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Op-Ed: 'Good News from a Far Country'

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- says, “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”
 
In 2015, some 3,000 years after King Solomon began to reign in Jerusalem, he penned these words, which still resonate today with bad news often dominating the news feeds.
 
Despite the morning headlines, despite the turmoil going on in neighboring countries, a lot of good things are happening in Israel today.
 
In contrast, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya are not the only countries in the Middle East with their own mini-wars going on.
 
In Syria, for example, what started as social protests against an oppressive regime became a full blown civil war that's left more than 300,000 dead and millions more fleeing to surrounding countries. 
 
The Syrian war soon morphed into internecine fighting between various Islamic groups collectively called opposition forces. After a couple of years, Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based Iranian proxy, sent troops to fight alongside of President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Today, ISIS jihadists have joined the mix, along Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps and now Russia has stepped in.
 
Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims are fair game for all radical Islamists, as they explain from time to time in videotaped messages on YouTube, sometimes accompanied by graphic footage of torture and executions.
 
Meanwhile, many European countries are inundated with Muslims, with even more coming ashore in the latest refugee crisis. Among the thousands seeking refuge are radical Islamists who plan to infiltrate European culture and help those already there to make it their own. And it’s not just in Europe. It’s happening in other places, including America.
 
While Christianity and Judaism can coexist for the most part with other faiths, that’s not Islam's end goal. By biblical standards, it's a counterfeit faith with some pretty gruesome practices under its system of governance, Sharia law, which subjugates females, including "honor killings" should their male counterparts think it's warranted. It also includes beheadings, lashes and stoning, amputations, etc.
 
In Europe and other parts of the world, deception and political correctness motivate government officials to accommodate its culture's demands.
 
Mutual respect is one thing, but when the aspirations of a faith is to bring the world under its dominance, then it’s obviously not a good thing.

In Israel, despite incitement from Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and the Gaza Strip, Jews and Muslims live and work side-by-side in much of the country.
 
But that's not the goal of Palestinian leaders from either faction. For whatever their disagreements and power struggles are with one another, they're lined up on at least one point: refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist as the Jewish nation-state. There's simply no place in their Muslim belief system for coexistence.
 
Nonetheless, Israel is flourishing. It's struggling in many areas, but it's progressing at the same time. There are continual improvements to the infrastructure. Tourists are coming despite the security situation. In almost every sector, medical research, hi-tech, agriculture, import-export, defense, education and just about everywhere else, the country is growing and life is good.
 
Despite the double standard -- as seen in dozens of U.N. resolutions against Israel and the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions Movement (BDS), among other things -- Israeli leadership will continue to reach out to international leaders.
 
Next week, Netanyahu will be President Obama's guest at the White House, despite the Iranian deal and all the rest that's taken place between the two leaders.
 
Here's the bottom line: God has a plan for this small but determined nation that no one and nothing can thwart.
 
So take King Solomon's advice and satisfy your thirsty soul with "good news from a far country."

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird’s eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe’s parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar’s pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.