And Then, Everything Turned
By Tom Gilbreath
As the rebels advanced on Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s longtime ruler, did something no one in his right mind would have predicted even a few weeks earlier. According to numerous published reports, he called on Israel for help. Let that sink in. Assad, puppet dictator of Syria — propped up and controlled by Iran — suddenly found himself reaching out to Iran’s mortal enemy, Israel, to save him. For a variety of reasons, Israel could not and would not militarily intervene on behalf of this cruel man. But that he would come to a point of such extreme desperation shows how much the Middle East changed in a matter of days.
The Syrian civil war began way back in 2011. By 2014, Assad was losing. That’s when his fellow Shiite Muslims in Iran intervened on his behalf. They ordered Hezbollah, their proxies in Lebanon, to move into Syria. In 2015, at Iran’s urging, Russia joined the fight with a major commitment of air and ground forces. That’s when the rebels found themselves outmanned and outgunned. Assad sold his soul to the Iranians. But ten years later, everything changed.
Fifteen months ago, Israel seemed more vulnerable than at any point in its modern history, starting with severe inner strife. They called elections repeatedly, but each resulted in a stalemate. With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under indictment, he barely clung to power. The Knesset (Israel’s parliament) voted to reform the court system. Outraged Israeli liberals took to the streets in protest. An ongoing dispute over subjecting members of the ultra-Orthodox community to the military draft threatened to upend a governing coalition that was already barely tenable.
Then October 7th came and caught the nation totally by surprise. It was the worst intelligence failure in modern Israel’s history. Frustration over the Jewish state’s inability to secure the release of all the hostages added to the internal anger and dissention.
Outside of Israel, the response to the Hamas attack exposed a level of Jew-hatred stronger than anyone knew. Instead of being outraged at Hamas, many across the globe proclaimed their solidarity with the group famous for terrorizing both Israelis and Palestinians. Despite the savage butchery of the attack, most of the world’s nations were soon condemning Israel. For defending his nation and his people, the International Criminal Court would later indict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then issue a global warrant for his arrest.
College campuses in the United States seethed with hatred — not just hatred for Israel, but for Jews everywhere. This was no small thing. The most elite, prestigious, and influential campuses tended to be the ones most saturated with antisemitism.
October 7, 2023, proved to be a dark day in Israel’s history. But when we look back on it, we should also see it as a dark day in the history of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Shiite Muslims worldwide, and Iran in particular. Hamas and Hezbollah have been shattered. Maybe they will pick up the pieces or maybe others like them will take their place. But for now, they are broken. Iran’s military has been exposed as weak and ineffective. Its defenses have been smashed.
The Editor in Chief of Israel Today, Aviel Schneider, wrote, “If the Shiite clerics and leaders are as religious as they pretend to be in their hate speech against Israel and the Zionists, then surely behind closed doors they are wondering what kind of powerful God is fighting for Israel.”
The Bible has been written, but its story continues. When will the world notice that in modern Israel, God has done and continues to do what He long ago said He would do for Israel in the latter times? Once again, God has shown His mighty hand, and we should stand in awe.