By Esther Korson<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing to me that I\u2019ve had the privilege to live in Israel for almost forty years. And even though I\u2019ve been here that long, I have never gotten over the sense of wonder at being able to call Jerusalem \u2018home\u2019! Over the years that I\u2019ve been here I\u2019ve seen many miracles as God has kept His promises to His people in so many ways\u2026and yesterday, we as a nation experienced yet another, directly related to His promise that \u201cno weapon formed against you will prosper\u2026\u201d (Isaiah 54: 17). <\/p>\n
We have seen it so many times in the past! The Gulf War was a major example, when 39 Scud Missiles landed in Israel, primarily in the highly populated city of Tel Aviv, and yet not a single person was killed! That was impossible apart from the hand of God! Yesterday we witnessed yet again the miracle of His protection when the Israeli navy intercepted a cargo vessel in the Red Sea thereby thwarting a well-planned Iranian attempt to smuggle weapons of destruction into the Gaza Strip. As the Israel Broadcasting Authority reported, \u201cIt was a well-executed commando raid carried out to perfection like a Hollywood action film!\u201d <\/p>\n
Before dawn naval commandos swiftly commandeered a ship sailing on the high seas between Eritrea and Sudan over 1500 kilometers from Israeli shores. The 17 man crew of the Panamanian-flagged ship surrendered without any resistance. On board, as expected from intelligence, the commandos found dozens of M302 rockets hidden under sacks of cement. In the hands of Hamas, the large rockets would have put almost all of Israel under threat.
\nThe rockets originated in Syria where they were loaded onto cargo aircraft at the Damascus International Airport. They were then flown to Teheran and placed inside shipping containers hidden beneath sacks of cement. From Teheran the containers were transported to the Iranian port of Banda Abbes in the Persian Gulf where they were loaded into a civilian cargo ship apparently without the knowledge of the crew. The ship then sailed to a port in Iraq to take on more containers and to further camouflage the deadly cargo. It then set out for Port Sudan on the Red Sea, a destination it didn\u2019t reach. <\/p>\n