(Washington, D.C.) — My heart is heavy this morning as I grieve for those Israelis and Jordanians affected by two terrorist attacks this week — one just north of Amman on Monday that killed five Jordanian intelligence officers, and the other in the heart of  Tel Aviv yesterday, a mass shooting event by two Palestinians that left four Israelis dead and sixteen wounded.

These attacks are bitter reminders of the clear and present danger posed to America and our allies by the forces of Radical Islam. They’re also a reminder of the critical importance of understanding the politics, ideology and theology driving our enemies to murder Jews, Muslims and Christians.

We cannot defeat an enemy we refuse to define. Yet so many Western leaders — and some who seek to lead the Western alliance — have repeatedly demonstrated that they don’t truly understand what motivates our enemy and thus risk being blind-sided by future attacks.

What makes these attacks all the more tragic is that terrorism in Israel has actually been declining steadily in recent months, and most of these have been isolated knife attacks, not shootings. In fact, until Wednesday, not a single Israeli civilian had been killed by a terrorist in three months.

Meanwhile, under the impressive leadership of King Abdullah II, Jordan remains one of the safest and most secure countries in the Arab world, despite the implosion of Syria to their north, the ISIS surge across Iraq to their east, and a massive influx of refugees that has increased Jordan’s population by some 30% in recent years.

As I noted in a recent Jerusalem Post column, “Jordanian commandos, General Intelligence Directorate operatives and elite police units are taking down an ISIS or related cell inside Jordan every week. As a result of excellent intelligence and security work, Jordan hasn’t had a major terrorist attack inside its borders since 2005, certainly nothing like the recent jihadist attacks in Brussels, Paris, Istanbul, San Bernardino and elsewhere.”

In light of these events, I ask Christians around the world to please pray faithfully for those who were wounded and traumatized, that in His great love and mercy the Lord would grant them quick and full physical, emotional and spiritual recoveries.

Please pray, too, for the families and friends of those killed, that the Lord would grant them His divine comfort and “a peace that passes all understanding,” of which the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 4:7.

At the same time, please pray for Prime Minister Netanyahu and King Abdullah II and their security services as they work to bring to justice to those responsible, comfort those who are grieving, and stay on the offensive against those who seek to rob, kill and destroy.

For more on these developing stories:

• “The Jordanian government said a terrorist attack against the office of the national intelligence agency Monday killed five employees, including three intelligence officers, in a rare assault on a crucial U.S. ally in the Middle East,” reported the Wall Street Journal. “The attack occurred at the office of the General Intelligence Directorate in the Baqa’a Palestinian refugee camp north of the capital Amman, the official Petra News Agency quoted government spokesman Mohammed Momani as saying.”
• “Four people have been killed and 16 people have been wounded in a terror attack at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv in a terror attack,” reported Ynet News. “Two alleged terrorists have been neutralized at the scene. One of the terrorists have died, the other is being treated in the hospital in critical condition.”

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