Hundreds of thousands of Israelis gathered in Jerusalem on April 27 to support the PM and the governm

2022 election, the Prime Minister saw that he had received a mandate for the needed judicial reform. The proposed reform has four parts: the override clause, removing the reasonability test; appointing judges; and legal advisers. The government’s plan would weaken Israel’s Supreme Court by limiting its power to review laws and strike them down. The appointment of judges by the ruling (right-wing) government has angered the opposition. The Knesset is scheduled to vote for it.

The Prime Minister has argued that “The balance between the branches in the governmental system has been violated over the last two decades and even more so in the recent years. One thing I am not willing to accept is a minority of extremists that are willing to tear our country to shreds…escorting us to civil war and calling for refusal of army service, which is a terrible crime.” Parts of the military have joined the protests, refusing to show up for reserve duty and are vowing not to serve if the reform plan is approved. As the protests continue, the Prime Minister has paused the reform plans to avoid further civil unrest.

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Exiled Jews returned to stay

Israel’s Independence Day was founded on the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel by the Jewish leadership, headed by future Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948. As seen in the historic documentary films, the mood outside of Ben-Gurion’s home just prior to the declaration was joyous.

“The Jews of Palestine…were dancing because they were about to realize what was one of the most remarkable and inspiring achievements in human history: A people which had been exiled from its homeland two thousand years before, which had endured countless pogroms, expulsions, and persecutions, but which had refused to relinquish its identity─which had, on the contrary, substantially strengthened that identity; a people which only a few years before had been the victim of mankind’s largest single act of mass murder, killing a third of the world’s Jews, that people was returning home as sovereign citizens in their own independent state.” (“Ben-Gurion and the return to Jewish Power” by Michael B. Oren)

Independence was declared eight hours before the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, which was due to end on May 15, 1948. The operative paragraph of the Declaration expresses the declaration to be by “virtue of our natural and historic right and on the basis of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly.” The new state was quickly recognized by the U.S., the Soviet Union and many other countries. However, the surrounding Arab states declared war on the new state.

The Arab-Israeli War (Israel’s War of Independence) began on May 15, 1948─a day after Israel was declared independent. The Arab population of the newly established Jewish state responded by rioting and attacking the Jewish villages. In the days leading to the war and during the first weeks, leaders of the surrounding Arab countries urged Israeli Arabs to leave and temporarily settle elsewhere. It was widely broadcast in the Arab world that the Jews would be driven away so that the Arabs (estimated 700,000) could soon return to their homes and even occupy the vacated Jewish homes.

However, in the coming years, about 800,000 Jewish refugees arrived from Europe and the neighboring Arab countries. Some Palestinian Arabs returned to Israel, but most remained for decades in the tens of refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency set up the camps. As the Jewish State today celebrates the annual Independence Day, the state’s Arab population commemorates Nakba Day (Memory of the Catastrophe). In December 2022, the UN passed a resolution to observe Nakba Day at the General Assembly on the same day, May 15th.

Righteous Gentiles Among the Nations

When Yad VaShem, the Shoah Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953 by the Knesset, one of its tasks was to commemorate the Righteous Gentiles Among the Nations. The Righteous were defined as non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Since 1963, a commission headed by the Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel has been charged with the duty of awarding the honorary title. Guided in its work by certain criteria, the commission meticulously studies all documentation including evidence by survivors and other eyewitnesses, evaluates the historical circumstances and the element of risk to the rescuer, and then decides if the case meets the criteria.

The award has been given without regard to the social rank of the helper. It has been given to royalty such as Princess Alice of Battenberg, Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, but also to others like the philosopher Jacques Ellul and to the department store employee Hendrika Gerritsen in Amsterdam.

A person who is recognized as Righteous for having taken risks to help Jews during the Holocaust is awarded a medal in their name, a certificate of honor, and the privilege of having their name added to those on the Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad VaShem. The awards are distributed to the rescuers or their next of kin during ceremonies in Israel, or in their countries of residence through the offices of Israel’s diplomatic representatives.

As of January 2021, a total of 27,921 men and women from fifty-one countries have been officially recognized for having risked their lives or their liberty and position to help the Jews during the Holocaust. The list of Righteous Among the Nations includes most of the European countries, such as Poland with 7,177, Netherlands with 5,910, France with 4,150, Ukraine with 2,673, Belgium with 1,774, and Lithuania with 918. The United States is listed with five Righteous having saved Jewish lives.

The symbol of the Righteous Among The Nations

At least 130 Righteous non-Jews have settled in Israel. They were welcomed by Israeli authorities and were granted citizenship. They are entitled to a pension, free health care, and assistance with housing and nursing care. Some Righteous Gentiles settled already in British Mandatory Palestine before Israel’s establishment and more came later.

The early comers often spoke fluent Hebrew and integrated well into Israeli society. The children and grandchildren of Righteous Gentiles are entitled to temporary residence status, but not to permanent Israeli citizenship.

Member of the Nazi Party

A German industrialist, humanitarian activist and a member of the Nazi Party, Oskar Schindler, is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunition factories in occupied Poland.

By July 1944, Germany was losing the war, the SS began closing down the easternmost concentration camps and deporting the remaining prisoners westward. Many were murdered in Auschwitz and other camps. Learning about it all, Schindler convinced the SS commandant of the nearby camp to allow him to move his factory to Brnenec (Bohemia-Moravia), thus sparing his workers from almost certain death in the gas chambers.

By his bribing the Nazi officers, l,200 people from the Jewish Ghetto were allowed to travel to Schindler’s relocated factory in Brnenec. Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent the execution of his

workers until the end of WW2 in May 1945, by which time he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and making black market purchases to supply his factory needs and sustain his workers. At its peak, Schindler employed about 1,750 workers of whom over one thousand were Jews.

Schindler’s factory in Brnence

Oskar Schindler died in October 1974 in Germany but was buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. He was the only former Nazi Party member to be honored this way. In 1993, Oskar and Emilie Schindler were named Righteous Among the Nations.

Nationwide protests 

Under PM Netanyahu’s leadership, the current government is planning to overhaul Israel’s judicial system. News about the expected changes has caused Israelis to protest for weeks. At the end of February, over 300,000 Israelis in cities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Herzlya, Haifa and Beersheba participated in mass protests. Former PM Ehud Barak joined the protestors, encouraging people to disobedience. Following Barak’s comments, the Likud Party filed a complaint against him with the police. 

 Deadly February 

 A total of fourteen Israelis were killed in February by Palestinian Arabs. Terrorist attacks took the lives of children, teenagers, sons, mothers and fathers─ civilians and soldiers. The latest victim was an American-Israeli, Elan Ganeles (26), who visited Israel to attend a friend’s wedding. He was shot to death near the Dead Sea while driving to the event. Elan served as a computer programmer in the IDF before returning to the States. Elan’s parents arrived to the funeral as they wanted their son to be buried in Israel. Elan is the last on the right in the above picture collection. The two young men next to him were soldiers who were killed a day before Elan. May they all rest in peace. 

 Prophetic word from
April 17, 2011 

In light of the events in Israel and the world’s pressure directed toward the Jewish nation, the following prophetic words, given to Lance Lambert in 2011 and 2015, are republished as an urgent call for intercessors. 

“It is well with you that you intercede for Israel that she be saved, for it is My Purpose to save her. I will complete the circle of Redemption that began with Abraham and My Promise that a great nation would come forth from him, and that in him would all the families of the earth be blessed. And so it has happened! For Israel became the vehicle through which My Word has come to all the nations, and also, My Salvation and the knowledge of My Purpose. From this nation, above all, came the Messiah. 

“Soon the fullness of the Gentiles will have been saved, and I will turn again to Israel, to My Jewish People. They shall be reingrafted into their own olive tree, and My Promise to Abraham will be gloriously fulfilled. 

“Then their hardness of heart will melt, their blindness will be turned into sight, and their suffering to radiant Glory. This is my determined purpose, and I shall not be turned from it. It will shortly begin to be fulfilled. I will turn all their weakness into unbelievable power, and I will use this nation as the last witness to the world as to who I am. 

“Take very seriously what is taking place in the Arab world. It is no good for Israel! It is not a move toward freedom and true democracy but an enormous gain for militant Islam. They will seek to annihilate and liquidate Israel, but they will not only fail; their strength and power will be broken, and a huge harvest of souls will be saved from amongst them. 

“Hear Me! I call you to intercession! It will not be easy. All the powers of My enemy are centered and focused on stopping this people from coming into My Redemption and Salvation. But he will fail! I look, therefore, for those who will stand in the gap, who will build up the wall, and those who will stand in the place of intercession. 

“Shortly, also, I will begin more serious judgment on the Western nations. I will bring them to nothing. I will turn them upside down. I will grind them to powder. They will not know what has hit them. It will seem as if there is nothing left of what once I worked in those nations, especially that Superpower. I will bring it to weakness; she will no longer be super but a pity of the nations. 

“Hear this Word of Mine: I call you to intercede for those who belong to Me in those nations, that they will be saved from it! Hear this cry. My heart yearns for those who belong to Me that they might be transparent in their understanding, clear in the way that they are to walk in the midst of all this. 

“Do hear Me! For I speak to you who love Me and who have remembered Me. I do not desire judgment, but the judgment of the most serious and devastating kind will fall upon those nations. Hear this Word from Me, and obey My call to intercession!” 

Lance Remembered

Lance was an advisor for many years to ministries such as CFI Jerusalem. He ministered in our conferences and other events. We miss him greatly. Lance lost most of his family and relatives (total of 60) in the Holocaust. The only relative I learned about was Lance’s sister, living in Jerusalem.

 Watch Russia! 

Prophetic word from
March 15, 2015 

 “Everything in Israel will change, upside down and inside out. Nothing will be where it used to be. They will seek to destroy Israel but they will see that they are destroying themselves. Bibi Netanyahu has been faithful.” 

 “Everything will change and the only certainty is that I am the Lord. Do not fear. I will defend Israel and I will save her. You will suffer and suffer greatly because I will turn everything upside down and inside out. I will not fail you and I will not fail Israel. 

“Take note when you see these things. I am in the battle and I have won. Keep your eyes on my power and you will be safe. 

 “Watch Russia for she is up to no good. Watch her carefully,’ says the Lord. ‘With your own eyes you shall see my triumph over darkness and evil. Trust in me,’ says the Lord. 

 “We have to know the Lord and Power of His resurrection. It is not enough to be a dead Christian. 

If the Lord says it is going to be unparalleled, then it is going to be unparalleled. It is worth knowing Him, and above all, trusting in Him.” 

Lance Lambert
(1931–2015)
Yemin Moshe
Jerusalem