Day 421 Swords of Iron – “The Return of the balm of Gilead?”

Chaim starts the video by saying that, as predicted, Hezbollah has already violated the ceasefire agreement. The IDF is moving swiftly to punish any violations, and so far this is working out.

But there was also a shooting attack on a bus near the city of Ariel in Judea and Samaria. Chaim rhetorically asks if this sort of behavior, which is practiced by one generation of Palestinians and taught to the next in an endless pattern, should be rewarded with a Palestinian State.

Chaim says that there has to be a change of heart, a change of culture, and a change of national narrative before there can ever be peace. He adds that this starts with changing the curriculum in schools so that children are not taught to hate Jews and Israel. This is helped by an expansion of the Abraham Accords normalization efforts that were begun in the first Trump Administration and Chaim hopes they will continue in the incoming Administration.

Next he mentions the renewed push by rebel forces in Syria against the regime of Bashar al Assad, who is an Iranian client. This is another indication that Iran’s regional position is weakening.

He also mentions that he’s standing on a hill that overlooks the ancient province of “Gilead” and he sings a few chords of a song about “the Balm of Gilead” and he adds that an ancient seed was discovered in a cave down in the Arava desert several years ago. The seed was coaxed into life and turned into a large bush and the sap from the seeds produced by this bush are believed by some to be the key ingredient in this “balm of Gilead” spoken of in Jeremiah 8:22; Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?

Chaim says this is a good metaphor for the healing that is going to be needed for the IDF soldiers who have fought in this war and the entire Israeli people who have all suffered from different kinds of trauma. This “balm of Gilead” might be part of that healing effort. He also says that Israel is supposed to be part of the healing of the nations.

In this context, Chaim quotes Isaiah 35:1; The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;