Inside Israel

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is —

Greetings with grace and mercy in The Blessed Name of our Lord, Yeshua h’meshiach. Oh Lord, be glorified and blessed.  Oh Lord, give us understanding and Your grace to walk in Your will.  May my brothers and sisters be blessed and encouraged.  Thank You for each one.

I was afraid that someone might ask this question and here it came: “Good evening!  is it possible for you to help us understand the Israeli election system and what this dead-lock means?”

 With The Lord’s help, I will do my best, but please understand that I am an immigrant and my understanding is limited.  You will be getting my opinion and observations.  May He anoint for His glory.

The nightmare scenario that we were dreading – happened; yet another deadlock.

“How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, Not reckoning itself among the nations.“ (Numbers 23:8-9)

God DID call us to be a people NOT RECKONED AMONG THE NATIONS and yet that is exactly what we have sought to do more and more.  Just like the body of Messiah is called to come out from among them and be separate, not being conformed to the image of The World, Israel has One Master Who has called us to be separate and different.  As I saw the election results I thought, “We have not sought You, but to be like the nations and we are now JUST like them: DIVIDED!’

I have been praying with Habakkuk –  “Lord, in wrath remember mercy.”  In MY OPINION we are seeing a measure of judgment. I have spoken to others who see this differently.

As I sought to explain, we have 120 seats in the Knesset (our parliament) and our leadership is made up of a coalition government meaning that there is generally a large party (our largest parties for a long time have been the Likud on the right and Labor  on the left.  Labor has become very small but the new party, Blue and White, has risen) which makes agreements with smaller parties and they seek to rule together, to form a coalition.

The minimum amount of seats held sitting in agreement to form a government, must be 61.  The one with less seats forms the opposition.   Each party has a leader.  Prime Minister Netanyahu has been the leader of the Likud, the top party up until now.  It now looks like Blue and White – the newest “biggest party” led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid jointly (in Hebrew ‘cokhol vay lavan’) has 33 seats and Likud 31.  Adding in their natural allies (parties that basically agree with them) so far NEITHER Likud nor Blue and While can gain enough seats to meet the required 61.

Ok.  That is the background in a nutshell.

UNITY GOVERNMENT:  Sounds ideal!

It really DOES work when we are in a war.  Although we are on the verge of war most of the time, we are not currently IN a war.  CAN THEY WORK TOGETHER?  AND WHO IS THE ‘THEY’?  In the past, most unity governments were paralyzed in many areas.

According to the news today, which changes minute by minute and between media outlets, Netanyahu has reached out and asked for a Unity Government.  Our President, NOT a close friend of Netanyahu, said, “That sounded wonderful.”

Benny Gantz said, “NONSENSE” and rejected it.

Somewhere between Sunday and Wednesday, our president, Ruby Rivlin, will name one of them to try to form a coalition government within the 24 or 48 (extended) day period.  The coalition negotiations will begin.  IF NEITHER SIDE CAN FORM A GOVERNMENT … WE MUST AGAIN GO TO ELECTIONS…for the third time.  MEANWHILE, Prime Minister Netanyahu SHOULD find out if he is being indicted or not.

Most people seem to want a Unity Government at this point as the best for the nation, but to get the parties to agree to this and iron it out is more nasty, muddy work.  We have had a fair amount of Unity Governments in the past.  There was one since we have been here and a number of times in the 70s and 80s.  We must now PRAY and wait and see and PRAY!

I will keep this short as I want to write to you about Rosh h’Shana coming a week from Sunday night.

Your sister,

J

P. S. Here are two links that have good explanations concerning our elections:

honestreporting-chaos- Israel Democracy…an explainer

Rivlin: I will do all I can to avoid third round of elections (Explaining President’s role)