As grave accusations are levelled against Israel and terrorism again wounds an Israeli family, the Feast of Tabernacles bears witness to a deeper security and a hope the nations cannot erase.
When the people of Israel gathered in Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiah, the reading of God’s law brought them to tears. Yet their leaders told them not to mourn. They were to rejoice, share food with those who had nothing prepared, and find their strength in the joy of the Lord.
Soon afterwards, they built booths and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles.
That scene in Nehemiah 8 speaks with striking clarity to this week’s news. World leaders have gathered at the United Nations, where Israel again faces grave accusations. At home, meanwhile, the threat of terrorism remains painfully real.
Yet Jewish families are also preparing for Sukkot, bearing witness to a hope that no international speech can erase.
Grave accusations at the United Nations
Opening the general debate of the UN General Assembly on 22 September, Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the “abhorrent terror attacks by Hamas” on 7 October 2023. But he also accused Israel of violence, displacement and settlement expansion in the West Bank that were “bulldozing the path to peace” and “raising the spectre of ethnic cleansing”.
“Ethnic cleansing” is among the gravest accusations that can be made against a nation. Such a charge demands clear evidence and careful definition, not merely powerful rhetoric.
Concern for Palestinian civilians is right and necessary. Their suffering must not be treated lightly, and Israel, like every nation, remains accountable for its conduct under moral and international law. But any credible appeal for peace must also reckon honestly with Hamas’s responsibility for beginning the war, embedding itself among civilians and continuing to threaten Israeli life.
Peace cannot be built by minimising terrorism or treating Israel’s need to defend its people as uniquely illegitimate.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, responded bluntly. “Anyone would be better than Secretary-General Guterres,” he told the Jewish News Syndicate, criticising Guterres for not visiting Israel after the October 7 attacks and accusing him of equating the Israel Defense Forces with Hamas.
Guterres is due to leave office at the end of 2026. Christians should pray that his successor will pursue genuine reform and judge Israel by the same moral standards applied to other nations. Fairness does not require uncritical support for every Israeli policy. It requires refusing the double standards, evasions and selective indignation that have too often characterised international debate.
A family asks for prayer
The reality behind arguments about Israeli security was brought painfully close on 23 September.
Neria Leiter, the son of Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, was critically wounded in a Palestinian car-ramming attack at the Maccabim checkpoint. The IDF reservist was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he underwent hours of emergency brain surgery. Doctors reported that his condition had stabilised, but that his life remained in danger.
This is not the Leiter family’s first encounter with grief. Neria’s older brother, Major Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed in Gaza in November 2023. Since the October 7 attacks, Neria has served hundreds of days in the reserves on several fronts.
His father, returning to Israel to be beside him, told the public that Neria needed a miracle and thanked those praying for his recovery.
Whatever political arguments surround the conflict, a father’s plea should not be difficult to hear. Neria Leiter is not a symbol or a talking point. He is a wounded man whose family has already buried one son. Christians should pray earnestly for his healing, for wisdom and skill for his doctors, and for comfort and strength for those keeping watch beside him.
Who controls the story from Gaza?
The war in Gaza has also been fought through cameras, mobile phones and social media feeds. Images from the territory have shaped public opinion across the world, often before their context or provenance could be independently established.
Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, internationally recognised for his coverage of the war, recently described pressures surrounding reporting from Gaza. In a lengthy Arabic-language podcast interview, he spoke about a WhatsApp group called “Smart”, through which representatives of the Hamas government shared information with journalists.
He also described occasions when criticism of Hamas was kept off camera.
“When someone gets out of the ambulance and says, ‘May God punish Hamas,’” Azaiza said, “the people around him turn the camera away.”
Azaiza subsequently said his comments had been distorted. He denied claiming that membership of the group made journalists Hamas affiliates or that Hamas directed all reporting from Gaza. His clarification matters and should be represented fairly. Yet his account still points to an atmosphere in which criticism of Gaza’s rulers could be discouraged and journalists could feel pressure about what they recorded.
Other evidence also warrants scrutiny. The Israeli Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Research Institute examined 266 people described by Gaza authorities as journalists or media workers who had been killed by November 2025. It reported finding that at least 157 were operatives or were affiliated with terrorist organisations, principally Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
That finding comes from an Israeli research body and should be identified as such, rather than presented as uncontested fact. Nevertheless, the independent Committee to Protect Journalists announced in June that it had removed eight names from its own database after later evidence established that the individuals were Hamas or Islamic Jihad combatants. CPJ also condemned the misrepresentation of combatants as journalists, while maintaining that affiliation alone does not remove a journalist’s civilian protection unless that person directly participates in hostilities.
The proper conclusion is neither that every image from Gaza is false nor that every person carrying a camera is independent. The destruction and human anguish in Gaza are real. So too are Hamas’s efforts to manage information and blur the line between civilian institutions and terrorist activity.
Truth requires discernment. Christians must resist propaganda from every direction, refuse to circulate unverified claims and remember that neither Palestinian suffering nor Israeli trauma should be exploited for political convenience.
Between Yom Kippur and Sukkot
Yom Kippur ended at nightfall on Monday, 21 September. Sukkot begins at sunset on Friday, 25 September.
Between the solemnity of fasting and seeking forgiveness, Jewish families prepare for celebration. They build the sukkah, arrange festive meals and obtain the four species: palm, myrtle, willow and etrog.
Repentance becomes visible in the work of their hands.
For seven days, the people of Israel dwell in temporary shelters so that each generation may remember how God sustained their ancestors in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:42–43). The sukkah is deliberately fragile. Its roof offers shade, but not the illusion of permanent security.
Its lesson is one every nation needs to hear. Our houses, armies, institutions and plans cannot provide absolute security. They have their proper place, but they cannot bear the weight of our ultimate trust. Only God can do that.
Sukkot is also a festival of shared joy. Israel was commanded to rejoice with the stranger, the fatherless and the widow (Deuteronomy 16:14). Biblical joy is not a retreat from suffering or responsibility. It opens the table to those who might otherwise be forgotten.
The festival also directs our attention towards the nations. Zechariah foresees a day when the peoples of the world will go up to Jerusalem to worship the King and keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16).
Christians differ over some details of how such prophecy will be fulfilled. Yet we share the greater hope to which it points: the reign of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in righteousness and peace. Human diplomacy may restrain evil for a time, but it cannot renew the human heart. Lasting peace will come only under the rule of the true King.
What should Christians do?
Standing with Israel does not mean declaring every decision of its government beyond criticism. It means speaking when Israel’s security is dismissed, when its people are subjected to standards applied to no other nation, or when concern for Palestinians is used to excuse terrorism and antisemitism.
It also means learning from the witness of Sukkot.
Reach out to a Jewish friend or neighbour. Open your home to someone who would otherwise be alone. Share what God has given you. Refuse the false security of possessions, politics and public approval. Give thanks to the God of Israel, who remains faithful whatever the nations may say.
This week, let us pray that unjust accusations will be exposed and that truth will prevail at the United Nations. Let us pray for Neria Leiter’s healing, comfort for his family and protection for Israel’s people from terrorism.
Let us pray that Jewish communities celebrating Sukkot will know peace and joy, and that Christians will be generous in hospitality and steadfast in friendship.
Above all, let us pray for the coming of the Messiah and the fullness of his kingdom, when the nations will learn his ways and Jerusalem will be known not for conflict, but as a place of worship and peace.