Israel Update for June 2007

Meanwhile the Knesset elected Israel's ninth president in June, and the victor was veteran statesman Shimon Peres. His main rival, the Likud's Ruby Rivlin, received only 38 votes in the first round, with 21 votes going to Labour's candidate, former diplomat Collette Avital. Since it was clear that neither would beat Peres in the second round, both candidates pulled out and asked for a unanimous endorsement for the 83 year old veteran politician. However almost one third of the Knesset members did not take up the suggestion, with some saying they feared the aged firebrand politician would use his new platform to further his left-wing agenda, including a Golan Heights pullout and the uprooting of most Jews currently living in Judea and Samaria.

Gaza's Christians In Peril

Various Israeli and international media outlets reported that the small Gaza Strip Christian community, numbering around 2,000, is in imminent danger following the Hamas conquest. As PA forces squared off with Hamas fighters, attacks were launched on several churches and a Christian school in Gaza City, where most live, leading to an appeal from church leaders for international intervention. Many said they planned to flee the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

One news report quoted a senior Hamas official warning that Christian women from now on must cover their heads in public, as Muslim women are required to do, adding that all alcoholic beverages, including ceremonial wine, will be banned from Gaza. He also threatened that any Christian caught carrying out any missionary activity would be "harshly dealt with."

Gaza's tiny Christian community is obviously in dire need of prayer in the wake of the Hamas takeover, along with moderate Muslims. May the God of all comfort watch over His people in Gaza, the God who "sets the needy securely on high away from affliction, and makes His families like a flock" (Psalm 108:41).