change. I don't think the world, you know, the support they have from the West will wane if they stay beyond any longer than they need to. But somebody's got to figure out who is that group who will come in and put order back to Gaza and allow it to be rebuilt. and become a stable country where they benefit economically instead of impoverishing their people and bringing so much pain and suffering on them. So I've read recently that now we're, say, about six weeks into the war, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, they've fired over 1,000 drone attacks and missile attacks. So that's what we'll discuss in our next episode. I look forward to it. Thank you, Jim. You may be wondering what you can do for Israel at this critical time. If you want to stand with Israel and bring comfort to the Jewish people, you can donate at foi.org slash stand with Israel. Use the link in the description to make a much needed gift.