Jewish-Christian journalist Joel C. Rosenberg, a best-selling author based in Jerusalem, says that attacks by Hamas and Iran have sparked a spiritual crisis for Israelis, including secular Jews, while Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank may be reassessing their support for radical Islamism.
“This [conflict] rattled Israel to our core,” said Mr. Rosenberg, who runs All Israel News, a website focusing on regional news for an evangelical Christian readership.
“I believe, as a Bible believer, that this comes right out of … the Hebrew prophet Amos, chapter nine, verse nine, where God says ‘In the future, in the end days, I will shake the whole house of Israel.’ And the house of Israel was shaken very badly,” he said.
“People are asking questions: ‘Is there a God? Does he love us? Can he be trusted? And will he show us a way out of this?’”
Mr. Rosenberg said Israelis are holding different views of the conflict’s spiritual impact, depending on their religious orientation.
“Some religious people are angry and saying, ‘God abandoned us, or maybe he’s not even there,’ and secular people are like, ‘We abandoned God. Maybe he is there. And it’s our fault … not that we got attacked, but that we were not under his care and keeping,’” he said
The “massive dislocation” that followed the Israel Defense Forces’ counteroffensive in Gaza means “it’s going to take some time for the smoke to clear, literally and figuratively” before the impact on Palestinians’ spiritual lives can be measured, he said.
“But we have seen in other places when people are engaged in violent, radical Islamism, that when they start to be defeated, the culture starts to rethink” their spiritual orientation, Mr. Rosenberg said.
In Iran, evangelists such as Hormoz Shariat — who broadcasts Christian messages to Iran and the Middle East — say tens of millions are questioning the Islamist approach of the Iranian regime, with many coming to Christian faith.
“The Iranian revolution that’s cooking underneath the regime [is] for democracy, but also [where people are saying,] ‘Get out of our face in terms of your wicked, corrupt brand of religion, we don’t buy it, we’re not doing it. We’re out and, and give us the freedom to look for what’s true,’” Mr. Rosenberg said.
“Both in the Muslim culture and in the Jewish culture, there’s a lot of ferment as people are rethinking what they were taught, and sort of asking questions that maybe they never asked before,” he said. “And many of them — not all, but many — are going to the Bible, both Old Testament and New, looking hungrily for answers.”
He said Christians in the U.S. should pray not only for the release of the 133 hostages held in Gaza for more than 200 days but also for “complete victory over Hamas” and “wisdom on how to nurture the positive alliance between the United States, Europe and Sunni Arab states that helped shoot down 99% of the Iranian missiles and suicide drones that were fired at us.”