Two traffic jams brought commuters to a stop in Israel today (Tuesday, December 2).
The first, a massive snarl-up, began building in the early hours of the morning on the ring roads around Tel Aviv. Tens of thousands of people on their way to work in the “White City” found themselves at a standstill. Israel’s Internal Security Services had received warning that Palestinian Arabs planned to carry out a terror attack, or series of attacks, in the bustling Mediterranean metropolis. Roadblocks were erected at the entrances to and exits from Tel Aviv, manned by police and the paramilitary Border Police. It was the most serious such alert for some time.
The plot was reportedly foiled around mid-morning when police swooped on a house in nearby Bat-Yam and nailed two Arabs. One of them led officers to a trash can where he had hidden explosives brought in earlier from the Samarian town of Jenin. They were intended for use in an attack on Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station in the evening. The goal: to kill as many Jews as possible. The would-be murderer: a Muslim.
Barely was the alert lifted, and the traffic began to untangle, when a second jam set in in Jerusalem. As I was collecting my children from school, a police helicopter started circling overhead. Very quickly, the stream of traffic along the nearby main road stopped and began to back up.
This time it was not because of a planned terrorist attack, but a successful one. Fourteen hours earlier, an Israeli Air Force plane touched down at Ben Gurion Airport, where it was met by a large crowd of mourners. On board were the bodies of six Jews - victims of the Mumbai massacres that took place late last week. They had been murdered simply because they were Jews. Their killers were Muslims.
As I look out of my window towards the Mount of Olives where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his 28-year-old wife Rivka and her unborn child were about to be interred, I hear, floating up from the Hinnom Valley, the Muslim muezzin chanting his call to prayer. His words were likely the same as the last ones heard by the Holtzberg’s before their killers fell upon them. “Allahu akber” - Allah is greater.
In Chabad House in Mumbai, and in Jerusalem, Israel, all praise for the killing of Jews goes to him.
A sad day indeed…. I pray their little 2 yr old son who witnessed his parents and unborn sibling’s deaths by these Muslim terrorists will rise up to be a mighty warrior for GOD and for Israel. And may all of Israel and all those in the world who love Zion stand with him. This has to stop!
As we mourn the deaths of the Holtzbergs, in the same way we mourn the deaths of all innocents whose lives were ended for the cause of the Adversary’s hatred for Israel, our grief is given solace and comfort that the LORD Almighty God still reigns, and these people whose lives represent the constant struggle for Israeli freedom are not to be forgotten.
Israel’s future political fortunes bear the hopes in the continuing battle for a peaceful place in the world community, and yet it is seen in the deaths of the Holtzbergs, and in the chantings of Muslims that such peace, if actually achieved with the non-Israeli neighborhood, will come at a high cost.
Others have reached the more pressing conclusion that Mumbai is yet another signal that peace is only achievable at the complete expense of the Israeli homeland. Nearer enemies chafe as they wait for their turn. (Lebanon/Syria and their bedfellows have been prepared: they wait for their call to judgment. Others will follow).
While this appears on the surface to be the expected end as pressed for by so many, we know that the Eternal Sovereign has prepared for His WORD to be executed upon the land, and that all nations will be convened to answer shortly for their crimes against Israel and her people. Then will the lives of the Holtzbergs, and all their fellow countrymen/women/children now sacrificed, find their justification in the cause for judging Israel’s enemies.
Gripping, heartwrenching, and as always: truthful. When will the leaders of Israel start defending their land by saying “No more land for peace deals”? There is no peace for Jews regardless of where they live, work, or visit as long as there are evil men like these. May the Lord G-d Himself call His judgement upon these murderers and those who trained them to do such an evil act as torture and murder upon all the victims (Jew AND Gentile) of the Mumbai massacre. May He bring his unexplainable peace and comfort to the families of those who died, as well as to the survivors and their families.
Shalom Stan,
The terrible terrorist murder of Rabbi Holtzberg, 29 and his wife Rivka really struck home for Pastor Gunderson who you met during your stay here in Washington several years ago. The late Mrs. Holtzberg is the mirror image of his daughter and her surviving boy bears also a remarkable resemblence to his
grandson . Their repective ages were also the same. Therefore as he watched the news from Israel , via the internet , in stunned silence the reality of the brutality of these sensless acts and the loss of these victims, indeed all victims , to their loved ones bruised his heart in a personal way. We pray that Yeshua ben David will come quickly and make all things right ….Even so come Lord Jesus!
Isaiah 64:1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,