VFI News January 21, 2020

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph. 6:12

Britain's finance ministry on Friday 17 Jan. 2020 announced it had added the entire Hezbollah organization to its list of terrorist groups subject to asset freezing. The ministry previously only targeted Hezbollah’s military wing but has now listed the whole group - which includes both the political and military facets - as a terrorist organization. The change requires any individual or institution in Britain with accounts or financial services connected to Hezbollah to suspend them or face prosecution. The Treasury said in a notice posted on its website, "The Hezbollah group in its entirety is assessed to be involved in terrorism. This listing includes the Military Wing, the Jihad Council and all units reporting to it, including the External Security Organization." Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, was established in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and is an integral part of a regional Tehran-led alliance. (Arutz-7)

Thank you, intercessors, for “wrestling” in prayer against the spiritual powers that operate behind one of Israel’s worst foes and one of Iran’s greatest partners in terrorist crimes. Keep praying until the Hezbollah terrorist group is utterly crippled financially and defused globally.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) responded to the British Finance Ministry's announcement on Friday 17 Jan. 2020 that it had added the entire Hezbollah organization to its list of terrorist groups subject to asset freezing. "I applaud the British government for its decision to include all Hezbollah organizations, including the political echelon - under the legislation that allows freezing all of its assets as a terrorist organization," Katz said. "This is a great achievement for the State of Israel in the fight against Iran and its proxies in the region, mainly Hezbollah." Katz added that he had raised the issue in his meeting with the British Foreign Minister, and is thankful for the Minister's decision to act on the matter. (Arutz-7/VFI News)

 “Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.” Isa. 41:12

USA President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on the import of cars manufactured in Europe if continental powers continue to back the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal. Reports to this effect were confirmed by the defense minister of Germany, which along with Britain and France earlier this week triggered the accord’s dispute mechanism following a series of violations by Iran. In response, Tehran’s foreign minister said that London, Paris and Berlin had caved to USA pressure and accused President Trump of acting like a “high school bully.” Trump in May 2018 withdrew Washington from the agreement and re-imposed crippling economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iran recently announced that it would no longer abide by any of the restrictions placed on its uranium enrichment program. Tensions between Washington and Tehran reached a crescendo this month with the targeted killing in a USA drone strike of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, to which Iran responded by launching a coordinated ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing American soldiers. (Media Line/VFI News)

Actually the world’s biggest “high-school bully,” is the Islamist regime in Iran that oppresses and intimidates its own people and especially delights in harassing Israel and the USA. Iran’s bully gang includes terrorist entities such as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip. Both have been unceasing thorns in Israel’s side. Pray that the EU nations will be of one accord that the 2015 nuclear agreement has from the beginning simply been a game of pretending on the part of Tehran - a game that needs to be scrapped in full.

Arthur Stark, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, last week issued a statement of solidarity with the Iranian people protesting against the regime. "The brutal treatment of innocent Iranians in recent days is unacceptable and must be forcefully condemned by the international community and all who value human and civil rights." The people of Iran began protesting this month after the IRGC admitted that it downed Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, killing all 176 people on board, many of them Iranians. "The violent crackdown aimed at silencing the legitimate grievances of a proud people demonstrates the regime’s ruthless disregard for the well-being of its citizens. This follows a similar brutal response to protests that took such a heavy toll in human life several weeks ago," Stark and Hoenlein wrote. Iranian supreme leader Khamenei ordered his security apparatus to put down at all cost the protest that engulfed Iran in November 2019, which led to the killing of 1500 demonstrators and the injuring and arrests of thousands. (J. Post)

Pray that the stronghold of evil will be broken over the Iranian people and that a new reality of freedom and abundant life will emerge in their country. Iranians, while driven in part by economic concerns, are also protesting against the lies and tyranny of their oppressive, Islamist government.

The “beginning of the end” of the Iranian regime has started, former crown prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi said last week in a talk at the Hudson Institute in Washington. “People smell the opportunity for the first time in 40 years,” he added. “This time is very different from 2009, even very different from 1997. The people have had it. Today’s generation of young Iranians cannot take it anymore. They want to have an opportunity for a better future. They want to be on the path of modernity and freedom. The only thing that stands between them and the free world is this regime. To the forces that are employing repression as a tool, all I can say is that there are not enough people they can kill to maintain this regime in power. They better stand down and join with their brethren,” he highlighted. He called on Western nations not to take an approach of appeasement with Iran. “All such efforts have focused on changing the regime’s behavior. All have failed. It is time to recognize that this is not a normal regime and that it will not change its behavior.” He added: “For 40 years, the regime has shown that its agenda is not Iran and the Iranian people, it’s survival at the expense of oppressing people and repressing them to the point of killing.” (J. Post)      

Israel lost 14,800 Holocaust survivors last year, bringing the total number living in the Jewish homeland to approximately 192,000.  Of the remaining survivors living in Israel, 64% were born in Europe, including 36% who came from the former Soviet Union, 18% from Romania, and 6% from Poland, according to figures released last week by Israel’s Survivors' Rights Authority. Many of the non-European survivors had their roots in the Middle East where persecutions were also rife. 18% were born in Morocco and Algeria, where Jews suffered under the French Vichy regime overseen by Nazi rule. (J. Post)

The "Holocaust" refers to the period from 30 January 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, to 8 May 1945, the end of the war in Europe. Millions of Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by Hitler and his brutal cohorts during this time. While it is impossible to ascertain the exact number of Jewish victims six million is the round figure. Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of concentration and death camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Buchenwald was a German Nazi concentration camp established near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and largest of the concentration camps on German soil. It was in holes such as these that Jewish victims were starved, tortured, subjected to slave labor, beatings, inhumane medical experiments and murdered in gas chambers by the millions. Elderly Holocaust survivors in Israel suffer mental and physical torments to this day. Their children in many cases bear traumatic scars as a result of being raised by such emotionally and physically shattered parents. (VFI News)

After the Holocaust, most of the world hoped - if not agreed - that the worst page in human history would never be repeated. Tragically, we see the alarming rise of anti-Semitism across the globe putting this hope/belief/assumption to a severe test. Pray that the deadly evil once again rearing its head against the Jewish people - and now Israel - will be exposed, fought against and defeated. “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Jas. 5:16

The pain, the memories and losses of being a victim of the Holocaust never heal completely. Life goes on but these - now very elderly, precious people - are greatly in need of encouragement and support to live out the rest of their lives as serenely as possible. Vision for Israel continues to provide comfort and provision for many of the nation’s poor. Holocaust survivors and their well-being are an ongoing focus of financial aid and vital provision from our VFI funds and supplies. Please enable us to do all that we can. Give generously at www.visionforisrael.com. Your donations are deeply needed and appreciated.