A day after Iran fired medium-range ballistic missiles at the Islamic State (IS) terror militia in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying “We are following their actions and we are following their words. I have one message to Iran: Don’t threaten Israel.” An earlier Iranian statement signaled that the attacks on IS should also be a cautionary message to Teheran’s other enemies in the region.

Amidst a fierce debate in the Knesset over plans to allow for a large increase in building activity in the Palestinian Authority administered city of Kalkiliya in the West Bank, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported Monday that construction in Jewish settlement communities has dropped off considerably in recent months. The report came a day before envoys for US President Donald Trump are scheduled to arrive in the region for talks with Israeli and PA officials.

The Kremlin issued  a stark warning on Monday that any US-led coalition aircraft flying west of the Euphrates River in Syria would be treated as “targets” following an incident over the weekend in which a US Navy jet shot down an Assad regime bomber which was involved in an attack on US-allied rebel factions. Russia also took the step of suspending its participation in a “hotline” between the two countries forces in the region meant to prevent a wider conflict.

In what analysts are describing as a diplomatic victory for Israel, the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva was held on Wednesday without the participation of several European countries in the debate over Agenda Item 7, the mandated debate on Israel which traditionally devolves into general and repetitive condemnation of the Jewish State. Diplomats from several Arab and Moslem countries did participate, including in their remarks complaints that Western countries weren’t doing the same.

The 2001 Durban Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia that took place in Durban, South Africa, 16 years ago is still considered the opening shot in the intensifying global war to delegitimize Israel.  It was at the United Nations-sponsored Durban Conference that Israel was defamed and charged with being the “new” apartheid South Africa.

Rev. John Howanstine shares a word of exhortation on the walk of Deeper Faithfulness.